The Facts of Life

1979

Seasons & Episodes

  • 9
  • 8
  • 7
  • 6
  • 5
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 0
6.8| TV-PG| en| More Info
Released: 24 August 1979 Ended
Producted By: TAT Communications Company
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

The Facts of Life is an American sitcom that originally ran on the NBC television network from August 24, 1979, to May 7, 1988, making it the longest running sitcom of the 1980s. A spin-off of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, the series' premise focuses on Edna Garrett as she becomes a housemother at the fictional Eastland School, an all-female boarding school in Peekskill, New York.

Genre

Drama, Comedy

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Director

Production Companies

TAT Communications Company

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The Facts of Life Audience Reviews

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
bkoganbing I remember back in 1979 when The Facts Of Life debuted it was a nice show, but lucky it got a second chance when it got retooled and revamped and streamlined. When it first debuted there were about six blond teen girls plus two other, a young black girl played by Kim Fields and a stout young girl who was Mindy Cohn. The rest were a group you could barely tell apart.The following year this show about a girl's boarding school underwent a huge makeover. All the anonymous blond teens went, save one played by Lisa Whelchel. She stood out somewhat because of her character as a rich teen débutante who avoided serious subjects like the plague and thought her money fixed all. Over the years Whelchel's character grew somewhat.But the show needed a contrasting bite and it got it when Nancy McKeon joined the cast. When she rode in on that motorcycle, bad girl in the making what it made was the show. Now you had potential for real conflict on the episodes.Whelchel, Fields, Cohn, and McKeon pulled a real nasty prank on that first episode and were put in some kind of permanent probation living with school counselor Charlotte Rae. She became a strict but loving den mother to the four of them as they went through puberty learning The Facts Of Life.With a few tight scrapes they learned them well. If the show wasn't completely realistic it wasn't exactly the Fifties either. The kids had some real issues, but it was all done PG. It was also good entertainment.
Aaron1375 I saw a number of episodes of this when I was a kid as this is one of the shows my sister enjoyed and it is fair that she got to watch her show. Still, this one was painful for the most part to endure. Mainly because it started out so much more interesting than it turned out to be as it had a whole lot of girls as it was like an all girls school. Then they stripped the show down to like four stereotype girls and the show was simply one annoying episode after another. You had your rich girl, the poor girl, the fat girl and the African American girl. So you basically had clashes between rich and poor while other two were just goofy friends. The show would get worse and worse as it continued inexplicably for a whopping 209 episodes. I cannot believe this one was that much of a ratings juggernaut that it had more episodes than Night Court and Wings to much more polished shows than this girl squealathon. Of course, when you gear things towards teen girls you can usually have a hit I guess, I mean that kind of explains the whole Twilight phenomenon of today. Of course, I do not want to act as if I completely hate this show or anything as like I said the first season had its moments and some more interesting stories. It just went on to long, I mean how long are people who can not stand each other going to stay friends? (Rich girl and poor girl).
Syl The Facts of Life was an unusual comedy series on NBC because it lasted so long and in different environments. First, Charlotte Rae became so famous for playing Mrs. Edna Garrett on Different Strokes that she earned her own show. The first season was set with a large cast of characters including one girl who had a boyfriend named Roger. Molly Ringwald was a cast member before she became a movie star. There was the blonde pretty girl but not Blair played by Lisa Welchel. Then there was chubby Natalie Greene played by Mindy Cohn and roller skating Tootie played by Kim Fields. Jo played by Nancy McKeon joined the cast later on. The show kept changing it's cast and it got better. They narrowed it down to four girls, Blair, Natalie, Tootie, and Josephine (from the wrong side of the tracks). The cast got along better. I felt like I grew up with this show like many girls my age. Even when Mrs. Garrett left, she was replaced by Cloris Leachman. What a cast that included George Clooney at one time, Marj Dusay, Randee Heller, Alex Rocco, Mackenzie Astin, and others along the way.
tightforlife20 O.K lets get down to the real facts I like this and the key word here is like and that is because of Tootie, Jo, and Natalie. These were my favorite characters because they all had real personalities that people could really relate to. Ms. Garrett and Blaire were flakes on the ground. I really don't see why the show held on to these characters for so long(at least Ms. Garrett had the good sense to leave and have Beverly come see to the girls). It had some good times and more bad ones. It seem to me that the show was trying too hard in the 7th, 8th, and 9th seasons and that is what buried this show.The last episode had no importance it focused on Blaire buying Eastland and becoming the headmistress. I mean why not do a last episode that had something to do with Jo, Tootie, and Natalie also(by the way we barely even saw them in that episode).This show really could have done better than it did.