I watched several episodes of The Facts of Life this evening. I'm certain that anyone reading this is seriously impressed by the cerebral TV fare with which I amuse myself. Beginning in July, I will have little to no time for frivolity. I'm making up for it now with a vengeance.
A question arose concerning the character "Blair Warner," played by Lisa Whelchel. I get that the character is totally vain. Are we, the viewers, however, supposed to consider her to be a total bombshell, or is the joke supposed to be on her in that regard?
Also, I'm curious about her hair coloring. In most episodes, her roots were conspicuously darker than the rest of her hair. It didn't look like a weave. Instead, it appeared to be a grossly overdue touch-up. The character was quite wealthy. She presumably could afford a hair-coloring job whenever she needed or wanted one. Was sporting noticeably dark roots considered fashionable during the time interval (very late 70's through most of the 80's) in which this show experienced its original run?
I'm not meaning to take shots at Lisa Whelchel with either question. The scheduling and manner of her hair coloring treatments while on the show was presumably not her personal prerogative. Furthermore, I understand that she took a bit of abuse from the show's production staff over her very normal late-adolescent weight gain. It happens with a whole lot of girls. If TV production staffs cannot accept it, perhaps they shouldn't work with adolescent females. I certainly have no desire to add to Lisa Whelchel's grief even decades after the fact. I'm asking both questions in all sincerity.
Please respond if you have answers to either or both of my questions.
If I recall correctly, the powers that were on that particular show were more concerned about how fat the girls were getting than their hair color. I used to love the early seasons, but it jumped the shark when Blair and Jo went to college. Not even George Clooney could save it.
ReplyDeleteThe first season, before they focused on just the four girls, was my favorite. I liked the early seasons in general better than the later ones.
DeleteOh yeah. I loved the first season! I was sad when they went to just Tootie, Natalie, Blair and Jo. I never liked Nancy McKeon.
DeleteI wasn't crazy about Jo's character, either. I didn't find her to be at all believable. (Natalie was to me the most believable and relatable character, perhaps because of Charlotte Rae having discovered her at an actual boarding school while doing research for the show.
DeleteAnd my next criticism is very petty, and is directed at the writers, not at the actors who can only work with the lines that are written. In one episode, the four girls were going to record that godawful song "My Boyfriend's back." Blair picked up a piece of paper with the words on it, said something to the effect of "I love this song," and then began singing it in the pseudo-classical way someone who isn't terribly talented as a singer and especially as a singer of classics might poorly imitate an opera singer, with heavy false vibrato [probably created by wobbling her chin].
Jo's response was, "If you love the song, why are you doing that to it?"
Blair, of course asked, "Doing what?"
Jo's response was, "Singing like Julie Andrews" as though blair could have sung like Julie Andrews had she tried, and as though the heavy vibrato pseudo-classical style was the way Julie Andrews sang even had Blair done a good job of it. Again, I don't blame the actresses, but did the writers not know that Julie Andrews was actually a talented singer and that Blair's bizarre warbling (again, not Lisa Whelchel's fault) was in no way imitative of Julie Andrews' style even had she done a good job of the pseudo-classical warbling with heavy vibrato. It was just pathetic writing. And though I said my criticism was directed at the writers and not the actors, Nancy McKeon's acting in that snippet was also pathetic and not in any way believable for the character, though maybe she couldn't get into it because the writing was so poor. Such may have been the case with much of the final season.
Though I don't remember Tootie being absent for numerous episodes, I read in an article that Kim Fields grew a bit too full of herself and rudely refused to perform some random household chore that her mother asked her to do. Her mom called the producers and pulled her kid out of the show for awhile. If a few more parents would take that approach, we might have fewer drunk, drugged out, and jailed young stars and former stars. I just can't see Dina Lohan stopping the gravy train because Lindsay or the no-talent Ally responded with "fuck you" when told to take out the trash.