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''The Facts of Life'' was an American Sitcom which ran on the NBC network from August 24 , 1979 to May 7 , 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 . PRODUCTION It was produced first by TAT Communications , then Embassy Television , followed by Embassy Communications (Norman Lear's production companies) and 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 to 1987 at Universal City Studios in Hollywood . From 1987 to 1988 , the series was videotaped and produced at the NBC Studios in Burbank, California . PREMISE 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. Pilot The Pilot for the show originally aired as the last episode of ''Diff'rent Strokes'' first season, which was called "The Girls' School". The plotline for the Pilot had Kimberly Drummond requesting that Mrs. Garrett help her sew costumes for a student play at East Lake School for Girls, the school Kimberly attended in upstate New York, as her dorm's housemother had recently quit. Mrs. Garrett agrees to help, and we meet Tootie, Blair, Molly, Nancy, Sue Ann, Jennifer and Mr. Crocker, the school's headmaster. Mrs. Garrett helps put on a successful play, while also solving a problem for Nancy, and is asked to stay on as the new housemother. While Mrs. Garrett states she would rather remain working for the Drummonds at the end of the Pilot, it can be assumed that she later changed her mind. Following the Pilot, the name of the school was changed to Eastland and the characters of Jennifer and Mr. Crocker were replaced with Natalie and Mr. Bradley. This episode also features a much larger number of girls living in the dorm, as opposed to what is seen during the first season of the show. Further, Kimberly is featured as a student at East Lake, however, her character did not crossover with Mrs. Garrett. Instead, she remained with ''Diff'rent Strokes'', though occasionally, cast members from the ''Facts of Life'' would "visit" her. First Season 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 common room of a girls' dormitory. Also appearing was the school's headmaster, Mr. Stephen Bradley and his assistant, Miss Emily Mahoney. 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 . Miss Mahoney only appeared in the first few episodes of the show, and the character was dropped prior to the show returning in 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 the character of Blair Warner insinuated that her schoolmate Cindy Webster 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 "strange" and "not normal," it was one of the first times a teen questioning his or her sexual orientation had been shown on television. Other first season episodes dealt with drug use, sex, parental relationships and peer pressure. An oddity of the first season was that despite the fact that some of the girls were clearly older than the others, the plotlines would have all the characters taking classes together. During the first season, Tootie was often seen on Roller Skates because while the character was supposed to be 12, Kim Fields was in reality, only 10. The skates were added to give her height. Ironically, however, she failed to get the role of Arnold Jackson's girlfriend on ''Diff'rent Strokes'' because she was taller than Gary Coleman . A noticeable guest star during the first season was future Academy Award winner Helen Hunt . Second Season & Beyond After a thirteen-episode run, the show was retooled extensively. The producers felt there were too many characters given the limitations of the half-hour sitcom format, and that the plot lines should be more focused to give the remaining girls more distinct personalities. Four of the original actresses – Felice Schachter (Nancy), Julie Piekarski (Sue Ann), Julie Anne Haddock (Cindy), and Molly Ringwald (Molly) – were written out of the show (although the four did make periodic appearances in the second and third seasons.) Coincidently, Felice Schachter was the first actress hired when the show was in its initial stages, and was the first actress to be let go following the retooling. Further, the character of Mr. Bradley was also dropped, and replaced with an only occasionally seen headmaster. In addition to being den mother to the girls – wealthy, spoiled Blair Warner ( Lisa Whelchel ), chubby, fun-loving Natalie Green ( Mindy Cohn ), and nosey, gossipy Tootie Ramsey ( Kim Fields ) – Mrs. Garrett became the school dietitian as the second season began, and a new student, street-wise, rough-around-the-edges, Jo Polniaczek ( Nancy McKeon ), arrived at Eastland on scholarship, originally from The Bronx . A turn of events led 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 led 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 . Departure of Mrs. Garrett 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. In the season premiere for the eighth season, Mrs. Garrett announces she has met the man of her dreams, and is getting married. She also says that she will be joining her new husband for two years while he works for the Peace Corps in Africa. During the episode, we meet Mrs. Garrett's sister, Beverly Ann