Series / Diff'rent Strokes

aka: Different Strokes

The humble beginnings...

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 Diff'rent Strokes,
It takes Diff'rent Strokes,
It takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world!

Theme song (first verse)

A proper white man adopts two street-wise black boys. Hilarity Ensues.

Diff'rent Strokes (1978–86) made a star of Gary Coleman as Arnold Jackson, the younger of the two boys. Todd Bridges was his older brother Willis and Conrad Bain was the proper white man, Phillip Drummond. As one of NBC's few late-'70s hits, it quickly launched a spinoff in The Facts of Life the following year. First Lady Nancy Reagan made a guest appearance in a Very Special Episode about drug abuse, and ABC's Webster was a Follow the Leader rival. Ironically, Diff'rent Strokes itself actually moved to ABC when it got canceled by NBC. The theme was co-written and performed by Alan Thicke.

Unfortunately, this show is best remembered now both for its special episodes and the unhappy fates of its three child stars (Gary Coleman, Todd Bridges, and Dana Plato, who played Mr. Drummond's daughter). As of 2024, Todd Bridges is the last surviving original cast member of the show, (Danny Cooksey and semi-regular Shavar Ross joined later, and have avoided the fates of their older co-stars), but it's such stories that the Former Child Star trope is built upon. Gary Coleman's is parodied in the musical Avenue Q.

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Whatchu tropin' bout, Willis:

• Abandoned Catchphrase: By Season 7, Arnold's signature "Whatchu talkin' bout'" was used a lot less, and by Season 8 it was gone entirely.
• Abhorrent Admirer: Overweight Carmella chases after Willis in Season 7.
• The Alcoholic: In season 7's "Cheers to Arnold", Arnold's classmate Ricky is found to have a drinking problem, which gets Arnold into trouble after Ricky encourages him and their other friends to raid Mr. Drummond's liquor supply during a study session. Realizing that his friend has a serious problem, things take an unexpected turn when Arnold takes a bottle of liquor away from Ricky in the boys' bathroom, only to be caught with it by their teacher. In the end, after Arnold confronts his friend about it, Ricky admits he's addicted and gets help, while Arnold's name and record are cleared.
• All Gays Are Pedophiles: Referenced and debunked in "The Bicycle Man" episode. In the Very Special Episode's final scene — one where the police detective basically answers common questions, as posed by the Drummonds — Willis remarks that Mr. Horton (the seemingly genial bicycle shop owner with the sinister secret) must be a homosexual, which the detective refutes quickly.
• Anti-Alcohol Aesop: Willis starts drinking once he enters college. While his family is concerned about his habit, he doesn't see it as a big deal. Until he gets into a car accident that leaves him badly bruised and his friend, who was drunk driving, dead.
• Attempted Rape: In "The Hitchhikers", Arnold and Kimberly accept a ride in a car from a stranger. He takes them back to his apartment and locks Arnold in another room while he takes Kimberly to his darkroom; their father and the police arrive Just in Time.
  • And then there was the child molester who ran the bike shop, and convinced Arnold and his friend to come back into his house for ice cream and shirtless wrestling.
  • In another episode, Kimberly has to fend off her lecherous boss and finally does so by spraying him with ketchup. Another employee snidely comments "Again?", thus revealing that this isn't the first time he's done this.
• Baby Be Mine: An older child version in "Sam's Missing," where a father wrought with grief over the recent death of his son (who was Sam's age, and nearly exactly resembled Sam), kidnaps him, passes him off as a street urchin and is determined to make him a part of the family, even if Sam doesn't want to.
• Ballet Episode: Arnold learns ballet in "On Your Toes".
• Baseball Episode: "Baseball Blues", complete with Major League ballplayer Lance Parrish as a guest star.
• Big Applesauce: The show takes place in a penthouse on Park Avenue. Arnold and Willis also originally came from Harlem.
• Big Damn Heroes: Phil, in several of the most memorable episodes where either his own children or close friends of his children were in deep trouble. He once stopped a child sex fiend from making his move literally seconds before he was going to touch a sedated Dudley. Another time, he arrived in time to interrupt a sociopath from raping Kimberly, and a year later he saved Sam from a family who was trying to adopt a "Street Urchin" to replace their son who died in an accident months earlier. The moral of that all was that’s Big Damn Hero isn’t always an action movie star or superhero.
• Big Eater:
  • Arnold, apparently.
  • Kimberly, when she suffered from bulimia in Season 8.
