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Since: January 18, 2004
Updated: March 9, 2024
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The Show » Plot

Originally a spin-off of Diff'rent Strokes, the series featured the Drummonds' housekeeper, Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae), as a housemother in a dormitory of an all-girls school, Eastland Academy. In the show's first season, the show focused on the troubles of seven girls, and the action was usually set in a large, wood-paneled living room. The show was originally meant to be a summer series in 1979, but the head of programming decided to bring it back in early 1980.

Early episodes of the show almost always revolved around a central morality-based or "lesson teaching" theme. The debut episode of the show was extremely controversial in that it found the character of Blair Warner insinuating that her schoolmate Cindy was a lesbian because she was a tomboy who frequently showed affection for other girls. Though the show never said the word outright, instead using terms like "that way" or "different", it was the first time a teen questioning his or her sexual orientation had been shown on television. During the first season, Tootie was often seen on roller skates because the producers, while loving young actress Kim Fields, felt she was too short. The skates were added to give her height. Ironically, however, she failed to get the role of Arnold Jackson's girlfriend on Diff'rent Strokes, because she was taller than Gary Coleman.

After a thirteen-episode run, the show was retooled extensively. Four of the original actresses, Felice Schachter, Julie Piekarski, Julie Anne Haddock, and Molly Ringwald, were written out of the show (although the four did make periodic appearances in the second and third seasons.)

In addition to being den mother to the girls – wealthy, spoiled Blair Warner (Lisa Whelchel), chubby, fun-loving Natalie Green (Mindy Cohn), nosy Tootie Ramsey (Kim Fields) – Mrs. Garrett became the school dietitian as the second season began, and a new student, street-wise Jo Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon), arrived at Eastland on scholarship. A turn of events leads the four to be separated from the other girls, and forced to work in the cafeteria and live together in a spare room next to Mrs. Garrett's bedroom. The focus of the show shifted to the four itinerant girls, and the action shifted to the school cafeteria and lounge.

The series was given a berth on the 1980-81 American network television schedule, and the show was a constant Top 30 hit for most of the early and mid-1980s. Memorable episodes included Tootie's meeting with Jermaine Jackson; an all-night study session; Tootie's encounter with a teen prostitute; and Jo and Blair's trip to New York, where spending time with old friends leads them to assess how Eastland has changed them. In 1983, Jo and Blair graduated Eastland Academy while Natalie and Tootie were still attending school there. To keep the four girls under one roof, the plot involved Raymond, Mrs. Garrett's son, buying a bakery for her and convincing her to go into business for herself; she named it Edna's Edibles. The four girls came to work for her and lived in one of the rooms at the attached house.

The show became part of NBC's much-watched Saturday night lineup in 1985, but by this time, the girls were now in their late teens and early twenties, and public interest was starting to wane. In an attempt to increase ratings, Mrs. Garrett's store, Edna's Edibles, was burned to the ground and was replaced with a pop-culture influenced gift shop that the girls ran together, called Over Our Heads. This phase of the show is notable for including a then-unknown George Clooney as a supporting actor.

In addition to inflatable palm trees, the gift shop sold a few records, and this offshoot business was the springboard for many appearances by popular groups and singers, such as El DeBarge, Michael Damian, and Stacey Q.

The ratings continued to fall in 1986. At first, Charlotte Rae cut back on her role and then later decided to leave the series completely. She was replaced by Cloris Leachman, who played Mrs. Garrett's sister, Beverly Ann Stickle, a character that wasn't seen before but was mentioned as far back as when Mrs. Garrett was on "Different Strokes". During this time, Beverly Ann legally adopted Over Our Heads worker Andy (Mackenzie Astin), and Australian exchange student Pippa McKenna (Sherrie Krenn) attended Eastland Academy.

By the fall of 1987, the show, which had ranked in the Top 30 just two years before, now lagged behind, rarely ranking above #40 and dragged down the rest of the night's lineup as a result (which, at the time, had Top 20 hits in The Golden Girls and 227). In a last-ditch attempt to raise the ratings, the show's writers created a storyline in which Natalie became the first of the girls to lose her virginity. Originally Lisa Whelchel was offered the storyline but she had become a born-again Christian and premarital sex conflicted with her morals. (It also conflicted with an episode from the first season titled "Facts of Love" where Blair wanted to treat sex in a casual manner, while her boyfriend wanted to have a committed relationship with her and not have sex then.)

Three of the girls who were cut from the show after the first season returned in the final season for a "reunion of friends." Julie Ann Haddock, Julie Piekarski, and Felice Schacter reprised their roles of Cindy, Sue Ann, and Nancy, mentioning that Molly was unable to attend the reunion because she was so busy (a nod to actress Molly Ringwald's successful film career after her departure). The show was eventually canceled in the spring of 1988. The producers had hoped to keep the show going by using the final episode as a backdoor pilot for a potential new spinoff in which Blair impulsively bought Eastland Academy, converted it to a coed school, and took on the Mrs. Garrett role by becoming the headmistress to a new generation of students that included Seth Green, Mayim Bialik and future Oscar-nominee Juliette Lewis.

Recurring guest role students, in addition to Cindy, Sue Ann, Nancy and Molly, included a girl who showed poor judgment, Miko Wakamatsu (played by Lauren Tom), the snobbish Boots St. Clair (played by Jami Gertz) and the spirited Geri Warner (Blair's cousin played by Geri Jewell). Other guest roles included Jo's and Blair's parents (played by Alex Rocco and Claire Malis, and Nicolas Coster and Marj Dusay, respectively), Natalie's and Tootie's mothers, as well as the boyfriends of the girls. Characters from Diff'rent Strokes also appeared in a few first and second season episodes.

Some quirky episodes took place in the last few seasons, evoking "The Golden Girls", the "Twilight Zone", and a sixties-ish episode guest-starring Bobby Rydell and Fabian.