A Different World

0:00This message comes from Capella University. That spark you feel? That's your drive for more. Capella University's Flex Path Learning Format lets you earn your degree at your pace without putting life on pause. Learn more at capella.edu. 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 please. Yes! Okay, thank you, thank you, thank you. You know? Yeah. A different world has loomed large in the culture since ending in the 90s. It's been endlessly meamed, 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 home and grads includes the offspring of notable alumni, Whitney Gilbert, Duane Wayne, and Ron Johnson. And while the world is a lot different than it was 30 plus years ago,

1:01a lot of ways it's also kind of the same. I'm Aisha Harris, and join me today on NPR's Pop Culture Half-Bi Hour is journalist and host of the movie review podcast Seated, Trayvall Anderson, Hella Trayvall. Hello, hello. And also with us is entertainment journalist and contributor, Shar Jocelyn. Welcome back, Shar, it's great to have you. Thank you for having me Aisha. Oh, I am so happy to have you both here to talk about this. This is, you're the perfect people to 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 spin off of the Cosby Show. In a different world, 2.0, home-ins fictional HBCU campus welcomes a new batch of students, including Dubora, played by Malia Joy Moon. This is a great school, and I am going to make the best of it. Proved to dwayna with me that, you know, I can crush it. And enter my full, studious season, which I've been full of rebrand. Mm-hmm.

2:03She'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 Cadeem Hartison. We agreed to loosen the reins on Dubora. Give us some space, so we go on a date, right? Okay, there we go, team. Well, my dead body. I heard that. I love hearing their voices again. Dubora and her peers deal with the trials of early adulthood, and meanwhile, Hilleman 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 Treval, 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 the show and give us your first impressions? Listen, Aisha and Shar, I have been waiting

3:03for Whitley Gilbert Wine to be back on my television for so long. Okay. I have seen the show entirely too many times. I was teething for this. You know, feigning 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 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.

4:08Yeah, 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 in between that era and this era. The first shark. 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 alone. Okay. And 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, 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, you know, the character's back. Yes, like I was I was shutting a little tear seeing like Dwayne and Whitley and everybody

5:11come 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. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. This is fun. I love that we have two HBCU grads here. I am not an HBCU grad, but I grew up watching this 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, Shar, 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

6:12cam? Like this is something that Bel Air also did. Although Bel Air was kind of like completely sort of re-imagining 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. Is it easy for you to shift from that mood to this one for the show? You 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 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

7:15are 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, please, you know, yeah. Okay. Dying, dying, dying, dying. 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 out of the experience of what this world at Hillman College is. Yeah. Well, okay. Let's get into these new characters, because there's a lot. I think for me, it was sometimes hard to juggle all of them. Oh, yes. We got DeBora, and there's a fun sort of running gag about how people don't know how to pronounce her name. Thank you, God. You saved my life here. Also, it's DeBora.

8:16Okay. Three syllables, Beyonce. I'm going to get it. I'll be honest, I haven't met too many DeBora's or any, ever. I know I'm sure they exist. But Whitley Gilbert Wayne's daughter would be a DeBora. DeBora. Absolutely. DeBora Wayne. DeBora Wayne. Yeah. Yeah. Well, okay. So we got DeBora, and then we've also got Shaqille played by Cornell Young the Fourth, and, you know, they had their little on-again, off-again relationship. So then you also got Rashida, who's played by Elijah Kai, and she becomes DeBora's roommate. I feel like she's kind of the analog of, like, Kimberly Reese, who was played by Charnell Brown. You've got Amir. And actually, this is where it feels very modern, right? Because Amir is one of the queer characters on this show, and he's played by Jordan Aaron Hall. Let's talk about him and how they kind of incorporate this. Yeah. I'm glad to hear your thoughts.

