'80sSitcoms
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000
Molly Parker definitely could have been a fully-realized character, but for me, the writing made her a cardboard cut-out. It's to Molly Ringwald's credit that she was able to deliver a good performance with not-so-great material. The feminist character they gave her was very one-note.
Well, at least they also had her being a humanitarian, environmentalist, and musician, so she wasn't just strictly a feminist caricature, lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000
They totally could have done more with Molly, given more time. Think how Molly Parker would have reacted, knowing the Eastland School Board was banning books. Think of her reaction on learning the new library was being dedicated in the name of a racist. (These types of roles went to Natalie).
Oo, those would have been great! And with the racist one, if they had had Molly's grandfather been a founding member of the KKK, since she was a humanitarian, that would have been really interesting to see; or Natalie's adopted grandfather, given she was Tootie's best friend, and Tootie could assure her she (Nat) couldn't help being chosen by a family that had that in its past, and it doesn't change her adopted family's love for her.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000
That is my video montage! 
The part with the NY journalist actually comes from the Nancy McKeon biography. I used as many sources on the Lost Girls that I could find. Unfortunately, there are others that I couldn't use, because the videos are not online. E! had an excellent documentary in 1999 that isn't available anywhere online, which talks about the Lost Girls as well.
I knew you had something to do with that! lol I could tell you were one of the ones doing a lot of the discussion in the comments. Great video! And yeah, how frustrating/sad that not all the FOL documentaries are available online.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000
I think Jo replaced Cindy, Nancy, Sue Ann and Molly, so in that sense, Nancy McKeon did replace her. But I see what you're saying. And I do agree that, strictly speaking, Jo replaced Cindy and Sue Ann, while the characters of Nancy and Molly were just dropped.
And I see your point. Yes of course she "replaced" them all in one sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000
I actually never noticed they don't refer to them by name during Seasons 2 or 3. Good catch! Well, now that you point it out, that bugs me, too. Still, I suppose we're lucky they brought them back at all. Continuity wasn't as big of a thing in the 1980s in sitcoms, the way it is today.
Yeah, sorry it's gonna bug you now, lol. But at least they are there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000
I disagree. I suppose we need a line-count to be sure.... 
lol, well, ya know what it is? It's taking into account that "Rough Housing" was such a HUGE Cindy show. If you think about it---and I didn't realize this until last night---in the entire 2nd act of the show, the only girls featured are Cindy and Blair! And Cindy's talk with Mrs. Garrett is so deep and long, it has to be split with a commercial! Interesting, Mrs. Garrett's first "heart-to-heart" talk with one of her girls may be her longest, lol.
Along with knowing how HUGE Cindy's role was in RH, Sue Ann just gets way more lines in "Running", despite the show being about she and Cindy. This is in large part due to the beginning scenes of the show. Sue Ann just gabs gabs gabs (lol) about the race, and training, yadda yadda yadda with Mr. Bradley and Mrs. Garrett et al., doing so much talking, and Cindy doesn't really say much at all. Sue Ann represents her like she's acting as an agent or promoter or something, lol.
Then in the "recreation house" (lol), again, Sue Ann gets most of the lines in that entire scene, and Cindy only has a few or a handful. It's not until the 2nd half of the show that Cindy and Sue Ann's parts are more neck-and-neck in equal time/lines. I would be happy to do a line count with you if you like.
All that said though, it is a big thrill for me, favoring Cindy the most from season 1, seeing Natalie start the chant of "Cindy, Cindy!" then Tootie and all the other girls joining in, all rallying and yelling her name " Cindy! Cindy!! CINDY! CINDY! CINDY!!" and screaming/cheering when Mr. Bradley says "Alright alright, Cindy it is!" 
I just watched "Running" last night. And poor Felice...poor, poor Felice...if I were her, I believe I would have felt really unnecessary, unappreciated, uninteresting, and unwanted by the show when I read the script for this episode. She is such wallpaper in this one! Here is what I noticed:
~~Nancy does not appear until nearly 7 minutes into this episode. 7 minutes! The entire rest of the cast has been there for the whole opening scene, and then nearly 7 minutes in, Nancy just casually comes down the stairs for the last part of the scene, when she didn't even need to be there anyway. All she did was hear that Cindy was gonna run instead of Sue Ann, and she joined the other girls in cheering for Cindy. That is IT.
~~In the "recreation house" (my own little special name for that place they go into when they finish their run, lol), Nancy has one line. One line. ALL of the girls, the whole rest of the cast even, have multiple lines, and Nancy has ONE. "When I told Roger I was into exercise, he got excited." That's it!
~~Again, in the "recreation house" when Natalie and Nancy go to comfort Cindy, Cindy has most of the lines, with Natalie several, and Nancy just a few. Speaking of this scene, I always found it very telling that Natalie reveals what she, Cindy, Molly, and Tootie do when they're upset, which I love, but when she asks Nancy what she does, Nancy doesn't name an activity. She says "What does it matter?? We're talking about Cindy!" How very telling the most undeveloped, wallpapered character of the show doesn't get to even help her character one little bit by telling what she does when she gets upset, lol.
Nancy's only "contribution" to this episode is giving Roger a re-cap of Cindy and Sue Ann's fight, and, on a much lesser scale, aiding Blair when she's hit. That is ALL she does in this episode.
Alas, poor Felice!
I just went to "Running" on YouTube to look at any comments there, and I saw where you commented about the rooming assignments. It's actually impossible to say what the rooming assignments were because they fluctuated so much among the episodes. In "Rough Housing" Cindy seems to have her own private room (and it's even referred to as "her room"), but suddenly in "Running" she and Sue Ann are roommates. And while there are 2 beds in Blair's room in "Like Mother, Like Daughter" it is clear in "Running" that Blair has her own private room; which is credible, given how rich her family was. They could easily afford to get her "special treatment" to have her own private room.
