The Facts of Life (TV series)
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| The Facts of Life | |
|---|---|
 The Facts of Life logo (Eastland was used as a backdrop from 1979 to 1983; afterwards Edna's Edibles and Over Our Heads provided the background) |
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| Genre | Sitcom |
| Running time | 30 Minutes |
| Creator(s) | Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon |
| Developer(s) | Howard Leeds, Ben Starr and Jerry Mayer |
| Starring | Charlotte Rae ('79-'86) Lisa Whelchel Kim Fields Mindy Cohn Nancy McKeon ('80-'88) Mackenzie Astin ('85-'88) Cloris Leachman ('86-'88) Sherrie Krenn ('87-'88) |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Original run | August 24, 1979–May 7, 1988 |
| No. of episodes | 209 |
| IMDb profile | |
The Facts of Life was an American sitcom which ran on the NBC network from 1979 to 1988. A spin-off of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, the series' original premise focused on the character, Edna Garrett (played by Charlotte Rae), as she became housemother to seven young girls at the Eastland Academy in Peekskill, New York.
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[edit] Production
It was produced first by TAT Communications, then Embassy Television, followed by Embassy Communications (Norman Lear's production companies), and finally, Columbia Pictures Television (through ELP Communications). Today, Sony Pictures Television still distributes the rights to the sitcom.
From 1979 to 1982, the series was produced at Metromedia Square, and from 1982 on at Universal City Studios in Hollywood. And from 1987 to 1988, the series was videotaped and produced at the NBC Studios in Burbank California
[edit] Plot
Originally a spin off of Diff'rent Strokes, the series featured the Drummonds' housekeeper, Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae), as a housemother in a dormitory of an all-girls school, Eastland Academy. In the show's first season, the show focused on the troubles of seven girls, and the action was usually set in a large, wood-paneled living room. The show was originally meant to be a summer series in 1979, but the head of programming decided to bring it back in early 1980.
Early episodes of the show almost always revolved around a central morality-based or "lesson teaching" theme. The debut episode of the show was extremely controversial in that it found the character of Blair Warner intimating that her schoolmate Cindy was a lesbian because she was a tomboy who frequently showed affection for other girls. Though the show never said the word outright, instead using terms like "that way" or "different", it was the first time a teen questioning his or her sexual orientation had been shown on television. During the first season, Tootie was often seen on roller skates because the producers, while loving young actress Kim Fields, felt she was too short. The skates were added to give her height.
After a thirteen-episode run, the show was retooled extensively. Four of the original actresses, Felice Schachter, Julie Piekarski, Julie Anne Haddock, and Molly Ringwald, were written out of the show (although the four did make periodic appearances in the second and third seasons.)
In addition to being den mother to the girls – wealthy, spoiled Blair Warner (Lisa Whelchel), chubby, fun-loving Natalie Green (Mindy Cohn), nosy Tootie Ramsey (Kim Fields) – Mrs. Garrett became the school dietitian as the second season began, and a new student, street-wise Jo Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon), arrived at Eastland on scholarship. A turn of events leads the four to be separated from the other girls, and forced to work in the cafeteria and live together in a spare room next to Mrs. Garrett's bedroom. The focus of the show shifted to the four itinerant girls, and the action shifted to the school cafeteria and lounge.
The series was given a berth on the 1980-81 American network television schedule, and the show was a constant Top 30 hit for most of the early and mid-1980s. Memorable episodes included Tootie's meeting with Jermaine Jackson; an all-night study session; Tootie's encounter with a teen prostitute; and Jo and Blair's trip to New York, where spending time with old friends leads them to assess how Eastland has changed them. In 1983, Jo and Blair graduated Eastland Academy while Natalie and Tootie were still attending school there. To keep the four girls under one roof, the plot involved Raymond, Mrs. Garrett's son, buying a bakery for her and convincing her to go into business for herself; she named it Edna's Edibles. The four girls came to work for her and lived in one of the rooms at the attached house.
The show became part of NBC's much-watched Saturday night lineup in 1985, but by this time, the girls were now in their late teens and early twenties, and public interest was starting to wane. In an attempt to increase ratings, Mrs. Garrett's store, Edna's Edibles, was burned to the ground and was replaced with a pop-culture influenced gift shop that the girls ran together, called Over Our Heads. This phase of the show is notable for including a then-unknown George Clooney as a supporting actor.
In addition to inflatable palm trees, the gift shop sold a few records, and this offshoot business was the springboard for many appearances by popular groups and singers, such as El DeBarge, Michael Damian, and Stacey Q.
The ratings continued to fall in 1986. At first, Charlotte Rae cut back on her role and then later decided to leave the series completely. She was replaced by Cloris Leachman, who played Mrs. Garrett's sister, Beverly Ann Stickle, a character that wasn't seen before but was mentioned as far back as when Mrs. Garrett was on "Different Strokes". During this time, Beverly Ann legally adopted Over Our Heads worker Andy (Mackenzie Astin), and Australian exchange student Pippa McKenna (Sherrie Krenn) attended Eastland Academy.
