‘The Cosby Show’ went off the air 23 years ago, but its spin-off is well worth the re-watch.
A Different World is the latest binge-watching bait to join Hulu Plus and Netflix — and it is very much worth your time, especially now that The Cosby Show has probably been completely ruined for you. The 1987 spin-off aimed to be a cool, hip series that followed Denise Huxtable’s (Lisa Bonet) adventures at her parents’ alma mater, Hillman College.
The show hit a couple of speed bumps in the beginning of its six-season run, but it eventually became a fresh balance of comedy and drama that spoke true to the experiences of young black adults in the early-’90s. More than two decades after its retirement, we watched every single episode (again) and discovered 17 groundbreaking moments, life lessons, and way ahead-of-its-time issues that prove the show’s still got staying power today.
1. The Bill Cosby-created series did well in ratings — but was boring to start
Hot on the heels of The Cosby Show juggernaut, which 34 million people watched every week at its peak, A Different World did well in the ratings, coming in second to only its parent/lead-in during its first year. But the tone and overall energy of the show was criticized widely for being boring and bland. Nothing really happened in the first season! The second eldest Cosby kid goes to college. She makes a couple of friends. Lives in a dorm. Goes to class. Has trouble with money and grades. Basically, it was your average first-year college experience starring Lisa Bonet. Even before the show premiered, it ran into some problems. The writing staff was fired and producer Anne Beatts (Remember Square Pegs?) was brought in to replace the first episodes with new material. Luckily, things got better.
2. Denise quickly became the first Huxtable college dropout
Despite being one of the biggest stars of the 1980s, Bonet stayed on the show for only one season. Yup, the character on which the spin-off was based split after the freshman season (with the exception of a cameo in season three). At the beginning of the second season we find out that Denise dropped out of Hillman to travel throughout Africa. Translation: Bonet got pregnant with Lenny Kravitz’s baby – aka Zoe Kravitz — but Cosby did not think that the character should become an unwed mother.
3. Dwayne Wayne was kind of a creeper in the beginning
The iconic flip glasses, the cool persona, the charming smile — Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) is supposed to be the show’s resident heartthrob, right? Well, not so much in the first season. Dwayne mostly hangs out around the girls’ dorm room all day and preys on the residents with his cheesy pickup lines — particularly Denise. It’s less endearing and heavy on the creep factor. Luckily, after the second season overhaul, the character became more developed. He was transformed into the resident computer guy, math whiz, and stylish man about campus. Dwayne Wayne was geek chic long before it was a fad, and as the show went on, Hardison even wrote and directed some episodes.
4. Season two got a major makeover
NBC was not satisfied with the lukewarm ovation that the first season received from audiences and critics. Thus, major changes were in order for season two. Enter Debbie Allen, the mastermind behind Fame — and Cosby matriarch Phylicia Rashad’s real-life sister. As producer, she added some new flavor and freshness by introducing stories that mirrored her experiences as a college student at the predominantly black Howard University in Washington, D.C.. She made the show more youthful, topical, and authentic.
With Bonet and Marisa Tomei’s exits, a new batch of characters were introduced into the mix including the hippy soul sister Freddie (Cree Summer), overachieving med student Kimberly (Charnele Brown) and Lou Myers as the all-knowing, no-nonsense cook, Mr. Gaines. Wannabe playboy Ron (Darryl Bell) was put into rotation, and then there was comedian Sinbad, who was made a series regular. As the wisecracking resident coach, he’s somehow still as damn funny now as he was then.
5. The token white girl did not make the cut
In the first season, we were introduced to Denise’s well-traveled and rambling roommate, Maggie, played by Tomei. Meg Ryan was originally cast in the role but she dropped out to pursue a film career. Allen wanted to keep the dynamic of having a white girl in a black college, but after one season, Tomei’s character disappeared too. Appearing on “Watch What Happens Live” in 2014, Tomei told host Andy Cohen that she was fired from the show– but there were no hard feelings. She said that she had so much fun on the show and that she is still friends with her Hillman pals – particularly Lisa Bonet, who is the godmother to Tomei’s children.
