Live In Front of a Studio Audience

Tonight Jimmy Kimmel and Norman Lear host the third installment of ABC's “Live In Front of a Studio Audience”. Tonight's live shows include The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes.

Table of Contents

Facts of Life Cast for Live Show

As with previous iterations of Live in Front of a Studio Audience, the highlight is the all-star cast. And tonight's shows are no different. Both shows are loaded with amazing talent. One fun part of these episodes is that they always surprise you with unannounced cast members. Here's a look at the cast for The Facts of Life.

Jennifer Aniston as Blair
Gabrielle Union as Tootie
Allison Tolman as Natalie
Ann Dowd as Mrs. Garrett
Kathryn Hahn as Jo

Diff'rent Strokes Cast for Live in Front of Studio Audience

Ann Dowd continues her role as Mrs. Garrett and she is joined in this episode by John Lithgow as Mr. Drummond, Damon Wayans as Willis and Kevin Hart as Arnold. The surprise cast member for this episode is Snoop Dog.

Review of Live in Front of a Studio Audience

For The Facts of Life, Ann Dowd stole the show. While everyone did a great job, Ann really nailed the role of Mrs. Garrett. Makeup and hair did a great job re-creating the look of the character and Ann did an amazing job replicating the voice. Other highlights in this episode included Jon Stewart, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett as surprise guests.

In addition to great performances, I really liked the episode that they chose to re-create. The message is still relevant today and the episode holds up.

Review of Diff'rent Strokes Live Performance

Casting is again the key to success for this live performance. Kevin Hart is spot on as Arnold. He does a great job playing a child. His voice, demeanor, and behaviors are all in-line with the 8 year old he's playing. The episode is a little slower paced to me and I feel like it doesn't flow quite as well as the Facts of Life version. But, overall it was fun to watch.

Hidden Gems of the Show

The commercials! Alfonso Ribeiro re-creates some vintage commercials. The first one is a knock-off of the old Brooke Shields Calvin Klein commercial. With Alfonso re-inventing the commercial with Oscar Mayer. It was a hoot! There are lots of reasons to catch the replay of this show and the commercials are just an added bonus.