Honeymoon/Vacation!

After a very short engagement, my husband and I got married in December. We are now taking our honeymoon to Oktoberfest in Germany. I tell you this only because it means I won't be able to update this blog for the next few weeks. But it seems that Facts reruns are showing on some new channels, and that has led a number of people to find and enjoy my blog!

I want to assure all new readers that the blog is alive and well; I am simply on vacation for a few weeks. Please enjoy my classic posts in the mean time!

In the spirit of travel, here is a screen shot from The Facts of Life Go to Paris movie. I learned in Charlotte Rae's autobiography that she got to take her sisters with her to Paris, and they briefly appear in the movie.

Meta: Looking back on Cousin Geri itself

Although this blog is about The Facts of Life, i.e., it is not about me, sometimes my life affects the blog. And, of course, I only do the blog because the show affects my life. What I'm trying to say is that I apologize for my posting schedule being somewhat irregular over the past couple of weeks. I've been traveling and it's not always easy for me to blog on the road. Now it's spring break, though, and I've got some down time in my new home in Colorado.

The view from my couch

I know I'm very lucky to live here. I mean, I'm blogging on my laptop in a house with this view while my partner and his friend are hitting the slopes. It's practically its own cable series!

I messed with the design of the blog a little. I don't really know what I'm doing, so I'm at the mercy of blogger's templates for now; I'm learning. I also successfully set up cousingeri.com, which I've owned for a couple of months, to redirect to the blog. I'm moving up in the world!

As I proceed through my tween years as a blogger, It's fun to look back on my early posts. I started this blog before the complete series was released on DVD, so all I had to rely on were the seasons 1-5 DVDs I already had and my own memory.

As disturbingly good as my memory is regarding this show, I, too, made some mistakes. Now that I've had the entire series for a couple of months and have watched almost all of it (I'm still taking it slowly to draw out the enjoyment as long as possible), I've realized that - enjoy these three words, because they're not said very often - I was wrong.

Watch this space...

In my Tuesday evening class, a remarkable thing happened. I was there early, sitting in my assigned seat eating my dinner, when a classmate, whom I know but not that well, came in and said to me:

"Is it weird that I read your blog?"

NO! For the love of Pete NO!! There is nothing weird about you reading my blog! I so appreciate it!

It turns out that he and his mother used to watch the Nick at Nite marathons when he was growing up. He told me that it was while watching The Facts of Life that he had his "I'm gay" epiphany. That entire exchange made me so very happy.

We are both progressives, and we chatted about what I've talked about before on this very blog - specifically, how progressive The Facts of Life is in actuality, regardless of its occasional ham-handed treatment of ISSUES.

Specifically, we talked about Natalie. We talked about how Natalie, despite being "the large one," never wanted for boyfriends and her weight was never discussed. He pointed out that she was also the victim of a sexual assault, dressed as Charlie Chaplin.

Right then and there, I made it a point to make my next recap that episode, just for my friend. It is quite remarkable, that in 1981, a time when "she asked for it" was even more commonplace than it is today (and make no mistake - there's plenty of it right this very minute), the show had a large woman, dressed as Charlie Chaplin, targeted. It drives home the point that it's not what you're wearing or how you look, and you're never asking for it.

Unfortunately, the recap has to wait. I spent the morning on an airplane, and since my computer has about 20 minutes of battery life, I wasn't able to blog on the plane. And now that I'm on a brief St. Patrick's Day Weekend vacation in Colorado, there's little to no chance of my being productive. Please do watch this space, though, the recap is coming soon. And I'll make up for this missed posts during spring break, I promise.

Love,

Vikki

The Internet Needs a Facts of Life Blog, and I'm Here to Provide It

I am an unrepentant devotee of The Facts of Life, a television show that ran from 1979 through 1988. I've seen every episode multiple times. I have most of them on VHS, although I recorded them mostly from TVLand when they were in syndication in the 90s, so there are bits missing (in syndication, bits were cut to make time for more commercials). I have seasons one through five on DVD; I would love to have to complete collection but Sony has only released the first five seasons. In fact, one of my hopes in starting this blog is to unite the Facts of Life community (or, indeed, make one) so that we can pressure Sony to get the rest of the episodes out already!

The version of the credits familiar to most people

Although I don't know if lobbying for DVDs is a move that's hopelessly behind the times. Are DVDs already passe?