What is it? The Facts of Life, Complete Series, 201 episodes on 27 discs from Shout! Factory
How much? $199.99
When? Now
That sounds like an informational video about the birds and the bees. Not quite. It's a 1980s sitcom set in a boarding school.
It started off as a spinoff of Diff'rent Strokes. Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae) left her job as Mr. Drummond's housekeeper and went to work as a housemother and eventually dietitian at Eastland, a prestigious boarding school for girls. This gave Mrs. Garrett plenty of opportunities to teach important life lessons to the girls under her supervision: Tootie Ramsey (Kim Fields), Natalie Green (Mindy Cohn), Cindy Webster (Julie Anne Haddock), Nancy Olson (Felice Schachter), Sue Ann Weaver (Julie Piekarski), Molly Parker (Molly Ringwald) and Blair Warner (Lisa Whelchel).
The show went through a massive overhaul after Season 1, dropping all the girls except sarcastic Natalie, spunky Tootie and vain (but not as shallow as she seems) Blair, and adding Nancy McKeon as Jo Polniaczek, a scholarship student with an attitude.
The retooling allowed the series to focus more on a core of four girls and Mrs. Garrett, rather than spreading itself too thin. That was when it really hit its stride, particularly developing the Blair/Jo friendship -- a classic case of very funny frenemies.
Naturally, the kids grew up. Eventually, the girls graduated from Eastland and Mrs. Garrett opened a business (with the girls working there and living in an apartment upstairs). Then, Mrs. Garrett left and new characters came in -- Mrs. Garrett's sister Beverly Ann (Cloris Leachman), handyman George Burnett (played by a mulleted George Clooney), foster child Andy Moffett (Mackenzie Astin) and new Eastland exchange student Pippa McKenna (Sherrie Austin).
Over the years, the show addressed all sorts of issues, including drug abuse, drinking, sex, disabilities (thanks to occasional appearances by Geri Jewell as Blair's cousin with cerebral palsy), eating disorders, suicide and the usual dating and school-related problems.
Is it any good? Some of the kids' acting is painful at times in the early seasons. And much of it is pretty dated today. So many shoulder pads. So many mullets.
When it comes to teaching life lessons, it can be very After School Special-ish, driving its points home with a sledge- hammer. But when it's not trying to be profound, it can also be clever and funny, with lovable characters. The Twilight Zone/horror film parody is a goofy riot.
Are there extras? There's the episode of Diff'rent Strokes that introduced the show, two Facts TV movies (set in Paris and Australia), a 20-minute featurette on the first season, a brief catch-up with some of the first season cast members, a trivia game and a 45-minute Paley Center reunion with Rae, Cohn, Whelchel and McKeon.
New this week: Little House on the Prairie, Season 4; Welcome Back, Kotter, Season 2; Wolfblood, Season 3.
Next week: Downton Abbey, Season 5; Maison Close, Season 1.
Style on 01/18/2015