Photo illustration by Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Click photo for larger image.

Opie was a tyke. J.R. Ewing wasn't yet the most hated man in Dallas or prime-time TV. And Pamela Anderson was a bit player on "Home Improvement," not a woman known for improving her, uh, bits.

That's back when "The Andy Griffith Show," "Dallas" and "Home Improvement" were in their first seasons, all now available on DVD. Post-Gazette staffers have spent the past several weeks putting their DVD players and reviewing skills to the test. Let the holiday buying begin.

"The Andy Griffith Show -- The Complete First Season"

By the end of the 1960s, the Tiffany Network was taking it on the chin for its cache of cornpone comedies -- from "Green Acres" and "The Beverly Hillbillies" to "Hee Haw" and "Mayberry RFD." To reclaim an air of "sophistication," all had been axed by 1972. Thankfully.

"Mayberry RFD" was the sorry spinoff of "The Andy Griffith Show," which had begun the 1960s as CBS's brightest light, ending its run in 1968 as the top-rated show in America. From a critical standpoint, it didn't deserve that ranking; the show deteriorated precipitously after Don Knotts' (Barney Fife) departure and, curiously, with the advent of color.

But in its inaugural year -- and for its first five seasons -- it was gold. If ever cornpone donned a tuxedo, it was "The Andy Griffith Show."

The first season of the show is now available in a four-DVD collection from Paramount Television, and the on-screen chemistry of the core cast members -- Griffith (Andy Taylor), Ronny Howard (Opie), Frances Bavier (Aunt Bee) and Knotts -- is unmistakable from the first instant.

"The Andy Griffith Show" cast from left; Don Knotts as Deputy Barney Fife, Ron Howard as Opie Taylor and Andy Griffith as Sheriff Andy Taylor. Click photo for larger image.

Despite the classic antics of Barney and the sitcom's many other fine characters, Opie's relationship with his widowed father was the moral center of "The Andy Griffith Show." Theirs was a bond that reached through the screen and into the hearts of real families, rural and urban. Sadly, very little about new millennium TV does likewise.

This is a no-frills boxed set -- no extras, period. You get what you saw (or see in endless repeats on TV Land), which in this case is 32 episodes of heart, humor and soul. It's interesting to be introduced to details (Barney is Andy's cousin) and first-season regulars (Elinor Donahue as Andy's first love interest) that soon fade, but the real enjoyment here is in the laughs and the love.

As Griffith often says in interviews, the magic of the show was rooted in good, funny, wholesome storytelling and the ability to treat backwoods America with dignity and respect. Is there a better definition of sophistication?

-- Allan Walton

"Boomtown"

"One crime. Different points of view. Until you've seen them all, you won't know the truth."

The series' tagline sums it up. Creator Graham Yost and co-executive producer Jon Avnet presented NBC with a brilliant, 18-episode first season, and the network treated it as an afterthought, moving it around the schedule and requesting episodes be somewhat dumbed down because audiences weren't deemed bright enough to follow the non-linear plots. Hence, there was no real second season, although a handful of episodes were burned off and will no doubt show up on DVD at some point.

Boomtown was more than a crime show. At the get-go, viewers saw the lurid aftermath of some wrongdoing. But nothing was ever as it really seemed, and stories unfolded from the varying perspectives of two Los Angeles detectives, two beat cops, an assistant D.A., a journalist, a paramedic and, of course, the victims.

	Cast in "Boomtown" were, from left, Mykelti Williamson as detective Bobby Smith, Jason Gedrick as officer Tom Turcotte, Donnie Wahlberg as detective Joel Sears, Gary Basaraba as officer Ray Hechler . Click photo for larger image.

Beyond the story lines, which nicely showcased the beauty and grit of L.A., each of the main characters was deeply written, and their personal lives were various studies in desperation.

Avnet, who directed the pilot episode, set the tone with lots of hand-held camera work and jump cuts. "We were going for a documentary feel," he says on the first of two excellent DVD-extra short programs.

Although the detective team of Joel (Donnie Wahlberg) and Fearless (Mykelti Williamson) were often at the center of each story, the breakout character was Neal McDonough's David McNorris, an ambitious assistant D.A.

Several ongoing story lines were wrapped up in Season 1, mainly because, Yost said, they weren't hopeful NBC would give them a shot at Season 2. Good call.

-- Maria Sciullo

"The Wire: The Complete First Season"

Critics can rain hosannas down on HBO's best written and most consistently brilliant series until they're blue in the face, but it doesn't seem to be enough to expand the audience for a show that specializes in rewarding the attentive at the expense of those prone to reaching for the channel changer at the first sign of difficulty.

No doubt about it, "The Wire" is tough going compared to the episodic fare of the "Law & Order" and "C.S.I." franchises with their attractive casts, tidy moral dilemmas and predictable endings.

For starters, "The Wire" makes no attempt to gloss over the banality and tedium of crime, the tactical short-sightedness of criminals or their dreary solipsism. Criminals are portrayed as clever, but fundamentally self-absorbed and careless.

But wait, "The Wire" ain't all that flattering about the cops in West Baltimore, either. If anything, after three seasons on HBO, the series has gotten even more caught up in weighing the humanity of its self-aggrandizing cops and criminals with something resembling a rough moral equivalence. For refusing to follow the conventional route of making judgments about what its characters do, "The Wire" is both television's most amoral and its most honest series.

With the release of "The Wire: The Complete First Season," those who missed this innovative series when it debuted a few years ago have a chance to get in on the ground floor of a television classic in the making.

All of the characters, including anonymous drug couriers, violent street cops and stoolies, complement each other in a grand tableau of virtue and vice not seen since the late, lamented "Homicide: Life on the Street." Andre Royo is especially good as the streetwise crack addict "Bubbles," a copper thief who provides the task force with much of its best intel about the Barksdale crew.

"The Wire" is the scratch for the itch you never knew you had.

-- Tony Norman

"Everwood"

Fans wanting a fairly substantial behind-the-scenes look at The WB's "Everwood" won't be disappointed by the 23-episode first-season boxed set.

Andrew Eccles, The WB Featured in "Everwood" were, from left, Gregory Smith as Ephram Brown, Treat Williams as Dr. Andrew Brown, Vivien Cardone as Delia Brown. Click photo for larger image.

In addition to commentaries on the season's best four episodes, the set includes deleted scenes, a three-minute selection of home video footage shot by stars Gregory Smith and Emily VanCamp and "In Search of Everwood," a 25-minute documentary that gives a good sense of some of the show's stars and why they were cast in this winning series.

-- Rob Owen

"Everybody Loves Raymond: The Complete First Season"

When Robert Barone (Brad Garrett) first uttered the line that doubles as the show's title, his deep voice was dripping with sarcasm. But most of America has come to love Raymond, or at least his Monday-night sitcom.

I was a relative latecomer to the show, so it was a delight to watch the pilot, with Ray's famous gift to his parents: membership in the fruit-of-the-month club. First up, pears. Marie (Doris Roberts) is flummoxed by the fruit. "He's got us in some kind of cult." That storyline was inspired by a Hanukkah gift that executive producer Phil Rosenthal gave to his parents.

This five-disc set features commentary by Romano and Rosenthal on the pilot and 22nd episode, Romano's "Late Show With David Letterman" appearance that started it all and three featurettes, "How We Got Here," "Casting the Family" and "On the Air." Among the tidbits: The producers were unanimous in their choice of Garrett but saw 100 actresses before Doris Roberts nailed it. Patricia Heaton, who remembers clipping coupons before her appearance, won the role of Debra over 200 actresses, and Peter Boyle got lost on his way to the audition, which fueled his irritability.

Romano, by the way, hated the show's title and has a framed sheet with alternates such as "Um, Raymond." Almost as bad as the fruit-of-the-month club.

-- Barbara Vancheri

"Without A Trace: The Complete First Season"

Fans of this first-rate procedural drama about the missing-persons squad of the FBI's New York office will find plenty of extras on this four-disc set. Nine of the 22 episodes have a "missing evidence" option of un-aired scenes -- don't miss wily Agent Jack Malone (Anthony LaPaglia) conducting a riveting interview with the prep school headmaster in episode 5, "Suspect."

The two-part season finale is an expanded "Creator's Cut" version, adding to the story that weaves the hostage-taking of Agent Samantha Spade (Poppy Montgomery) with the aftermath of 9/11.

