an interstellar burst

I actually wrote this Saturday afternoon, saved it, then forgot about it.

I rarely ever blog during the day, I’m usually too busy or I simply can’t be bothered. But today is different; today I’m Ryan the Babysitter or Uncle Ryan “king of the kids”. One interesting caveat to the babysitting gig is that I have to monitor Marellie for side effects due to the fact she started a new ADHD medication today. You can imagine all of the unlikely scenarios which raced through my anxious and paranoid imagination. As it were, she’s acting just fine.

Anyways, my mother insisted that I spend some quality time with her today so we watched four episodes of “The Facts of Life” together. I’m sure you all subscribe to this as well, but we have this great On Demand channel called Tubetime whose programming specializes in some of the greatest, albeit, erstwhile eighties sitcoms. From my all time favorite “Who’s the Boss” to the terrible “Jeffersons”, and on to the always entertaining “Family Ties”, Tubetime is, well….quite good.

Half of the episodes we watched were part of a two show arc where the girls reflected on how their respective friendships matured and how they came to be living under the same roof. As a matter of fact, I still don’t fully understand the premise of the show, but if I’m not mistaken, it’s sort of a fictional “Real World” before there ever was a “Real World”. You take four young women from completely different backgrounds (black, fat, pretty, tomboy), add a wise old woman, and watch the group fight and solve problems. Interestingly enough, if you watch really closely, there is a lot of sexual innuendo and jokes about hormones. And before I forget, the character Blair (the hot one), is a real fox. On a related note, it turns out that she (the actress) found God and became an evangelical Christian.

Part of the flashback episode featured a cut scene where Mrs. Garret (the older lady) found a bong in the house. That was amusing. But by far the most entertaining yet disturbing episode was a particularly insensitive one featuring Tuti’s black boyfriend. As it turns out, not only was he a star athlete but he was also illiterate. I was a bit disappointed that “The Facts of Life” would perpetuate a racial stereotype like that.

Another interesting episode had a fat little brat run amok and terrorize the girls by pulling their hair and playing pranks. But much to my delight, that little brat was the same kid who played Chunk in “The Goonies”.

That’s it. Not much really, but Saturday afternoon did afford me the opportunity to relive a bit of my eighties childhood and perhaps enrich the childhood of another.

-that’s not really true because those episodes aired before I was born and I don’t think Marellie really enjoyed herself.

P.S. Does anyone remember the scene in “The Cable Guy” where Jim Carrey says, “I learned the facts of life from watching The Facts of Life….ohh Tuti”.

P.S.S. The very same night I wrote this, SNL made two references to “The Facts of Life”, creepy huh?