August 24, 1979: “The Facts of Life” Premieres

Left to right: Kim Fields, Lisa Whelchel,

Nancy McKeon, Charlotte Rae and Mindy Cohn

August 24, 1979: The Facts of Life premieres on NBC, a spinoff of Diff’rent Strokes, featuring the Drummonds' outgoing housekeeper, Edna Garrett, played by Charlotte Rae.

Mrs. Garrett was named the house mother at a dormitory at the Eastland School, a prep school for girls in Peekskill, Westchester County, about 45 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. There were originally 7 girls in the ensemble, and the show took on serious issues, like sex education and bigotry.

For the 2nd season, 4 of the girls were written out, including the one played by Molly Ringwald, who went on to bigger and better things. The 3 that remained were:

* Blair Warner (Lisa Whelchel), a spoiled rich kid from Manhattan, a blonde, but very intelligent, who nonetheless was always coming up with "another one of my brilliant ideas" that usually went over as well as Ralph's "crazy harebrained schemes" on The Honeymooners.

* Dorothy "Tootie" Ramsey (Kim Fields), a black girl from Washington, D.C. She always wore braces for the 1st 3 seasons, and frequently wore roller skates. Like Fields' later Living Single character, Regine Hunter, Tootie loved to gossip.

* Natalie Green (Mindy Cohn), a Jewish girl whose hometown isn't mentioned, and brushes off fat jokes. In spite of her weight, she ends up being the first one to lose her virginity.

* In Season 2, a new character is introduced: Josephine "Jo" Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon), and many of the rebellious tendencies Blair showed in Season 1 were dropped from her character, and transferred to Jo, a smart but tough kid from the City. She and Blair start out as opponents, but end up as best friends, just as Tootie and Natalie already were.

The theme song was written by Al Burton and the husband-and-wife team of Alan Thicke and Gloria Loring, as was that of Diff’rent Strokes, sung by Thicke. Originally, the cast sang the Facts of Life theme, but this, too, was retooled for the 2nd season, with new lyrics, sung by Loring.

The show ran 9 seasons, with a reunion movie in 2001: Blair was a lawyer, Dorothy (having dropped the nickname) a talk show host, Natalie a CNN producer, and Jo a cop.

Rae died in 2018, at age 92. Whelchel went on to run "Christian conferences." Cohn does cartoon voiceovers. McKeon runs a ranch in Texas with her husband (Jo goes to Dallas?), and competed on Dancing With the Stars. Fields, as I said earlier, was later on Living Single, making her the only one who had another hit show, and it was obvious how much she relished playing a character very much unlike Tootie. More recently, she has also been on Dancing With the Stars, and also on The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

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August 24, 1979 was a Friday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-5 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Ron Guidry outpitched Geoff Zahn. Graig Nettles went 2-for-3 with a home run, a walk, and 2 RBIs. Lou Piniella went 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-5.

* The New York Mets lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 1-0 at Shea Stadium. Bill Bonham allowed 5 hits over 7 innings, and Tom Hume completed the 6-hit shutout, outpitching Ray Burris. Dave Concepción doubled Joe Morgan home in the top of the 8th. Johnny Bench did not play.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 5-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Steve Carlton outpitched Joaquín Andújar. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-3 with a walk. Pete Rose went 0-for-3, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Atlanta Braves, 2-0 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Bill Lee allowed 6 hits over 7 2/3rds innings, and Elías completed the 7-hit shutout, outpitching Phil Niekro.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the California Angels, 6-4 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Rod Carew went 1-for-4.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-2 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Craig Chamberlain outpitched Dennis Eckersley. George Brett went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Texas Rangers, 9-6 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Robin Yount went 0-for-3 with a walk. Paul Molitor went 2-for-6. Robin Yount did not play.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Rookie Rickey Henderson went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Seattle Mariners, 5-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Dave Winfield went 0-for-3 with a walk. Willie Stargell pinch-hit, and did not reach base.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 12-5 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie McCovey went 2-for-3.

* And the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox were rained out at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader 2 days later. The O's swept, 12-7 and 4-3. Gary Roenicke won the nightcap with a home run in the top of the 13th inning. Over the 2 games, Eddie Murray went 1-for-8 with a home run, 4 walks and an RBI.