The Facts Of Life - General Discussion

[bluegirl147]

15 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

I wonder if that was written as a possible series finale, because Mrs. Garrett also comments about how she knows the girls are almost grown and will soon leave her.

And a little over a year later Mrs. Garrett left the girls.  Or more accurately Charlotte Rae left the girls.  

I just finished the entire series a couple weeks ago and I enjoyed it from start to finish. Well from second season on. I skipped the first season.  It was like it was a completely different show.

Speaking of different shows I found this on Wikipedia.  I don't think any of these would have lasted beyond 13 episodes if that.

Brian & Sylvia" – A season two episode in which Tootie and Natalie go to Buffalo, New York to visit Tootie's Aunt Sylvia, a black woman (played by Rosanne Katon) who has recently married a white man, played by Richard Dean Anderson (the future star of MacGyver and Stargate SG-1). Ja'Net DuBois of Good Times played Ethel, who was both Tootie's grandmother and Sylvia's mother.[28] The episode never developed into a series and in the season five episode "Crossing the Line", Tootie mentions Brian's and Sylvia's interracial marriage and says that the two have recently gotten divorced.

"The Academy" – A season three episode set at Stone Academy, an all-boys military school that was near Eastland. In this episode, the girls at Eastland attended a dance with the boys from the military school. The boys included actors Jimmy Baio, Ben Marley, David Ackroyd, Peter Frechette, and John P. Navin Jr.

"Jo's Cousin" – Another season three episode, in which Jo visits her family in the Bronx, including her cousin Terry, a fourteen-year-old girl (played by Megan Follows) going through adolescence in a family full of men. The family included actors Grant Cramer, John Mengatti, Donnelly Rhodes, and D.W. Brown.

"The Big Fight" – A season four episode set at Stone Academy, a boys' military school. Natalie comes to visit a boy who tries to impress her with his boxing. This episode includes the same cast from the season three episode "The Academy", with the addition of '80s 'nerd' icon Eddie Deezen.

"Graduation" – This spin-off was to revolve around Blair and Jo's life at Langley College.

"Big Apple Blues" – A season nine episode in which Natalie spends the night with a group of eccentric young people living in a SoHo loft, and decides to remain in New York to begin her life. Two of the tenants in the loft were played by David Spade and Richard Grieco.

"The Beginning of the End/Beginning of the Beginning" – The two-part series finale sees Blair buying Eastland to prevent its closing. Blair finds that the school is in such dire financial straits that she is forced to make the school co-ed. Blair then essentially adopts the Mrs. Garrett role as she presides over the school and is forced to deal with the trouble-making students in a plot line that is highly reminiscent of the season two premiere. The new Eastland students included Seth Green, Mayim Bialik, future Oscar-nominee Juliette Lewis, and Meredith Scott Lynn.

Edited August 24, 2022 by bluegirl147

[FormerMod-a1]

Even way back when I knew some/most of those were backdoor pilots.  They're not all bad, but they are such departures.  The only one I would have really been interested in is the series finale and seeing Blair run the school in a new generation.  But I'm also kind of glad that didn't happen.  

[Bort]

2 hours ago, aquarian1 said:

Even way back when I knew some/most of those were backdoor pilots.  They're not all bad, but they are such departures.  The only one I would have really been interested in is the series finale and seeing Blair run the school in a new generation.  But I'm also kind of glad that didn't happen.  

In hindsight, I would’ve liked to see it, as the kids in question were played by Juliette Lewis, Seth Green and Mayim Bialik.

[ljenkins782]

20 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

The evolving Jo/Blair friendship is one of the best parts of the series. It gets to the point where Jo casually introduces Blair as “my best friend” in passing and they don’t make a big deal of it, because she’s just stating what has been growing for years. I don’t think the final showrunner, Irma Kalish, really understood that though, because in the last season or two they were just insulting each other for laughs without the deeper context.

Both Blair and Jo comment on their friendship in “The Interview Show,” the last episode of season 6 where an off-camera interviewer questions the girls (and Mrs. Garrett) separately about their years at Eastland. They each talk about how much they value each other’s friendship. There are some nice moments in that episode. I wonder if that was written as a possible series finale, because Mrs. Garrett also comments about how she knows the girls are almost grown and will soon leave her.

