Would Dana Plato still be alive?
If she had crossed-over to "The Facts of Life" instead of staying on "Diff'rent Strokes"?
"A spin-off of Diff'rent Strokes, the series featured the Drummonds' former housekeeper, Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) becoming the housemother of a dormitory at Eastland School, a private all-girls school. The girls in her care included spoiled rich girl Blair Warner (Lisa Whelchel); the youngest, gossipy Dorothy "Tootie" Ramsey (Kim Fields); and impressionable Natalie Green (Mindy Cohn).
The pilot for the show originally aired as the last episode of Diff'rent Strokes' first season and was called "The Girls' School (aka Garrett's Girls)." The plotline for the pilot had Kimberly Drummond (Dana Plato) requesting that Mrs. Garrett help her sew costumes for a student play at East Lake School for Girls, the school Kimberly attended in upstate New York, as her dorm's housemother had recently quit. Mrs. Garrett agrees to help, puts on a successful play, and also solves a problem for Nancy. Mrs. Garrett is asked to stay on as the new housemother but states she would rather remain working for the Drummonds at the end of the pilot.
Following the pilot, the name of the school was changed to Eastland and characters were replaced, with Natalie, Cindy (Julie Anne Haddock), and Mr. Bradley becoming part of the main group featured. Although Kimberly Drummond is featured as a student at East Lake, her character did not cross over to the spinoff series with Mrs. Garrett."
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | February 4, 2018 6:40 PM
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TIL shes dead.
why all these 90s broads died so young
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | February 4, 2018 6:15 PM
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I attended East Lake, not Eastland.
East Lake is terribly top drawer! Eastland, not so much.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | February 4, 2018 6:16 PM
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I think she’d have died anyway, sadly.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | February 4, 2018 6:18 PM
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She might have gotten Lisa Welchel and Kim Fields hooked on the nose candy.
“It will help with the weight loss!”
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | February 4, 2018 6:26 PM
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I think with all the celebrity reality shows she could've had a small career resurgence if she just stuck around a little longer. She was never going to be the Meryl Streep or anything but it could've lead to more roles in lower budget movies. If it didn't work out there are so many autograph conventions now, particularly for horror fans. Some celebrities past their glory days make a career out of that alone.
It seems to me she hoped the Stern interview would be a comeback and was devastated by how disastrous it went so took many drugs either to end her life or numb the pain. I think if she persevered and didn't give up it all would've worked out, though. A real sad story either way.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | February 4, 2018 6:32 PM
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Plato was always pretty honest about being a dependent and being the star or even more of a main character than she was probably would've landed her in greater trouble.
There were a lot of stars in the 80s like Nell Carter, Lauren Tewes and even before then like Louise Lasser that got seriously messed up on drugs. The only thing that might have saved their suffering would've been too poor to afford to buy them.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | February 4, 2018 6:40 PM
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