The Facts of Life – Stories from behind the scenes

The Facts of Life is the ultimate girls television show that aired from 1979 to 1988. The show revolves around the world of one middle-aged caretaker and four young women, going through what young women go through – drama, drama, drama! Between their school work, boy troubles, fights between themselves, and comedic timing, this show had everything a girl could ask for. We loved the show so much that we had to go ahead and scrunch up some behind the scenes juice; we knew there had to be some!
[post_page_title]Spin Off[/post_page_title]
The Facts of Life was a spin off from the hit series, Diff’rent Strokes. It all started with the Drummond family’s housekeeper, Edna Garrett, deciding to take a job as the caretaker at an all-girls prep school in Eastland. The story revolved around Garrett and the group of young women.

The show was not an instant success, so much so that NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff needed to convince producers not to pull the plug. Tartikoff told the New York Times in a 1988 interview, “(producer) Norman Lear, who didn’t want his name on the show, probably netted about $30 million in his personal bank account for not wanting that show to exist.”