Let's Party

Tootie tells her brother, Marshall (who is in college), that she can't believe he can drink legally. In 1983 (the year this episode aired), the legal drinking age in New York and other states was 19 years old, so many college students could drink legally. However, drunk driving had become an increasing nationwide problem by then, so in 1984 Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which required states to raise their ages for purchase and public possession to 21 by October 1986 or lose 10% of their federal highway funds. By mid-1988, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had raised their purchase ages to 21 (Puerto Rico, Guam, & the US Virgin Islands were exceptions).

Edited into The Facts of Life: The Way We Were: Part 2 (1984)