That episode always bothers me because it seems like the ideal setup for a clip show but they don't actually show clips, it's just them standing under some tree talking to an unseen interviewer.

They show FoL at random times on Pluto TV and I always get excited to run across it only to be let down by the fact that it's always one of the lame episodes from the bizarro era of the show (the ballroom dancing one or Andy falls for Tootie or Mrs. Garrett's friend comes to town to accuse her of having an affair with her late husband.) Although today I did catch Back to the Truck Stop, Natalie Green, I do like that one. 

Quote

Even way back when I knew some/most of those were backdoor pilots.  They're not all bad, but they are such departures.  The only one I would have really been interested in is the series finale and seeing Blair run the school in a new generation.  But I'm also kind of glad that didn't happen. 

 Agreed that the series finale spinoff is the only one I would have been interested in. The rest were duds, especially Jo's cousin and Brian & Sylvia. The boys' school episodes were mildly interesting in spots but mostly pretty lame. 

And I'm glad they didn't go for a Blair/Jo go to college spinoff, it worked fine for me the way they contrived to keep the girls together. 

[Maverick]

The Stone Academy was an attempt to do a male version of FoL with very on-the-nose counterparts of Jo, Tootie and Natalie.  The fourth guy wasn't rich like Blair, but was still set apart for the others by being hyper snobby about military protocol.

 I didn't care for the finale and it's setup.   There's was too much going on.  The school is broke, Blair's family won't help, the school is coed (I cringe at the lame jokes and situations they would have done with this one), there's a antagonist teacher who is really setup for some come of Moonlighting scenario.   Mayim probably would have been ok, but Juliette Lewis' Debbie Downer character and the rich girl who I guess was supposed to be the new Blair but was nothing like Blair both bugged.  I know Nancy didn't want to continue on, but they made a big deal about Jo wanting to be a teacher so it would have been interesting to have her working there.   Ditch the coed thing and the condescending teacher.  Maybe keep the financial troubles so Jo can give Blair grief and advice over having money woes for a change. 

[Egg McMuffin]

The “FOL: Next Generation” concept was originally developed for Jo/Nancy McKeon. It would have been a more straightforward setup, with Jo accepting a teaching/housemother job at Eastland. When McKeon passed, they came up with the more convoluted setup for Blair.

Edited August 24, 2022 by Egg McMuffin

[ljenkins782]

26 minutes ago, Egg McMuffin said:

The “FOL: Next Generation” concept was originally developed for Jo/Nancy McKeon. It would have been a more straightforward setup, with Jo accepting a teaching/housemother job at Eastland. When McKeon passed, they came up with the more convoluted setup for Blair.

I'm mildly curious about what would have happened to Lisa Whelchel in real life if this pilot had worked. She got married and quit show biz nearly right after FoL wrapped, didn't she? I know from her time on Survivor that she eventually divorced so the marriage was ultimately unsuccessful, but I wonder if her decision to marry at that time had more to do with being adrift after the end of the show.

Quote

The Stone Academy was an attempt to do a male version of FoL with very on-the-nose counterparts of Jo, Tootie and Natalie.  The fourth guy wasn't rich like Blair, but was still set apart for the others by being hyper snobby about military protocol.

Yeah, the one guy was such a Jo. The others were a chubby white guy and a black guy, not terribly fleshed out beyond those characteristics, but it was clear enough who their female counterparts were.

Quote

 I didn't care for the finale and it's setup.   There's was too much going on.  The school is broke, Blair's family won't help, the school is coed (I cringe at the lame jokes and situations they would have done with this one), there's a antagonist teacher who is really setup for some come of Moonlighting scenario.   Mayim probably would have been ok, but Juliette Lewis' Debbie Downer character and the rich girl who I guess was supposed to be the new Blair but was nothing like Blair both bugged.  

I actually really liked Juliette Lewis' weird portrayal of the depressed girl, it was genuinely funny at times, but it was also different. Harder to slot her into the type of token role these shows usually have. 

Mayim was so cute in this, but I guess everything for a reason because Blossom was coming up not too too long after this pilot failed to launch. 

And I did enjoy the return to the Chug-a-Lug bar, that was a fun callback.

