Classic sitcom Diff’rent Strokes and its spinoff The Facts of Life will undergo a celebrity redo on the ABC series Live in Front of a Studio Audience. Joining the extensive list of celebrities that will play the household namesakes of The Facts of Life main characters are Ann Dowd as Mrs. Garrett, Jennifer Aniston as Blair, Gabrielle Union as Tootie, Kathryn Hahn as Jo, and Allison Tolman as Natalie. Jon Stewart and Snoop Dogg will also be a part of the star-studded cast.
Representing the Diff’rent Strokes cast will be Damon Wayans as Willis, Kevin Hart as Arnold, John Lithgow as Mr. Drummond. The story of how Hart landed the role played by the late Gary Coleman is quite compelling.
“It started with Jimmy [Kimmel] and his desire to have Kevin Hart play Arnold Jackson, the Gary Coleman role,” Brent Miller, executive producer of the special, told TVLine. “He had mentioned it when we were doing our second special, that the third one has to be Kevin Hart. At the time, I didn’t know: Is he going to want to cast everybody old, or is he just going to have the joke be Kevin? But as we started talking through it, it made sense to be consistent with that conceit of having older people play kids.”
In The Facts of Life, Drummond’s housekeeper, Edna Garrett, decides to change her trajectory by joining a private all-female dormitory as housemother at New York’s Eastland School.
Diff’rent Strokes follows the life of two Black kids from Harlem, Willis and Arnold Jackson, who are essentially adopted by Phillip Drummond, a wealthy Park Avenue businessman, on a promise to their mother who used to work for him.
The third installment for the ABC special, Live Before a Studio Audience is executive produced by Norman Lear, Jimmy Kimmel, Kerry Washington, Will Ferrell, Brent Miller, Justin Theroux, and jim Burrows, who will also be directing alongside Andy Fisher. Previously, sitcoms The Jeffersons, All in the Family, and Good Times were recreated in front of a live audience.
Live Before a Studio Audience is set to air on Tuesday, Dec. 7 on ABC, and will later release on Hulu.
