Mindy Cohn opened up about a Facts of Life revival that was in the works but is now dead due to a “greedy” co-star.
The star of the NBC sitcom who played Natalie Green in all nine seasons of the show was a guest on a recent episode of SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live, where she revealed that there was interest in reviving the series.
Cohn said that creator Norman Lear approached the cast about a Facts of Life reboot following the positive response to ABC’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience special in 2021, when episodes of The Facts of Life and Diff’rent Strokes were re-created.
“Norman Lear, who is no longer with us, when he was still alive, he called all of us and said, ‘I knew you guys were still popular, but holy hell. The response from the live,’” Cohn said.
Cohn said that the main cast “had all never really talked about” reprising their roles in a potential revival but they “all started to consider it a little bit,” adding, “We got into talks and we hired a writer and the four of us got together on Zooms. This was during Covid, and we had meetings with Norman about it.”
The ABC special included cameos from Kim Fields and Lisa Whelchel.
Cohn went on to say that the revival didn’t come to fruition because “what happened was not cute” and because “there was drama” from one of the stars.
“It wasn’t me. I’ll put it that way,” Cohn said after the podcast co-hosts tried to have her say the name of the co-star.
The actress said that “one of the girls … went behind our backs and tried to make a separate deal for a spinoff just for herself and devastated the rest of us who we all, you know, I had booked Palm Royale, another girl is working. I’m just saying it was for a 40-year friendship and sisterhood, there was tidal wave of emotion around it.”
Co-host Michael Hitchcock said that Cohn’s co-star was a “greedy bitch,” to which Cohen said, “You know what, Michael Hitchcock. Greedy bitch. I’ll say it.”
Cohn noted that the cast “didn’t [talk] for a while and now we do-ish, but there’s definitely, it was an ouch.” She agreed that there was no trust among the group anymore and “no desire to ever work together.”
“It’s dead. It’s very dead,” Cohn said of the Facts of Live revival. “A couple of people can’t move past it, don’t want to move past it. We are not as united. Let me put it that way. We were united for 40 years over not talking about each other, not doing dirty, not, you know, all for one, one for all, and this kind of wrecked that, which is sad. Really sad.”
Lewis insisted on having Cohn revealed the name of her co-star to which she said, “I am so not gonna tell you, but I think you could guess. No. I mean, I won’t nod or say anything, but I’m just saying, ‘Okay. It’s not me,’ and then if you go on my Instagram and see who I’m…”
She continued, “I will not deny or confirm, however, what it is is really sad, but what we were talking about before, you know, during coffee is that some people are so desperate for either money or fame that it causes them to do things that to me, I guess I’m still not that jaded. It shocks me. It always just kind of shocks me. You’re gonna do that over money or that over becoming famous? It always just kind of freaks me out that people will do that. Throw friendships, deep true friendships, under the bus for a dollar.”