Was Season 3 when the show went overboard with the "very special episodes"

[TMC]

It literally felt like every other week was a "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, 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

[FOL-FAN-ITA]

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

[TMC]

Originally Posted by FOL-FAN-ITA

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".

['80sSitcoms]

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.