By the fall of 1987, the show, which had ranked in the Top 30 just two years before, now lagged behind, rarely ranking above #40 and dragged down the rest of the night's lineup as a result (which, at the time, had Top 20 hits in The Golden Girls and 227). In a last-ditch attempt to raise the ratings, the show's writers created a storyline in which Natalie became the first of the girls to lose her virginity. Originally Lisa Whelchel was offered the storyline but she had become a born-again Christian and premarital sex conflicted with her morals. (It also conflicted with an episode from the first season titled "Facts of Love" where Blair wanted to treat sex in a casual manner, while her boyfriend wanted to have a committed relationship with her and not have sex then.)
Three of the girls who were cut from the show after the first season returned in the final season for a "reunion of friends." Julie Ann Haddock, Julie Piekarski, and Felice Schacter reprised their roles of Cindy, Sue Ann, and Nancy, mentioning that Molly was unable to attend the reunion because she was so busy (a nod to actress Molly Ringwald's successful film career after her departure). The show was eventually canceled in the spring of 1988. The producers had hoped to keep the show going by using the final episode as a backdoor pilot for a potential new spinoff in which Blair impulsively bought Eastland Academy, converted it to a coed school, and took on the Mrs. Garrett role by becoming the headmistress to a new generation of students that included Seth Green, Mayim Bialik and future Oscar-nominee Juliette Lewis.
Recurring guest role students, in addition to Cindy, Sue Ann, Nancy and Molly, included a girl who showed poor judgement, Miko Wakamatsu (played by Lauren Tom), the snobbish Boots St. Clair (played by Jami Gertz) and the spirited Geri Warner (Blair's cousin played by Geri Jewell). Other guest roles included Jo's and Blair's parents (played by Alex Rocco and Claire Malis, and Nicolas Coster and Marj Dusay, respectively), Natalie's and Tootie's mothers, as well as the boyfriends of the girls. Characters from Diff'rent Strokes also appeared in a few first and second season episodes.
Some quirky episodes took place in the last few seasons, evoking "The Golden Girls", the "Twilight Zone", and a sixties-ish episode guest-starring Bobby Rydell and Fabian.
[edit] Syndication, and VHS availability
The Facts of Life aired in the United States on the USA Network and later on Nick at Nite and the Hallmark Channel. For the last two years, however, The Facts of Life has not aired on any nationwide cable channel.
Despite Diff'rent Strokes' huge popularity in the United Kingdom, The Facts of Life never aired on terrestrial TV there. A few seasons (referred to as "series" in the UK) were aired on one of the UK BSB satellite channels and after BSB merged with Sky Television, the entire series was shown on Sky One.
In Italy, a few seasons (1 to 5) were aired in 1983-1986 (dubbed as usual in italian), on the terrestrial TV Canale 5, the first italian commercial network, and later on other local commercial TV networks. The italian version was named L'albero delle mele (it stands for Apple tree, since the apple is a word popularly used as a symbol for teenage girls). In most of episodes, the original theme was replaced by italian or english songs: "Scarpe da tennis" (sung by Patrizia Zanetti, seasons 1-3), "Please Please" (sung by Paul Qualley, season 1-3 reprise and season 5), "Amami... pensami" (unknown singer, season 4); all themes were produced by Five Records and sold on 45rpm disc. Kim Fields was dubbed by Ilaria Stagni (now very popular for the italian Bart Simpson's voice in The Simpsons and Amber's voice in The Bold and The Beautiful ). Mindy Cohn was dubbed by the italian comedian actress Cinzia Bruno. The Italian dubbed episodes were never sold on VHS.
In 1984 an italian movie called College was produced for theatre. Its plot slightly reminds The Facts of Life: a "Blair Warner"-like young lady, Arianna, performed by the italian actress Federica Moro, and a little girl wearing roller-skates (similar to Tootie in the first FOL season), were introduced in the movie.
In 2001, Columbia House released ten "Best of" volumes of the series on VHS (40 episodes in all). Since Sony, the company which now distributes the Columbia library, focuses more on DVDs, the tapes have been discontinued and can only be found on websites such as amazon and eBay at higher prices than they were originally sold.
The Facts of Life episodes (currently Seasons 1 and 2) can be viewed on Comcast's video on demand service in the United States.
The Facts of Life Reunion currently airs sporadically in the U.S. on the ABC Family Channel.
[edit] DVD Releases
Season Releases
| DVD Name | Release Date | Ep # | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Complete First and Second Seasons | May 9, 2006 | 29 | Featurette: Remembering The Facts of Life, Featurette: After Facts. |
| The Complete Third Season | October 24, 2006 | 24 | Bonus Previews |
Seasons 1 and 2 were released together on DVD in the United States on May 9, 2006 along with new interviews with most of the cast including Season 1 originals Felice Schachter and Julie Anne Haddock (now Julie Anne Becker).
Seasons 1 and 2 proved to be such a success that Season 3 was immediately planned for release on October 24, 2006, just five months after the release of the first set.
[edit] Made-for-television movies related to the series
- The Facts of Life Goes to Paris - A two-hour TV movie, aired September 25, 1982, in which Mrs. Garrett and the girls travel to France. It was added to the U.S. syndication package as four half-hour shows.
