Uncomfortable Facts: Mindy Cohn says “greedy” former cast member torpedoed ‘Facts of Life’ reboot
Well, you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have the reason a The Facts of Life reboot didn’t happen.
Mindy Cohn, who now appears on the Apple TV+ comedy Palm Royale, appeared on SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live on Wednesday, revealing one of her three castmates from the ’80s sitcom was a “greedy b****” and ended up scuttling the in-development project.
She wouldn’t say who it was, though her social media shows she’s still chummy with Kim Fields, who played Tootie, and Nancy McKeon, who played Jo — but there are no recent photos with Lisa Whelchel, who played the spoiled Blair.
“We got into talks and we hired a writer,” Mindy said. “The four of us got together on a Zoom — this was during COVID — and we had meetings with Norman [Lear] about it.”
But to paraphrase the show’s theme song, suddenly they found out one of the actresses thought the Facts of Life was all about them.
“One of the girls went behind [their] backs to try to make a separate deal for a spin-off deal just for herself,” Cohn revealed, adding the others were “devastated.”
“I’m just saying, for a 40-year friendship and sisterhood, there was a tidal wave of emotion around it,” Cohn expressed.
Fellow guest Michael Hitchcock offered, “There’s always a greedy b****,” earning a high five from Cohn. “You know what … she was a greedy bitch,” Mindy agreed.
Cohn says a possible reboot picked up steam after the Facts of Life segment on ABC’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience special became a huge hit.
Now the reboot is “dead,” Cohn says, adding, “We were united for 40 years, and this kind of wrecked that. And … it’s really sad.”
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