Disapointed in the final episode - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

JohnMcMillin · 09-09-2000, 12:39 AM

I grew up watching the Facts and have enjoyed the whole Nick At Nite marathon, but am I the only person who did not like the final episode?

I know they were planning to spin Blair off to another show, but considering Juliette Lewis got more screen time than Jo, Natalie and Tootie combined was just wrong.

When I think of final episodes, I like to think of them as tearful and meloncholy, a long sad goodbye to the characters that we grew to love. The final FOL was basically an ego vehicle for Blair, and Natalie wasn't even with the girls, she was on the phone long distance. I thought it was a bad way to end her on the show with the way Tootie just hung up on her. Remember how great of friends they were the whole time? Also, Natalie belonged in the final goodbye hug more than Pippa and Beverly Ann.

I am happy that the girls (well, ladies now) have decided to break their "no reunion" pact and reunite later in the season. I think that will bring better closure to the show for the fans than the final episode that revolved solely around Blair.

09-09-2000, 07:36 PM

I agree.The show was simply not
ended properly.It should have been
warmer and more heartfelt.
However,I think they
wanted to keep everything upbeat,
avoiding sentimentality,
showing that the girls still cared
about eachother but had to move on
with their own lives.Several episodes
during the last season were designed
to focus each week on one particular
girl and how she is moving on with
her life,future and career.The spinoff
attempt with Blair buying Eastland
was clearly a disaster.The new Eastland
was simply not all that funny and
you could tell that this spinoff would
not get off the graound.NBC did not even
bother to pick it up as a far as I know.
The ending could have been alot better.
At least when Mrs. Garrett left,they gave
her a proper farewell episode.

The T · 09-09-2000, 11:00 PM

I agree. Taht was a crappy ending! I didn't see the ep where mrs. Garrett left. Why did she leave?

------------------
See ya~The T
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Butler-Your Coat?

Fonz-Yeah it's my coat, are those your pants?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

chris jacob · 09-13-2000, 10:06 PM

MRS. gareet left because she remarried and moved out of state anyway can somebody please tell me what happend in fainla episode?

ThomasE · 09-14-2000, 12:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by chris jacob:
MRS. gareet left because she remarried and moved out of state anyway can somebody please tell me what happend in fainla episode?

The last episode had Blair trying to manage things at Eastland as the new headmistress. The final scene had everyone come in together for a final picture shot. (Except Natalie) who was there via telephone.

larr118 · 03-05-2001, 11:52 PM

my god you people are right.mrs.G should of been in the final episode

ThomasE · 03-05-2001, 11:56 PM

OK? For real though.

perezd · 03-06-2001, 10:38 PM

knowing NBC they probably rushed them into a Finale. They're the most un-grateful station ever. They have the galls to say Friends and Frazier is the best one-two punch they've ever had. DS and FOL was it and they treated them bad in the long run. by not keeping DS for its final season and not airing the FOL reunion. I hope the reunion can give it a proper ending to the saga.

triple19 · 03-07-2001, 01:52 PM

I agree. This was just an awful way to end the series. If I'm not mistaken, I think FOL was about to be cancelled. I think that the writers were forced into writing a spin off that that would somehow continue FOL. Regardless, "The Beginning of the End" and "The Beginning of the Beginning" was not the way to end the series. These eps. felt more like "Facts of Life 2: The Next generation"

I think that FOL was definitly worthy of a Grande Finale a la "Cheers" or "The Cosby Show". As NBC's longest running sitcom, the show deserved better treatment.

------------------
Natalie: A flashback within a flashback..I'm so brillant it scares me

callmetootie · 03-08-2001, 09:18 AM

The last episode was far by one of the worst episodes itself. The last 5 minutes were really stupid, and I agree that Mrs. G should have come. The show ended with Rick taking a picture of the girls, and that was it. I mean alot of people thought that there was going to be a 10th season.

------------------
Andrew Carden

perezd · 03-08-2001, 01:22 PM

NBC was ready to cancel them and didn't want them around for a season 10 so the only wise thing the writer could do was to bring a spin-off pilot to their attention which I think would have possibly been a successful spin-off if NBC had even given it a chance. it had Seth Green and Blossom come on how much they were successful after the turning down of the spin-off. Mayim had her own show in 3 years as Blossom. So I personally think the episode was bad but for spin-off it was good.

