A Different World (TV Series)

[Eric83]

Loved that!

I wish they had developed Gina's character more. She was my fave of the "new generation", but she never really got any episodes to have her character fleshed out.

I absolutely love the episode where she wrote DIGIT HO on a piece of paper and put on Charmaine's back. LOL that episode was good, and when it was revealed that Gina did it wasn't she put on academic probation?

Dean Davenport then said: "If i tell you to jump you better say how high?!"

I wouldn't have minded the new class but the male characters just weren't working for me. I loved Jennifer Lewis as Dean Davenport.

I will always say that Dwayne and Whitley shouldve gotten their own show, and let Kim, Ron, and Freddie stay on A Different World and be that link that connected the past and present. It may have flopped just the same, but it was a worth a try.

[SFK]

Yeah, I love that Jenifer Lewis, please tell me someone here has seen Jackie's Back! I read Susan Fales-Hill's (ADW's EP, and daughter of Josephine Premice) autobio and she and Whoopi pitched a sitcom pilot about a fading black diva. They pegged Jenifer Lewis for the lead. Of course Susan had worked with Jenifer on ADW and Whoopi had worked with her in the Sister Act films. Well, whatever IIC shot down the idea and in her book Susan recalls a conference call where execs were like, "See, when we think of 'divas' we think of someone like Bette Midler..." They totally shot down the idea, they just would not go for the idea of a sitcom about a black diva, the kind who Whoopi and Susan knew all their lives, the kind who BIRTHED and RAISED Susan. Anyway... Jenifer got to play it out in Jackie's Back!

Did you guys know that Cree Summer was the voice of Penny in Inspector Gadget and Elmira in Tiny Toons? I still hear her all the time doing commercial voiceovers.

[Cheap21]

LOVE this show. This was my favorite back in the early 90s

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Didn't Whoppi also appear on A Different World as a college professor?

I think she was in the episode that dealt with AIDS...

And yep, Cree sure caved a niche out for herself as a voiceover artist...

[SFK]

Yes indeed, she was the professor when Tisha Arnold's character revealed in a class assignment that she was HIV+ (and Gina quickly added that she was gonna request a room change as Tisha's character lived on her floor... the audience responded accordingly).

[Cheap21]

I dont get how Jalessa at 26 could be roommates with 2 freshmen. Im 26 and cant even imagine myself living in a dorm. Plus she had already been married at that point. What a downgrade

[SFK]

I went to college and shared dorms/on-campus apartments with people in their thirties, I get it and think it all depends on where you are mentally/emotioanlly in life, but yeah, Jaleesa always seemed like the type who was "over it." So did Whitley for that matter, from like day one. Whitley reminds me more of my friends who lived off-campus but of course she had a family connection to the school and her dorm in particular.

[DAYSjunkie1987]

I just flove this show. I do vaguely remember watching it a few times when it was on originally (I was very little), but I didn't become a huge fan until my local MyNetwork station started rerunning it around '05 or so (they've since axed it). Dwayne & Whitley are one of my favorite couples ever.

Edited April 25, 2010 by DAYSfreak1987

[Eric83]

What was the name of that girl who was Whitley's sidekick in Season 1? I have totally forgot.

[DAYSjunkie1987]

You mean Millie? I didn't like her at all. She was just...blah.

[DRW50]

I liked Millie. I have always felt sorry for Marie Alice Recasner because she has played so many thankless roles (especially Ellen on PC). I did not care for the idea that Whitley and Dwayne needed nerdy sidekicks, but since they expanded Ron beyond that in the second season I wish they'd done the same with Millie. I remember her standing up more to Whitley as the first season went on, which was interesting.

As for ADW's views on whites -- I rarely felt like the show was trying to say most white people were racist. I felt like, after the first season, someone at the show said, "Why do we NEED white people on our show? Just to show we're not anti-white? Please." So they wrote out Maggie and only had white characters in minor or recurring roles. I thought that worked. Sometimes they had characters make remarks against white people, but most of the time I didn't think that was the show's point of view, just certain characters.

Probably the closest I got to being annoyed by a political viewpoint on the show that I did not think came from a character was when they had a child basically try to put in a dig at Ava Gardner because she replaced Lena Horne in Showboat. That wasn't Ava Gardner's fault, it was MGM's, and I wish they could have mentioned Lena's struggles without having to mention who replaced her.

[DeeeDee]

Such as?

Topical & Preachy are two totally different things.

[DeeeDee]

+1.

[Eric83]

The racist store clerk in the episode Whitley went to go buy a present for her dad's birthday party.

The white men that Dwayne and Ron got into a fight with in the parking lot of the football game.

The white women who were looting during the LA riots, and were making remarks about blacks bringing it on themselves.

When Charmaine and Terel got ran down people automatically assumed it was whites until Charmaine told them it was a rainbow coalition of idiots.

Those are the only ones I can think of since I haven't watched most of the show in nearly 5 years.

On the subject of being topical and preachy being two different things I beg to differ. They kept referencing the 92 election, which isnt a bad thing but this was a sitcom. I dont think we need to be told the importance of voting over and over again. Dwayne mentoring the two gang members was just corny and too much, never cared for that episode. They put alot of emphasis on the struggles of the black community, which was a very good thing, but they came at us with it episode after episode. I preferred the style of Season 2-4 where we would have episodes like that, but everything wasnt so doom and gloom. It was never anything that bothered me as a child, just something I noticed as an adult. I respect your opinion though.

[Eric83]

Didnt she say something about wanting to get the college experience she never had? Which included living in dorms? Havent seen the first season in a LONG time.