• Big Fancy House: The posh penthouse where the Drummonds live.
• Birthday Episode: Arnold, Willis, Mr. Drummond, Sam, and even Arnold's goldfish Abraham had episodes dealing with their birthdays.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Mr. Drummond's birthdays had him getting into a car accident ("The Accident"), and Arnold and Kimberly getting kidnapped ("The Hitchhikers"). Also, Arnold's goldfish Abraham died on his own birthday ("The Will"), while on Maggie's birthday her son, Sam, is kidnapped ("Sam's Missing").
• Blackface: Kimberly dons blackface to teach her bigoted date a lesson in "Guess Who".
• Borrowed Catch Phrase: Occasionally, someone else will use Arnold's "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout" catchphrase.
• Casting Gag: Whitman Mayo plays a junk dealer in "The Adoption"; he previously played the friend of a junk dealer on Sanford and Son.
• Catchphrase:
  • "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?"
  • Willis' habitual "Saaaaaaaaaay what?" would qualify as well.
• Caught Up in a Robbery: In "The Bank Job," Arnold and Willis go to the bank seeking to just withdraw money when they, along with Mr.Drummond who also happens to be there, are held hostage during a bank robbery.
• Celebrity Paradox:
  • In "The Music Man", Charlene (played by Janet Jackson) shows off her singing for the Drummonds. The song she sings: "The Magic Is Working", a song from Janet's debut album.
  • In "The Slumber Party", Arnold mentions Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Abdul-Jabbar would later play Arnold's teacher in two episodes.
  • In Season 1, Arnold mentioned wanting to look like Reggie Jackson. Jackson later appeared (not playing himself) in "Father and Son Day".
• Celebrity Star: Muhammad Ali, Mr. T, and First Lady Nancy Reagan.
• Child by Rape: Season 4 episode 10 "Hello, Daddy": The son of a woman Phil knew during the Korean War, which was way before he met his late first wife, shows up claiming that Phil is his father. This leads to a reunion with the woman, who reveals that a deserter in the army hid her in a cave. When she tried to leave, he raped her. Ashamed of what happened, she said that Phil, a kind man, was the father and that he had been killed in the war.
• Child Hater:
  • In "The New Landlord", the titular landlord decides to ban children from the building, meaning the Drummonds face eviction.
    Mrs. Garrett: Weren't you a kid once?
    New Landlord: Nope. I went directly from birth to landlord.
  • In "The Woman", a woman who Mr. Drummond wants to marry plans to send the kids away.
• Children Are Innocent: Subverted. Arnold runs into Philip's nightgown-clad girlfriend and chats with her casually, supposedly having no idea what she's doing there...until he talks with Philip and it turns out that he actually does.
• Christmas Episode: Two of them: "Retrospective" (which was also a Clip Show) and "Santa's Helper".
• Clip Show: In addition to the Christmas Episode mentioned above, there was also "Valentine's Day Retrospective".
• Cloudcuckoolander: Aunt Sophia.
• Compressed Vice: Kimberly's bulimia in Season 8.
• Continuity Nod: In the Season 7 episode "Tonsils", Arnold and Mr. Drummond reference Arnold's appendectomy from Season 2.
• Corporal Punishment: One episode in the first season centered around Mr. Drummond saying he'd have to spank Arnold for dropping "water bombs" off the penthouse balcony. Willis protests that he should spank Arnold because he's a blood relative, and the only people to ever spank them were their deceased parents. Much to Arnold's shock, Willis actually does it, but he's not particularly thrilled about it.
• The Couch
• Courtroom Episode: "Small Claims Court" and "The Big Heist"
• Cousin Oliver: Sam McKinney, played by Danny Cooksey in his first major role.
• Crossing the Burnt Bridge: After Arnold thinks he's going to die in "Fire", he calls up the Gooch and tells him off. He then finds out he's going to live, so he calls the Gooch again and claims the previous call was an impersonator.
• Crossover: Several crossovers have occurred during the series' run. Including three that involved the McLean Stevenson sitcom Hello, Larry and a handful involving spinoff The Facts of Life. Characters from Diff'rent Strokes have also crossed over onto Silver Spoons and, years after the show ended, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
• Daddy's Girl: Kimberly.
• Dark Horse Victory: In "Assert Yourself", Arnold and Dudley are running for class president, but their competition, a third candidate named Norman, ends up winning because most of the voters were too confused to vote for the other two.
• Deadpan Snarker: Arnold. The other characters have their moments too.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Kimberly, in the last two seasons, due to personal problems that were starting to crop up in her life.
  • Willis in the last two seasons was dropped into the background since most of the storylines were focusing on Arnold and his new stepbrother Sam (Maggie's son). However, at least two Season 8 episodes are Sam-Willis episodes, with Willis giving advice to Sam.
• Dom Com
• Dude, Not Funny!: In-universe in "A Special Friend." After witnessing the seizure, Arnold and Sam try to make sense of the situation by making some very cruel "milkshake" jokes about people like their friend ... until Pearl overhears the laughter and begins scolding them, telling them that she's heard those same cruel jokes to mock her. Y'see, Pearl also suffered from epilepsy, has suffered several seizures in her life (including a Grand Mal, the most severe) and, as she explains, she's just like everyone else ... and has medication to help keep her health condition under control. Arnold and Sam are even more confused, but Pearl tells them if they have something that frightens or concerns them, talk to their father/Mr. D or Pearl and they can help provide the facts. (Incidentally later, Pearl is relating her chat with Arnold and Sam to Mr. Drummond and Willis, and Willis nonchalantly makes reference to the milkshake joke without admonition from Pearl (although he does get a "Willis" look from Mr. D)).
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Conrad Bain seems to act more like his character Arthur Harmon from Maude in the first few episodes.
  • Given that he doesn’t debut until season two, the first season is the only one not to feature Arnold’s friend Dudley.
  • The first episodes had a still shot from a single scene, with a cold ending of the main theme. Later episodes had a montage of stills (or video clips, depending on the season) and the theme feeatured singer Alan Thicke ending with a "hmmmmmmmm... ."
  • When Lisa was first introduced in season 5, she and Arnold and Dudley were very friendly toward each other (Arnold even tried to help Dudley ask Lisa out, which would NEVER have happened in later episodes). As time went on, she and Arnold were much more antagonistic, and she treated his friends with contempt.
• The '80s
• Enemy Eats Your Lunch: The two-parter "Crime Story" has two teenage bullies stealing the lunches and money of both Arnold and Dudley. They are not depicted as being harmless or goofy; they back up their words with physical force. The bullies even beat up Willis, who intervenes for Arnold and Dudley, so badly that he has to be hospitalized!
• Exceeded the Goal: In "Shoot-Out at the O.K. Arcade", Arnold bets Willis that he can beat him in a game of Space Suckers. After beating him, Arnold continues playing and goes on to win the game.
• Food Slap:
  • Arnold and Dudley smear part of a sundae in each others' faces in "The Double Date".
  • Charlene smashes a pizza in Willis' face after he makes a date with another woman in "The Older Woman".
  • Kimberly sprays her boss with ketchup after he sexually harasses her in "Independent Woman".
• Foster Kid: Averted with Arnold and Willis, which Willis points out to both Sam and a foster kid named Kurt in one of the final episodes of the series. Kurt — with whom Sam had gotten into a fight at the Hamburger Hangar early in the episode — had never had a stable family, always having to leave after a year, and was living in a group home at the time of the events of this episode. When Sam continues to balk about Kurt, Willis explains that had Mr. Drummond not taken him and Arnold in and adopted them, this would have likely been their fate.
• The Ghost: The Gooch, a bully at Arnold's school.
• Got Volunteered: In "Drafted", Arnold dreams that he's been drafted by the army. When the general (played by Mr. Drummond) asks for a volunteer to take one step forward, everyone but Arnold takes one step back.
• Happily Adopted: The Jackson brothers (eventually). Also Arnold's friend Dudley.
• Happily Married: Drummond and Maggie in the last two seasons.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: ”The Gooch", the bully that frequently picks on Arnold, frequently mentioned but never seen on camera.
• High-School Hustler: Season 8's "Arnold's Tangled Web" saw an adult version who exploited teenagers for his profit. The man, known as Spider, would – in exchange for a fee – forge report cards and pose as school officials to help them get out of scrapes. However, Spider made the mistake of crossing Mr. Drummond when he posed as a guidance counselor at Arnold's school, and Drummond set a trap to expose him to Arnold as a liar and scam artist. Drummond then warns Spider that he can expect the police to be called if he's ever known to be engaging in fraudulent activities again.
• Home-Early Surprise: The family comes home early from a ski trip due to bad weather. They arrive in the morning, and Mr. Drummond (who stayed home) has an overnight female guest. This puts him in the awkward position of explaining her presence to Arnold.
• Incest Subtext / Flirty Stepsiblings: Kimberly and Willis had a few moments that could be construed as flirting.
