I guess I could understand why the producers would want to pare down the main characters, but I was really hoping they would have kept Nancy at the very least. And of course who knew about Molly Ringwald at that time??? At least during the second season, they all made a couple of cameo appearances in the school lunchroom (except Molly only appeared once in the second part of the season opener and that was the last we saw of her). It was nice that most of them returned for a one-shot guest appearance as the series drew to a close (who could forget Sue Ann actually being an office go-fer instead of the fast-track business woman she claimed to be? And pigtailed Cindy turning out to be a fashion model, and Nancy as a mom-to-be???).

My favorite was the one with Tootie blabbing on everyone in sight. She hinted to Nancy that she knew a juicy secret about her boyfriend Roger, and when she wouldn't reveal it, Nancy picked up a globe and asked her, "Tootie, have you ever swallowed one of these???" LOL

Yeah, I personally love Cindy! :D :)

She did such a wonderful job in "Roughhousing", and she had really gread comedy with her lust for Steve, and her banter with Natalie when they were around him! :lol: I wish the writers had gotten to explore that more---and it seemed like "Cin" and "Nat" woulda turned out to be good buds. :)

At least we got to see her be "plot-involved" again in "Running", but it'da been nicer if she'd been featured even more.

It seems like, by story and dialogue, this was the rundown of the girls' "featuredness":

Blair
Sue Ann
Tootie
Natalie
Cindy
Molly
Nancy

Another Cindy fan here.

Sue Ann was good.

Molly, Sue Ann, Cindy, and Nancy could have had their own spin off called "The Facts of Life: The Forgotten Girls".

I liked Sue Ann

Originally posted by OKCRay
I guess I could understand why the producers would want to pare down the main characters, but I was really hoping they would have kept Nancy at the very least. And of course who knew about Molly Ringwald at that time??? At least during the second season, they all made a couple of cameo appearances in the school lunchroom (except Molly only appeared once in the second part of the season opener and that was the last we saw of her). It was nice that most of them returned for a one-shot guest appearance as the series drew to a close (who could forget Sue Ann actually being an office go-fer instead of the fast-track business woman she claimed to be? And pigtailed Cindy turning out to be a fashion model, and Nancy as a mom-to-be???).

My favorite was the one with Tootie blabbing on everyone in sight. She hinted to Nancy that she knew a juicy secret about her boyfriend Roger, and when she wouldn't reveal it, Nancy picked up a globe and asked her, "Tootie, have you ever swallowed one of these???" LOL
I agree! I really liked the first season the most because there were a lot of girls and so many different things happening. It made the episodes very interesting!! :)

Has anyone seen the actress who plays Sue Ann appear on Three's Company? She's plays a teenage girl, and she's so funny. IT was really funny seeing here there!! :D

Yeah always liked personally Felice Schacter as "Nancy," she reminded me of a former love (with the long dark hair). Also thought she was a better actress than the bit of material they gave her, even though they hired her first. After the pilot she never (IIRC) seemed to get the focus of an episode. Just talked about Roger, that was most or all of her lines (someone suggested Roger should have actually made an appearance on FOL, played by Michael J. Fox, that would have been amusing).

Yet the character did seem fairly level-headed, as was sometimes described. Now others criticized that but, as I said on another board, it could well be realistic. There are so many people who are rational in many ways, when it comes to academics, friends and so forth. However they will totally lose that rationality when it comes to, say, a boyfriend or girlfriend.

It was interesting to see Felice get the last word in on the FACTS OF LIFE cable biography on the series, as well as appear in "The Little Chill" (with the two others) and a fairly large part of some later stories. That might have been because her mother was Mindy Cohn's manager, they were real life friends, and perhaps her role in ZAPPED. If she had stayed as a regular, she might have formed sort of a balance between Blair and Jo: Nancy being from a well-off background though now on scholarship. Plus being sort of a sister to Natalie.

As for the others, Julie Piekarski as "Sue Ann" was of course in the Mickey Mouse Club with Lisa Whelchel, there was an opportunity for some interaction there. Sue Ann could have continued to antagonize Blair occasionally while having friction and camaraderie with Jo (as she did in "Little Chill"). That was funny: "Don't mess with Sue Ann." The other Julie, as Cindy, hard to see exactly where she would have fit in. Kind of an athlete, kind of an emerging beauty. Could the series have used a "Blair Jr."? Molly Ringwald went on to have the biggest career (for awhile anyway), as Molly Parker she usually made trouble and/or talked about causes. How that would have worked after first season, who knows, they'd have had to develop the character more. At least she did get a mention in "Little Chill."

So neither the actresses nor characters from that first season are forgotten. Still, again others have said it, would have been nice to see Nancy and/or Sue Ann in the reunion movie since Jo wasn't there anyway. Even if Felice and Julie weren't acting at the time, they might have done it for old times sake. Or Molly, her career by then wasn't so big that she would have automatically turned it down. They did mention George (Clooney) as "going to Hollywood," ironic that it was two of the briefly seen regulars who became major stars...

Anthony

I'm probably in the minority here, but I preferred it when they had a bigger cast and a slightly different theme song. It was a little more diverse and more interesting.

Originally posted by hawaii five-o
Molly, Sue Ann, Cindy, and Nancy could have had their own spin off called "The Facts of Life: The Forgotten Girls".

I would hardly call Molly Ringwald "forgotten" - in fact, I'm sure she was loving it when she was queen of the John Hughes teen flicks from the '80s while her former castmates were still on the small screen. She even made the cover of Time magazine - something the other Facts girls cannot lay claim to.

That might have been because her mother was Mindy Cohn's manager, they were real life friends, and perhaps her role in ZAPPED


If this was a typo could you explain what you mean about her role in zapped?

