They divorced amid respective struggles with alcohol addiction; Strauss also came out as bisexual, and told Rae that he had wanted an open marriage. The pitch meeting to NBC took place on Friday May 9, 1978,[7] with NBC immediately ordering an optional 26 episodes. Nancy McKeon, 42, moved to Hollywood when her brother Philip was cast as Linda Lavins son on Alice. Rae thus disappeared from the original show midway through its second season (returning for one cameo appearance in 1984) and stayed with "The Facts of Life" until 1986. Stay tuned! The final season ranked 69th out of 106 shows and averaged an 11.5 household rating.[14]. Dudley Johnson (Shavar Ross) was Arnold's best friend, who, like Arnold, was adopted, and with whom he shared many memorable childhood scrapes. Charlotte Rae followed Diff'rent Strokes with Facts of Life NBC Universal Longtime fans. More about: Diff'rent Strokes, ER, Eve, Good Times, Growing Pains, Justice, Living Single, Lost, Malcolm in the Middle, My Name Is Earl, Phyllis, Roseanne, Sex and the City, The Addams Family, The Division, The Drew Carey Show, The Facts of Life, The King of Queens, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The New Mickey Mouse Club, The Patty Duke Show, Without a Trace. Mrs. Garrett is a Democrat. She was also notching film and TV appearances, landing a role in the Woody Allen comedy Bananas and TV shows like The Partridge Family and All in the Family. In the first, season 5's "A Growing Problem," Willis moves out of the penthouse to live with Jerry (Lawrence Monoson) who abuses alcohol. Rae left the series in 1986 when Mrs. Garrett got married and she rejoined the Peace Corps with her new husband. She could have added a whole new dimension that Beverly Ann couldn't. Cookies help us deliver our Services. Arnold and Dudley (and often Robbie) shared many childhood escapades together, and were featured in many episodes, school-based and otherwise, throughout the show's run. An oft-mentioned character spanning the entire show's run, was "The Gooch", a notorious bully at Arnold's school. After the show debuted and started to take off in the ratings, thanks in large part to Coleman, the actor's representatives renegotiated and got that per-episode fee up to $30,000. A sticky-sweet network sitcom the whole family could enjoy, "Diff'rent Strokes" was a smash hit for NBC (before a late-run move to ABC) for almost a decade, airing from 1978 to 1986. The Facts of Life was in good hands with Leachman. The character never appeared onscreen. The final two episodes produced for the third season ("Growing Up" and "The Model") had originally been postponed due to a writer's strike,[citation needed] and the interspersing of these two episodes with the ones without Coleman taped at the start of the fourth season allowed the span of his absence to be broken down onscreen. 05/23 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - The Complete Season Eleven / The Complete Season Twelve SitcomsOnline Digest: Bob Hearts Abishola to Return with Smaller Regular Cast; CBS Developing Comedy Set in 1700s After the series ended Bridges developed an addiction to cocaine. All the names of these shows are so similar, Leachman told the Times. That night, her Facts of Life costars Kim Fields and Nancy McKeon gave speeches in her honor. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Big Mouth Gets 2 More Seasons, While Human Resources Concludes; HBO Max's The Other Two Returns May 4 Scene Stealer: The True Lies of Elisabeth Finch, Part 2. She was 92 years old. The show began airing in 1979; Garrett stuck with it until the eighth season, eventually bowing out due to health problems. The introduction of Maggie and Sam had not boosted ratings, and in the spring of 1985, in the face of sagging ratings, NBC cancelled Diff'rent Strokes. 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. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. In a case of life imitating art, Todd Bridges dated his Diffrent Strokes girlfriend Janet Jackson and also admitted in his autobiography to having a couple flings with Dana Plato. [21] On May 26, 2010, Coleman, who had battled health problems since childhood caused by congenital kidney disease, was admitted to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo after falling and hitting his head after suffering a seizure. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Interesting. The one where EW follows up with the cast. In the fall of 1985, when the series moved to ABC for the seventh season, Arnold, Dudley and Lisa entered high school, where they gained a new friend in Charlie (Jason Hervey). She was the Drummonds housekeeper. Her sister Beverly Ann Stickle (Cloris Leachman) stepped in, adopted young Andy Moffet (Mackenzie Astin) and Aussie Pippa McKenna (Sherrie Krenn), and helped to guide the former schoolmates into early adulthood. homophobia. A spinoff of Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life was an equally long-running sitcom, airing for nine seasons from 1979 to 1988. Mackenzie Astin, 34, has an impressive Hollywood heritage hes the brother of actor Sean Astin and is the son of Patty Duke (The Patty Duke Show) and John Astin (The Addams Family). She married Christopher Morgan in 2007 and the couples one child was born in May 2007. Charlotte Rae, the former Mrs. Garrett, keeps busy with stage work, cruise ship performances, lecturing, and occasional TV and movie roles. ", In 1996, Coleman and Bain reprised their roles for the series finale of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air entitled "I, Done Part II", where they consider buying the Banks mansion. Due to the popularity of Coleman's character, a spin-off series was briefly considered, to be titled Arnold and focusing on the character's school life[citation needed]. By the end of the season, Mr. Drummond and Maggie have married, and Dixie Carter (later known for her starring role on "Designing Women") had joined the regular cast of "Diff'rent Strokes.". From Season 1 Episode 18 'Mrs. Garrett's Cr. More Recent and Upcoming TV DVD Releases / DVD Reviews Archive / SitcomsOnline Digest About seven years ago, I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which is a miracle that they found it because usually, its too late. Unfortunately, it didnt help. The third and fourth seasons had some of the show's highest ratings[citation needed] and continued much of the themes of the first two seasons, but also gradually saw the introduction of some more serious topics into storylines. McKeon was officially unavailable for the project but later admitted, Im just not a fan of that kind of thing. She was married to businessman Johnathon Franklin Freeman for six years before they divorced. Diff'rent Strokes was also known for its many "very special episodes," most notably an anti-drug episode ("The Reporter") that featured First Lady Nancy Reagan, who promoted her "Just Say No" campaign, and "The Bicycle Man", a two-part episode that guest starred Gordon Jump as a pedophile who lures Arnold and Dudley into his bicycle shop and attempts to molest them. And in 1996, a decade after a move to ABC and then cancellation for "Diff'rent Strokes," Bain and Coleman reprised their roles as Philip and Arnold Drummond, respectively, in a brief appearance on the series finale of NBC's "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," as prospective buyers of the Banks' family's mansion. Search Sitcoms Online: