| Product: |
Diff'rent Strokes |
| Date: |
24/06/01 (4659 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Gary Coleman's Afro
Disadvantages: Theme Tune
"Whatchu' talking 'bout Willis?" If you’re under 25 these words probably won’t mean anything to you, but for others, they’ll conjure up images of a podgy, afro-ed midget called Arnold (Gary Coleman).
This NBC comedy sitcom ran for six series between 1978 and 1986 and is notorious for a number of reasons.
Firstly, it is fair to say that its basic premise is not right up there on the political correctness scale. Two African Americans from Harlem are left with their mother’s housekeeper Mrs Garrett (Charletta Rae) after she dies, who luckily for them happens to work for the widowed millionaire Mr Drummond (Conrad Bain) who already has a teenage daughter Kimberley (Dana Plato) but, what the hell, he adopts them any way.
Now, despite being President of a company called 'Trans Allied', Mr Drummond has plenty of time on his hands to teach Arnold and his brother Willis (Todd Bridges) valuable moral lessons in the way that only American sitcoms know how, with large helpings of smaltz along the way. In other words, rich white man satisfies moral guilt by transforming the lives of two poor black kids. Hmmm.
Secondly, there is what has become known as 'The Curse of Different Strokes'.
Let’s start with Gary Coleman. Believe it or not, he was last reported as working as a security guard in a mall. And it gets worse, he’s hardly had a day’s acting work in the last 15 years. And it gets even worse. He received a suspended sentence of 90 days in jail, was given a year’s probation and fined $400 after punching an autograph hunter in the eye while shopping for a bulletproof vest (!). Coleman flipped when, after having refused to personalise the autograph, bus driver Tracy Fields suggested that it was his attitude that had kept him from getting any acting jobs as an adult. (Of course the big question is, do they make bulletproof vests that small?)
Nex
t is Todd Bridges. He followed the well trodden path of the child star and seemingly injected, snorted and puffed his way through all his money. He was arrested and acquitted in the attempted murder of a drug dealer in Los Angeles in the early 1990’s and has subsequently committed a number of other offences. However, he claims to have turned over a new leaf and is reportedly now a film director. (Sounds like he could have done with a Mr Drummond of his own.)
Finally, Dana Plato was found dead of a prescription drug overdose in New York in 1999 after a colourful criminal history. After having to quit the show in the early 1980’s due to pregnancy, she collected a 10 year suspended sentence for a botched video store robbery and then 30 days for forging valium prescriptions. She went on to pose nude for Playboy and appeared in a number of adult films including the innovatively titled 'Different Strokes'.
Mr Drummond and Mrs Garrett appear to have avoided the temptation to indulge in a spot of armed robbery (As Mr D himself would have put it, "You know Willis, holding a shotgun to another man's head and screaming 'Give me the money or I'll blow your f**king brains out'...is WRONG."), pop a few pills (if you exclude Sanatogen) or go one-on-one in a soft-porn flick. However, their careers nosedived soon after.
Conrad Bain had a final hurrah in a 1990 edition of 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' as a certain 'Mr Drummond' although he did appear in the 1990 film 'Postcards From The Edge' as grandpa.
Charletta Rae's only notable achievement since Different Strokes' demise was voiceover work on 'Tom and Jerry: The Movie' in 1992. How the mighty are fallen. But then, how can you feel sorry for someone whose acting credits include 'The Love Boat'?
I’ll leave you with the most annoying aspect of the show – its theme tune, which you pro
bably haven’t heard for well over a decade, but which you’ll soon be humming at work tomorrow after you’ve read the following:
"Now, the world don't move to the beat of just one drum,
What might be right for you, may not be right for some.
A man is born, he's a man of means.
Then along come two, they got nothing but their jeans.
But they got, Different Strokes.
It takes, Different Strokes.
It takes, Different Strokes to move the world.
Everybody's got a special kind of story
Everybody finds a way to shine,
It don't matter that you got not a lot
So what,
They'll have theirs, and you'll have yours, and I'll have mine.
And together we'll be fine....
Because it takes, Different Strokes to move the world.
Yes it does.
It takes, Different Strokes to move the world."
So if you ever see a second hand 'Different Strokes' video on eBay, just make sure it hasn't got an XXX rating.
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