Before getting to number eight on our 80s TV Theme Countdown, I wanted to let you, the one visitor, know that I have discovered that the Seinfeld clip has disabled embedding. Sorry for that inconvenience, but you can still view the Costanza at his best by clicking on the link in the video.
Now, before you get too bored by the daily housekeeping, the clip you've been waiting for:
If you were a child of the 80s (or just of 80s TV), then you were waiting for this one. The Facts of Life theme went through many iterations in its nine year run, but none was better than the one you're listening to right now. However, if you want to check out some of the other versions look here to hear Charlotte Ray's... "less than good" vocals or here* for a wicked guitar lick and Cloris Leachman.
*Note the very 80s shoulder pads that each of the girls is rocking in their most recent clips. This show knew how to adjust with the times.
Think about what this theme does. We're talking constant repetition of the show's name in the song. It seems you can't go five seconds without hearing "the facts of life, the facts of life" played back to you. Yet, somehow, it works. Maybe the credos offered throughout are little more than Chinese fortune cookie wannabe sayings but that doesn't make them any less true. The facts of life are all about you.
The Season Two version of the theme also plays much better with the video as the cast has been greatly reduced from the prior year. Instead of the large boarding house with seven or eight regular girls plus the headmaster of the school and that other woman dropping by every episode; we have a much quainter setting with Mrs. Garrett, Blair (the rich, cute, bitchy one), Natalie (the nice, fat one), Tootie (the ethnic one), and Joe (the butch one). Now of course you'd get the occasional guest appearance by Jeri (the disabled one), but they didn't have to waste precious introduction space on her - they could just list her in the credits.
Simplicity in its purest form: the Facts of Life theme song. Later today we'll have Your Comedy Moment and hopefully a few other surprises.
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