THE LEGACY LIVES ON
The cast of A Different World reunites to reflect on the show's impact
On any given day, the Yard at Howard University can look like a scene right out of A Different World. But on a warm afternoon last week, it looked especially like a scene from ADW because several members of the cast were there to reflect on the legacy of the beloved series.
Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy, eternally shipped as Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert-Wayne? Present. So, too, were Darryl M. Bell, who starred as Dwayne's BFF Ron Johnson; Cree Summer, known for playing the bohemian-chic Freddie Brooks, and Charnele Brown, who starred as aspiring lawyer Kim Reese.
Howard's campus in Northwest D.C. marked the second stop of a multi-city tour that has reunited the colleagues turned family at the centre of the NBC sitcom about life at a fictional historically Black college. Under the direction of HU graduate Debbie Allen, the Cosby Show spinoff, which aired from 1987 to 1993, became a funny, poignant and groundbreaking sitcom in its own right.
Thirty-five years after it premièred, A Different World occupies a hallowed place in the Black TV canon and is one of several groundbreaking series belatedly getting its due in the era of streaming and social media. The cast was at Howard to celebrate that, but also to talk about the show's impact — enrolment at historically Black colleges and universities notably increased during the show's run.
Dawnn Lewis, whose character Jaleesa was in her mid-20s when she enrolled at Hillman, added “the germ of the show” came from creator Bill Cosby, who was passionate about higher education and HBCUs in particular.
Yes, Cosby — whose name came up respectfully but sparingly as the cast discussed the show's legacy — was the creator of A Different World, but it was Allen who made it into the show we all remember. The forgettable first season revolved around Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet), and her white roommate, Maggie (Marisa Tomei); Tomei left the show entirely after season 1, while Bonet appeared only as a special guest.
Hired to reboot the series in its second season, Allen leaned into the show's HBCU setting, requiring the show's writers to spend time on HBCU campuses, and shifting the focus to Dwayne, Whitley and their inner circle.
Though ADW's legacy looms large three decades on, it didn't always feel that way for the cast. “In all honesty, when we were doing the show we were just so happy to be employed,” explained Summer. “Yes, we were the No. 2 show on TV, but as people of colour, we didn't feel that. We felt the love from our people but not necessarily from the industry at large.”
Allen steered the show in a more socially conscious direction, with episodes devoted to topics including HIV/AIDS (at a time when it was controversial to even mention condoms on television), consent and apartheid. “I felt the show needed to be upgraded to a more mature level of talking and thinking,” Allen told The Associated Press in 1989. “Teenage pregnancy, student uprisings, voting and other issues.”
She wasn't there in person, but Allen signed on via video during a break from directing Grey's Anatomy.
The moment was a reminder that the industry has also evolved, thanks to the efforts of famous HBCU alums including producer Will Packer, who graduated from Florida A&M University, and Taraji P. Henson, who studied drama at Howard. Lena Waithe, the actress-writer-producer behind Showtime's The Chi and BET's Twenties, made ADW's fictional university the namesake of her production company, Hillman Grad.
Morehouse alum Spike Lee famously brought the HBCU experience to the big screen in his 1988 film, School Daze, which marked early roles for Guy, Hardison and Bell. But apart from that film and a handful of others, including Gina Prince-Bythewood's Lee-produced debut Love and Basketball, it's not common to see HBCUs on screen.
When NPR host Ayesha Rascoe was editing HBCU Made, a collection of essays from graduates of historically Black colleges and universities, she found it striking by how many HBCU alums — from varying generations — mentioned A Different World.
“When people talk about their views of going to an HBCU or why they went, A Different World really played such a big role,” Rascoe, also an graduate of Howard, said in a phone interview. “I think it just shows the importance of media and the importance of telling these stories because they have such a wide impact on people and the decisions that they make, even just something as important as the school that they go to.”
As the panel ended, Hardison gave away a pair of his character's trademark flip-up aviators and the cast gamely interacted with students.
“It's beyond beautiful and it's overwhelming and it just lets me know that the legacy will live on,” Summer said.