Who are the background people in "Like Mother, Like Daughter"?

[RetroGuy2000]

In "Like Mother, Like Daughter", we see a crowd of people gathered in the common room of the dorm at Eastland's Parents' Night. The girls, Mrs. Garrett, Mr. Bradley, Miss Mahoney, and Monica Warner (before her facial reconstruction surgery) are all there, as are a number of other people.

Some of these people are likely just teachers, coming in to meet the students' parents. But then, you would expect other parents besides Monica Warner. We meet the father of a student named Nina earlier in the episode, but he doesn't seem to be in the crowd scene here: likely, he was visiting his daughter in another dorm.

We definitely do not see Diane or "Rifle" Ramsey: there are no African-Americans in the crowd, and Tootie tells us that her dad hasn't ever been to Eastland until "Overachieving", which aired six months later.

We also do not see Natalie's parents, or grandmother Mona.* And we don't see Molly's dad, who we'll meet later in the season. It's clear from the episode "Molly's Holiday" that the girls haven't met him before, either. But we never see Molly's mom.

This means that some of these people are possibly the parents of the Lost Girls: either Sue Ann's, Cindy's, or Nancy's, or even Molly's mom.

We see two women on the right, a bearded man on the right, and two men behind Blair and her mom. There is also another woman sitting near the elderly woman.

Sue Ann's mother is 41, so she's not likely to be the older woman behind Blair's mom. But the two women on the right look like they could be motherhood-age. Would Sue Ann's mom come and visit all the way from Kansas City?

Cindy's parents are divorced. Would both of her parents come to Parents' Night?

As far as I can recall, we know nothing of Nancy's family life.

Any thoughts on if these people could be parents of the Lost Girls? Could the blonde lady and the redhead be Cindy/Sue Anne's mom and Molly's mom?


*Who never sold ink or tona'

['80sSitcoms]

It's fun seeing my technique of the yellow pointer arrows used by someone else now


Good question! I was always just "half-aware" of these extras, but it's nice to focus on them now.


With the ending group shot, if I want to think of some as parents, then I'd like to think of the red-haired lady at the far right as Molly's mom, and the blond beside her as Cindy or Sue Ann's mom.


But that is weird that there would be NO dialogue with any other girls' parents there.


Nina Branch---one of those rare "mentioned-but-never-seen" Eastland girls, like Kedgie Barksdale (and teacher "Moose-jaw Muldoon", lol). If they wanted higher drama they could have made Justin one of our girls' fathers instead---especially Cindy, since her dad is already single (well, divorced anyway, we're not 100% sure of his relationship status).


Or maybe they're all faculty, and with the school being so "small" in season 1, they can all fit easily into one common room with room to spare.

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

We definitely do not see Diane or "Rifle" Ramsey.

"Buffalo" Ramsey

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

*Who never sold ink or tona'

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by '80sSitcoms

It's fun seeing my technique of the yellow pointer arrows used by someone else now

I specifically picked yellow to keep everything matching!

With the ending group shot, if I want to think of some as parents, then I'd like to think of the red-haired lady at the far right as Molly's mom, and the blond beside her as Cindy or Sue Ann's mom.

But that is weird that there would be NO dialogue with any other girls' parents there.

Maybe Mrs. Weaver was just shy, what with her daughter being upstairs, so she didn't talk much until Sue Ann came downstairs. Then she joined in in the singing. Mrs. Parker also didn't talk much because she was going through a pretty ugly divorce. Singing La Marseillaise helped break the ice.

Nina Branch---one of those rare "mentioned-but-never-seen" Eastland girls, like Kedgie Barksdale (and teacher "Moose-jaw Muldoon", lol). If they wanted higher drama they could have made Justin one of our girls' fathers instead---especially Cindy, since her dad is already single (well, divorced anyway, we're not 100% sure of his relationship status).

Now, that would have been interesting!

Speaking of Miss Muldoon, I was watching "Read No Evil" today, and her name came up: apparently, in Season Three, she became the school librarian!

Or maybe they're all faculty, and with the school being so "small" in season 1, they can all fit easily into one common room with room to spare.

Definitely a possibility... but why would only one of seven girls come to Parents' Night? Sure, I understand that Sue Ann's parents live far away in Kansas city, Kansas, and Tootie's parents are commuting back and forth from Washington, but everybody else?

