Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

A Different World - General Discussion


  • Reply
  • Start Topic

Recommended Posts

I don't think I ever realized how petite Charnele was. They dressed her so frumpy those first two seasons, but you can tell she was really tiny with a Janet booty. Next to Jasmine, I just looked at her as the big girl, but she totally wasn't.

Link to comment

The episodes where Whitley is getting married and Dwayne interrupts up the ceremony and the episode with the racist sales lady always make me get a little emotional.

I think they were excellent. But there are several episodes I really like.

Link to comment

"Baby, please!" gets to me every single time. I didn't think I could ever love that scene anymore until I watched the Unsung: Hollywood episode featuring the ADW cast. Kadeem going into detail about how that scene went down and describing how he had forgotten his line and had to improvise, makes watching that scene that much more special.  Damn!

  • Love 7
Link to comment

This is seriously one of my favorite shows of all time. I record it every morning and I still watch the episodes when I have time (but I ALWAYS make time to watch the wedding episodes!). I have to say that my favorite episodes are the ones when Dwayne & Whitley are pining for the other - when Whit was with Byron, or Dwayne was with Keekookala (still cracks me up!). I liked them together, too, but when they were pining, they were just in their element.

 

I really wish they'd reboot this show and bring back as many of the original cast as they could. I know their child would be a little past beginning-college-aged at this point, but tv timelines are always fuzzy. It'd just be so nice to see the Hilman gang back together again!

  • Love 1
Link to comment

I really wish they'd reboot this show and bring back as many of the original cast as they could. I know their child would be a little past beginning-college-aged at this point, but tv timelines are always fuzzy. It'd just be so nice to see the Hilman gang back together again!

 

Actually, according to the season finale, when they found out Whitley was pregnant, Dwayne and Colonel Taylor calculated that their daughter would be a freshman in Fall 2015.  Before all the Cosby nonsense happened, Debbie Allen was actually talking about the possibility of a reboot for this year and that they'd been in discussions with the previous writing and producing teams and all that.  I really hope they move forward with it.  If they can reboot Boy Meets World, then this can happen too!

  • Love 3
Link to comment

Unpopular opinion, but I hated any episode that focused on Dwayne and Whitley as a couple. My favorite episodes were from season 2. They dumped Phoebe Snow and brought in Ree Ree and funked that thing all the way up. Totally different show. I loved the addition of Cree, Charnele and Lou Meyers. So much so, that Freddie became my favorite character until they started making her into a very cartoonish hippie. Cree said the hair and make up team never knew what to do with her natural hair, so at first they dyed it red, then they started using hot curlers on it. *Tears*

My favorite episodes, in no particular order:

When we first met Whitley's mom. I thought this was beautifully done by Jasmine and Diahnn Carroll. The mother-daughter dynamic was so real.

Mr. Gaines moving in with Colonel Taylor. "Your Fluffy wouldn't let my Chelsea Boots use his litter box."

The pledging episode. I thought it really showed both sides of the issue in a respectful way. And it showed Ron in a different light.

Bruce Leroy as a rapist. :( "Thank you Dwayne. Thank you for being my friend."

The HBCU v. PWI episode. Loved this one, although as someone who attended a PWI, I had a lot of nasty things said to me by HBCU students too. I wished they'd explored both sides of it, but it was just a half hour show.

And much later in the series, the colorism/mammy episode. I'd read that Jasmine was very reluctant to do the episode, but I'm glad she did. I thought they did a wonderful job. Great acting by Charnele and Lou. It's so sad that we're still dealing with this in our community.

There were many, many more, but those are just a few. Loved this show, and I DVR all the episodes except the first and last seasons. If Aretha Franklin ain't singing the theme song, I ain't watching.

Edited by charmed1
  • Love 2
Link to comment

Trying to give the other topics some love.  I'm rewatching the series on Netflix and I think this is the first time I've done that (instead of just watching a few episodes here and there) since the original airing.  So...Dwayne was really an asshole in S5.  I get why: he proposed too early in their relationship to try to save it, but instead of working through his issues with Whitley, everything became her fault.  It's completely realistic, but I think I was always the impression (due to my love for Dwayne/Kadeem, no doubt) that it really was Whitley's fault that they broke up.  He kept going on and on about what he was giving up to be with Whitley, as if he was the perfect man and I was sitting there like, "Bye Dwayne."

