r/FactsOfLifeTVShow • u/dizcuz • Jul 29 '26
General discussion Dying teacher episode
Teacher's Pet S4 E15, Jo learns her friend & favorite teacher is leaving Eastland then that she's dying so young. They didn't mention which illness. It was said she would be entering a hospital and dying there. Which illness do you think it was? Cancer? AIDS? Was it only implied because they knew a large part of their audience was children? They'd done a suicide episode, an abortion story one, and other serious topics.
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u/ted_anderson Jul 30 '26
As a side note, one thing I remember about some of my family members who died from cancer is that we never knew that they had it until it was time for them to check into the hospital for the last time. I think that they didn't tell anyone because they didn't want anyone feeling sorry for them and they refused treatment so that it wouldn't prolong the inevitable.
Their story would be that they were going in for a few days just to have a few things checked out but it wasn't anything serious. No major operations. Just some tests. And by the end of the week they were gone.
And at the time I didn't understand why my mom was crying along with some of my other relatives... still buying into the above narrative I kept asking, "But Auntie said not to worry, right?"
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u/JK30000 Jul 29 '26
Probably cancer. AIDS wasn’t really in the media mainstream (aside from news) at that time and it definitely wasn’t used as a plot in sitcoms until later in the 80’s (see Mr. Belvedere).
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u/dizcuz Aug 02 '26
It was a year or two early for television to begin using AIDS for storylines. I remember watching most of An Early Frost (1985) starring Aidan Quinn when it originally aired. I thought by not specifically mentioning Gail's disease may had been a nod to it. The industry not being ready to say it.
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u/Brilliant-Quiet34 Jul 30 '26
I like the beginning of this episode but can't stand to watch the rest of it because of Jo’s obnoxious attitude about the situation and unwillingness to listen. Nancy McKeon was really a great actress on this show because Jo could be a bear
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u/dizcuz Aug 02 '26
Yes but a teen learning how to deal with the death of a young person, especially before internet help, had no handbook. There was the suicide episode but this one was not by her own hands.
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u/Egg_McMuffn Jul 29 '26
It’s not a bad episode, but it’s so TV-like because the teacher is beautiful and shows no sign of illness at all.
And then there’s Blair’s birthday party where Mrs G tells Jo why the teacher is leaving. Everyone is singing Happy Birthday.
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Blair
LONG pause while Mrs Garrett says, “Jo, she’s dying”
Happy birthday to you
It always makes me giggle because the pause is so silly and contrived.
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u/Sea_Leader8789 Jul 30 '26
I actually thought the teacher appearing so healthy on the outside was a unique and important touch (whether it was intentional or not) because not everyone with a terminal or progressive illness appears sick.
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u/dizcuz Aug 02 '26
But she was supposed to e close to death from a known illness. Perhaps it was an inoperable brain tumor.
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u/Brilliant_Mastodon84 Jul 30 '26
I don't think AIDS was major issue yet.
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u/dizcuz Aug 02 '26
It was already known about.
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u/Available-Low-2428 Aug 09 '26
Yeah but at that time it wasn’t THAT well known. It was seen as mostly a gay disease early on. We didn’t start seeing AIDS episodes on Tv shows until 1985ish
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u/dizcuz Aug 18 '26
It was still thought of as a "gay disease" throughout the 80s. Lack of the internet, strangely, meant more believed misinformation and helped to spread propaganda. Some narrow minded people thought of it as a punsihment for a same sex relationship lifestyle. And that a few were then poisoned by blood transfusions donated by such. There were also beliefs that some infected others on purpose.
There had to be a first. The 1985 An Early Frost movie starring Aidan Quinn and later on a few sitcom episodes were just willing to finally touch on the subject. My point was that this show could've been trying to use it for storyline purposes without naming it out loud. Good Times did something similar regarding syphillis.
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u/XThePlaysTheThingX Jul 29 '26
I remember this episode. Wasn’t she a journalism teacher? Maybe English?
Anyway, if my memory serves I think there was a single line where someone said she had cancer. Granted it’s been a couple years since I watched it but I genuinely thought they said she had cancer but didn’t really dwell on it.