Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

BelSports 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.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Winifred The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

mark.waltz This is a sitcom that should not be considered just a "chick show" as the lessons it teaches are ones that still hold today, dealing with many teen issues that have just seemed to have gotten worse over time thanks to social media. The recent death of Charlotte Rae made me think about this show again which I watched on a recurring basis when it was on, but for some reason, had remained deeply embedded in my heart. Some writers indicated that Rae was stereotyped because of this show, suggesting that Mrs. Garrett was a rather silly character for someone of Rae's standing in the theater community to take on, but women like Mrs. Garrett are important people to have in your life, whether you are a teenage boy or girl, because they teach you about life with love and humor and yet keep it real. With that highly piled red hair, Rae could resemble the goofy tipsy aunt you love to have around on the holidays but forget about the rest of the year, but her character was so much more, and the four regular girls of seasons 2-6 were very lucky to have her in their lives.The issues this show dealt with are ones that many teens can deal with today. There were shows about teen suicide, one with a seemingly perfect girl who supposedly had everything, yet couldn't cope with her own facts of life and took an easy way out. Mrs. Garrett had to provide all the strength she could muster to help Blair, Jo, Tootie and Natalie through the grief and confusion they suffered, and I'm sure that the audience was in tears even though the girl who committed suicide was just a one episode character. Stories like this get under your skin, and how many people longed to reach through their TV and hug Rae for the wisdom her character, through an always excellent script, provided? These girls were far from perfect. Lisa Welchel's Blair was an obvious snob, but she was not cookie cutter in her manner. There was a huge heart underneath all that poofy blonde hair that made her come to see the other three girls as equals. With rough Bronx girl Jo, Tootie (the black girl) and Natalie (a heavyset Jewish girl), she found in her life three unlikely sisters, all of whom had flaws but were relatable to the core audience. Jo had a viking temper, could be rather crass, but deep down, she had the same insecurities that most teen girls have. Tootie didn't have the disadvantages that many black girls have, but it took some understanding from the others to fully accept her in spite not only of her race but her being the youngest as well. Early in the series, she had to learn a serious lesson about the evils of gossip, and while that aspect of her never fully left her personality, she was never as loose lipped as she was when she spread a rumor about Mrs. Garrett that didn't fully tell the truth.When Tootie became an obsessed fan of Jermaine Jackson, she had a fully realistic breakdown that had Mrs. Garrett gravely upset because she saw the ferocity of Tootie's actions. Tootie came out of it learning a grave lesson about celebrity worship and the loyalty that should go to friends, not fake idols. But it was Tootie who was there to give the truth to Natalie when her grandmother (Molly Picon) visited and Natalie felt ashamed of her Russian Jewish heritage. Tootie bluntly told Natalie that her grandmother only wanted her love, waking Natalie up to her own self hatred. Natalie had to deal with jealousy when Tootie got the role of Nellie in "South Pacific" over her, even threatening Tootie with a bad review in the newspaper Natalie was the editor on. In spite of all these inner conflicts, the girls got past them, learned to forgive and understand, and move on.Then there were their parents, recurring characters who had both positive and negative affects on their children. Blair had to deal with the fact that she came from a broken home. Soap veterans Nicolas Coster and Marj Dusay made scattered appearances as David and Monica Warner who spoiled Blair with money and gifts but didn't always provide the love Blair craved. It was Blair who came to her mother's emotional rescue when Monica dealt with a biopsy of a lump in her breast, strengthening the relationship by demanding that they share more than shopping sprees and cruises and exotic trips. In spite of her mother hen role in their lives, Mrs. Garrett always made sure that their real parents were kept in the loop. Blair had to deal with her own judgmentalism when cousin Geri (comic Geri Jewell) came to visit. Geri, who was diagnosed at an early age with Cerebal Palsy, fought to live a normal life and not let her condition stop her from getting what she wanted, teaching more facts of life to all the girls who began to think of her as another sister as Geri would visit from time to time.I didn't watch the whole series during its original run, and was not crazy about the first season that had far too many characters. I'd be curious at some point to see all of the final two seasons with Cloris Leachman (who had worked with Rae on an episode of "Phyllis"), but it is those five seasons between 2 and 6 that remain the most memorable. Unfortunately, the series was never a huge rating's winner, although it did win many of its timeslots, and of course, wasn't big at the Emmy's either, although Rae did get one nomination. This is a show worth discovering for those who just see four teenaged girls and their den mother, because it is so much more.

jay-976 This is truly one of the best shows ever on TV. It's one of the few shows where women are depicted as human beings rather than sex-crazed Barbie dolls. They used to show reruns of this, but now all they show are reruns of "Friends", "Seinfeld", "Frasier", "Home Improvement", "Roseanne", "Will & Grace", "Sex & the City" and "Two and a Half Men"!! Even on Lifetime, they have "The Nanny" and "Golden Girls", two very good programs, then instead of filling the 10:00-10:30 timeslot with "FOL", they decide to air back-to-back episodes of that stupid "Frasier" crap! Now, this would have been a great station for "FOL" to air, but NOOOOO...instead, they choose to air some stupid program that revolves around an arrogant womanizing jerk and his equally arrogant and annoying little brother! And they're even rerunning "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy". Maybe these stupid stations are blind to the fact that there are people out there who want to see reruns of good classic TV shows like "Facts of Life", instead of all the smut that's polluting the airwaves for the past two decades! At least "FOL" dealt with sex in a tasteful, yet serious, manner, forcing us to see what the consequences are. Now, you can't turn on a single TV show without it being all about sex, sex, sex!! They treat sex like it's a friggin recreational sport! Then there's the DVD situation! Why is it they dedicate all the time and effort to put out box sets of "Frasier", "Friends", "Seinfeld" and all the other crap that's already being reran ad-nauseum, and yet "FOL" only goes up to season 3, while "Diff'rent Strokes" only has two seasons out so far??? I guess sex and smut really do sell to the masses! Anyway, "Facts of Life" is a show that women can watch together, and mothers can even watch with their daughters, to let them see that women are good for so many things, besides being walking Barbie dolls who only think about sex.

Brian Washington Like a lot of other people, I thought this show was better in its first season than it was in its later years. In fact, does anyone even remember that future "Brat Packer" Molly Ringwald was a member of the original cast? The character I thought was mildly interesting from the later years was Jo. Nancy McKeon at least played her like a real character and not like a charicature like the other girls were, and the most annoying of them was Tootie. I wonder how Kim Fields, who has gone on to become a successful director and producer, has been able to live down that role. In the beginning she was just an annoying little girl and as the show wore on she became more of a whiney spoiled brat. Thank God this show is not being shown in reruns anymore.

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.