Blanco y negro

Diff'rent Strokes is a show that I came to love later in life. The show heart and soul was little Gary Coleman. Although Todd Bridges and Dana Plato would have the occasional good one-liner this was Coleman's show. He was so the pimp sh*t on the show. I wonder where his charcter of Arnold would be now?

Who would think that the main characters from a naive, tender, family show would end up meeting such fatal fates? Well, that's another story.

"Diff'rent Strokes" is an important sticom in American pop culture and also paved the way for comedy shows with a social message inserted.

Here, the inter racial situations mixed with poverty and social clichés were the spinal cord for the plot and even in jokes. Everything was extremely well done and executed with class. Nothing was vulgar or tried directly to impose a criteria; the situations were just put for the audience to judge it whatsoever they wanted.

The jokes were sometimes naive but always witty. The humor was family oriented but after nearly 30 years, none of them is boring. Sure, society has changed a lot but some things just can't disappear.

The acting is top notch. Gary Coleman is now some sort of cult hero for displaying a physical illness and being part of a social minority but his comedic skills and histrionic abilities make him one of the most likable child stars ever. Conrad Bain was excellent as the protective, tender but strong man that took care about his house. Dana Plato was extremely sexy, hot; she's the kind of girl I wanted to marry.

Anyways, watch this sitcom in order to witness part of America's pop culture talking about television. This show will teach you many things and as a plus, it will make you chuckle most of the time.

Watching the true Hollywood story on E! about the cast of Different Strokes was heartbreaking, after all, two of the three cast members had substance abuse problems and the star, Gary Coleman, had problems with his parents that he sued them. It's sad to watch the show, I wish I didn't know Dana Plato's problems because now I see how much she wanted her life to be like Kimberly Drummond. Conrad Bain was great as the father figure of the show. Of course, he was supposed to only be acting but I think he became a paternal figure to those youngsters. We went Mrs. Edna Garrett played by the wonderful Charlotte Rae who got her own show without all the drama of Different Strokes. She escaped it. I never approved of them dissing Dixie Carter for Mary Ann Mobley. I like them both in the role as the second Mrs. Drummond. Of course, there was the guest appearances of First Lady Nancy Reagan preaching against drugs. How little did we know the truth? Gary Coleman never escaped the image of the chubby cute kid on Different Strokes. Dana Plato who is gone to a better place never did get to experience the life of Kimberly Drummond except when she was on the set. I only wish Todd and Gary best for their future. I only wished that the off-screen drama was cut down for their sakes. I feel guilty getting laughs knowing that they went home and cried or faced abuse.

Since I wasn't around when the show originally aired, I have to catch it whenever I can on Nick at Nite or TV Land. And since TV Land just showed a 48 hour fandemonium marathon, I was able to catch a lot of episodes.

I absolutely love this show. The plot approach is different which works out great. The writing and quick comedy is terrific and the acting is one of a kind. The writing that was given to Gary Coleman was unbelievably hysterical, and being such a young kid at that time, he handled it so well. While I like the entire cast and think that they all did a nice job, I must say that I especially like Todd Bridges. I don't know, there's just something about him that you can't help but like.

This show like all shows has its moments where the plots could use some improvement but what show would it be if it didn't have its moments? Overall, the eight seasons are filled with the better episodes.

'Diff'rent Strokes' scared me a little during the seventh and eighth seasons when they hauled in Danny Cooksey and Dixie Carter/Mary Ann Mobley to join the Drummonds. I think that it would have been better off leaving the family as it was. Then again, the boys were getting older, they lost their afros, and Kimberly started to move on. So, it's kind of a tricky situation.

I would really like to see a reunion but it would be a little hard without the sadly missed Dana Plato. All in all, this show was an above average, very funny, good family get-together show. I know I'll keep watching whenever it's on!

(P.S. - The theme song is really addicting.)

*******Seven Out Of Ten Stars*******

The true star of this show, Conrad Bain, died this past January in the year of 2013. In my humble opinion, Bain really held this show together through the years. He was the only cast member to appear in all 180 episodes. And Bain always offered what I thought were the best comedic one liners in the series; and clearly was the most polished actor of anyone that ever appeared on the show. Other highlights of the show included the seemingly unending supply of guest stars: Reggie Jackson, Dorothy Hamill, Nancy Regan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Captain Lou Albano, Muhammad Ali, Milton Berle, and of course, Mr. T. Pretty incredible stuff. Also worth mentioning, is much of the social commentary the writers often tried to weave into the scripts; it didn't always work, but when it was did, it was really touching. Some of the episodes dealt with some pretty adult serious issues: Robbery, sexual abuse, racism, sexism.... it was progressive writing for the time. "Different Strokes" has a special place in my mind and in my heart. So God rest Plato, Coleman, and Bain.