Who is this girl in the photo?

[MA]

Next to Jo and Natalie, there is a girl with curly hair that I don't recognize and am wondering who it is.

['80sSitcoms]

That's Pippa McKenna, the foreign exchange student from Eastland's sister school in Australia. The show was trying to capitalize on the then-big Aussie craze in pop culture in the late 1980s. She joined the cast in the final season (but didn't add anything to it).

[MA]

Originally Posted by '80sSitcoms

That's Pippa McKenna, the foreign exchange student from Eastland's sister school in Australia. The show was trying to capitalize on the then-big Aussie craze in pop culture in the late 1980s. She joined the cast in the final season (but didn't add anything to it).

Thank you 80s.

[Christopher]

That's Pippa. Her character was completely sabotaged to the fans from how the writers wrote her. She was never written to be accepted by the girls. Instead she was written to be a nuisance for the girls and always left out of the girls personal talks with each other. It was the opportunity for the girls to be Pippa's Mrs. Garrett but the writers went in a different direction.

[MA]

Originally Posted by Christopher

That's Pippa. Her character was completely sabotaged to the fans from how the writers wrote her. She was never written to be accepted by the girls. Instead she was written to be a nuisance for the girls and always left out of the girls personal talks with each other. It was the opportunity for the girls to be Pippa's Mrs. Garrett but the writers went in a different direction.

Thank you.

[Lorimar Television]

Originally Posted by '80sSitcoms

That's Pippa McKenna, the foreign exchange student from Eastland's sister school in Australia. The show was trying to capitalize on the then-big Aussie craze in pop culture in the late 1980s. She joined the cast in the final season (but didn't add anything to it).

There was an Aussie craze?

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by Lorimar Television

There was an Aussie craze?

Yeah, "mate"! The smash hit film "Crocodile Dundee" in 1986, the then rising career of Mel Gibson---America went crazy over Aussies!

"Not crazy---bananas!"

[Lorimar Television]

Originally Posted by '80sSitcoms

Yeah, "mate"! The smash hit film "Crocodile Dundee" in 1986, the then rising career of Mel Gibson---American went crazy over Aussies!

"Not crazy---bananas!"

LOL!

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by Christopher

That's Pippa. Her character was completely sabotaged to the fans from how the writers wrote her. She was never written to be accepted by the girls. Instead she was written to be a nuisance for the girls and always left out of the girls personal talks with each other. It was the opportunity for the girls to be Pippa's Mrs. Garrett but the writers went in a different direction.

Yep.

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by Lorimar Television

There was an Aussie craze?

As '80s says, and I can confirm, there was a huge Australian craze in the 1980s. It probably started with Crocodile Dundee or Men at Work, but then spread to batteries, beer, Kylie Minogue, Mad Max, Aussie themed restaurants, the phrase "a dingo ate my baby", Aussie soap operas, and Yahoo Serious. The Facts of Life jumped on board with a made-for-TV movie set in Australia, and then they added Pippa, one of the most useless characters ever, there only to cash in on the Australia fad. It didn't work, and the show was cancelled.

[Lorimar Television]

"A dingo ate my baby" Im familiar with that one

['80sSitcoms]

I had a "3-arm" light blue foam boomerang when I was a boy! So I guess our family was in on the craze too!

[Lorimar Television]

Is that why they have Outback Steakhouses everywhere?

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by Lorimar Television

Is that why they have Outback Steakhouses everywhere?

It's because millions of Americans wanted to feel like they were part of a Facts of Life television movie!

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by '80sSitcoms

It's because millions of Americans wanted to feel like they were part of a Facts of Life television movie!

Bahahahahaha!