On Sept. 24, 1987, after the Season Four premiere of “The Cosby Show” aired on NBC, viewers entered the world of Hillman College, as Clair and Cliff Huxtable’s daughter Denise started a new semester.
While originally a spinoff of “The Cosby Show,” “A Different World” went on to air for six seasons and turned into a true ensemble story, chronicling the ups and downs of a group of friends at a historically Black college.
More than 37 years after its premiere, “A Different World” hit Netflix on Feb. 7. The show was previously available to stream on Max.
The show — which is often hailed for its realistic portrayal of the HBCU experience and its bold approach to tackling subjects like racism, sexual assault, the HIV/AIDS epidemic and more — has had staying power.
“People are watching the show that weren’t even born when we were filming the show,” Dawnn Lewis, who starred as Jaleesa Vinson, told NBC News in 2017. “Kids that were born in ’90 whatever or 2000 whatever are now saying that the show motivates and inspires them. There are websites, all kinds of fan sites asking that we reboot the show, bring the show back … it’s humbling.”
Here’s what to know about the show.
Who’s who in the cast of ‘A Different World’?
- Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable
- Marisa Tomei as Maggie Lauten
- Dawnn Lewis as Jaleesa Vinson
- Jasmine Guy as Whitley Gilbert
- Loretta Devine as Stevie Rallen
- Kadeem Hardison as Dwayne Wayne
- Mary Alice as Lettie Bostic
- Darryl M. Bell as Ron Johnson
- Sinbad as Walter Oakes
- Charnele Brown as Kim Reese
- Cree Summer as Freddie Brooks
- Glynn Turman as Col. Brad Taylor
- Lou Myers as Vernon Gaines
- Ajai Sanders as Gina Devereaux
- Jada Pinkett Smith as Lena James
- Karen Malina White as Charmaine Brown
NBC / NBCUniversal via Getty Images
What to know about ‘A Different World’
‘A Different World’ started out as a spinoff of ‘The Cosby Show’
“A Different World” premiered on Sept. 24, 1987, and followed Denise Huxtable’s (Lisa Bonet) time at Hillman College, a historically Black school. Bonet had played Denise, Cliff and Clair Huxtable’s second-eldest child, for three seasons on “The Cosby Show” before that point.
Heading into the spinoff, young audiences had fallen in love with Denise’s sense of style and independent, popular, “wild child” energy. “A Different World,” like “The Cosby Show,” was developed by Bill Cosby.
Throughout the early seasons of “A Different World,” the Huxtable family made several appearances on the show, including Cliff (Cosby), Clair (Phylicia Rashad) and Denise’s siblings, Vanessa (Tempestt Bledsoe), Rudy (Keshia Knight Pulliam) and Theo (Malcolm-Jamal Warner).
Denise starts Season One rooming with a white student, Maggie Lauten (Marisa Tomei), and an older divorced student, Jaleesa Vinson.
Meg Ryan was originally cast for Marisa Tomei’s role in ‘A Different World’
The original idea for “A Different World” didn’t involve Denise in the starring role. Jay Sandrich, who worked on “The Cosby Show” and directed one of the first episodes of “A Different World,” said in a 2001 interview with the Television Academy Foundation that the premise started with Cosby’s idea of following a white student at an HBCU. Denise was still set to be the student’s roommate, but the show would follow “what’s it like to be a white girl in a Black surrounding,” he said.
The idea was that the student was attending Hillman because Lena Horne was teaching an acting class.
“We had preliminary casting,” Sandrich said. “And the casting director sent a girl from Los Angeles to meet us, who was going to be the roommate. The script hadn’t been written yet. And we met with her, and we all fell in love with her because her name was Meg Ryan.”
Sandrich said Ryan’s agents then decided “she shouldn’t go into television.”
“Marisa Tomei came in, and she was wonderful,” Sandrich said.
Horne ended up not joining the show, and during production the premise changed to follow Denise.
Two of the show’s lead actors left the main cast after Season 1
“A Different World” originally spotlighted Denise, Maggie and Jaleesa’s experiences as roommates.
But after Season One, Bonet announced her pregnancy with then-husband Lenny Kravitz. They welcomed daughter Zoe Kravitz in December 1988.
Debbie Allen, who started as a producer on “A Different World” in Season Two, said after Bonet told her about her pregnancy, they told Cosby the news together. Allen said she also wanted to write the pregnancy into the show.
“I got put in place as the new person in charge, we started talking about stories and then immediately, maybe about two or three weeks later, he says, ‘You know what, Debbie. No. She’s pregnant. Denise Huxtable is not pregnant,'” Allen said in a 2011 interview with the Television Academy Foundation.
Bonet then left the show, but she went back to “The Cosby Show” starting with its fifth season. She continued to appear on the sitcom until Season Seven.
Similarly, Tomei’s character was written off. Tomei said on TODAY in 2024 that she “had a really good time on (‘A Different World’), other than my unforgivable haircut.”
In the 2001 interview, Sandrich said the show’s writers “didn’t quite know how to write for Marisa.” Allen said in her interview she was “excited” by the prospect of telling stories for Maggie. “But we didn’t get to do that,” she said.
Starting with Season Two, Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) and Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy) stepped more into the spotlight, and their love story became one of the main drivers of the show, though the sitcom is remembered as an ensemble effort.
Cree Summer and Charnele Brown were also brought on as free spirit and activist Freddie Brooks and studious premed student Kim Reese, respectively.
“I think that was one of the real sacred keys about ‘A Different World,’ was that we represented all these different facets of young Black life that we had never seen before,” Summer told TODAY in 2024.
Debbie Allen took over the show in Season 2 and is credited with revamping it
While Sandrich and some “Cosby Show” writers developed the first few episodes of “A Different World,” they largely went back to working on the flagship sitcom after.
“It didn’t really find its own voice for about two or three years until Debbie Allen came in,” Sandrich said. “It became a different show.”
Allen joined the show in Season Two and has been described as its chief creative force.
“When I came on, they were like, ‘Debbie, fix this. Make it relevant. Make it more real,'” Allen said in the 2011 interview.
Aretha Franklin sang the theme song for ‘A Different World’
Each episode of “A Different World” opened with a memorable theme song that fans of the show will never forget. The jazzy, upbeat track opened with the lyrics, “I know my parents love me …”
The song was composed and co-written by Lewis. The actor told Vulture in 2018 that she was also supposed to perform the song for the opening credits.
“It was decided that would not be appropriate to have me sing the song ’cause it wasn’t my show,” she said. “It was Lisa Bonet’s show and they thought it would have put too much attention on me as the singer, composer, and co-star of the show. So they started looking for other options.”
Phoebe Snow sang the theme song for Season One. To switch things up for the sophomore season, none other than Aretha Franklin performed the song for the opening credits.
Allen said booking Franklin started with a simple phone call.
“I wanted her, everybody did,” Allen told Vulture. “… she came all the way to California (from Detroit) and went into the recording studio and re-did that song for us and it became the iconic image of ‘A Different World.'”
Franklin’s version played in the opening titles for Seasons Two through Five.
“They got Aretha Franklin thinking that for the next season they would have somebody else do it. Well, once Aretha recorded it, it was like, ‘You know what, we’re not having anybody else do this song,’” Lewis told Vulture.
Of note, Season Six’s version was performed by Boyz II Men.
The show tackled racism, homelessness, sexual violence and more
The cast of “A Different World” reunited on TODAY in 2024 to celebrate the show’s lasting impact. When asked about the most memorable episode, the answer was unanimous: When Dwayne interrupted Whitley’s wedding at the end of Season Five and professed his love for her.
But the show also tackled heavy topics like racism, sexual assault, apartheid and more.
For example, in one Season Five episode, Ron and Dwayne were involved in a fight with three white students from a rival college after a football game. Each character gave their account of what happened, gradually revealing the tense race relations at the origin of the fight.
“Addressing date rape and AIDS and war and gun violence and homelessness. But also, we were able to do that and make you laugh at the same time,” Darryl M. Bell told TODAY.
Debbie Allen had to fight to make an episode about the AIDS epidemic
Another memorable episode of “A Different World” came in Season Four, starring Whoopi Goldberg as a professor who tasked the students with writing their own eulogies. One student, played by Tisha Campbell, read aloud her assignment and revealed that she was HIV positive.
The episode, titled “If I Should Die Before I Wake,” aired in April 1991. “I fought for a year to get that done,” Allen told Entertainment Weekly that year.
“You would have thought we put Jesus Christ back on the cross the way (sighs) advertisers pulled out,” she later told the Television Academy Foundation.
Allen said the “network was just furious” and recalled NBC executive Warren Littlefield “screaming” at her.
“I don’t know how, but it became our highest-rated episode, even without advertising support. That Whoopi was there, they knew something was up, everybody,” Allen said in the 2011 interview.
‘A Different World’ is linked to a surge in enrollment at HBCUs
In addition to entertaining audiences, the show is also credited with increasing enrollment at HBCUs, as the series drew from real experiences at historically Black colleges and universities.
A 1996 report from the National Center for Education Statistics found that enrollment at HBCUs increased by 26% between 1976 and 1994, “but virtually all of the increase occurred between 1986 and 1994.” (“A Different World” was on the air from 1987 to 1993.)
“Every day, someone will say, ‘I went to an HBCU because I watched ‘A Different World.’ I’m a doctor, I’m a lawyer, I’m an engineer because I watched ‘A Different World,'” Bell told TODAY in 2024. “It’s the most rewarding part of the work we’ve done.”
Hillman College does not exist … but HillmanTok University does
Hillman College is a fictional school set in Virginia. (The show filmed some shots of Hillman’s buildings at real HBCUs, including Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College, according to Netflix’s Tudum.)
Allen has said that Howard University, her alma mater, was also part of the “blueprint” for “A Different World.”
While Hillman College isn’t real, the online space known as HillmanTok University is. Per NBC News, the online community started when a North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University professor posted a welcome message to TikTok intended for her Introduction to African American Studies students.
But Leah Barlow’s video went viral, and it inspired more educators to share what they teach via TikTok. “Enrollees” can access a course catalog for 2025 at HillmanTok University’s website.
The cast toured HBCUs across the country after the show’s 35th anniversary
To celebrate the show’s legacy, the cast of “A Different World” reunited for a massive tour of HBCUs across the United States in 2024. The tour aimed to increase awareness about HBCUs, connect with new audiences and raise funds for scholarships.
The tour included stops at Howard, Spelman, Morehouse, Bowie State University and more.
A remake is reportedly in the works
2024 proved to be a big year for “A Different World.” In addition to the tour, several outlets reported in August that a sequel series was in the works at Netflix and would reportedly focus on Whitley and Dwayne’s daughter as she studies at Hillman.
Netflix declined to comment at the time.