In the January 1984 episode "Drummond's Lady," the character meets TV fitness host Maggie McKinney to discuss investing in her business, but soon realizes he's got romantic feelings for her. When Mrs. Garrett departed, she was replaced by this maid. Rae shared many of her Hollywood experiences including 44 years of sobriety and discovering that her husband, John Strauss, was bisexual in her memoir, The Facts of My Life, released in 2015. An oft-mentioned character spanning the entire show's run, was "The Gooch", a notorious bully at Arnold's school. In a later interview, she said that she also left because it made sense for the growing girls to see less and less of Mrs. Garrett. Interesting. First Lady Nancy Reagan launched the "Just Say No" campaign in 1986 (per History), formalizing the anti-drug abuse platform she'd worked on since early in the presidential administration of her husband, Ronald Reagan. Leachman was making a conscious move to get back into television a decade after her Phyllis spinoff ended. Kevin Hart and cast surprises rescue 'Facts of Life' and 'Diff'rent Strokes' revival. Privacy Policy. In 1983, 19-year-old Plato announced her pregnancy, and in the following year, she was let go from "Diff'rent Strokes," returning only for a handful of guest spots in the show's final two seasons. Kimberly didn't live with the Drummonds full-time in Manhattan; she was a student at an upstate New York boarding school, serving as a link for the spinoff "The Facts of Life," in which Rae took her "Diff'rent Strokes" character to the academy to serve on the staff. Edna Garrett | The Facts of Life Wiki | Fandom Big Mouth Gets 2 More Seasons, While Human Resources Concludes; HBO Max's The Other Two Returns May 4 Nobody ever knew. They divorced amid respective struggles with alcohol addiction; Strauss also came out as bisexual, and told Rae that he had wanted an open marriage. Mrs. Garrett, of course, was the same character on "Diff'rent Strokes" as the housekeeper, so Dowd was on double-duty alongside Kevin Hart as Arnold; Damon Wayans as Willis; and John. The latter is one of the few he also performed himself, along with the "Diff'rent Strokes" opening tune, which Thicke sang with his then-wife, Gloria Loring. Things came full circle in October 1979 when Ali appeared as a special guest star, playing himself, on "Diff'rent Strokes," the show he indirectly named. Cloris Leachman, almost 82, had a very impressive film and television career prior to joining Facts as Beverly Anne in 1986. Catlett joined the main cast, appeared in almost every episode until the end of the show's run, and was billed on the opening credits from the sixth season onward. Mrs. Garrett feels that her life goals have not been fulfilled and she wants to leave her job. Midway through the sixth season, Plato became pregnant and approached the producers of the show to include her pregnancy. A born-again Christian, she devotes most of her time to home-schooling her three children, lecturing, and authoring multiple books on parenting. 02/28 - Growing Pains - The Complete Series I always wondered why Charlotte left her own series! with the ending varying depending on whom he was addressing. Charlotte Rae - Wikipedia [36] Season 4 was released on November 20, 2012. Rae already had big plans in 1986. 'Facts of Life' and 'Diff'rent Strokes' live saved by Kevin Hart and NBC made sure she was well compensated, Leachman said of a considerable amount of money she received. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Mr. Drummond's dotty sister Sophia (Dody Goodman) was regularly seen in the fourth season, playing matchmaker for her brother in hopes of getting him to remarry. Ive had a wonderful one already Ive had a great life, but I have so many wonderful things happening. True to her irreverent nature, Leachman couldnt even keep the title of the show straight. Appearing on a semi-regular basis, she effectively filled the same function as Adelaide as the older female character in many stories, and is present in many third and fourth season episodes. Charlotte Rae Fan I'm glad you admire her but I personally think when someone starts a show, they stick with it! About seven years ago, I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which is a miracle that they found it because usually, its too late. The actress was married from 1951 to 1975 to composer and sound editor John Strauss, with whom she often collaborated. Deceased (19641999) Reagan's staff had another idea to make a scripted cameo. Adelaide Brubaker. While there, Mrs. Garrett met Kimberly's classmates and was offered the job as "dorm mother." In the seventh season, after years of harassing Arnold (and later Sam), the Gooch was finally defeated by Arnold's neighbor and nemesis (and eventually friend) Carmella, a foreign exchange student. Garrett left the Drummonds in the middle of Season 2 to take a new job as the housemother at a private all-girls school in New York. They reference Willis by name before meeting Will Smith's character, leading to Coleman uttering a variation of his catchphrase, "What'cha talkin' about, Will?". The sudden, drastic change in Maggie's appearance was not acknowledged on the show, nor was the confusing fact that Mobley had already appeared on "Diff'rent Strokes." "Diff'rent Strokes" wasn't always "Diff'rent Strokes." Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The girls were all grown up and they no longer needed the whole mother figure anymore. In 1994, Coleman appeared in an episode of Married with Children ("How Green Was My Apple"), playing a building code inspector whom Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) called to report an illegal driveway. Sherrie Austin (formerly Krenn), 37, got her big start in music at the age of 14 when she opened for Johnny Cash in Australia. She joined the cast of Facts as Pippa the Aussie to help revitalize the sitcom. Streaming on Roku. Shes been married to minister Steven Cauble since 1988 and their family live in Whelchels birth state of Texas. sexism. Factory? Rae left the series in 1986 when Mrs. Garrett got married and she rejoined the Peace Corps with her new husband. For awhile, she co-hosted an Arizona radio show with Growing Pains Alan Thicke (who coincidentally wrote the Facts of life theme-song). With Willis dropped into the background slightly, this new brotherly duo took center stage for many storylines. The title of the sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes," with a little creative spelling and punctuation to speed up the pronunciation of the first word in a casual, colloquial fashion, is an abbreviation of and reference to the common phrase "different strokes for different folks." Miss Chung (Rosalind Chao) was Arnold's teacher. This is a one disc compilation consisting of eight episodes from Season 2. How did Mr Drummond get Arnold and Willis? Other classmates and friends of Arnold seen over time included Robbie Jason (Steven Mond) and snobby Lisa Hayes (Nikki Swasey), who initially was sweet on Arnold, but later came to despise him, leading to hatred between the pair and many squabbles. I lost my hair, but I had beautiful wigs. [37] Season 5 was released on April 4, 2017. The pitch meeting to NBC took place on Friday May 9, 1978,[7] with NBC immediately ordering an optional 26 episodes. The sitcom stars Coleman as Arnold Jackson and Bridges as his older brother, Willis, two children from a poor section of Harlem whose deceased mother previously worked for rich widower Philip Drummond (Bain), and on her deathbed asked him to take care of her sons, their father already being deceased. Islamophobia. Who was Todd Bridges girlfriend in Diff rent Strokes? In February 1988, he was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of a drug dealer at a crack house in South Central Los Angeles. With this move, the show's recognizable opening credits theme song was rerecorded, updating it into a then-more modern pop style. Lisa Whelchel, 44, got her start in professional acting at the age of 13 in The New Mickey Mouse Club. Another episode ("Skin Deep or True Blue") is about Kimberly's new boyfriend, Roger Morehouse (played by Grant Wilson), not allowing his sister, Emily (Melora Hardin), to go to their school's costume ball with Willis because he is black. I wonder whatever happened to him? "Diff'rent Strokes" Mrs. Garrett's Crisis (TV Episode 1979) - IMDb Due to a dispute regarding pay,[9][10] Coleman did not appear in the first four filmed episodes of the fourth season ("The Ski Weekend", "First Day Blues", "The Team" and "Hello Daddy? It began when Mrs. Edna Garrett was assigned the task of cleaning the soiled underwear of Willis and Arnold Jackson in the first episode of the series. The latter's Tandem Productions brought "Diff'rent Strokes" to TV in the 1970s, so it was a candidate for a revival via the show's format of high-profile actors re-creating an old episode, then broadcast live. [31] Since Charlotte Rae's death in 2018 at the age of 92, Bridges is the only living member of the original cast. Several such concepts were considered before a rough outline for the eventual seriesin which Bain plays a wealthy businessman left to take care of his late housekeeper's son, the orphaned Colemanwas settled upon and given the working title 45 Minutes from Harlem (even though Harlem is only ten to fifteen minutes away from the Upper East Side by subway or taxi). The plot of the March 1983 episode "The Reporter": Arnold (Gary Coleman) publishes a shocking story about rampant drug use among his elementary school peers. It was in many respects a standard episode, with no signs that it would be the show's finale due to the cancellation of the series. SitcomsOnline Digest: Bob Hearts Abishola to Return with Smaller Regular Cast; CBS Developing Comedy Set in 1700s While co-starring on "Diff'rent Strokes," Plato reportedly began drinking and tried marijuana and cocaine, and endured a drug overdose in the late 1970s. She most recently appeared on Without a Trace. According to USA Today, Plato was dismissed from "Diff'rent Strokes" because of her salacious personal life, which ran counter to the show's wholesome image and her portrayal of a squeaky-clean teen. Coleman's team took the actor's employer, Tandem Productions, to court, and the company countersued for millions it may have encountered in losses should Coleman's persistence end or damage the popularity of "Diff'rent Strokes." The boys then feel uncomfortable around her and when they begin making jokes about her seizures, they find out that housekeeper Pearl herself has epilepsy but, unlike Karen, controls her seizures with medication. vBulletin.register_control("vB_Lightbox_Container", "posts", 1); Post navigation. Why did Adelaide leave Different Strokes? Ten-year-old Coleman, meanwhile, had caught producers' attention after appearing in a number of commercials and TV guest roles, and the previous year had starred in three pilot episodes by Lear that attempted to revive the Little Rascals film series of the 1920-40s. For the role of kindly Mr. Drummond, he inserted Conrad Bain, who had a deal to star in another show as soon as possible following the end of his previous series, "Maude," a Lear production. Search Sitcoms Online: