The Facts of Life Trivia
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49 free The Facts of Life trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Facts of Life started life as a Diff'rent Strokes spin-off nobody expected much from, and ended up running nine seasons on NBC from 1979 to 1988. Charlotte Rae's Mrs. Garrett went from the Drummonds' housekeeper to housemother at Eastland, an all-girls boarding school in Peekskill, New York, and the show followed Blair, Jo, Natalie and Tootie from the dorm to Edna's Edibles, Over Our Heads and beyond. This quiz covers the whole run: the season-one cast that got trimmed (Molly Ringwald included), Jo's arrival on a motorcycle, the fire that turned a bakery into a gift shop, George Clooney's handyman, Cloris Leachman taking over from Rae, the TV movies in Paris and Australia, the theme song written by Alan Thicke and Gloria Loring, and the 2001 reunion. Some questions are easy for anyone who watched after school; others will test people who owned the DVDs. Every answer is checked against a reference source and each question links to where the fact was confirmed.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what New York town is the fictional Eastland School located?
Peekskill
Eastland is set in Peekskill, a Hudson River town in Westchester County, New York; the season-eight premiere is even titled 'Out of Peekskill'.
Q 02How many seasons did The Facts of Life run on NBC?
Nine
The Facts of Life ran nine seasons on NBC, ending in May 1988; a tenth was planned until Nancy McKeon and Mindy Cohn chose to leave.
Q 03Which future Brat Pack star was part of the large season-one cast before being written out?
Molly Ringwald
Molly Ringwald played budding social activist Molly Parker in season one and was dropped with Julie Anne Haddock, Julie Piekarski and Felice Schachter when the cast was trimmed.
Q 04Jo Polniaczek arrives at Eastland in season two on what?
A motorcycle
Nancy McKeon's character roars up to Eastland on a motorcycle in the season-two opener 'The New Girl'; her rivalry with the privileged Blair drove much of the retooled show.
Q 05Which New York borough is Jo from?
The Bronx
She is from the Bronx; a season-three backdoor pilot sent her home to visit her family there, with Megan Follows as her cousin Terry.
Q 06Why did producers first put Tootie on roller skates?
To mask Kim Fields' short stature
Producers put Tootie on roller skates to mask Kim Fields' short stature next to her castmates; the skates became a trademark alongside the braces and gossip.
Q 07What is Tootie's real first name?
Dorothy
Kim Fields played Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey for the show's entire run, having first appeared as the character on Diff'rent Strokes.
Q 08How was Mindy Cohn discovered for her role on the show?
Charlotte Rae met her giving a school tour during research
Rae and the producers were visiting Westlake School in Holmby Hills; the principal had assigned Cohn as tour guide and they were charmed by her comic timing.
Q 09Which cartoon character did Mindy Cohn voice from 2002 to 2015?
Velma in Scooby-Doo
Mindy Cohn voiced Velma in Scooby-Doo from What's New, Scooby-Doo? (2002) through 2015, succeeding B.J. Ward and reprising the role in Lego Dimensions.
Q 10Before Blair Warner, Lisa Whelchel was a cast member of what?
The New Mickey Mouse Club
She was a Mouseketeer on The New Mickey Mouse Club in 1977 before landing the preppy, wealthy Blair Warner.
Q 11How was Nancy McKeon discovered for the show?
A Hallmark commercial in which she cried on cue
Producers spotted Nancy McKeon in a Hallmark commercial in which she cried on cue, and cast her as the tough new girl for the retooled second season.
Q 12On which sitcom did Kim Fields appear as Penny's friend before The Facts of Life?
Good Times
Kim Fields appeared on Good Times as a friend of Penny, the character played by Janet Jackson, shortly before she created Tootie.
Q 13In season two, Mrs. Garrett took on what additional job at Eastland?
School dietitian
Q 21In the two-part series finale, what does Blair do to save Eastland from closing?
She buys the school
The finale doubled as a backdoor pilot in which Blair, now headmistress, is forced to make Eastland co-ed; the new students included Seth Green and Mayim Bialik.
