ABC’s Diff’rent Strokes Live — Grade It!
Kevin Hart went Live in Front of a Studio Audience on Tuesday night, channeling Gary Coleman as part of a reenactment of the classic NBC/ABC comedy Diff’rent Strokes.
But before the reenactment got underway, original cast member Todd Bridges (aka Willis Jackson) entered the recreated Drummond penthouse set to introduce Boyz II Men, who performed the series’ iconic theme song. He also paid tribute to his late costars.
“It’s hard to believe that I walked through those doors 43 years ago, back when I had hair,” Bridges said. “Now in 1978, Diff’rent Strokes premiered and ran for eight seasons — which back then meant 169 episodes of television — with… the late Conrad Bain, Dana Plato, Charlotte Rae and Gary Coleman. Now, I know that if my family was here, they would be just as proud as I am here, celebrating Diff’rent Strokes and Facts of Life.”
Tuesday’s presentation — a reenactment of the Season 1 episode “Willis’ Privacy,” wherein Willis tires of having “Super Arnold” hang around him all the time — starred Kevin Hart as Arnold; John Lithgow (3rd Rock From the Sun) as Phillip; Damon Wayans (My Wife and Kids) as Willis; and Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale) as Mrs. Garrett — a role she also played during the preceding reenactment of Facts of Life.
Snoop Dogg, whose casting was previously unannounced, played Willis’ friend Vernon.
The legendary Norman Lear — whose Embassy Television produced the original runs of Diff’rent Strokes and Facts of Life — served as host and executive producer, alongside Jimmy Kimmel. Addressing the decision to cast Actors of a Certain Age to fill pint-sized roles, Lear’s producing partner Brent Miller told TVLine, “It started with Jimmy [Kimmel] and his desire to have Kevin Hart play Arnold Jackson, the Gary Coleman role…. At the time, I didn’t know: Is he going to want to cast everybody old, or is he just going to have the joke be Kevin? But as we started talking through it, it made sense to be consistent with that conceit of having older people play kids.”
Added Lear: “I enjoyed [the table reads] as if I had never spent a day in show business.”
The inaugural Live in Front of a Studio Audience special aired in May 2019, and recreated episodes of All in the Family and The Jeffersons. That was followed by a second installment in December 2019, featuring a new reenactment of All in the Family and a classic episode of Good Times. A fourth installment has not yet been announced — but we’ve already got a few ideas.
Grade the Diff’rent Strokes portion of ABC’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience below, then drop a comment with your full review.
Where was KIMBERLY?!
Dana Plato wasn’t in this episode when it originally aired, so she wasn’t in this re-enactment.
ABC should have chosen an episode that included Kimberly. Did they specifically pick one that did not include her? A shame…
Dana Plato passed away in 1999.
Damon Wayans was awful. It was like he was sleepwalking. Kevin Hart really committed, though.
I liked both episodes. I did think seeing Lisa Welchel sing at the beginning she could just as well have played Blair instead of Aniston. Same with Todd Bridges instead of Waynans.
agree, Lisa hasn’t changed much at all
Gabrielle Union was not into the role of Tooty.
where was nancy mckeon? jo?
Agree, should have chosen another actor.
Where was Kimberly?
so I’m guessing Dana Plato wasn’t in the original version of the episode?
Nope. If you go the Diff’rent Strokes IMDB page you’ll see she Dano Plato is listed as credit only for this episode. Kind of disappointment that there wasn’t an episode that had Kimberly in it.
The original series is available on Prime; which includes the episode they re-enacted. I was watching both at the same time. The original episode didn’t feature Kimberly.
I thought The Facts of Life was better simply because it was a larger ensemble so it was a bit more fun.
Kevin Hart was great as was John Lithgow. Lithgow just seems so friendly and delightful.
This was the weakest of the two but Kevin Hart certainly went all-in. I really enjoyed the 80s style commercials throughout the night. Those were a lot of fun.
It was funny and SO sweet. I love how they cast really tall actors around Kevin Hart so he would look small.
Kevin Hart is small… he’s 5’2″!
Yeah, but Gary Coleman was 4-8. To make Kevin Hart look THAT small, they cast tall people as Willis, Mr. Drummond and whoever Snoop Dog was playing (Vernon?).
Why was Snoop dog in this?
I enjoyed it. I was wondering where Kimberly was though. The commercials got my attention. I loved the era when the two shows were on.
There wasn’t any Kimberly in the original so.
Reminds me how terrible the original writing was!
I enjoyed both shows–and Ann Dowd was definitely the MVP of the night. But man, those scripts, particularly the Different Strokes one, were bad. The previous shows they recreated were so much better from a writing point of view.
Kevin Hart was absolutely amazing. Performer of the Week contender right there!
Kevin missed his last line by caught himself . Called Willis Vern.
Oh i did notice that.
They’re missing another regular cast member. No black goldfish.
I commented to my friend during this that Abraham wasn’t black! Such a simple fix. They lost points for that.