  • Love 4
Link to comment

Dwayne lost all humility once the Whitley romance began. He and Ron went from poorly written, one dimensional, geeky characters in season one, to well-written, well-acted, authentic characters with back stories and individual personalities in season 2. Once Dwayne ditched the flip ups, started sporting that beard and carrying around that weird ass leather satchel front pack, his character got quite nasty.

  • Love 6
Link to comment

So many favorites I can't even list them all, but I'm on such an ADW kick right now that I have to bump this topic. 

 

Some of the most random lines are the ones that make laugh the most. 

 

Whitley (grumpy about Christmas): And take that stinky little tree out of here, it smells like a disinfected toilet! 

 

Whitley (stuck living with Jaleesa): I need to air out the room from that dime store perfume you put on with a plant sprayer... (As with all Whitley quotes, the accent is what makes it hilarious.

 

Walter (after the electric keeps flickering because too many girls are using forbidden hair dryers, etc): Got a whole basket of electrical appliances, it's like trick or treating at Sears. 

  • Love 1
Link to comment

I watched this show as a kid (probably in reruns since I was pretty young when it aired), but thanks to Netflix, I've finally gotten to see the entire series.

 

Such an underrated show and similar to Facts of Life, it managed to make exactly the right choices in the drastic reboot they did after season 1. (I enjoyed Marisa Tomei's Maggie character, but losing her didn't hurt the show). Getting rid of that useless Millie character, changing Ron into the slimy ladies man, and adding Kim as a reality check for Whitley were all great changes. 

 

I especially loved the addition of Walter and his relationship with Jaleesa was the only time I really liked her character. Found her boring in Season 1 and incredibly annoying after she married Colonel Taylor and got pregnant, but the Walter years were great for her character. 

 

Many of my favorite episodes have been mentioned, but I have a serious soft spot for the Heavy D episode. Not the Ron/single mom subplot, but the Dwayne/Whitley/Heavy D parts are just so quintessentially 90s. That dancing at the end kills me every single time, Whitley Roger Rabbiting like her life depends on it and the whole cast getting up on stage, love it!

 

Season 4: Again, nearly every episode, but Ex-Communication where Julian comes back is one of my favorites because Whitley finally lets realizes she doesn't care about the "finer things" in life anymore.

 

That episode is so great. Dwayne pretending not to be threatened, at one point giving Whitley money "to do something about that mustache" (she looks offended for half a second and then says "I'll need 5 more dollars for that." ha!) and then storming out in the end blowing up about how easily Julian has turned her head and then after she begs him to take her back, he turns the game on and tells Ron he'll take her back after the game. I loved how he gave her crap right back to her. 

 

The "Getaway" 2-parter is another of my favorites. The dancing to You Can't Hurry Love with Whitley twirling an afghan around her going "I'm Diana...look, I'm Diana...." and them just all hanging out together, it looked like such a fun trip (aside from the drug dealing killers, of course.) 

 

I have to say that my favorite episodes are the ones when Dwayne & Whitley are pining for the other - when Whit was with Byron, or Dwayne was with Keekookala (still cracks me up!). I liked them together, too, but when they were pining, they were just in their element.

 

One of my favorite scenes from the whole series is when Whitley decides she's going to get Dwayne once and for all (not knowing he's with Kinu) and shows up at his apartment all dressed up. The way he greets her being flirty but still mainly a friend is so sweet and they seemed so genuinely close. 

  • Love 2
Link to comment

Speaking of Whitley's accent, while rewatching, I saw the episode where Kris Kross play gang members and Dwayne & Whitley go to Mac Daddy's apartment (not to be confused with Daddy Mac).  Whitley's 5 minute warning kills me.  "5 minutes Dwayne!"

  • Love 2
Link to comment

The wedding episodes have some of my favorite scenes of the entire series, including Whitley & Kim's scene the night before the wedding. But my favorite is the scene where Dwayne comes to see Whitley on the eve of the wedding. Everything in that scene is working so well, I do not feel like I'm watching actors. I feel like I'm eavesdropping on a real couple's conversation. Just magic from both Jasmine Guy and Kadeem Hardison.

 

 

This.   Girl when this aired originally, we were holding our breath thinking that if we were just quiet enough, she'd change her mind right then and there.  When he got up to go back to...you know in all this time it has never occurred to me that I have no idea where "Hilman" is supposed to be? LOL.  Anyway when he left her sitting under that trellis...? you'dve thought somebody took our last doobie pin.  It was bad! 

 

 

On the TVOne Unsung Hollywood for ADW, Kadeem said that "Baby Please!" came out because he'd forgotten his line! Funny to think that one of the show's most famous lines was basically an oops.

