Saturday, April 16, 2011
FACTS OF LIFE FULL CAST REUNION
Don't forget to check out the TV Land Awards, Sunday, April 17th. Below is a snippet of The Facts of Life cast on the red carpet.

Monday, April 11, 2011
FACTS OF LIFE ACTOR'S RED CARPET REUNION
Geri Jewell, Cloris Leachman, Nancy McKeon, Charlotte Rae, and Lisa Whelchel reunite for the first time in over 20 years at the 9th Annual TV Land Awards to accept the Pop Culture Award for "The Facts of Life," the wildly popular '80s sitcom that ran for nine seasons on NBC. Kim Fields, Eastland's resident roller-skating gossip Tootie, arrived at the awards show late and was rushed through the red carpet. And never fret, Mindy Cohn, who played the bubbly Natalie Green on "The Facts of Life," lights up the red carpet in bold polka dots at the 9th Annual TV Land Awards at the Javits Center on April 10, 2011 in New York City. The show is set to air Sunday, 4/17 at 9pm on TV Land. The cast simply looks outstanding and we hope to see more pictures with the whole group together.

Don't forget, the 9th annual TV Land Awards Show will air Sunday, April 17th at 9pm ET/PT.

Red Carpet Picture 1 Red Carpet Cast Picture.
Red Carpet Picture 2 Mindy Cohn on the Red Carpet.
Red Carpet Picture 3 Cloris Leachman on the Red Carpet.
Red Carpet Picture 4 Red Carpet Cast Picture Two.

Saturday, April 09, 2011
CAST REUNION ON GOOD MORNING AMERICA
Wake up to ABC Network's Good Morning America to see the 'Facts of Life' cast reunion on Tuesday, April 12 between 7 am and 9 am. Goto Good Morning America's Website to also read this nifty WHERE ARE THEY NOW? article.

Saturday, April 09, 2011
TV Land Announces an All-Star Line Up of Presenters for the 2011 "TV Land Awards"
(Alex Goldberg 4/8/2011 TVLAND.COM)

Wednesday, March 30, 2011
WHAT HAPPENED TO SEASON 6 ON DVD?
The Facts of Life saw life on DVD first in 2006 (1st through 3rd seasons released), and then dropped off the radar for nearly 4 years. Shout! Factory acquired rights from Sony Pictures and then released The Facts of Life: The Complete Fourth Season and The Facts of Life: The Complete Fifth Season on November 2, 2010. Since then there seemed to be some lag time releasing the next season of the show on DVD, and fans worring that music licensing rights may be to blame for the delay of the sixth season as many hit cover songs were used such as: You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling, Dancing Queen, and Hot Stuff. We have found out; thankfully, this is not the case. Upon contacting Shout! Factory, here is their response:

Hi -

We would love to continue to release future seasons of The Facts of Life. But as of this moment, we do not have licensing rights.

Please check back in a few months. Hopefully something will change. And we will forward you title suggestions along to our Acquisitions Dept as well. Sorry we had to bring not so good news.

Our site is re-launching in the coming months. That may be a good time to check. http://www.shoutfactory.com/

Thanks for the query and suggestions,

Shout! Factory

So There you have it; Shout! Factory does not have the rights from Sony Pictures to release further seasons and as they stated would 'love to continue' the series. Shout! we hope you work fast on making a deal with Sony to release further seasons of the show. Until then, let's keep our fingers crossed. This is better news than hearing the sets did not sell enough copies to warrant any further releases.

Thursday, March 17th, 2011
THE FACTS OF LIFE HONORED WITH POP CULTURE AWARD AT 2011 TV LAND AWARDS.
(SOURCE: TVLAND.COM)

The Cast of The Facts of Life joins other iconic starts at the TV Land Awards 2011. Gabe Kaplan And Robert Hegyes Join Welcome Back, Kotter cast For 35th Anniversary Award

More of television’s most beloved and iconic stars will be honored at the TV Land Awards 2011, it was announced today by TV Land. The wildly popular ‘80s comedy series The Facts of Life will receive the Pop Culture Award at the annual awards show which tapes for the very first time in New York City and airs on TV Land on Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Additionally, Mr. Kotter himself, Gabe Kaplan, and Robert Hegyes, “Sweathog” Juan Epstein, will join the rest of the cast of Welcome Back, Kotter as the show receives the 35th Anniversary Award.

Mindy Cohn, Kim Fields, Nancy McKeon, Lisa Whelchel and the beloved Mrs. Garrett, Charlotte Rae, will reunite for the first time in over 20 years to accept the Pop Culture Award for The Facts of Life, a coming-of-age sitcom that ran on NBC from 1979-1988. Set in Peekskill, NY, The Facts of Life ran for nine seasons and was a spin-off of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes featuring the Drummonds' housekeeper Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) as she becomes a housemother at Eastland School, a prestigious all-female boarding school.

