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The Facts of Life (TV series): Difference between revisions
tropelist, some punctuation changes
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[[File:facts_season2_8720.jpg|frame|The cast in Season Two. Clockwise from top right: Jo, Tootie, Mrs. Garrett, Natalie, and Blair.]]
{{quote|''You take the good, you take the bad, you take 'em both and there you have... The Facts of Life.''|'''Opening theme'''}}
Long-running [[Sit Com]] and [[Teen Drama
During its first season, the show had a large ensemble of girls, including a very young Molly Ringwald. Starting with its second season, though, the show was [[Retool|retooled]]. The mob was [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|thinned down]] to four "core" girls, and almost nothing was ever seen again of their schoolmates.
* Blair, the [[Rich Bitch]]
* Funny Natalie
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{{tropelist}}
* [[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}}.▼
▲* [[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.
* [[Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other]]: Blair and Jo have many of these moments when they stop sniping. Blair nearly punches out a guy who assaulted Jo. Blair secretly helps Jo get a scholarship so that she can stay in school. Jo replaces a childhood toy of Blair's after it is ruined. Jo jumps to her defense after a disgruntled wife accuses Blair of sleeping with her husband. Blair skips a ski trip to spend Christmas with Jo, etc., etc.
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* [[Boarding School]]: Eastland is a boarding school for girls, and the first half of the series takes place there.
* [[The Cast Showoff]]: Lisa Whelchel seems to have been given opportunities to display her talents in everything from singing to ventriloquism.
* [[Catch Phrase]]: Blair -- "I just had another one of my brilliant ideas!", "Turn Blue!"; Tootie -- "Oooh, they're in troou-ble!"
* [[The Celebrity Lie]]
* [[Celebrity Star]]: One example being Eve Plumb, formerly of ''[[The Brady Bunch]]''. Also Zsa Zsa Gabor and 80s pop icon Stacy Q.
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* [[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.
* [[Chick Magnet|Dude Magnet]]: Natalie in particular tended to have a
* [[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.
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* [[Good Girls Avoid Abortion]]: Blair's mother visits and tells Blair that she's pregnant but not going to go through with it, but Blair convinces her to keep the baby.
** Averted in an earlier episode, where Natalie fabricates an article for the Eastland paper, saying that one of the students at Eastland had secretly had an abortion; she later finds out that such an event did in fact occur.
* [[Happily Adopted]]: Natalie. She finds her birth mother in one of the earlier seasons, but still happily considers her adopted family her
* [[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.
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: Lots, but most notably Kenneth Mars in the episode "Gossip".
** 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
** A very young Helen Hunt in a first-season episode
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* [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged]]: Blair's cousin Geri, who has cerebral palsy.
* [[Intrepid Reporter]]: Natalie aspires to become a journalist. Many episodes feature her talking about her latest scoop.
** Jo was this until her big scoop
* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: Done in a late season episode when Tootie digs up and shows off the rollerskates that were her trademark in the first season. It also occurs in the reunion movie when Natalie's fiance expresses doubt that Mrs. Garrett can pull Thanksgiving dinner together:
{{quote| '''Natalie:''' Mrs. G. can do anything.<br />
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* [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo]]: A balloon resembling [[Dai Sentai Goggle Five|Goggle Red]] briefly appeared in the beginning of the episode "Reunion".
* [[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.
* [[New Transfer Student]]: Pippa, who is from Australia. Also Alex, the princess of something-in-Europe. Miko was a temporary Japanese exchange student.
* [[Not Blood Siblings]]: Blair and her former stepsister (portrayed by Eve Plumb) are not actually related but treat each other as genuine siblings.
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* [[Troubled but Cute]]: Jo, in a [[Rare Female Example]].
* [[True Companions]]: The main cast is essentially this due to the fact that they seldom see their real families or have trouble at home.
* [[Tsundere]]: Jo reacts with hostility every time she is accused of having a
* [[Very Special Episode]]: A never ending supply of them, really.
* [[Visit By Divorced Dad]]: Jo has a couple of these after he's released from prison. Blair also has one or two.
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* [[What Could Have Been]]: Despite the number of main characters being thinned between Seasons 1 and 2, production expressed interest in retaining Molly Ringwald as a regular. However, she left to pursue a movie career.
* [[Written in Infirmity]]: Nancy McKeon had broken her foot shooting the [[Made for TV Movie]] ''Strange Voices'' shortly before shooting for the final season began; thus resulting in her foot being in a cast for a few early episodes that season.
* [[Zany Scheme]]: Well, it
{{reflist}}
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