9:17Well, I will start by saying one of the things that I feel like is somewhat missing from the original Hillman College is, you know, an exploration of the experiences of the queer LGBTQ characters, and people that would be part of this collegiate space, right? I really loved that for this reboot, this continuation, Amir is one of the main characters. He's openly gay and queer. He's sleeping around with everybody just like, you know what I mean? Listen, he's having a regular college experience of collegiate experience, and we don't often see that. You know what I mean? Yeah. Particularly in a black college context. I love the character, and I think it takes so many twists and turns throughout the season in a really interesting way for this co-ed space, but very still part of the course for

10:19HBCUs. If you know, you know, absolutely. I think that Amir, I knew Amir was like queer coded as soon as I saw that name, Septim Piercing. I said, wait a minute. Yes, you. But I do love that he's a part of the main cast. You know, college can be a very binary experience. There's the women's dorms, there's the men's dorms, but I enjoyed watching his brotherhood unfold with the boys in the men's dorm. My DMs runthover, but all eggplants and no effort. I think I need to get off of HBCU up. So what we need to do is get you out in the streets. So you just want me to go out and approach somebody IRL. That's suggestive of your lack of social boundaries. I will be your wingman. It was one of those things where you can tell the conversation had shifted generationally where it's not a big deal for Amir to be gay. It's not a big deal. Even though there was one scene where he mentions his sex life, people like pause, pause. But I do feel like that's part of the collegiate experience. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, well, I didn't realize pause had come back as a phrase.

11:20I was like, I have a professor. Are you kidding me? The men that live in the Northeast region, it never went away. I look. The men in New York and New Jersey, it never went away. Okay. I guess this is my circle, my bubble I live in. I was like, I have not heard anyone say pause in a good minute. I love to meet Amir. It was probably my favorite character to be honest. Like I feel like he's up there. I feel like of the new ones. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He seemed the most interesting to me in terms of how he was navigating his love life. But then also, you know, he has a past that he's on parole basically for something that he did before he got to campus. He just says like I was in the wrong place at the wrong time or something like that. So it's following him and I would love if there were to be a season two and as of this taping, they haven't officially announced that there will be. But like I would love to see a little bit more exploration of like what that means to be a student on campus who's also dealing with legal issues. Like that's a very real thing that people deal with. I did the question about halfway through the show.

12:21He's like, does he have any other queer friends? Like I love seeing him completely like integrated with everyone else. But also I was just like, it seems strange that there would not be any other queer people that he would have in his life in the same way. Now, it does kind of come up with Jaylin, Elijah J. Roberts character who there's like a love triangle there between him and then Hazel who's another member of the friend group who's played by Kennedy Reese. But it's like romantic, right? Like I would love to see like just like more queer friendship integrated into the show in a way. And particularly on an HBCU campus. Okay. I'm going to let you know. Okay. You're not walking around by yourself. And I'll leave it at that. You're not an anomaly. But also I think that it speaks to year one. Sure. I feel like at least in my experience very much your freshman year, I feel like you either gravitate towards people that are like you or you're the singular character in a cast of cishead people. Sure. Yeah.

13:22Fair point. Fair point. Because his character is the houseless character, right? And is navigating that piece of the experience as well. I'm okay giving a little grace. Okay. For season one. But Felicia pride. Y'all know which I'll need to do for season two. Okay. Yes. Well, we've got a lot more to talk about. We'll be right back after this break. Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from AT&T. People love to stay connected. Right now at AT&T, you can get the new iPhone 18 Pro for $0 with iPhone Trayden, any condition. It has the ultimate pro camera system and a big leap in battery life to keep up with your day. So you can turn this deal into a long lasting connection. Connecting changes everything. Requires Trayden a iPhone 14 or higher, excluding iPhone 16E and eligible plan. Resistions and restrictions apply.

