On a very special episode of…
by sylvia
So last night I couldn’t sleep, which is very odd for me, as I love sleep, and can sleep constantly. It could have been the 3-hour nap took from 5:30 – 8:30 last night, that contributed, but really, I think it was my obsession with a) being starving, even though I just ate a ton of food at midnight; b) my husband’s breathing/snoring/coughing/sleeping that made me wonder if he was still alive; or c) Natalie from Facts of Life.
Yes. Natalie from Facts of Life:
Natalie was cute and cuddly and curvaceous. She had boyfriends. She had friends. From my years of watching the show, I don’t remember an episode where her being “pleasantly plump” was ever an issue (please correct me if I’m wrong). She was just the funny one, which is the only thing I can recall that at all related to her being fat (you know, because fat people are funny).
But, being a fat kid, and extremely neurtotic to boot, I never looked at her as a role model – “hey, Natalie is fat, but it doesn’t consume her, and she leads a normal life with friends, boyfriends and stuff.” Nope, I rationalized her peers’ acceptance of her fatness as “she’s rich, that’s why it isn’t a problem for her” and “this is a TV show, that would never happen in real life.”
So I continued to blame everything that wasn’t good in my life on my fatness. That boy doesn’t like me because I’m fat. Those girls don’t want to be friends with me because I’m fat. I didn’t get the job because I’m fat. No guys are hitting on me in the bar because I’m fat. The list could go on and on.
I wish I could have embraced my inner Natalie and rose above it all.
But I guess that’s just a Fact of Life*.
*sorry – couldn’t resist.
I loved Natalie. I loved them all in fact. I thought Jo was so cool. I do recall toward the end of the series several of the actors gained a bit of weight and were widely criticized for it. I guess one is OK if she is smart and funny.
I wonder if there could even be a Natalie on a show like that today?
On the E! True! Hollywood! Story! for The Facts of Life, they aired an old interview with Lisa Wechel, where she discusses the pressure for her to lose weight.
It almost seems like TV went backwards, and made it less “OK” for a full-figured gal to be on TV and it not to be the major focus of the show. Sure, there was “Roseanne”, but wasn’t part of her schtick that she was an overweight, blue collar housewife? They didn’t really ever talk about any “fat” issues on that show, maybe because it really was a microcosm of real life. People just working and taking care of their families and dealing with those stresses, not the stresses of getting upset with designers for not making plus-size fashionable clothes.
whoa, I think I just went off on a tangent there I didn’t expect to go down.
In case you didn’t know, she went on to be the voice of Velma in more recent Scooby Doo shows. When I was a kid, it was Daphne all the way. Now that my kids are watching it, it’s like the Stupendous Daphne and Her Idiot Sidekicks show. That’s a fine thing for Natalie to have graduated to, yes?
Oops. I meant “The Stupendous Velma”. Daphne’s a dork.
Natalie was also notable for being the first Facts of Life girl to lose her virginity, which astonishes those who weren’t around to watch the show on its original run. Go to any online discussion about The Facts of Life and you’ll see many comments about how surprised they were that Natalie slept with her boyfriend first, with her being fat and unattractive to men and all.
Aw, The Facts of Life. I’ve been watching that on Hulu.com during the past couple of weeks. Natalie is probably my favorite; she was so smart and confident.
Daphne is the purple queen, right? Had the hots for Fred, the guy with the ascot? Yeah, she’s realcool
Sylvia, don’t ever say ‘ascot’ on here again.
How about kerchief?
Kerchief is acceptable. But no more than once a week.