The Facts Of Life - General Discussion

[GHScorpiosRule]

After watching that podcast and the reunion interviews, I admit my jaw literally dropped when I see what Mindy has done to her lips! I'm like, WHYYYY???? She looks like Goldie Hawn's character in First Wives' Club!

It also tickles me that Nancy still refers to Kim Fields as "Kimmie" and that they all are still good friends. Lisa and Kim have also appeared on this podcast of Mindy's. The sound quality with Kim wasn't that great.

I just love the stories they all talk about when they were on the show. I had totally forgotten that Kim had appeared on Baby I'm Back and that this show wasn't her first job on television.

Watched "The Four Musketeers"  last night, and I'd forgotten how hilarious those final scenes were of the paint fight. I wonder if Jo laughing when Blair sat in the paint was Jo, or Nancy breaking character.

But what annoyed me was the long and dragged out fight between Natalie and Tootie. To the point where they weren't even speaking with each other. And Blair acting as if the past year and half she hadn't been in that cafeteria.

[Egg McMuffin]

Kim was also on Good Times for a few episodes along with Gary Coleman, playing characters named Kim and Gary.

And don’t forget her work with Mrs. Butterworth:

https://youtu.be/GvqD1fGCpaQ

[Egg McMuffin]

On 1/12/2022 at 3:27 PM, GHScorpiosRule said:

But what annoyed me was the long and dragged out fight between Natalie and Tootie. To the point where they weren't even speaking with each other.

Yeah - that was a big stretch. You could buy Jo and Blair getting fed up with each other and not speaking. But Natalie and Tootie were too tight to let a silly thing like books being left on the someone’s bed destroy their friendship.

Edited January 14, 2022 by Egg McMuffin

[GHScorpiosRule]

So I decided to see if Tue Division was available to watch anywhere, but only found a handful on YouTube. But hey! Alex Rocco, who played Jo’s dad, played Nancy’s dad on that show too!

 

[ifionlyknew]

11 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

So I decided to see if Tue Division was available to watch anywhere, but only found a handful on YouTube. But hey! Alex Rocco, who played Jo’s dad, played Nancy’s dad on that show too!

 

I bought that series on DVD last year.  It wasn't that much and it is the whole series.  I had watched it when it originally aired on Lifetime.  I enjoyed watching it a second time.  

[GHScorpiosRule]

I’m up to season five now and GOOD GOD. Jo is the only one I can relate to; Blair has morphed into an airhead and from the lines of dialogue where she’s ignorant of history and other subjects, and supposedly Langley only accepts the smartest of the smart. Yet she got in? Then we see other students and they’re all MORONS.

Kim has started to scream her lines which hurt my ears.

[Egg McMuffin]

As much as I liked the focus on the quartet, it really limited what they could do with the show as the girls grew up. Had they kept the original format (more girls in the dorm) but with the writers they had in seasons 2-4, they could have gradually swapped girls in and out as they aged out of the series. Perhaps it would have had a more consistent run that way.

[JAYJAY1979]

16 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

As much as I liked the focus on the quartet, it really limited what they could do with the show as the girls grew up. Had they kept the original format (more girls in the dorm) but with the writers they had in seasons 2-4, they could have gradually swapped girls in and out as they aged out of the series. Perhaps it would have had a more consistent run that way.

I recall the princess was a recurring character in the final Eastland season..and I wonder if the show was trying out that idea...but opted to keep the focus on the quartet?

[Egg McMuffin]

I’d read that the producers pitched a “Blair and Jo Go to College” spinoff to NBC, and had that happened, two new girls would have been added to the original, one of them presumably being Princess Alex. You can see how she would have been similar enough to Blair to replace her in the quartet.

Edited January 16, 2022 by Egg McMuffin

[GHScorpiosRule]

The reason the show was revamped was because the original concept wasn’t working. The cutting down of most of the girls and adding Nancy McKeon saved it from cancellation. If they had done the revolving doors of new students, show wouldn’t have lasted.

