‘A Different World’ cast looks back at the show that changed their lives — and TV
Sitting inside AJC Studios, actors Jasmine Guy, Cree Summer and Darryl M. Bell are telling stories, reminiscing.
The word “serendipity” keeps coming up. Each offers an example.
Summer talks about being an actor from Canada, watching the first season of “A Different World” with relatives in California. She kept telling herself one day she’d be friends with star Lisa Bonet.
Bell, an original cast member, remembers when he and others found out that Marisa Tomei would not return, they sat in Bonet’s house crying. That’s when co-star Kadeem Hardison made a prediction: “Marisa, don’t worry. You’re white. You’re going to win an Oscar.”
Guy recalls the fear of seeing Tomei and others go, worried she might be next. Bell was quick to shut that down. “Well, a lot of them was going to be gone, but not you,” he tells her, before adding, “she was that good.”
Bonet’s eventual departure in Season 1 during her pregnancy created an audition opportunity for Summer, who joined in Season 2. Tomei, as Bell notes, went on to win an Oscar. Guy would effectively replace Bonet as the show’s female lead.
Serendipitous, indeed.
Their past month has been dedicated to promo runs for “A Different World,” the show about life at Hillman College, a fictional Virginia HBCU.
The “Cosby Show” spinoff that made them stars is making its return to television via Netflix this week. Guy, Summer and Bell are all back.
It’s been nearly 40 years since “A Different World” premiered on NBC Sept. 24, 1987. The trio spoke with UATL senior editor Ernie Suggs and “It’s UATL” podcast co-host/AJC video producer Najja Parker about their return to Hillman College.
From its rocky first season to its 2026 return for a new generation, they reflect on the show’s impact and lasting legacy.
Surviving Season 1
It’s often said by die-hards that Season 1 of “A Different World” may have been a misfire — misguided, misinformed.
The initial version was built around Denise Huxtable’s (Bonet) experience at Hillman. Despite a love for its cast, it was knocked for its lack of authenticity in showing HBCU life.
“Some of our episodes were childish and ridiculous and not always funny, and you can’t do that. If you’re going to say things, make them mean something,” Guy said.
It wasn’t a critical darling, but it was a ratings success.
Despite its flaws, Guy also said she loves Season 1. Critics didn’t love Bonet in the lead role. However, audiences took to Guy’s Southern belle Whitley Gilbert, Hardison’s style icon Dwayne Wayne and Bell’s Ron Johnson Jr.
“What we found was that while the stories may not have represented the best of college life, they knew they liked the characters,” Bell said.
The three tested so well that, according to Bell, producers had him, Hardison and Guy reshoot scenes to be edited into existing footage in Season 1.
They referred to Bonet as their “fearless leader” through the creative turmoil that followed. “She was there for us. She protected us,” he said.
Then it happened. Out were Tomei and Bonet. In was show producer and HBCU graduate Debbie Allen.
Everything changed for the better.
‘Spice’ and ‘flavor’
Allen, Guy said, brought a proper “spice” and “flavor” to the show. In some cases, this was literal. She obsessed over seemingly minor details that filled the larger picture.
“For example, in the Pit, she said, ‘Y’all ain’t got no hot sauce on the table?’ Things like that would bother her,” Guy recalls, referring to the popular gathering spot for Hillman students.
Audiences gravitated to the series’ willingness to delve into topics such as racism, HIV/AIDS, sexual assault, activism, class and Black love.
Newcomers picked up on that genuineness, too.
Summer was 18 when she joined the show in Season 2. Before landing the gig, she was working on Steven Spielberg’s “Tiny Toon Adventures” and had moved to the L.A. area from Toronto.
One day, Summer and her grandmother (who lovingly called her “Canada”) were watching the first season of “A Different World.” Grandma offered a prophetic suggestion. “Canada, you should be on that show,” she said.
After Bonet left the series, Summer was called into a nationwide audition for its second season. Eventually, she landed the role of student activist Winifred “Freddie” Brooks. Her cast and crew quickly became family. “We were in love at first sight when I walked onto the set,” she said.
