Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom, which originally aired on NBC from November 3, 1978, to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985, to March 7, 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, respectively, who are two boys from Harlem taken in by the Drummonds, a wealthy Park Avenue businessman and his daughter. Phillip Drummond, played by Conrad Bain, is a widower for whom their deceased mother previously worked; his daughter, Kimberly, is played by Dana Plato. During the first season and the first half of the second season, Charlotte Rae also starred as Mrs. Edna Garrett, the Drummonds' first housekeeper, who ultimately spun off into her own sitcom, The Facts of Life, as a housemother at the fictional Eastland School. The second housekeeper, Adelaide Brubaker, was played by Nedra Volz. The third housekeeper, Pearl Gallagher, was played by Mary Jo Catlett, first appearing as a recurring character, later becoming a main cast member.
The series made stars of Coleman, Bridges, and Plato and became known for the very special episodes, in which serious issues such as racism, illegal drug use, alcoholism, hitchhiking, kidnapping, and child sexual abuse were dramatically explored.
History Diff'rent Strokes was initially devised to serve as a vehicle for both Conrad Bain and Gary Coleman. Bain had recently finished a six-year run co-starring as Dr. Arthur Harmon on the hugely successful Maude. When that series ended production following star Beatrice Arthur's decision to leave the show in the spring of 1978, Tandem Productions producer Norman Lear was keen to find a suitable sitcom for Bain to star in. Ten-year-old Coleman, meanwhile, had caught producers' attention after appearing in a number of commercials and television guest roles, and the previous year had starred in three pilot episodes by Lear that attempted to revive the Little Rascals film series of the 1920-40s. The pilots did not sell although they were later edited into a television film for some markets. Lear saw immense potential in Coleman and was determined to find him a suitable sitcom, and it was decided that Bain and Coleman would make a good, if unusual, pairing for the project.
With Bain himself having considerable input into the options available and directions they took, producers considered a number of settings and formats, including one in which Bain was a gumshoe, with Coleman as his young associate-cum-informant. The fictional detective Bulldog Drummond served as inspiration for what would have been Bain's character, and although this concept was ultimately dropped, the surname "Drummond" was retained to become the surname of Bain's character in Diff'rent Strokes.
Several such concepts were considered before a rough outline for the eventual series—in which Bain plays a wealthy businessman left to take care of his late housekeeper's son, the orphaned Coleman—was settled upon and given the working title 45 Minutes from Harlem (even though Harlem is only ten to fifteen minutes away from the Upper East Side by subway or taxi). An alternate version of the basic scenario had a slightly harder-nosed Bain as a wealthy estate developer who finds that he can only purchase a potentially lucrative Harlem housing block for redevelopment if he also takes custody of the orphan, Coleman, who lives there; this version was nixed in favor of the former.
NBC showed immediate interest and felt the format had potential; at their request the pitch was developed, with Coleman's character, Arnold, gaining an older brother, producers feeling Coleman would benefit from the addition of a second, slightly older child to interact with, and who could add a further dynamic to storylines. Producers immediately decided child actor Todd Bridges should play the older brother; he had appeared in a number of commercials and guest roles. The producers were also impressed by Bridges’ stint on the sitcom Fish, which had also been cancelled earlier in 1978. Bridges was offered the role without needing an audition. The pitch meeting to NBC took place on May 9, 1978, with NBC immediately ordering an optional 26 episodes.
A daughter to Bain's character and a housekeeper were added to the lineup. Producer Al Burton had spotted Dana Plato as part of a cheerleading team auditioning on The Gong Show and felt she had a spark about her, and recommended her for the role of Drummond's daughter Kimberly. Producers were keen to cast Charlotte Rae as housekeeper Edna Garrett, feeling that her more "traditional sitcom" talents would work well for the unusual line-up and that as an older character she would have good chemistry with Bain. As with Bridges, Rae was offered the role without audition, but was locked into a contract with CBS; however, Lear was determined to have Rae for the role and used his influence to convince CBS to release her from her contract, freeing her up to be available for the role. The title for the series eventually became Diff'rent Strokes, inspired by the phrase "Different strokes for different folks", popularized by boxer Muhammad Ali in 1966 (Ali himself makes a guest appearance in the second season).
The sitcom stars Coleman as Arnold Jackson and Bridges as his older brother, Willis, two children from a poor section of Harlem whose deceased mother previously worked for rich widower Philip Drummond (Bain), and on her deathbed asked him to take care of her sons, their father already being deceased. They live in a penthouse with Drummond, his daughter Kimberly (Plato), and their housemaid. At the outset of the series, the role of housemaid is filled by Rae as Mrs. Garrett; when Rae departed for spin-off series The Facts of Life during the second season, she was replaced by Adelaide Brubaker (Volz), who in turn, was replaced by Pearl Gallagher (Catlett) from the fifth season until the end of the run. They lived in the penthouse suite at 697 Park Avenue in New York City. As Arnold, Coleman popularized the catchphrase "What'choo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" with the ending varying depending on whom he was addressing. Early episodes mostly address typical family sitcom issues, but as the series progresses, it sometimes focuses on more serious topics, including drug abuse, alcoholism, hitchhiking, child abuse and crime.
