Trivia: Madelina Zima, who plays Gracie, has said that she didn't enjoy her time on this show. She felt like a prop, and there was no kindness or sensitivity toward her.
Trivia: At the end of the show, Fran and The Gym Teacher, played by Rita Moreno, are discussing Fran's high school boyfriend. Moreno's lines in the scene are from the song "A boy like that" that her character Anita sang in the 1961 movie West Side Story.
Trivia: Ann Morgan Guilbert plays Yetta Rosenberg, the mother of Sylvia Fine (Renee Taylor). In real life, Guilbert is only five years older than Taylor.
Answer: Mr. Sheffield needed someone to manage the kids, not necessarily babysit them. Brighton was a Bart Simpson type, Maggie was shy and awkward and Gracie had personality issues.