The fourth disc is entirely bonus material, featuring interviews with all the major players behind and in front of the cameras. It's especially fun to hear Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who plays Agent Vivian Johnson, speak in her native British accent. How do these Brits manage to sound sooo American? There's also a segment explaining how the designer teams came up with their trademark fade-ins, and the challenges of making Los Angeles street scenes look like New York City.

-- Sally Kalson

"ALF"

The '80s sitcom "ALF" isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I loved the show as a kid and still admire the furry alien's sarcastic sense of humor.

But even I didn't think the first-season boxed set would be one of the more satisfying, fan-friendly DVD releases this year. It includes 25 episodes, including an unaired pilot that showcases more of the Tanner family before ALF's arrival. The discs also feature new scenes of ALF made specifically for the DVD menus, and ALF offers descriptions of every episode.

In addition, a blooper reel shows ALF goofing around with sitcom mom Anne Schedeen.

"Don't touch me! What's the name of this show?" exclaims a temperamental ALF in one outtake.

"I should rip an ear off," Schedeen responds.

"If you're gonna touch me, touch me down here," ALF says, grabbing Schedeen's hand and directing it toward his nether regions.

-- Rob Owen

"Arrested Development: Season One"

"There's always money in the banana stand!" -- George Bluth Sr.

In "Arrested Development: Season One," meet the riches-headed-for-rags Bluth family -- the most dysfunctional, wealthy TV family since the Ewings but a lot more fun.

Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) is the stabilizing voice of reason in the family after his father, George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor), is jailed for creative bookkeeping. Michael tries to be a good father to his son, George-Michael (Michael Cera), while he sorts through the family's business problems and keeps his siblings -- Gob (Will Arnett), Buster (Tony Hale) and Lindsay (Portia DeRossi) -- socialite mother (Jessica Walter), doctor-turned-actor brother-in-law (David Cross) and juvenile-delinquent-wannabe niece Maeby (Alia Shawkat) from frivolously spending what assets the government hasn't frozen.

The three-disc set includes all 21 original episodes from the Emmy Award-winning comedy's first season and more extras than you can shake a chocolate-covered banana dipped in nuts at. Special features include the never-aired extended version of the pilot, an inside look at the show with executive producer and narrator Ron Howard, cast audition tapes, audio commentary from the series creator, directors and actors on selected episodes, a Museum of Television & Radio cast panel discussion, a TV Land featurette, bloopers, original songs and deleted scenes.

-- L.A. Johnson

"Cedric The Entertainer Presents"

	DVD of "Cedric the Entertainer Presents" includes six episodes that never aired. Click photo for larger image.

What do you get when you cross "Chapelle's Show" with "In Living Color"?

What we got was Cedric The Entertainer's highly entertaining "Cedric The Entertainer Presents." The short-lived series has been released on DVD in a 3-disc set that includes all 21 episodes, six of which were never aired.

With a cast of players that includes his "Steve Harvey Show" co-star Wendy Raquel Robinson and the Ced-sation Dancers, Cedric brings his urban slant to the time-honored tradition of sketch comedy.

Two of the more memorable characters are Mrs. Cafeteria Lady, who dishes up insults with her mash potatoes and corn, and Chef Reverend, for whom cooking is a religious experience.

-- Monica Haynes

"Dallas: The Complete First and Second Seasons"

This five-disc set contains the first 29 episodes of the landmark prime-time soap opera. The shows, which aired from April 1978 to May 1979, are a great guilty pleasure.

Originally a miniseries, the five-episode first season flounders. In the "Romeo and Juliet"-style story line about the feuding Ewing and Barnes families, Patrick Duffy and Victoria Principal played newlyweds Bobby and Pamela Barnes Ewing, and the stories are insipid although often steamy. Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing is under the radar, and Linda Gray as his wife, Sue Ellen, originally wasn't even important enough to be listed in the opening credits. Jim Davis and Barbara Bel Geddes as Jock and Ellie Ewing, heads of the family, hold the show together.

In Season 2, the plots begin to focus on J.R.'s machinations, and the show takes off fast. The wonderful Hagman evolves into a jaw-droppingly evil archetype. Of interest to fans will be that Colleen Camp (Kristin Shepard), David Wayne (Digger Barnes), Morgan Fairchild (Jenna Wade) and David Ackroyd (Gary Ewing) play roles that later went to, respectively, Mary Crosby, Keenan Wynn, Priscilla Presley and Ted Shackelford. In the show's first end-of-season cliffhanger, the drunken Sue Ellen has escaped from the sanitarium to which J.R. has committed her, and she wrecks her car -- do she and her unborn baby survive?

