A Matter of Linkage

[Smartboy]

On Wednesday Afternoon, I was looking through the guide to see what was on various channels that night. On TV Land, there would be an episode of the "Facts of Life" called "Mind Your Own Business". Thinking back to this episode makes to think of something else which, in turn, makes me think of "Gimme a Break!". In this episode, the character of Blair wants to buy a present for the character of Natalie and so, against her better judgement, she reads Natalie's diary to get some ideas as to what she might want. When Natalie learns that Blair looked in her diary, she is shocked. The issue of one person getting upset about another person having read her diary was once done on an episode of the "Brady Bunch". This episode was called the "Snooperstar" and it was in the fifth season. The character of Cindy had been reading her sister Marcia's diary and Marcia found out about it. Instead of catching Cindy in the act, Marcia had the idea of purposely writing something in her diary to get Cindy riled up. Cindy read Marcia's entry and ate it up hock line and sinker! To make a long story short, Cindy was convinced that she was going to be discovered as the new Shirley Temple and star in a new movie! This reality is what finally brings me to "Gimme a Break!". In the episode that I described, Cindy had unrealistic optimism about becoming a movie star. In the third-season "Gimme a Break!" episode "Samantha's Protest", Katie had unrealistic optimism about getting asked out by the handsome boy from the protest. In the end, both babes had to deal with getting their bubble burst. I guess you could say that there are two ways that you could explain how "Facts of Life" reminds me of the "Brady Bunch" which reminds me of "Gimme a Break!". One way is through the phrase, "For Want of a Nail, a Kingdom was Lost" and the other is through the poem "The House that Jack Build".