The Facts of Life
A girls' boarding school in Peekskill, spun off from Diff'rent Strokes and running three years longer than it.
The Facts of Life rebuilt its titles: three distinct opening sequences are catalogued here across seasons 1, 7 and 8, running between 50 and 73 seconds.
At 73 seconds at its longest, it opens well above the 38-second median for comedy sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on NBC in 1979, when Truth or Consequences, Another World and Search for Tomorrow were also on the network.
Only 139 of the 2,618 shows catalogued here changed their titles at all; The Facts of Life did so two times.
All 3 opening title sequences
Season 1
69sFan upload. Jenny O'Hara's name card dates it to the first season, the only one she was in.
Season 7
50sThe seventh season's, taped from a rerun and carrying that channel's bug in the corner.
Season 8
73sThe eighth season's, posted by the studio that released the series on disc.
More comedy opening titles from the 1970s
1 sequence
Saturday Night Live
A new cast montage every single season for fifty years — New York at night, the current company photographed in it, and a band playing over the top. The longest-running rotating title sequence on television.
- Season 1
1 sequence
All in the Family
Two people at an upright piano singing about how things used to be — an opening performed live by the cast rather than scored.
- Season 1
1 sequenceFawlty Towers
A hotel sign whose letters are rearranged into a different rude anagram every episode — the earliest running title gag in this catalogue by two decades.
- Season 1
1 sequenceHappy Days
A fifties jukebox theme that started as a closing song and was promoted to the opening once it became a hit record.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThree's Company
A theme that explains the premise, the address and the invitation in about forty seconds, then hands you a farce.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Love Boat
A cruise ship with a new guest cast every week, introduced by name in the titles.
- Season 3