It literally felt like (http://cousingeri.blogspot.com/search/label/Social%20Issues) every other week (http://cousingeri.blogspot.com/search/label/Season%20Three) was a "very special episode" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_special_episode) don't you agree? I don't have the time right now to track down every single episode title from this era (https://www.televisionofyore.com/the-facts-of-life---season-3.html), but here's the basic gist of what they were about:

Tootie gets drunk

Natalie's almost raped

Abandoned baby

Blair's mom's cancer

Jo's story on the teacher's coke bust

Mrs. Garrett's 2nd job

Jo and BF Eddie are growing apart

Natalie's Russian grandma

Tootie writes herself love letters

Geri's date (she stays out all night with a man)

Blair's racist grandpa

Nat and Tootie - who's Nellie Forbush?

Miko - back to Tokyo with you!

Mrs. Garrett's old BF

Tootie's Jermaine Jackson obsession

Girls want to live separately

Nat's father is having an affair

Tootie recruited by an NYC pimp

Blair and Jo meet old friends - how they've changed

Kids can be cruel - dating a nerd

Natalie's diary

Jo sets her friend up with Blair

Jo's uncle doesn't want her to be interested in boys (backdoor pilot)

Banned books

Yes, I have always found season 3 the most serious of the cafeteria seasons

Yes, I have always found season 3 the most serious of the cafeteria seasons

You can tell that those seasons were very "Norman Lear-esque" in its storytelling. They were pretty dark (or what was considered dark for an American prime time sitcom of that era) and seemed more like heavy handed "morality plays".

I just feel that way about the cafeteria overall, that there was "dramedy" so much of the time. And we have to keep in mind season 2 was truncated due to the writers' strike.