The house of live-in girls included the wealthy and beautiful Blair Warner (Lisa Whelchel), the gossipy roller-skating Dorothy "Tootie" Ramsey (Kim Fields), innocent Natalie Green (Mindy Cohn) and streetwise Joanne “Jo” Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon). The friends share the ups and downs of growing up – from teenagers to young women – all while leaning on each other.

Later in the series, the girls go on to help Mrs. Garrett open her own dessert shop and are introduced to Garrett’s contractor George Burnett (George Clooney). After a devastating fire, the business is remodeled into a gift shop and ultimately Mrs. Garrett’s divorced sister Beverly Ann Stickle (Cloris Leachmen) moves in to look after the girls and eventually adopts a young man who works at the gift shop, Andy Moffet (Mackenzie Astin).

Welcome Back, Kotter co-creator Gabe Kaplan (who also starred in the comedy as Mr. Kotter) and Robert Hegyes (Juan Epstein) will join Golden Globe®-winner and two-time Academy Award®-nominee John Travolta when the cast is given the 35th Anniversary Award. Cast mates Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Ron Palillo and Marcia Strassman will also be on hand.



(SOURCE: THE FACTS OF LIFE SITE/TELEVISIONHITS.COM)

Can you believe it, TV Land almost had it right when they said 20 years ago!!!!! It was nearly 25 years ago today that The Facts of Life cast was all together. To clear up some confusion where you think we may have made an error in our calculations, lets take a look back when the cast was reunited. You may be thinking, what about that telefilm 'The Facts of Life Reunion Movie?' Well, there was a telefilm in 2001 on the ABC Network reuniting the cast for The Facts of Life Reunion Movie, but as you all remember, Nancy McKeon "Jo" was unable to attend due to her series The Division.

Still not convinced?? What about the E! True Hollywood Story, A & E Cast Confessions, A & E Biography, Entertainment Tonight Season One DVD Release, Truth Behind The Sitcoms???? This list can go on and on from these specials to talk show appearances. The full regular cast of Charlotte Rae, Lisa Whelchel, Mindy Cohn, Kim Fields, and Nancy McKeon have never all appeared together since 1986. As you remember, Kim Fields was supposed to appear at the Entertainment Tonight DVD segment, but travel plans made her unable to attend spliting the 4 girl reunion up.

You still may be thinking, the calculations are not right, The Facts of Life ended in 1988, it hasn't been 25 years! The Facts of Life's last episode aired on May 7th, 1988; but as you recall, Charlotte Rae (Edna Garrett) who had starred and started the series had made her last appearance on September 26th, 1986 as special guest star in the 1-hour episode "Out Of Peekskill."

This will be truly a remarkable event for all fans as the entire main cast (Rae, Whelchel, Cohn, Fields, and McKeon) will reunite on stage together for the FIRST TIME since September 26th, 1986 and be presented to accept the TV POP CULTURE ICON AWARD from TVLAND. Congratulations to all cast members, this is one award that is well deserved in TV pop culture history as it was such an icon and spoke to many people during the decade.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010
THE COMPLETE 5TH SEASON ON DVD!
The Facts of Life: The Complete Fifth Season was announced 7/28/2010 by Shout Factory! This installment is released on November 2, 2010. You have to take a bite out of 25 deliciously 30 minute "Edible" episodes. The Fifth Season (1983-1984) was the second major transition for the series, the first being the second season axe and addition of Nancy McKeon to the cast. Mrs. Garrett being very frustrated by Mr. Parker, Eastland's Headmaster, decides to quit Eastland and open her own gourmet food shop in nearby Peekskill, New York in the Season Premiere Hour Long Episode "Brave New World."

Natalie and Tootie gain permission from their parents to move in with Mrs. Garrett, while Jo lost a scholarship and can not afford the dorm. Mrs. Garrett lends a hand to let her work in the shop in effort to remain in college. Blair rushes Gamma Gamma Gamma and later learns that sorority sister Boots St. Clair (Jami Gertz - Still Standing, Square Pegs) tricked her into sweating about the election, even though she is a legacy, and then decides moves into Mrs. Garrett's house.

Mrs. Garrett and the girls also experience vandalism of the shop by a trouble teen Kelly Affanto (Grease 2's Pamela Segall); visiting a male strip club where Blairs boyfriend is a dancer; illegal computer tampering with a competitive business; Mrs. Garrett learning she may be thrown on the street because her divorsing son's joint ownership, a very odd dream episode where the year is 2000, Mrs. Garrett being possessed and killing customers for much needed meat, Jo's sudden return of an old flame Eddie (Clark Brandon), and fights between the girls parents.

