The Good

This show deals with issues and ideas that all people go through. The writing and acting are tops. Very good Special Features.

The Bad

A few commentary tracks would have been really nice. Packaging doesn't list out where the Special Features are. Weird audio.

The Facts of Life: The Complete First and Second Seasons is very interesting because rarely in these sets do we see a show get slimmed down from one season to the next. I am not talking about content but from a cast standpoint. The first season gives us Tootie, Blair, Natalie and Mrs. Garret (four of the main players on the show for the next several years), but it also introduces people like Sue Ann, Cindy and Molly. Then, in the second season, some of those people are still around in smaller roles it seems, but we have the main four and the addition of the Jo Polniaczek character.

When I was younger watching this show, I never saw it as something specifically for girls. In fact, I never thought about that at all. I was close to these people in age and I just saw them as having a different school experience than myself. These shows really dealt well with friends betraying trusts (most of the time unknowingly), divorce, race, dating, etc.. After all these years, I find that The Facts of Life: The Complete First and Second Seasons have the same vitality that they had when I watched them for the first time.

Features

Remembering The Facts of Life Featurette

Lisa Whelchel (Blair), Mindy Cohn (Natalie), Kim Fields (Tootie) and others are on hand in this featurette that remembers those times. The actresses discuss the issues in the show, their characters and the effects that the show had not only on their lives but on viewers lives as well.

After Facts Featurette

Featuring many of the same people who are in the Remembering featurette, I was very excited to see this. Having interviewed Kim Fields recently, I was very pleased to see that many of the actresses on this show had careers once it ended. Also, it seems like people like Lisa Whelchel really have their heads in the right place about what is important in life.

Video

Full Screen - 1.33:1. Nothing too special about the way these 29 episodes look, but it is a sitcom so we've got to give it a little leeway, right? I found that these episodes could best be described as muted as far as their color was concerned.

Audio

Dolby Digital. English. Close Captioned. The audio is my biggest complaint in this DVD set. I say this because in the first episode everything plays fine audiowise, then I found that after that all the episodes got really low. Sure, the problem was solved by me turning up my TV, I just don't understand why the discs had this disparity in audio levels?

Package

Mrs. Garrett, Blair, Jo, Tootie and Natalie are all present and accounted for on this colorful and bubbly front cover. The back features a description of the show, some photos from a couple of episodes (and a promo shot of the early cast), a Special Features listing and some technical specs. Amazingly, they have easily put all 29 episodes that make up this collection onto 4 discs in two slim cases. The first case features the first season cast while the second case has the final five. On the back of each case is an episode index and description. Once again, Sony gets points for keeping things on the economical side.

Final Word

It was really great watching these shows and then getting to see where these actors went after the show ended. In fact, I have to commend Sony for making this such a complete experience. So many TV on DVD sets come out and they don't have any special features. A lot of times I am so happy to have the show to revisit that I don't let that bother me. However, it was a treat to be taken back to my youth with The Facts of Life: The Complete First and Second Seasons, and then be able to be brought into the present with the special features.

The Facts of Life: The Complete First and Second Seasons is a solidly put together TV on DVD release.

The Facts of Life was released .