Why A Different World's legacy has been unaffected by Bill Cosby's downfall

The New York Times

The college-set spinoff of The Cosby Show ended its six-season run 25 years ago today, on July 9, 1993. Yet A Different World "doesn’t seem to have inspired the same amount of hand-wringing as its predecessor," says Aisha Harris, pointing out that star Kadeem Hardison recently called the show "much bigger than Bill Cosby." One of the reasons A Different World has survived Cosby's downfall is that -- despite his name appearing in the credits -- he only appeared in three episodes. "The result of — and possibly a motivation for — this separating of art from artist allows the show to be a repository for the tender sentiments that have been displaced by the retroactive tarnishing of The Cosby Show," Harris says, adding: "It helps that A Different World was a more challenging, and arguably more meaningful show. When Debbie Allen took over as producer and director in Season 2, she famously made it her mission to set it apart from its more benign predecessor by having the writers tackle more substantive issues, including colorism within the black community, AIDS and shopping while black."