Im up to season eight binging and the writing just got worse from the mid-sex season and whether it was new writers or the same, they clearly forgot what they had written and was show canon.

Im too punchy to give examples now, but one thing that rubbed me the wrong way was suddenly having Jo call her dad. “Dad” in season seven when Charlie suddenly won some lotto instead of “Pop” which is what she has always called him from day one. It just sounded weird.

[GHScorpiosRule]

UGGGGHHHHH. I can’t believe I slogged through all nine seasons! The show should have definitely ended at the end of season 7 if only to see all the girls graduate. From Eastland, anyways.

And they SORASED Charlie! He was 40 in season two when we met him, so by season 8 he should have been 46 and not the 51 they made him in that horrible episode of him dating Susan Walters character who was a year older than Jo!

And I guess they forgot how in season five Charlie had proposed to Carol-when Jo thought her parents were going to get back together-only to have him single the next season for the hijinks of Blair and Jo thinking their parents were going to get married.

With Nancy finally getting rid of the ponytail style, Jo became more softer and lost some of her edge. And Blair just got dumber -acting like a dumb blonde which just made it difficult to believe the also graduated magna cum laude.

I still hate that Jo stopped calling Charlie “Pop” in the last two seasons. It just sounded weird hearing her call him “Dad.”

Beverly Ann was just an idiot, who came off as tone deaf and unable to read a room 90% of the time. And I really wish Charlotte Rae could have made a cameo in the series finale. Even if to show Mrs. Garrett on the phone. And it wasn’t RIGHT that that idiot Pippa was in the final shot instead of Blair, Jo, Tootie, and Natalie.

I have more thoughts, especially about that “reunion” episode with Sue Ann, Cindy, and Nancy. But I need SLEEP!

[Katy M]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

And they SORASED Charlie! He was 40 in season two when we met him, so by season 8 he should have been 46 and not the 51 they made him in that horrible episode of him dating Susan Walters character who was a year older than Jo!

Eh, they probably jsut forgot they gave him a specific age. 51 is how old the actor was in season 8.

[ljenkins782]

On 1/16/2022 at 6:27 PM, Egg McMuffin said:

I’d read that the producers pitched a “Blair and Jo Go to College” spinoff to NBC, and had that happened, two new girls would have been added to the original, one of them presumably being Princess Alex. You can see how she would have been similar enough to Blair to replace her in the quartet.

Ugh, thank God that didn't happen. The character of Princess Alex and the horribly wooden actress who played her couldn't hold a candle to Blair and Lisa Whelchel's acting.

The mistake that shows like this make is trying to replace characters with versions they think will be similar. See also: Designing Women replacing Charlene with Carlene and the Suzanne character with another antagonistic character, except that character had none of the charm, so it fell flat.

I never had a problem with the way the show unfolded, with the exception of the early season 7 "building the store" era. Not even George Clooney could save that idea. There were enough good episodes in each season that I'm good with it, most shows run out of steam by the ninth season, so the fact that we got a few classics later in the run (7 Little Indians, the episode where they imagine themselves old, etc) in the later seasons feels like a bonus.

[ifionlyknew]

51 minutes ago, ljenkins782 said:

I never had a problem with the way the show unfolded, with the exception of the early season 7 "building the store" era. Not even George Clooney could save that idea. There were enough good episodes in each season that I'm good with it, most shows run out of steam by the ninth season, so the fact that we got a few classics later in the run (7 Little Indians, the episode where they imagine themselves old, etc) in the later seasons feels like a bonus.

I don't mind the later seasons. They made some missteps like Pippa and the two backdoor pilots, the episode with Blair buying Eastland and the one with Natalie moving to NYC, but overall I can watch the entire series all the way through without thinking ugh is it over yet.  

[Snow Apple]

I don't know why they wrote in Beverly Ann. The girls were all grown up by then. If one has a problem, they can advise each other. I found it uncomfortable how the girls looked down on Beverly Ann and weren't subtle about it.

