First, when the girls worked in the cafeteria in Eastland, were they ever able to eat with the other students? And usually right before setting up for lunch, they would all hang out and stuff. Didn't they have classes? And the girls mentioned watching TV from time to time. Where? I didn't see one anywhere in the cafeteria, or the lounge. In the first season, why weren't there any other students in the common room of the dorms? They had a whole bunch of girls in the "Diff'rent Strokes"/"Facts of Life" backdoor pilot. So, why were there only the seven girls and Mrs. Garrett rather than a whole bunch of other girls? And during the later seasons, how was it that they were able to find an empty deli that had a little house attached to it where they could all live and work in? And Langley didn't look too much like a college. It looked more like Eastland.

Those are some pretty good observations. :) It did seem that the girls spent more time hanging out with Mrs. Garrett in the cafe than actually going to class. :lol: I also can't recall ever seeing a TV either. Maybe the TV was in the lounge up against the wall we never saw.

First, when the girls worked in the cafeteria in Eastland, were they ever able to eat with the other students? And usually right before setting up for lunch, they would all hang out and stuff. Didn't they have classes? And the girls mentioned watching TV from time to time. Where? I didn't see one anywhere in the cafeteria, or the lounge. In the first season, why weren't there any other students in the common room of the dorms? They had a whole bunch of girls in the "Diff'rent Strokes"/"Facts of Life" backdoor pilot. So, why were there only the seven girls and Mrs. Garrett rather than a whole bunch of other girls? And during the later seasons, how was it that they were able to find an empty deli that had a little house attached to it where they could all live and work in? And Langley didn't look too much like a college. It looked more like Eastland.
:lol: I've had a lot of the same questions and here are my answers that I've come up with after years of speculation... :)

I used to wonder about the class thing too. As a young kid when I used to watch this (around 11), I didn't think that they ever went to school and they just did nothing all day :lol:. As I got older and watched it, I came to the assumption that they just went to class offscreen because it didn't do anything to help the episode plot along. Same goes with eating/interacting with other students. They only did it when it was needed to help a plot along, like in The Four Musketeers when the girls attempt to make new friends.

In the first season, the girls watched TV together (in Emily Dickenson and Flash Flood) and in the second season, in the episode, Read No Evil, Blair, Geri, and Tootie were watching TV in the cafeteria on one of them small TV's that you could put on a table. In the later seasons, when they were living in the house, there was a TV in the living room that they watched a few times but other than those times TV wasn't much mentioned. I assume that there was a TV somewhere in that school that we didn't see :lol:.

I actually watched FOL before Diff'rent Strokes, so I didn't know anything about the pilot episode until I got into Diff'rent Strokes (which I did a few months after getting into FOL and realized that the two shows were connected :lol:). My only guess for why there were so many girls in that episode versus FOL's first season is because they probably changed the ideas/plotline and decided to go the route that they did for season one, which happens in many shows.

I'm not sure how they were able to find an empty deli with a house attached to it that they could work and live in together :lol: (which, imo, was my favorite FOL period; seasons 5 and 6). The deli was actually Mrs. Garrett's son Raymond's at one point that he sold to her or something but I'm sure this was put together because Blair and Jo had graduated and there was no need for them to do much more plots at Eastland so they did this transition so Mrs. G and the four girls could still live together and be friends and have plotlines together. I personally wouldn't have minded seeing some more Eastland plotlines involving Natalie and Tootie in those later seasons while they were still (technically :lol:) going to school there but what can you do? :D

:lol: at Langley looking like Eastland because I thought that too. I'm currently in college and it looks nothing like Langley! :lol: Hope I helped in some way :).

^ Those are some pretty good speculations. :) Langely actually looks a little bit like a community college.

Thanks :) . It probably shows in that post how much of an FOL nut I am, huh? :lol:

And yeah, Langley does look a bit like community college. It doesn't look like my community college in the slightest, but the student lounge they showed in a few episodes reminds me of the student lounge at my school :D .

Speaking of Langley College, does anyone know where they filmed the exterior scenes to Langley College? Pomona College again?