Visit our Merchandise Page

Order The Complete 5th Season From Amazon

Tuesday, June 22, 2010
THE FACTS OF LIFE: 2010
A fan of the show contacted us via email and told us about a remake theme they did for the show, and this one is worth mentioning. Mr. Calhoun, co-creator of Perfect Strangers: Seattle Intro Remake, put his crew together to re-make The Facts of Life Season Two introduction.

"Following Betty White's recent triumphant Mother's Day SNL episode, we thought it was time to showcase some local comic girl power of our own! Though its not technically a Seattle-centric remake like the Perfect Strangers remake, there are a few nods to its Seattle location (specifically, the school at the beginning is the Queen Anne High School Condos, and my wife, who plays Jo, wears a Mariners T-shirt," said Mr. Calhoun.

There ya have it. Head on over to YouTube to see two clips! It's very worthwhile, and thank you for sharing it with us.

Full-Screen Version (Available in HD)

Side-by-Side Comparison to Original Version (Available in HD)

Saturday, May 29, 2010
WHERE'S SEASON FIVE ON DVD?
(TVSHOWSONDVD.COM) Earlier this month Shout! Factory released The Facts of Life - The Complete 4th Season on DVD. It had been a looong wait for fans, who hadn't seen any home video sets come out since Sony had released the first three seasons in 2006. Naturally, these fans are wondering if there will be another very long wait for The Facts of Life - The Complete 5th Season!

One of our readers, "Dominik", asked Shout! Factory's customer service team about this, and he was kind enough to forward their reply to us (we appreciate it greatly!). He was told, "Thanks for being a fan! Yes, Season 5 is planned to be released in the late fall of this year. Sincerely, Shout Factory" We double-checked with our industry sources, naturally, and have been told that this is indeed the studio's plan right now.

Of course, plans and schedules can always move and change, so please only use pencil to mark it on your calendar, at least until Shout! makes their formal announcement. Stay tuned for that, and other specific information, as further developments occur!

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: YAHOO FEATURED!:

Tuesday, December 16, 2008
RUMORS STIR UP QUESTIONS ABOUT SEASONS FOUR AND FIVE ON DVD!:
It has been nearly three years since we first heard about the show coming to DVD (Seasons One and Two), and time really flies - - - - slow, when Sony has not released anything after the third season (October 2006). Sony is terribly slow about putting out releases of any show on DVD unless the sets make major sales for the company and/or the show seems to be only one season, and might I add that there is a reason that certain shows only lasted one season (mainly because it is crap). Yes, The Facts of Life is not a classic like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and Seinfeld (all of which are also owned by Sony), but this show deserves to be completed on DVD. Sony has released a ton of short-lived shows on DVD, but just does not seem to want to release their best, and most pop-culture influenced material including Maude, The Jeffersons, All In The Family and of course The Facts of Life.

Rumors have been circulating on a fan-site message board about seasons four and five on DVD. The fans have claimed to call Sony at 1-800-860-2878 and talk with a representative about Seasons Four and Five on DVD - three different people of which have heard from a representative that yes, indeed, The Facts of Life: Season Four and Season Five DVD's are, and we quote "in the works, and no official release date has been given." We decided to call Sony and see what was going on, a very friendly representative put us on hold after asking this question and she said, "From what I see on the lists that go through January, I do not see a release for The Facts of Life: Season Four to be released, that does not mean it will never be released, just at this time we are not releasing it with the information I have."

So - two different answers, we then contacted TVSHOWSONDVD.COM and spoke with Gord Lacey, who said - "I have no information about these releases for The Facts of Life." TVSHOWSONDVD.COM are a great reliable source and usually get information before the press releases are officialy announced. One problem we have with fans word is that usually there is a formal press announcement and the public is not allowed to find out such information until it is officially released, and how they get this information, we do not know.

We all pray it will be released, but if you want to snoop in to this, call Sony at 1-800-860-2878 and ask for yourself! We do not know if these rumors are true and recieved a "NO" answer from Sony. If Sony does plan on releasing a 4th season, we should at this rate see the complete series on DVD by 2015. But let's keep our fingers crossed and if you hear something email us at webmaster@televisionhits.com, we would like to know what Sony said to you! - Facts of Life Site

Saturday, May 31, 2008
STALLED SERIES? THERE'S HOPE!:
(TV GUIDE)How many times have you started collecting a series on DVD only to find it's been "stalled" because sales of the previous sets weren't good enough? It's probably happened to you at least once, more if you're a fan of classic TV. While there are many issues that contribute to a stalled series, we're not going to focus on those today; this is an upbeat article.

