With all things retro rocking, we have had a host of hit shows from yesteryear being aired on telly in all their politically incorrect glory. It was thanks to this nostalgia that we got to watch a hapless Jeremy Brown teach English to his multi-racial class to a chorus of “holy ravioli” and “A thousand apologies” in “Mind Your Language”. There was Jeremy Brett clapping on his Inverness cape and haring off to solve many mysteries as Sherlock Holmes and we also got to watch the adventures of two African American boys from Harlem in “Diff'rent Strokes”.
The 1978 American sitcom tells the story of two brothers, Willis and Arnold Jackson, who are adopted by millionaire Philip Drummond and come to live with him in his Park Avenue penthouse.
The series dealt with racial prejudice and growing-up issues, among other things, in bite-size 22-minute-portions with a fitting moral at the end of it. To a millennial reading, it is faintly creepy to see Drummond treat the Jacksons, especially Arnold, like the well-beloved family pet.
When the news of Gary Coleman's passing away due to brain haemorrhage at the age of 42 came in, I dug out my DVD of “Diff'rent Strokes” and settled down for yet another trip down memory lane.
The first episode is called “Movin' In”, and introduces us to the main characters. There is Philip Drummond the wealthy widower, his precocious daughter Kimberly, the no-nonsense super cook and housekeeper Mrs. Garrett and the boys, Willis and Arnold. Later on in the series, there were guest stars including Janet Jackson as Willis' girlfriend Charlene DuPrey and boxer Mohammed Ali as himself.
As the theme song rings out, I find myself humming “The world don't roll to the beat of just one drum, What might be good for you might not be good for some.”
The diminutive Coleman was the moving force of “Diff'rent Strokes.” He was the fast-talking, wisecracking cute-as-a-button Arnold that the audience lost their collective hearts to.
Television history
When Arnold demands “Whatchoo talkin' bout Willis?,” it is the ultimate goose-bump moment as we watch a slice of television history being born. In the extras with the DVD, there is a feature on Coleman called “Whatchoo Talkin' Bout” where the writer of the show, Fred Rubin, talks about how when the producers heard it, they knew it was a catch phrase to define the character. Rubin says how the line became “the lexicon of TV,” how it was called “the Whatchoo” and the writers would get yelled at for putting it in too early.
The bonhomie, the wholesomeness and family feeling the show portrayed seemed to be inversely proportional to the troubles its young stars were mired in. In another feature on the DVD, “A Look Back at Diff'rent Strokes”, Todd Bridges (Willis), Conrad Bain (Mr. Drummond), director Herbert Kenwith, Executive Producer Howard Leeds and Rubin speak of there being a lot of family fun on the sets and the youngsters being “real kids” on the sets.
The reality played out differently especially after “Diff'rent Strokes” came to an end in 1986. Dana Plato, who played Kimberley, was written out of the show when she got pregnant (Kimberley was not expected to get pregnant) and died of a prescription drug overdose in 1999 at the age of 34.
Bridges battled cocaine addiction for several years and also had run-ins with the law — he was tried and later acquitted for the attempted murder of a drug dealer and was also tried for stabbing his tenant to death. Bridges' memoir, “Killing Willis,” out earlier this year deals with his life after the “Diff'rent Strokes” phenomenon.
Gary Coleman did not fare any better post “Diff'rent Strokes”. He had health problems, and was involved in a long and bitter legal battle with his parents and his manager for misappropriation of his funds. According to Wikipedia, in a television interview in 1993, he said he attempted suicide twice. He was charged with assault when he punched a woman seeking his autograph. His marriage to Shannon Price in 2007 also seems to have been rocky as Coleman was arrested earlier this year for domestic violence.
Bridges said to Associated Press on Coleman's death, “It's sad that I'm the last kid alive from the show.”
For an actor described as “amazing, with killer timing” (Rubin) “an absolute natural” (writer Ben Starr), “the single most talented child I've worked with” (Leeds), Coleman's life seems a terrible waste of talent.
Though the Whatchoo line was such a hit, Coleman, according to IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base), hated the line and demanded that it be retired. He has never said the line in public after his cameo as himself on “The Simpsons” (1989). And now he never will.
