As part of this, Arnold's school life also gradually began to feature more in many episodes; this increased in subsequent seasons. Adelaide Brubaker. [42] They subsequently re-released the first and second seasons on DVD on July 15, 2014. The Facts of Life: Whatever Happened to Mrs. Garrett, Blair, Jo, Tootie If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Its not easy. [12] Carter was introduced midway into the sixth season (in the episode "Drummond's Lady"); after she abruptly left for California, Drummond and the family took off after her, in the two-part story "Hooray for Hollywood", a storyline that also introduced Sam, Maggie's son from her previous marriage. All rights reserved. Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom, which aired on NBC from November 3, 1978, to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985, to March 7, 1986. Rae left the series in 1986 when Mrs. Garrett got married and she rejoined the Peace Corps with her new husband. According to Jet, Coleman wound up with a per episode salary of $70,000, making him NBC's highest paid sitcom star at the age of 13. The final season ranked 69th out of 106 shows and averaged an 11.5 household rating.[14]. 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. Lear discovered child actor Gary Coleman when he saw him in a McDonald's commercial (according to "Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Diff'rent Strokes'") and cast him in a proposed made-for-TV reboot of "The Little Rascals." Bain had recently finished a six-year run co-starring as Dr. Arthur Harmon on the hugely successful Maude. 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. The production switch was. 04/25 - Cheers - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) Copyright 2023 Endgame360 Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mrs. Garrett feels that her life goals have not been fulfilled and she wants to leave her job. More Recent and Upcoming TV DVD Releases / DVD Reviews Archive / SitcomsOnline Digest [clarification needed], Additional catchphrase references and appearances in popular culture, "Diff'rent Strokes: Complete First Season", "Diff'rent Strokes: The Complete Second Season", "AnoMama - 17 Fascinating Facts about the Beloved 'Diff'rent Strokes' Fans Might Not Know", "Los Angeles Times - A Tale of a Falling Star: For eight seasons Gary Coleman --of 'Diff'rent Strokes'-- was at the top of the world. Later this year, catch her acting with Peter OToole and Marcia Gay Harden in Christmas Cottage. [24] In 1998, she appeared in a softcore pornographic film entitled Different Strokes: The Story of Jack and Jilland Jill, which was intended to capitalize on her Diff'rent Strokes fame. Nedra Volz (Adelaide Brubaker) Nedra Volzs (June 18, 1908 January 20, 2003) character, Adelaide Brubaker, replaced Mrs Garrett. Nancy McKeon, 42, moved to Hollywood when her brother Philip was cast as Linda Lavins son on Alice. [38] Season 6 was released on July 25, 2017. The sitcom stars Coleman as Arnold Jackson and Bridges as his older brother, Willis, two children from a poor section of Harlem whose deceased mother previously worked for rich widower Philip Drummond (Bain), and on her deathbed asked him to take care of her sons, their father already being deceased. Obituaries are more likely to mention her roles on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and her own spinoff Phyllis, Young Frankenstein and other Mel Brooks comedies, The Last Picture Show, Bad Santa or perhaps recent roles like The Croods, American Gods or Mad About You. That wasnt picked up and, for the most part Whelchel left the business. decades later, his son Robin Thicke would join the family business, becoming a chart-topping singer/songwriter. After the man's true nature became known, Arnold escaped to look for help and the man nearly raped Kimberly before the police arrived to arrest him. Her sister Beverly Ann Stickle (Cloris Leachman) stepped in, adopted young Andy. All the names of these shows are so similar, Leachman told the Times. When her time as Tootie ended, she took some time off and attended Pepperdine University. 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). In this video, I talk about Charlotte Rae's decision to leave Diff'rent Strokes midway through the second season. It's a sentence fragment of an aphorism that means, essentially, "to each his own" or "whatever floats your boat," and in its usage here, as the name of a show about a single, white man who adopts two Black children, that families comes in a variety of forms. She was a frequent recurring character until the sixth season, when Charlene and Willis break up but remain friends. After the series ended Bridges developed an addiction to cocaine. Rae's spokesman Harlan Boll told USA . Raes Mrs. Garrett (or Mrs. G, as Nancy McKeons Jo liked to call her) helped guide the girls through every very special episode theme imaginable, from depression to dating, AIDS to alcohol. The actresss cause of death has not yet been confirmed. I would be one of the stars, though., The only thing she did not want to do again was play an awful lot of Mrs. Garrett-type roles, which I have carefully refused to do.. For the role of kindly Mr. Drummond, he inserted Conrad Bain, who had a deal to star in another show as soon as possible following the end of his previous series, "Maude," a Lear production. According to USA Today, Plato was dismissed from "Diff'rent Strokes" because of her salacious personal life, which ran counter to the show's wholesome image and her portrayal of a squeaky-clean teen. Kevin Hart and cast surprises rescue 'Facts of Life' and 'Diff'rent Strokes' revival. Since there was a new fresh-faced kid in the house with Sam, Arnold now had his own little sidekick and was happy to be a "big brother" for a change. 01/27 - Master of None - Season Three / The Complete Series Coleman was then placed on life support after suffering an intracranial hemorrhage and died on May 28 from complications of his injury at age 42.[22]. Arnold: I'm sorry. Additionally, stories focusing on Arnold's school life, which had featured occasionally in many previous seasons, were delved into much more. According to USA Today, Plato was dismissed from "Diff'rent Strokes" because of her salacious personal life, which ran counter to the show's wholesome image and her portrayal of a squeaky-clean. Kimberly didn't live with the Drummonds full-time in Manhattan; she was a student at an upstate New York boarding school, serving as a link for the spinoff "The Facts of Life," in which Rae took her "Diff'rent Strokes" character to the academy to serve on the staff.