'The Facts of Life'

You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life ...

Those lyrics from the ingratiating theme song also could describe "The Facts of Life: The Complete First and Second Seasons" ($39.95; Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) DVD set.

A 1979 spinoff of NBC's "Diff'rent Strokes," "Facts" followed Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae) as she became a housemother at Eastland, an exclusive boarding school for girls. Surprisingly, the average girl watching the show could find things in common with the Eastland students, most of whom came from wealth. The series tackled a number of relevant topics, such as sex, adoption, dieting, drugs, divorce, overachieving and disabilities, although sometimes lessons came a little too sugar-coated.

The show's second season cut the large cast, concentrating on Mrs. Garrett and three of the original girls: Blair (Lisa Whelchel), Natalie (Mindy Cohn) and Tootie (Kim Fields). The addition of Jo (Nancy McKeon), a working-class streetwise kid who was attending the school on a scholarship, gave the group another dimension.

The "bad" of the four-disc set is the extras. "Remembering The Facts of Life" includes interviews with Whelchel, Cohn, Fields and a couple of the first season's cast, but it's missing Rae and McKeon. "After The Facts of Life" gives updates only on those interviewed in the first featurette, which makes the MIAs all the more obvious. One fun tidbit: Tootie spent the first season on roller skates to make the petite Fields look taller next to the other actresses.

-- Karen Carlin, Post-Gazette staff writer

'Life Goes On'

Faithful fans of "Life Goes On," the family drama that followed the Thatcher family as they dealt with everything from Down Syndrome to AIDS, have finally, after almost 17 years, been rewarded with the DVD release of "LGO: The Complete First Season" (Warner Home Video, $39.98).

All 22 episodes of the first season are here, on six discs.

Like a lot of series in this era, "LGO" featured story lines that focus on the trials and tribulations of both the parents (Bill Smitrovich and the great Patti LuPone) and their teenage kids. What set this series apart, though, was the presence of Corky (Chris Burke, an actor with Down Syndrome). The first season of this family drama focuses heavily on his struggles to be mainstreamed in school and his little sister Becca (Kellie Martin) as she struggles to fit Corky into her already stressful school life.

In this first season, we have yet to be introduced to Chad Lowe's character, Jesse McKenna, Becca's love interest who happens to be HIV-positive.

Even though it takes place in the last year of the decade, there's so much '80s fashion and style, one expects a Cosby kid or two to drop in at any time. Becca's huge red glasses make her look like a teen Sally Jessy Raphael.

On a jarring note, to cut costs, the theme song (the Beatles' "Ob La Di, Ob La Da") has been replaced here with a new, completely forgettable theme.

Extras are minimal here but include commentary (pilot only), the parents' screen test and a "gag reel" so short you'll miss it if you blink.

-- Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette staff writer