Now this was the best news I’ve heard all weekend. Debbie Allen has started up a conversation campaign via twitter regrding her former TV hit show “It’s A Different World“. In honor an celebration of the 25th anniversary of the show’s airing on television, The Entertainment icon is looking to revamp the tv show with a more modern day feel of course. Debbie Allen tweeted:
“We need to revisit this wonder arena and get my crew back,”….. A show like it is “missed” in TV today.”
Black television is surely missing on mainstream television. When we compare the show’s of the 80’s and 90’s [‘What’s Happening’, ‘Sanford And Sun’ ‘Good Times’, ‘Alf’ ‘Martin’, ‘In Living Color’, ‘Living Single’, ‘It’s A Different World’, ‘Family Matters’ ‘The Parkers’, ‘Moesha’, etc] that were on broad syndicated channels, with african american shows today, there is truly a vast difference in both the messaging of the shows along with the growing demand to have shows that emulate popular rating shows. Not to mention that we mostly see black television shows on cable network channels [TBS, TVOne, BET] than on basic channel networks [Fox 5, CBS, NBC, ABC WBS LL, etc] .
What was great about “It’s A Different World” was that it resonated with alot of the cultural norms that we see today. The message and acceptance of DIVERSITY is not just what we see in colleges, but in neighborhoods, relationships, jobs, and more. We’ve all witnessed the financial discomforts of life with school tuition, and our individual livelihoods with the economic crisis today. We’ve also see the essence of brother, sisterhood, and unity in Sororities/Fraternities abroad, and the importance of friendships and professional networks]. I could go on for days. Need I mention the theme song which was written by Boyz II Men. It’s A Different World , In Where We All Come From.
I must say that I agree with Debbie Allen on this message. We need to more positive representation of african american shows.