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A Different World (TV Series)


Eric83

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Was there ever a good time for her to rebel?

On one hand, I completely understand where Dr. Cosby was coming from, yet I definitely take issue with him trying to police her sexuality (by punishing her for getting pregnant by her new husband - and yes, I'm aware that Romeo Blue hadn't become the Lenny Kravitz yet) as well.

On another note, I've read some Denise haters state that it'd have preferable if Theo were the Huxtable kid that they centered ADW around. I'm not sure how I feel about that (again, because of my affection for Denise, as well as my satisfaction with how Theo's story ended on The Cosby Show with him graduating with honors from NYU).

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Oh no! Not Mr. Gaines with his *sweet* self. One of my favorite sight gags was when he put on the wig to look younger so he could help adopt someone. He played Old Mister in the Broadway musical version of A Color Purple. I bet he was great in that.

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I'm sorry to hear about Myers. They usually knew just how often to show Mr. Gaines.

Thank you for the article. I never knew the show got a profile like that. This is my favorite part:

I think she was right. Whitley just became too precious. I'm glad that was eased a little in the last season.

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I agree, that's an awesome article. At that age, if it wasn't in TV Guide or Jet, I really didn't see such in-depth magazine coverage of my favorite shows. The part about Debbie making them do a morning warm-up made me smile. We had to do that in acting school and we equally loathed and appreciated it.

As I mentioned this morning, I was watching the show today. It's interesting seeing Jenifer Lewis as Dean Dorothy Dandridge Davenport knowing now what I didn't know then. Post-ADN, Executive Producer Susan Fales-Hill and Whoopi Goldberg (who appears in the infamous HIV/AIDS episode with Tisha Campbell) pitched a sitcom about a fading, famous, black diva. They picked Jenifer Lewis as the perfect person to play her. Susan and Whoopi sat on the conference call with the assorted white PTB in disbelief as they just couldn't wrap their brains around the concept of a black diva ("When we think 'diva', we think of someone like Bette Midler" [who Jenifer sang back-up for, no less]). Whoopi and Susan tried to familiarize them with this concept, women they grew up admiring and in some cases knew personally, like Susan's mother, Josephine Premice (who plays a couple of roles on ADW). The conference call was a bust, Susan and Whoopi hung up dumbfounded and disappointed.

At least the germ of Susan and Whoopi's sitcom idea sort of split/morphed/found its way into two new projects, Jackie's Back and Whoopi!

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