[CeeBeeGee]

On 8/24/2022 at 1:42 PM, bluegirl147 said:

Brian & Sylvia" – A season two episode in which Tootie and Natalie go to Buffalo, New York to visit Tootie's Aunt Sylvia, a black woman (played by Rosanne Katon) who has recently married a white man, played by Richard Dean Anderson (the future star of MacGyver and Stargate SG-1). Ja'Net DuBois of Good Times played Ethel, who was both Tootie's grandmother and Sylvia's mother.[28] The episode never developed into a series and in the season five episode "Crossing the Line", Tootie mentions Brian's and Sylvia's interracial marriage and says that the two have recently gotten divorced.

"The Academy" – A season three episode set at Stone Academy, an all-boys military school that was near Eastland. In this episode, the girls at Eastland attended a dance with the boys from the military school. The boys included actors Jimmy Baio, Ben Marley, David Ackroyd, Peter Frechette, and John P. Navin Jr.

"Jo's Cousin" – Another season three episode, in which Jo visits her family in the Bronx, including her cousin Terry, a fourteen-year-old girl (played by Megan Follows) going through adolescence in a family full of men. The family included actors Grant Cramer, John Mengatti, Donnelly Rhodes, and D.W. Brown.

"The Big Fight" – A season four episode set at Stone Academy, a boys' military school. Natalie comes to visit a boy who tries to impress her with his boxing. This episode includes the same cast from the season three episode "The Academy", with the addition of '80s 'nerd' icon Eddie Deezen.

"Graduation" – This spin-off was to revolve around Blair and Jo's life at Langley College.

"Big Apple Blues" – A season nine episode in which Natalie spends the night with a group of eccentric young people living in a SoHo loft, and decides to remain in New York to begin her life. Two of the tenants in the loft were played by David Spade and Richard Grieco.

"The Beginning of the End/Beginning of the Beginning" – The two-part series finale sees Blair buying Eastland to prevent its closing. Blair finds that the school is in such dire financial straits that she is forced to make the school co-ed. Blair then essentially adopts the Mrs. Garrett role as she presides over the school and is forced to deal with the trouble-making students in a plot line that is highly reminiscent of the season two premiere. The new Eastland students included Seth Green, Mayim Bialik, future Oscar-nominee Juliette Lewis, and Meredith Scott Lynn.

Most weren't very good (the ones with Tootie's aunt and uncle and Jo's cousins were in particular painfully bad) but I did like the ones set at Stone Academy. I would've watched that show.

Speaking of the Chug-a-Lug bar, I was thinking about that episode and how at first I thought it was bad writing, having Jo and Blair talk about how good-looking the undercover detective is, when in reality he is kind of shlumpy and not attractive. Blair at least has dated much better looking guys. And then I realized it was the competitiveness between them fueling those remarks.

[Egg McMuffin]

Peter Fox, who played the officer in that episode, was also on The Waltons for a while, replacing John Ritter as the minister. The girls also went ga-ga over him there, too, and I never understood why.

[JAYJAY1979]

On 8/24/2022 at 1:42 PM, bluegirl147 said:

And a little over a year later Mrs. Garrett left the girls.  Or more accurately Charlotte Rae left the girls.  

I just finished the entire series a couple weeks ago and I enjoyed it from start to finish. Well from second season on. I skipped the first season.  It was like it was a completely different show.

Speaking of different shows I found this on Wikipedia.  I don't think any of these would have lasted beyond 13 episodes if that.

Brian & Sylvia" – A season two episode in which Tootie and Natalie go to Buffalo, New York to visit Tootie's Aunt Sylvia, a black woman (played by Rosanne Katon) who has recently married a white man, played by Richard Dean Anderson (the future star of MacGyver and Stargate SG-1). Ja'Net DuBois of Good Times played Ethel, who was both Tootie's grandmother and Sylvia's mother.[28] The episode never developed into a series and in the season five episode "Crossing the Line", Tootie mentions Brian's and Sylvia's interracial marriage and says that the two have recently gotten divorced.

"The Academy" – A season three episode set at Stone Academy, an all-boys military school that was near Eastland. In this episode, the girls at Eastland attended a dance with the boys from the military school. The boys included actors Jimmy Baio, Ben Marley, David Ackroyd, Peter Frechette, and John P. Navin Jr.

