The series opens with the Drummonds (from Diff'rent Strokes) visiting Eastland to see Mrs. Garrett (their ex-housekeeper). They arrive right in the middle of the Harvest Queen competition and Blair is sure she's going to win. So when Cindy considers running, Blair makes some snide comments about Cindy's femininity.

It's Parent's Night at Eastland and Blair's sophisticated mother arrives bringing with her, her flirtatious tendancies which prompt rumors when she becomes ""friendly"" with a married man.

Mrs. Garrett is surprised by a visit from her ex-husband, Roger, who wants the two of them to remarry. However, his gambling ways rub off on the girls who begin gambling on poker games and loosing what little money they have..

Tootie accidentally comes across a paper which lists the I.Q. scores of each one of the girls. Nancy received the highest score and Sue Ann scored the lowest, this puts extra pressure on each one of them just prior to midterm exams.

Tootie's father comes for a visit and doesn't like the activities that Tootie is being exposed to. Believing that Mrs. Garrett is a bad influence, Mr. Ramsey decides to have Tootie transfer out of Eastland.

Blair is so caught up with her latest boyfriend that she forgets about an English assignment in which she has to write a poem. So, at the last minute she plagiarizes a poem by Emily Dickinson and turns it in as her own. Things get worse when she's the only one who gets an A and Mr. Bradley enters her poem in a contest.

Blair and Sue Ann kid each other about their weight and Sue Ann takes Blair's comments a little too seriously. However, when Blair sets Sue Ann up on a blind date which will involve going swimming, Sue Ann goes on a starvation diet leading to a collapse. Meanwhile, Mrs. Garrett also jumps on the dieting wagon, trying to fit in a size 12 dress.

Mrs. Garrett begins teaching a sex-education class at Eastland and her tactics are against the more prudish suggestions of Mr. Bradley. Meanwhile, Blair takes the ideas from class and expirements with her latest boyfriend, Steve.

A flood hits Peekskill which prompts Blair and Tootie to race out to the stables to save some animals from being washed away. However the damn breaks and Blair and Tootie become in danger of being washed away.

Mr. Bradley gives the girls an assignment having to do with their family trees. However, Natalie is reluctant to show hers in class do to the fact that the family that raised her is her adopted family. This prompts Blair to help Natalie find the name of her real mother by using her mother's clout to cut through some red tape and sealed records.

Mr. Bradley's need to have Eastland win prompts him to manipulate Sue Ann into competing in a running competition. Sue Ann had previously ran but this year decided not to, however, Mr. Bradley uses Cindy's better racing times to goad Sue Ann into competing.

Molly is down in the dumps due to her parents getting a divorce. So she gets some help from the girls who plan to reunite her parents. Things hit the fan, when her father arrives with a new girlfriend.

Blair and Sue Ann befriend two new girls. All seems to go okay with them until they learn that their friends use drugs.

Streetsmart Bronx native, Jo Polniaczeck arrives at Eastland.

Mrs. Garrett bails the girls out of jail and announces that they all have been expelled from Eastland. However, they can stay if they move in with Mrs. Garrett and work in the cafeteria. This prompts Jo's want to leave to become even stronger.

Blair is sure that an old friend of hers', Harrison Andrews is going to invite her to a cotillion, however she is thrown for a loop when he invites Jo.

Tootie begins to think long and hard about her race and how she's being treated at Eastland, thanks to a new boy whom Tootie took an interest in. Tootie soon begins to shun Natalie, Jo and Blair and even backs out of a dance contest because her dance partner is white.

When Blair's cousin, Geri, arrives for a visit, Mrs. Garrett, based on Blair's behavior, thinks she's embarrassed of Geri since she has cerebral palsy. However later Mrs. Garrett realizes she's really jealous of her since Geri is also a successful comedienne.

It's Edna's birthday and the girls want to buy her a gift. Blair told them that she would buy the gift but Jo, Natalie, and Tootie decide to buy their own gift. They decide to buy a cool Hawaiian shirt for Mrs. Garrett because it's on sale. When they go to the store they find the sale has ended. Jo decided to steal the shirt. Later, Mrs. Garrett decides to return the shirt and discovers it was stolen.

Jo's boyfriend, Eddie, surprises her by making a sudden visit to Peekskill, but she gets even more of a surprise when he proposes marriage.

Jo is unsure of whether or not to accept Eddie's proposal but finally decides to go ahead with the wedding, despite the feelings of Mrs. Garrett, Blair, Natalie and Tootie.

When Tootie overhears a secret that Blair tells Jo about Nancy's beau, she lets the secret slip and Nancy and Blair get into a fight which leads Blair to give Jo the silent treatment. Things get worse, when Tootie mistakes Mrs. Garrett for being drunk, when really her eyes had been dilated by her eye doctor prompting her to be a little topsy turvy. The rumor of Mrs. Garrett's drunken sprawl could cost her her job.

