I virtually grew up with the TV show The Facts of Life, which made its debut in 1979 and ran for nine seasons. It was a show that had to re-invent itself several times, sometimes successful and sometimes not-so-much. But regardless, meeting the stars of the show has always been on my bucket list. I got my first chance during the Hollywood Show on Saturday, February 12, 2011. Mindy Cohn, who had portrayed Natalie Green on the show for its entire duration, was making a first-time appearance. She was certainly nice enough, but I couldn’t help but walk away with a bad taste in my mouth about the encounter.
OK, she did mean something to me, having been in this long running semi-classic, but she seemed perfectly suitable for the $5 days of autograph collecting at the Hollywood Collectors Show in the 1990’s. Afterall, she had virtually done nothing else of note, save voicing Velma in the 2000’s incarnations of the Scooby Doo shows (What’s New Scooby Doo? and Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated). I realize that $20 is the going rate for signed pictures, but why pray tell was it necessary to charge an extra $10 for a photo with her? This was Natalie from The Facts of Life – not exactly in the realm of some of the legends who have posed for free!
Like I said, she was nice enough and obliged in writing one of my favorite Facts of Life lines “Let’s have some decorum!” – which Natalie emphatically states during a paint fight amongst the Leland girls in an episode of the show. Although she did kind of botch the job, as you can see above. She also talked to Jimmy a bit about the fact that they both attended Loyola Marymount University at the same time, but that didn’t quite convince her to pose for free. He would see her there all of the time and was always wondering to himself if in fact she was Natalie. And of course, she did do that oh-so-seductive pose which was a little unfitting for Natalie, the resident fat girl on the show.
Celebrities of the Winter 2011 Hollywood Show will continue…
remember that episode where her grandma came to visit?
powerful stuff.
(sarcasm there, to be clear)
Eric Hubble
May 8th, 2011
how come Natalie never got her own spin-off series?
Eric Hubble
May 8th, 2011