During my formative years Wednesday nights were spent in front of the TV waiting for the next new episode of The Facts of Life. For those of you too young to remember, it was a sitcom that aired on NBC for nine seasons during the 1980’s. For those of you who can’t forget, it was the original “must see tv.”

It was the story of 4 girls at an upscale boarding school under the guidance of that school’s nutritionist. It doesn’t sound like much but I assure you, if you were a young girl in the 80’s it was everything! There was the extremely wealthy and gorgeous Blair Warner, the funny, Jewish girl Nathalie Green, the tomboy with a tough exterior Jo Polniaczek and wannabe actress Tootie Ramsey. As a young girl you could absolutely identify with at least one if not all of these girls and as an adult you had to appreciate their role model Edna Garrett.

On January 13th of this year, SHOUT FACTORY released all nine seasons of the show in a DVD boxed set collection.

As a blogger of cosmetic must haves, some must be wondering what’s up with the television show?

When I started TisB I promised to endorse things that I actually use and love and would recommend to absolutely everyone. Well, The Facts of Life is in fact (pun slightly intended) one of those recommendations.

This was a show about girls, who looked like us, talked like us and like us, made mistakes and learned from them. There was a certain amount of integrity with these girls and with the show itself. You didn’t watch to see what they were wearing, or who was going to backstab who. They dealt with many serious issues and the viewer could always take away something positive from each episode, without the show being too preachy.

I’ve recently re-watched a bunch of old episodes and cannot believe some of the topics they covered, from sexual assault, to race issues, from drunk driving to abortion, pretty relevant stuff even by today’s standards. What they never did was exploit topics for exploitations sake.

I mention this box set today for 2 reasons, #1. Nostalgia, everybody loves a good dose of yesteryear (and this show does stand the test of time) and #2. Today’s youth! When I see what airs on TV for tweens (a term that didn’t exist when I was one) and teens it frustrates me, it’s not all Mean and Gossip girls! There are other choices too.

What I’m suggesting is that Moms out there introduce your girls to Eastland’s girls and see what they think. There is definitely something for everyone on these discs and I’m pretty sure no one will be disappointed.

“You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the Facts of Life.”

xo Elisa (I was a hybrid between Jo and Nathalie…who were you)?