‘Different World’: No Sweet Goodby : Educators, Citing Positive Influences of the Series, Are Upset to See Its Demise

For years, Cynthia Amos and her English students at Foshay Junior High School were on top of “A Different World.”

Amos said she and her students at the Los Angeles school would look forward to Friday discussions about the NBC situation comedy, which revolved around life at a fictional African-American college. She could see the impact of the series, not only in the clothes the students wore but also in the way they talked about serious issues presented on the show, such as racism or AIDS.

But the biggest influence that Amos observed was in the way “A Different World” made college seem a viable goal for many minority students.

“Before ‘A Different World’ was on the air,” she explained, “the only way a lot of minority kids had knowledge about college was if they had a family member going to one. This show dropped the experience in everyone’s lap. It had such a positive influence on so many kids.”

Amos and other educators who praised the positive portrayal of African-American college life are upset that their “World” is coming to an end. “A Different World” will wrap its sixth and final season at 8 tonight with a one-hour episode titled “When One Door Closes . . . “

“World” is ending differently than its producers anticipated. The series has been off the air since Jan. 28, when NBC withdrew it because of the low ratings it was getting in its Thursday time slot. Although the episode has a finality in its tone, other new episodes leading up to it will not be seen until later in the year at an undetermined date. Some loose ends are left dangling.

“I feel a bit frustrated,” said executive producer Susan Fales. “There are story lines that we have brought along during the entire season, and certain relationships that are resolved quite suddenly in this episode. The show will stand on its own, but it would have been nice to see the set-up.”

Debbie Allen, the show’s producer-director, said: “I wish we could have gone out with a real bon voyage. I feel like the air has been let out of the bubble. This shows that parting can not be such sweet sorrow.”

Still, the finale does not detract from Fales’ and Allen’s pride in the program’s influence on young people. They said applications to African-American colleges soared dramatically during the show’s six-year tenure.

“Before we came on the air, the only blacks you saw on prime time were poor, or nouveau riche, like George Jefferson, with nothing in between,” Fales said. “But we presented an amazing array of African-American social types, from the upper-crust bourgeois to the inner city. We showed there were many ways to express the culture, and that our history was very diverse.”

“A Different World” revolves around several students at Hillman College, a fictional Southern institution. The two main characters are Duane (Kadeem Hardison), a studious but girl-crazy student, and Whitley (Jasmine Guy), an upper-crust Southern belle, who got married last season.

The show has come a long way from its origins as a spin-off of “The Cosby Show,” which preceded it on Thursdays at 8 p.m. It was developed as a vehicle for Lisa Bonet, who played Cosby’s daughter Denise. Her roommates in the first show were Dawnn Lewis (who eventually left and is now featured on ABC’s “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper”) and Marisa Tomei (who just won a best supporting actress Oscar for “My Cousin Vinny”).

The series got off to a shaky start. Critics were unenthusiastic. New characters were added and the emphasis on Denise was lessened. Bonet left the show after the first season because of her real-life pregnancy and never returned.

In the second season, Allen came on board and brought more topicality to the series, making it more determined in its cultural orientation. Though comedy remained a dominant element, serious issues were tackled, such as apartheid, date rape, stereotypes, the Persian Gulf War and last year’s civil unrest in Los Angeles.

Until last season, “A Different World” was a Top 20 show, thanks largely to having “The Cosby Show” as a lead-in. When “The Cosby Show” departed at the end of last season, “A Different World” was awarded its 8 p.m. slot. But the show’s popularity dipped dramatically against Fox’s “The Simpsons.” Several weeks later, “A Different World” was moved back to its 8:30 slot, but Fox’s “Martin” continually drew significantly more viewers.

Allen expressed disappointment that NBC chose not to renew the series: “We helped the network with its ratings and with its images. We should have been able to hang around a little longer. When they changed our time slot, it seemed to change the way they felt about us. I don’t understand. If ‘The Simpsons’ put a dent in Cosby, then it would certainly put a dent in us.”

She added: “You can’t just look at our ratings. There was a slippage in the overall network, and the number of people watching network television in general.”

Still, teachers and professors said the real value was not in the ratings of “A Different World,” but in its message.

Chilton Alphonse, director of the Community Youth Sports and Arts Foundation, said: “I’m sorry to see it go. It put college on a lot of kids’ minds, planted the seeds and made them inquisitive.”

Gerald Horne, professor and chairman of the Black Studies Department at UC Santa Barbara, said: “The students always looked like they were having fun. The issues that students are dealing with here--adult authority figures, dating, interracial relationships--were the same ones explored on the show.”

Junior high school teacher Amos said one of the show’s biggest values was in its presentation of a variety of characters among young blacks.

“To many of the students, they say a black person is not black if they don’t speak or act a certain way,” she said. “But ‘Different World’ showed that you could keep your cultural identity, but still succeed. You can be nerdy but still hip. The show made it cool to wear glasses.”

She added, “ ‘A Different World’ also showed them that academics would take them a lot further than other activities. No matter what happened on the show, everyone succeeded at school.”

Alphonse and Horne found it ironic that “Martin” is now one of the more popular shows among young African-Americans. “Martin,” which stars comedian Martin Lawrence as a Detroit radio host, has drawn some fire from critics who say the images presented are too silly.

“What does it tell us when ‘Martin’ can inflict such a mortal wound on ‘A Different World’?” Horne asked.

But both Fales and Allen said that viewers concerned about the images on “Martin” should not get too upset: The show’s agenda may be different from “A Different World’s” but they find the message much the same.

“The show is very funny,” Allen said. “Plus, Martin works for a living, he’s in a steady relationship and he’s not homeless. That’s positive right there.”