Q 22Which future Oscar nominee played one of Blair's troublemaking new students in the series finale?
Juliette Lewis
Juliette Lewis, later an Oscar nominee for Cape Fear, played one of the new students; Seth Green, Mayim Bialik and Meredith Scott Lynn were also in the never-picked-up co-ed spin-off.
Q 23Who co-wrote the show's theme song with Al Burton and Gloria Loring?
Alan Thicke
Mrs. Garrett became Eastland's school dietitian in the retooled second season, with the four girls working in her kitchen and bunking next to her room as punishment; ratings rose at once.
Q 14In The Facts of Life, what was the name of the gourmet food shop Mrs. Garrett opened in season five?
Edna's Edibles
Edna's Edibles was the show's way of keeping the girls under one roof after Blair and Jo graduated from Eastland at the end of season four.
Q 15What replaced the food shop after it was destroyed by fire in the season-seven premiere?
A pop-culture gift store, Over Our Heads
The burned-out food shop was rebuilt as Over Our Heads, a pop-culture gift store, across the season-seven episodes 'Into the Frying Pan' and 'Grand Opening'; George Clooney joined the cast that season.
Q 16George Clooney's character on The Facts of Life had what job?
Handyman
Clooney's George Burnett is the handyman hired to rebuild the shop after the fire in season seven; it was one of several sitcom stops before ER made him a star.
Q 17Who played Mrs. Garrett's sister Beverly Ann after Charlotte Rae left The Facts of Life?
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman joined as Beverly Ann Stickle, Mrs. Garrett's flighty sister, and stayed through the end of the series after Charlotte Rae departed.
Q 18How was Mrs. Garrett written out of the show at the start of season eight?
She married and moved to Africa
The heavily promoted one-hour season-eight premiere sent her off with a Peace Corps husband; Rae felt she had done all she could with the character.
Q 19Which young shop worker did Beverly Ann legally adopt in the episode 'A Boy About the House'?
Andy Moffett
Beverly Ann adopted Andy Moffett, played by Mackenzie Astin (brother of Sean), who had joined the show in 1985 as the kid hanging around the shop.
Q 20Which of the four girls lost her virginity in the final-season episode 'The First Time'?
Natalie Green
Natalie Green became the first of the four girls to lose her virginity, with her boyfriend Snake, in the final-season episode 'The First Time'.
Thicke and Loring, then married, had also written the Diff'rent Strokes theme; Loring sang the later 'You take the good, you take the bad' version.
Q 24Which pair of writers created The Facts of Life?
Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon
Clair and McMahon, a comedy-writing team, later created Mama's Family and It's a Living.
Q 25In the Diff'rent Strokes pilot for the spin-off, what does Kimberly ask Mrs. Garrett to help with?
Sewing costumes for a student play
The dorm's housemother had just quit; Mrs. Garrett puts on a successful play but, at the end of the pilot, chooses to stay with the Drummonds.
Q 26What is the full first name of Nancy McKeon's character?
Joanna
Nancy McKeon's character is Joanna Marie Polniaczek, a name shortened to the two-letter nickname she goes by throughout the series.
Q 27In September 1985 NBC moved the show to Saturday nights as a lead-in for which new series?
The Golden Girls
Facts aired Saturdays at 8:30 as the lead-in to The Golden Girls, which premiered at 9 p.m. on September 14, 1985.
Q 28In the two-hour 1982 TV movie spun off from The Facts of Life, where did Mrs. Garrett and the girls travel?
Paris
The Facts of Life Goes to Paris aired on September 25, 1982, days before the season-four premiere, and was later chopped into four half-hour episodes for syndication.
Q 29The 1987 TV movie The Facts of Life Down Under sent the gang to which city?
Sydney
The Facts of Life Down Under, a two-hour NBC TV movie from February 1987, sent Beverly Ann and the four girls to Sydney, Australia.
Q 30Which of the four girls was missing from the 2001 TV movie The Facts of Life Reunion?
Jo
Jo was the only one absent: Nancy McKeon was tied up with her series The Division, and the reunion aired on ABC rather than NBC.