Changing perceptions
Over the course of “A Different World” being on TV, enrollment in HBCUs went up 26%. Though hard to clearly quantify, the show is often credited with changing perceptions about Black college life.
“We tied in our history, and I like the way it was woven into the fabric of American culture. This is Black history, this is American history,” said Guy, who also starred in Spike Lee’s 1988 Atlanta-shot flick, “School Daze,” and whose father was a professor at Morehouse College.
It’s something Summer, “the baby” of the cast, agreed.
“I feel like Hillman reflected that so beautifully and so delicately because it’s a fine kind of tightrope you have to walk when you’re talking about politics and sociopolitical issues in a comedy, right?”
To drive that home, Bell talks about what he said was the show’s highest-rated episode.
It was the night of Thursday, Jan. 10, 1991.
At 8 p.m., “A Different World” aired the 12th episode of its fourth season titled “War and Peace.”
In it, actor Blair Underwood plays Dwayne’s friend, Zelmer Collier, who is torn about his upcoming reserve duty in the Persian Gulf War.
There’s a heavy moment between ROTC instructor Col. Bradford Taylor and Zelmer about the significance of war and what it means to be scared. The episode was co-written by Guy.
This was seven days before the start of U.S.-led Operation Desert Storm.
The reactions from other characters felt real. They felt Black. Their stories arose from conversations in the zeitgeist.
“You have to deliver that lesson, and then you have to catch everybody with humor,” Summer added, noting that producers Allen and Susan Fales did so with precision.
‘A Different World’ today
On Sept. 24, a new chapter in the “A Different World” story begins.
The sequel follows Dwayne and Whitley’s daughter, Deborah, who attends Hillman, following in her parents’ footsteps. Just like its predecessor, the new series was shot in Atlanta.
Summer and Bell joke that the biggest change is that “we’re old now.”
The cast is quick to remind interviewers: “It’s not a reboot, it’s a sequel.”
Jokes aside, there are differences, obvious and subtle. Guy notes her voice has gone from alto to baritone. The laugh track is gone. There’s a more cinematic approach to filming. The Gen Z co-stars are young enough to be their kids. In fact, some of them are.
At the first table read, Guy talks about being positioned with her back facing Alijah Kai Haggins. The faceless voice reminded Guy of her co-star Tichina Arnold, who played Darlene Duvall. When the pair came face to face, Guy learned that Haggins, who plays Darlene’s daughter Rashida, was also Arnold’s real-life child.
“She’s a mini me if there ever was one,” Bell quips.
All three OG stars are eager to bring that “A Different World” ethos into today’s television space dominated by streaming and binge-watching. College campuses past and present are still epicenters for youth thought and action.
“I think it’s going to be important to see what the stories we didn’t get a chance to tell, this generation will get to tell,” Bell said.
Part of “A Different World’s” longevity comes from its continued life in syndication.
“There’s another generation that finds this show every year. And now with the sequel, we’re going to extend that even further,” he said.
Family and legacy
Four decades later, the people behind “A Different World” operate from what feels more like a familial bond than co-workers.
It shouldn’t surprise readers that Summer eventually befriended Bonet. The former is the godmother to the latter’s daughter.
Summer and Guy have daughters born on the same day.
In a room full of AJC journalists, the cast are trading barbs, completing thoughts, gracing each other with intimate pats on the back. These are the type of bonds that build when folks grow up together.
Each is asked how they assess the show’s legacy and their place in it. Whether folks saw Whitley and Dwayne as couple goals or related to Allen’s dead-on depictions of HBCU life, viewers are still connecting.
“A Different World did such a good job of giving everyone someone they could identify with,” said Summer, whose Freddie is now a law professor at Hillman.
For Guy, she found her artistic freedom without having to feel she represented a whole race. “I knew the show itself would take care of that, would have balance, disputes, controversy among the different kinds of Black people that were on the show,” she said.
The harmony from character-building and storytelling is what makes “A Different World” sing. Then and now, Bell calls it a love song to Black women with its female stars, Allen and current showrunner Felicia Pride, serving as muses.
“This is a unashamed and proud production of Black excellence,” Bell said.
“For that to last for generations, decades and millennia, that would be important.”