The 5 Most Controversial ‘The Facts of Life’ Episodes
The Facts of Life didn’t invent the “very special episode,” but you could argue that the sitcom perfected it.
Seemingly every second that Jo (Nancy McKeon), Blair (Lisa Whelchel), Tootie (Kim Fields), Natalie (Mindy Cohn) and the rest of the girls at Eastland School weren’t in class (or taking trips to Paris and Australia), they were learning life lessons about dating, jealousy, body image, risk-taking, and other issues of the day — even the show’s first episode, which aired on August 24, 1979, had a plot line where self-involved quasi school bully/rich girl Blair started rumors about the sexual orientation of her rival for homecoming queen. No matter what happened, Charlotte Rae’s Mrs. Garrett could always help her charges make sense of it in half an hour (minus commercial breaks).
But even for a show known for its socially aware storylines, a few episodes of The Facts of Life pushed the envelope, dealing with topics that had never before shown up on a teen TV show — or any TV show, period. Here are five of the most controversial ones.
1Cynthia Overdoses
In the Season 2 episode “Breaking Point,” a student named Cynthia beats Blair for class president, which of course draws Blair’s ire. The episode’s typical teen conflict take a sharp turn, however, when Tootie and Natalie find Cynthia unconscious in her room, overdosed on pills. Though typically in a “very special episode” like this, a character would attempt suicide but not succeed, Cynthia dies at the hospital, and the girls must try to make their own peace with what happened. Tootie struggles to make sense of Cynthia’s actions, while Jo delivers a typically tough monologue about death. The episode concludes with an ultra-modern mental health message for something that aired in 1981, with Mrs. Garrett assuring the girls that sadness is normal, but that if they feel overwhelmed, they can talk to her.
This was not the last time the show would deal with suicide — in the Season 9 episode “On the Edge,” Jo has to talk a social worker colleague out of jumping off a building (she succeeds, and everyone learns a lesson about coping with stress and depression).
Embassy Pictures/Everett Collection
2Jo Visits Her Father in Jail
Just a few episodes later, in Season 2’s “The Secret,” Jo’s elation at winning the Best New Student Award is tempered when she receives a letter from her father — a prison inmate. An ashamed Jo has been lying to her classmates, explaining his absence from her life by saying he lives in Miami. After word gets out, Jo decides to visit him in jail and break things off permanently. But she experiences a change of heart once she sees him in the flesh, and decides to give him a second chance.
3Natalie Narrowly Evades an Attack
Everyone is getting dressed up for the big Halloween party in the season three episode “Fear Strikes Back,” when Mrs. Garrett comes in with a shocking announcement: The headmaster’s secretary was attacked and sexually assaulted by a stranger in the school parking lot. Natalie blithely declares the Eastland girls safe — which she discovers is not true hours later, after she narrowly escapes an assault herself. Struck with PTSD, Natalie becomes a frightened shut-in, before being eventually coaxed by Mrs. Garrett into attending a very loopy self-defense class. In the class, Natalie is simultaneously shamed by the instructor for walking alone at night, and empowered by learning that items in her purse can be used as weapons against an attacker.
Remind 4Tootie Is Nearly Trafficked
In Season 3’s “Runaway,” Tootie attempts to make her own way to New York City after Mrs. Garrett decrees her too young to join the other girls on an outing there. Not quite able to negotiate the city on her own, Tootie is pickpocketed, and finds herself in a diner unable to pay her bill. Charming fellow teen Christie agrees to spot Tootie the cash — and is slowly revealed to be an underage sex worker, under the thumb of a pimp who looms around the edges of the diner and thinks young Tootie has “the look.” Only a last-second intervention by a concerned waitress saves the day.
5Natalie Loses Her Virginity
By the ninth season, the show had gone through a variety of changes, including Rae’s departure from the cast, and the addition of Cloris Leachman and a young George Clooney. They’d also covered topics touching every social ill from teen depression to the Klu Klux Klan. But perhaps the show’s most controversial episode ever was “The First Time,” in which Natalie happily loses her virginity to her boyfriend, Snake (played by Robert Romanus, best known as the similarly caddish Mike Damone in Fast Times at Ridgemont High). Natalie’s decision is controversial among the other girls, who are mostly scandalized — though Natalie ultimately decides she’s OK with her decision, even though Snake is later revealed to be highly immature.
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Natalie’s decision was controversial in the real world, too. The show’s writers had originally had the idea of Blair losing her virginity in Season 2, but Whelchel, who played Blair, declined the idea due to her religious beliefs. When the idea came up again in Season 9, this time with Natalie, Winchel actually skipped the episode, making it the only one in the series that she didn’t appear in.
Cohn was more than happy to take up the plot line, though. In fact, she thought having one of the characters — who were now all in their 20s, and often involved in romantic relationships — become sexually active was important for the show’s realism. “One of us had to do it,” Cohn told Oprah Winfrey’s Where Are They Now in 2014. “I said, we’ve always been this show that will touch every subject … one of us needs to have sex.” It’s widely considered the first sitcom to deal with loss of virginity, and set the standard for how future shows would deal with the topic.
Remind 
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