"Buffalo" Ramsey

Oh, right!

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

I specifically picked yellow to keep everything matching!

In honor of the lovely cafeteria!

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

Maybe Mrs. Weaver was just shy, what with her daughter being upstairs, so she didn't talk much until Sue Ann came downstairs. Then she joined in in the singing. Mrs. Parker also didn't talk much because she was going through a pretty ugly divorce. Singing La Marseillaise helped break the ice.

Well, the Weavers are all the way back in Kansas, so I don't know if they would have made it (and afforded it) there for Parents' Night? We can pretend though that Cindy's home is much closer to Peekskill.

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

Speaking of Miss Muldoon, I was watching "Read No Evil" today, and her name came up: apparently, in Season Three, she became the school librarian!

Oh yeah, I forgot about that, good catch! Ol' Moose-jaw runnin' the periodicals!

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

Definitely a possibility... but why would only one of seven girls come to Parents' Night? Sure, I understand that Sue Ann's parents live far away in Kansas city, Kansas, and Tootie's parents are commuting back and forth from Washington, but everybody else?

Maybe other parents are all on their way, stuck in traffic

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by '80sSitcoms

Well, the Weavers are all the way back in Kansas, so I don't know if they would have made it (and afforded it) there for Parents' Night? We can pretend though that Cindy's home is much closer to Peekskill.

But then why wasn't Cindy's mother talking to anyone? She should have walked up to Blair's mother and said, "I hear your daughter's been calling my daughter strange."

Maybe other parents are all on their way, stuck in traffic

But that was the excuse used in "Read No Evil"! When the meeting started, the Warners, Ramseys, Polniaczeks, and Greens hadn't shown up.

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

But then why wasn't Cindy's mother talking to anyone? She should have walked up to Blair's mother and said, "I hear your daughter's been calling my daughter strange."

Well, hopefully Cindy told her mother by then things had worked out better, lol.

But yeah, that's I said if I think of any of them as parents, it would be Mrs. Parker and Ms. Webster from the far right---but it's so odd not to have any other dialogue going on. But it is a good chance they just said "We need some extras to fill in as parents of some of the girls on the set" and just never gave a 2nd thought to actually having them speak or interact, lol.

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

But that was the excuse used in "Read No Evil"! When the meeting started, the Warners, Ramseys, Polniaczeks, and Greens hadn't shown up.

So see? Then maybe other parents were stuck in traffic on Parents' Night!

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by '80sSitcoms

Well, hopefully Cindy told her mother by then things had worked out better, lol.

But yeah, that's I said if I think of any of them as parents, it would be Mrs. Parker and Ms. Webster from the far right---but it's so odd not to have any other dialogue going on. But it is a good chance they just said "We need some extras to fill in as parents of some of the girls on the set" and just never gave a 2nd thought to actually having them speak or interact, lol.

Oh, I know the real-life reason is they didn't want to spend a lot of money on actors, so they just hired extras that they could pay $100, instead of a weekly wage.

Still, it's fun to imagine those actors as the girls' parents, since we otherwise never saw them. Maybe the guy on the left is Cindy's dad, and the brunette woman behind Sue Ann's and Molly's mom is Nancy's mom.

So see? Then maybe other parents were stuck in traffic on Parents' Night!

I know Blair's dad always makes excuses for being late, but all the parents?!

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

I know Blair's dad always makes excuses for being late, but all the parents?!

Maybe they were all traveling in Mr. Warner's limo!

(not logically, just adding to the joke, lol)

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by '80sSitcoms

Maybe they were all traveling in Mr. Warner's limo!

(not logically, just adding to the joke, lol)

Haha! In "Read No Evil", they actually were all traveling together in Mrs. Warner's limo.

['80sSitcoms]

Here ya go, 80s Dude.

[cfr1970]

LOL at the pic of Blair's 24 year old mother.

['80sSitcoms]

[80s Dude]

Originally Posted by cfr1970

LOL at the pic of Blair's 24 year old mother.

Blair's mom (her first mom) ages as well as Blair does. The aging process slows in that family.

[80s Dude]

I thnk the couple that Sue Ann was talking to was Sue Ann's parents. They look like your typical midwestern couple and Sue Ann talks about how happily married her parents are.

[80s Dude]

I think Molly's mother brought her banana cream pies to the event.