 

I just saw this Unsung, I was so excited when they started doing Hollywood episodes.   I loved that he improvised that scene!  They played it again and do you know all my old feelings came right back.  He starts moving towards her, Ron right behind him, Byron's groomsmen move towards him and I'm in the living room moving towards all of em lol!!  Yo, those were some good memories. 

  • Love 3
Link to comment

"Mammy Dearest" is one of my fave episodes. Charnele (Kim) was just so real, it is hard to believe she was acting. My heart breaks every single time she cries about winning the silver dollar at her school for her costume, only to hear that she won for being dressed as Aunt Jemima.

 

After all these years, I finally come to find out that Cree Summer is the last girl shown in the Michael Jackson video "Black or White".  I never recognized her. How crazy!

Edited by GreatKazu
Link to comment

After all these years, I finally come to find out that Cree Summer is the last girl shown in the Michael Jackson video "Black or White".  I never recognized her. How crazy!

 

That's definitely not Cree Summer so no wonder you never recognized her! ;)

Link to comment

I don't see it as Cree either. But, I was watching some program a few weeks back about Michael Jackson music and his videos. The program then listed some of the famous people who have appeared throughout all of his music videos. Cree was mentioned as being in the morph sequence of "Black or White". I thought, "Huh? No way." I have watched that video more times than I care to count and I know it inside and out. I would certainly know if it was Cree. I checked Wikipedia and it also mentions Cree being in the morph sequence:

 

 

At the end of the song, several different people, of differing races and nationalities, including actor Glen Chin, model Tyra Banks, actress Khrystyne Haje, actor Jeffrey Anderson-Gunter, and actress Cree Summer[24] dance as they morph into one another (shown as "talking heads"). This technique, previously executed without digital assistance in the Godley & Creme video for "Cry", known as morphing, had been previously used only in films such as Willow and Terminator 2. The morphing visual effects were created by Pacific Data Images.[13]

I checked various sources and they all reference that girl as being Cree Summer. Now, it is one thing to have IMDB or Wikipedia be incorrect. But, they both reference Cree Summer in that morph sequence as well as various other internet sources. I would think if it was incorrect, Cree or someone would have spoken up by now to refute it or had her name edited out from at least those two sources. Strange. Don't you think the girl in the video would be quite upset knowing she wasn't being credited properly after all these years?

 

Speaking of who is who, who is the guy in the opening credits of season one who passes by as Lisa Bonet is on the payphone? Lisa then walks out and begins to follow him.

Edited by GreatKazu
Link to comment

Realistically, all it takes is for once source to be wrong and then everyone else starts referencing that source.  For instance, Wikipedia's source for that information is IMDb.  I was watching talk show once where the host referenced something on their IMDb and the actor both said it was completely incorrect and it was basically impossible to get stuff removed from that site.

 

Speaking of guys in credits, I thought it was funny that they got the actor who played Julian to show up and reprise his role for 2 seconds in the 6th season credits.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

Speaking of guys in credits, I thought it was funny that they got the actor who played Julian to show up and reprise his role for 2 seconds in the 6th season credits.

 

I thought that was funny, too! I think I read that he was Jasmine Guy's real-life boyfriend through much of the series. Didn't he also play a guy that her mother was trying to set her up with the year before he was Julian. I'm thinking his mom played tennis with Marion, or something.

Link to comment

Ha! Kent Soujay. Speaking of Dominic Hoffman, has anyone noticed how much cross pollination there was between ADW and School Daze? Besides Dominic, there was Jasmine, Darryl, Kadeem, Art Evans, Roger Smith, Tisha Campbell, Cylk Cozart, on and on and on. I think even Joe Seneca played the President of both Hillman and Mission College! I wish Samuel L made a very special episode of ADW. I would've loved it.

Then there was the cross pollination with In Living Color. In the first season, there was one episode where Keenan, Damon and Kim Wayans were all present. And David Alan Grier appeared as a geology professor in another.

Edited by charmed1
Link to comment

 

I was watching talk show once where the host referenced something on their IMDb and the actor both said it was completely incorrect and it was basically impossible to get stuff removed from that site.

That is strange considering I have noticed many times when something has been added, deleted or changed in such a short amount of time.

 

I think Kim Wayans appeared in at least three episodes. I don't feel like checking her IMDB.

 

What is the name of the episode where Ron is selling the face cream that causes the girls to break out in a bad rash?

 

So, no one knows who the guy was in the first season credits? I am assuming he was a model.