Originally posted by revival
That might have been because her mother was Mindy Cohn's manager, they were real life friends, and perhaps her role in ZAPPED


If this was a typo could you explain what you mean about her role in zapped?

Felice was offered to come back on a recurring basis twice. Once in 1983 after her major role in Zapped where she declined because she went to Brown instead. Than again in 1986 for the little chill.

The little chill episode was ruined because the script had too many references that the 3 girls barely new Jo ,which is ridiculous if you look at all the events that took place when jo arrived at eastland in 1980. These 3 girls were still students at eastland even if they weren't always on screen and would have known all the gossip about the 4 stealing the school van,kicked out of the dorm,etc!

I know. 'The Little Chill' makes it sound like that Jo and Sue Ann didn't know each other--but if you watch 'Front Page,' 'Gossip,' and 'Sex Symbol,' you can tell that they knew each other (probably weren't the best of friends--Jo not being into the 'Blonde' Eastland thing).

Still, it was great to see Nancy, Sue Ann and Cindy come back for that long-awaited episode!

Thanks for sharing that the Nancy Character was offered to come back but had went to Brown--interesting information!

I wasnt crazy about the first season at all in my opinion too many characters to keep up with but I did enjoy the little first season reunion ep. it was cool

Does anyone else remember seeing Cindy guest star on an episode of Gimme a Break? I think it was sometime in 1983.

"Julie Anne Haddock is now married and sings for her church.

Warner Bros. considered having her star in her own spin-off television series for the character she played in the 1970s Wonder Woman episode "The Girl From Islandia," but the proposal never made it past the green-light stage.

"Boone" (1983) TV Series .... Banjo
Scavenger Hunt (1979) .... Michelle Motley
The Great Santini (1979) .... Karen Meechum
... aka The Ace
... aka The Gift of Fury
"The Facts of Life" (1979) TV Series .... Cindy Webster Baker (1979-1981, 1986)
Like Normal People (1979) (TV) .... Amy
"Mulligan's Stew" (1977) TV Series .... Melinda Mulligan
Mulligan's Stew (1977) (TV) .... Melinda
"Gimme a Break!" playing "Club President" in episode: "Julie's Rejection" (episode # 1.8) 17 December 1981
"Diff'rent Strokes" playing "Cindy Webster" in episode: "The Slumber Party" (episode # 2.24) 12 March 1980
"Hello, Larry" playing "Phyllis" in episode: "The New Kid" (episode # 1.2) 2 February 1979
"Little House on the Prairie" playing "Amelia Bevins" in episode: "The Man Inside" (episode # 5.4) 2 October 1978
"Wonder Woman" playing "Tina/Emma-Donna" in episode: "The Girl from Ilandia" (episode # 2.21) 31 March 1978."

Maybe they'll do a reunion movie - Facts Of Life: The Forgotten Girls. That might be fun. :D

Yeah, that'd be cool]


FOL Reunion on @ 7 pm central on ABC Family BTW

From what i heard The Little Chill Episode was originally written while all the girls were still attending Eastland and slated to air the latter part of the 82-83 season.(a few episodes before Blair and Jo graduated).The episode would of focused on the original cast(without molly) at a slumber party in the four musketeers dorm room above the kitchen while Jo felt like the odd girl out.(the episode would of been a 2 parter) Of course Jo go's downstairs to the cafeteria in the middle of the night while all the girls are rebonding about there first year at eastland upstairs and is comforted by mrs.garrett who gives her a pep talk. The episode would of also revealed Nancy getting pregnant with guess who's baby, while still in high school and asking the girls to keep her secret. The episode was put on the shelf since they felt it was too groundbreaking for nbc at the time(not too mention Lisa Whelchel's feelings).

I liked Cindy because of her southern accent.

Nope, the writers got rid of all of the Vanilla/bland characters.......they made the right decision.

Felice was offered to come back on a recurring basis twice. Once in 1983 after her major role in Zapped where she declined because she went to Brown instead. Than again in 1986 for the little chill.



This is an interesting tibit. I certainly have heard about Felice being offered to come back for the 4th Season. Felice herself said that, but wanted to go to college (and an Ivy League one) on the East Coast full time. Didn't know about coming back after The Little Chill. Wonder where this person got their source from.

From what i heard The Little Chill Episode was originally written while all the girls were still attending Eastland and slated to air the latter part of the 82-83 season.(a few episodes before Blair and Jo graduated).The episode would of focused on the original cast(without molly) at a slumber party in the four musketeers dorm room above the kitchen while Jo felt like the odd girl out.(the episode would of been a 2 parter) Of course Jo go's downstairs to the cafeteria in the middle of the night while all the girls are rebonding about there first year at eastland upstairs and is comforted by mrs.garrett who gives her a pep talk. The episode would of also revealed Nancy getting pregnant with guess who's baby, while still in high school and asking the girls to keep her secret. The episode was put on the shelf since they felt it was too groundbreaking for nbc at the time(not too mention Lisa Whelchel's feelings).

And is it true that they planned on having The Little Chill reunion earlier?

That's quite an old thread bump! :lol:

...And of course, I'd love to hear more details!

That's quite an old thread bump! :lol:

...And of course, I'd love to hear more details!

The poster revival only had 8 posts in the 20+ year history of this board and hasn't posted since 2015 so it may be hard to contact them to see what source they got this information from.

Didn't know about coming back after The Little Chill. Wonder where this person got their source from.

No they didn't say she was offered to come back "after" TLC, they said she was offered to come back "for" it---just for that one episode alone as a one-time re-appearance.

It was misleading how they worded it beforehand though, saying she was "offered to come back on a recurring basis twice," since one episode is not a return for a recurring basis.