'Facts of Life' revival was ruined by 1 'greedy' co-star, Mindy Cohn claims. The drama explained.
Decades after the show ended, there’s drama within the core four stars of the sitcom.
There’s drama among cast members of The Facts of Life, and, sadly, Mrs. Garrett is no longer around to help resolve the mess.
Mindy Cohn — who played Natalie on the beloved sitcom, which aired on NBC from 1979 to 1988 — said a discussed revival of the show was sabotaged by a “greedy” co-star.” It has caused a rift between the four main stars of the show, also including Kim Fields (Tootie), Lisa Whelchel (Blair) and Nancy McKeon (Jo).
???What just happened?
In an interview on SiriusXM’s radio show Jeff Lewis Live, Cohn revealed that after the mini cast reunion for ABC’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience special in December 2021 — at which three of the four cast members participated (McKeon wasn’t there) — Norman Lear, who produced the special as well as The Facts of Life — asked if they were interested in a revival.
“‘I knew you guys were still popular, but holy hell the response,’” Cohn recalled Lear, who died in December, saying after the special, starring Jennifer Aniston, Gabrielle Union and others, was a hit.
Cohn said she and her former castmates, who remained friends and have had many reunions over the years, ”started to consider it.” A writer was hired. The four women had Zoom meetings during COVID to discuss the potential project. However, there was a betrayal, according to Cohn’s mind.
“One of the girls … went behind our backs and tried to make a separate deal for a spin-off just for herself and devastated the rest of us,” said Cohn. “For a 40-year friendship and sisterhood, there was a title of emotion around it.”
She agreed with one of the podcast co-stars dubbing the unnamed actress a “greedy bitch.”
Cohn said they didn’t talk to the co-star for a while, but now they do a little bit, noting, “A couple of people can’t move past it.” She said the project is “very dead.”
“We were united for 40 years over not talking about each other, not doing dirty, ‘all for one, one for all,’ and this kind of wrecked that, which is sad,” Cohn said.
?? Who’s the “greedy” you-know-what?
Cohn refused to name names but said people could probably figure it out based on her Instagram posts in recent years. Cohn has shared birthday tributes for McKeon and Fields, making Whelchel the odd woman out.
However, Whelchel has posted birthday messages to Cohn and appeared on her podcast. In a May 2023 interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Whelchel said her friendship with her former co-stars “was genuine” and said they “were like sisters” and “we continue to be close. We were and still are good friends." She referenced “conversations” of a revival, saying they were “exciting … but you have to hold all of them loosely because in this business something can be a wonderful idea and still not get made."
Earlier this year, Whelchel, McKeon and Cohn appeared together (sans Fields) on the Drew Barrymore Show, seeming friendly.
?? Will they ever work together again?
Cohn has “no desire to ever work together” again after the trust was broken, she said on the podcast.
She’s been busy anyway, appearing as a recurring character in Palm Royale starring Kristen Wiig. As for the others, Whelchel hosts Collector’s Call on MeTV, spotlighting big collectors of pop culture memorabilia. Fields has one more season of Netflix’s comedy series The Upshaws. McKeon reunited with her former Facts co-stars for Lifetime's Light Up My Christmas in 2019 and also appeared on Amazon Prime’s horror series Panic in 2021.
The veteran actresses who played the house moms on the show, Charlotte Rae (Mrs. Garrett) and later Cloris Leachman (Beverly), died in 2018 and 2021, respectively.
