A Different World

Pop Culture Happy Hour

The episode explores the Netflix sequel series to the 1990s classic 'A Different World,' examining how it balances nostalgia with modern sto

Key takeaways

• The sequel features the children of original characters Whitley Gilbert and Dwayne Wayne.
• Guests Traebelle Anderson and Char Jassel discuss the transition from multi-cam to single-cam sitcom formats.

Main topics

• A Different World Netflix sequel
• HBCU culture and representation

Notable quotes

I have been waiting for Whitley Gilbert Wine to be back on my television for so long.

Conclusion

The episode provides a nuanced look at how legacy media can successful

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:00) This week on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, we talk with our panel, Josh Gombelman, Dulce Sloan, and Faith Saley about the journalists who were banned this week from the White House. You Speaker 6 (0:07) think they were really sad or is it one of them days? It was like a snow day as a kid. Yeah. They Speaker 5 (0:12) were probably just forgetting what stale Big Mac smells like. Don't miss our full conversation and the rest of our games. Listen to the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me podcast on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 4 (0:24) If you saw the original as much as I saw the original. There will be notable lines that come back. There are notable references to... Please, baby, Speaker 3 (0:35) please, baby, please. Yes, okay. Dang, Speaker 4 (0:37) dang, dang, dang, dang. You know? Speaker 2 (0:44) A different world has loomed large in the culture since ending in the 90s. It's been endlessly memed, referenced, and streamed, so it was probably inevitable that school would find its way back in session in a new spin on Netflix. In this version, the next generation of future Hillman grads includes the offspring of notable alumni, Whitney Gilbert, Dwayne Wayne, and Ron Johnson. And while the world is a lot different than it was 30-plus years ago, in a lot of ways, it's also kind of the same. I'm Ayesha Harris, and joining me today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is journalist and host of the movie review podcast Seated, Traebell Anderson. Hello, Traebell. Speaker 4 (1:21) Hello, hello. And Speaker 2 (1:23) also with us is entertainment journalist and contributor, Char Jassel. Welcome back, Char. It's great to have you. Thank Speaker 8 (1:30) you for having me, Ayesha. Oh, Speaker 2 (1:32) I am so happy to have you both here to talk about this. This Speaker 6 (1:36) is, you're Speaker 2 (1:36) the perfect Speaker 6 (1:37) people to Speaker 2 (1:37) talk about this with. So, so excited. A Different World is a sequel to the original series, which aired from 1987 to 1993 and was a spinoff of The Cosby Show. In A Different World 2.0, Hellman's fictional HBCU campus welcomes a new batch of students, including Deborah, played by Malia Joy Moon. Speaker 7 (1:57) This is a great school, and I am going to make the best of it. Prove to Lena Whitley that, you know, I can crush it and enter my full... Studio season. I'm talking full rebrand. Speaker 2 (2:12) She's privileged, a little flighty, but determined to carve her own path. She's also the youngest daughter of college sweethearts Whitley and Dwayne, played by Jasmine Guy and Kadeem Hardison. We Speaker 1 (2:22) agreed to loosen the reins on Deborah, give her some space, so we're going to honor that, right? Okay, there we go, team. My dead body. I heard that. I Speaker 2 (2:34) love hearing their voices again. Deborah and her peers deal with the trials of early adulthood. And meanwhile, Hillman College is facing hefty budget cuts. Dwayne steps in as interim president in the wake of an administrative scandal. A Different World is streaming on Netflix. And Travelle, I'm going to start with you. Look, if anyone's listened to me or followed me for some time now, they all know that I have strong feelings about reboots and sequels that don't feel necessary. So I'm curious. What was your anticipation for this show? And give us your first impressions. Speaker 4 (3:08) Listen, Aisha and Char, I have been waiting for Whitley Gilbert Wine to be back on my television for so long. Okay. I have seen this show entirely too many times. I was teething for this, you know, fiending for this show. I really enjoyed it. I think it has high replay value in particular. I'm excited to tell people about it. As an HBCU graduate, I think that it, you know, it is. interesting, you know, to see things rendered on screen that feel super familiar, but also feel super fresh, right? Beyond, you know, my experience in school 20-some years ago, right? I really enjoyed it. It was a great time for me seeing these characters, you know, evolve, talking about the parent characters, right, of all of these young folks. And then also seeing the young kids kind of, you know, take evolutions on their parents' characters in really interesting ways. Speaker 2 (4:17) Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I assume that you, when you were first watching A Different World, you had not gone to an HBCU yet. And so I want to hear more about the, like, what it's like to be kind of sandwiched Speaker 8 (4:28) in Speaker 2 (4:28) between that era and this era. But first... Char. Speaker 8 (4:33) Yeah, you know, I was apprehensive when this was first announced that they were going to be doing this. I was like, do we really need this? And I'm tired of reboot culture as well. Like, I'm ready for some fresh ideas. But I must say, I found this show incredibly charming. I'm also HBCU alum. Speaker 2 (4:49) And Speaker 8 (4:50) I always say that HBCUs are some of the most diverse campuses you'll ever step onto. People tend to think that, you know, we're kind of like monolithic in blackness. But no, no, no. no, no, no. You go to HBCU, you see everybody's a little different. And so I found it to be just incredibly charming. I don't know if I was just going through it when I was binging this, but it made me, I got so emotional seeing, uh, you know, the characters back. Yes. Like I was, I was shedding a little tear seeing like Dwayne and Whitley and everybody come back and these evolved characters. And so. I thought that it was just really part of the course. They kept the spirit and the heart of the original series while, you know, with tackling some of like the social issues of the day. And I loved it. Speaker 2 (5:35) Yeah. Yeah. Oh, OK. This is this is fun. I love that we have two HBCU grads here. I am not an HBCU grad, but I grew up watching the show. I loved it. I still love it. And I was also kind of skeptical because I was like, I don't know. Do we need this? Like, what are we going to do here? why can't we just have a brand new show that doesn't have a connection, but that's still set at HBCU? Whatever. It's fine. I was engaged by like the fourth episode. I was like, okay, I'm into it. Like it won me over. I do agree with you, Char, that like it maintains the spirit of the show while updating and still feeling current and relevant in many ways. I do wonder like, how do we feel about the transition from... multi-cam sitcom to single cam. Like, this is something that Bel-Air also did. Although Bel-Air was kind of, like, completely sort of reimagining the show, it's like, it wasn't really a comedy anymore. It was more of a sort of, you know, young adult drama. Whereas here, this is still very comical. Like, there are still moments. Was it easy for you to shift from that mode to this one for the show? You Speaker 8 (6:42) know, I think for me, it wasn't too much of a challenge. And Because it wasn't that distracting because the entire cast is fresh faces. And so it felt like a new show because it is, but it was not a distraction enough for me to be salty about it, you know, because I think I've just grown accustomed to the format of single cam now. The new format did not take me out of the story at all. Like it wasn't distracting. Me Speaker 4 (7:09) either. Yeah. And maybe because we've just seen so many, you know, single cam shows. But I do think that it looks like a show today, which I think will be very important for the new folks who are introduced to this series, this world, these characters. I also think it's the kind of show that's written in a way to where if you saw the original, as much as I saw the original. There will be, you know, notable lines that come back. There are notable references to, you Speaker 5 (7:47) know. Speaker 4 (7:47) Yes. Okay. You know. And I love that for us. But I don't think it takes away or that if you're not familiar with it, that it will take you