I guess she's there to look after Andy and Pippa, but they could have still continued to write in Andy as their part-time employee and never wrote in Pippa and Beverly Ann. Well, I can kind of tolerate Beverly Ann, but Pippa  was only there to sprout Australian slang. I even preferred Princess Alex to her.

[Katy M]

15 minutes ago, Snow Apple said:

I don't know why they wrote in Beverly Ann. The girls were all grown up by then. If one has a problem, they can advise each other. I found it uncomfortable how the girls looked down on Beverly Ann and weren't subtle about it.

I guess she's there to look after Andy and Pippa, but they could have still continued to write in Andy as their part-time employee and never wrote in Pippa and Beverly Ann. Well, I can kind of tolerate Beverly Ann, but Pippa  was only there to sprout Australian slang. I even preferred Princess Alex to her.

I didn't mind Pippa, but it was kind of weird that Mrs. Garrett would arrange to host a foreign exchange student, not tell any of the other four people living in the house, then got married and left still without informing the other people in the house AND the school or wherever she went through. And the school didn't confirm with her before the wrong child was able to just show up?

And after typing all this, I wonder, where did Pippa and Andy sleep?  If there were extra bedrooms, why did all 4 girls cram into one?  I understand that they were friends and it was a big room, but I would think if possible they would have wanted to split up more.  Even if it was just Blair and Jo in one room and Natalie and Tootie in the other.

[ljenkins782]

24 minutes ago, ifionlyknew said:

I don't mind the later seasons. They made some missteps like Pippa and the two backdoor pilots, the episode with Blair buying Eastland and the one with Natalie moving to NYC, but overall I can watch the entire series all the way through without thinking ugh is it over yet.  

I thought Pippa was a terrible character who added nothing to the show. I guess she was a Hail Mary attempt to bring more youthful characters in as the originals aged out. But the writing was poor and the actress couldn't save the material.

I remember being upset by that Natalie moves to NYC episode when I was a kid, but watching it back as an adult, it doesn't seem so bad. There was a coldness to the episode that felt jarring in comparison to the Eastland/Langley world, the people came across unfriendly and it seemed uncomfortable for her to be there. 

I guess in retrospect, I find it harder to be intimidated by an episode that includes both Richard Grieco and David Spade, lol.

Quote

I don't know why they wrote in Beverly Ann. The girls were all grown up by then. If one has a problem, they can advise each other. I found it uncomfortable how the girls looked down on Beverly Ann and weren't subtle about it.

I agree that Beverly Ann as a character was a bit of a head-scratcher unless she was the majority owner/operator of the store, but I liked Cloris Leachman's performance overall. I thought she was a much funnier character than Mrs. Garrett and wasn't occupying the space as life mentor, but more of a business partner.

It didn't really make sense for the girls to be part of the new venture though. When the Edna of Edna's Edibles decided to shut that business down, the girls should have gone back to being students. None of them were planning to be in the novelty item business long-term, so that was just a weird plot device.

[Egg McMuffin]

I hated Pippa. “Oh, Crocodile Dundee is popular, so let’s put an Aussie in the show somehow.” Andy was OK when he was a helper in the store, but not when they moved him in with the girls as Beverly Ann’s foster son. Beverly Ann simply wasn’t needed, as someone pointed out above. I think it was weird that the girls were all going to the same college, living behind a store with the sister of their old housemother plus two street urchins.

Even Mrs. Garrett’s last season was weird. They had this big setup for the novelty shop, and how they were all partners now, and then Edna wasn’t even around for part of the season to run it. And were Tootie’s parents OK with her being in high school and living above the store when Mrs. Garrett was away for months? After Mrs. Garrett left, I would have moved the timeline up a year so that Jo and Blair had graduated. I would have had them sharing an apartment in NYC, with Blair in law school, Tootie in college, and Natalie and Jo working. Yeah, it still would have been contrived that they were all together, but the gift shop setup with all those random characters was way worse.

