Season 9 is awful, especially Jo’s hair

[TV Guy]

What was Nancy McKeon thinking? That’s not a hairstyle. She just stopped cutting it and brushing it and it’s so unflattering. The hairstyles on the other girls aren’t great either.

The cast chemistry is gone during this season. The girls’ longtime friendship doesn’t come through, muddled with all the useless new characters (BA, Andy, Pippa). Even during the first Over Our Heads season, you could see that the girls’ friendship was still the center of the show, especially when Mrs. Garrett was absent during the latter half of the season. That feeling is completely gone during season 9. I can’t figure out why these people are living together anymore. I’m sure the new writers didn’t help, either - Linda Marsh, Margie Peters, Deirdre Fay, and Stuart Wolpert were all gone by then.

['80sSitcoms]

Well, to be fair it probably wasn't Nancy McKeon thinking, it was the show's hairstylist. I remember one later season Lisa's was really terrible.

[Wildchats]

They didn't close the show out right. They should have in that last episode. Natalie wasn't even in the final scene.

The last episode should have had her come back to pick up the last of her things for her new apartment. I think that one change would have made the last episode so much better.

[Wildchats]

They didn't close the show out right. They should have in that last episode. Natalie wasn't even in the final scene.

The last episode should have had her come back to pick up the last of her things for her new apartment. I think that one change would have made the last episode so much better.

[Christopher]

Originally Posted by TV Guy

muddled with all the useless new characters (BA, Andy, Pippa).

Fans always complain about these characters, yet their characters never took up the majority of the season. Beverly Ann had one full episode dedicated on her character in season 9 (It's A Wonderful Christmas). I don't count A Rose By Any Other Age because Blair was part of the main focus in that story as well as Beverly Ann. Pippa had one full episode dedicated to her character and that was the introduction episode, Up From Down Under. Andy was just a filler character with no big stories at all that whole season. Blair, Jo, Natalie, and Tootie were still the main focus characters for the remaining 22 episodes that year. Season 9 had some stinkers and it definitely didn't give closure to one of the longest running sitcoms at that time but it was still focused on the four main girls.

[TV Guy]

Even though they weren’t the focus, the filler characters detracted. And the clever dialogue between the four main characters was gone. Watch the writing in season 7 - where the quartet has this great, clever back-and-forth dialogue in a lot of episodes, particularly the episodes that set up the gift shop scenario. Compare that to the dialogue in season 9. It’s like a completely different show.

I also agree about the last episode. They should have set up Blair’s spinoff (another terrible idea, BTW) prior to that, and had the last episode be about the girls moving out.

[Impressions]

I personally didn't like how "soft" and "domesticated" Jo became. It just seemed like her character did a complete 180 from season 2.

Also, what was the deal with Blair's character? She started out as a smart alec rebellious girl in season 1, then became a snobby girl in season 2, and by season 6-8 she was a blonde bimbo that got into these crazy schemes (3-2-1, The Drive In, Fast Food) but by season 9, she also became "soft" and down-to-Earth after her accident.

Also, the ending was abysmal (because of the failed spin-off attempt and some missing cast members) but it was better than none at all.

['80sSitcoms]

Well it's only natural for Jo to grow and mature over 8 years from a tough-talking emotional tomboy teenager to a young grown tomboyish woman. And Blair definitely had her snobbish streak in season one: "Look what I've done to poor Natalie...I hate that my perfection makes her feel less than perfect!" lol

[Wawwie]

Originally Posted by TV Guy

, muddled with all the useless new characters (BA, Andy, Pippa).

That "Kelly" character during the Edna's Edibles seasons was also useless. I couldn't stand that girl or her weird obsession with Jo.

['80sSitcoms]

^---me too, every time I see her included in the opening credits, knowing she'll be in the show, I'm like, "ugh"

[Chocolate Moose]

Show shudda ended WAY before.

[RoryGilmore]

I actually liked Jo's hair and the fact that she started wearing skirts and being more feminine. Yes I get its a drastic change but it was welcome

[Wildchats]

They were closing the show out when it ended.

Natalie move to SOHO to be a writer, I think. She was to get her own spinoff if it got picked up, living with several roommates there.


Blair became headmistress of Eastland and made it co-ed, and if it got picked up she was to be given her own spinoff.


Neither of these shows got picked up. So in the end, Blair Buying Eastland and being headmistress, Natalie moving to SOHO to be a writer, Tootie going to study at the Dramatic Acaademy in London for a summer or so? And Jo working I forget where while married to Rick who just got back from a business trip is how the show ended.


When FOL came back for its reunion TV movie in 2002, 14 years had passed, so we could guess that Jo got pregnant shortly after the series finale and had Jamie in 1989 and Tootie married Jeff in either 1988 or 1989 and had Tisha in 1989 or 1990, then Jeff died sometime after that. Natalie got a job as a reporter sometime after 1988. Blair sold Eastland and met and married Tad Warner, a fellow Lawyer she met somewhere and they had no kids. Not sure the year they met or when they married.


That last scene needed Natalie in it. Maybe something on the lines of we'll never be in the same place at the same time all together anymore, that's for sure. That would have been the last time the would have all been together, in that scene.

[RoryGilmore]

Originally Posted by Wildchats

They were closing the show out when it ended.

Natalie move to SOHO to be a writer, I think. She was to get her own spinoff if it got picked up, living with several roommates there.


Blair became headmistress of Eastland and made it co-ed, and if it got picked up she was to be given her own spinoff.


Neither of these shows got picked up. So in the end, Blair Buying Eastland and being headmistress, Natalie moving to SOHO to be a writer, Tootie going to study at the Dramatic Acaademy in London for a summer or so? And Jo working I forget where while married to Rick who just got back from a business trip is how the show ended.


When FOL came back for its reunion TV movie in 2002, 14 years had passed, so we could guess that Jo got pregnant shortly after the series finale and had Jamie in 1989 and Tootie married Jeff in either 1988 or 1989 and had Tisha in 1989 or 1990, then Jeff died sometime after that. Natalie got a job as a reporter sometime after 1988. Blair sold Eastland and met and married Tad Warner, a fellow Lawyer she met somewhere and they had no kids. Not sure the year they met or when they married.


That last scene needed Natalie in it. Maybe something on the lines of we'll never be in the same place at the same time all together anymore, that's for sure. That would have been the last time the would have all been together, in that scene.

I get what you are saying, it makes sense, I just wish the last episode wouldve taken place after the Beginning of the Beginning and would've centered around the girls packing up the house to move on and maybe talking or daydreaming about their futures. I hate that we get one little scene at the end of the show where Rick takes a picture of them when he comes back.

[Schmoopie]

Her hair was way too long in the last season. Some eps it looked awful.