"Jo's Cousin" – Another season three episode, in which Jo visits her family in the Bronx, including her cousin Terry, a fourteen-year-old girl (played by Megan Follows) going through adolescence in a family full of men. The family included actors Grant Cramer, John Mengatti, Donnelly Rhodes, and D.W. Brown.

"The Big Fight" – A season four episode set at Stone Academy, a boys' military school. Natalie comes to visit a boy who tries to impress her with his boxing. This episode includes the same cast from the season three episode "The Academy", with the addition of '80s 'nerd' icon Eddie Deezen.

"Graduation" – This spin-off was to revolve around Blair and Jo's life at Langley College.

"Big Apple Blues" – A season nine episode in which Natalie spends the night with a group of eccentric young people living in a SoHo loft, and decides to remain in New York to begin her life. Two of the tenants in the loft were played by David Spade and Richard Grieco.

"The Beginning of the End/Beginning of the Beginning" – The two-part series finale sees Blair buying Eastland to prevent its closing. Blair finds that the school is in such dire financial straits that she is forced to make the school co-ed. Blair then essentially adopts the Mrs. Garrett role as she presides over the school and is forced to deal with the trouble-making students in a plot line that is highly reminiscent of the season two premiere. The new Eastland students included Seth Green, Mayim Bialik, future Oscar-nominee Juliette Lewis, and Meredith Scott Lynn.

I always thought the final season episode Peekskill Law would have been a better backdoor pilot for Blair than her running the School.  It was set up as a Legally Blonde before the movie was a thing.  And Blair was basically Elle Woods.

[ljenkins782]

Pluto TV is showing a string of FoL episodes, I just watched that dumb Broadway episode, I guess the ending was supposed to be a Stacey Q showcase, but it's hilarious to me that they tried to frame it as a live audition when the song is 100% auto-tuned lip synching.

Now The Little Chill is on, Sue Ann really ruins this episode. She's just so obnoxious the entire time, not just to Jo with the "you had to be there," but to her supposed friends. I realize she was overcompensating for not being as successful as she wanted to be, but if she HAD accomplished all of those things, coming in to a reunion with that attitude would be so off-putting.

[Egg McMuffin]

On 9/29/2022 at 1:46 PM, ljenkins782 said:

Now The Little Chill is on, Sue Ann really ruins this episode. She's just so obnoxious the entire time, not just to Jo with the "you had to be there," but to her supposed friends. I realize she was overcompensating for not being as successful as she wanted to be, but if she HAD accomplished all of those things, coming in to a reunion with that attitude would be so off-putting.

It doesn’t help that the actress is still as much of a charmless overactor as ever.

[Cattoy]

On 1/21/2022 at 2:10 PM, kariyaki said:

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

Reading through this thread, and this made me go look up that clip. It was ridiculous, but I have to give LW credit - singing the song like Julie Andrews takes talent!

[Katy M]

3 hours ago, Cattoy said:

Reading through this thread, and this made me go look up that clip. It was ridiculous, but I have to give LW credit - singing the song like Julie Andrews takes talent!

My Boyfriend's Back?  That was funny.

[JAYJAY1979]

All 9 seasons of the show are on Tubi :) 

[greekmom]

I was watching The Little Chill. I don't get how Lisa W. was ok with the storyline that Nancy and Roger had sex before marriage but she was so against Natalie losing her virginity In the First Time.

Also, why was Jo so "frozen out" by Sue Ann and not really know Nancy, Sue Ann and Cindy as they still went to Eastland in season 2 and Jo interacted with them.  It would have made more sense if they acknowledge that Jo knew them but wasn't close to them as she, Blair, Natalie and Tootie were tight after moving into the room over the kitchen to pay off the damages to the van. 

 

[Blergh]

On 6/5/2023 at 4:42 PM, greekmom said:

I was watching The Little Chill. I don't get how Lisa W. was ok with the storyline that Nancy and Roger had sex before marriage but she was so against Natalie losing her virginity In the First Time.

Also, why was Jo so "frozen out" by Sue Ann and not really know Nancy, Sue Ann and Cindy as they still went to Eastland in season 2 and Jo interacted with them.  It would have made more sense if they acknowledge that Jo knew them but wasn't close to them as she, Blair, Natalie and Tootie were tight after moving into the room over the kitchen to pay off the damages to the van. 

