The Facts of Life is an American sitcom that originally ran on the NBC television network from August 24, 1979, to May 7, 1988. A spin-off of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, the series' premise focuses on Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) as she becomes a housemother (and after the second season, dietitian as well) at the fictional Eastland School, an all-female boarding school in Peekskill, New York.