More than 40 years after its premiere, The Facts of Life is still giving Us something to talk about.
The sitcom debuted on NBC in August 1979 as a spinoff of Diff’rent Strokes. The Facts of Life aired for nine seasons, becoming one of the longest-running sitcoms of the ’80s.
Before the series came to an end in 1988, the story of boarding school housemother Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) was expanded with two TV movies. The Facts of Life Goes to Paris aired in 1982, followed by The Facts of Life Down Under in 1987. A third film, The Facts of Life Reunion, brought together nearly the entire cast in 2001. (Nancy McKeon, who played Jo, was unable to participate at the time due to scheduling.)
Shortly before its 45th anniversary, the series found itself in the spotlight again after Mindy Cohn claimed in July 2024 that Norman Lear approached her and former costars Lisa Whelchel, Kim Fields and McKeon about a potential reboot.
During an appearance on SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live, Cohn recalled the late Lear reaching out after ABC produced live specials of Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life in 2021. Lear, who died in 2023, was impressed by the success of the specials.
“We had all never really talked about [a reboot], but we all started to consider it a little bit,” Cohn said. “We got into talks and we hired a writer. The four of us got together on a Zoom — this was during Covid — and we had meetings with Norman about it.”
Cohn went on to allege that “there was drama” with one “greedy bitch” as the talks continued, which eventually thwarted the project from becoming a reality. “One of the girls went behind our backs to try to make a separate deal for a spinoff deal just for herself and devastated the rest of us,” she said. “I’m just saying, for a 40-year friendship and sisterhood, there was a tidal wave of emotion around it.”
While Cohn didn’t name names, fans began to suspect Whelchel was the “greedy bitch” in question after noticing she was missing from a 2022 photo reuniting Cohn, Fields and McKeon. (Us Weekly reached out to all four cast members for comment at the time.)
Scroll down to see where the cast of The Facts of Life is now: