| A Different World | |
|---|---|
_logo.svg){kind=logo} | |
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Bill Cosby |
| Starring | |
| Theme music composer | |
| Opening theme | Performed by: Phoebe Snow (season 1) Aretha Franklin (seasons 2–5) Boyz II Men and Terrence Forsythe (season 6) |
| Composers |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 144(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Camera setup | Videotape;Multi-camera |
| Running time | 23–25 minutes |
| Production company | Carsey-Werner Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | September 24, 1987 (1987-09-24) – July 9, 1993 (1993-07-09) |
| Related | |
| The Cosby Show | |
A Different World is an Americansitcom television series and aspin-off ofThe Cosby Show. It aired for six seasons onNBC from September 24, 1987, to July 9, 1993.[1] The series originally centered onDenise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictionalhistorically black college in Virginia. It was inspired by student life at historically black colleges and universities.[2][3][4]
After Bonet's departure in the first season, the remainder of the series primarily focused more on Southern belleWhitley Gilbert-Wayne, played byJasmine Guy, and math whizDwayne Cleofis Wayne, played byKadeem Hardison.
While it was a spin-off fromThe Cosby Show,A Different World typically addressed issues that were avoided byThe Cosby Show writers (race and class relations, sexual assault, or theEqual Rights Amendment). One episode that aired in 1990 was one of the first American network television episodes to address theepidemiology of HIV/AIDS.[5]
The original premise was to focus on a white student at a historically black university and featureLena Horne as an acting teacher, but in production, the premise changed from being a story about a white student in a black college to a black student (Denise Huxtable) in a black college with a white friend.[6][7] It was ultimately decided that Denise, who was of college age, would be spun off and have a white roommate in order to show the dynamic of a white girl in predominantly black surroundings.[8]Meg Ryan was originally cast for this role, but she decided to pursue a film career, soMarisa Tomei was cast.[9]
After the first season, it came to Cosby's and the producers' attention that the series was not accurately portraying ahistorically black college and life on campus, soDebbie Allen, an alumna ofHoward University, was hired as the chief creative force to revamp the show. During the summer of 1988, Lisa Bonet announced that she and husbandLenny Kravitz werehaving a baby. Allen was in favor of having a young pregnant student in the show, but Cosby said that Lisa Bonet could be pregnant but not Denise Huxtable.[10]
It was felt that viewers would not accept Denise as an unwed mother, having grown to know her as a "good girl" after four seasons ofThe Cosby Show. Thus it was decided that Denise would drop out of Hillman, return home to her family, and eventually travel to Africa throughout the fifth season ofThe Cosby Show, ensuring that viewers would not see a pregnant Denise. Allen was also in favor of keeping Tomei, as she herself recalled a white student at Howard and wanted to relate that in the show and even had possible premises for her character, such as meeting Dwayne's parents and seeing the other side of racism.[10]
However, the network rejected this storyline and the producers released Tomei from the show, and she andMarie-Alise Recasner were replaced byCree Summer andCharnele Brown, respectively.Darryl M. Bell andSinbad were promoted to the principal cast, andGlynn Turman andLou Myers were added as supporting cast members. These changes led to the placement of Whitley and Dwayne at the center of a wider ensemble.
