Leia

See, this is a little complicated, because we're also dealing with a certain type of upper middle class black family that is just as black to me as the kids of A Different World, but when you add more kids, more slang, more hip-hop culture what have you, then non-black people suddenly see a "black show" when they were both just as black. It's like when people say that she show "got ghetto" with Pam and her friends. Offense taken. What I also find tough is the idea that upper middle class blacks were more "palatable" to certain white audience members, yet from the same group (and from blacks too to be fair) the show was criticized for being unrealistic by having a black doctor father and black lawyer mother. Like, how dare you say that's unrealistic?? White and no one would have batted a lash.

The Pam thing I get sort of because there is always a battle in the black community raging between the haves and have nots but are you serious people thought a black doctor and a black lawyer was unrealistic?

One of the best dynamics explored in ADW was the financial divide epitomized by Whitley and Dwayne's relationship and amplified by the fued between their mothers. I loved Season 6 because we got to see Adele and Marion come together. Plus, I loved how Whitley told Dwayne she was pregnant but scared about how they would raise a child without the lifestyle she was accustomed to.

That is exactly why I think those people Y&RWT mentioned in his post consider ADW a black sitcom and not the TCS.

It had a certain flavor to it, whereas The Cosby Show was more of a universal sitcom that looked beyond race.

However I consider both black sitcoms either way.

Is this similar to the problem The Wire had?

I think only the first season is on DVD...

I think you are right. Season 1 was my least favorite. I can understand why it didn't sell well.

Season 3 but otherwise you're right.

Their first kiss was Season 2. Had the episodes wrong. I don't know why I get them mixedd up so much.

Dream Lover"

gs: LaRita Shelby [ Leslie Wilkins ], Don Barnes [ Guy ]

During a party celebrating the end of midterms, Dwayne finds himself attracted to Whitley. She agrees to dance with him, but runs out after he grabs her ass. Whitley is disturbed by an erotic dream about Dwayne, for which Kim teases her mercilessly. Whitley daydreams about Dwayne in the computer lab. After he helps her retrieve a file, she kisses him without thinking. Dwayne believes that Whitley is the secret admirer who sent him brownies and a poetry book; he becomes convinced that she wants him. Kim saves him from humiliation by revealing that Freddie sent the gifts. Whitley confesses to Lettie that she is a virgin. Lettie assures her that she has no reason to be embarrassed, and says that she shouldn't read too much into dreams. When Freddie offers to bow out, Whitley melodramatically declares that she will step aside and let Freddie have Dwayne.

They really should put this series up for sale. I'd buy it. I wish they would do another show like this.

Nope.

It was A Different World.

I remember. That was Season 2. Dwayne kissed Whitley in the back seat of her car. He was pissed that they were stuck. Whitley through out her spare tire because it was too ugly. While they waited in the back to keep warm Dwayn kissed her. The rest of season 2 he made it clear he liked her but she was afraid to ruin their friendship and ended up with Julian instead.

I liked Julian but I thought he should have been with Jaleesa or Kim.

Leia, I loved that post, especially the first paragraph.

Thanks! I respected that ADW handled complex issues like that. I don't think I've seen another show mirror it as an equivalent and it has dawned on me that ADW like The Wire were both so far ahead of their times.

This is what I read on Wikipedia

Season 1: #2

Season 2: #3

Season 3: #4

Season 4: #4

Season 5: #17

Season 6: #86

I think the last season can be explained because the show stopped airing for a good period. I remember thinking it was already off the air and didn't realize the finale was coming until I happened upon it by accident.

The first season was the Phoebe Snow version (which was OK, but I'm glad they changed it).

I liked Freddie until she became too one-note, which I thought she was around seasons 4 and 5. Before then she had a certain sweetness which she lost as time went on. They'd have her very shrilly champion a cause and then have various people talk about how shrill she was, which just made it even worse. They started treating her as a joke. I liked when they had her change because I didn't think there was anywhere else the character could go. I think they did have her go back to her natural hair a few times, although they could have done it more often.

I liked the last season because I thought they were trying something different, and while there was a more confrontational edge to the humor, I thought that was almost necessary, in a way, with the huge racial confrontations going on in America around this time. I didn't care for some of the "Listen to me, woman," turn the Whitley/Dwayne relationship took, but overall I thought they took the older characters in more interesting story directions. I didn't care for most of the new people but some of them had potential. I wish they'd let Jada Pinkett have a little more warmth. Jada Pinkett in all her work I've seen has tried to have a tough edge but she's better suited to some sweetness. Lauryn Hill was more believable in that tough role...but then she went on to lose her mind.

ADW is my favorite show ever. I was very young when TCS and ADW were airing but I remember that my mother made sure that I watched those shows. I always related more to ADW of the two though. I loved Freddie the most out of all of the characters. Freddie is like me. I'm biracial and quixotic. I don't really fit neatly into either world. I have a sister who is very dark-skinned who looks like Layla on OLTL and a few years ago she mentioned how the Mammy episode made her cry because she was teased when she was younger by white kids and called Mammy. She always wished she was me. I always wished I was her.

I think Season 1 was the worst season. I didn't like Denise and Dwayne. I never saw their chemistry between them. I liked Whitley the most but it was mostly love to hate and somewhere along Denise and Dwayne getting stuck in her car on the way back from his visit to see Denise and her dejection at her father's wedding to Monica, I found myself intrigued by their chemistry. The three-year courtship between them was so very well done. I loved that a dark-skinned, geeky, math nerd was the heartthrob of the show. I loved how the women were so smart. My chief complaint was that they wrote Whitley as a virgin and then had her first experience off-screen. I don't know if I understood that.

I think Season 6 was trying to reestablish itself with a new generation and I actually found that interesting. Dwayne and Whitley as supporting characters struggling to make ends meet worked for me. I loved Dwayne and Whitley and I found them as interesting as newlyweds as I did when they were dating. I didn't like Lena very much but I loved Charmaine and Gina. I also liked Terel. It was Dorian that was too bland. Terel reminded me of Ron and I floved Ron and his relationship with Dwayne. Ron and Freddie made a very good match. I think they helped to make Season 6 as she was torn between her attraction to Ron and Shazza.

I'm liking Ana and Jeremy more than I liked him with Vicky. I actually liked Vicky and Damon.

I love this show. Anyone else watching?