• Informed Judaism: In "The Bar Mitzvah Boy", Robbie Jason invites Arnold to attend synagogue services with him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Willis can qualify.
• Jive Turkey: Though not too much.
• Just Testing You: When Susie tells Arnold that she reads The Wall Street Journal, Arnold says he likes the comics in it. When she says there are no comics, Arnold says he is just testing her.
• Last-Name Basis:
  • In the early years, Arnold and Willis refer to Phil as "Mr. Drummond". Sam always addressed Phil as "Mr. D", even two years after he became his stepfather.
  • Of the three housekeepers, Mrs. Garrett was the only one who wasn't regularly addressed by her first name (even by Mr. Drummond).
• Local Hangout: The Hamburger Hangar, during the final season. The short-order restaurant is owned by Mr. Wallace, who is often a Jerkass; and Arnold's mentally challenged friend, Carl, is employed there as a dishwasher ^note (except for a brief period of time where Carl is mistakenly blamed for a prank Arnold's "friends" pulled on Mr. Wallace by breaking the dishwasher).
• Locked in a Freezer: Arnold and Willis are locked in the building's storage room in "Valentine's Day Retrospective".
• Locked in a Room: Arnold and Lisa are locked in the school's darkroom in "The Photo Club".
• Maintain the Lie: "Arnold's Tangled Web" has a hustler forge Arnold's report card to hide a bad grade. When Mr. Drummond is so impressed by Arnold's grades that he wants to see his guidance counselor, the hustler has to disguise himself as such to keep the ruse going.
• Malaproper: Arnold. An example comes from the season three episode "Drummond's Fair Lady":
  Arnold [intending to say "Magna Cum Laude"]: "Hi, I understand you graduated Magna Cum Lousy."
• May–December Romance:
  • The impression the producers initially wanted to avoid when hiring an actress to play Maggie McKinney, the woman that Mr. Drummond would eventually marry. (Conrad Bain was born in 1923, seven years prior to his character, Philip Drummond; the initial leading contender to play Maggie, Mary Ann Mobley, was born in 1939.) However, the first Maggie – Dixie Carter – was also born in 1939, and when she left the series at the end of the 1984-1985 season to play Julia Sugarbaker on Designing Women, Mobley was given a second look and eventually hired. ^note She appeared in about half of the Season 8 episodes.
  • Mrs. Garrett dates a younger man in the second season episode "Mrs. Garrett's Romance".
  • For that matter, most of Drummond's romances fall into this category.
• Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: A young man whose mother knew Phillip during the Korean War shows up on the Drummonds' doorstep.
• Minor with Fake I.D.: In "The Older Woman", Willis uses a fake ID — and a fake moustache — to get into a nightclub. He just narrowly avoids Mr. Drummond but is found out when the older woman he picked comes to the house to visit.
• Missing Mom and Disappeared Dad: The whole background for the series. Lucy Jackson passed away in 1977 and Henry Jackson died in 1975, one and three years, respectively, before the series begins.
• Mouthy Kid: Arnold. And to some extent, Willis.
  "You're a lily-livered weak sister with no guts!"
• Musical Episode: "The Music Man"
• My Hair Came Out Green: In "Green Hair", Kimberly's hair turns green after shampooing it with acid rain that reacted negatively with a copper bowl.
• New Parent Nomenclature Problem: When Willis and Arnold start living with the man who eventually adopts them, they call him Mr. Drummond. They eventually ask his permission to call him Dad, which he gives (even before he officially adopts them). They explicitly do not call him Papa, which was their name for their biological father.
  • With Sam, who – unlike most stepchildren who refer to their step-parents by their first name – he continues to refer to Mr. Drummond as "Mr. D". Arnold and Willis continue to refer to Maggie by her first name; the only one that ever gets a variant of mom is Lucy Jackson ("Mama").
• No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Vernon's sister Francine pursues Arnold in "Willis' Birthday", but by the end of the episode, he comes around.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Arnold aged much slower than the rest of the cast (his actor's kidney disorder meant that he never grew above 4' 8'').
• Offscreen Karma: Not shown or even discussed but implied in the second part of "Crime Story". Arnold gets audio evidence of the two bullies stealing his lunch and Dudley's lunch, then gives it to Detective Simpson. While the episode ends there, it's implied that this is more than enough evidence to arrest and prosecute the lunch stealing bullies.
• Oh, Crap!: The climax of "The Bicycle Man", when Mr. Horton realizes that he's been found out by the police. When Drummond and a detective start to head for Horton's apartment, Horton says, "Wait a minute … you can't go in there!" but is restrained by the other officer.
