Watched All Seasons - Now My Questions

[jayman75]

I grew up when TFOL first aired on NBC, so I remember a lot of the episodes when they originally ran. I recently watched all nine seasons on DVD - every episode, except "Brian and Sylvia," and have some questions. Hopefully I can get some help...

* What happened in the production and writing from S2 to ~S6? The early seasons (outside S1) dealt with some major topics - death, divorce, race, physical disabilities and other big issues. Then, once the girls "grew up" a bit, we went to all this light fare that really didn't feel challenging to the cast.

* About S7, Natalie seemed to take on more Jewish stereotypes. She talked about how "your mother wouldn't like that" and some other things, that I did not notice in earlier seasons.

* In the S7 episode "We Get Letters," Mrs. Garrett has short hair... just for that episode. Was it just styled different, or was it a wig, or something else?

* Charlotte Rae did not appear in several episodes mid-series, with the excuse of being traveling. Was that her decision, the network, the producers? I read that she was already considering leaving the show at that point, so why didn't the writers work to keep her involved more?

* In S9, the opening credits, Blair has a black dress on, standing at the door. I never saw that scene in an episode... did I miss it?

* When Cloris Leachman came on, the girls seemed somewhat resentful to her. It improved, but they still acted rude to her... especially when CL would talk about Appleton, WI or something from home. Why was this roughness part of the show, when before it was a much kinder relationship with Mrs. Garrett?

* The Andy/adoption thing bugged me. He had a family, including a grandmother, then suddenly he's a foster kid. What the??

* Why did the girls and Mrs. Garrett open "Over Our Heads," and then suddenly never work there? Natalie doesn't go to college, but works other jobs... but we barely see them in the store again. And when the girls take off for summer vacation, so one seemed to notice that they weren't working in the shop they all owned. Very odd...

* The S9 episode where Blair is in the car accident and gets the cut on her head... Whelchel's acting was tops there.

Overall I really enjoyed the series, but sometimes things just didn't seem "right" to me. The last couple of seasons had writing that simply felt off... the continuation of the stories just wasn't there. But, I'm glad to own the DVDs and will definitely watch again...

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by jayman75

* What happened in the production and writing from S2 to ~S6? The early seasons (outside S1) dealt with some major topics - death, divorce, race, physical disabilities and other big issues. Then, once the girls "grew up" a bit, we went to all this light fare that really didn't feel challenging to the cast.

I quite agree. For me, only the Eastland Years are the real FOL. All those later episodes are from a spin-off that happened to have the same title, but a different setting, some different characters, and very different writing. (I do allow a few Eastland-centric episodes from later years into the canon).

The show moved from dramatic episodes with comedy to... almost farce. Episodes like "Seven Little Indians" had more in common with Three's Company than with The Facts of Life. Don't get me wrong: Three's Company was a fine, slapstick comedy... but it was no Facts of Life.

By the end, even The Facts of Life was no Facts of Life.

In the S7 episode "We Get Letters," Mrs. Garrett has short hair... just for that episode. Was it just styled different, or was it a wig, or something else?

I think she wore a wig, certainly during the first season of DS, for the first season of FOL, and maybe later, too.

* Charlotte Rae did not appear in several episodes mid-series, with the excuse of being traveling. Was that her decision, the network, the producers? I read that she was already considering leaving the show at that point, so why didn't the writers work to keep her involved more?

Charlotte has also said, in her book, that she had developed some health issues. So that might have been why she was absent. But after the Eastland years, Mrs. G started... fading away, as the writers began focusing on Kelly and Andy and George and a dozen other random characters which had nothing to do with the original show.

The Andy/adoption thing bugged me. He had a family, including a grandmother, then suddenly he's a foster kid. What the??

By this point, the show had become a farce. The later seasons just make no sense.

Why did the girls and Mrs. Garrett open "Over Our Heads," and then suddenly never work there? Natalie doesn't go to college, but works other jobs... but we barely see them in the store again. And when the girls take off for summer vacation, so one seemed to notice that they weren't working in the shop they all owned. Very odd...