Seasons 1–2 (1978–80) The first season aired at 8:00 pm ET on Friday nights. It dealt with common topics such as various growing-up and adjustment issues experienced by Arnold and Willis, and mild culture clashes. Plots that saw Mr. Drummond searching for love, and stories that mildly addressed racism were also sometimes featured.
Although billed on the opening credits of each episode, Plato appeared only semi-regularly for much of the first season. On-screen this was explained with her character often said to be away at her private school; in reality the producers were still undecided whether the character was extraneous to the format, with the option that she could simply be faded into the background and written out as away studying should they choose to drop her. But Plato and her character were well received by audiences, and the producers became convinced that her inclusion added an extra element of appeal to the audience, offering a female character for young girls and women to identify with. As a result, from the later first season and on into the second season, Plato became a regular character.
Charlotte Rae appeared as Edna Garrett in every first-season episode; the final broadcast episode of the first season, "The Girls' School", also known as "Garrett's Girls", sees her agreeing to accompany Kimberly to her private school, the fictional Eastland, in order to help with preparations for a play- in actuality, this episode acted as the backdoor pilot for the spin-off series The Facts of Life (Garrett's Girls being an early working title). Mrs. Garrett is present for the first 13 episodes of the second season of Diff'rent Strokes, with the character last seen in the episode "The Rivals", after which she leaves, offscreen, to take a permanent position at Eastland, The Facts of Life having by then been picked up for a full series. (Kimberly did not become a regular character in that series, although the two shows had a number of crossovers.)
Shortly after the second season began, the show was moved to Wednesdays in a less kid-friendly timeslot, 9:00 pm ET. Following Rae's departure midway through the second season, Nedra Volz took over as the housekeeper, the older and crankier Adelaide Brubaker, introduced in the episode "The Election". Volz appeared on a semi-regular basis, but was not added to the opening credits, instead always listed with the guest cast on the closing credits. This situation arose in part because Rae's contract contained a clause that would allow her to return to Diff'rent Strokes if The Facts of Life were canceled.
Also first appearing in the second season was Arnold's best friend Dudley Johnson (Shavar Ross), first seen in the episode "Teacher's Pet". Robbie Jason (Steven Mond), another recurring school friend, also makes his first appearance in that episode. Arnold and Dudley (and often Robbie) shared many childhood escapades together, and were featured in many episodes, school-based and otherwise, throughout the show's run. As part of this, Arnold's school life also gradually began to feature more in many episodes; this increased in subsequent seasons.
The first and second season also included three hour-long crossover episodes (edited into two-part format for syndication and overseas broadcasts) with NBC sitcom Hello, Larry, which had been moved to the slot immediately following Diff'rent Strokes in an effort to boost its ratings (an effort that ultimately failed; it was canceled after the end of its second season).
Seasons 3–4 (1980–82) The third and fourth seasons had some of the show's highest ratings and continued much of the themes of the first two seasons, but also gradually saw the introduction of some more serious topics into storylines. Beginning with the third-season episode "Count Your Blessings" and also touched upon in several other episodes is the fact that Arnold will never grow much taller, reflecting Gary Coleman's real-life medical condition. This same episode introduces wheelchair-aided Melanie Watson (1968–2025), born with osteogenesis imperfecta, as Kathy Gordon, who continued to guest-star one episode per season until Season 6. Also, shortly after Season 4 started, the show kept the same 9:00 pm ET timeslot, but moved from Wednesday to Thursday.
Also introduced in the third season is Philip's dotty and eccentric sister Sophia (Dody Goodman), in the episode "Junk Food Junkie". Appearing on a semi-regular basis, she effectively filled the same function as Adelaide as the older female character in many stories, and is present in many third and fourth season episodes.
Other recurring characters introduced over the third season included Le Tari as Dudley's adoptive father, Ted Ramsey (in the episode "Football Father"), Janet Jackson as Willis's girlfriend Charlene DuPrey and, in the fourth season episode "Kathy", Arnold's teacher Miss Chung, played by Rosalind Chao, who had played a different character in the third-season episode "Almost American", in which the regular cast only have minor roles, which served as the backdoor pilot for a potential sitcom focusing on the students of an immigration and naturalization class. The pilot was not picked up for a series, and was the only time the characters and setting appeared in Diff'rent Strokes.