[Snow Apple]

I just remembered a Beverly Ann story that I liked. When the younger man fell for her instead of Blair. 

Edited January 18, 2022 by Snow Apple

[Katy M]

2 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

I think it was weird that the girls were all going to the same college

That's like every show that tries to live past its shelf date.  Beverly Hills 90210, Boy Meets World.  OK, I can only name 2 others off the top of my head.

[Snow Apple]

Jo got married and they wrote in some convenient storyline to keep her living in the house. Tootie was engaged. They should have stories about house hunting and furniture shopping, but they did nothing to prepare for married life.

[CeeBeeGee]

9 hours ago, ljenkins782 said:

Ugh, thank God that didn't happen. The character of Princess Alex and the horribly wooden actress who played her couldn't hold a candle to Blair and Lisa Whelchel's acting.

I actually really liked Alex in her introductory episode--the look on her face when the Italian dude tells her her parents aren't coming was devastating. The writing was weird--Blair in particular was all over the place--but I still like that episode. I've always thought Heather McAdam was very good at playing wounded birds--very vulnerable types. (She plays similar character arcs in BH 90210 and Quantum Leap.) But--because FOL always did this, they always had great introductory episodes for intended-to-be recurring characters* and then abandoned those characters immediately afterward--they never followed through on that interesting episode.) I mean, nobody could make heavy-handed lines like "I should let you know, I am an actual princess" work.

*See, Cousin Geri, Miko et al.

[ljenkins782]

24 minutes ago, CeeBeeGee said:

I actually really liked Alex in her introductory episode--the look on her face when the Italian dude tells her her parents aren't coming was devastating. The writing was weird--Blair in particular was all over the place--but I still like that episode. I've always thought Heather McAdam was very good at playing wounded birds--very vulnerable types. (She plays similar character arcs in BH 90210 and Quantum Leap.) But--because FOL always did this, they always had great introductory episodes for intended-to-be recurring characters* and then abandoned those characters immediately afterward--they never followed through on that interesting episode.) I mean, nobody could make heavy-handed lines like "I should let you know, I am an actual princess" work.

*See, Cousin Geri, Miko et al.

For me, it's Heather McAdam's voice that I can't tolerate. She's actually not a terrible actress, I have seen her on Quantum Leap and Sisters where her acting wasn't bad, it's just that voice for me.

And yes, she was dead in the water with that writing. Giant club over the head with the "I'M A PRINCESS" stuff.

[CeeBeeGee]

2 minutes ago, ljenkins782 said:

For me, it's Heather McAdam's voice that I can't tolerate.

I have to agree. The one false note in her depiction of being a European princess--with that flat Brooklyn accent? It's faint but audible. She should've been coached out of it.

[JAYJAY1979]

I wish the Blair working in an law firm idea got picked up.  She was basically Elle Woods before there was one. 

That spinoff episode had more promise then her running Eastland.

Edited January 19, 2022 by JAYJAY1979

[Egg McMuffin]

I would have done a spinoff called The Facts of Life II: Second Shift, which focuses on the other four girls on probation at Eastland: Princess Alex, Miko, Brenda the rock girl, and Kelly Affinado. They are also supervised by Mrs. Garrett and live in the room next door to Blair, Jo, Natalie, and Tootie. The new quartet works the dinner shift, while the original quartet works breakfast and lunch. So they never really see each other, except in special crossover episodes.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Egg McMuffin

[Mrs. Landingham]

I know it’s been mentioned before how cheesy the Paris episodes are, but damned if I don’t watch every single minute of them. I think it’s my pandemic depression and yearning to travel internationally again (fingers crossed to return to Europe this summer).

I agree with those of you who are uncomfortable with how the girls treated Beverly Ann. 

I will never get over my annoyance at the “reunion” episode and the re-writing of history to pretend that Jo never met the original set of girls. She interacted with them in seasons 2 and 3! 

