THE FACTS OF LIFE spun off of Diff'rent Strokes and debuted on August 24th, 1979. School Dietian Mrs. Edna Garrett, played by actress Charlotte Rae, mentored and guided 4 girls: the snobby-rich Blair Warner (Lisa Whelchel), gossiping 'Tootie' Ramsey (Kim Fields), impressionable Natalie Green (Mindy Cohn), and street-wise Jo Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon) at the all exclusive private boarding school, Eastland Academy. After somewhat of a slow start, the show found it's audience and became a definitive popular culture icon of the 1980's. In television history, it was the first show to feature an all-female-cast.

It was the longest-running sitcom of that era and evolved over time. The girls graduated from Eastland Academy. Mrs. Garrett opened her own gourmet food shop 'Edna's Edibles' which later evolved into the 1950's style malt shop called, 'Over Our Heads.' The show tackled many issues such as: infidelity, abortion, rape, homosexuality, divorce, sex, drugs, and suicide. Although the show covered many social issues, it never had the status of being an 'issue' show since comedy was added to the formula. After 209 episodes, nine seasons, several spin-off attempts, cast additions/changes, and two movies the show was cancelled on September 24th, 1988.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011
WHAT HAPPENED TO SEASON 6 ON DVD?
The Facts of Life saw life on DVD first in 2006 (1st through 3rd seasons released), and then dropped off the radar for nearly 4 years. Shout! Factory acquired rights from Sony Pictures and then released The Facts of Life: The Complete Fourth Season and The Facts of Life: The Complete Fifth Season on November 2, 2010. Since then there seemed to be some lag time releasing the next season of the show on DVD, and fans worring that music licensing rights may be to blame for the delay of the sixth season as many hit cover songs were used such as: You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling, Dancing Queen, and Hot Stuff. We have found out; thankfully, this is not the case. Upon contacting Shout! Factory, here is their response:

Hi -
We would love to continue to release future seasons of The Facts of Life. But as of this moment, we do not have licensing rights.
Please check back in a few months. Hopefully something will change. And we will forward you title suggestions along to our Acquisitions Dept as well. Sorry we had to bring not so good news.
Our site is re-launching in the coming months. That may be a good time to check. http://www.shoutfactory.com/
Thanks for the query and suggestions,
Shout! Factory

So There you have it; Shout! Factory does not have the rights from Sony Pictures to release further seasons and as they stated would 'love to continue' the series. Shout! we hope you work fast on making a deal with Sony to release further seasons of the show. Until then, let's keep our fingers crossed. This is better news than hearing the sets did not sell enough copies to warrant any further releases.