As part of Variety‘s 100 Greatest Television Shows of All Time issue, we asked 12 of our favorite creators of television to discuss the series that inspire and move them. Check out all the essays, and read our full list of the best TV shows ever made.
When it came time to name my production company, Hillman Grad just felt right. It just represented a lot about who I was — and how “A Different World” was so inspirational to me as a writer, as a kid, as a person. It just made sense.
“A Different World” started by following Lisa Bonet’s character Denise Huxtable to Hillman College, the same school her parents attended. It was spun off from “The Cosby Show,” which was all about the humor and the mundaneness of marriage and parenting. “The Cosby Show” was about family. On “A Different World,” it was about chosen family.
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And even after Denise is off the show at the end of the first season, you have a smorgasbord of amazing characters and life stories to tell. For the show to exist without its source is something that you just don’t see in television. But Debbie Allen stepped in as a director and producer to get it into shape. They were talking about things that were happening at the time — and it was very in-your-face.
So many examples stick out. There’s an episode called “The Cat’s in the Cradle,” in which Ron and Dwayne (Darryl M. Bell and Kadeem Hardison) are attacked by three white guys at a rival school. They all get put in the same jail cell — and they all hash it out. It’s a bottle episode, and they’re talking about race relations and their ancestors. And this is happening on a half-hour multicam comedy. In another episode, “Mammy Dearest,” they read a Nikki Giovanni poem in its entirety at the end of the episode. The show was there to entertain, but it was not afraid of educating us as well.
When we look back at “A Different World” now, it doesn’t feel dated. A lot of its subjects are still happening now. They have a whole episode on police brutality. They weren’t afraid to have that conversation then, because I think they knew we would be having the same conversation now.
I say this with complete confidence: If we respect “All in the Family,” as we should, I would put “A Different World” in the same category. It should be respected as one of the greatest television shows of all time, because it’s unlike any other show — both timely and timeless.
Lena Waithe, an Emmy-winning writer and producer, is the creator of series including “The Chi,” “Boomerang” and “Twenties.”