Although any "Dallas" fan will enjoy these DVDs, the series didn't become must-see TV until the third season. By the mid-1980s and until the show's last episode in 1991, the show had become a travesty of its best years, but these entertaining early episodes showed the promise of the classic show that would soon emerge.

-- Jim Heinrich

"The Golden Girls: The Complete First Season"

Starring in the "The Golden Girls" were, from left, Bea Arthur, Rue Mcclanahan, Estelle Getty and Betty White. Click photo for larger image.

Just like Dorothy, Rose, Blanch and Sophia, "The Golden Girls" has aged very well.

The 1985 premiere season on DVD, released Tuesday, features the first 25 episodes, including the pilot. And, as anyone who has caught the reruns on Lifetime can attest, the show is as funny as ever.

The most shocking thing is how old Sophia (Estelle Getty) looks in the pilot. The makeup artists rolled back the years for the eldest character -- who in reality was the second youngest actress on the show -- as the series progressed.

While the girls -- Bea Arthur, Betty White and Rue McClanahan -- kept me glued to the TV, the three-disc set doesn't offer any worthwhile extras.

In fact, the only "bonus" feature is a red-carpet type critique of the fashions by Melissa and Joan Rivers. Is it really fair to make fun of people for wearing '80s fashions in the '80s?

And am I the only one to see the humor in having the mean-spirited, often face-lifted Rivers comment on a show about friendship and aging gracefully?

-- Brian Hyslop

"Knight Rider: Season One"

In the rear-view mirror, it now seems so obvious "Knight Rider" was going to be a hit. A talking car, a hokey hunk? Take it to the bank. The only thing you couldn't see coming was that David Hasselhoff would need KITT years later to drive him home from the bar.

"Knight Rider" satiated computer geeks and gearheads with a sleek-looking car of the future, KITT. And the rest of TV land was either impressed or infatuated by that ladies man in the driver's seat, Hasselhoff. What kid who saw it didn't wish his old man's car could drive itself, and what adult didn't mutter that KITT drove better than his or her spouse?

The collection comes complete with the two-hour pilot. Here you learn why Hasselhoff's character is fighting crime for the Knight Foundation after being shot in the head -- though not why the surgeons needed to reconstruct his face into that of a big-in-Germany matinee idol.

If you are a fan of the show or hosting an '80s party, the collection is worthy. Everyone else probably will want to steer clear of it. The interviews and commentary with Hasselhoff, creator Glen Larson and others give some inside baseball, but avoid the awful bonus disc movie of "Knight Rider 2000," in which KITT becomes a '57 Chevy or something. The best bonus feature is a schematic of the inside of KITT. But in the end, it's most fun to see a young Hasselhoff in a Members Only jacket going 120 mph without a seatbelt, straight toward "Baywatch."

-- Andrew Druckenbrod

"The L Word: The Complete First Season"

"The L Word" is a Sapphic "Melrose Place" of sorts -- a fun, guilty pleasure with its own unique brand of over-the-top drama from bed-swapping and bi-curious straight women to cross-dressing and women-in-prison scenes.

The Showtime series features beautiful Hollywood starlets playing lipstick-lesbian friends living, laughing and loving in Los Angeles. Bette (Jennifer Beals) and Tina (Laurel Holloman) are a successful career couple trying to have a baby and deal with their seven-year-itch issues. Their next-door neighbors, Jenny (Mia Kirshner) and Tim (Eric Mabius), have a relationship breakdown when Jenny finds herself attracted to trendy coffee-shop manager Marina (Karina Lombard). Bette's sister, Kit (Pam Grier), is an alcoholic songstress with troubles of her own. The tough-but-sensitive hair stylist Shane (Katherine Moennig), the closeted tennis player Dana (Erin Daniels) and the bisexual journalist Alice (Leisha Hailey) round out the circle of friends.

The five-disc set includes all 14 first-season episodes, a segment with the show's fashion consultants, a very strange and scary puppet movie titled "The L World," conversations with the series' creator, writers and actors, a peek inside each character's wardrobe closet, fan mail, cast biographies, a photo gallery, information about entering a lesbian cruise sweepstakes and a sneak preview of Season Two.

