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Julie Piekarski

[In 2015, recalling her reaction when her character Sue Ann got cut from The Facts of Life (1979)] I'm not going to say I was actually shocked, but I was surprised. "Blindsided" might be the right word for how I felt, though, because I did feel like Sue Ann was getting more opportunities and more story lines where I was a main character. I will say that, if there had been any sort of rumor going around the set like, "Oh, I hear they're gonna cut a couple of the girls," then I probably would've thought, "Well, probably not me." But there was no hush-hush rumor going around. It was just, "We're cutting the cast." . . . When Felice Schachter, Julie Anne Haddock, and I came back [for the Season Eight episode "The Little Chill"], oh my gosh, that was so much fun. It was a blast. But, you know, looking back, that's another one of those episodes where my character kind of took the lead, and it provided a little bit of closure for me, I think, because it was, like, "Okay, they still like to use Sue Ann." It was great to come back and see everyone and to see how much we'd all changed . . . But the whole thing felt very much like we were picking up where we left off, in terms of the kindness and the friendships that had been there.

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