Did Netflix Ruin ‘A Different World’ With A.I.?

Price hikes. Monthly content removals. First season cancelations. In some way or another, I’ve come to just ignore all those deplorable acts from Netflix. But they just had to up the ante, didn’t they? They were sneaky about it this time, too. Instead of doing something on the service itself (which every subscriber would eventually come to see), they put the worst of spins on a new addition to its content library. On February 7 — seven months after it was pulled from Max — A Different World was finally able to be streamed again thanks to Netflix.

Once I heard that all six seasons of The Cosby Show spinoff were available to watch (thanks to MovieWeb news reporter Heath McKnight), I went straight to my Roku and loaded up the Netflix app. You might think I was overreacting. It’s just a television show, after all. But for me, both series are sincerely connected to different parts of my life, even though I wasn’t around just yet when either show initially premiered. You’ll soon see that my personal appreciation stopped dead in its tracks — and for good reason.

a different world

Release Date

1987 – 1992

Network

NBC

Directors

Henry Chan, Glynn Turman, Kadeem Hardison, David Blackwell, Kim Friedman, Michael Peters, Peter Werner, Christopher Hibler, Jasmine Guy, Jay Sandrich, John Whitesell, Matthew Diamond

Writers

Yvette Lee Bowser, Thad Mumford, Reggie Rock Bythewood, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Judi Ann Mason, Adriana Trigiani, Scott S. Gorden, Jeffrey Duteil, Orlando Jones, Bill Cosby, Matt Williams, Steven Peterman, Karen Kennedy, Joe Gannon, Gary Dontzig, Carmen Finestra, Susan Fales-Hill

• Jasmine Guy

  Whitley Gilbert

• Kadeem Hardison

  Dwayne Wayne

• Darryl M. Bell

  Ron Johnson

‘A Different World’ Helped Me Grow Up

For me, The Cosby Show on the Nick at Nite programming block was a go-to in my childhood for many years. No scares, no suspense, just a Black American family going about their lives in Brooklyn, New York. Then, some years later, I would catch A Different World on assorted channels, primarily during the evening hours on BET, TV One, or Aspire. A different show for a different type of me. At this point in my life, I was ready to step into such sensitive topics without disengaging — race discrimination, class struggles, relationships, and young adulthood.

Sure, there were other shows that talked about the same thing, but unlike the characters of Zack Morris, Alex Keaton, or even Will Smith on Fresh Prince, Dwayne Wayne’s initial goofiness spoke to me. At the time, he told me it was OK to be me, and so I kept watching. My older self became invested in his story. Years later, I want to keep watching and see the character that inspired me way back when once more. But it’s different now. A Different World is definitely different now. At first, I thought Netflix had manually refined the colors or enhanced the contrast.

Related

Netflix Now Developing Sequel Series to Classic ’90s Sitcom

Grab your flip-up sunglasses – Hillman College my be about to reopen.

As much as Whitley was defined as a southern belle, her face was too perfect here. It seemed like everybody had too much makeup on. There was also a subtle blur to everything. Then, it all became clear in the background of Hillman College. Whether it’s Maggie, Jaleesa, Kimberly, or Ron, once familiar faces instead melted into unrecognizable visual goop. It’s been used in movies already, but it seems like A.I. has now been unceremoniously injected into the classic sitcom genre as well. Maybe Netflix thought that this series would be a good testing ground.

After all, original fans of the show are at least in their 50s now (if they were 16 when the show first aired); they probably wouldn’t notice or care about the difference. My older relatives didn’t even notice the dissolving facial features until I pointed it out to them! Shame on such a premier streaming service for transforming a classic show into an A.I. slop collage. If this is a sign of things to come regarding streaming advancements, this is just another reason we should all keep our DVDs. I, for one, won’t be streaming A Different World on Netflix again.

You can view the original article HERE.