History Series / ADifferentWorld

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Whitley, even with her CharacterDevelopment, is to this series what Sheldon Cooper is to ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''.

* RealityEnsues: The series does a darn good job of driving home that paying for college is anything but cheap. Not even [[RichBitch Whitley]] is immune to it. See BrokeEpisode above.

-->'''Vernon:''' Five onion rings...\\

'''All:''' And my Music/MCHammer CD!"

* CelebrityStar - En Vogue, Blair Underwood, and Kris Kross, to name a few, get episode spotlights. And legends Patti [=LaBelle=] and Diahann Carroll each recur frequently as Dwayne's and Whitley's mothers.

* AccidentalMisnaming: Kinu to Whitley.

* AlliterativeName: Dean Dorothy Dandridge Davenport.

* AllMenArePerverts: Or rather, all men named ''Ron Johnson'' and not Shazza Zulu, as far as Freddie is concerned. It doesn't help Ron's case that he [[JustifiedTrope lives and breathes]] this trope, though.

The show was set at fictional, historically-black Hillman College in Virginia. Two of the supporting cast, Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) and Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy), proved to be {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s. In the second season, Lisa Bonet was let go because she and then-husband Music/LennyKravitz were having a [[Creator/ZoeKravitz baby]] and [[ContractualPurity the producers were concerned about Denise appearing to be an unwed mother]]. This led to Dwayne and Whitley becoming the new leads. Despite all the odds working against them, this actually changed the show into a hit and altered the formula from being a mere spin-off to an entity of its own.

For animation buffs, it's one of the few on-screen roles of ''Creator/CreeSummer'' (who joined around season 2).

* YourCheatingHeart:
** Dwayne, tired of Whitley's pre-engagement anxiety, goes out with another woman to ease the tension (nothing happens beyond dinner, though) and although he comes clean about it, Whitley calls off the engagement when he can't openly commit to her. Later, after Whitley starts dating Byron, she ends up spending an amorous night with Dwayne. And before all of this, Dwayne and Whitley make out while he's dating Kinu which leads to Kinu breaking up with him. And not long after finally becoming a couple with Dwayne, Whitley entertains the thought of going back to Julian and likely would have acted on it had he not been engaged to another woman.
** Ron, who's already known for dating multiple girls at a time, cheats on Kim with Freddie, who herself is dating Shazza Zulu at the time.

* LeftAtTheAltar: Walter and Jaleesa mutually do this to each other when they decide they aren't ready for marriage. 2 seasons later, Whitley does this to Byron and marries Dwayne...all in the same ceremony.

* SpecialGuest: Includes several appearances of cast members from parent series ''Series/TheCosbyShow''; as well as appearances from Montel Williams and Jesse Jackson.

* WhyWasteAWedding: Dwayne and Whitley take advantage of this. Jaleesa and Walter try to, but realize they shouldn't marry after all.

** When Whitley hits Mr. Gaines's car, she has to take a job slinging hash at The Pit in order to pay it off.

** In the series's very first BrokeEpisode, Denise, due to her account being overdrawn, is unable to pay her dorm fees and rather than ask Cliff for more money, she takes on a work study job alongside Jaleesa in the Pit.

** The art director Whitley reports to hits on her and when she attempts to report him for sexual harassment, he turns it around and accuses her of making all the advances. This nearly gets her fired and she's only able to get any recompense by threatening to go above the director and his boss's heads for not investigating her allegation. Not only is this implied to have been a drawn-out and stressful process, but the ending narration states that all he got was a reprimand and [[DownerEnding she still has to report to him.]]
** The episode where Dwayne and Ron get into a racial scuffle with three white students from a rival university after one of them starts spray-painting the n-word onto Ron's car; while they were straightening things out in the campus cooler, someone else (presumably another white student) finished the job and will likely never be disciplined for it.

** Season 4 has Whitley learning that her family ''owned slaves'' in the 19th century.

* AffectionateNickname: "Chipmunk" and "Pookie" for Dwayne. He often refers to Whitley as "Bunny."