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15:23your best price all in one place. Download the free Angie app today or visit Angie.com. That's ANGI.com. We are back. I also want to talk about how the show tackles social issues because that was part of what made a different world so special. Many of the episodes remember the big like Dean Kane popping up as a racist white guy and discussing racism, the episode with the LA riots and all of that stuff. This show, I think, it kind of sprinkles it in a little bit more. This is also, again, talking about format. When you think of the original series, that was an era where it was situational comedy. Yes, there is continuity, but not quite in the same way that the show. The show is way more like a typical show we would see today. But it does have at least, I would say, one very special episode where Hillman is one

16:26of several HBCU schools that have been threatened with bomb threats. And so, a bunch of students have to hunker down in the pit. I love seeing the new version of the pit now. It's like, which is the, you know, the place where everyone hangs out, they get their food. I think this is where the show where I think it was trying to pay homage to that era of very special episodes that didn't quite flow for me. It felt like the most didactic episode. Maybe I'm being particular about it, but it just felt like, oh, man, I feel like it's 1993 again and not in the best way. Let's hear a little moment of it. It's crazy how much tuition we pay for death threats. See? This was the one place we could be protected from racism. Hey, man. I don't mean to pungser the collective chakra, but context matters. Black learning spaces have always been seen as dangerous, not just because of what students do, but because of who you might become. That last voice was, of course, Cree Summer, who returns as Freddie. The legend in icon. The legend in icon.

17:26The legend in icon. She is still woo-woo. And we love her. We love her for us. But as soon as that like score started dropping in when she's dropping on, like, boom, black people have, I was just like, oh, this feels, I don't know. That's my opinion. I'm curious how the show we've the social interactions into it. Like, how did that work for you? Does it translate in a way? For me, it did. I mean, and even speaking to the comedic point that you made, for me, I know you mentioned that a mirror was your fave. For me, the breakout star was Rashida. Oh, yes. Tashina Arnold's real-life daughter. Like, they have so many. Oh, my goodness. I did. Okay. If I ever find me Tashina. I mean, I knew they looked the same. I knew they looked the same. But I was like, I don't want to assume. I did not even bother to look that up. Okay. That is her real-life daughter. And it's funny that Tashina plays her mother in the show. They have some of the same similar cadences. And they speak the same like, but she's still her own person. So for me, she was the breakout.

18:28I think that beyond the bomb threat episode, because that was, of course, very important. It speaks to, I immediately thought of when Charlie Kirk was the first to be the first murdered by a white man. How white supremacists started harassing HBCU campuses, like in retaliation, which was very strange. But these are real-life issues that I think that people are dealing with, even with the money missing. And when I think about like de Boris ADHD storyline, when I think about like the way that they wove in certain things that I feel like in particular black communities are speaking about specifically around like millennials and Gen Z versus like boomers and Gen X. I think that they did a fairly good job. I will agree with you though, the bomb threat episode, that scene that we just played was a little, it was a little preachy, but I feel like it's going to land with who it's supposed to land with. Because it then explores, because what Freddie was saying is the absolute truth. Black learning spaces have always been viewed as, you know, as a threat.

19:29Anywhere black people are gathered, you know, could be potentially attacked as we've seen throughout history. And so overall when I zoom out and look at how they tackle sexuality or even the diversity on campus, like the gay guy and the super Christian girl are besties, like that, that's real life HBCU type politic. And so I think that they did a great job of kind of weaving these stories together and they weren't being too finger waggy about it if that makes sense. Yeah. And I think that was intentional. I do think the reason why we feel like there's only one very special episode is because, you know, for example, they try to weave sexual health, right, into the RA giving some feedback to the kids. Cuffing season may have claimed a few victims. It's okay. If you have any reason to worry, go to the Student Health Center, get tested, get treated if you have to. And in the meantime, I'm going to need all you have to strap up. Cuffing season.

20:29Yeah. Cuffing season as opposed to right back in the day, right? I remember Tisha Campbell and we'll be goberg, right? On a very special episode talking about, you know, HIV A. And it was a little preachy, right? It was very on the nose in terms of what it was putting forward. And perhaps that style of storytelling doesn't work as much today. And I wonder if that inspired this like we want to have an homage to the very special episode, but we don't want it to, you know, feel like we're wagging the finger like Shara says. Yeah. But I do feel like it felt accurate and appropriate when I think about what HBCUs are navigating today, right? Absolutely. And there's a number right of other other things. Now there's some, you know, the fact that all of the old heads basically come back in

21:31various different ways. Yeah. Everybody at Neh Mama, Ayesha from the original, which I love and also it's a bit much. Okay. Now, well, I mean, they get away with it somewhat because one of the episodes is centered around homecoming. And look, homecoming is when alumni will show up and show up. Absolutely. Absolutely. I have not gone back to the school I went to in 20 years, but you know what, there are people I know who do. If you have that connection with your alma mater, that's a thing. But it is very convenient that in the first season, they got almost everyone. They did. Yeah. And even the round table scene when they're talking to President Wayne, you know, everybody is there. That was to me. That was one of my favorites. Yeah. Yeah. When they were discussing the money and, you know, and, and Lena's back. Lena's back. Everybody. I loved it. Yeah. I loved it. And the ways that they incorporated those folks, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

22:32Sharman is still gossipy with Gina, Gina, maybe Ayesha Sanders. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So to have them back, I did enjoy Professor Batist, you know, it's Debbie Allen Sun in real life, Norm Nixon Jr. Oh. The one that was Canutalyn with Freddie. Yeah. Okay. Like, this is just a family affair. It is kind of like a, is this what HBC is like? Is it just like everyone's girl? Yes. Yes, sir. Please. It can be. Yeah. If you know, you know. Yeah. It's not like the leg of the season. Okay. Oh. Yeah. Oh, God. Yeah. We've talked about a lot of characters, but like, I do want to kind of bring it back to Whitley and Dwayne since like they were sort of like the central couple characters of the entire original show. And here they have a lot of screens. Like at first, it felt like they were trying to handle too many new characters and then also incorporate Whitley and Dwayne and then it kind of found its rhythm midway through. And Whitley and Dwayne are having marital issues.

23:32And I thought that was a very interesting way to approach this and a smart way to approach it because however many years it's been now, like these are things that couples go through if you managed to last that long. I thought their dynamic, it still felt like true to the spirit of who they were, but also we've all aged and we know that these things change. Like how did that storyline play for you? And also just the way that they're incorporating the fact that Dwayne and Whitley are still like very much on campus. Like Dwayne is the interim president because Jennifer Lewis's character. The Davenport. Doin' some shady stuff. I kind of. I kind of deem day. And even the reference, like you're on minus. So I thought that Dwayne and Whitley's storyline around their marriage is pretty part of the course. I feel like I've read about this, I've heard about this when people become empty nesters. So to speak no matter how active they are, whether it's on campus or they're at home, it's a new interrogation of the status of the relationship. Like am I really happy with you or was I just going along to get along to you know,

24:34raise these babies? And so I thought that it was realistic and it also adds a different dynamic to the, you know, this fantasized, romanticized, never-ending love story of Whitley and Dwayne because there is a reality that they may separate. You know, and that does not invalidate the love that was there 30 plus years ago or not. Yeah. I think it adds something, right? To it shows, you know, a lot of their masks alongside the young folks's masks. And I think that that, you know, that means that this show then has something for everyone. You know what I mean? Everybody I think will be able to see a slice, you know, of themselves or their lives or their family members in what we see on the screen. That's a feat to have been able to do. It actually surprised me how much the parents and, you know, the old heads are present, but I appreciated it, you know, having the elder comparison, if you will, to some of the stuff

25:41that the young folks are dealing with. The elder characters dealt with it when they were on this campus, you know? And so it adds a really interesting kind of familial, you know, texture, but I can see how like this first season sets us up potentially for, you know, at least three other seasons, right? As these folks, they matriculate through their institution. Yes, yes. I mean, it shows the sloppiness as well in my opinion. As soon as I saw Papa Pope on screen, I'm like, okay, yeah, the older folks can be messy too. And it's something for everyone. Like, I feel like new audiences will gravitate towards these new characters if they have no frame of reference. But those of us who have seen the show, like, I enjoyed every time the old cast was on my screen. I enjoyed every time it didn't feel like overkill to me. I love, yeah, I love. I also appreciate that they were able to keep Ron's essence as like a dork and also just kind of, I never liked Ron.

