A Different World Set to Return on Netflix Nearly 40 Years Later
A new generation of Black creators, alongside original producers Susan Fales-Hill and Debbie Allen, are reviving the HBCU sitcom A Different World for Netflix. The original was a top-five hit whose handling of the 1992 Los Angeles uprisings reportedly unsettled NBC executives.
Nearly 40 years after NBC ended A Different World, the Cosby Show spin-off set at the fictional Hillman College is returning on Netflix, according to Vanity Fair. Original producers Susan Fales-Hill and Debbie Allen are involved in bringing the show back alongside a new generation of Black creators.
Fales-Hill has long believed the show's fate was sealed by its season six opener addressing the 1992 Los Angeles uprisings following the Rodney King police beating, a topic NBC executives were reportedly reluctant to address. At its peak, the series ranked among the top five shows on television and outranked The Cosby Show among Black viewers.
Allen, who produced 122 episodes and directed 83, and Fales-Hill fought to keep the LA uprising storyline despite network pushback, according to the report, and the episodes ultimately aired in fall 1992 to strong ratings and critical acclaim.