'Facts of Life' TV Land Awards reunion: Preview Charlotte Rae's faux pas
You don’t have to wait until Sunday to catch a glimpse of the Facts of Life cast reunion at the TV Land Awards (airing April 17, at 9 p.m. ET). Good Morning America caught up with the ladies backstage at last weekend’s taping, and amidst Cynthia McFadden’s sitdown chat, we see footage of them accepting their Pop Culture Award — and of 84-year-old Charlotte Rae, aka Mrs. Garrett, giving the evening’s other honorees some material to work with in their speeches. “I’m so proud of my girls,” Rae says. “They all turned out to be straight. Straight!” (Of course, she meant that they all grew up well.)
Watch the interview below. There’s some interesting nuggets: Kim Fields admits she owes her casting as Tootie to those roller skates — she was small for her age, 9, and they gave her some height. Lisa Whelchel talks about the pain of being sent to “fat farms” and how happy she was when producers finally allowed her — and all the girls — to look like normal teens. We learn Blair was supposed to lose her virginity on the show, but Whelchel refused, and Mindy Cohn (Natalie) stepped up because “please, somebody’s gotta do somethin’ at this point.” (It was the series’ highest-rated episode.) And Geri Jewell claims she didn’t know how to spell cerebral palsy until she had to wear that T-shirt that said, “I don’t have cerebral palsy I’m drunk.”
Read more: