The Facts of Life Cast Reunites for Lifetime's Holiday Special You Light Up My Christmas https://t.co/OIDNKMSToA
— People (@people) October 21, 2019
Admit it, you likely started humming (or singing) the theme song from The Facts of Life when you saw the post’s title. In an era of television reboots, I wondered whether The Facts of Life would be revisited. Kim Fields got her castmates (save the beloved Charlotte Rae, who passed away last year) to come together for a Lifetime Christmas movie. If you are a fan of the show, as you try to plan out your viewing of Lifetime and Hallmark’s 3748593 Christmas offerings, you’ll want to make time for this one:
The stars of The Facts of Life are coming back together, just in time for Christmas!
Lisa Whelchel, Mindy Cohn and Nancy McKeon will reunite in the Christmas movie You Light Up My Christmas, premiering Dec.1 on Lifetime as part of the channel’s “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” programming.
The holiday movie’s executive producer and star Kim Fields — who describes these cast members as her “sisters” — is the one who invited her fellow child actresses to get on board.
“It’s been amazing to work together again and have the ladies’ input on their characters from their wardrobe to names, as well as provide fun inside jokes for fans,” Fields, 50, tells PEOPLE in a statement. “I also had the production name the ice-skating rink in the movie after our dear friend, Charlotte Rae, who passed away last year (and played Edna Garrett on both The Facts of Life and Diff’rent Strokes). We truly are a family so it was great to work together on something new!”
You Light Up My Christmas, inspired by true events, tells the story of Emma (Fields), who returns to her hometown, built around her family’s pioneer Christmas factory, two weeks before Christmas.
To her horror, she finds that the lights in the once festive town have gone dim — prompting her to reconnect with a former flame (Adrian Holmes) and reignite the town with holiday cheer.
Yep, this sounds like the quintessential fluffy feel-good holiday movie that will be right at home on Lifetime (and if I can find someone to DVR it for me, I will watch it without shame). I admit, I wouldn’t mind finding out what Blair, Tootie, Natalie, and Jo are up to today, but I think I think that this a great way for the cast to reunite. Reboots can be tricky or impossible to pull off successfully. As much as I think fans miss characters, I think they are also happy to see casts together again. (I love the “Reunions” issue of EW for that reason.) It’s so nice to hear that the women are still in touch, and the tribute to Charlotte Rae is sweet. (Since it’s nearly Halloween, I have to watch The Worst Witch in all its cheesy ’80s glory soon!) After a year that has been bonkers, I am all for the ridiculous Christmas-movie season (which seems to be starting earlier every year).
Will George Clooney make an appearance?
Yep right after his The Conners guest spot. LOL
Beat me to it! How early does one have to get up to make the first George Clooney joke??
That would actually be pretty awesome of him, but I don’t see it happening…
I’m so here for this. And The Worst Witch is a Halloween staple in my house. It’s probably my favourite Halloween movie tbh.
This is the best Christmas present ever. My head is so full of useless trivia from this show.
Gawd I loved that show growing up. Jo was my favorite character because I was a major tomboy and I was all about having that type of “rough & tumble” girl on the show. I loved all the characters, really, but Jo was definitely my favorite. I just might have to bring myself to switching on Lifetime just for this lol
Jo was my favorite, once they pared down the cast (remember little Molly Ringwald in the original mix?). Jo was the underdog.
I loved that show and enjoyed the cast. But I have to pass. Lisa Whelchel uses her Christian faith to punish her children, including spanking (she has written that they beg for it), hot saucing and pinching a child’s tongue with a clothespin. Someone let me know if she has a big part. If it’s only a few scenes, I’ll probably be able to hold my nose to enjoy the other 3.
Yeah, she was the one who refused to be on the Facts of Life episode where one of the girls (Natalie) lost her virginity.
HMC, wow? Does “hot saucing” mean what I think it means? It all sounds like child abuse to me. Clothes pins on tongues? Oh Lord. So deranged.
If you’re thinking placing hot sauce on a child’s tongue to “teach them a lesson” then yes. Not only does she admit to do this/have done this to her own children, but she advocates for others to do it as well, all backed up by cherry picked Bible passages.
I saw Blair on a plane last year, headed to Halifax! I was so excited that I pointed her out to the guy next to me. He had no idea who I was talking about. God I felt old.
Where are you all going to watch the Worst Witch? I can’t find it anywhere and it was my favorite Halloween movie as a kid. I want to show it to my kids so badly (aka watch it again myself )
@CLSARAH I own it, but it looks like you can rent the DVD and Blu-ray through Netflix.
You can watch it on netflix and someone uploaded it to youtube but it’s not a good copy
Kim Fields is unrecognizable! She’s had some bad work done.
These holiday movies must be huge audience draws. I did not realize how Lifetime has been keeping the same pace as Hallmark. Kim was in a holiday movie rerun they aired last night (following a rerun with Melissa Gilbert as a middle-aged dad’s love interest – which was the second tier love storyline).
I started regularly watching the holiday movies for escapism after a very traumatic year. The well-done ones are a pleasant visual escape, with a storyline you know will end well. Recently a friend told me that her recently retired college-coach husband watches every single one of the Hallmark holiday movies, be it July or the regular fall viewing season.
You’re right. I started with the theme song right off the bat. I wanted Blair hair and a Mrs Garrett so bad back then, omg. 🤦♀️
Blair’s hair was nice! Still is, it looks like, even though the actress herself is not so nice. 🙁
Jo was always my favorite though.
Jo was the best 💕🖖🏽