A Different World, 1987-1993
However, initially the show was envisioned as a white perspective on life at an HBCU. After noted actress Meg Ryan stepped down as the lead character, Maggie Lauten, Cosby and company shifted the plot to function as a Cosby Show spinoff. In stepped Lisa Bonet, as the lead, reprising her role as Denise Huxtable from the Cosby Show and a then very little known actress, Marissa Tomei, as Maggie, Denise’s confidant and roommate. Although the show, to a degree, discussed sexism and classism, A Different World, despite its HBCU setting, largely steered on the side of caution in especially discussing racial and other social issues. The sitcom during this time, often utilized age-old literary and television tropes, many of which were recycled by the Cosby Show. For instance, throughout the most notable episodes of season one, Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad, and other actors from the Cosby Show would drive from New York to Hillman to teach and lecture Denise on fiscal responsibility and to call attention to her lack luster grades. Thus, initially A Different World, resembled the white or race neutral, sitcoms of yesteryear such as Leave It To Beaver, The Brady Bunch, The Cosby Show, and many others.
By 1988 the show underwent massive changes. Perhaps the most obvious was the exodus of Lisa Bonet and the character of Denise Huxtable. Throughout the years, various reasons have been circulated as to the reason for this change. Debbie Allen, who took much of the creative reins from Cosby for the rest of the show, named Lisa Bonet’s pregnancy as the definitive reason for Denise’s exodus from the program. Allen recounted that she viewed Bonet’s pregnancy as a positive for the show, noting that it would expose America to “a girl who’s an upper class kid, having a baby not married, because she didn’t want to be married, and the girls could root for her.” Upon hearing this Cosby retorted, “She’s [Lisa Bonet] pregnant. Denise Huxtable is not pregnant. Lisa Bonet is pregnant, not Denise. So no!”[2]
However, the most important change in season two, was the emergence of Debbie Allen behind the scenes. As an alumna of Howard University, and as racial groundbreaker herself in the world of choreography and broadway, she lamented the trivial elements of season one. Allen explained that in season one, she observed, “a lot of foolishness….We don’t have time to do an episode at a black university, where their assignment is to take care of an egg. No! We’re dealing with serious issues out here, between education, poverty, joblessness, pregnancy, drugs, gangs, we have a lot of issues and this is a historically black college!” In attention, Allen labeled the show’s initial run as “lifeless,” in that it was missing the cultural vibrancy of black life at an HBCU. To achieve such changes, Allen did an almost complete overhaul of the principal cast and the aesthetic of the show. From seasons 2-5, Allen called on Aretha Franklin to sing the theme song of the show. In regards to the cast, with Bonet and Tomei out, Allen brought in more young black actors with more diverse character archetypes. Summer Cree played Freddie Brooks, a female activist student, very much in the mold of the civil rights movement and flower power generation. Charnele Brown portrayed a pre-med undergrad, Kimberly Reese, who was from a blue-collar family. In addition to new cast additions, Allen, in stark contrast to season one, played up the socioeconomic differences of new characters and of those returning from season one. Allen’s revamped approach is encapsulated by the main focus of the show, the relationship between Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert. Wayne was an aspiring engineer from a working class family in Brooklyn and Gilbert, was a conservative southern belle from a wealthy Virginia aristocratic family. Though this fish out of water approach, Allen was able to meticulously flesh out black life in an unprecedented manner.
Off screen, the cast of A Different World, formed networks with foundational black activists and artists. Jasmine Guy, who played Whitley Gilbert, and Jada Pinkett, who played Lena James (named after Lena Horne), were incredibly close to the Shakur family. Their relationship with rapper Tupac Shakur, is well known. Long before his days as a popular and controversial rapper, Tupac and Pinkett in the 1980s met as students in Baltimore School for the Arts and developed a close friendship. Given Guy and Pinkett’s friendship with the budding rap star, it is no surprise that Tupac appeared as a guest star on A Different World in the 1993 episode Homey, Don’t Ya Know Me?, as Lena’s ex-boyfriend. Less-so documented, was Guy and Pinkett’s relationship with Shakur’s mother, activist Afeni Shakur. Tupac, renamed after the Peruvian revolutionary Tupac Amaru II, was born while his mother was a member of the Black Panthers. In fact, Tupac was born as Afeni and other panthers, known as the New York 21, were arrested and accused of conspiracy in engaging in bombings throughout New York. Afeni, who represented herself in court, was pregnant as the 21, faced a 300 year sentence. Afeni surrounded young Tupac around black radical activists, such as his godfather, famed Black Panther Geronimo Pratt, members of the Black Liberation Army, and fellow Panther 21 member Jamal Joseph. Wanting to learn more about the women in the Panthers, Jasmine Guy befriended Afeni and in 2004 published Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary.
---COMPARISON OF HOW COSBY AND A DIFFERENT WORLD HANDLED THE 1992 UPRISING
During the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising, The Cosby Show was lauded as an image of America as a colorblind utopia. This was publicly seen in when the LA’s African American Mayor, Tom Bradley called on people in the streets to return home to watch the series finale of the Cosby Show:
“We believe we need this time (as) a cooling-off period . . . to remember what our Thursday nights were like before this all began. If major events dictate, be assured that we will return immediately."
The series finale of The Cosby Show, made no reference to Los Angeles.
On the other hand, A Different World was not actively addressed the revolution in Los Angeles. In the launch episode of the show’s final season “Honeymoon in L.A.,” Dwanye and Whitley not only go to Los Angeles but also call on a controversial figure to discuss the uprising. Rapper Sista Souljah appears here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=7Ccd-ToS2ic
Inviting Sista Souljah to the small screen came with a bit of risk. A month after the Uprising, she praised the violence explaining:
“Yeah, it was wise. I mean, if black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?... White people, this government and that mayor were well aware of the fact that black people were dying every day in Los Angeles under gang violence. So if you're a gang member and you would normally be killing somebody, why not kill a white person? Do you think that somebody thinks that white people are better, are above and beyond dying, when they would kill their own kind?”[1]
Presidential candidate Bill Clinton repudiated Sista Soulja, calling her logic similar to David Duke, the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
This comparison speaks to the fact that throughout A Different World’s run it gradually evolved into a form of counterprograming to the Cosby Show. In stark contrast to the program’s predecessor, The Cosby Show, the program became a lightening rod for dialogues on domestic violence, HIV AIDS, rape, South African apartheid, feminism, the revolutionary philosophies of Dr. King and Malcolm X, colorism, classism, and sexual harassment.
the Rodney King beating
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- Decolonizing American Television: 1965-1990s Leonard Butingan
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