I find it interesting that Lisa Welchel chose not to appear in the episode where Natalie loses her virginity (due to her religious beliefs, she said) but did appear in the “reunion” episode when Nancy announced she was pregnant out of wedlock. 

[Maverick]

 Probably because Nancy being pregnant was a plot point no one gave a thought to rather than a Very Special Episode advocating it was ok to have sex outside marriage.  Also, the episode was originally written for Blair so when she refused to do it she probably felt she had to be out of the episode altogether.   If nothing else i suppose she gets credit for sticking to her beliefs.  

 Yes the girls were mean to Beverly Ann but 1) no one asked her to move in.  She basically invited herself. 2) despite having never met them she acted like she was there to take care of them and 3) she was kind of a loon. 

[Egg McMuffin]

The Paris movie was cheezy sure, but cool in its own way. It was the first time I remember that a TV sitcom was turned into a TV movie, and it was interesting to see the girls out of the studio and away from the multicam/studio audience format, and on location. It was a big deal when NBC showed it. Even my dad liked it  and said something about how it was a nice way to start the new season. Family Ties copied it a year or two later.

I don’t like how the movie was split into four episodes for syndication. It really plays better when it is shown as a two hour movie, as originally intended. Fortunately, the DVD has it in its original format.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Where do I begin/continue?

Season 6 was all over the place with the airing of the episodes. We learned in the premiere that Blair was in Iowa with Cliff; then the next handful of episodes we have her dating other guys, flirting with other guys, with no mention of Cliff; Lisa's hairstyle changed. When episode 15 aired, her hair style was that from the beginning of the season and it's the one where she says she broke up with Cliff.

Please do NOT get me started on the stupid ass "reunion" episode in season 8. As others, and we have discussed previously, Jo KNEW Sue Ann, Cindy, Molly (even though she only returned in season 2 premiere), and Nancy, this episode acted as if she barely knew them. Natalie had that one throw away line "you remember ..." and then they all proceeded to treat Jo like an outsider.  The flashbacks were all from the first season, when Jo wasn't on the show. But that passive aggressive "You had to be there" was just so...passive aggressive. All that squeeing and laughing over those clips and that episode where Blair developed a crush on that gross and creepy headmaster, Mr. Bradley. And when Jo asked, all they had to do was say a line about that really bad storm, and how Blair and Tootie went to the barn to save the horse and bunnies.

And PUHLEAZE as to Sue Ann being a VP right after graduating college. They aged her up by one year. All the girls (except for Tootie and Natalie) were 22, but Sue Ann was 23. And unless your family OWNS a corporation, or you know someone who knows someone, no way is a 23 year old, fresh out of college going to make vice president. Blair, I could see. But Sue Ann? Give me a break.

And like I'm supposed to believe they're all still such good friends, when in seasons 2 and 3, they all acted like Catty Mean Girls and that they had never been friends with Blair, Natalie, and Tootie in the dorm?

Or that they just conveniently forgot that Blair actually did say yes to date with Roger because she wanted to go to the ballet. So Blair being all coy about wanting Roger for herself, like the others did? Bleah. Because we saw that one dude in the "Dear Me" episode, which had to be Roger, when they were talking about going hiking and Cooper Rock.

I hated the updated opening credits once they changed sets to the Over Our Heads store. I hated the bright lights and lighting of the "home" section. I preferred the dark wood and lower lighting.

That's it for now. 

Edited January 21, 2022 by GHScorpiosRule

[GHScorpiosRule]

And here's another one:

Between seasons 6, 7 and 8. In "Cruisin'" Tootie is very much familiar with Golden Oldies. Then there's "Do-Waah" where Blair, Natalie, Jo, and Tootie sang "My Boyfriend's Back" and put a demo together so they could sine with El Dbarge. Again, songs from the 50s and 60s. But THEN, when Bobby Rydell and Fabian appear as themselves in "62-Pick Up", Tootie has never heard of them, nor is she familiar with any of the songs from that era.

