‘Facts of Life’ Star Lisa Whelchel Relishes Browsing People’s Collections

After getting her start on The New Mickey Mouse Club at the age of 13 and subsequently playing the preppy Blair Warner on the long-running show The Facts of Life, Lisa Whelchel has remained active with a number of TV shows. She nearly won Survivor: Philippines, and even went on to be a part-time co-host on Survivor host Jeff Probst's daytime talk show in the early 2010s.

Presently, however, Lisa Whelchel is the host of Collector's Call on MeTV. The weekly, half-hour show airs on Sunday evenings (5:30pm CST), and revolves around Whelchel visiting various people's private collections. Guest on the show have shown off their Doctor Who collections, their assortment of Coca-Cola memorabilia, their TV/movie props, and everything in between.

It's a fun show that just entered its fifth season on April 7th, 2024. I was fortunate enough to chat with Lisa Whelchel about the show. I also asked if she'd ever think about doing a crossover show/episode with MeTV alum Svengoolie/Rich Koz, and if she herself collects anything special.

Collector's Call gets its title from the climactic moment in each episode where the expert, who is brought in to appraise certain items in the person's collection, proposes a trade for the collector. Whether or not the trade is accepted or declined is the collector's call. It adds a bit of suspense to the show on top of the nostalgia and educational aspect that's naturally baked into it:

It's a wonderful show because it's fun, and it's actually educational [....] I don't know if that's something you say to invite viewers to watch, but I love that aspect of it. Because most of the collections are things, of course, that I grew up with, and so it brings back memories, but there are some things that I don't know anything about and I learn from [the expert] - Lisa Whelchel

The season premiere of Collector's Call, which aired on April 7th, featured Stewart Berkowitz's collection of TV and movie memorabilia. Berkowitz showed off the Barney Fife's costume from The Andy Griffith Show, both William Shatner’s Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy’s Spock costumes from Star Trek, and even an entire onstage TV set from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Sadly, Berkowitz passed away sometime after the episode was filmed. The show was dedicated to him.

To-be-featured on the show later this season is Kenneth Guinup's collection of "Weird Al" Yankovic memorabilia. This show is right up my alley. I'm a die-hard Al fan, and Guinup has some enviable items for anyone like me. He has Al's very first EP and an exclusive jacket given only to Al's video team. The special guest on the episode, which will air on MeTV on Sunday, April 21st, is Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, Al's drummer for over 40 years.

Then there's Shawn and Gina Sheridan's massive collection of retro TV show and movie toys. The couple have such treasures as Galaxy Quest glasses made exclusively for the cult TV show's crew; a production made Jason mask from Friday the 13th, Part Six: Jason Lives; and Twiki the robot from TV's Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century!

Find out more about Collector's Call on MeTV's official website, and take a listen to my interview with Lisa Whelchel below!