Christmas in Peekskill: Ranking the Facts of Life Holiday Episodes

 

It took The Facts of Life five seasons to air a Christmas show, but it must have been well received because after that a holiday episode became an annual tradition until the series ended with season nine. I know it’s getting close to Christmas so you may not have time for five visits to Eastland – if that’s the case, I’ve ranked the episodes from worst to first. It’s my holiday gift to you. 

 

 

The Worst

“It’s a Wonderful Christmas”

Season 9

 

I never warmed to Cloris Leachman as Beverly Ann, who replaced Charlotte Rae’s Edna Garrett in Season eight. And this episode focuses mainly on her character, when she becomes convinced that she hasn’t made a difference in anyone’s life. “I wish I never came to Peeksill,” she laments (me too!), and cue the It’s a Wonderful Life pastiche. It’s a trope that can work if done right, as it did on Laverne & Shirley and Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. But here it just feels by the numbers. Not even Pippa’s punk rock makeover can save it.

 

 

Slightly Better

“Post-Christmas Card”

Season 8

 

Technically this is an after-Christmas episode that opens with Blair and Jo un-decorating the Christmas tree and discussing New Year’s resolutions. 

 

Then Natalie gets an unexpected “present” – a pre-approved credit card with $3,000 in available funds, ready to spend. Blair talks her into charging 50 bucks for a fancy appointment book, and then the floodgate opens. The holiday references are over after the first scene, but it’s still a more enjoyable show than the last one.

 

Worth Watching

“Christmas Baby”

Season 7

 

The highlight here is Marj Dusay in one of her occasional guest appearances as Monica Warner, Blair’s mother.  

This is the climax of a story arc that began when Monica discovers she’s pregnant in her forties, after being recently divorced. She goes into labor on Christmas Eve, disrupting everyone’s plans but in a most delightful way.

 

Adding narration by the newborn was a bit too cutesy for me, but there are some tender moments along the way that resonate, including when Blair asks Mrs. Garrett to say a prayer that everything will turn out all right. She is reluctant to ask herself, she confesses, because it’s been a while since she last prayed (a line that is noteworthy from Lisa Whelchel, whose Christian faith is well known). “If you have something to ask, it’s okay,” Mrs. Garrett responds,  “God’s listening.”

 

I always appreciate when God gets an occasional shout-out in a Christmas show.

 

When viewers spend seven years with a group of characters, as fans of this series have by the time this episode aired, there’s something rewarding about sharing a happy milestone in their lives. Here we get a Christmas celebration and a new baby – that’s 23 minutes well spent.

 

A Holiday Tradition

“The Christmas Show”

Season 5

 

Jo plans to visit her mother on Christmas, but then her mother takes a second job in Florida over the holidays, leaving Jo, in Tootie’s words, “stuck here with Mrs. Garrett.” Edna doesn’t take too kindly to that sentiment. The other girls hatch a plan to get Jo to Florida, in a way that won’t wound her stubborn pride.

 

This is the most “Christmas-y” of the show’s five holiday episodes, especially in how Edna’s Edibles looks charming decked out for the season. 

 

 

But it’s the always intriguing Blair-Jo dynamic that makes this one a winner. For me, and I guess to most fans, their relationship is the show, and the main reason why it lasted so long. There’s nothing new about the pampered snobby rich girl vs. the tough kid from the streets bit – but this is as well as it was done in the classic TV era.

 

They are two young women with nothing in common who started as bitter enemies, then over the course of nearly a decade found that they had more in common than they knew. The final scene delivers all the heartwarming feels viewers want in a holiday show.

 

A Classic

“Christmas in the Big Hosue”

Season 6

 

I probably like this one more than most, because I’m a sucker for sitcoms that present a musical episode. Blair and her country club friends decide to help the less fortunate by putting on a show for the underprivileged boys residing in the Nickleby House. But on the day of the event Blair discovers that the Nickleby House is actually the recreation hall at a men’s prison, so when the assistant warden arrives to pick her up, she refuses to go. After Jo, Tootie, Natalie and Mrs. Garrett decide to make the trip, Blair reluctantly joins them, but refuses to perform.

 

This is the kind of situation and the kind of impromptu holiday show that could only exist on TV – Jo and Natalie’s duet on “We Need a Little Christmas” would have real convicts asking to return to their cells. Mrs. Garrett fares better singing “O Holy Night,” but Tootie’s shimmying, strutting version of “Jingle Bell Rock” is just embarrassing.

 

After that number the girls are ready to leave, but the assistant warden says he promised the men more show, and asks if they can think up an encore. They can’t, until Mrs. Garrett reminds them that they are the only Christmas those men are going to have this year. Blair, at last, stands up. “I’ll go….it’s my turn, isn’t it?” And she walks silently onto the stage and performs a lovely a capella cover of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” 

 

 

And in that moment the episode is transformed into something special. Maybe those who watched her on The Mickey Mouse Club knew Lisa Whelchel could sing, but I didn’t, so the beauty of that performance was a revelation, and it never fails to put me in the proper holiday spirit.