And the show screwed up. In the flash back, Tootie is playing "Frenchie", but by the end of the episode, Natalie is "Frenchie" and Tootie is "Dee Dee" I think.

[Bort]

19 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Then there's "Do-Waah" where Blair, Natalie, Jo, and Tootie sang "My Boyfriend's Back" and put a demo together so they could sine with El Dbarge.

I love that episode just for Blair’s ridiculous rendition of the the song, sung, as they put it, “like Julie Andrews.”

[GHScorpiosRule]

26 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

I love that episode just for Blair’s ridiculous rendition of the the song, sung, as they put it, “like Julie Andrews.”

I know! And then she sings it the way it's supposed to be sung!

And now the song is in my head!

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by GHScorpiosRule

[Egg McMuffin]

6 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Season 6 was all over the place with the airing of the episodes. We learned in the premiere that Blair was in Iowa with Cliff; then the next handful of episodes we have her dating other guys, flirting with other guys, with no mention of Cliff; Lisa's hairstyle changed. When episode 15 aired, her hair style was that from the beginning of the season and it's the one where she says she broke up with Cliff. 

Nancy McKeon held out for more money and didn’t show up for taping at the beginning of season 6. So they wrote her out of two episodes completely, and when she later returned, they inserted some scenes of her into a couple of other episodes so she wasn’t completely absent. Then they aired those episodes out of order so there wasn’t a big stretch of episodes where there was little or no Jo.

[ifionlyknew]

Thank you @GHScorpiosRule.  You saying you are doing a rewatch inspired me to start one as well.  Although I'm skipping season one.  I just can't subject myself to that bad acting by some of the girls.  Just started season two and I'm on the episode where Jo was assaulted by Blair's friend.   It has always been one of my favorite episodes.

[GHScorpiosRule]

24 minutes ago, ifionlyknew said:

Thank you @GHScorpiosRule.  You saying you are doing a rewatch inspired me to start one as well.  Although I'm skipping season one.  I just can't subject myself to that bad acting by some of the girls.  Just started season two and I'm on the episode where Jo was assaulted by Blair's friend.   It has always been one of my favorite episodes.

You’re welcome!

I can understand why some would skip the first season-but if they don’t watch, they miss the closeness they all shared. So for me, who did watch it, the cattiness and Nancy, Sue Ann, and Cindy treating Blair, Tootie, and Natalie as classmates they didn’t dorm with and were close with, rankles. But those that didn’t watch season one, it won’t bother them because they wouldn’t have that knowledge.

I admit I fast forward all scenes with Bradley, because he’s just SO inappropriate and creepy.

And it always makes me wonder and scratch my head why Blair stopped dressing as a teenager in seasons 2-4*, and like a matron, when she dressed like a teenager in the first season. When she wasn’t wearing the school uniform.

*As well as during the college years. You’d think the show was set in the 50s and 60s television, when all the women dressed up.

[ifionlyknew]

26 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

 

And it always makes me wonder and scratch my head why Blair stopped dressing as a teenager in seasons 2-4*, and like a matron, when she dressed like a teenager in the first season. When she wasn’t wearing the school uniform.

*As well as during the college years. You’d think the show was set in the 50s and 60s television, when all the women dressed up.

I could never figure out why they had Blair in so many western style blouses.   The others dressed like teenagers.  And I should know because I was teenager then.

 

[CeeBeeGee]

4 hours ago, ifionlyknew said:

I'm on the episode where Jo was assaulted by Blair's friend.   It has always been one of my favorite episodes.

I love that episode!!! One of my very favorites. I love Blair taking offense at Harrison's treatment of Jo, even if they don't really like each other--it's de facto feminism. And I've always said whoever wrote that episode was either a WASP or close friends with some, because of how subtextual the conversation is between Blair and Harrison. And how Harrison, even when he's running out the door away from Blair, throws over his shoulder "say hello to your Mom for me!" The niceties must be observed. Great episode. The show got so much better after they retooled it, although there is a certain fascination with just how weird the first season is.