TJ · 03-08-2001, 01:33 PM

This proposed spinoff would have never worked, since many people had been watching FOL from the start.. it would have been like starting all over again, notice how they go the Chug-a-lug bar in the last episode?

if people had just started watching FOL episodes the last few seasons, then I could kind of see how they would want more - even a spinoff series..

coily2 · 03-08-2001, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by TJ:
This proposed spinoff would have never worked, since many people had been watching FOL from the start.. it would have been like starting all over again, notice how they go the Chug-a-lug bar in the last episode?

if people had just started watching FOL episodes the last few seasons, then I could kind of see how they would want more - even a spinoff series..

Good points, but remember, Fraiser spun off from Cheers after we had known him for years. I suppose the premise of moving to a new location made this work a little better. If it had rehashed old Cheers storylines, I think it would have failed. Like TJ said, Blair moved into the straight-man/Mrs. G. sort of role. That wouldn't have been any fun.
This makes me wonder if the Natalie in SoHo spinoff attempt would have worked. It had David Spade and Richard Greico, who both went on to do their own thing.

TV Guy · 03-27-2001, 04:29 PM

Did you know that the "Next Generation" was originally offered to Nancy McKeon, whose Jo character would have returned to Eastland as a teacher (they established in earlier episodes that Jo was interested in a career in education). When Nancy turned it down, Lisa Whelchel accepted it, and the writers turned themselves into a pretzel trying to come up with a situation where Blair returns to Eastland. Hence, the ridiculous "Blair Buys the School" explanation.

If you ask me, the Eastland graduation episode, at the end of season 4, was much more sentimental and fitting than the actual last episode of the series was.

panman · 03-27-2001, 05:24 PM

"Oh hell, i'll just get next to Jo and nobody will notice". Come on. Assad Kelada and Rita Dillon or whatever, could've done a lot better!

------------------
The Facts of Life are all about You!

09-09-2000, 12:39 AM	#1
JohnMcMillin Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Aug 29, 2000 Location: louisville, ky, USA Posts: 380	Disapointed in the final episode I grew up watching the Facts and have enjoyed the whole Nick At Nite marathon, but am I the only person who did not like the final episode? I know they were planning to spin Blair off to another show, but considering Juliette Lewis got more screen time than Jo, Natalie and Tootie combined was just wrong. When I think of final episodes, I like to think of them as tearful and meloncholy, a long sad goodbye to the characters that we grew to love. The final FOL was basically an ego vehicle for Blair, and Natalie wasn't even with the girls, she was on the phone long distance. I thought it was a bad way to end her on the show with the way Tootie just hung up on her. Remember how great of friends they were the whole time? Also, Natalie belonged in the final goodbye hug more than Pippa and Beverly Ann. I am happy that the girls (well, ladies now) have decided to break their "no reunion" pact and reunite later in the season. I think that will bring better closure to the show for the fans than the final episode that revolved solely around Blair.

09-09-2000, 07:36 PM	#2
cb30 Guest Posts: n/a	I agree.The show was simply not ended properly.It should have been warmer and more heartfelt. However,I think they wanted to keep everything upbeat, avoiding sentimentality, showing that the girls still cared about eachother but had to move on with their own lives.Several episodes during the last season were designed to focus each week on one particular girl and how she is moving on with her life,future and career.The spinoff attempt with Blair buying Eastland was clearly a disaster.The new Eastland was simply not all that funny and you could tell that this spinoff would not get off the graound.NBC did not even bother to pick it up as a far as I know. The ending could have been alot better. At least when Mrs. Garrett left,they gave her a proper farewell episode.
cb30 Guest Posts: n/a

09-09-2000, 11:00 PM	#3
The T Member Senior Member Join Date: Jun 22, 2000 Location: Baraboo, WI US Posts: 1,108	I agree. Taht was a crappy ending! I didn't see the ep where mrs. Garrett left. Why did she leave? ------------------ See ya~The T ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Butler-Your Coat? Fonz-Yeah it's my coat, are those your pants? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

09-13-2000, 10:06 PM	#4
chris jacob Member Forum Regular Join Date: Jun 06, 2000 Location: Hartford Posts: 753	MRS. gareet left because she remarried and moved out of state anyway can somebody please tell me what happend in fainla episode?

