Gee, that's a terrible pilot of a series that never would have aired at all. It makes me wonder who wrote that garbage, though. :crazy: It made absolute no sense. Hell, even the proposed pilot for Facts of Life in the Diff'rent Strokes episode was entertaining at least. This was not.

"Brian and Sylvia" is one of the few "Facts" episodes that I all out dislike. The other ones are "Sex Education", "I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can" and "The Interview Show".

I agree, this episode was pointless! Although it would have been more interesting if they cut back to Eastland to see what Jo and Blair were up to while Natalie and Tootie were gone at Brian and Sylvia's. lol

couldnt agree more...i didnt like it it was really boring

At least, Richard Dean Anderson moved to better material later on. He was MacGuyver. I actually would have the final episode for the one where Mrs. Garrett's son shows up to be the end and final 2nd Season since it was really touching.

I kept asking when the girls were going to come back into the picture, after all this is their show. that episode was not cool.

They sort of did the same thing like in Diff'rent Strokes where they show Gary Coleman, Conrad Bain, Dana Plato, and Todd Bridges for like five minutes and cut to a bunch of boring colleagues that no one finds intriguing. I was wonder what was the point of that.

I don't think it's that bad. Particularly because of Janette Dubois, she's a really funny actress.

Of course I remember it from childhood though, so I knew what it was about. And Nat and Toot are funny in it.

I just wish there was some explaination.......but it kept going on and on.:crazy:

i didnt like the ep ether by the way for the few facts fans here who may not know . tootie did say in a later ep that brian and sylvia got a divorce

by the way for the few facts fans here who may not know . tootie did say in a later ep that brian and sylvia got a divorce

Really? Lol, that's funny...and pretty cool that they'd actually reference that episode later on.

This was the very first FOL episode I saw (during it's original run). I thought it was terrible and I never intended to watch FACTS again. Then I was in my school's locker room and the other girls were talking about "Double Standard". I thought it sounded pretty interesting, so I gave FOL another try. I'm so glad I did!

Not the best Facts episode but Tootie and Natalie have some funny moments. I love when Natalie is in the control room with Tootie and she points to the screen after the countdown. The guy gives her an annoyed look.

I also agree Janette Dubois was the only good part about the pilot. At first, I knew I had seen her somewhere but couldn't place her. Then, I finally remembered she was Willona on Good Times.

Gee, that's a terrible pilot of a series that never would have aired at all. It makes me wonder who wrote that garbage, though. :crazy: It made absolute no sense. Hell, even the proposed pilot for Facts of Life in the Diff'rent Strokes episode was entertaining at least. This was not.


It's not a very good episode and was indeed being used to start a spin off but after it was aired the TV network supposedly made another pilot with the two characters but it never was picked up.

I don't think it's that bad. Particularly because of Janette Dubois, she's a really funny actress.

Of course I remember it from childhood though, so I knew what it was about. And Nat and Toot are funny in it.

Hear hear! I totally agree.

One thing some of you are forgetting is that the production team on The Facts of Life sometimes needed to have the shows air and then figure out later on what tinkering needed to be done with them. Look at the later pilots that they tried to create. The overall concepts seem a little bland. Unfortunately, with only a pilot episode, it's hard to get a new show exactly where it needs to be. Sometimes more eps need to be made before a show's strength kicks. Our favorite show, The Facts of Life, is proof of that. Compare the pilot ep with the eventual final format and it's almost like looking at two different series. And it took them a full season to discover what would work and what really needed to go.

The other pilots didn't get that chance. Who knows what they could've developed into, but you can't base it solely on the pilot. If The Facts of Life hadn't progressed further than the pilot episode, I'm sure we'd have fans snubbing their noses at that so-called dumb The Facts of Life series too.


Ed