- The Facts of Life Down Under - A two-hour TV movie, aired February 15, 1987, in which the characters got involved in adventures in Australia. It also is syndicated as four half hour shows in the U.S. package.
- The Facts of Life Reunion - A two-hour reunion aired on ABC on November 18, 2001, reuniting Rae, Whelchel, Cohn, and Fields showing what their characters had done since the series' end. McKeon did not attend, due to scheduling conflicts with her television series The Division. Although, appropriately, she was mentioned in the movie as becoming a policewoman. Jo's husband and daughter did appear in the movie, however. The plot of the special revolved around the girl's adult conflicts: the main plot was that Natalie had two gorgeous men that she couldn't choose between, with sub-plots involving Blair suspecting her husband of infidelity, and Tootie (now going by the character's official first name, Dorothy) regretting her career choice. The reunion currently airs sporadically in the U.S. on the ABC Family Channel. In Italy, this movie was never aired on TV, but it was sold on VHS (called Quattro amiche, nuovi amori) in 2002.
[edit] Awards & Nominations
Emmy Nomination for Best Actress (1982)--Charlotte Rae
Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Technical Direction/Electronic Camerawork/Video Control for a Series (1986)--For episode "Come Back to the Truck Stop, Natalie Green, Natalie Green".
Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling for a Series (1987)-- For episode "'62 Pickup".
[edit] Pop culture references
- On The Simpsons, in the episode Bart Gets Famous, Lisa Simpson imagines that she has cured all disease, ended war, and reunited the cast members of this show, "including long-time holdout Tootie." Also, in the episode Treehouse of Horror XVII, Homer (turned into a giant, human-eating blob after eating alien "goo") eats the show's cast members (now overweight), who are together at a reunion performance on stage.
- On The Golden Girls, in the third season episode Strange Bedfellows, Dorothy gives a sardonic answer to an obvious question by Rose, "No, Rose, I'm upset because they haven't rerun The Facts of Life Goes to Australia." Also, in another third season episode, "The Housekeeper," the girls are about to fire a black housekeeper, when Blanche nervously interjects, "I just want you to know that Tootie has always been my favorite on "The Facts of Life."
- On Family Guy, the show has been mentioned several times:
- Peter suggests a line of Transformers based on the characters
- Peter's campaign speech in running for Quahog school board is made up off the cuff of theme song lyrics, including this one. ("You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have...my opening statement.")
- In "SuperGriffins," the family commission a statue based on the first season episode in which Blair plagiarizes the Emily Dickinson poem Beauty Crowds Me 'Til I Die. To show the sculptors how he wants it to look, Peter changes into Mrs. Garrett's bosom, which then exclaims, in a Mrs. Garrett falsetto, "Girls, girls, girls!"
- Mrs. Garrett and Blair are also referenced several times in the dialog of different episodes.
- In the episode "Brian Goes Back to College," Brian watches an episode in which a dual-gendered Jo asks Mrs. Garrett if it's okay that his/her penis touched his/her vagina.
- During her I'm the One that I Want stand-up routine, comedian Margaret Cho mentions the show - "My hair was so feathered that the back of my head...looked like a butt. My hair [was] more feathered than Blair's on "Facts of Life". She also comments on Jo's hair, likening it to a typical man in heterosexual pornography.
- On the NBC sitcom Scrubs there is a group of hospital administration workers that are a barbershop quartet, The Worthless Peons (played by The Blanks), who practice singing old television and cartoon theme songs late at night. One of the first songs they perform is the "Facts of Life" theme song.
- Comedy Central's Drawn Together parodies Blair and her cousin Geri in an episode entitled "The Other Cousin". In the episode, Princess Clara is first embarrassed by, then overprotective of her mentally handicapped cousin. In a direct homage to The Facts of Life, the cousin is named Bleh, a reference to how Geri tended to pronounce Blair's name.
- The series was parodied on a short-lived NBC summer series called The Rerun Show which took actual scripts from old sitcoms (only ones from within Sony/Columbia's domain) and then recreated them word-for-word using sketch actors who would impersonate each character/actor with great exaggeration. The most notable impersonation being that of comedian Paul Vogt playing Mrs. Garrett. Vogt would later bring that same impersonation to MADtv where he was a regular for a few seasons.
- The Mullets use the lyrics "You take the good, you take the bad" in their song We Give Up.
- Microserfs by Douglas Coupland uses "Tootie" and "Blair" as computer server names.
- On Married... with Children, Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) sat in front of the television waiting for "Psycho Dad" to come on, but instead heard the theme song for "The Facts of Life". Also, the rest of the Bundies would refer to the cast of "The Facts of Life" as the "the fat girls on The Facts of Life."
[edit] Trivia
- "Before They Were Stars"- Academy Award winner George Clooney was a regular cast member for one season, and Molly Ringwald was a regular cast member for the first season and guest-starred on the second episode of the second season titled "The New Girl-Part 2." Academy Award winner Helen Hunt guest-starred in the first season episode titled "Dope."
