Costuming the charming George Clooney, and other stars in The Facts of Life

Of all the celebrities I have costumed over the years, I suspect George Clooney is the biggest star.

I outfitted him during the first full-time job I had  designing a TV series, the sitcom “The Facts of Life” in the mid-1980’s. George was an unknown at the time, a handsome young man of 24 years. NBC really liked him and kept trying to find the right vehicle for him - which they didn’t do until “ER” in 1994. 

George was cast as a “neighbor”, probably in an attempt to bring more male energy to the series, but they didn’t want to pair him up with any of the four girls as a love interest. After a season and a half, he was not renewed.

I remember him pretty as I see him today - very easy going, charming, with a sweet dry sense of humor. He was mostly dressed in jeans and plaid shirts. 

Some years later we were filming next door to each other at Warner Bros, he on “ER”, and me designing “For Your Love”. He dropped over to say hello to one of the actresses, saw me, came over and gave me a big hug, causing envious stares from all the female crew!

But George was not the only star to emerge from “The Facts of LIfe.” 

Of course, the four girls were hugely famous at the time - Lisa Whelchel, Kim Fields, Mindy Cohn, and Nancy McKeon, who continue to lead successful lives in the industry and beyond. But I also had the irrepressible Cloris Leachman to costume! She was very strong willed, opinionated, funny, and her instincts were so right on that all I could do is learn from her.

In the three years I designed “The Facts of Life” we had many young guest stars that went on to become well known actors today: “Austin Power”’s Seth Green (14 years old at the time) guest-starred as a bratty kid trying to get into the girls school, and even wearing a dress to do so! Mayim Bialek, now being seen on “The Big Bang Theory,” was also a 13 year old guest star. Doug Savant (“Desperate Housewives”) played one of the girls boyfriends for an episode,  as did Richard Grieco. Other guests were “24”’s Dennis Haysburt, “Saturday Night Live”’s David Spade, Juliette Lewis and more.

One of the challenges of designing “The Facts of Life” was that I often had 5 women in every scene, so they each had to look unique, not only in style, but in color. They often had 3-4 changes in a half hour episode, so there were a lot of clothes to find, fit, and prep, and juggling color preferences was often a challenge. Also, each girl had their own figure issues, favorite footwear and styles. Cloris had her strong opinions too, so it was a juggling act to do all in one week and required all my patience and tact as well as design talent.

That’s why dear George Clooney in his jeans and plaid shirts was such a relief!