A Different World - Season 1
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Kadeem Hardison, Lisa BonetDirector: *
Brand: First Look Home Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Unknown; Unknown (Published)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 575 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-11-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Urban Works
Movie Reviews of A Different World - Season 1
Movie Review: The 'Cosby Show's' Hilarious Spinoff
Summary: 5 Stars
Perhaps this is one of the few shows that ran sucessfully for a considerable length of time after the departure of its star.
Originally built around Cosby Kid, Lisa Bonet's character, Denise Huxtable, the show stayed afloat for five more seasons after Bonet left, thanks largely to the prestige of its parent show as well as the writing and directing talents of Bill Cosby, Debbie Allen, and some of the show's stars.
The first season found Denise struggling with college life at the fictional Hillman College in Virginia, forging relationships with fellow students, Jaleesa Vinson (Dawnn Lewis, who helped compose the show's theme song)a divorcee in her mid-twenties,Army brat Maggie Lauten(Marisa Tomei),the upper-crust scene stealer, Whitley Gilbert(Jasmine Guy,whom I recently had the pleasure of watching in a live stage performance),Whitley's silly young lackey, Millie(Marie Alise Recasner), the intially goofy, but ultimately daring and romantic math genius, Dwayne Wayne(Kadeem Hardison), who made flip-top sunglasses a fashion statement, and his lackey, slickster Ron Johnson(Darryl M. Bell), the illustrious Gilbert Hall House Mother, Lettie Bostic(Mary Alice), dorm manager Stevie Rallen(Loretta Devine),Glynn Turman's tough-as-nails math teacher, Col. Bradford Taylor, and cafeteria manager Vernon Gaines, (Lou Myers).
The episodes ranged from plainly amusing to downright side-splitting, as the characters developed and the dynamics of the show shifted during the six years it was on the air. Old characters were replaced with new as Maggie, Stevie,Millie and Denise left, and we were introduced to Cree Summer's Southwestern hippie chick, Freddie Brooks, Sinbad's Coach Walter Oakes, and Charnele Brown's aspiring doctor, Kimberly Reese.
The series was a showcase for African American talent, including appearances by Gary Dourdan as activist, Shazza Zulu, Joe Morton's Senator Byron Douglas, and Dominic Hoffman's diplomat-in-training Julian Day, who each play a key role in Whitley's life, Diahann Carroll as Whitley's socialite mother, Marion,Patti LaBelle as Dwayne's mother, Adele, Alisa Guise Dickens, as Dwayne's one-time love interest, Kinu Owens, who was of partial Japanese descent, Debbie Allen's Doctor Langhorne, Robert Guillaume's Dean Winston, Roscoe Lee Browne's Dr. Barnabus Foster, Jada Pinkett-Smith's Lena James,Tisha Campbell-Martin as the AIDS victim, Josie Webb,Whoopi Goldberg as an English professor, Ajai Sanders as student Gina Deveraux,Abner Mariri as South African student, Kobie, the Ethiopian Entertainer, Senait as Ron's sister, Blair Underwood as a friend of Dwayne's slated to serve in the Persian Gulf war, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson himself, to name a few. Andrew Lowrey and Anita Morris as Freddie's mother and cousin gave a nod to her mixed-raced background.
As homage was paid the the range and beauty of those of the African diaspora,many viewers saw the lives of blacks in all their complexities, and not just in the negative stereotypes portrayed in the media. Many who saw this series, as well as "The Cosby Show" itself, were inspired to improve their quality of life through higher education, and still many others may have been introduced to various facets of African and African American history that schools have often failed to teach.
Nearly two decades after its final taping, it's still a magnificent, beautiful, and intelligent comedy to watch. Highly recommendable!
Summary of A Different World - Season 1
A fresh funny situation comedy that follows the triumphs trials & tribulations of students of hillman college. Studio: First Look Home Entertain Release Date: 11/08/2005 Starring: Lisa Bonet Kadeem Hardison Run time: 575 minutes Rating: NrSet at the fictional Hillman College, A Different World was originally conceived as a vehicle for Lisa Bonet's Denise Huxtable. (The exteriors were filmed at Spelman.) Positioned between The Cosby Show and Cheers, the top-rated sitcom quickly became a group effort as the "ordinary" Denise was frequently upstaged by self-obsessed Southern belle Whitley (six-time Image Award winner Jasmine Guy), lovelorn smarty-pants Dwayne Wayne (two-time winner Kadeem Hardison), and his sharp-dressed pal, Ron (Darryl M. Bell).
During the first episode ("Reconcilable Differences"), sophomore student Denise meets resident director Stevie (Loretta Devine), a single mother, and roommate Jaleesa, a 26-year-old divorcée (Dawnn Lewis, who co-wrote the show?s Phoebe Snow-sung theme). She and Jaleesa don't hit it off initially, but eventually find common ground--like their aversion to the "Mouth of the South," i.e. Whitley. In the pilot, which aired next, they meet their third roommate, Midwestern motor mouth Maggie (future Oscar winner Marisa Tomei), and the Gilbert Hall triumvirate was complete. Stevie, meanwhile, would leave midway through the season to be replaced by the more imposing Lettie (Tony winner Mary Alice), who is introduced in "The Prime of Miss Lettie Bostic."
Several Cosby Show actors dropped in during the first season to show their support, including Keisha Knight Pulliam ("Rudy and the Snow Queen"), Malcolm Jamal-Warner ("My Dinner With Theo"), Phylicia Rashad ("Clair's Last Stand"), and Cosby himself ("If Chosen, I May Not Run"). (Knight Pulliam and Cosby also appear in the pilot). Other guest stars include Keenen Ivory Wayans ("War of the Words") and various In Living Color cast mates, like David Allen Grier ("Romancing Mr. Stone"). Although Bonet and Tomei would leave at the end of the season, A Different World recovered from the loss and aired on NBC for another five seasons. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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