Natilie Williams got an emotional conclusion to her thesis for Illinois State University on “A Different World.”
Williams, who grew up in Roseland, met some of the sitcom’s cast members on Steve Harvey’s talk show in an episode set to air 2 p.m. Friday on WMAQ-Ch. 5.
“‘A Different World’ definitely changed my life. It felt surreal,” Williams, 22, told the Tribune about meeting the cast.
Williams said she frequently watched the series with her mother, who died 10 years ago. “The Cosby Show” spinoff, which aired from 1987-93, followed students at fictional Hillman College, a predominately African-American school.
“I remember watching that show and telling (my mother) about it and that I was going to go to Hillman. And she would look at me and say, ‘Hillman isn’t real, but yes, you’re going to go to college,’” Williams, who attended Central Michigan University, told Harvey. “I saw the relationships that they had with each other. And so when I went away to college, I found those exact same positive relationships.”
Williams studied intercultural communication as part of her Illinois State graduate work and wrote her thesis on the relationships between the “A Different World” characters. She focused on 10 episodes, which she had to transcribe for her 130-page paper.
“I’m so passionate about this show, it didn’t feel tedious at all,” said Williams, who graduated last week and works as a business analyst.
She defended her thesis in March to a panel of educators and applied to attend a Virginia university panel discussion last month about the show and the value of historically black colleges and universities. Her application got into the hands of producers for Harvey’s talk show and she was invited to the taping of the reunion, though she didn’t know that at the time.
Jasmine Guy (Whitley Gilbert), Kadeem Hardison (Dwayne Wayne), Cree Summer (Freddie Brooks), Charnele Brown (Kimberly Reese) and Darryl Bell (Ron Johnson Jr.) joined Harvey, who called on Williams to share her thoughts on the show and hug the cast.
“I became so grateful to God because I knew at that moment my hard work paid off,” said Williams, who added that she could feel her mother’s presence at Harvey’s WMAQ-Ch. 5 studio.