Link to comment

I'm such a sap. It's not really a line but the Christmas epi when they visit Dwayne's parents and Whitley gets mugged by Santa trying to save Mrs. Wayne's present. Anyway, they're singing at the end and Adele sings "nothing could be better, than Christmas time with youuuuuu" and at the end she's pointing at family singing "and you, and you, and you" and then she looks at Whitley and sings "and you too." I tear up every time.

  • Love 4
Link to comment

Reviving this ignored 3-year-old topic in a probably long-dead forum to say that I saw Jada Pinkett Smith on Jimmy Kimmel's show and she is morphing into Diahann Carroll circa A Different World. Lena is becoming Whitley's mother...

  • Love 5
Link to comment

I don't usually watch a lot of season 1, but it always cracks me up in "Reconcilable Differences" (first episode) when Whitley and Dwayne have just met and she says, "Dwayne, you will have plenty more chances to be nice to me, I promise."  Unintentional foreshadowing!

  • Love 3
Link to comment

I signed up for a free trial of Amazon Prime so that I didn't have to pay 6 dollars shipping for the season 5 Living Single DVD just because they (over)priced it at one cent below the minimum for free shipping, so until I cancel it, I have watched a few episodes of ADW on their video service in part to see some scenes that were cut for syndication.  (I still have all the episodes on VHS, but only two from original airings.)  On the first part of the fifth season finale, they had a pre-credits scene with Dwayne showing Ron his wedding gift for Whitley.  Ron only got her a card because he spent his money on a grad gift for Kim, and Dwayne teases him for being unsure about giving it to her.  Ron retorts, "I'll give it to her before she marries another guy!"  I was glad to hear that line because it had always stuck with me, but I had started to think I imagined it because it wasn't in the syndicated version, so I hadn't heard it since NBC reran the episode in summer 1992.  There was also a pre-credits scene in the sixth season premiere.  They showed clips of Whitley getting engaged to Byron and a bunch of stuff from the season finale, ending with Dwayne and Whitley marrying of course.  Then Whitley wakes up in a sleeping bag on the floor and says it was all a dream.  Fortunately, Dwayne pops up next to her a second later and they have a cute exchange about being married.  I remembered that scene, but I'm pretty sure I only saw it once, because I don't know that NBC showed any repeats the last season when they couldn't be bothered to show a number of episodes until either after the finale, if at all (plus they said on the Unsung Hollywood episode that NBC hated that episode anyway).  Anyway, the part with Dwayne makes up for it, but I remember that they nearly gave me a heart attack when they made it look like Whitley dreamed the whole thing!  I'm glad that they didn't dare to go there, or even in pre-Internet days, the reaction would have been ugly (and I would have been leading it).

  • Love 4
Link to comment

In "The Goodwill Games," Whitley is refusing to answer any questions at the all-star academic competition because she and Dwayne had kissed and then she overheard him insisting to Kinu that he had no feelings for Whitley.  Dwayne pleads with Whitley to answer just one question.

Col. Taylor (as moderator):  The symphonic poem La Mer was composed by...?

(Whitley promptly rings in.  Dwayne is excited.)

Whitley:  Somebody famous!!

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Usually the show has only been airing on BET on Monday mornings at roughly 5 & 5:30 AM, but BET Her (which used to air the show for a little while) currently has a bunch of episodes scheduled around Christmas time.  It is listed for Saturday, December 22 from 3 AM to 6 PM; Sunday, December 23 from 12:30 AM to 3 AM; 5 AM to 7:30 AM; and 9:30 PM to 8 AM on Monday, December 24.  Two episodes are also scheduled for midnight & 12:30 AM on Christmas.  It still doesn't say what any of the episodes are, so I wouldn't be totally surprised if they scrapped it, but they have this listed for the time being.

ETA: They have now listed the episode titles for these airings, so they apparently will happen.  They are showing a bunch of episodes (some of them twice), but no wedding episode?  I know some channels (often Logo) don't buy the rights for every episode, but if they don't show the wedding episode at all, that's just stupid!  They're showing the break-up episode, so it doesn't make sense to not give closure.  At least the episodes they are showing are airing in order.

Edited by KWalkerInc
Added confirmation that marathon(s) will air.
Link to comment
On 9/9/2014 at 4:27 PM, Vixenstud said:

There is a line that I never hear clearly and it is driving me nuts.....Dwayne and Whitley are drinking champagne and celebrating their one year anniversary, and Whitley asks him what if they don't make it.  Dwayne replies that he'll see her on the other side....and then says the line that I can never make out.