-- L.A. Johnson

"MADtv: The Complete First Season"

"MADtv: The Complete First Season" has all 19 episodes from the edgier-than-SNL sketch comedy series' inaugural season. The three-disc set includes some of the pop culture parodies that have made the show a smash, such as "Gump Fiction" and "Larry King Gone Mad," and includes cast members Artie Lange, Orlando Jones, Bryan Callen, David Herman, Pat Kilbane, Phil LaMarr, Mary Scheer, Nicole Sullivan and Debra Wilson.

DVD extras include unaired sketches (all of which were best left unaired), bloopers and the best movie, commercial, television, music video and animation parodies from the first nine seasons, including "The Wizard of Oz" lost footage in which the Emerald City-bound foursome encounters a one-legged runaway slave, "Lords of the Bling" with Li'l Kim as "Froho," "The Sopranos" edited version on PAX-TV, "Sex Toy Story," and "Clops IV," a claymation cops show with officers arresting TV commercial characters for various crimes. Another bonus feature is the 200th episode from Season Nine, which includes a Season One cast reunion and sketches with series stars who came after them such as Mo Collins, Michael McDonald and Aries Spears.

-- L.A. Johnson

"North and South: The Complete Collection"

Whatever happened to the grand historical TV miniseries? You remember -- the "television event" you had to carve out six nights to watch. The gorgeous scenery, the beautiful costumes, the Shakespearean-like dialogue, the sweeping musical score, the star-studded cast.

"North and South," which aired in 1985, had all of that plus Patrick Swayze. John Jakes' novel about two friends -- Southerner Orry Main (Swayze) and Yankee George Hazard (James Read) -- continued through the books "Love and War" and "Heaven and Hell," depicting their lives before, during and after the Civil War. The miniseries based on the trilogy are now packaged in a five-disc collector's set.

The DVDs are even better than the original broadcast, since you don't have to contend with endless commercials. The shorter "Heaven and Hell," which aired in 1994, comes up lacking compared to the first books. But the set includes an entertaining half-hour making-of documentary featuring interviews with author Jakes, producer David Wolper and stars Swayze, Read and Lesley-Anne Down, and composer Bill Conti.

-- Karen Carlin

"The O.C."

This boxed set of first-season episodes of "The O.C." includes some unique extras, including executive producer McG rapping with real-life teens in Orange County, Calif., where the Fox drama is set.

A 14-minute featurette explores the casting of the show's stars and a nine-minute segment looks at the show's music (some episodes also have an on-screen music guide that identifies the song playing in the background with some facts about the band performing it). Rather than offering commentary over deleted scenes, series creator Josh Schwartz introduces each here-tofore-unseen scene with an explanation as to why it didn't make the cut.

-- Rob Owen

"Wonder Woman"

In addition to 14 episodes from the first season of this '70s superhero show, the "Wonder Woman" boxed set includes a new 21-minute documentary, "Beauty, Brawn and Bulletproof Bracelets." It includes new interviews with star Lynda Carter and executive producer Douglas Cramer.

The pair also appear in an optional audio commentary on the 90-minute pilot episode. He was a fan of the tongue-in-cheek tone of the show's first season, set in the 1940s; she preferred the more straightforward episodes set in the then-present day.

-- Rob Owen

"American Dreams"

By now I've figured out this much about the studios that release TV series on DVD: Some put a lot more effort into it than others. Warner Bros. and Fox create boxed sets with the fan in mind; NBC-Universal boxed sets are light on extras and organization.

The 25-episode first season of "American Dreams" comes with a fair number of extras -- a music video, time capsules for every episode, audio commentaries, scenes from the original "American Bandstand" -- but good luck finding any of them. Nowhere in the boxed set packaging is there a guide to where these special features might be hidden. With seven discs, setting off to hunt for them is a big waste of time.

-- Rob Owen

"Home Improvement: The Complete First Season"

Very few folks had heard of comedian Tim Allen before his breakthrough television sitcom "Home Improvement," where he introduced us to his bumbling handyman.

