You take the good, you take the bad, you take ’em and there you have the facts of life — which sitcom star Mindy Cohn learned about when the idea of a Facts of Life reboot came around.
“You know they were doing the live versions of Norman Lear’s sitcoms with all these big stars?” Cohn, 58, said during a Friday, July 19, appearance on SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live, referring to the December 2021 ABC special where stars like Jennifer Aniston and Gabrielle Union played core characters. “They did one of Diff’rent Strokes and Facts of Life and after that, Norman Lear … he called all of us and said, ‘I knew you guys were still popular, but holy hell. The response from the live [special].’”
Lear, who died in December 2023 at the age of 101, then asked Cohn and former costars Lisa Whelchel, Kim Fields and Nancy McKeon about signing onto a full spinoff series. The show was initially set at the Eastland School for Young Women boarding school as caretaker Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae) watched over students Blair (Whelchel), Tootie (Fields), Natalie (Cohn) and, by season two, Jo (McKeon). (The beloved sitcom, itself a spinoff of Diff’rent Strokes, ran on NBC from 1979 to 1988.)
“We had all never really talked about it, but we all started to consider it a little bit,” Cohn recalled. “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.”
According to Cohn, “there was drama” that quickly dashed all hope of the reboot from one of her costars.
(L-R front) Kim Fields, MacKenzie Astin and Cloris Leachman. (L-R rear) Lisa Welchel, Nancy McKeon and Mindy Cohn. NBC Television/Courtesy of Getty Images
“It wasn’t me, I’ll put it that way,” she quipped. “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.”
Cohn continued, “I’m just saying, for a 40-year friendship and sisterhood, there was a tidal wave of emotion around it.”
After fellow Jeff Lewis Live guest Michael Hitchcock added that “There’s always a greedy bitch,” Cohn concurred.
“I’ll say it, she’s a greedy bitch,” Cohn said, claiming the rest of the Facts of Life stars immediately ceased communication. “Now, we do [talk] ish, but it was an ouch.”
The incident has thwarted any future hopes of a revival.
“It’s very dead,” Cohn said. “A couple of people don’t want to move past it. We are not as united; we were united for 40 years over not talking about each other, not doing dirty [and] all-for-one, one-for-all. This kind of wrecked that, which is sad.”
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While Cohn declined to reveal which of her former Facts of Life costars is the aforementioned “greedy bitch,” she alluded that there are social media clues to identify their identity.
“It’s not me and then if you go on my Instagram and see [who I hang out with more]. I will not deny or confirm,” the Palm Royale star quipped. “What it is is really sad. … Some people are so desperate for either money or fame that it causes them to do things that to me, I guess, I’m still not that jaded. It shocks me.”
Cohn concluded, “It always just kind of shocks me. You’re gonna do that over money or that over becoming famous? It always just kind of freaks me out that people will do that [and] throw deep true friendships, under the bus for a dollar.”
Whelchel, 61, Fields, 55, nor McKeon, 58, have publicly addressed Cohn’s claims.