I dont remember this episode specifically but Abraham was black in the beginning
Best line in the show – ‘Why does Vernon always smell like weed?”
That was the funniest part I loved it too from a 70’s baby like myself.
Kevin Hart was terrific. The Different Strokes re-enactment was far better than the weaker Facts of Life attempt.
It was ok but I have to watch it again because the laughs weren’t there for me. What I will take from this is how at the end when everyone stood around clapping and for some reason Kim Fields was standing off to the side and a fav of mine (Jason Bateman) gently slid her onto the carpet to let her know she was definitely a part of the reason for this iconic performance.
I saw her the Sunday before this aired as a keynote speaker at the Houston Womans Expo. While she is sweet and down to earth, she seemed more focus on other projects. When asked if she would play Tooty, she kindly dismissed the notion she would ever play her. At the end when both shows cast members were on the Different Stroke set, she seemed aloof not speaking to anyone.
Having grown adults playing teenagers and children can look awfully silly to viewers.However,the actors who were playing the adult roles,(Ann Dowd,as Mrs.Garrett in The Facts of Life and Diff’rent Strokes and John Lithgow,as Mr Drummond,really nailed it!).
I thought the episode was well done. I would give it a solid B+. It could have used a few more surprise guests…as in Janet Jackson, but that’s wishful thinking on my part.
As far as the character of Kimberly is concerned, one can only imagine why the character was not included. With Dana Plato’s suicide in 1999, and her son Tyler’s suicide in 2010 I’m sure that had a lot to do with it. Maybe they didn’t wanna bring up bad memories for the family. Maybe they chose to not include her because she was fired from the show…..who knows….
Dana Plato wasn’t in the original episode. You can check it out if you have Prime. I did and this was a really good recreation. Kevin Hart was terrific as Arnold.
Ann Does was great as Mrs. Garrett and John Lithgow did a good job as well but casting older actors as teens and in the case of Arnold came across like a SNL skit instead of an actual reinactment. Kevin Hart who I could go without seeing on my tv or movie screen again for a long time looked ridiculous sitting on John Lithgow’s lap. If they were going to use adult actors to play kids
Todd Bridges and the original Facts of Life actresses could have been used. I wasn’t that impressed. Maybe they need to stop these so called reinactments.
You could change them channel or better yet, just not watch.
I guess it’s more fun being a bitchy complainer though.
That’s just her opinion. Is this page supposed to elicit only praise? Sounds like you’re the “bitchy complainer.” Everyone is entitled to their opinion, whether you agree with it or not.
Ok somebody obviously hasn’t been taught it isn’t nice to call people names it if you were you have forgotten what you were taught. Although I am tempted to reply in kind I won’t.
I think people still have the right to free speech and to express an opinion. Not sure why you feel the need to be nasty over my not enjoying a TV show you apparently did. I watched the show did not care for it and expressed my opinion. Is everyone who comments supposed to agree on everything?
Cindy, Thank you for defending me! 🙂
BTW I realize now I misspelled Dowd guess my spell checker was not working ☺️
It is crazy to think Todd Bridges is the only surviving regular from the original cast.
It’s ironic really considering all of his past drug use and legal issues. He really turned his life around
Please use age appropriate actors and of course it would have been great. These shows had kids and young teens and that’s what made them great not 40 and 50 year olds! So disappointed.
That’s why the best “new” line was “He looks like he’s 40 but he’s eight!”
Casting kids would have been awful.
Can you imagine how incessant that would have been with actual kids?
I wasn’t familiar with this episode, so I thought it was going to turn into one of those “very special” episodes where Willis tries weed (with Snoop Dogg!).
Same, I kept waiting for that! I thought for sure the so-called “school project” was going to be a cover for drug experimentation on a “very special episode.” 😆
I found it interesting when I told everyone around me I LOVED Different Strokes because it was Kevin Hart meets Homie Da Clown meets Snoop Dogg they regretted not watching!! Hahaha I still watch Different Strokes now on Antenna TV! Janet Jackson played Willis GF and performed!! Kevin and Damon had me rolling!!! See you and Dre at SB Snoop!!!Now a Good Times reboot cast right would be funny!!
Loved it! Everyone did a great job. I also loved the retro commercials! Next year, re do Maude!
I thought it was fun and they did a great job. I actually thought it was funny that the actors were all old enough to have actually watched these shows when they were on the air.
It was funny and a little nostalgia but hulu cut out the part of Todd bridges introducing the episode. That sucked.
I watched it on hulu and I saw the intro. Maybe it’s been fixed.
Why wouldn’t they choose an episode with Kimberly. I feel like the live version failed me. I would have liked to watch an episode with all of the characters.
An outstanding performance from the entire cast. Talking about being able to have me actually see, feel and respond like I use to and still do on the reruns. Kevin Hart nailed Arnold !!! And I can see why the role of Kimberly wasn’t cast. RIP Dana 🙏🙏