 

Agree! How tough would it have been for Jo to have just said 'I didn't get to know you as well as Blair, Natalie and Tootie,'?

As for Miss Whelchel not getting upset over Nancy having canoodled with Roger as she was Natalie having premarital sex? I guess it could be since Nancy was a one-shot after having been gone for years, Blair wouldn't have been as invested  in her life as she would have been in the Other Threes. I mean, since Nancy was in the family way, it was a case of 'what's done is done' so what could Blair have said or done to contribute to the situation?

[TaraS1]

I met Mindy Cohn at a fan convention this past weekend and the whole "never meet your heroes" thing certainly does not apply to her.  She was by far the kindest, warmest, most engaged person I met all day.  Just absolutely lovely and gracious in every way, like she was your oldest friend and hadn't seen you in years.

[RealHousewife]

On 7/11/2023 at 11:33 AM, TaraS1 said:

I met Mindy Cohn at a fan convention this past weekend and the whole "never meet your heroes" thing certainly does not apply to her.  She was by far the kindest, warmest, most engaged person I met all day.  Just absolutely lovely and gracious in every way, like she was your oldest friend and hadn't seen you in years.

Aww thank you for sharing with us! She sounds so lovable, just like her character. 

[ljenkins782]

On 7/11/2023 at 12:33 PM, TaraS1 said:

I met Mindy Cohn at a fan convention this past weekend and the whole "never meet your heroes" thing certainly does not apply to her.  She was by far the kindest, warmest, most engaged person I met all day.  Just absolutely lovely and gracious in every way, like she was your oldest friend and hadn't seen you in years.

Not surprised to hear that, she's always come across as very warm in interviews. 

And that's actually how she got on the show to begin with, she was not an actress, just the student tour guide at the school that was serving as the model for Eastland and they liked her so much they cast her. It's pretty impressive that on a show where they cut multiple actual actresses after season 1, she was able to stay on for the full run with zero experience. Especially because she was definitely a bit shaky in the acting department at first.

[CeeBeeGee]

I met her a few years ago--a close friend of mine was doing a project with her. I have a picture of the two of us somewhere on my phone, I'll dig it up and post it. And yes, she was very gracious and kind. Blair is my favorite character but I have to say, the best written episode of the series (IMHO, of course) is Natalie's--the one about the abortion and the newspaper. It's such a great episode, especially considering this was the '80s. (The bar was very low for '80s sitcoms.)

[Crs97]

On 6/6/2023 at 11:38 PM, Blergh said:

I don't get how Lisa W. was ok with the storyline that Nancy and Roger had sex before marriage but she was so against Natalie losing her virginity In the First Time.

IIRC Lisa became more dedicated to her church’s beliefs over time.  I am someone who isn’t bothered by her respectfully asking not to be involved in an episode that made her uncomfortable.  It’s not like she put the show on blast or tried to shut it down, just asked for the week off.  In one interview she said she still isn’t sure if she made the right decision.

[Blergh]

3 minutes ago, Crs97 said:

IIRC Lisa became more dedicated to her church’s beliefs over time.  I am someone who isn’t bothered by her respectfully asking not to be involved in an episode that made her uncomfortable.  It’s not like she put the show on blast or tried to shut it down, just asked for the week off.  In one interview she said she still isn’t sure if she made the right decision.

At least Miss Whelchel has gotten some regrets over it, unlike some other stars who've attempted to use their clout (real or imaginary) to throw their weight around to bully their acting and writing colleagues.

[Crs97]

Exactly.  She didn’t try to bully anyone - just said she was uncomfortable with the storyline and asked to be written out of the episode.  I applaud the show runners, who first asked if she wanted her character to argue against Natalie’s plan, for agreeing to send Blair out of town that week.

[DMK]

I also applaud Lisa for not agreeing to have her character offer a dissenting opinion, instead taking the high road and recused herself from the episode completely. And it’s interesting that years later, she admitted that her stance was something of an overreaction but either way, it all was handled very low-key, low-drama, everyone talked out the differences and came to an understanding.