Blair is running for class president but things get out of hand when one of the candidates commits suicide.

Natalie hits it off with Neil, a boy she meets at a dance and they later begin studying together. However, rumors are spread that Natalie and Neil did more than just study which brings on calls from a number of boys who want to study with Natalie. Natalie encourages these rumors when she goes out with the boys due to the fact that Blair, Jo and Tootie laughed at the notion that Natalie could be a sex symbol.

Shortly after winning an award, Jo learns that her jailbird father, is getting paroled and that he would like to attend the awards ceremony. However, an ashamed Jo, tries to keep her father from attending as well as tries to keep secret the fact that her dad is in prison.

Tootie is lured into doing a photo shoot for a fashion photographer.

Blair is selling Countess Calvert cosmetics, and she uses Natalie as a model.

Mrs. Garrett's musician son, Alex stops by Eastland for a visit, with tales about how he rubs elbows with other musicians like Neil Diamond and Carly Simon. However, Blair smells a rat when she contradicts one of his stories and when she learns that Mrs. Garrett is still supporting him.

Tootie and Natalie go to visit Tootie's aunt Sylvia. However, they are unaware they are showing up right in the middle of a fight. Sylvia and her husband are an interacial couple and Sylvia has just gotten a job offer in New York and Brian is not to happy about moving.

When Blair, Natalie and Jo tease Tootie for being the youngest, she feels left out. This leads her to experiment with alcohol by downing an entire bottle of wine.

Natalie conjures up a fear of going outside after she is attacked while coming home from a party

An ex-Eastlander, Alison makes a visit to Eastland to see old friends, Blair, Natalie and Tootie. Coming back brings back memories of when life was a lot simpler, since now she is married and has a baby daughter, Emily. When Alison leaves, however, she forgets to take along one important thing, Emily.

Blair's mother is scheduled to have plastic surgery but calls it off to make a visit to Eastland to see her daughter. However, a mistaken phone call leads Blair to discover the truth, her mother may have breast cancer.

Burned by her journalism teacher's scathing criticism, Jo turns out a front-page story linking him to a drug bust.

Mrs. Garrett learns that the company that she worked for, for years has gone bankrupt thus canceling her pension fund. This prompts her to get a second job, one that pays more that the job at Eastland. She ultimately begins thinking of quitting her job as school dietician.

When her ex-fiancee, Eddie, arrives in town for a visit, Jo learns that she's growing apart from him when she finds herself attracted to the man who's playing her husband in a simulated marriage project for a class.

Natalie's planning a weekend of romance with her boyfriend, but when her Grandma Mona drops in unexpectedly, her romantic intentions are postponed.

The girls are all excited about a big camp-out due to the fact that it will give them a chance to be with their beaus. However, Tootie is anything but happy and tries to wriggle her way out of going, by writing love letters from an imaginary boyfriend, in order to avoid the boy Blair is trying to fix her up with.

Blair's cousin, Geri, makes another visit to Peekskill and Blair sets her up with her teacher, but later Blair feels that Geri is headed for a romantic fall.

Blair is thrilled that her name is going to be part of Eastland, since a large amount of money from her grandfather's estate is being donated for the building of a new library. However, while doing a story on him for the newspaper, Natalie uncovers a shocking truth, Blair's grandfather was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Natalie wants the lead in the play, South Pacific, and she won't let anyone stand in her way of getting it. However, when Tootie is practically forced to audition and gets the lead, heaven help Tootie because Natalie is after revenge.

The new Japanese student, Miko, is excited about being the newest student at Eastland as well as being in America. However, her strict father doesn't think Eastland is a good influence especially since she snuck out to see a rock concert and borrowed Jo's bike causing $400 in damage.

A visitor from Mrs. Garrett's past comes to Eastland and immediately appears to sweep Mrs. Garrett off her feet. It's apparent Mrs. Garrett and this mystery man are more than friends when Tootie catches them kissing and Blair becomes determind to discover just how serious this relationship is.

Tootie is the president of the Jermaine Jackson fan club and her duties as president interfere with a promise to Jo. Later, she wins free tickets to one of his concerts and is determind to go, even if she has to hitchhike.

Constant squabbling between the girls prompt Mrs. Garrett to announce that the debt for wrecking the van has been paid off and they are all now free to move out and live in the dorms. However, the girls soon realize the living above the cafeteria is something they do not want to change.

Mrs. Garrett and the girls visit New York and have lunch in a Italian restaurant where Natalie discovers something she never expected, her father romancing someone other than her mother. This prompts Natalie to debate whether or not to confront her father, out of fear of a divorce between her parents.

