I must admit that A DIFFERENT WORLD started relatively bland and humourless, mainly because the producers were trying to make a predominantly black college experience acceptable to a "mainstream" audience.
After the first year when Lisa Bonet left and Debbie Allen came along and took over the producing duties, A DIFFERENT WORLD changed to become a lot more timely and much more relevant for the time -- especially dealing with subjects like sexism, rape, South Africa, drug abuse, and all of the other issues faced on college campuses. In later seasons, when the original cast grew up, did we see a lot of long term character development and the show has never been properly credited for being what it was: the first and only show ever to deal with black people in college. A DIFFERENT WORLD isn't always uproaringly funny, but watching it in repeats as an adult, I can see what the show was going for, it was literally a slice of life show, not really fulfilling the sit-com requirement of a joke a minute. You had characters who dealt with being young adults and made bad decisions and then sometimes dealt with the consequences. It was a good show that requires frequent viewings. Those who remember a classic episode where Dean Cain plays a racist will know how good of an actor he can be.
