‘A Different World’ returns to Atlanta, nearly 40 years later
Nearly four decades after “A Different World” introduced millions of viewers to Hillman College, the fictional HBCU came home to a real one Monday night.
At Morehouse College, original cast members Jasmine Guy, Darryl M. Bell and Cree Summer joined the actors and creators of Netflix’s new “A Different World” as students, alumni and fans gathered for the Atlanta premiere.
For some, the night was a reunion. For others, it was a chance to see if a television series that helped define a generation’s image of Black college life could do the same for another.
That connection between generations extends behind the camera. Filmmakers Reggie Rock Bythewood and Gina Prince-Bythewood met as young writers on the original series.
Morehouse President F. DuBois Bowman remembers arranging his college life around watching it.
And Felicia Pride, creator, executive producer and showrunner of the new series, assembled an all-Black writers room that included HBCU alumni and sought feedback from current HBCU students.
“I don’t have any lofty goals, but I do want the new generation to feel what I felt watching the original,” Pride said. “It felt like a warm hug to me.”
The reboot, which premieres Thursday on Netflix, returns viewers to Hillman College with a new generation of students confronting contemporary issues, including social media, online bullying, romance, parenthood, housing and financial aid.
Bell, who plays Ron Johnson in the original and the reboot, wanted to mentor the young cast as veteran co-stars mentored him.
“I told them on Day 1, ‘My only obligation is to be everything to you that Debbie Allen, Glynn Turman, Lou Myers, Mary Alice, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll, Patti LaBelle and all of them were to us.’ They wrapped their arms around us and let us know, ‘We got you,’ so it’s my obligation to do the same for them,” Bell said.
The original “A Different World,” which aired on NBC from 1987 to 1993, followed students at Hillman College, a fictional HBCU in Virginia, and addressed racism, apartheid, date rape, AIDS and other issues of the time.
The show also created a generation of talent in front of and behind the camera.
A show that changed lives
Filmmakers Reggie Rock Bythewood and his wife, Gina Prince-Bythewood, met as emerging staff writers on “A Different World.”
“Because we were these new writers in the show, we hung out with each other and supported each other,” said Reggie Rock Bythewood, an executive producer on the new show. “We really built an anchor of friendship that turned into something else all these years later.”
Gina Prince-Bythewood, also an executive producer on the reboot, added that their shared passion for storytelling led to starting a family.
“It’s a beautiful thing to have met doing something that we love,” she said. “What has come of it is has been two beautiful sons. One is at Morehouse now.”
Bowman was enrolled at the all-male institution during the show’s original run.
For him, it was appointment television.
“There was no on-demand programming, so wherever we were in the Atlanta University Center, hallways would go quiet, we would hover around a 13-inch television and just tune in,” he said. “The styles, characters and issues that came up were all related to what we were experiencing during our times here. It really meant that much to everybody who was part of the campus community.”
Bringing Hillman back to the AUC
The premiere was part of Morehouse’s eighth annual Human Rights Film Festival, which screened 36 films focused on civil and human rights and social justice.
Ahead of the screening, Netflix hosted a lively red carpet featuring performances by Morehouse’s House of Funk marching band, Mahogany N Motion dance team and members of several National Pan-Hellenic Council fraternities and sororities.
Original and new cast members walked the red carpet alongside executive producers Debbie Allen and Tom Werner, actress Tichina Arnold, Morris Brown President Kevin James, Spelman College President Ayanna Howard, Clark Atlanta University President George French and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.
Because the new series was filmed at the AUC on the campuses of CAU, Morehouse and Spelman, Monday’s red carpet premiere was sort of a homecoming.
“A lot of the colleges were instrumental in the original in terms of the exteriors we saw, so it was a no-brainer for us to return to the AUC,” Pride said.
Chicago native Symara Moses flew to Atlanta to attend the premiere and visit her son, who attends Morehouse.
“‘A Different World’ is something I grew up on. It inspired me to go to college and pledge a Greek-letter organization. This is like my childhood,” she said.
Tabia Wade, the show’s assistant location manager and a 2015 graduate of Clark Atlanta University, calls the production “a family.”
“The cast was so welcoming and warm. I can speak to Kadeem (Hardison) and feel like I’m talking to my uncle or big cousin having a good time. I’m grateful to be part of this historic moment,” Wade said.
Morehouse junior Michael Wilbert, a business major, said the reboot will encourage diverse audiences to revisit the original program.
“This will make (younger viewers) want to watch the older version as well as the new version to get different perspectives,” Wilbert said.
Morehouse College junior La’Darian Johnson, a psychology major and leadership studies minor, said he’s interested in seeing the new voices and perspectives the reboot introduces.
Still, he generally prefers original programming to reboots of existing shows.
“Leave the originals to what they were,” he said.
Gina Prince-Bythewood said she hopes the new “A Different World” continues generating conversations about issues affecting Black and brown communities.
“Our voices are always needed to have a show at this time that focuses on young people and the things they want to say in the world, counteract the negative stereotypes that are coming out so often, and our history being erased,” she said.
“This is absolutely a show that can deal with those things.”