| Actor | Character | Seasons | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ||
| Lisa Bonet | Denise Huxtable | Main | Does not appear | Guest | Does not appear | ||
| Marisa Tomei | Maggie Lauten | Main | Does not appear | ||||
| Dawnn Lewis | Jaleesa Vinson-Taylor | Main | Does not appear | ||||
| Jasmine Guy | Whitley Gilbert-Wayne | Main | |||||
| Kadeem Hardison | Dwayne Cleofis Wayne | Main | |||||
| Mary Alice | Leticia "Lettie" Bostic | Main | Does not appear | ||||
| Loretta Devine | Stevie Rallen | Main | Does not appear | ||||
| Darryl M. Bell | Ronald "Ron" Marlon Johnson | Recurring | Main | ||||
| Sinbad | Coach Walter Oakes | Recurring | Main | Does not appear | |||
| Charnele Brown | Kimberly Reese | Does not appear | Main | ||||
| Cree Summer | Winifred "Freddie" Brooks | Does not appear | Main | ||||
| Glynn Turman | Colonel Bradford Taylor | Does not appear | Main | ||||
| Lou Myers | Vernon Gaines | Does not appear | Main | ||||
| Ajai Sanders | Gina Deveaux | Does not appear | Recurring | Main | |||
| Jada Pinkett Smith | Lena James | Does not appear | Recurring | Main | |||
| Karen Malina White | Charmaine Tyesha Brown | Does not appear | Guest | Main | |||
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | Rank | Rating | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | |||||
| 1 | 22 | September 24, 1987 (1987-09-24) | July 7, 1988 (1988-07-07) | 2[11] | 25.0[11] | |
| 2 | 22 | October 6, 1988 (1988-10-06) | May 4, 1989 (1989-05-04) | 3[11] | 23.0[11] | |
| 3 | 25 | September 28, 1989 (1989-09-28) | May 3, 1990 (1990-05-03) | 4[11] | 21.1[11] | |
| 4 | 25 | September 20, 1990 (1990-09-20) | May 2, 1991 (1991-05-02) | 4[11] | 17.5[11] | |
| 5 | 25 | September 19, 1991 (1991-09-19) | May 14, 1992 (1992-05-14) | 17[11] | 15.2[11] | |
| 6 | 25 | September 24, 1992 (1992-09-24) | July 9, 1993 (1993-07-09) | 71[12] | 9.6[12] | |
As a show developed by Bill Cosby for a character fromThe Cosby Show,A Different World had many connections to its parent program, even before the latter program was created. The third season finale ofThe Cosby Show, entitled "Hillman", was essentially a pilot episode for the new show.
The theme song was co-written byStu Gardner, Bill Cosby, and Dawnn Lewis – who was also a cast member. In the online interviews related to the 2006 "Hillman College Reunion", Lewis revealed that her being approached to write the song and to audition were two separate events that occurred within a short time of each other, such that she thought it was apractical joke by her friends.
The spin-off program featured many appearances by characters from the parent program, especially in the initial season, in which Denise's fatherCliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby), motherClair Huxtable (Phylicia Rashad), younger sistersVanessa Huxtable (Tempestt Bledsoe) andRudy Huxtable (Keshia Knight-Pulliam), brotherTheodore Huxtable (Malcolm-Jamal Warner), and grandfatherRussell (Earle Hyman) all appeared on the show, either at Hillman or at the other end of a phone call. Denise's departure from Hillman after Season 1 did not stop her mother from reappearing on the show.
Three of Phylicia Rashad's four appearances as Hillman alumna Clair Huxtable took place after season one, and in one of these, she brought her younger daughter Vanessa to tour the college. Sondra (played bySabrina Le Beauf in the parent series) was the only Huxtable child not to appear on the show. Martin (Joseph C. Phillips) and Olivia (Raven-Symoné) appear in season 3 episode "Forever Hold Your Peace", along with Phylicia Rashad and Lisa Bonet. Elvin (Geoffrey Owens) and Pam (Erika Alexander) also never appeared on the show.
Producer/director Debbie Allen is the real-life sister of Phylicia Rashad. Allen made one guest appearance onThe Cosby Show, playing an aggressive aerobics instructor who helps Clair slim down for a special occasion. Allen appeared in later seasons in a recurring role as Whitley's psychiatrist. Dwayne and Whitley also visited the Huxtable home in an episode featuring the revelation that Denise had married and would not return to Hillman.
A young Kadeem Hardison appeared onThe Cosby Show as one of Theo Huxtable's friends in the first-season episode "A Shirt Story", though not playing Dwayne.
Sinbad also appeared onThe Cosby Show as a car salesman in third-season episode "Say Hello to a Good Buy".
A Hillman alumna by the name of "Louise Sujay" was mentioned on bothCosby andA Different World by Clair Huxtable, Whitley Gilbert and her mother Marion.
Like Lisa Bonet, Karen Malina White brought herThe Cosby Show character to Hillman. Charmaine was the best friend of Clair Huxtable's cousinPam Tucker. White'sCosby Show costarAllen Payne turned down an offer to bring his role as Charmaine's boyfriend Lance Rodman toA Different World as a regular during Season 6, preferring instead to pursue a movie career; he and Jada Pinkett Smith starred in the 1994 filmJason's Lyric, which is considered to be a milestone in both their careers.
Payne appeared in one episode during season five in which Charmaine visits Hillman as a prospective student, bringing Lance along to see if he can gain admission as well. When Charmaine arrives at Hillman, she and Lance are maintaining a long-distance relationship and he is mentioned in multiple episodes. Lance and Charmaine later break up over the phone.