* DateRapeAverted: Freddie, with a timely assist from Dwayne in the Season 2 episode, "No Means No."

* MusicalEpisode: although several of the actors sang from time to time in the series, "The Little Mister," the episode spoofing the 1992 presidential elections, counts as one of these.

* ObnoxiousInLaws: Angered by Whitley mistaking her for a maid, Dwayne's mother is relentlessly nasty to Whitley throughout their relationship, despite her repeated, sincere attempts at making amends for this. It gets cranked UpToEleven after Dwayne and Whitley marry, with her sending them a ''funeral wreath'' with a note that says, "Call me when you divorce Ms. Thang," then apparently holding firm to this, as Dwayne mentions that she hangs up on him every time he calls.

* WeddingDeadline: In "Save the Best for Last," Dwayne interrupts the wedding just before Whitley says "I will" to Byron, only for her to say "I do" to Dwayne, marrying him instead.

* YetAnotherChristmasCarol: Whitley gets put through this trope's paces in Season 3's "For Whom the Jingle Bell Tolls."

* {{Hypocrite}}: Shazza makes a snide comment about Kim dating a white guy. Aside from the fact that that's none of his business, given his "green eyes" that Kim herself points out, he likely has white ancestry himself.

* RunawayBride: Whitley literally leaves fiance Byron at the altar to run down the aisle into Dwayne's arms.

* TheProfessor: Dr. Barnabus Foster stands out among the faculty for his eloquence and vast literary knowledge. Being portrayed by Roscoe Lee Browne helps.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: When Whitley is sexually harassed by her boss. He chastises her for filing a complaint, telling her, "There are far too few of us (African-Americans) in the corporate world. We owe it to our people to present a united front." The incident was inspired by the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill case, right down to the criticism leveled at Hill for turning against on of her own.

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: The sixth and final season put the heavy focus on incoming students at Hillman, ([[{{transplant}} including one recurring character]] from the recently ended ''[[Series/TheCosbyShow Cosby Show]]'') after the main characters graduated, and Dwayne and Whitley married, in the previous season; Jalessa vanished from the series; the theme song was redone (again), and now sung by Music/BoyzIIMen, replacing Aretha Franklin. Freddie does a complete 180 from her hippie/flower child persona to wearing French twists and suits when she enrolls in law school (after showing no interest in this before) and she and Ron suddenly can't keep their hands off each other, despite hating each other's guts for years before.

* DerailingLoveInterests: Kinu starts out perfectly nice, but gets bitchier as time goes on. Granted,, it's mostly in response to Whitley constantly inserting herself into her relationship with Dwayne.

* AscendedExtra: Both Ron and Walter were recurring characters in Season 1, but the ReTool in Season 2 saw them promoted to main cast. Ditto for Lena, Gina, and Charmaine, introduced in Season 5 and featured in the intro in Season 6.

-->'''Dwayne(recounting TheRashomon to Terell):''' "Last year, me and Ron got into it with some locals at a football game. They wanted static, we gave it to them. If I'd been packing heat that day, I would have wasted all of them, even the nice ones!"

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Maggie (Marisa Tomei) and Whitley's sidekick, Millie, along with the first and second dorm moms Stevie (Loretta Devine) (season 1), and Lettie (seasons 1-2), respectively, and post season 5, Jaleesa.

* DarkerAndEdgier[=/=]HotterAndSexier: Unlike its parent series, this series was not afraid to tackle some pretty dark subject matter, including date rape, AIDS, the Gulf war and racial issues, and not in the light and fluffy way that ''Series/TheCosbyShow'' tended to handle them (when they talked about them at all). Black culture at the time was also more generally reflected, with characters rapping and dressing in gold chains, etc. It also wasn't afraid to openly state that its young, unmarried characters were sexually active, something that was implied ''at best'' on ''The Cosby Show'', though that topic was generally avoided.

* {{Flanderization}}: Whitley has quite a few outright goofy moments in the later seasons, examples including dressing up as a maid, donning a kimono in order to impress an interviewer from a Japanese-based company, and spending an ''entire episode'' without saying anything. This from a girl who started out as a RichBitch antagonist.

