The Facts of Life (TV series): Difference between revisions

* [[Absentee Actor]]: All the cast (except Kim Fields) at one time or another, most notably in "The First Time" - the script originally called for Blair to lose her virginity, but Lisa Whelchel refused to be involved on religious grounds (see [[Hollywood Atheist]] below). As a result - in addition to this being the only episode of the entire series in which Blair/Lisa doesn't appear - it was rewritten so that the Eastland girl to become a woman was {{spoiler|Natalie}}.

* [[Attempted Rape]]: Jo & Natalie.

* [[Biker Babe]]: Jo, right down to the [[Samus Is a Girl|Samus Is A Girl]] moment when she pulls off her helmet to reveal that she is, in fact, a girl.

* [[Boarding School]]: Eastland is a boarding school for girls, and the first half of the series takes place there.

* [[Date Rape Averted]]: Jo, who managed to fight her way out in the nick of time.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Jo and Natalie.

* [[Do It Yourself Theme Tune]]: Charlotte Rae (Mrs. Garrett) provided vocals for the season 1 theme.

* [[Don't You Dare Pity Me]]: Jo reacts with hostility every time someone attempts to take pity on her due to her poor upbringing.

* [[The Eighties]]: Pretty much one of the definitive shows of the 1980's, so it's impossible to avoid 80's nostalgia and/or horror.

* [[Eighties Hair]]: And how. Started out okay, but we ended up with more poof than a Whitesnake concert. There were mullets. On women.

* [[Fan Service]]: The first season was made at the height of the [[Jiggle Show|"Jiggle TV"]] era codified by then NBC president and CEO Fred Silverman during his previous tenure as president of ABC Entertainment, so the older girls ran around in skimpy shorts for large portions of every episode. When new producers Linda Marsh and Margie Peters arrived to do the second season [[Retool]], they insisted on less exploitative wardrobes.

* [[Fat Girl]]: Natalie, the "happy Magic Marker."

* [[Happily Adopted]]: Natalie. She finds her birth mother in one of the earlier seasons, but still happily considers her adopted family her 'real' family.

* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Blair and Jo are a textbook example, right down to having dialogue that could be effortlessly be used by a genuine old married couple.

** Natalie wound up voicing Velma in [[Scooby Doo]].

** Mayim Bialik (the future Blossom and Amy Farrah Fowler), Seth Green, and Juliette Lewis in the finale

{{quote| '''Natalie:''' Mrs. G. can do anything.<br />

'''Tootie/Dorothy:''' Didn't you watch our show? }}

* [[Lonely Rich Kid]]: Blair, whose snotty behavior tends to cover up her deep seated [[Parental Abandonment|parental abandonment]] issues. She has few real friends outside of the main cast.

* [[The Movie]]: ''The Facts of Life Goes to Paris''; ''The Facts of Life Down Under'' - both made for TV.

* [[Perpetual Poverty]]: Much is made of Jo's poverty for most of the show.

** When a later episode attempted to give the Polniacseks an incredible financial windfall, Nancy Mckeon nearly quit over the idea that Jo would suddenly become rich. The writers decided to make it just a temporary situation, so that by the end of the episode everything was back to normal. (Though Jo insisted on keeping the fancy motorcycle helmet her dad bought her.)

** In fact, there were no fewer than ''six'' attempted spinoffs over the course of the show: beyond the aforementioned ones featuring Tootie's mixed-marriage aunt and uncle ("Brian and Sylvia") and Blair as a headmistress ("The Beginning of the End"), there was "The Academy" (about four military academy guys who were pretty much the girls' male alter egos), "Jo's Cousin" (which is self-explanatory), "Rumor Has It" (featuring Blair's law professor), and "Big Apple Blues" (in which Natalie joins up with a bunch of wacky twentysomethings trying to make it in New York City). Not a single one of these turned into a series.

* [[Pretty in Mink]]: Blair possesses about a zoo's worth of fur coats.