Years later, Tempestt Bledsoe (who played Vanessa onCosby) and Darryl M. Bell (who played Ron onA Different World) became a real-life couple and co-starred on the 2009Fox Reality Channel seriesHousehusbands of Hollywood.
Hillman College is a fictionalhistorically black college, founded in 1881 and located in the commonwealth ofVirginia. The exact locality of the school is never revealed, but several geographic references are made which allude to the campus either being located somewhere in theHampton Roads area or in theRoanoke Metropolitan Area. The school's motto isDeus Nondum Te Confecit, which literally translates from Latin to:God has not yet finished you. The school colors are maroon and white. Visual shots of the Hillman campus that were used in the series were actually filmed at two real-life Black colleges,Clark Atlanta University andSpelman College, both inAtlanta, Georgia.
The first references to Hillman onThe Cosby Show were made during season one, when it is mentioned as the place where Cliff Huxtable and Clair Hanks went to school while they were engaged. Cliff's father Russell is also a Hillman alumnus. The school made its first on-screen appearance in the third-season finale ofThe Cosby Show, titled "Hillman", when Cliff and Clair and their family attend a Hillman commencement ceremony which also honored a retiring professor.
Monica Calhoun, who appeared as a guest star on season six episode "Homey Don't You Know Me" co-starred with Patrick Y. Malone (Terrell) on Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit and with Bumper Robinson (Dorian) in the miniseries The Jacksons An American Dream.
Other notable connections:
Glynn Turman (Colonel Bradford Taylor) was once married to Aretha Franklin (who sang the theme from seasons 2-5) from 1978 to 1984.
Urban Works released Season 1 ofA Different World on DVD in Region 1 on November 8, 2005. Several release dates for a Season 2 DVD were announced (May 2006,[13] July 2006,[14] and September 2006[15]), but the DVD was never released. Urban Works was acquired byFirst Look Studios in early 2006. The distribution rights for the series have since reverted to the production company,Carsey-Werner Productions. FilmRise has currently made the series available on streaming services, especially Amazon Prime and Netflix.
| DVD title | Release date | No. of Episodes | Additional information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | November 8, 2005 | 22 |
|
Despite strong viewership due to its timeslot,A Different World initially received negative reviews from television critics,[16][17][18][19] who found it juvenile, unrealistic,[20] humorless,[21] boring,[22] and overly reliant on its parent show.[17] The first season holds an approval rating of 11% onRotten Tomatoes, based on 19 reviews; its critical consensus reads: "Relying too heavily on the success ofThe Cosby Show,A Different World lacks the charisma of its predecessor, while managing to make the collegiate setting predictable and monotonous".[23] JournalistMark Harris reported that the show "drew one of the most concentrated doses of critical vituperation ever to greet an instant ratings hit".[21] ThePittsburgh Post-Gazette's Ron Weiskind said the show is "at best, an average, mediocre situation comedy".[24] Several reviewers blamed Denise's characterization and Bonet's performance for making the series' early episodes uninteresting.[17][21][25] TheChicago Tribune wrote "it doesn't seem that Bonet is a compelling enough actress to carry a show by herself, butA Different World probably will do well because of its fortuitous time slot, and whoever said that life on television was fair?".[26] Other reviews compared it unfavorably toThe Facts of Life,[27][28] including theSouth Florida Sun Sentinel's Bill Kelley who dismissed the show as "a greed-motivated sitcom that doesn't serve any function beyond milking a few million extra dollars from TV's most popular comedy franchise".[29] On the contrary, television criticMarvin Kitman admitted to having been secretly enjoying the season, praising its simplicity and the performances of Bonet and Tomei in particular.[30] Additionally, radio personalitiesHoward Stern andRobin Quivers lambasted the show on theirtalk radio program.[30]
Critics and journalists agree that Allen's involvement and extensive revisions strengthened the quality of the show,[31] and reviews improved from season two onward.[17][20][21][22] Her direction was praised for incorporating elements such as dance and fashion, as well as raising awareness about topics particularly significant to the Black community.[32] Dino-Ray Ramos ofEntertainment Tonight said the sitcom evolved into "a fresh balance of comedy and drama that spoke true to the experiences of young black adults in the early-'90s".[22] The series also drew acclaim for broaching topics rarely discussed on similar programs at the time, such as HIV, racism, and sexual and physical abuse.[32] The sixth and final season has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[33]
