But I'm really talking about the first time that George Clooney appeared on "The Facts of Life."
Mrs. Garrett let her insurance policy for Edna's Edibles lapse. So when the first destroyed her business, she was prepared to own up to her mistake and look for work elsewhere. But the girls came up with a crazy plan to give her all of their renters insurance checks and buy into a new business, with everyone going in a 50-50-50-50-50 equal partners. And it really was a crazy business plan. Over Our Heads sold fish-shaped pens and stupid greeting cards and pop albums and knock-off Tina Turner clothing. The store almost closed on its grand opening day. Of course, the girls couldn't figure out their target audience early on. I mean, they were dragging elderly bargain hunters into the store when they really should have been trolling the nearly college and all-girls boarding school instead. Fortunately, they eventually figured out that marketing mistake.
But I'm actually getting ahead of myself, because I'm writing about George Clooney.
See even with all of the girls' insurance checks, they really didn't have much money to transform the fire-damaged Edna's Edibles into what would become the neon novelty store known as Over Our Heads. Mrs. Garrett met with a succession of contractors, each with grand visions for how to remake the store -- but none of them within their budget.
Cue George Burnett. He stumbled across the girls while looking for his misplaced Kuwaiti newspaper. It turned out that he has some contracting background and his father owns the local hardware store and agreed to check out the store-space. He came to them with a low-ball $15,000 bid and they immediately hired him -- without the benefit of a written contract or anything stupid like that.
But the girls liked him. Well, Tootie, Nat, and Blair loved him. George let them help him out on the job. They helped him hammer and paint (badly) and they played around with his electric tools. And they chatted with him about Kuwait and goat ball and harems and basically distracted him from actually getting his work done. Eventually, George's distractions become too much for Mrs. Garrett and after learning that he'll be running 2-3 weeks longer than originally planned, she fires him and hires another contractor using what's left of Natalie's travel money.
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Embarrassed, George runs off for a while to lick his wounds. But after a chat with Jo, he slinks back on the final day of construction and makes up with Mrs. Garrett and the girls.
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George becomes an ever-present friend for the "Facts of Life" girls, helping out during their grand opening, sharing their adventures, and generally being a directionless goof.
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And then he faded out of their lives somewhere in the middle of Season Eight. I mean, he'd already largely disappeared after Season Seven, but besides a small handful of random appearance in Season Eight, we never did learn what became of George Burnett -- though The Fact of Life Wiki indicates that he quit his job at the hardware store to become a roadie for pop singer Cinnamon.
Embarrassed, George runs off for a while to lick his wounds. But after a chat with Jo, he slinks back on the final day of construction and makes up with Mrs. Garrett and the girls.
George becomes an ever-present friend for the "Facts of Life" girls, helping out during their grand opening, sharing their adventures, and generally being a directionless goof.
And then he faded out of their lives somewhere in the middle of Season Eight. I mean, he'd already largely disappeared after Season Seven, but besides a small handful of random appearance in Season Eight, we never did learn what became of George Burnett -- though The Fact of Life Wiki indicates that he quit his job at the hardware store to become a roadie for pop singer Cinnamon.