03-05-2001, 11:52 PM	#6
larr118 Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Feb 10, 2001 Location: Washingtonville,New York,U.S.A. Posts: 7	my god you people are right.mrs.G should of been in the final episode

03-05-2001, 11:56 PM	#7
ThomasE Member Moderator Forum Fanatic Join Date: Apr 04, 2000 Location: New York, New York, U.S.A. Posts: 10,857	OK? For real though.

03-06-2001, 10:38 PM	#8
perezd Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Nov 27, 2000 Location: Bronx, N.Y., U.S.A. Posts: 148	knowing NBC they probably rushed them into a Finale. They're the most un-grateful station ever. They have the galls to say Friends and Frazier is the best one-two punch they've ever had. DS and FOL was it and they treated them bad in the long run. by not keeping DS for its final season and not airing the FOL reunion. I hope the reunion can give it a proper ending to the saga.

03-07-2001, 01:52 PM	#9
triple19 Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Feb 28, 2001 Location: Miami Posts: 178	I agree. This was just an awful way to end the series. If I'm not mistaken, I think FOL was about to be cancelled. I think that the writers were forced into writing a spin off that that would somehow continue FOL. Regardless, "The Beginning of the End" and "The Beginning of the Beginning" was not the way to end the series. These eps. felt more like "Facts of Life 2: The Next generation" I think that FOL was definitly worthy of a Grande Finale a la "Cheers" or "The Cosby Show". As NBC's longest running sitcom, the show deserved better treatment. ------------------ Natalie: A flashback within a flashback..I'm so brillant it scares me

03-08-2001, 09:18 AM	#10
callmetootie Member Forum 4000 Club Member Join Date: Mar 06, 2001 Location: Clifton Park, NY Posts: 4,768	The last episode was far by one of the worst episodes itself. The last 5 minutes were really stupid, and I agree that Mrs. G should have come. The show ended with Rick taking a picture of the girls, and that was it. I mean alot of people thought that there was going to be a 10th season. ------------------ Andrew Carden

03-08-2001, 01:22 PM	#11
perezd Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Nov 27, 2000 Location: Bronx, N.Y., U.S.A. Posts: 148	NBC was ready to cancel them and didn't want them around for a season 10 so the only wise thing the writer could do was to bring a spin-off pilot to their attention which I think would have possibly been a successful spin-off if NBC had even given it a chance. it had Seth Green and Blossom come on how much they were successful after the turning down of the spin-off. Mayim had her own show in 3 years as Blossom. So I personally think the episode was bad but for spin-off it was good.

03-08-2001, 01:33 PM	#12
TJ Site Owner Administrator Forum Star Join Date: Feb 03, 2000 Location: Marietta, GA Posts: 10,676	This proposed spinoff would have never worked, since many people had been watching FOL from the start.. it would have been like starting all over again, notice how they go the Chug-a-lug bar in the last episode? if people had just started watching FOL episodes the last few seasons, then I could kind of see how they would want more - even a spinoff series..

03-27-2001, 04:29 PM	#14
TV Guy Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Jun 25, 2001 Location: Boston, MA, USA Posts: 3,419	Did you know that the "Next Generation" was originally offered to Nancy McKeon, whose Jo character would have returned to Eastland as a teacher (they established in earlier episodes that Jo was interested in a career in education). When Nancy turned it down, Lisa Whelchel accepted it, and the writers turned themselves into a pretzel trying to come up with a situation where Blair returns to Eastland. Hence, the ridiculous "Blair Buys the School" explanation. If you ask me, the Eastland graduation episode, at the end of season 4, was much more sentimental and fitting than the actual last episode of the series was.

03-27-2001, 05:24 PM	#15
panman Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Nov 28, 2000 Posts: 327	"Oh hell, i'll just get next to Jo and nobody will notice". Come on. Assad Kelada and Rita Dillon or whatever, could've done a lot better! ------------------ The Facts of Life are all about You!