Series Description

The Diff'rent Strokes TV show was a 30 minute comedy series on NBC for its first seven seasons and on ABC for its final season. It was about a wealthy white man who promised his dying afro-american housekeeper that he would raise her two sons as his own after her death. Unlike other similarly themed shows (single guy becomes daddy), Philip Drummond was eager to take on this responsibility! Overnight the two young boys were transported from their home in a Harlem ghetto to their new lives in a beautiful Park Avenue apartment. They even had a housekeeper and Mr. Drummond's daughter became their new sister. Then in February of 1984, they even got a new mother and brother when Mr. Drummond married Maggie McKinney and she and her son joined their family.

Broadcast History:

November 1978 to October 1979: Friday Nights from 8:00 to 8:30 PM on NBC
October 1979 to End of Third Season: Wednesday Nights from 9:00 to 9:30 PM on NBC
Fourth Season: Thursday Nights from 9:00 to 9:30 PM on NBC
Fifth thru Seventh Seasons: Saturday Nights from 8:00 to 8:30 PM on NBC
Eighth Season: Friday Nights from 9:00 to 9:30 PM on ABC

Diff'rent Strokes Cast

Conrad Bain .... Philip Drummond
Gary Coleman .... Arnold Jackson
Todd Bridges .... Willis Jackson
Dana Plato .... Kimberly Drummond
Charlotte Rae .... Edna Garrett
Janet Jackson .... Charlene DuPrey
Danny Cooksey .... Sam McKinney
Dixie Carter .... Maggie McKinney

Diff'rent Strokes Trivia:

Each Diff'rent Strokes episode taught some lesson about how to live a good life. In fact, in 1983, first lady Nancy Reagan appeared on a Diff'rent Strokes episode about drug abuse to promote her "Just Say No" program.

Although we never saw Mr. Drummond do much work, his fortune came from his career as the President of Trans Allied, Inc.

Mr. Drummond's housekeeper, "Mrs. Garret", became the star of a "spin-off" TV show titled, "The Facts of Life (1979)". In fact, the very first episode of "The Facts of Life" was a crossover episode with "Diff'rent Strokes".

Philip Drummond also appeared on a few episodes of the TV show, "Hello Larry". He and Larry were old Army buddies.

Gary Coleman, who played loveable Arnold Jackson, was born with a defective kidney and received a transplant at five years of age. The abnormal functioning of his kidney during his first five years of life is what caused him to be smaller than normal for his age.

Actor Alan Thicke wrote the theme song for the "Facts of Life" and Diff'rent Strokes but not for his own series, "Growing Pains".

Todd Bridges had the "child star" problems that many other young people experience when they achieve great success early in life. He couldn't get work due to being "type cast" as Willis Jackson. After some trouble with the law over drug charges, however, Todd really turned his life around! He fought his way back into show business, not only as a producer and director behind the camera, but also as an actor! He also got married and had a son and he travels all over the U.S. lecturing at schools and churches about the value of leading a "clean" life without drugs, gangs, etc.

Theme Song

Title: It Takes Diff'rent Strokes

By: Alan Thicke, Gloria Loring and Al Burton

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.

Everybody's got a special kind of story
Everybody finds a way to shine,
It don't matter that you got,
not alot,
So what,
They'll have theirs, and you'll have yours, and I'll have mine.
And together we'll be fine....

Because it takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world.
Yes it does.
It takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world.