26:41I never liked Ron. He was all my God, I had the biggest crush on Ron. Oh my God. He was so, uh, everything about like, you can see how he always had trouble with, well, granted at one point he was juggling through. I mean, I don't know when we're in college, we don't know better. I've looked, I've been there. We were in like, whatever. But yeah, Ron is now like, he's a dad, dad, a juror, I guess, a dad, like he's trying to, and he's just, he's, he cares about the money. He cares about those things and his, his kids should kill it. Just like, dad, I want to go to an HBCU. Look, I'm trailblazing by coming here. Just give him a chance. We see the lady. I gave him a chance. In these four or five years, seven, maybe of my life, but you're a five star crew, human's first, you need to be treated like that is, of course, Darryl M. Bell, who plays Ron. I still don't like him and they didn't try to change it. Yeah, they did not. They did not try to sanitize anymore.

27:42Like, I can see a clear line of it, Ron in, in that era to Ron now, and it makes all the sense of the world. That is what really makes this show work. So well, is, is that essence that we've talked about? It's like, everything seems natural, even though we're 30 years removed now. No one has completely changed or done a, there's not been a complete red cons. So can I say one last thing? Yes, please, straight. I was hoping that the new theme song as recorded by Brandy would grow on me. Yeah. Because you hear it, you know, at the beginning of every episode. But it's not the whole song though. It's just thankfully, yes, thankfully, thankfully, thankfully, but, but thanks. No shade to Brandy, but yes, none at all to the legend in the icon herself. It's a little sleepy. It's a little sleepy. Yeah, that was nice. It is a little, little snooze fast, unfortunately. It's a different world than where you come from.

28:44I mean, the Boyz to Men version wasn't that felt kind of like a departure from the Aretha. Like it was, it needed to be Aretha. They could have used, they could have used, in my opinion, they could have recycled the Queen of Soul. The, the, the thing. I would have sat through it each and every, because I couldn't skip past Brandy's. But it is a little sleepy. It's a little too moody for a show that's so funny. I'm glad you touched on that because that is my first note was Brandy doing the theme song I forgot to talk about. We like you Brandy girl. We do. We do, but this was, it's just too breathy. That's too sweet. Yeah. I also just, I would have appreciated if they kind of like re-did the intro, you know, like the stage did, like the original Aisha yes. Look at me wanting some nostalgia. No, Aisha yes. That would have been so cute. That would have been so cute. They still can do it for season two. Aisha they can still do it. Alright. These are our notes. These are our notes for season two.

29:44If season two happens. Okay. I'll consult. Call me. Okay. Well, that brings us to the end of our show Char Jocelyn, Tradal Anderson. Again, I'm just so happy we got to talk about this. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having us. Thank you Aisha. This episode was produced by Liz Metzger, Kate and Mills and Mike Katzov and edited by our showrunner Jessica Reedy. And hello, come in. Provides our theme music. Thanks for listening to Poppoder Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Aisha Harris. We'll see you all next time. Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This summer, don't squeeze in. Spread out. Find homes big enough for your whole guest list on Verbo. From family reunions to trips with friends, Verbo has spacious summer stays for every group, size and budget. That's vacation rentals done right. Start exploring on Verbo and book your next day now.

30:55This week on the NPR Politics Podcast, a vibe check on election security. With barely a month left until the midterms, we're talking about vote by mail, the possibility of ice at polling stations and what the Trump administration is doing in the name of preventing fraud, which we know is not a widespread problem. Plus, the latest on how voters are feeling about all of that. Listen now on the NPR Politics Podcast.