‘Diff’rent Strokes’ Dad Conrad Bain Dies at 89

Conrad Bain, who starred as Phil Drummond, the rich white businessman who adopts Harlem kids Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges on the popular sitcom Diff’rent Strokes, has died, according to the Associated Press. He was 89.

TMZ first reported Wednesday that Bain died Monday night in Livermore, Calif., according to family sources. Other details were not immediately known.

Bain, who played in many stage productions during his long career, also was known for his six-year role as Dr. Arthur Harmon, the blundering next-door neighbor on CBS sitcom Maude.

It’s sad that the parents of the child stars on the show were apparently pretty rotten people (in the case of Gary Coleman’s, they stole his earnings). Conrad Bain didn’t really owe them anything, he was just a co-star (think of them all as co-workers at a company), but it was nice that he reached out. That Todd Bridges holds him in higher esteem than his own father is quite telling. At least Todd was able to get his life together.

I noticed the same thing of Charlotte Rae (Mrs. Garrett) that she kept a close watch out for the young actresses on her show, and none of them met with scandal or tragedy. One wonders if Dana Plato had gone over with her to “Facts”, if she might’ve made a difference in her life.

“One wonders if Dana Plato had gone over with her to “Facts”, if she might’ve made a difference in her life.”

Maybe, although perhaps she would have been a bad influence on Nancy McKeon, etc.

Remember the final season of Facts of Life, in which Mrs. Garrett had closed down Edna’s Edibles and opened a weird store named “Over Our Heads”? The employees were the four girls (whose characters were in their mid-20s, yet still hung out with their old den mother instead of becoming professionals), some 14-year-old kid and a guy in his late 20s or early 30s who had no business working in some rinky-dink shop. That actor, probably the only adult male ever to be a credited regular on Facts of Life, was none other than George Clooney.

You’re remembering the 7th season (1985-86) when there was a fire at Edna’s Edibles. She didn’t want to rebuild, so hence that tacky ‘80s kitsch store the girls opened (with some of the old customers wandering into the place wanting to know what happened to their favorite pastries Mrs. Garrett made). That was the last season Charlotte Rae participated in, before she remarried. Did you ever notice her character grew more serious and intelligent from the earlier seasons when she played it more flighty and scatterbrained ?

I’ll admit Clooney’s participation in that season was a bit bizarre (this was after he had been on a spinoff of “The Jeffersons”, an Elliott Gould vehicle sitcom set in a Chicago hospital called, “E.R.”, and before he showed up on “Roseanne”). However, he was not the first credited male on the show, that going to John Lawlor as Headmaster Bradley in the first season (when they had too many castmembers and ended up canning him, that lady teacher and four of the girls — kinda disappointing to me at that time since I liked the first season, even though I was just 5 back in ‘79). Lawlor played Cloris Leachman’s coworker at San Francisco City Hall on “Phyllis.” And, of course, Leachman would take over from Charlotte Rae for the last two seasons of “Facts.”

I found it curious two tie-ins on the show for me. The lead character being Edna G., which was my long-deceased grandmother’s first name and last initial. The second that the show was set in Peekskill, New York, where my mother’s friend lives and to whom we’ve visited and stayed with several times. How they happened to just pick the place, I have no idea. To my knowledge, there’s no such school there. The ivy-covered school in the opening shot is in Los Angeles.

I had completely forgotten about those post-Mrs. Garrett seasons with Cloris Leachman (who died her hair purple or something, right?) as Edna’s sister. And I didn’t know that the headmaster was credited in the first season (back when Molly Ringwald was a regular and Kim Fields wore rolle skates in every episode).

As for why they picked Peekskill, I have no idea. It would have been interesting had they had an episode in which the town’s young mayor, George Pataki, visited the school.

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