It's hard to imagine anyone more perfectly cast than Ann Dowd. Great to see her in both episodes. The age discrepancy with the characters and actors was a lot easier to accept in The Facts of Life portion. Hart and Wayans just weren't right. I guess the age gap was just too great. It was just awkward. And as stated, Anniston felt a bit lazy in her performance. She didn't have that snooty edge that Blair always had. Still a fun watch, though. Brings back memories.

Aniston is also somewhat tough to look at without thinking if she is on her 6th or 7th nose by now.

looks like she just snaps is on.

Missed it but saw enough to agree than Ann Dowd was well cast as Mrs. Garrett.

OK, two thoughts:

1) Agreed on Ann Dowd - She really channeled Charlotte Rae.

2) Lisa Welchel has aged so well. Kudos to her.

Hope Different Strokes is better. This doesn't do much for me. Why choose a mediocre show like Facts of life.

Yeah. Lisa Whelchel. Maybe I'm underestimating this Jesus thing, cuz her anti-aging seems to have some kind of supernatural influence.

I actually remember that FoL episode quite well, enough to notice the differences. I also remember it was Dan Frischman (Head of the Class) who played "Rocky" Price, so named because of his bad complexion not orthodontic headgear. I guess that's culturally outdated now, although I'm not sure why considering the entire episode was about Blair and Natalie being especially mean.

Yup, all I saw in Jennifer Aniston was Rachel Greene, and they put the exclamation point on that with her final line of the ep.

I forgot how much I missed seeing Damon Wayans on a weekly basis. Just hearing his voice made me think of all his famous characters.

Kevin Hart actually worked really well for what was obviously stunt casting. Every one of his lines I could totally picture Gary Coleman saying.

Just finished Facts of Life part. Kathy Hahn was great as Jo and of course Dowd terrific as Mrs Garrett.

Jennifer Aniston was fucking awful and a total distraction.

Speaking of plastic surgery: Mindy Cohn when she came out before it started. Holy cow, her face looks like she has several botched procedures.

OK, final line of Diff'rent Strokes had me laughing out loud. I was not expecting that. I almost wonder if it was ad-libbed, especially because Kevin Hart flubbed it at first, calling Willis "Vernon".

I'll say this again, Lisa Whelchel looked fucking amazing. Who in their right mind thought it would be a great idea to cast Jennifer Aniston as Blair in this? She was not only a distraction, but flat out terrible. She didn't even try to channel the character or Whelchel's mannerisms. Unlike Hawn and Dowd. Who both nailed it. Gabrielle Union kind of looked like Tootie. But her voice was just way too deep. Aniston's hair was also nothing like Blair's. It was just such a lazy depiction. Given how great and young Whelchel still looks, they should have just cast her to play Blair again.

Diff'rent Strokes was remarkably unfunny. I don't remember the show all that much, so I thought it was going to be one of those "very special" episodes where Willis tries weed (of course with Snoop Dogg).

Other online comments about both shows have been mixed to poor. But everyone is raving about Ann Dowd. And just saw this:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...140455325.html

Diff'rent Strokes was never especially funny, per se. It was always just a vehicle for Gary Coleman to be cloyingly cute, and you can see that when it's a 45 year old man playing the Arnold character. I guess it was also a way for white people to feel good about themselves, as long as it's the fictional Philip Drummond adopting kids from Harlem. But they did manage to address social issues sometimes, like when Willis and Arnold were denied entry into the country club the family was a member of. And even in the infamous Gordon Jump episode, while it's not explicitly stated, pedophiles like that often prey upon poor kids of color because they're a lot less likely to go to the police and/or be believed.

But yeah, Diff'rent Strokes was always centered on Coleman, not sharp writing or the comedic talents of the rest of the cast.

People are surprised at what Lisa Welchel looks like? Doesn't anyone watch her TV show on MeTV, "Collector's Call"? I figured that people on here would watch it at least. It's been a while since the last season ended. Hopefully it's coming back for another season.

The commercials from last night..

Not that anyone asked, but my Facts of Life crush was always Julie Piekarski, whose character was axed when the show pared down to just the four girls. Lisa Welchel was my second favorite though.

When Carlotte Rae made that episode, she was 56.

Lisa Whelchel is 58.

Let that sink in!

Like when someone questioned the casting of Woody Harrelson as being too young to play Archie Bunker, till it was pointed out that Harrelson was actually older than Carroll O'Connor was when he first took the part.

Dowd was very good.

But yes, both episodes weren't good, but then the source material wasn't that funny to begin with.

You would think like the last two they would at least pick episodes that are still socially relevant. These two episodes were just dumb.

And as an adult I always found Different Strokes as vaguely offensive.

Aniston's casting was all about the hype.

The first promotions did not reveal who was playing Blair, then when the show got close, it was revealed that Aniston was Blair. And she only did it as a goof because she is friends with Kimmel. She's was the biggest star in the Facts part, by far, and for a celebrity at her level, the effort is just showing up.

So, yeah, she slept-walked through the show, but she still gets paid BIG money to give a damn about what she's doing.

Mindy Cohn (whose 55) standing next to her at 58 probably wasn't the highlight of her day.

Ann Dowd will be on a network show before long.

The slam book on Facts of Life was an early, primitive version of social media... does that count?

No. That’s a stretch.

Comparing the slam book to social media might indeed be a stretch, but the issue of bullying is still very socially relevant. Kinda why I was a little disappointed that they changed Rocky's point of bullying from his complexion to his headgear. In the original episode, they were all (the Bates' and Eastland students) piling on Rocky for his bad acne.