The producers didn’t know that in order to become a registered dietitian, she would have needed a four-year degree in Nutrition, satisfied internship requirements and passed a national exam-impossible to have accomplished in one season.
Raymond helped her raise funds and secure commercial space so she could open her own gourmet food shop, "Edna's Edibles", in the fall of 1983.
In one episode, she actually fires them from "Edna's Edibles" when their irresponsible behavior ends up costing her $500 in fines after a dismal health inspection.
She and her new husband, Dr. Bruce Gaines (Robert Mandan), rejoined the Peace Corps to work in eastern Africa (Charlotte Rae's contract had expired and she did not want to continue with the series).
When the show was retooled in 1980, all instances of her rebellion were either dropped or given to the new character of Jo Polniaczek, and Blair was rewritten as an extremely wealthy and unashamedly spoiled "daddy's girl" and socialite from Manhattan.
Blair was vain, arrogant, egotistical, and shallow; but, also funny, kind-hearted, generous, and loving to Mrs. Garrett and her friends, especially Jo Polniaczek.
Blair's delusions of grandeur were usually played for laughs when Natalie, Tootie or Jo would make sarcastic remarks about her "beauty," "perfect" personality or "naturally blonde hair."
Initially, Blair felt she was more important than "regular" people because she was the heiress to her father's multimillion-dollar business, Warner Textile Mills.
However, Blair eventually developed a more down-to-earth attitude, especially after she suffered a car accident (after falling asleep at the wheel) that left her slightly scarred, spoiling her "perfect" beauty.
In the hospital after her accident, she privately tells Jo a story from her childhood to illustrate how her mother had insisted that she be perfect from a young age.
Later in the series, her mother remarried (for the fourth time) and gave birth to a baby girl (Bailey) fathered by her most recent ex-husband.
In addition to the Diff'rent Strokes episode "The Girls School" that serves as the pilot for The Facts of Life, Blair appears in "The Older Man".
Note: Actress Geri Reischl ("fake Jan" of The Brady Bunch Hour) was given the role of Blair Warner in the television pilot Garrett's Girls (later renamed The Facts of Life) but was forced to give it up due to her contract with General Mills.
Tootie's most-remembered attributes were her penchant for rollerskates (at first used by Facts of Life producers to mask Fields' short stature), her gossipy nature and her braces.
For example, Tootie befriended a boy named Fred who insisted that she only associate with black people, in an attempt to realize "her true roots."
In another episode, Tootie was chosen by a photographer to model for newspaper advertisements, but was instead lured into a borderline kiddie porn operation and was saved by Mrs. Garrett at the last minute.
Tootie helped Mrs. Garrett with her own bakery, Edna's Edibles, after-school and then worked full-time at the gift shop, called "Over Our Heads" after she graduated from high school in 1986.
In the 2001 The Facts of Life Reunion TV movie, Tootie had attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in the UK city of London to pursue an acting career, was a Hollywood-based talk show host and was the single mother of Tisha, a 10-year-old (fathered by her longtime boyfriend and later deceased husband, Jeff Williams).
In addition to the Diff'rent Strokes episode "The Girls School" that serves as the backdoor pilot for The Facts of Life, Tootie also appears in "The Slumber Party", "The Bank Job", "First Day Blues" and "The Team".
She delayed attending college for a year to travel across the country by bus, leaving family and friends dismayed because she was postponing Princeton.
The episode in which she inspects the SoHo loft she will eventually call home features Richard Grieco and David Spade as her future roommates.
Early on, she was rebellious, but also highly intelligent (she and Blair achieved the highest scores on the Eastland entrance exams) and secretly sensitive.
When she originally arrived at Eastland on her motorcycle, Jo convinced the girls to steal the school van and use fake IDs to buy drinks at a bar.
They planned to elope to West Virginia, where the marriage age was lower, but Mrs. Garrett and Blair tracked her down at a nearby motel to stop her.
Jo got into verbal spars with girls who didn't think she was "feminine enough" and boys (including some of her boyfriends) were threatened by her mechanical aptitude, which she displayed by getting a job at a local garage.
This also coincided with Nancy McKeon's role as a police detective in the drama series The Division since the reason she couldn't participate in the reunion was a conflict in her working schedule.
The first episode of The Facts of Life, which aired in August 1979, focused on Cindy, who was concerned that she might like girls, after hearing disparaging remarks from snobby Blair.
The episode tackled a sensitive issue during an era when lesbianism was rarely talked about on television, although reaction from modern-day critics has been mixed.
In "Small But Dangerous," Kelly was extorting Mrs. Garrett of the money to pay off the gang that is supposedly causing trouble for "Edna's Edibles."
At the time when The Facts of Life was still lucrative for NBC, network president Brandon Tartikoff chose to renew but only with a new mother figure at the helm.