Difference between revisions of "A Different World (1987-1993)"
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'''''A Different World''''' is an American sitcom (and spin-off of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cosby_Show The Cosby Show]) television series that ran on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC NBC] for six seasons from September 24, 1987, to July 9, 1993. The series was originally based on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Huxtable Denise Huxtable] (Lisa Bonet) and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictitious historic black college in Virginia. It was influenced by student life at historic black colleges and universities. | '''''A Different World''''' is an American sitcom (and spin-off of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cosby_Show The Cosby Show]) television series that ran on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC NBC] for six seasons from September 24, 1987, to July 9, 1993. The series was originally based on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Huxtable Denise Huxtable] (Lisa Bonet) and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictitious historic black college in Virginia. It was influenced by student life at historic black colleges and universities. | ||
Latest revision as of 06:41, 3 February 2021
A Different World is an American sitcom (and spin-off of The Cosby Show) television series that ran on NBC for six seasons from September 24, 1987, to July 9, 1993. The series was originally based on Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictitious historic black college in Virginia. It was influenced by student life at historic black colleges and universities.
While it was a spin-off from The Cosby Show, A Different World usually tackled problems that the Cosby Show writers ignored (race and class relations, or the Equal Rights Amendment)[1]
Plot
A Different World surrounds Dr Huxtable's daughter, Denise Huxtable, as she visited her parents' alma mater, Hillman College. Denise fought through college and met memorable friends along the way, who are Dwayne, Whitley, Jalessa, Maggie and Ron. Seasons 2-6 captured the spirit of being young, black, and trained in America by tackling political, legal, racial, mental, and social problems long before the media were able to discuss them. [2]
The second season of the show is about accidental conception, sexual harassment, and underage drinking. The third season deals with class problems, religion, racism, segregation, and drug trafficking. Season four delves into adoption, interracial marriage, homelessness, safe sex, country club tokenism, Gulf War, deafness, relationship, censorship, and so forth and so on. By the fifth and sixth seasons of the show, the writers switched to a more serialized style, taking storylines from the "will they/they won't" love story between Whitley and Dwayne, but any subplots reliably dealt with a broader social problem in a manner that became increasingly predicated. [3]
Education of Racism in TV Series
The December 5, 1991 episode of A New World, "Mammy Dearest", discusses the residual consequences of slavery, and how the mammy archetype now affects black female self-perception. In that episode, Whitley is in charge of the dorm case, which includes an art exhibit of her design entitled From Mammy to Modern Times. It contains large photos of accomplished black women, contrasting with a set of mammy cookie jars that also scares the studio audiences. Students question the merits of mammy, with some calling her a strong piece of folklore, and some dismissing her as a racist symbol. Showing these artefacts during primetime and critically assessing their meaning is a grand step beyond a character simply turning to the camera and explaining that black people were once slaves and robbed of their culture, which is the highest level of discourse that any sitcom had until then risen.
As the sitcoms tend to do, "Mammy Dearest," the twenty-two-minute jaunt packs every shocking reality of slavery. To further the educational element of the episode, Whitley discovers that her parents were some of the only black people who owned slaves. Her dramatic embarrassment is excellent humour, but her surprise that black people owned other black people was felt by many audiences since the facts of slavery and slave trading have always been left out of American history books. The episode is tidily concluded with an emphasis on black pride for all and the importance of learning from the experience by letting it go. [4]
One of the favourite episodes in the series is one in which Ron and Dwayne had an altercation with white students at a soccer game, and the N-word was painted on Ron's vehicle. The episode is still important today, given racial unrest around the country and on college campuses. Darryl M. Bell, who played musician and ladies man Ron Johnson on the show, said "A Different World" was impressive because it was able to encompass good jokes, drama and address controversial issues and deliver it in a thought-provoking way in 30 minutes.
"It really spoke of racial tensions in this country that persist and persist and seem to prevent all of us from going beyond the tropes and pitfalls of the segregated and racially polarized America's past to try to really move forward as the United States of America does," Bell stated. [5]
Black Empowerment
The show is credited with an improvement in black student enrolment at historically black colleges and primarily white universities. The casts said they were proud that by merely turning up and getting to work inspired black academic achievement.
Natilie Williams, 24, was born after the show ended, but she saw reruns in the mornings before she headed to school. The show encouraged her to attend college and had such a strong influence on her that it was the subject of her Master's Degree in Communications at Illinois State University. Later, on Williams' analytical research of the show, she found that "A Different World" gave the viewers lessons on the importance of stable partnerships between youth and adults, intimate spouses, and a remarkable and classic example of black men's friendships. [6]
Reference
- ↑ O.J.: Made in America. Wikipedia. Retrieved on Feb 2, 2021.
- ↑ A Different World (1987-1993). imdb.com. Retrieved on Feb 2, 2021.
- ↑ Ford, Thembi. THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF A DIFFERENT WORLD. December 2011. digitallibrary.usc.edu. Retrieved on Feb 2, 2021.
- ↑ Ford, Thembi. THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF A DIFFERENT WORLD. December 2011. digitallibrary.usc.edu. Retrieved on Feb 2, 2021.
- ↑ Williams, Sherri. 'A Different World' Still a Key Cultural Force 30 Years Later. September 25, 2017. nbcnews.com. Retrieved on Feb 2, 2021.
- ↑ Bersett, Kevin. Redbird scholar discusses A Different World thesis on Steve Harvey’s show. May 12, 2016. news.illinoisstate.edu. Retrieved on Feb 2, 2021.