Critics say thatA Different World benefited from airing betweenThe Cosby Show andCheers on Thursday night. The show consistently ranked first or second among African American viewers during most of its run.[34]
| Season | Time slot (ET) | Episodes | First aired | Last aired | TV season | Rank | Avg. HH rating | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | HH rating | Viewers (millions) | Date | HH rating | Viewers (millions) | ||||||
| 1 | Thursday 8:30 p.m. | 22 | September 24, 1987 | 31.3[35] | — | July 7, 1988 | 17.0[36] | — | 1987–88 | 2[11] | 25.0[11] |
| 2 | 22 | October 6, 1988 | 22.7[37] | 34.3[37] | May 4, 1989 | 20.7[38] | 30.8[38] | 1988–89 | 3[11] | 23.0[11] | |
| 3 | 25 | September 28, 1989 | 23.4[39] | 36.6[39] | May 3, 1990 | 18.1[40] | 27.6[40] | 1989–90 | 4[11] | 21.1[11] | |
| 4 | 25 | September 20, 1990 | 18.6[41] | 28.6[41] | May 2, 1991 | 16.3[42] | 24.1[42] | 1990–91 | 4[11] | 17.5[11] | |
| 5 | 25 | September 19, 1991 | 18.9[43] | 29.0[43] | May 14, 1992 | 16.2[44] | 23.6[44] | 1991–92 | 17[11] | 15.2[11] | |
| 6 | Thursday 8:00 p.m.[a] Thursday 8:30 p.m.[a] | 25 | September 24, 1992 | 11.1[45] | 15.3[45] | July 9, 1993 | 3.5[46] | 4.3[46] | 1992–93 | 71[12] | 9.6[12] |
The Hollywood Reporter is quoted as stating that when Debbie Allen became the producer (and usually director) ofA Different World after the first season, she transformed it "from a blandCosby spin-off into a lively, socially responsible, ensemble situation comedy."[34]
TheMuseum of Broadcast Communications states that Debbie Allen:
a graduate of historically blackHoward University – drew from her college experiences in an effort to accurately reflect in the show the social and political life on black campuses. Moreover, Allen instituted a yearly spring trip to Atlanta where series writers visited three of the nation's leading black colleges,Clark Atlanta,Morehouse andSpelman. During these visits, ideas for several of the episodes emerged from meetings with students and faculty.[34]
Because of Debbie Allen's influence as the producer (and usually director) ofA Different World after the first season, African-American youth who watched the show often cite it as a defining reason why many of them decided to attend a historically Black college or university.[47][48]
In August 2006,Nick at Nite aired a week-long marathon showing episodes ofA Different World.Lisa Bonet,Dawnn Lewis,Jasmine Guy,Kadeem Hardison,Darryl M. Bell,Cree Summer, andSinbad reunited for short vignettes that provided a glimpse of the current state of their characters. Nick at Nite's "Hillman College Reunion"[49] website added details beyond those shown on television.
On August 23 and 24, 2012, Debbie Allen, the former chief creative force ofA Different World from 1988 to 1993, wrote onTwitter that she wanted to reboot the series. Over a million people onFacebook, Twitter and blogs reacted to the tweet and approved of the potential reboot.[citation needed]
The original cast reunited early 2024 onToday andThe View to celebrateA Different World's ongoing impact and legacy. In February, they kicked off a 10-city tour stopping at manyHBCUs to encourage student enrollment.
On August 7, 2024, it was announced that a sequel to the series was in the works atNetflix. It would focus on characters Whitley & Dwayne's daughter that attends Hillman College. It will be a single-cam, half-hour comedy series from writer/executive producerFelicia Pride, who has worked onBel-Air andGrey's Anatomy, and executive producersDebbie Allen, Mandy Summers,Tom Werner,Gina Prince-Bythewood andReggie Bythewood.[50] On March 28, 2025, Netflix ordered a pilot of the sequel series.[51]
no matter how doomed to early closure we may feel this program to be - and how readily dismissed it was by some of the American critics when it first appeared on their screens last September the evidence is that A Different World is a raging success.
The show was a big hit, but that was almost entirely thanks to being sandwiched between Cosby and Cheers. Critics weren't kind, and the show deserved it.
The ratings for Season One were strong ... The reviews, on the other hand, were scathing
TV critics flat out didn't like it
the tone and overall energy of the show was criticized widely for being boring and bland.
While saintly Denise was so dull she made the first season of A Different World fall flat
It's a slightly hipper version of Facts of Life and just about as funny.