[Maverick]

Blair was somewhat a different character in season 1.   Lisa has described how she was conceived of as a fast talking Texas belle who had a bit of a wild streak.   In season 1 her Texas accent is a little more pronounced, she's more overtly sexual and seems generally more open to not following the rules.   It wasn't until season 2 she became the proper NY socialite.  I assume part of the change was to make her a sharper contrast to Jo's streetwise background.  

[Egg McMuffin]

Blair is even more of a bad girl in the pilot episode, which aired as an episode of “Diff’rent Strokes”. She - gasp - smokes! And talks back to Mrs. Garrett.

[GHScorpiosRule]

On 1/22/2022 at 11:23 PM, Maverick said:

Blair was somewhat a different character in season 1.   Lisa has described how she was conceived of as a fast talking Texas belle who had a bit of a wild streak.   In season 1 her Texas accent is a little more pronounced, she's more overtly sexual and seems generally more open to not following the rules.   It wasn't until season 2 she became the proper NY socialite.  I assume part of the change was to make her a sharper contrast to Jo's streetwise background.  

8 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

Blair is even more of a bad girl in the pilot episode, which aired as an episode of “Diff’rent Strokes”. She - gasp - smokes! And talks back to Mrs. Garrett.

Yes, Lisa said this about Blair in many of the interviews. But it was during the reading before the show even premiered. Blair, on paper, was a Texas Belle, but after the comment about how she looked at someone's butt (she never said butt, but implied it), that she and the writers knew she would be someone from NY High Society.

And after binging on the entire series, I could hear Lisa's Texas accent. Very light, but I heard it.

 

[ifionlyknew]

On 1/22/2022 at 11:23 PM, Maverick said:

 Lisa has described how she was conceived of as a fast talking Texas belle who had a bit of a wild streak.

So that explains the western blouses.  Wardrobe was dressing Lisa and not Blair.

27 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

And after binging on the entire series, I could hear Lisa's Texas accent. Very light, but I heard it.

I definitely heard it watching season two.  It's weird because I don't remember hearing it when I watched the show when it originally aired or the many times I watched it in reruns.  

I'm also noticing they talk about and make jokes about people's weight. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

Just now, ifionlyknew said:

I'm also noticing they talk about and make jokes about people's weight. 

Yes. I remember how critics made fun of this show, calling it "The FATS of Life" because none of the girls were a size 0. But all them-Lisa, Nancy, Mindy, and Kim, were thankful that the producers let them stay their own healthy weight after "trying" to make them lose it, when it dawned on them, that they were NORMAL.

 

1 minute ago, ifionlyknew said:

So that explains the western blouses.  Wardrobe was dressing Lisa and not Blair.

I don't think so. the changing of Blair from Texas to New York happened right before the show premiered.

But I do think as the years went by, wardrobe was dressing Lisa, and it was Lisa's beliefs we were seeing. This was the impression I got when Monica got pregnant and was thinking of abortion, but they didn't come right out and say "abortion", but Blair told Monica to have the baby and to give it to her--a sophomore in college. And Monica ultimately deciding to have the baby.

Rewatching this with the knowledge that Norman Lear was involved, or his company was, is just...well a cop out. Because I then watched Maude's "Maude's Dilemma" which took place in 1972, and her dealing with whether to have an abortion--which was legal in New York at the time. It just seems his shows were a lot braver and courageous to talk about the issues and air episodes dealing with them.

On a more lighter note, I have to say, for someone as beautiful as Blair was, she had atrocious taste in boyfriends (except for Cliff and Ben)-they were all either downright fugly or nerdy. Which makes me wonder why having Carl buy her lunch box had her in such a tizzy. And she thought Prince Charles was hot. And for an episode, creepy Mr. Bradley.

Jo, Natalie, and Tootie had better taste.