Stickle, played by Cloris Leachman , whom Mrs. Garrett convinces to take over the shop and look after the girls. Beverly Ann was never seen prior to this episode, but was mentioned as far back as when Mrs. Garrett was on "Different Strokes". (Incidentally, Charlotte Rae named the character Beverly Ann after her own sister.) During this time, Beverly Ann legally adopted Over Our Heads worker Andy ( Mackenzie Astin ), and Australia n exchange student Pippa McKenna ( Sherrie Krenn ), who attended Eastland Academy. Cancellation 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 it 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. (Ironically, 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 yet). Three of the girls who were cut from the show after the first season returned in the second-to-last season for a "reunion of friends" in an episode titled, "The Little Chill." 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 cancelled 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 and made it co-ed. Recurring guest stars during the shows later years, in addition to Cindy, Sue Ann, Nancy and Molly, included the judgment-impaired Miko Wakamatsu (played by Lauren Tom ), the snobbish Boots St. Clair (played by Jami Gertz ) and the handicapped 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 . ATTEMPTED SPIN-OFFS Much like what had been done with ''The Facts of Life'' parent show, ''Diff'rent Strokes'', NBC attempted to use the popularity of ''The Facts of Life'' to launch a successful spin-off show, but none of the proposed shows ever made it past the pilot stage. The various attempts at spin-offs were Backdoor Pilot s, which were shown as episodes of ''The Facts of Life''. These episodes include:
CONTROVERSY Geri Jewell As mentioned above, ''The Facts of Life'' was one of the first television shows to feature a person with cerebal palsy as a recurring character. In an interview as part of the E! True Hollywood Story for ''The Facts of Life'', Geri Jewell stated that she believed she was going to continue as a recurring character on the show during the sixth season, but the producers only offered her one episode for the season because viewers would immediately assume that any episode with Cousin Geri would be a Very Special Episode . Jewell stated that she stopped appearing on the show for this reason. Weight Another issue that came up during the show's early seasons concerned the girls' appearances. Lisa Whelchel has stated in various interviews, including on the E! True Hollywood Story, that the girls spent a lot of time on set doing nothing, so the natural inclination for many of them was to eat, as food was readily available all over the set. This noticeably affected the girls' appearances, leading Joan Rivers to dub them "The Fats of Life" during the cast's appearance at the Emmy Awards,and causing the producers to restrict what the actors could eat while on set. Mindy Cohn, in the ''E! True Hollywood Story'', stated the situation was the exact opposite for her. She had been losing weight during this period, and the producers asked her to stop because her character was known for being overweight. Cohn said the producers compromised with her regarding her weight by dressing her in baggy clothing to make her appear heavier than she was. SYNDICATION, AND VHS AVAILABILITY ''The Facts of Life'' had aired in the United States on the USA Network and later on Nick At Nite and the Hallmark Channel . Despite ''Diff'rent Strokes''' popularity in the United Kingdom , ''The Facts of Life'' never aired on terrestrial TV there. A few seasons 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 (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 , 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 and continues to be seen throughout the world wide in syndication. It also airs in reruns on CTS in Canada. ''The Facts of Life Reunion'' currently airs sporadically in the U.S. on the ABC Family Channel . The Facts of Life currently airs in Canada on CTS ( CITS-TV ) weeknights at 7:30pm. It will also air weekends at 10:00am and 2:00pm beginning September 15, 2007 on Canwest's digital specialty channel, Dejaview. DVD RELEASES Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing The Facts of Life on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. Seasons 1 and 2 were released together 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. Seasons 1 and 2 were also released in Australia on Region 4 DVD in March 2007. MADE-FOR-TELEVISION MOVIES RELATED TO THE SERIES
AWARDS & NOMINATIONS
POP CULTURE REFERENCES
Jo: Hey Mrs. Garrett, can I ask you something? Garrett: What is it, Jo? Jo: Is it a problem if your penis and your vagina touch each other? Garrett: What?! Jo: Well, I try to keep them separated, but when I woke up this morning, they were sort of together. I just didn't know, is that okay? Garrett: You have both?! Jo: Well, yeah. Doesn't everybody? Garrett: No!
Cohn: Hey Blair, did you find a purse at the mall? Blair: Actually, I found seven! (audience laughs) Geri: One for every day of the week! (audience groans)
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