Yes, I'm here to tell you there's hope for your favorite "stalled" series! We (meaning Dave and I at TVShowsOnDVD.com) have been told a number of the larger studios have been shopping around their catalog of shows, including some of the "stalled" shows. The major studios are recognizing they have properties that are still desired, even when they can't fiscally justify releasing the sets themselves. They've now "seen the light," and are willing to license shows to the independents. We've already seen this happen in the past, with BCI getting Wanted: Dead or Alive from New Line, Anchor Bay/Starz getting some of the VH1 titles (I Love New York and Flavor of Love), and, more recently, Shout! Factory picking up Sports Night (though that had been released in its entirety).

While I'm not able to list some of the titles that have been shopped around, I can tell you that many fans will have frowns turned into smiles in the next year. There's some great, great stuff coming out (unfortunately the 1966 Batman series isn't one of them). It's good to hold out hope for your favorite show because you never know what announcement will come tomorrow.

So, what are some of the "stalled" shows you hope to see resurrected by a smaller studio? ¡X Gord Lacey

We can only pray that Facts of Life will resurrect from the dead again! It's always the mid-later seasons of this show that get the shaft! I can't tell you how annoyed this becomes to only see full-length episodes of Seasons One - Three -- what about the last um -- 6!! - Facts of Life Site

Friday, December 07, 2008
ONE DECADE LATER: AN UNFORMAL BLOG/EDITORIAL/DEDICATION FROM THE WEBMASTER:
I'VE NEVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE!

WOW!!! Imagine, just for a minute what it was like before YouTube, MP3 players, blogging, high speed internet, I phones, Windows Vista and XP, video clips, streaming video, TV on DVD, and high definition. What am I trying to get across??? The Facts of Life Site has been around since before all that. Well -- okay so they did have video clips on the internet back in 1998 but if you remember, we were all using dial up internet and it would take literally 1 hour for a minute clip that was 4'' by 4'' to load (actually it was probably a little smaller). My we have come a long way, and so has this site too. Take a look back at what it actually looked like 10 years ago on November 28th, 1998; the day this site was born. It's pretty amazing! In a world where internet websites come and go every second, it is a milestone that "The Facts of Life Site" has been here for over ten years.

Now a decade later, and after numerous updates and changes, I am still proud to say that there is still no other site quite as large as this one for The Facts of Life fans on the net. Ok, Todd Fuller of Sitcoms Online -- you gave me quite a scare back in 2000 when I first saw The Facts of Life Online, and I will admit that your site (The Facts of Life Online) does get more visitors than mine! That still makes me jealous to this day! ARGH! :) It wasn't only till the creation of his website, and not knowing what or how big he was going to make it, I still wanted to be the number one website on the net for this show (after all, at that time I was only 16 years old) so I tried after that point so hard to be the biggest (I can't believe I just said that out loud - lol).

www.factsoflife.com was still in existence and was clearly not going any further with updates (I even, after it's demise, got an offer to buy www.factsoflife.com from some stranger). At first, my site was nothing other than a copy cat of all other Facts of Life sites out there. I was proud to say after a couple of years, I added content on my own (Facts of Life Episode Guide Pictures, Site Format, Site Collage/Logo, Video Clips, Audio Clips, Yearly Synopsis', and compiling information about the show and more). Fast Forwarding to today, I will be the first to admit that I have been lazy on reading everyon's emails and updating the site recently (Guest Appearances Page under construction for about 2 years). It seems like The Facts of Life Site and The Facts of Life Online are the only two Facts of Life websites that still get updates (Beyond the Facts of Life not updated since '06 - and a great 80's Child Facts of Life Site vanished).

The only portion of the site that needs to be completed is the Guest Appearances Page (can I slit my wrists from the boredom and tedious work it takes to compile this massive list) and pictures for every episode in the Detailed Episode Guide pages (I have added a ton that weren¡¦t taken from factsoflife.com). Todd Fuller was smart when he made a Notable Guest Appearances Page. Why I was crazy and started working on compiling every single guest appearance actor/actress on a show that ran for nine long, LONG years, that -- I dunno.

All in all, I would like to thank every one of you for being a fan of my website and for visiting all these years -- without your hits I would have killed this site a very long time ago. Thanks Todd for the inspiration to keep me going -- I only wish we could collaborate our sites somehow! I promise I will try to keep the site updated and maintained more regularly so you all don't think it's a dead site. I have put way to many hours into creating this site that's for sure and it's not disappearing any time soon. I just wish I had more time to have everything completed. Make sure to check out the massive updates (see below) with tons more to follow. And shoot me an email - I promise I will respond! webmaster@televisionhits.com