Dana Plato had it all and blew it

[Dana fan]

I think she probably needed a lot more help for other problems. Unfortunately she had no proper parenting, ensuring that someone had control of her well being. Her mum was ill and in todays world she would have been put on the at risk register and possibly fostered again.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Dr. Thong

Monika, the reason why they did it that way was because it was the '80s. If Kimberly had a child on the show, they would have hastily married the character off because the networks and the moral majority would have been up in arms over it. An unmarried girl having a child on a TV sitcom, even in the eighties, was more or less forbidden.

Times were different back then. Although the seventies expanded the parameters for issues that TV shows could address, America was going through a conservativism ushered in by Ronald Reagan's presidency. The Moral Majority was this watchdog group that threatened networks with sponsor boycotts if they aired anything that didn't agree with what they thought was moral and proper.

Check this link to read more about the so-called "moral" majority:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Majority

It probably would also seem out of character for Kimberly Drummond since she was supposed to be this wholesome, "spoiled-sweet", good girl.

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by TMC

It probably would also seem out of character for Kimberly Drummond since she was supposed to be this wholesome, "spoiled-sweet", good girl.

... and beat out Felice Schachter for the wholesome, spoiled-sweet, "all-American" girl. Felice was apparently from Lithuania or somewhere else barbaric.

[Dr. Thong]

Originally Posted by TMC

It probably would also seem out of character for Kimberly Drummond since she was supposed to be this wholesome, "spoiled-sweet", good girl.

Exactly. TV morality back then was such that good girls didn't do anything that was considered immoral or unreasonable. Good girls might kiss a boy, but that's as far as it went.

Times change.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by browneyes106

Dana's story was tragic. I really wish she would have found peace. RIP Dana.

In this video, we are discussing the life of child star actress Dana Plato who played Kimberly in the hit 1970s 1980s sitcom Diff’rent Strokes. We talk about the ups and downs she faced throughout her life after the show ended and how it lead her to death in 1999.