Jennifer Aniston, Gabrielle Union, and Kathryn Hahn join ABC’s The Facts Of Life live reenactment special
The third installment of Live In Front Of A Studio Audience will tackle Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life
Aux News The Facts Of Life
Here are the facts about the upcoming The Facts Of Life live production over at ABC: new cast additions include Jennifer Aniston as Blair, Gabrielle Union as Tootie, Allison Tolman as Natalie, and Kathryn Hahn as Jo.
For the third installment of Live In Front Of A Studio Audience, executive producers Norman Lear and Jimmy Kimmel are working on re-creations of episodes from the iconic late ‘70s comedy Diff’rent Strokes and its spinoff, The Facts Of Life.
Per Variety, the four join previously announced stars John Lithgow, Kevin Hart, Damon Wayans, and Ann Dowd. Jim Burrows (Cheers, Fraiser, Will & Grace) and Andy Fisher (Jimmy Kimmel Live) will serve as co-directors on the live production. Executive producers on the show include Lear, Kimmel, Burrows, Brent Miller, Kerry Washington, Will Ferrell, and Justin Theroux.
Diff’rent Strokes, starring Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges, premiered in 1978, and ran for 8 season through 1986. Coleman and Bridges starred in the series as two young Black boys from Harlem, who, after the death of their mother, move into the Park Avenue home of rich white widower Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain). The Facts Of Life aired for nine seasons between 1979 and 1988, following former housekeeper Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) as she becomes the housemother of a dormitory at a private all-girls school in Peekskill, New York.
Previous installments of Live In Front Of AStudio Audience featured reproductions of episodes from All In The Family and The Jeffersons, starring Woody Harrelson, Jamie Foxx, and Martin Short. The second edition featured All In The Family and Good Times, with performances from Andre Braugher, Viola Davis, Tiffany Haddish, and Jay Pharoah. Both installments won Emmy Awards in the Outstanding Variety Special (Live).
Live In Front Of A Studio Audience: The Facts of Life And Diff’rent Strokes will air live Tuesday, December 7 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
25 Comments
Something no one talks about with regards to Diff’rent Strokes are the implications of the backstory.Arnold and Willis’ late mother was Philip Drummond’s housekeeper before she died and she asked him to look after her boys after her death.
The series makes a lot of jokes about how horrible Arnold and Willis’ lives were in Harlem, how they were dirt poor and struggled to make ends meet.But, um, Mr. Drummond was their mom’s boss. If he was such a great (and rich) guy that’d he take her his late housekeeper’s sons, maybe he should have been a great enough guy to pay her a living wage while she was still alive.
Also, nobody ever talks about how the punctuation in the title was entirely superfluous, resulting in a savings of exactly zero characters.
Doesn’t save characters, but saves a syllable (that most people skipped anyway, without prompting.)
It’s for pronunciation.
Isn’t part of the point of the series that Mr. Drummond learns about what life is like for the working poor that he didn’t pay enough attention to? It’s been a while since I’ve seen it.
Eh, not really. That’s a very generous read. They just make a lot of jokes (in the early seasons) about how amazed the kids are at their new life and how crappy their old life was.There was an episode in a much later season when the Phil’s new wife, Dixie Carter, thinks the family is too spoiled and out of touch, so Phil takes a job in one of his factories and they have to live off a factory worker’s salary for a few weeks. But deep character work about a rich guy learning about the plight of the poor was way too deep for a goofy sitcom.The best you could say about the show’s messaging was simply: “racism is bad, look at how cute these kids are, even an old white man can learn to love black people.”
Damn… Dixie Carter had game.
Sorry but I refuse to believe that people spend any of their extremely limited time on earth watching a table read of an old sitcom by people who were not on the show.
I’m not making plans to watch it, but it’s mildly interesting, more interesting than if the original actors were doing the table read. I was wondering why they chose these actors rather than actors closer to the characters’ ages, but I imagine Aniston, Union, and the others actually watched and grew up with the show, know the characters, and might have some interesting takes. Not the worst idea.
It isn’t a table read, it is a full on, live in front of a studio audience, complete recreation of sets and costumes…It may even be broadcast fully live. I did watch the All In The Family and The Jeffersons episodes… it was fun.
These are just table reads? Where did you see that? The previous shows have been full on recreations.
So which Diff’rent Strokes episode are they doing? Pretty sure it won’t be the bike shop one.
Or the two-parter where Budnick is kidnapped by a grieving father
Maybe the one where Kimberly gets kidnapped and almost raped?
Yeah, I am so here for this. yes, its silly. Yes, its unnecessary. Yes these shows are incredibly dated. But dang it, i am looking forward to this.
not sure how I feel about the PEN15 casting with middle aged women playing young teens. Though will amp up the camp factor.
OK, her politics and religiousity were a bit problematic, but Lisa Werschel could fucking get it as Blair.
I was a simple guy in the 80s. When a girl slutted it up, I appreciated it.
I don’t understand why, after the success of the accurate recreations, they would do these featuring completely age inappropriate actors . If they go this route, they
would have MUCH better success doing the all drag queen version of The Facts of Life.
When do we get the Salute Your Shorts reboot
They better get it right or pay the price.
TIL Telly’s name is Venus DeMilo
I’m starting to hate these things, especially since they’ve now moved fully on to shows I thought flat-out sucked back in the day, like these two. Doing the WKRP turkey episode for Thanksgiving was right there.
Even in the downward slide of the later years of The Facts of Life, the main characters were supposed to be in their 20’s, so what is up with this perimenopausal casting? Is Jennifer Aniston in a private school girl’s uniform some studio guy’s fantasy? I like all these actresses, but no.
Is Jennifer Aniston in a private school girl’s uniform some studio guy’s fantasy? Don’t judge me.
Ummmmn no, unless they are gonna actually have the set and act the role out, I don’t need to see this and I love all 3 of the women in this photo as actress. But again, I will pass, doesn’t seem that interesting to see a table read.