Molly Ringwald’s earliest television work is now available to stream free, giving viewers a chance to see the actress before her breakout film role in “Sixteen Candles.”
Ringwald began her TV career on “Diff’rent Strokes,” playing Molly Parker, a school classmate of Kimberly, portrayed by Dana Plato. Her first appearance came in the Season 1 finale, “The Girls School,” where Molly emerged as a confident, fast-talking student.
The character returned during Season 2 in “The Slumber Party,” maintaining the same outspoken personality. Describing Molly in 1980, Ringwald called her “a 12-year-old who behaves like a 32-year-old feminist.”
That role soon carried Ringwald into NBC’s “Diff’rent Strokes” spin-off, “The Facts of Life.” She remained part of the main cast throughout the new sitcom’s first season. Both “Diff’rent Strokes” and “The Facts of Life” are currently streaming for free on Tubi.
Ringwald was already a seasoned young performer
Although “Diff’rent Strokes” marked the beginning of Ringwald’s television acting career, she had been performing from an early age. She appeared in a stage production of “Alice in Wonderland” when she was five and later played the lead in a San Francisco production of the musical “Annie.”
While working on “The Facts of Life,” Ringwald made clear that acting was more than a childhood diversion.
“There is no way I want to do anything else in my life except be an actress,” she told reporters. “But if I have to, I’ll be a veterinarian.”
Her time on “The Facts of Life,” however, proved brief. Although the sitcom ultimately ran for nine years, Molly Parker appeared only during its first season.
A painful first-season exit
Producers concluded that the half-hour show had too many characters to serve its large cast effectively. Four principal cast members were fired for Season 2, including Ringwald.
Years later, she recalled that getting the news was “kind of hard as a 12-year-old girl.” Ringwald also explained how her age affected the decision.
“They wanted something closer to Lisa Whelchel, who played Blair, they wanted something closer to her age and I was too young at the time,” she said. “I was a little bit of a different generation.”
The dismissal did not end Ringwald’s acting ambitions. In 1984, she secured her major film role in “Sixteen Candles.” She later returned to television in the 1990s with ABC’s miniseries “The Stand,” this time as the production’s biggest name rather than a young ensemble player facing the possibility of being written out.
Still, Ringwald has said the experience of losing her “Facts of Life” role stayed with her and influenced how she responded when her own daughter showed an interest in performing.
“It’s one of the reasons why I’ve been a little bit reticent,” she said. “My daughter has expressed interest in acting, and, at first, I was just shutting it down completely.”
With the two early sitcoms available on Tubi, audiences can revisit the short-lived character that connected Ringwald’s television debut on “Diff’rent Strokes” to her one-season run on “The Facts of Life” — years before “Sixteen Candles” changed the direction of her career.