Sunday, July 13, 2025
Flopcast 688: The Backs of Life 8 - The Beginning of the End of 1988
We're using our 1988 episode to finally wrap up our Backs of Life series, in which we review every backdoor pilot episode of classic 80s sitcom The Facts of Life. And this final two-part backdoor pilot from April 1988 is actually the end of the whole show! (Farewell, Tootie...) We start with a fleeting glimpse of the regular cast (which by this point also includes Australian moppet Pippa), but soon we're solidly in backdoor pilot territory. Eastland, the girls' old school, is in danger of closing, so Blair buys the place, and welcomes boys to enroll as well as girls. Then we see a whole new crop of young Eastland students, including some future stars: Juliette Lewis, Mayim Bialik, and Seth Green! Did this backdoor pilot lead to another beloved long-running series? Of course not. But does it end with the girls meeting a giant chicken? Well, kids, sometimes the world really seems to be living up to our dreams.
Show Notes
Fittingly, one of the last things we see onscreen is a chicken suit.

Relive the whole saga!
- The Girls School from Diff'rent Strokes
- Brian and Sylvia
- The Academy
- Jo's Cousin
- The Big Fight
- Graduation
- Big Apple Blues with Chris Cummins