Short Engagements: What do I have in common with Mrs. Garrett and Jo?

According to wedding website The Knot, the average engagement is fourteen months. Tootie was likely engaged for something like that. She got engaged in episode 9-7 and was still engaged, planning her wedding, when the series ended. Victor and I were engaged for two months. There's no right or wrong, of course, but you know which other engagements were short? The other ones on Facts! Casual viewers may not remember that besides Tootie's engagement, there were three weddings planned (and two executed) in the course of the series: two for Mrs. Garrett (one that took) and one for Jo. And then there was mine.

Also starring: the corresponding spouses.

I know. Them's some white-ass muthafuckas.

Couple number one: Edna Garrett and Ted Metcalfe. Wedding scheduled for episode 6-17 "Two Guys from Appleton."

Couple number two: Edna Garrett and Bruce Gaines. Wedding scheduled for episode 8-1 "Out of Peekskill."

Couple number three: Jo Polniaczek and Rick Bonner. Wedding scheduled for episode 9-19 "Till Marriage Do Us Part."

Couple number four: Vikki and Victor. Wedding scheduled for December 31, 2015.

Before I continue, please note that photos from my wedding are courtesy of Elizabeth Livingston and Cindy McElhiney, dear friends who photographed the event.

Background

Edna and Ted

Edna and Ted were high school sweethearts. They had dated for a year and a half when Ted gave Edna his pin and they enjoyed their first kiss. Two and a half years later, they were supposed to go to a dance together. Ted was late because he got held up working at his father's hardware store. (NB:When George Clooney appeared in season eight he also worked at his father's hardware store. This comes from Charlotte Rae's memories of her father's own hardware store.) While she was waiting for Ted to pick her up, a vacuum cleaner salesman came by the door, and she was smitten. So she dumped Ted's ring on his doorstep and never talked to him again.

Good People: The Clark Brandon Interview (part 3)

Greetings, readers, and welcome to part three of my exclusive interview with Clark Brandon, 80s heartthrob and Facts' own Eddie Brennan for four episodes. In part one, we learned about Clark's history and initial thoughts about Facts, as well as about how sweating in a peacoat can be an acting breakthrough. In part two, we talked about who Eddie was, his character, and his outcomes. We also learned that there was very nearly a Jo and Eddie spinoff! I would have watched it. But whatever happened to Clark after Facts, and what is he doing now? To find out, continue on to Good People: The Clark Brandon Interview Part Three: I'm very respectful of people who reach out to me.

Good People: The Clark Brandon Interview (part 2)

Last month, I was able to sit down via Skype with Clark Brandon, the actor who played Eddie, Jo's boyfriend, in four Facts episodes in seasons two, three, and five. My biggest takeaway is that Clark Brandon is good people. Since he was nice enough to speak to me for a long time, there's a lot of content! Therefore I'm posting it in three parts. Part 1, discussing his early career and how he came to be on Facts, is published here. What follows is Part 2: Jo and Eddie would have been a great show!

Good people: The Clark Brandon interview - Part 1

One thing I've learned over the years is that if you don't ask, you don't get. I still suffer from great fear that I will "look stupid" if I ask for something, but I've also learned that "looking stupid" to someone who has no idea who you are isn't that big a deal, so if I have nothing to lose, I tend to ask.

As I was writing the recaps for The Ballad of Jo and Eddie episodes, I came across some contact information for Clark Brandon, the actor who played Eddie. I battled my impulse to not look stupid and I sent him an e-mail about the blog. I also asked him if he would be open to doing an interview with me.

A few days later, to my surprise and delight, he responded positively! We spent several weeks communicating to set up a time to conduct a Skype interview. On September 23, 2015, we were able to virtually come together to find out everything I wanted to know about both Eddie Brennan and Clark Brandon, and I'm happy to share it with you. What I learned most of all is that Clark Brandon is good people, and I'm extremely delighted to have had the opportunity to connect with him.

