List of The Facts of Life episodes

The Drummonds visit Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae) at Eastland School and during the Harvest Queen competition, Blair (Lisa Whelchel) makes a comment about tomboyish competitor Cindy not being feminine enough and even tries to insinuate that she's a lesbian. Cindy (Julie Anne Haddock) decides not to attend the Harvest Ball, until Mrs. Garrett helps her with her self-image.

Blair is upset that she might get a reputation for being easy when her multiple-divorcée mother visits for Parents Night and flirts with the headmaster, Steven Bradley (John Lawlor).

Mr. Bradley administers I.Q. tests; Nancy (Felice Schachter) and Sue Ann (Julie Piekarski) are not happy with the results.[note 1]

Tootie's father (Robert Hooks) thinks Mrs. Garrett's influence over his daughter is holding her back as Tootie (Kim Fields) has aspired to open a beauty salon.

Mr. Bradley pits Cindy and Sue Ann against each other in a track competition. Unfortunately, it's causing a lot of conflicts for the rest of the girls, including Blair receiving a black eye.

A new student, Jo Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon), arrives at Eastland and Mrs. Garrett has the streetwise Jo try to make friends with the snobbish Blair. Jo wants to do something rebellious, daring the girls to come along so she hotwires a van and takes them to a bar, but then they run into trouble when a good looking guy there reveals himself to be an undercover cop. Meanwhile, Mrs. Garrett gets a visit from Arnold Drummond (Gary Coleman).

After feeling excluded by the other girls for being the youngest, Tootie experiments with alcohol.[note 6]

Blair's mother visits and tells her she is getting plastic surgery, but Blair discovers she has a more serious condition: breast cancer.

Tootie gets the thrill of her life when pop-star idol Jermaine Jackson invites her to his concert and tearfully begs Mrs. Garrett to take her to the show, but she ends up heartbroken in Jackson's dressing room.

Blair and Jo start at Langley College while Mrs. Garrett leaves Eastland to open her own gourmet shop called Edna's Edibles, with help from her son Raymond (Joel Brooks). The girls wonder what their housing situation will be.

Blair is nominated to pledge the Gamma Gamma sorority at Langley. Jami Gertz makes the first of four appearances as Blair's sorority sister Boots St. Clair.[note 10]

Jo's in love, but resentment develops when her guy turns out to be wealthy.

Tootie discovers that her boyfriend Jeff, a school athlete, has problems reading.

Geri (Geri Jewell) gets a chip on her shoulder about her abilities when she asks Blair to assist her in a fundraising for a school for disabled children.

Eddie, Jo's former boyfriend, returns to rekindle their relationship but harbors a devastating secret.

Tootie is dismayed when Jeff returns from college and seems to have outgrown her.

The girls take Blair's father's car and go cruising in downtown Peekskill.

Natalie's odd behavior after losing a coveted newspaper position confuses her new boyfriend.

Tootie writes and performs a play about Eleanor Roosevelt.

An old boyfriend of Mrs. Garrett's arrives in Peekskill with his college-age son, Kevin.

Blair is torn between her friends' concern and her new boyfriend who has let his addiction to cocaine affect him.

The girls spend Spring Break in Florida when a hurricane hits.

While staying at Natalie's grandmother's in Florida, the girls each find new relationships.

Kevin moves into the attic and quickly becomes a nuisance to the girls.

The girls pile into Mrs. Garrett's car and spend the evening at the local drive-in, which is about to close for the last time.

Jo and Blair become concerned when Jo's father and Blair's mother appear to be getting very close.

Blair learns the hard way when she tries to take over and run Edna's Edibles "her" way.

When Natalie graduates from Eastland, she shocks her mother and her friends by deciding not to go to college.

The girls come back from summer vacation to find Edna's Edibles and their home gutted by fire.

After deciding to rebuild the shop with a new business, Mrs. Garrett and the girls must find a contractor they can afford.

Mrs. Garrett and the girls find that the grand opening of their new business, Over Our Heads, isn't quite so "grand".

After doing a stint of student teaching, Jo becomes torn between becoming a teacher or working at a corporation developing educational software. Irene Tedrow and Joyce Bulifant guest star as Jo's coworkers at the elementary school.

After a misunderstanding about Blair's birthday wishes, the party performer herself (vaudevillian Betty Kean) ends up staying with the girls.

In part one of the season seven finale, Mrs. Garrett returns for Tootie's graduation in time to learn what she and Natalie plan to do about their own futures.

In the conclusion of the season seven finale, Natalie and Tootie move into a new apartment and quickly learn that living on their own is not all it's cracked up to be.

Mrs. Garrett becomes reacquainted with Dr. Bruce Gaines (Robert Mandan), a man she met when she was serving in the Peace Corps. He proposes marriage to her, and she accepts. Her sister, Beverly Ann Stickle (Cloris Leachman), comes to the wedding in her Winnebago recreational vehicle. In spite of a scare at Depressed Person's Cliff, Mrs. Garrett and Bruce are married, and they rejoin the Peace Corps, leaving for Africa. Beverly Ann takes over Edna's duties at Over Our Heads in her place.

Jo offers to marry an immigrant so he can stay in the country.

Cinnamon (Stacey Q), who bested Tootie in the audition for a Broadway rock musical, arrives. She claims that she has been replaced in the show, but it is not the real story.

Pippa McKenna, a teenage girl from Eastland's Australian sister school Colunga Academy, enrolls at Eastland as part of its exchange program.

Jo meets Rick Bonner (Scott Bryce in his first of four appearances) at a community center while trying to find Andy a male role model. Rick is turning 30, and believes he will die soon, as no men in his family have lived longer than his upcoming age.

Jo's dad comes for a visit and finds Rick has more in common with him than he likes. Meanwhile, after consulting with the girls and Mrs. Garrett, plans are made by Beverly Ann to close Over Our Heads and convert the retail space into bedrooms for Pippa and Andy.

Natalie loses her virginity with her boyfriend, Snake.

Blair gets into a serious car accident when she falls asleep at the wheel, and she is devastated when it results in a large cut across her forehead.

When Blair discovers that Eastland Academy is in dire financial straits, she decides she has to make a tough decision about her future; she uses her trust fund to buy the school and save it from closing – and Eastland admits male students for the very first time. Juliette Lewis, Mayim Bialik, Seth Green, Meredith Scott Lynn and Kathleen Freeman appear in this two-part finale.

Blair faces her first challenge as headmaster of Eastland as she helps a student who is trying to get expelled.