“Facts of Life” actress Mindy Cohn says her “greedy” co-stars have ruined the beloved sitcom's chances of a revival.
Cohn explained that she and all of her co-stars on the hit show had a strong bond for the first 40 years of their friendship, but that things started to fall apart toward the end as money and fame began to take precedence over friendship. She expressed her frustration in a July 24 clip from SiriusXM's “Jeff Lewis Live,” but refused to name the stars who stood in the way of a reunion. Cohn said a reboot of the show will never be made again. “The show is dead. It's completely dead,” she said on the podcast.
According to the famous actress, Norman Lear approached all four “Facts of Life” stars about returning to TV, shortly after the success of their 2021 “Live Before a Studio Audience” special.
“He called all of us and said, 'I know you guys are still popular, but oh my goodness,'” Cohn recalled Lear saying.
“We hadn't really talked about it before, but we all started to kind of consider it,” she said of the reboot. “The conversations started. We hired a writer, the four of us got together on Zoom — this was during the pandemic — and then we had a meeting with Norman about it.”
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 07: Mindy Cohn attends the Critics Association's LGBTQ+ Film & TV Celebration at the Fairmont Century Plaza on June 7, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Unfortunately, the excitement didn't last long: Cohn, who played Natalie Green on the show, said things quickly fell apart.
“What happened wasn't pretty,” she said. “There was drama.”
“One of the girls shocked us all by trying to sign a separate deal for her own spinoff without our knowledge,” she continued.
“Some people can't get over it and they won't get over it,” she added. “We're not as united as we were before, let me just say that. We've been united for 40 years by not talking about each other, by not doing dirty things – 'all for one, one for all' – and this has destroyed that. It's sad. It's really sad.”
The actress was clearly annoyed over the incident.
“It's really sad, and people who are desperate for money and fame — and I'm not that callous, if you ask me — it's shocking,” she said. “Doing that for money? Doing that for fame? It's always appalling that people would do that. Throwing away friendships, deep, real friendships, for a dollar.”
Cohn made it clear that she wasn't going to call out the person by name, but told listeners that it would be easy to tell who it was by looking at people in the group who she “wasn't posting about.” (Related: Heather Locklear to return to Hollywood in Melrose Place reboot)
“I'll never tell you,” she said.