** In the first season Ron is more or less a decent guy with eyes only for one woman(Millie); from Season 2 onward, he's the misogynistic playboy the ladies all love...to despise.

* FurAndLoathing: Freddie would of course freak out when she saw one.
** Whitley learned about this the hard way when she started dating a politician and offended one of his potential supporters by wearing a fur.

* IDrankWhat: In one episode, Lena is babysitting for Jaleesa's baby while Colonel Taylor is hosting Byron's bachelor party. Ron makes pina coladas and decides to use the milk in the fridge. Cue several spit takes when Lena comes down to get the breast milk for the baby.
** Also counts as YoureDrinkingBreastMilk.

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Kinu, upon realizing that Dwayne still carries a torch for Whitley that he's not exactly trying to extinguish, [[TearJerker chooses to leave the relationship]] with her dignity intact rather than fighting to win his heart anymore.
** Briefly played with when Dwayne concedes that Byron is better suited to give Whitley the life she needs/wants; subverted when he [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove makes his feelings known]] at Whitley and Byron's wedding and she chooses to marry Dwayne instead anyway, running into his arms and leaving a stunned Byron at the altar.

* KarmaHoudini: The art director Whitley reports to hits on her and when she attempts to report him for sexual harassment, he turns it around and accuses her of making all the advances. This nearly gets her fired and she's only able to get any recompense by threatening to go above the director and his boss's heads for not investigating her allegation. Not only is this implied to have been a drawn-out and stressful process, but the ending narration states that all he got was a reprimand and [[DownerEnding she still has to report to him.]]

* LongLostUncleAesop: Guest stars, including but not limited to Tisha Campbell (of ''Martin'' fame) and Sista Souljah, introduced topics such as date rape, AIDS, the Gulf War and the LA Riots to viewers and then disappeared.
** In regards to the Gulf War and AIDS episode, [[FridgeHorror there may be an unfortunate reason why neither character was ever seen or heard from again]].

* UncleTomfoolery: Ron (though he got better as the show went on).
** He would fit the trope if his best friend was a white guy, but Dwayne is about as far from that as the show got. Ron did have some Daffy Duck tendencies, but as time went on, he showed himself to be sincere, thoughtful, innovative, and genuine. Sure he was greedy, but given that his father was a used car salesman, he could have turned out a LOT worse.

** WhatCouldHaveBeen- Maggie, had she remained on the show, would have dated Dwayne at some point.

* YourCheatingHeart: Dwayne, tired of Whitley's pre-engagement anxiety, goes out with another woman to ease the tension (nothing happens beyond dinner, though) and although he comes clean about it, Whitley calls off the engagement when he can't openly commit to her. Later, after Whitley starts dating Byron, she ends up spending an amorous night with Dwayne.
** And before all of this, Dwayne and Whitley make out while he's dating Kinu which leads to Kinu breaking up with him. And not long after finally becoming a couple with Dwayne, Whitley entertains the thought of going back to Julian and likely would have acted on it had he not been engaged to another woman.

The show was set at fictional, historically-black Hillman College in Virginia. Two of the supporting cast, Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) and Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy), proved to be {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s. In the second season, Lisa Bonet was let go because she and then-husband Lenny Kravitz were having a [[Creator/ZoeKravitz baby]] and [[ContractualPurity the producers were concerned about Denise appearing to be an unwed mother]]. This led to Dwayne and Whitley becoming the new leads. Despite all the odds working against them, this actually changed the show into a hit and altered the formula from being a mere spin-off to an entity of its own.

** Briefly played with when Dwayne concedes that Byron is better suited to give Whitley the life she needs/wants; subverted when he [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove makes his feelings known]] at Whitley and Byron's wedding and she chooses to marry Dwayne instead, anyway, leaving a stunned Byron at the altar to run into Dwayne's arms.

** Briefly played with when Dwayne concedes that Byron is better suited to give Whitley the life she needs/wants; subverted when he [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove makes his feelings known]] at Whitley and Byron's wedding and she chooses to marry Dwayne instead, anyway.