Now, the complete first season is out in a three-disc set that includes 24 episodes. Fans of the series, which features Patricia Richardson as the long-suffering wife, may get a kick out of revisiting his sensitive caveman persona. They might even like seeing glimpses of a fresh-faced Pamela Anderson as the original "Tool Time" girl.

But the best part about DVDs is the bonus features, and the ones on "Home Improvement" could use a makeover. The show's co-creators and executive producers, Carmen Finestra and David McFadzean, provide the audio commentary, not any of the cast.

The "Loose Screws" segment, featuring what's called the show's most hilarious moments, didn't solicit one chuckle. A blooper segment might have been funnier.

-- Monica Haynes

"My Favorite Martian: The Complete First Season"

This set, packaged in a sparkly box with a green planet on the cover, has all 37 episodes from the first season, launched on Sept. 29, 1963. The sci-fi sitcom starred Bill Bixby as Los Angeles newspaper reporter Tim O'Hara, who finds a spaceship and a Martian (Ray Walston) in the California countryside. The Martian is a professor of anthropology specializing in the primitive planet of Earth, and he's visited many times in the past 150 years (he gave Tom Edison the idea for the light bulb).

Tim passes the alien off as his Uncle Martin and takes advantage of the Martian's ability to read minds and become invisible after raising his antennae, which look as if they came off your vintage TV set. Bixby, a bachelor who never met a pretty girl he didn't like, has a breezy charm, and Walston is smug, superior, occasionally sarcastic and a perfect foil for his "nephew."

Despite the snazzy packaging, the set has no extras (Bixby died in 1993, Walston in 2001). Episode titles and air dates are listed on a single sheet inside the case, but the discs don't easily allow you to go directly to, say, "How to be a Hero Without Even Trying," featuring Butch Patrick without his "Munsters" makeup. Still, it's a fun trip down nostalgia lane.

-- Barbara Vancheri

"21 Jump Street"

"I was just so wide-eyed ... wide-eyed, with big hair," said Holly Robinson Peete, who in 1987 went from Sarah Lawrence College grad to youthful undercover police agent Judy Hoffs in Stephen J. Cannell's "21 Jump Street."

Robinson Peete and Cannell are among those interviewed for the DVD extras in a recently released four-disc set of Season 1. This is indeed a junk-food treat, stocked with howler moments of '80s recognition ("I had an acid-wash jacket just like that!") and an early glimpse of Johnny Depp's acting talent. Not to mention those cheekbones.

The episodes have a faintly preachy tone, although the subject matter -- rape, student/teacher affairs, teen prostitution -- was cutting-edge back in the day. In one notable episode, guest star Blair Underwood is the leader of a street gang that takes the entire school hostage. This street tough screams at the principal after being humiliated in front of his "peers"; imagine his chagrin when he later tries to trade the sophomore class for pizza and beer, but the police chief stands firm and refuses to serve alcohol to the kidnappers.

No matter; we watch 21 Jump Street for the hair, the hats, the big earrings and too much eyeliner, plus Cannell's shows always seen to be infused with a certain good-natured, goofy charm.

Extras are scant, although Peter DeLuise -- who played affable lunk Doug Penhall -- provides amusing commentary. No shocker: Depp is nowhere to be seen beyond the episodes. As Cannell dryly noted: "This show wasn't taking him where he wanted to go."

-- Maria Sciullo

"Diff'rent Strokes: The First Season"

"Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" became the TV catch phrase in 1978 and is still a familiar part of pop culture. But the sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" didn't do much else besides provide tabloid fodder about the troubled lives of its child stars after the show's success. I can't imagine this tale of two black kids from Harlem finding themselves in a Park Avenue world after being taken in by a dorky rich white guy did much for race relations, despite what one of the show's writers says on an audio commentary.

The three-disc set includes a featurette with interviews with Todd Bridges (Willis), Conrad Bain (Mr. Drummond; who knew he was still alive?) and Charlotte Rae (Mrs. Garrett). But that and the "Whatchoo Talkin' Bout?" featurette about Gary Coleman (Arnold) only emphasize Coleman's absence from the extras. His talent (he was only 10 when "Diff'rent Strokes" premiered) is so obvious in the first season and is probably what kept the show going for eight years.

But the best episode of the season is its last, a set-up of the spinoff "The Facts of Life" that features a very young, and brown-haired, Molly Ringwald.

-- Karen Carlin