[CeeBeeGee]

9 hours ago, Blergh said:

At least Miss Whelchel has gotten some regrets over it, unlike some other stars who've attempted to use their clout (real or imaginary) to throw their weight around to bully their acting and writing colleagues.

Kirk Cameron, we're looking at you, the guy who bullied a girl off the show just because she'd posed for Playboy. The guy who called the producers of his show pornographers. (If you're going to go after the producers of Growing Pains, take them up for the constant fat jokes against poor Tracy Goldman and triggering an eating disorder in her. But otherwise that show was squeaky clean.)

Yes, Lisa has always struck me as a thoughtful and questioning kind of Christian, willing to admit doubt--very rare in conservative Christians, IME. I remember seeing a blog post where another conservative posted something that was clearly homophobic and Lisa pushed back. (This was a very long time ago, nearly 20 years, IIRC.)

[RealHousewife]

2 hours ago, CeeBeeGee said:

Kirk Cameron, we're looking at you, the guy who bullied a girl off the show just because she'd posed for Playboy. The guy who called the producers of his show pornographers. (If you're going to go after the producers of Growing Pains, take them up for the constant fat jokes against poor Tracy Goldman and triggering an eating disorder in her. But otherwise that show was squeaky clean.)

Yes, Lisa has always struck me as a thoughtful and questioning kind of Christian, willing to admit doubt--very rare in conservative Christians, IME. I remember seeing a blog post where another conservative posted something that was clearly homophobic and Lisa pushed back. (This was a very long time ago, nearly 20 years, IIRC.)

Exactly. I can't picture Lisa bullying a woman who posed for Playboy. 

[bluegirl147]

On 7/21/2023 at 6:28 PM, CeeBeeGee said:

Yes, Lisa has always struck me as a thoughtful and questioning kind of Christian, willing to admit doubt--very rare in conservative Christians, IME. I remember seeing a blog post where another conservative posted something that was clearly homophobic and Lisa pushed back. (This was a very long time ago, nearly 20 years, IIRC.)

Lisa understood her faith was her faith. She didn't think everyone else should feel the same way.

[Blergh]

Anyone else think Mrs. G. might have been too soft on the Four? I mean, not only did she get talked into giving them 'internal punishments' in lieu of squealing to them to the principal for getting drunk and smuggling booze into the dorm but one needs to consider that they ALREADY were on probation for having snuck into a bar to attempt to guzzle booze and flirt with strange men (AND had already gotten the school's van TOTALED after they borrowed it without permission to get to said bar. .and Blair stupidly parked it on the wrong way of a one-way alley).  Yeah and both sets of transgressions were terminal offenses for their Eastland education but, in spite of saying they'd learned their lessons, they obviously hadn't and would keep getting into more and  trouble before Tootie FINALLY was able to graduate and move into wherever Mrs. G. decamped! Of course, had they been expelled, that would have meant having to revamp the show/find replacements but it seemed Mrs. G. wanted little as possible to do with the other Eastland student body- especially that invisible (and unmentioned)  Kimberly Drummond who was supposed to be still living there  as per the other show  for years after Mrs. G spun off!

Edited January 20 by Blergh

[Egg McMuffin]

On 2/21/2022 at 5:24 PM, psychoticstate said:

Regarding Margie Peters, yes.  Eastland is supposed to be in upstate New York and in S1 the girls were running around in short shorts and tiny t-shirts in the autumn?  I'm thinking not.  And not a single NY accent in the bunch!  

I know is an old quote, but listen closely to Nancy when she says “Garrett” with a short a, instead of a long A like most of the rest of the girls. That’s the giveaway that she’s from the Northeast. It’s like marry vs Mary. There’s a difference between how you say it on the East Coast, while West Coasters pronounce those two words the same.

On 1/13/2024 at 8:41 AM, Blergh said:

Anyone else think Mrs. G. might have been too soft on the Four? I mean, not only did she get talked into giving them 'internal punishments' in lieu of squealing to them to the principal for getting drunk and smuggling booze into the dorm

Yes, I thought so, too. Especially since Edna could have lost her job had there been a repeat offense. The reality is that the writers kinda boxed themselves in with the probation angle. That mean that they girls had to walk the straight and narrow or be expelled. And since this was a show about learning lessons, they had to let the girls get into trouble while still working around the probation issue.