The BEST episodes of The Facts of Life
Every episode of The Facts of Life ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Facts of Life!
Charlotte Rae stars as a dietician and house mother at a private girls' boarding school, watching over students Blair, Tootie, Natalie and Jo.
#1 - A Death in the Family
Season 5 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/1/1984
The girls are shaken by the sudden death of Natalie's father and wonder how to ease her pain.
#2 - Runaway
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/24/1982
Tootie becomes lost in New York City and befriends a young prostitute in a coffee shop.
#3 - Out of the Fire...
Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/14/1985
After returning from their summer vacation, the girls discover that Edna's Edibles has burned down. This leads the girls to discuss rebuilding and opening up a new business.
#4 - The Ratings Game
Season 8 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/15/1986
Blair's computerized date-rating system is the focus when she makes a bet with Jo dealing with whether or not the system really works. However, when Beverly Ann accidentally erases a disk, Jo tampers with some of the ratings.
#5 - Christmas in the Big House
Season 6 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/19/1984
For the Christmas season, Blair and some of her snobby friends plan on putting on a Christmas show at a home for boys. Her Christmas spirit quickly changes when she discovers that the home for boys is really a home for convicts.
#6 - Green-Eyed Monster
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/13/1982
Natalie and Tootie feud over the lead role in the school's production of South Pacific.
#7 - Legacy
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/6/1982
A large sum from Blair's grandfather's estate is being donated to build a new library. But Natalie uncovers a shocking secret about the benefactor.
#8 - The Christmas Show
Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/21/1983
The holidays bring joy to the girls when they all plan on going home for Christmas but when Jo's mother temporarily moves to Miami, Jo is stuck in Peekskill.
#9 - Next Door
Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/4/1984
A young boy enters Edna's Edibles and Tootie befriends him and learns that he lives next door. She also learns that his mother works all day and leaves him home alone and tells him never to leave their apartment and when a gas leak is detected on the block the young boy won't budge.
#10 - Take My Finals, Please
Season 4 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/27/1983
It's finals week at Eastland and the girls are planning an all night study session. They soon find out that studying is going to be hard with so many distractions, including Blair and Jo's fears of the future in college and Natalie's fear of an upcoming Chemistry exam in which she must memorize the atomic symbols.
#11 - With a Little Help From My Friends
Season 6 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/30/1985
Blair is concerned when she discovers her date is doing cocaine.
#12 - Bus Stop
Season 6 - Episode 25 - Aired 5/8/1985
Mrs. Garrett and the girls are all excited about Natalie's graduation and buy her a bookcase with a brand new set of encyclopedias on the assumption she's going to college. To her friends surprise, Natalie has a very different plan for life after high school.
#13 - Me and Eleanor
Season 6 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/2/1985
A no-win situation: Tootie asks Natalie for an honest opinion of her dreadful one-woman play about Eleanor Roosevelt.
#14 - Smile
Season 6 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/5/1984
Natalie is nervous after an interview for a job she applied for with the town newspaper. However, after she learns she didn't get the job, her strange behavior threatens her relationship with her boyfriend.
#15 - Mother and Daughter
Season 5 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/29/1984
Tootie's mother comes to Eastland for a visit, and the fact that Tootie doesn't communicate with her mother becomes apparent. Her mother quickly realizes there are many things she doesn't know about her daughter and wants to have an open relationship with Tootie but will Tootie allow that?
#16 - What Price Glory?
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/19/1983
Tootie's new boyfriend, Jeff, is the star football player on the football team at Eastland. However, she learns a startling secret that he's been keeping, he's illiterate. She now must decide whether or not to encourage his behavior of having other kids do his work for him.
#17 - The Second Time Around
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/14/1983
Jo begins seeing sparks between her divorced parents and immediately hopes they get back together. However, her hopes quickly become dashed when she learns that her father is planning to marry another woman.
#18 - The Four Musketeers
Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/10/1982
Mrs. Garrett tells the girls that their debt has been paid and that they are free to move out. But the girls come to realize they don't want to change their living arrangements.
#19 - Brave New World (1)
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/21/1983
Jo and Blair have a hard time adjusting to college.
#20 - Small but Dangerous
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/16/1983
Streetwise Kelly alleges that the vandalism of Edna's Edibles was the work of a local gang, but Jo decides to investigate.
#21 - The Last Drive-In
Season 6 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/13/1985
The local drive-in theatre is closing and the girls decide to pay it one last visit on the final night it's open. However, chaos reigns when people begin to loot the theatre and Blair gets into a cat fight.
#22 - It's Lonely at the Top
Season 6 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/27/1985
With Mrs. Garrett out of town, Blair wants to be in charge of the shop so a reluctant Jo, Natalie and Tootie step aside and let her. Quickly Blair's handling of a competitor food shop goes awry.
#23 - 3, 2, 1
Season 7 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/23/1985
Blair and Jo argue over stories and editorials that are to be presented as a news report which is also going to include a behind the scenes look at the girls' shop, Over Our Heads.
#24 - New York, New York
Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/3/1982
Blair and Jo visit old friends in New York but soon realize their own friendship is much more meaningful.
#25 - Boy About the House
Season 8 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/28/1987
Beverly is sick of seeing Andy shuttled from one foster home to another, so she offers to adopt him.