“I have to say, though: the new Mandy was cringeworthy in the season premiere.”
That was my only complaint, too - however, the actress that played the original Mandy was already in her 30’s, playing a HS kid when the show originally aired. Not sure she can pull that off anymore...another decade in!
If she’s moved on to bigger things, I wish her well. She certainly is talented as far as singing and dancing and all that. She made a memorable character, that’s for sure.
It seems that she left of her own volition. I also just read that the character who plays Eve will have limited appearances this season because Eve is now at the Air Force Academy. Not sure yet about the new Boyd. He was okay in this season’s first episode, but I liked the old, younger Boyd.
Maybe I should watch it again, but the first episode seemed like it was videotaped and not filmed like the previous shows were. That just occurred to me, so I may be wrong.
Some of the best old episodes were when Vanessa was bending over backwards to pretend she doesn’t notice that their neighbors, the Larabies, are black. Very funny, laugh-out-loud stuff.
The reason she did not return to LMS is because she had found another job.
I didn’t know she was that old.