A Different World
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A Different World was an American television sitcom. It dealt with the life of students at the fictional historically Black college, Hillman, and ran for six seasons on NBC. A spin-off series from The Cosby Show, it was originally centered around Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet). Later seasons focused on Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) and Whitley Marion Gilbert (Jasmine Guy). The sitcom aired from its debut on September 17, 1987 until the show's final episode on July 9, 1993.
While it was a spin-off from the Cosby Show, A Different World addressed issues that the largely apolitical Cosby Show avoided, such as race and class relations, the Equal Rights Amendment and one episode that aired in 1990 was one of the first American network television episodes to address the AIDS/HIV pandemic. Reruns can be seen on Oxygen and will be coming to Nick at Nite in 2006.
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Cast
- Mary Alice - Leticia "Lettie" Bostic (Episodes 13-20, 23-44)
- Darryl M. Bell - Ron Johnson (Seasons 2-6, recurring in Season 1)
- Lisa Bonet - Denise Huxtable (Season 1)
- Charnele Brown - Kimberly Reese (Seasons 2+)
- Loretta Devine - Stevie Rallen (Episodes 1-9, 21)
- Jasmine Guy - Whitley Marion Gilbert-Wayne (1-21, 23+)
- Kadeem Hardison - Dwayne Cleophus Wayne (1-21, 23+)
- Dawnn Lewis - Jaleesa Vinson-Taylor (Seasons 1-5)
- Lou Myers - Vernon Gaines (Seasons 2+)
- Jada Pinkett - Lena James (Season 6)
- Ajai Sanders - Gina Deveaux (Season 4+)
- Sinbad - Walter Oakes (Seasons 2-4, recurring in Season 1)
- Cree Summer - Winifred "Freddie" Brooks (Seasons 2+)
- Marisa Tomei - Maggie Lauten (Season 1)
- Glynn Turman - Col. Bradford Taylor (Seasons 2+)
- Karen Malina White - Charmaine Tyesha Brown (Season 6)
Episode 22's Cast
The final episode of the first season, Episode 22, entitled "My Dinner with Theo", had a much different casting lineup than the rest of the series. It was apparently shot before the pilot was, and as such many characters from the rest of the show are not credited at all, and some appear only in this episode. This also marked the end of the run on the series for two regulars: Lisa Bonet, who left upon discovering she was having a baby with her then-husband Lenny Kravitz, and Marisa Tomei, who went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in My Cousin Vinny a few years later.
Characters not appearing in this episode
- Jasmine Guy as Whitley
- Kadeem Hardison as Dwayne
Characters appearing in this episode alone
- Ted Ross as Dr. Harris, the dean of Hillman
- Vernee Watson-Johnson as Carla Meyers, Hillman's resident director.