• One-Person Birthday Party: Zig-zagged. Everyone comes to Sam's birthday party in "It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To", but they're more interested in hanging out with the celebrity guest than in playing with Sam. So he goes to the Hamburger Hangar to celebrate by himself. Later, everyone from the party comes by with the cake to celebrate with him. Also played straight with Sam's friend, whose competing party had no guests because they all went to Sam's.
• Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: In an early episode, Willis and Arnold (black) plan to move in with another family because they overhear Mr. Drummond (white) saying that black children should be put with black families, thinking that he didn't want them; but he didn't believe in that, he was telling Mrs. Garrett what a buttinski social worker said to him after she met the boys.
• Pædo Hunt: In live-action episodic television, "The Bicycle Man" was probably the trope codifier.
• Parents as People: In the aptly titled "Parents Have Rights Too", as Philip explains to Arnold that he sent the kids away so that he and his girlfriend could spend time together, Arnold admits, "I know what goes on between men and women. I just never thought of you like that."
• Parent ex Machina
• Picnic Episode: Darkly portrayed in Season 6's "The Hitchhikers" (the episode where Kimberly and Arnold accept a ride from a stranger named Bill). While the two are held hostage, Bill – a serial kidnapper and rapist, as alluded to in the episode's closing scene – tries to get Kimberly to be his girlfriend, and to set the mood brings out a picnic basket and blanket and says that's what they're going to do ... .
• Pie in the Face: "Hooray For Hollywood"
• Playing a Tree: Mrs. Garrett mentions this in "The Girls School".
  "My teacher said I was the best tree in the play."
• Poorly Disguised Pilot:
  • "The Girls School", which bore The Facts of Life.
  • "Almost American", which revolved around an immigration and naturalization class.
• Post-Robbery Trauma: A 1985 episode saw Arnold robbed at knifepoint, and tries (successfully, for a while) to suppress his deep trauma ... but Mr. Drummond senses otherwise and arranges for a schoolroom exercise to get Arnold's true feelings out in the open.
• The Precarious Ledge: Arnold's predicament in "The Magician".
• Precision F-Strike: On a show that aired early during prime time, with no swearing or vulgar language whatsoever, hearing Mr. Drummond say "Willis, where the HELL have you been?" was jarring.
• Prenup Blowup: Drummond and Maggie.
  • Happened when Dixie Carter joined the cast. The prenup was discarded and they married anyway.
• Product Displacement: Look closely whenever Arnold is reading a comic book. Sometimes the book's cover will be covered in stickers to avoid showing the title.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Pearl in season 6, and Maggie and Sam in season 7.
• Put on a Bus: Mrs. Garrett, then Adelaide. They both came back for the Drummond and Maggie wedding episode.
  • Kimberly, via Real Life Writes the Plot. Dana Plato, who was pregnant at the time, was not part of the regular cast in the last two seasons, only making occasional guest appearances.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Late in the series, an episode was devoted to the fact Arnold was suffering stunted growth since the show had been on so long that Arnold's lack of height had to be explained somehow.
• Rearrange the Song: In addition to the producers having to recast the role of Maggie McKinney after moving to ABC, Alan Thicke also had to record a new version of the show's theme song, because NBC owned the copyrights to the original.
• Reckless Gun Usage: Willis gets a gun to protect himself in "The Peacemaker", and nearly shoots Mr. Drummond when Willis mistakes him for an intruder.
• Recurring Character: Many. The most frequent is Dudley.
• Replacement Goldfish: Literally. Arnold's beloved goldfish Abraham dies, so the family tries to hide it from him until they can get a replacement. When Arnold becomes suspicious and happens to notice Mr. Drummond's will, he jumps to the wrong conclusion and thinks that Mr. Drummond is dying. Arnold notices that the new goldfish "isn't Abraham!"
  • Sam's kidnapper is trying to make him this to his deceased son. To make matters worse, Sam apparently does resembles the other boy.
• Repressed Memories: Willis experiences this in “The Tutor”, which his tutor, Danny (who uses humor and other unusual methods to help his students learn), picks up on as a trauma-induced mental block that keeps Willis from being able to recall historical events that happened in 1975 (the year in which Willis and Arnold’s father died). That, plus the fact that Danny’s methods help Willis improve in school, change Phillip’s mind about firing Danny, having questioned his learning methods.
