The Facts Of Life (The Lady Who Came To Dinner S7/E20 Full Episode)

[Old School]

IMDB (Episode Information) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0575444/




(Video Description) The performer at Blair's birthday party ends up staying with the girls after the party.

[RetroGuy2000]

Thanks for posting this, Old School.

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This episode was never one of my favorites, and I don't think I've watched it since the 1980s. Mrs. Garrett's and Natalie's absences are glaring, here, and do we really believe neither wouldn't at least call on Blair's birthday? And neither her father nor mother call her, either? It's not believable.

With all of Blair's family missing and half of her friends gone, Blair's birthday was going to suck, no matter what.

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

This episode was never one of my favorites, and I don't think I've watched it since the 1980s.

You've never watched the whole series since the nineteen hundred and eighties? Wow!

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by '80sSitcoms

You've never watched the whole series since the nineteen hundred and eighties? Wow!

I've watched every episode at least once. But a few painful episodes have not been on my list to rewatch.

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

I've watched every episode at least once. But a few painful episodes have not been on my list to rewatch.

Understood. But when I got the DVDs I binged all of the episodes. Now, however, I skip my personal "clunkers".

[James28]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

This episode was never one of my favorites, and I don't think I've watched it since the 1980s. Mrs. Garrett's and Natalie's absences are glaring, here, and do we really believe neither wouldn't at least call on Blair's birthday? And neither her father nor mother call her, either? It's not believable.

With all of Blair's family missing and half of her friends gone, Blair's birthday was going to suck, no matter what.

There should've been an advisory warning for this episode, simply because of Natalie's absence.

"The following episode does NOT contain your favorite main character of this series. Fan Discretion is Advised."

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by James28

There should've been an advisory warning for this episode, simply because of Natalie's absence.

"The following episode does NOT contain your favorite main character of this series. Fan Discretion is Advised."

They only do that for the "Best of Natalie" DVD collection.

With Nat and Mrs. G both gone, this episode feels so, so empty. I wonder why they even bothered making this a Blair birthday episode. They didn't even bring in Cousin Geri. Blair's suckiest birthday ever, and that includes the birthday where she was mopey about it being her eighteenth birthday and Brenda even misspelled her name on the banner.

[FOL-FAN-ITA]

The episode isn't that bad but I agree with you, the absence of Mrs. Garrett and Natalie "ruined" the story

[MiracleHand]

Unfortunately the lady in that episode would die about seven months after the episode was filmed which is sad because she seemed like a very spritely and likable lady (she was also in a Diff'rent Strokes episode earlier that same season, proving those two universes had certainly splintered apart by then). Not a personal favorite but it's not a bad episode either

[FOL-FAN-ITA]

Originally Posted by MiracleHand

Unfortunately the lady in that episode would die about seven months after the episode was filmed which is sad because she seemed like a very spritely and likable lady (she was also in a Diff'rent Strokes episode earlier that same season, proving those two universes had certainly splintered apart by then). Not a personal favorite but it's not a bad episode either

Thanks for sharing this interesting but sad story.
Yeah, by late 1981, FOL and DS became two separate entities. I have the feeling the producers wanted to distance FOL and its originator, considering all the problems on that set

[80s Dude]

Originally Posted by FOL-FAN-ITA

Thanks for sharing this interesting but sad story.
Yeah, by late 1981, FOL and DS became two separate entities. I have the feeling the producers wanted to distance FOL and its originator, considering all the problems on that set

The two shows always had separate audiences. Different Strokes was more family friendly with lots of corny jokes that had parents feel it was a good show to watch with kids no matter what ages. Facts of Life was geared toward teens and young adults with more mature themes and language. Just take a look at how the two shows took a different approach to the birds and the bees. Mrs. Garrett was on both. We never heard about Kimberly's hormones being triggered or Mr. Drummond's kinky panties.

[James28]

Originally Posted by MiracleHand

Unfortunately the lady in that episode would die about seven months after the episode was filmed which is sad because she seemed like a very spritely and likable lady (she was also in a Diff'rent Strokes episode earlier that same season, proving those two universes had certainly splintered apart by then). Not a personal favorite but it's not a bad episode either

I don't care about Ms. Garrett's absence in this episode; Natalie's absence is a bigger deal. Any episode of The Facts of Life that Natalie is completely absent from is automatically the worst episode of The Facts of Life ever. There's no getting around it. If I had watched "The Lady Who Came to Dinner"'s original airing, I would completely avoid this episode in syndication, DVD, and streaming because of Natalie's absence. It's TFoL's version of that "Bored, She Hanged Herself" episode of the original Hawaii Five-O.

#Dealbreaker
#LostEpisode

[FOL-FAN-ITA]

Originally Posted by 80s Dude

The two shows always had separate audiences. Different Strokes was more family friendly with lots of corny jokes that had parents feel it was a good show to watch with kids no matter what ages. Facts of Life was geared toward teens and young adults with more mature themes and language. Just take a look at how the two shows took a different approach to the birds and the bees. Mrs. Garrett was on both. We never heard about Kimberly's hormones being triggered or Mr. Drummond's kinky panties.

Yes, FOL discussed more mature themes. DS had that second season episode, when Mrs. Garrett was still a regular, titled "Birds and bees" but I don't think it ever did other controversial episodes of that type, even though it was labeled as the show of "very special episodes". DS was actually a good show for the first couple of seasons but it became incredibly preachy, particularly after season 4. Facts was never preachy, when the girls became adults they were treated like adults while Arnold was always treated like a little kid on his show

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by James28

I don't care about Ms. Garrett's absence in this episode; Natalie's absence is a bigger deal. Any episode of The Facts of Life that Natalie is completely absent from is automatically the worst episode of The Facts of Life ever. There's no getting around it. If I had watched "The Lady Who Came to Dinner"'s original airing, I would completely avoid this episode in syndication, DVD, and streaming because of Natalie's absence. It's TFoL's version of that "Bored, She Hanged Herself" episode of the original Hawaii Five-O.

#Dealbreaker
#LostEpisode

I'm not a fan of that episode, either, and I'm not even sure why they scripted Natalie being gone during Blair's birthday. Why make Blair have a birthday party no one is going to attend? Blair's supposed to be popular.

But worst episode ever? I think that might be "Write and Wrong", with a 6.2 rating on IMDB. Only "Brian and Sylvia" rates lower.

['80sSitcoms]

Originally Posted by FOL-FAN-ITA

Yes, FOL discussed more mature themes. DS had that second season episode, when Mrs. Garrett was still a regular, titled "Birds and bees" but I don't think it ever did other controversial episodes of that type, even though it was labeled as the show of "very special episodes".

Oh, but it was the show of very special episodes! It went way worse than sex talk. It went to kidnapping and child predators.