Jo, Natalie and Blair are going to New York to see a Broadway play and a left out Tootie sneaks out to meet them in front of the theatre without Mrs. Garrett's knowledge. However, when Tootie doesn't find the girls she stops in a coffee shop across the street unaware she's about to get a dose of the downside of New York life.

Both Blair and Jo head to New York to meet two old friends. Blair discovers her old friend, Dina, is the same old snob she's always been and Jo discovers her friend, Jesse, is the same old prejudiced bully she's always been. Blair and Jo soon realize their friendship is much more meaningful.

Natalie has a big crush on Tim and has filled Blair's slambook with words of praise. However, in Blair's slambook instead of signing your name you sign a number, Natalie's number is 10. When Blair tells Tim who number 10 belongs to, Natalie is furious and wants revenge no matter who she hurts in the process.

Wanting to give Natalie a gift for helping her with her chemistry, Blair takes a peek in Natalie's diary to see if she could get an idea on what to get. However, gifts are the last thing on Blair's mind when she discovers that Natalie thinks she's an egotistical witch.

A friend of Jo's, Buzz, who attends a military academy, needs her to fix him up with a wealthy socialite, since he made a bet with some of his buddies. So Jo fixes him up with Blair who thinks he dates wealthy women including Gloria Vanderbilt's daughter.

Jo's cousin, a 14 year old tomboy, who is lovesick, calls for her help.

Jo stands up for her rights. She protests that books which are believed to have a bad influence on people are being banned.

Mrs. Garrett must decided between her two loves, the girls or Bruce, a man she falls for and who asks her to go to Africa with him.

Conclusion. When Mrs. Garrett goes to Africa with her new husband, her sister moves in with the girls. Blair: Lisa Whelchel. Andy: Mackenzie Astin. Jo: Nancy McKeon.

Beverly Ann is concerned that Tootie is getting much too serious about her new boyfriend.

Fed up with having no privacy, Jo considers moving out, until Beverly Ann suggests remodeling the attic into a room. However, the construction costs divided by the four girls cause Jo to make a sacrifice when she can't come up with her share.

Beverly Ann and the girls head for New York, when Tootie decides to audition for her first Broadway show. However, when she arrives, she quickly learns that she has plenty of competition working against her.

Blair, Tootie and Natalie organize a reunion with the girls from Eastland. This brings Nancy, Cindy and Sue Ann back to town each with successful lives. Cindy has become a model, Nancy is engaged and Sue Ann a vice president for a company. However, each also has a distinct downside to their success. Meanwhile, Jo feels left out of the reunion.

Blair's computerized date-rating system is the focus when she makes a bet with Jo dealing with whether or not the system really works. However, when Beverly Ann accidentally erases a disk, Jo tampers with some of the ratings.

Jo offers to marry an illegal alien in order to keep the man from being deported.

Natalie gets Blair a job at a Mexican restaurant where Natalie works. However, Blair snobby attitude gets her fired when she inadvertently insults the boss.

A disconsolate Blair locks herself in the bedroom after her father pleads guilty to charges of insider trading.

A furious Natalie is determined to identify and sue the plagiarist who sold her short story to a magazine.

In this fantasy episode, a cross between ""The Twilight Zone"" and a horror film, the crew finds themselves being murdered, one by one, until only Tootie is left to confront the killer. The episode is narrated by a Rod Serling lookalike.

Assigned by the paper to get the inside dirt on Pledge Week at Langley, Natalie crashes the rush party of the sorority Tootie wants to join.

As a post-Christmas gift, Natalie gets her first credit card, and promptly goes on a spending spree.

Cinnamon, who bested Tootie in the audition for a Broadway rock musical, shows up claiming she's been replaced but that's not the real story.

The girls are snowed in at a ski cabin with three guys preparing a bachelor party, but the groom is ready to call off the wedding when he gets a look at Blair.

Cupid can be perverse: all the girls old boyfriends happen to show up just before the Valentine's Day dance.

Fabian and Bobby Rydell visit the girls, and together they recall the look and sound of the 1960s.

Beverly is sick of seeing Andy shuttled from one foster home to another, so she offers to adopt him.

Beverly Ann's ex shows up unexpectedly, hoping for a reconciliation.

Jo is unhappy that Blair is playing matchmaker for Jo's lonely father, but she's really upset with the final results.

Blair discovers that even she can't buy admission to law school if she doesn't pass a four-hour test she hasn't studied for.

After her commencement speech is rejected, Jo refuses to make a speech at all, but then learns that her grandfather has come all the way from Poland to hear it.

Summer offers a variety of options for everyone, especially Jo, who's offered a tempting job in Los Angeles.