• Sending Stuff to Save the Show: In-universe: Arnold and Sam start a letter-writing campaign to save The Sandy Squirrel Show from getting taken off the air in "Arnold Saves the Squirrel".
• Series Continuity Error: In "Where There's Hope", Arnold tells the guests at his birthday party to enjoy it because they have to go back to school on Monday; in "Assert Yourself", Arnold dislikes the idea of getting the day off for his birthday, because it's during summer vacation.
• Sexiness Score: In "Thanksgiving Crossover", after getting kissed by Morgan (three times), Phil rates her an 11 out of 10 as a kisser.
• The Show Goes Hollywood: The two-part "Hooray for Hollywood".
• Smoking Is Cool:
  • In "The Girls' School" episode, the character Blair (the snobby rich girl, played by Lisa Welchel) can be seen puffing on a cigarette; this character trait would be dropped (Welchel is a non-smoker) by the time The Facts of Life made it to series.
  • Twisted around in a 1984 episode, where Arnold and his buddy, Dudley, experiment with smoking cigarettes. They get a graphic lesson when Dudley's father reveals he is a chronic smoker and needs a lung operation; the fade-to-black scene showed the man lighting up in the hallway, just after leaving the Drummonds' apartment.
• Special Aesop Victim; In one episode, Willis starts drinking with a friend in college despite not being legally aged. The two would then up in a car accident while intoxicated. While Willis only ends up being banged up, his friend isn't so lucky and dies from his injuries.
• Spin-Off: The Facts of Life. The spin-off outlasted its parent show by two years and had a year-longer run (nine seasons, vs. Strokes' eight).
• Stern Teacher: Arnold's teacher Mr. Wilkes.
• Street Urchin: In "Sam's Missing", how Sam's kidnapper tries to pass him off to his friends and even his own family.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Adelaide Brubaker for Edna Garrett, then Pearl Gallagher for Adelaide.
• Thematic Theme Tune: Flirting with Expository Theme Tune in the lines "A man is born, he's a man of means / Then along come two, they got nothing but their jeans..."
• The Talk: Drummond has already educated Arnold about "The Birds And The Bees", but he needs to give a new version when the kids come home early from a camping trip and catch him and his current girlfriend together—it's early in the morning and she's only wearing a nightgown, making it very obvious, even to the young Arnold, what's transpired. He also gives one to Willis in "Growing Up" when he admits that he's seriously contemplating having sex with his girlfriend.
• Too Smart for Strangers: One of the more infamous examples.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Conrad Bain plays Mr. Drummond and his real-life identical twin brother Bonar Bain plays his female cousin Anna Van Drummond, while Dana Plato plays Kimberly and her male cousin Hans, in "The Van Drummonds".
• Unexpected Positive: In one episode, Mr. Drummond purchased a device that measured stress on his doctor's advice. Sure enough, his rating was high, but when the kids goofed around with it, Willis' was off the chart (he was coping with schoolwork, extracurricular activities, running for class office, etc).
• Very Special Episode: Numerous examples. Most famously "The Bicycle Man" 2-parter.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In "The Boyfriend", Kimberly announces to Mr. Drummond that she's engaged to her boyfriend, David. David is never mentioned on the show again.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The "Rashomon"-Style episode "Rashomon II", where Mr. Drummond, Willis, and Arnold all have different versions of how they stopped a robber. Only Pearl knows the truth.
• With Friends Like These...: In certain episodes, it seems like Arnold's friends, even Dudley, will turn on him in a heartbeat, and on a dime.
• Writing Around Trademarks: Despite Arnold's doll clearly being a Paddington Bear^note Or at the very least, a knockoff in "Goodbye, Dolly", the doll is only referred to as "Homer" in the episode.
• Wrong-Name Outburst: In the season four episode "Double Date", Phillip suggests that Willis accompany Arnold on his first date since Arnold is too young to date by himself. Before Willis exhausts all options in finding a date, leading to Phillip's suggestion that he take Kimberly out instead, Willis tells Arnold the reason why he's looking for a date with another girl is that he called his girlfriend Charlene the wrong name.
  Willis: She's not talking to me on account of the name I called her.
  Arnold: What's that?
  Willis: Janet.
  • Coincidentally, Charlene was played during that season by a Janet: Janet Jackson.
  • When Sam's kidnapper brings him to his house, his wife almost immediately slips up and calls him by the name of her dead son (the man kidnapped Sam in order to replace the boy and alleviate his family's grief).
• Your Favorite: Sam's favorite food is Southern-fried SpaghettiOs.

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