And it still boggles my mind that creepy Roy is played by Loren Lester, who voiced the updated and uberly hawt Dick Grayson/Robin/Night Wing in Batman: The Animated Series and straight to home movies! I kept trying to see if I could hear Dick's voice in Roy's. But nope.

[ifionlyknew]

8 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

And she thought Prince Charles was hot.

I just heard  her say that  yesterday.  Even way back in 1980 when I heard it I remember thinking Prince Charles? Really?  

It is fun watching the series and hearing things I never noticed before.  Natalie brings up Ralph Nader in Shoplifting, the episode where Jo shoplifts the blouse for Mrs. Garrett's birthday.

 

[GHScorpiosRule]

WAHOO!!!! Rewind aired the Paris movie today! Here's hoping they'll also run the movie when they go to Australia! Because as of right now, these movies aren't included in the series DVD, nor are they available separately.

Edited January 24, 2022 by GHScorpiosRule

[ljenkins782]

On 1/21/2022 at 1:13 AM, Egg McMuffin said:

The Paris movie was cheezy sure, but cool in its own way. It was the first time I remember that a TV sitcom was turned into a TV movie, and it was interesting to see the girls out of the studio and away from the multicam/studio audience format, and on location. It was a big deal when NBC showed it. Even my dad liked it  and said something about how it was a nice way to start the new season. Family Ties copied it a year or two later.

I don’t like how the movie was split into four episodes for syndication. It really plays better when it is shown as a two hour movie, as originally intended. Fortunately, the DVD has it in its original format.

I found it too jarring without the laugh track, jokes that would be applause break jokes just felt ignored. Even nowadays, after years of shows without laugh tracks, I still find it jarring in the context of FoL or Family Ties.

[Katy M]

2 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

WAHOO!!!! Rewind aired the Paris movie today! Here's hoping they'll also run the movie when they go to Australia! Because as of right now, these movies aren't included in the series DVD, nor are they available separately.

I don't remember them going to Paris.  Like at all. But, I remember the Australia one.  I know Jo and Blair got mixed up in some caper with a cop and bad guy pretending to be a cop.  And Tootie met a guy she assumed was out on "walkabout" but the only thing I remember Natalie doing was taking out her backpack (where Jo or Blair had hidden something) and putting it back under her seat.

[GHScorpiosRule]

25 minutes ago, Katy M said:

I don't remember them going to Paris.  Like at all. But, I remember the Australia one.  I know Jo and Blair got mixed up in some caper with a cop and bad guy pretending to be a cop.  And Tootie met a guy she assumed was out on "walkabout" but the only thing I remember Natalie doing was taking out her backpack (where Jo or Blair had hidden something) and putting it back under her seat.

The Paris movie was in 1982, during season 3 (you can tell by Tootie's hairstyle); The Australia movie was in 1987, so between season 8 and 9.

[Egg McMuffin]

The Facts of Life Goes to Paris is on the season 4 DVD, as a bonus feature, at least on the ones I bought. It originally aired a week or two before the start of season 4 IIRC.

It’s nice because it’s in movie format as opposed to split into four parts. It also has the pre credits scene of the girls at the airport prior to going to Paris, which is cut out of the syndicated version.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Egg McMuffin

[GHScorpiosRule]

29 minutes ago, Egg McMuffin said:

The Facts of Life Goes to Paris is on the season 4 DVD, as a bonus feature, at least on the ones I bought. It originally aired a week or two before the start of season 4 IIRC.

It’s nice because it’s in movie format as opposed to split into four parts. It also has the pre credits scene of the girls at the airport prior to going to Paris, which is cut out of the syndicated version.

Well, DAMN. I bought the series set, which only has about 45 minutes of interviews with some of the original before the first season and after, and that's the ONLY special feature! And it just seemed cheaper than buying the seasons individually.

Decisions, decisions...do I dare get season 4? Because I really want to watch the FULL, UNEDITED movie.