History Series / TheFactsOfLife

* BikerBabe: Jo, right down to the SamusIsAGirl moment when she pulls off her helmet to reveal that she is, in fact, a girl.

* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: InUniverse example. The Season 3 episode ''"Legacy"'' reveals Blair was named after her grandfather, who happened to be a prominent judge. Naturally, Blair is proud of that fact until she learns he was secretly a member of the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: As noted above, the first season had a large ensemble cast of girls. The second season eliminated half of the girls, eliminated Mr. Bradley the headmaster, and added Nancy [=McKeon=] as Jo. There was also a lot less {{Fanservice}} than before (see that entry below).

** In Season 5, after Blair and Jo graduate from Eastland, the whole main setting changes to a store Mrs. Garett obtains called Edna's Edibles.

** Seasons 8 and 9 continued to add new characters, such as [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Beverly Ann]], who becomes the girls' new housemother, [[CousinOliver Andy,]] an orphan who works as an errand boy for Over Our Heads, and Pippa, a foreign exchange student from Australia. In addition, Mrs. Garrett was DemotedToExtra.

* AbsenteeActor: All the cast 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 HollywoodAtheist below). As a result - in addition to this being the only episode of the entire series in which Blair/Lisa doesn't appear[[note]]Kim Fields/Tootie also only misses one episode of the entire run, "Something In Common"[[/note]] - it was rewritten so that the Eastland girl to lose her virginity was Natalie.
** The other major absence involved Nancy [=McKeon=] missing some episodes early in Season 6 in a contract dispute.

* BatterUp: In "The Candidate," Natalie is going to meet with a secret political source (named "Sore Throat") at the store at midnight. Jo, Tootie and Andy hide behind the counter with baseball bats, as they were worried about Natalie being alone with a stranger at midnight. Even when Natalie pushes them into the living room, they still listen in while holding the bats. It turns out "Sore Throat" is really Blair in a kangaroo costume. ItMakesSenseInContext.

* BlamingTheVictim: Natalie had a Near-Rape Experience that traumatized her. At the end, she goes to a self defense class in which the instructor goes into detail on how Natalie could of prevented the encounter. The way he was phrasing it comes across as if he was blaming her for not being better prepared.

A {{sitcom}} (with some [[TeenDrama teen drama]] elements) on Creator/{{NBC}} from 1979 to 1988, about the heartwarming adventures of a group of female students. Initially they were students at a boarding school. In later seasons, they went to college and beyond, but kept living together under the watchful eye of Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae), formerly of ''Series/DiffrentStrokes'', and in later seasons her SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute sister, Beverly Ann Stickle (Creator/ClorisLeachman).

* AndStarring: "Nancy [=McKeon=] as Jo."

The show aired long enough to use just about every SitCom trope in existence, including Blair's InspirationallyDisadvantaged cousin Gerri, who had cerebral palsy, and many {{Very Special Episode}}s. A [[ReunionShow reunion movie]], featuring the entire cast except for Nancy [=McKeon=]'s Jo, aired in 2001.

* [[ChickMagnet Dude Magnet]]: Despite being the funny fat girl, who are often portrayed as dateless and secretly unhappy, Natalie in particular tended to have a LOT of boyfriends during the show's run and was the first girl to lose her virginity.

* LovableAlphaBitch: Blair, see RichBitch.

* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: Blair has her moments.
* TheRival: Blair and Jo are this to each other.
** Also the [[DrivenToSuicide ill-fated]] Cynthia character in [[VerySpecialEpisode "Breaking Point"]] is this to Blair; she's more intelligent, more attractive, more worldly, more popular, and more fluent in French.

* StalkerWithACrush: Roy has a crush on Jo, although this is a comedic version of the trope. Still creepy.

* RealityEnsues: There was an episode where Tootie was obsessed with Jermaine Jackson to the point of it overtaking everything else in her life and she cried and whined until Mrs. Garrett agreed to take her to his out of town concert. over the protests of the other girls (who were holding a fair for a friend of Jo's and she had previously agreed to help out at). Upon getting there and having to convince the security guards to let her through (as she was the president of one of his many fan clubs and was given a free ticket to his show by his business manager), although she was excited to meet him, believed herself to be special to him and made a clay bust of him to present for his birthday, the other guards took the gift away (believing it to be a bomb; they didn't know as it was put inside a box) and ''twisted her arm behind her back'', he himself was only able to sit down and talk with her for a few moments due to how busy he was and the same manager who called her to give her a ticket called someone else to use the same line that he used on her. And the bust was ruined due to it being placed in the shower to "defuse" it.

-->- The theme song, written by Alan Thicke and sung by Gloria Loring

--> ''You take the good, you take the bad\\

->- The theme song, written by Alan Thicke and sung by Gloria Loring

-->- The theme song, written by Alan Thicke and sung by Gloria Loring

[[caption-width-right:300: ''You take the good, you take the bad, you take 'em both and there you have, the facts of life... the facts of life...'']]

* AbsenteeActor: All the cast 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 HollywoodAtheist below). As a result - in addition to this being the only episode of the entire series in which Blair/Lisa doesn't appear[[note]]Kim Fields/Tootie also only misses one episode of the entire run, "Something In Common"[[/note]] - it was rewritten so that the Eastland girl to loose her virginity was Natalie.

* NotSoDifferent:

* TeacherStudentRomance: Jo had one with her photography instructor. In college, thank goodness.