This year marks 35 years since the sitcom A Different World premiered on NBC.
The show, running for a total of 6 years, from 1987 -1993, originated as a spin-off for The Cosby Show and a starring vehicle for one of its main stars, Lisa Bonet. The series saw Bonet’s character Denise Huxtable as she attends college at her parents’ alma mater, Hillman College
Bonet left the show after its first season, eventually resuming her role on The Cosby Show. The show eventually continued and went through seriously radical changes during its second season, reflecting storylines and characteristics about life attending an Historically Black College & University. One instrumental component in the reworking was the influence of HBCU graduate and choreographer Debbie Allen.
Writer Michael E. Hill, in his 1989 article for The Washington Post, “Debbie Allen: She Made ‘Different’ A ‘Better’ World”, writes, “‘Basically, I was coming in to fix the No. 2 show on television,’ said Allen. ‘What does that mean? If it’s No. 2, why does it need to be fixed? Because there were a lot of unhappy people on the program. And the content of the show was not something that Carsey-Werner Productions or Bill Cosby would be proud of two, three, five years down the line.’” Allen refers to many unhappy instances on the show, specifically the tension between Cosby and Bonet.
By this time, Allen had become a household name for her role as actress and choreographer on the hit show Fame. But it was Allen’s own experience attending Howard University that proved to be a key ingredient to the eventual success of the show. Hill writes, “‘having gone to Howard, having lived that experience, and certainly having the experience of working on ‘Fame’ for six years and being vocal in solving any number of problems there — keeping that family thing going — I was a prime candidate to come into the show’… She wanted the audience to see them becoming politically, socially, economically, and sexually more mature. ‘That’s what happened to me at Howard,’ she said. ‘I grew up there and recommitted myself to goals, to what I wanted to do.’”
Through Allen’s show running, she was able to incorporate storylines that tackles timely topics such as date rape, gang violence, racial profiling, substance abuse, and the then-controversial and timely topic of HIV/AIDS.
Writer Julian Kimble, in her 2017 article for The Fader, “A Different World Took HBCU life to Primetime. 30 Years On, The Show Still Resonates” writes, “In a moment of self-awareness, A Different World squarely challenged the argument that black colleges are inferior to their predominantly white counterparts… A Different World was lightyears ahead of its time in terms of exploring social issues. It aired a pioneering episode about HIV and AIDS in 1991, back when there was only enough latitude to mention condoms on TV.”
Thirty years later, no such show has ever recaptured the essence of Black representation within higher education. The show can even be credited for influencing future generations of Black Americans to attend college, even specifically historically black colleges & universities. Even creating a dialogue about the role African American culture relates to higher education.