He was nice enough to speak to me for a very long time, so I'm going to post the interview in parts, divided in ways that seem logical to me. Please now enjoy Part 1: Not much on TV in the early 80s made sense.

Recap episode 5-23 "Seems Like Old Times" or: The tragic conclusion of the Ballad of Jo and Eddie

Sorry about the delay, dear readers, but I assure you that I've been working on something awesome if it comes to fruition. It's not related to the delay; the delay is only because I've been partying at Riot Fest in both Denver and Chicago. But I swear you'll totally forgive me for the delay if my thing happens.

Regardless, we have a tragic ballad to finish. We've been with our star-crossed lovers during their aborted attempt to elope and during their heartbreaking realization that it would be best for both of them to see other people. Although Jo's attraction to Bob, her simulated husband, was a contributing factor to the pseudo-breakup, she doesn't continue to see him and we never hear of him again. I understand that. No matter how much she liked him, it would have been incredibly painful to pursue anything with him after his being so entangled in the Eddie situation. But she went out with a dude whose name I forget in season four's "A Woman's Place," and she dated rich boy Bill in season five's brilliant "Just My Bill." Eventually, she would be the only one of the core four to get married on the show, wedding Rick Bonner in season nine. I desperately want to call Rick a poor, poor substitute for the glorious Eddie Brennan, but alas, it was Eddie himself who destroyed his reputation with his own poor judgment. Poor Eddie. Poor beautiful, dumb Eddie.

We know how it ends. Let us watch as it unfolds.

Recap Episode 3-7 "Sweet Sorrow" or: Eddie Brennan returns

In the middle of season two, we met the man that could melt Jo's steel heart. By the end of that two-part episode, Jo had decided that it was a bad idea to get married at 16 without having finished high school, and last we saw, a heartbroken Eddie Brennan was catching the midnight bus back to his base in Chicago.

Though their relationship status was ambiguous at the end of that episode, it's clear at the beginning of this episode that they're very much still together. Eddie paces the Eastland cafeteria, waiting for Jo's return from class.

Recap episode 2-8 "Teenage Marriage, Part 2 or: Then Jo Ran Off with Eddie

Previously on The Facts of Life:

When we last saw Jo and Eddie 
They was runnin' off to wed
Blair 'n' Edna tried to stop 'em
But they pushed 'em close instead
Jo said, "Only Eddie gets me!"
Eddie said, "Babe, say 'I do!'" 
And they rushed right out of dinner
And so now I bring to you...

...the conclusion of "Teenage Marriage."

Recap episode 2-7 "Teenage Marriage, Part 1 or: The Ballad of Jo and Eddie

Last week while catching several Facts episodes on Logo with my sister (more on how Logo hacks up the episodes in another post), we ran across all but one episode featuring Jo's first true love: Eddie Brennan.

C'mon, isn't he a heartthrob? Those eyes! That gentle, loving face! That precious overbite! In 1981, this was exactly the dude whose picture we ripped out of Tiger Beat and hung on our walls. He's way hotter than anyone Blair ever dated. I had a hell of a crush on him. I also had a crush on Mike Reno of Loverboy at the time. 

And this is my dude/boyfriend/partner whatever is one's preferred term for an unmarried committed opposite-sex bedfellow.

What can I say, I like cute, friendly-looking white guys with blue eyes.

Eddie was the first of the girls' boyfriends to recur, and I know I wasn't the only one pining for him. Facts gave us Eddie as a great character whose stagnation helped to highlight Jo's growth, and then whose own growth broke all of our hearts. Even as we knew that their lives were heading in different directions and that it was best for them to go their separate ways, we wanted Jo and Eddie to work out. We wanted an Eddie of our own, who would come back after a separation and just explode with chemistry, and we were devastated when it became clear that it just was not going to work out.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Because this was such a poignant saga, and because it's one of very, very few continuing story arcs in the series, I've decided to recap the arc's episodes back to back, and take you with me on the painful journey that is: The Ballad of Jo and Eddie.