A Different World

I wish the second season would hurry up and come out. I loved the Special Feature when all of the cast talked about how the show improved. Even when the show was a little goofier, who didn't think Lisa Bonet looked adorable in her pig snout. I started a petition to get the second season out there. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do it. I like to watch people that are my age get to experience the college life, going to an HBCU, pledging, loving, befriending, and just hanging out. I wanted to go to an HBCU as soon as I saw "A Different World" and I actually created my book, Change for a Twenty, around the college crowd. I just think it's so commendable when black people can be on a show without a bunch of stereotypes. It gave other young people someone to model their character on.

"A, Different World" a spin-off from the smash hit "Cosby Show" which had Huxtable daughter Denise (Lisa Bonet) off to college to find out a different world laid ahead. Denise dropped out of the mostly black college only to have the series improve and become a hit with other cast members. The best characters had to be the uppity Whitley (Jasmine Guy), and the well liked and super-cool math major Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) along with his best friend Ron (Darryl M. Bell). The pit was the place the gang hung out for everything from meals to talk. The theme song sung by Phoebe Snow really is the truth once you leave home from your parents it really is a different world.

The early episodes of this sitcom were bland, as they focused on Denise Huxtable's (Lisa Bonet) experiences at Hillman College. The show only took off after Denise dropped out of school. The show then focused on the more interesting cast members, most notably, brainy student Dwayne (Kadeem Hardison) and snooty Southern belle Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy). I liked that they also had Jalessa, a divorced adult student trying to rebuild her life.

NBC made a mistake during the last season of the show by confusing the audience. They ran a highly touted "series finale" showing the now-married and expectant parents Dwayne and Whitley going off to Japan, where Dwayne had gotten a high-tech job. The network then turned around and aired several more new episodes that focused on newer cast members including Charmaine (Karen Malinka White). They brought in Billy Dee Williams and Leslie Uggams as a landlord, and a college professor, respectively. It appeared that NBC cancelled the show, then made a last-minute effort to revive it.

Jada Pinkett Smith ("Set It Off"), comedian Sinbad and Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei ("My Cousin Vinny"), were three cast members who went on to bigger success.

I have been watching a different world from Lisa Bonet to Jada Pinkett. The show became more than just a sitcom showing our community early on a glimpse of life in college to tackling racism, sexual harassment, stds, sexism, colorism, and positively introduced us to sororities and fraternities. "A Different World" helped glorify not only going to college but an HBCU and inspired a lot of people to take that step after high school even after realizing Hill man College was a fictitious institution . The show became even more important and relatable after I myself attended an HBCU. I met those Whitleys, hung with Dwaynes, had classes with Kims, worked with Charmaines and partied with Winnys. .

I must admit that A DIFFERENT WORLD started relatively bland and humourless, mainly because the producers were trying to make a predominantly black college experience acceptable to a "mainstream" audience.

After the first year when Lisa Bonet left and Debbie Allen came along and took over the producing duties, A DIFFERENT WORLD changed to become a lot more timely and much more relevant for the time -- especially dealing with subjects like sexism, rape, South Africa, drug abuse, and all of the other issues faced on college campuses. In later seasons, when the original cast grew up, did we see a lot of long term character development and the show has never been properly credited for being what it was: the first and only show ever to deal with black people in college. A DIFFERENT WORLD isn't always uproaringly funny, but watching it in repeats as an adult, I can see what the show was going for, it was literally a slice of life show, not really fulfilling the sit-com requirement of a joke a minute. You had characters who dealt with being young adults and made bad decisions and then sometimes dealt with the consequences. It was a good show that requires frequent viewings. Those who remember a classic episode where Dean Cain plays a racist will know how good of an actor he can be.