YEP!

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

I quite agree. For me, only the Eastland Years are the real FOL. All those later episodes are from a spin-off that happened to have the same title, but a different setting, some different characters, and very different writing. (I do allow a few Eastland-centric episodes from later years into the canon).

For me personally, while I do own all 9 seasons, the first 6 are truly canon to me. I adore the gem of season one, and consider the "classic cafeteria years" of seasons 2-4 to be the apex of Facts of Life, in all its top form glory. And because I am a staunch supporter of Mrs. Garrett and her dreams, I heartily give her seasons 5 and 6 with Edna's Edibles to continue her journey with her girls. But the first 4 seasons are the most nostalgic, entertaining, and fun to watch (regardless of Lisa Whelchel's passive-aggressive near-preference for the later slapstick seasons); and it is seasons 2-4 that should be put in a time capsule to represent FOL (and season 1 if there's room, lol).

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by jayman75

I grew up when TFOL first aired on NBC, so I remember a lot of the episodes when they originally ran. I recently watched all nine seasons on DVD - every episode, except "Brian and Sylvia," and have some questions. Hopefully I can get some help...

Well now I have a question: why did you not watch "Brian and Sylvia"? That episode is dear to me. Many "Facts" fans decry it, but I love it. Part of it is the nostalgia because that is one of the episodes that stands out in memory as me watching it at my grandparents' house in summer reruns on their big dinosaur TV with me on the floor right in front of it, and part of it is because even though there are times where Jo and Blair have outings together, here we have Natalie and Tootie the girls at center stage on a trip.

Originally Posted by jayman75

* About S7, Natalie seemed to take on more Jewish stereotypes. She talked about how "your mother wouldn't like that" and some other things, that I did not notice in earlier seasons.

I never noticed this.

Originally Posted by jayman75

* In S9, the opening credits, Blair has a black dress on, standing at the door. I never saw that scene in an episode... did I miss it?

Yes. Maybe? lol...I don't actually know, sorry, but maybe someone else can answer this (or one of us, when we go back through the later years on DVD)

Originally Posted by jayman75

* When Cloris Leachman came on, the girls seemed somewhat resentful to her. It improved, but they still acted rude to her... especially when CL would talk about Appleton, WI or something from home. Why was this roughness part of the show, when before it was a much kinder relationship with Mrs. Garrett?

No one knows, except perhaps the writers and the director. Perhaps they felt a little tension/conflict there was entertaining or helped define character?

Originally Posted by jayman75

* The S9 episode where Blair is in the car accident and gets the cut on her head... Whelchel's acting was tops there.

Maybe, but that's the episode out of all 9 seasons I least want to watch again. It just doesn't feel right, especially among all the farce of those last years.

[jayman75]

I remember Brian and Sylvia as just not enjoyable... have seen it a couple times over the years, and tried to watch it this round. It wasn't for me.

[jayman75]

From my original post... if someone could name the episodes seen at 0:30 (full group) and 0:35 (Blair in black), I would appreciate it!

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by '80sSitcoms

For me personally, while I do own all 9 seasons, the first 6 are truly canon to me. I adore the gem of season one, and consider the "classic cafeteria years" of seasons 2-4 to be the apex of Facts of Life, in all its top form glory. And because I am a staunch supporter of Mrs. Garrett and her dreams, I heartily give her seasons 5 and 6 with Edna's Edibles to continue her journey with her girls. But the first 4 seasons are the most nostalgic, entertaining, and fun to watch (regardless of Lisa Whelchel's passive-aggressive near-preference for the later slapstick seasons); and it is seasons 2-4 that should be put in a time capsule to represent FOL (and season 1 if there's room, lol).

You are right that the cafeteria years are the apex of the series, but I love the dorm year, too.

I can see why someone would like the Edna's Edibles spin-off, with its homey bakery and often sharp writing. But the later spin-offs, where they start some tacky '80s shop, and everyone gets huge hair... That's not FOL to me.

