After spinning off from Diff’rent Strokes, The Facts of Life had a shaky start finding an audience of its own, but by it’s third year, the show had come into it’s own. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is offering the third season this fall on DVD.

The third season finds the characters in myriad dilemmas: Tootie gets drunk for the first time, as well as developing a crush on her favorite singer (Jermaine Jackson of “The Jackson 5); Natalie gets mugged after coming home from a party and develops a fear of going outside; Jo falls out of love with her fiancée and in love with the man who’s playing her husband in a simulated marriage project for a class; Blair learns her grandfather is a member of a Ku Klux Klan; and Mrs. Garrett has her hands full when she rekindles an old romantic fling.

The complete 1981-1982 season is presented here, but sadly contains no supplemental material. The set arrives on October 24th and will carry a suggested retail price of $29.95.