Sorry for the four-year-plus late reply.  I've been doing a really slow re-watch, and by the time I got to that episode a few weeks ago, I was stuck with a VCR hooked to a TV without closed captioning, but I caught it now on another TV while rewinding the tape.  Dwayne said, "And I'll be wearing a blue hat."

Link to comment
On 3/22/2016 at 12:33 AM, ridethemaverick said:

I'm such a sap. It's not really a line but the Christmas epi when they visit Dwayne's parents and Whitley gets mugged by Santa trying to save Mrs. Wayne's present. Anyway, they're singing at the end and Adele sings "nothing could be better, than Christmas time with youuuuuu" and at the end she's pointing at family singing "and you, and you, and you" and then she looks at Whitley and sings "and you too." I tear up every time.

Aw, that's sweet.  All Adele needed to know was that Whitley would be good to her son.

3 hours ago, KWalkerInc said:

Sorry for the four-year-plus late reply.  I've been doing a really slow re-watch, and by the time I got to that episode a few weeks ago, I was stuck with a VCR hooked to a TV without closed captioning, but I caught it now on another TV while rewinding the tape.  Dwayne said, "And I'll be wearing a blue hat."

Thanks for the answer, but I don't get it....what's with the blue hat?

Link to comment

I wish I had that channel.  I think it's also on Bounce on the weekends, but I don't get that either.  BET Her is showing episodes around midnight on weekdays, but they're on season 1 right now. 

I was watching "Cat's in the Cradle" the other day, and I don't know why that it's only recently that I noticed how weird it is that they're playing a football game in January.  Back in 1991-92, there weren't any college football games after New Year's Day, and the smaller schools that are in the playoff format (Hillman was said to be Division III, at least for baseball) had their championships in December and still do.  But Freddie specifically says of the racial incident at the game, "I can't believe this happened the same week as Dr. King's birthday."  I'm thinking maybe they couldn't have had it earlier in the season (before Christmas) because it would have been too close to Dwayne and Whitley's break-up and Whitley wouldn't have wanted to come see him, let alone have the moment that they did.

They said early in the episode that Hillman was undefeated, so I guess they found a way to keep the athletic program afloat even without Walter around and at least assisting with every sport the school had.

  • Love 2
Link to comment
On 1/30/2019 at 5:43 AM, KWalkerInc said:

I wish I had that channel.  I think it's also on Bounce on the weekends, but I don't get that either.  BET Her is showing episodes around midnight on weekdays, but they're on season 1 right now. 

I was watching "Cat's in the Cradle" the other day, and I don't know why that it's only recently that I noticed how weird it is that they're playing a football game in January.  Back in 1991-92, there weren't any college football games after New Year's Day, and the smaller schools that are in the playoff format (Hillman was said to be Division III, at least for baseball) had their championships in December and still do.  But Freddie specifically says of the racial incident at the game, "I can't believe this happened the same week as Dr. King's birthday."  I'm thinking maybe they couldn't have had it earlier in the season (before Christmas) because it would have been too close to Dwayne and Whitley's break-up and Whitley wouldn't have wanted to come see him, let alone have the moment that they did.

They said early in the episode that Hillman was undefeated, so I guess they found a way to keep the athletic program afloat even without Walter around and at least assisting with every sport the school had.

I don't have Bounce either, but do have BET Her.

Link to comment
On 2/2/2019 at 9:53 AM, TattleTeeny said:

Watching this now as I drink a whole pot of coffee. I forgot how much I love Marisa Tomei's entire wardrobe on this show.

I've been rewatching on Amazon Prime and finally dipped back into Season 1 after usually skipping it. 

Does it seem weird that there was never any mention at all of the fact that Maggie was white? The entire first episode was dedicated to Denise being uncomfortable at Jaleesa being *gasp* 24 (26?) and divorced, but nary a comment about their new roommate at a historically black college being white? Not that it had to be a negative comment, but didn't anyone wonder why she chose an HBC to go to?

The first season was more enjoyable than I remembered, but they did a great job with the Season 2 revamp. Getting rid of Millie, an absolute waste of space, giving Whitley and Dwayne more dimensions, changing Ron from Dwayne's little sidekick into his own person (for better or worse, though I do find him funny) and adding Kim and Freddie. I also didn't think Stevie brought all that much to the table, Lettie was a bit more interesting and Walter as dorm director was my all-time favorite. 

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...