The only post-Eastland episodes I consider canon are episodes 5-01, 5-02, 5-25, 5-26, 6-12, 8-08, 9-23, and 9-24: an abbreviated "fifth season" to wrap things up.

[TV Guy]

Why these girls would want to live with Mrs. Garrett's sister and some random orphans is beyond me. It just made no sense. After Charlotte Rae left, they should have moved the timeline up a year, with the older girls graduated, and Tootie attending college, and all of them sharing an apartment in NYC.

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by jayman75

I remember Brian and Sylvia as just not enjoyable... have seen it a couple times over the years, and tried to watch it this round. It wasn't for me.

As I'm sure you must have guessed, it was a planned backdoor pilot that never materialized. I don't think you missed much by skipping it.

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by TV Guy

Why these girls would want to live with Mrs. Garrett's sister and some random orphans is beyond me. It just made no sense.

I totally agree. They even kept living behind the shop, but at some point, they lost all interest in running the shop.

After Charlotte Rae left, they should have moved the timeline up a year, with the older girls graduated, and Tootie attending college, and all of them sharing an apartment in NYC.

Now that could have been interesting. Something similar to Friends, I guess? Only with an actual black person in NYC.

[jayman75]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

As I'm sure you must have guessed, it was a planned backdoor pilot that never materialized. I don't think you missed much by skipping it.

Yep... Richard Dean Anderson went on to another show... wonder if it was any good. Ha!!

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by jayman75

Yep... Richard Dean Anderson went on to another show... wonder if it was any good. Ha!!

Haha! I loved MacGyver as a kid. (I didn't like the reboot).

[BigManMike]

First season was my least favorite. Even the last season of Diff'rent Strokes was better to me than the first season of FOL. The other girls just weren't as likeable to me. They needed to get rid of them and bring in Jo. She was much better. I actually liked the later ones as well. I liked seeing the girls interactions with Beverly Ann and Andy, although Pippa was kind of strange. There were also some strange dream sequence episodes in the later seasons that just felt out of place to me. The one where Natalie is writing a story in a truck stop and envisions the rest of the crew as some odd characters, the one where Tootie has a dream about the girls all being killed one by one by a mysterious killer who turns out to be Blair, the one where they are in the 60s and wearing strange outfits and singing, and the one where they envision themselves as old people (Bill Macy from Maude was in that one). Nevertheless, I don't believe in skipping episodes, so I watch all episodes in order. I don't know which era was my favorite. I liked them all. I liked the Eastland episodes, and I liked the Edna's Edibles and Over Our Heads episodes as well. The finale was good too. I just wish Mrs. Garrett could have come back for it. But overall, this is one of my favorite shows from the 80s.

[JR1]

I've liked the show since I was a kid in the 80s. I've been watching the DVDs straight through for some time now- am currently in the middle of Season 7. The Eastland years are the best, no doubt. But, the Edna's Edible years also have their charm.

I can see why they revamped it with Over Our Heads- also updating the theme song in the process- but some of the specialness got lost amidst all of that (though, I can't remember which show off-hand, Mrs. Garrett still had a couple moments of that classic Mrs. G advice). And then Jo's hair changed, which I was/am not that fond of.

Charlotte Rae had grown tired of playing Mrs. G by the fifth season- in her book, she said she would cry when it was time to go to work. She missed 10 episodes in season 7, which was twice as many as she missed in season six. She also said they offered her loads of money to stay on for season 8, but she felt she had exhausted all there was to do with the character.

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by jayman75

I remember Brian and Sylvia as just not enjoyable... have seen it a couple times over the years, and tried to watch it this round. It wasn't for me.

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

As I'm sure you must have guessed, it was a planned backdoor pilot that never materialized. I don't think you missed much by skipping it.

"Brian and Sylvia" is one of my favorite of the series' multiple spin-off attempts due to my nostalgic/character reasons mentioned above (and I enjoy Ja'net Duboi's fun appearance near the end a lot). I think my least favorite of the spin-off attempts is "The Academy". A boys' version might be fun to see, but the military school aspect just doesn't appeal to me.