Over Our Heads with The Facts of Life

In starting back up with my new media blog, I thought that it was only fitting that I review over the season seven premiere episodes of The Facts of Life: "Out of the Fire...," "Into the Frying Pan," and "Grand Opening" (1985). While I have seen these episodes several times throughout the years, I thought it may be fitting to review these over again as I start this new beginning.

"Out of the Fire..."

Starting off the episode, we see Tootie (Kim Fields) entering a plane to head back to her home of Peekskill, New York, waiting for her friends and co-stars Blair (Lisa Whelchel), Natalie (Mindy Cohn), and Jo (Nancy McKeon) to board. It is at this point that we introduce the episode's addition of thought narration, one of the more humorous parts of the episode.

When we arrive back to Edna's Edibles to start off the season, we see a fire has occurred not long beforehand, charring much of the set and allowing for an easy retooling of the series again, with Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae) constantly stating that things will be fine, nobody was hurt, and insisting that she doesn't want to open another business.

Despite the instances, the girls still find a way to convince Mrs. Garrett to reconsider and open a new shop, this time a novelty store with each girl as a co-owner instead of an employee, changing up the status quo of the previous two seasons.

A highlight of this episode is Mrs. Garrett and her logic behind not reopening, stating the obvious risks involved with starting a business, and the hardships behind rebuilding, especially when the odds are against you. As a starting business owner, myself with prior experience working on my own, I could truly relate to many of the struggles, and the hesitation she has with trying to start over. Luckily, she isn't alone, and that leads straight into the next episode.

"Into the Frying Pan"

One of the episodes I remember the best from the series, we see the team working to find someone to repair the shop, with the girls on a deadline to reopen in order to pay bills, using a real-world example to provide to the audience why the rebuilding process was being rushed on the series.

In this episode, we are introduced to George (George Clooney), a new neighbor who happens to conveniently be a handyman that the girls decide to employee to rebuild the shop, helping to launch the next arc of the series. While George is shown as fun to be around, it also appears that he is an inept worker, constantly changing plans or walking back his previous statements, leaving Mrs. Garrett with no choice but to fire him from his work. This feels similar in style to the earlier episode "The Chain Letter," where the girls are fired due to their lack of attention given to Edna's Edibles.

While an industrial no-nonsense company is left to finish the work left behind by George, the girls still rally around him to be a friend, making Clooney the newest addition to the cast for the season, where he would briefly stick around for another season or two with no true obligation to be there other than that he is their newest confidant.

Finally, within the episode, we see the reveal that the new store will be titled "Over Our Heads," a symbolic name given by Blair to represent the overambitious nature of them and their determination to rebuild, even when the chance of a positive outcome was bleak. By having each worker help punch in the last nail of the newly rebuilt shop, it showed the importance of both teamwork and having a support system, major assets when creating a business.

"Grand Opening"

Certainly not least, when it comes time to open the new shop, it is Mrs. Garrett who has second guesses, constantly questioning whether she made the right choice in agreeing to open the shop, with her girls ready to back her at every step, before realizing that business wasn't running as successfully as they had hoped.

New series regulars Clooney and Mackenzie Astin (who portrays young employee Andy) also join in on the fun, working on-and-offscreen to get customers into the shop for its grand opening, or should we say their closing sale?

When Mrs. Garrett gets arrested halfway through the episode, it is when she comes back that they decide it would be best to close out the shop and get their money back while they can. While it was bittersweet to see them give up so easily, they realized it was the best choice, and it may be best for them to go their separate ways.

In the process of closing down, a lonesome customer comes by and requests to purchase the new business outright, for the catch that it has to close immediately and only for a small percentage of its worth. While this is questioned by the girls, it soon comes to realization that they never really had faith in the business and didn't give it a chance before opting to hang in the towel.

In spite, it is Mrs. Garrett who opts to keep Over Our Heads open, opening the door to several possibilities that are explored throughout most of the remaining series, starting a new adventure for everyone involved.

For a spinoff series, this show has endured many retools, with this just being one of several introduced thus far. While it is a far cry from where the series began, it truly blossomed with each season, taking on another dimension to help make each better than the last. If The Facts of Life was able to survive this much change over its nine-year run, I know that this is just the first of many new blog articles to come!

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