00:00When I see Jasmine and Shorty and Cree and Charlie, it's like we were all together, you know, a few weeks ago.
00:08You know what I mean? It doesn't, it can't be 35 years.
00:12Let's get busy!
00:14A Different World is 35.
00:16Can you believe this day has finally come?
00:18Celebrate fond memories of an incredible cast.
00:21Freddie!
00:22Ryan!
00:23Whitley!
00:23Ron Johnson!
00:24And amazing guest stars.
00:25Plus, throughout the marathon, Kadeem Hardison.
00:28Baby, please!
00:29And Jasmine Guy share secrets about the series.
00:33Well, thank you, thank you for chatting with me about A Different World.
00:37I'm curious, you know, when you hear 35 years, does that even seem real to you?
00:43Not at all.
00:44Not at all.
00:45When I see Jasmine and Shorty and Cree and Charlie, it's like we were all together, you know, a few weeks ago.
00:53You know what I mean?
00:54It doesn't, it can't be 35 years.
00:57But then you realize, oh snap, this album came out 35 years ago and this other movie is 35 years old.
01:06So, yeah, wow, at 35 years, that means, yeah, that I'm close to 60.
01:11Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah, so yeah, so yeah, it's, it's, it's a little, it's a little hard to kind of wrap your head around.
01:19But at the same time, you know, the fact that it's still relevant and kids still love it and grownups as well and they're still drawing inspiration from it is, it's kind of incredible because we never, we never saw that coming.
01:39But especially in the first season, first season, we were all thinking, man, this is going to get canceled.
01:44Really?
01:46Yeah, I did for sure.
01:48Now, what made you think that?
01:49After I, like, I went to Atlanta to do school days.
01:55Okay.
01:56First, and that's where I met Jasmine, that's where I met Shorty, Darryl Bell.
02:00Um, and, uh, so I had a real authentic, even though I'm from Brooklyn and didn't know that black colleges existed.
02:08I didn't know how the words HBCU fit together.
02:12I didn't know what that meant.
02:14Like, uh, I never knew anything like, I never knew that world existed.
02:19We go down and do school days.
02:20I get a real live, up close and personal look at what that life is.
02:26When I finish school days, I go to California to visit some friends.
02:30And, uh, and I know Lisa's shooting spinoff for the Cosby show.
02:33I'm like, oh snap, I'm going to go visit.
02:36Because I remember I did an episode of Cosby with her two years before.
02:41We would start the show at seven, seven o'clock.
02:46Okay.
02:46By nine, nine fifteen, we were wrapped, makeup off, on our way home.
02:52That's how they rolled.
02:54Like, I go see her shooting a spinoff.
02:57And they started at seven o'clock.
03:00And one o'clock in the morning, people are still in the audience, like, falling asleep.
03:05Like, it just, it was so long.
03:07Like, it wasn't tight.
03:09It wasn't what I experienced with her, my experience with her before.
03:15I'm glad you said that.
03:16Because when I was researching and it was saying that the pilot was, like, the highest rated television pilot in history at the time.
03:24And I wondered if you all knew, right?
03:25Like, did you feel that energy around it?
03:27But it sounds like.
03:29A different world?
03:30That's what it said.
03:31Yeah.
03:31And I was going to fact check it and see.
03:33But I was like, I wonder, was that the energy around the show?
03:37Nah.
03:38Like, we were excited to be working and excited to, you know, to have jobs.
03:45Yeah.
03:46I remember going to the premiere of the pilot episode with the cast and everybody.
03:52And I watched it and I got sick to my stomach.
03:54I couldn't.
03:55And then I stopped watching.
03:56I didn't watch another episode for 15, 20 years.
04:00I just was like, nah, I don't have any.
04:03Yeah.
04:04I don't like seeing me.
04:05I don't need to see me because I see a lot of mistakes.
04:09I see all the mistakes.
04:10Sorry.
04:11Whatever is not perfect, I notice it.
04:14You might say, oh, no, this was good.
04:16This was funny.
04:16And I'd be like, yeah, but if I did this and this and that, if I'd have put these two things together, it would have been seamless.
04:23Okay.
04:24So I'm always looking for seamless.
04:27I can't tell you it's acting.
04:28It looks real.
04:29So when I would watch it, I would see nothing but mistakes.
04:35So then I'd stop watching.
04:36Well, after the pilot, I was like, yeah, I don't think I ever need to see that until I'm in a much different place.
04:44Well, when you rewatched, did you have a favorite episode?
04:49Cats in the Cradle was one of my favorites.
04:51The one with Criss Cross.
05:00Oh.
05:01OG, OG, Original Teacher was one of my favorites.
05:06The one, the date rape one with Tymac was one of my favorite ones early.
05:14One of my early favorite ones.
05:15But for me, it's like those three episodes might stand out.
05:21And then the rest of it is just bits and pieces of scenes.
05:26Oh, I remember this scene.
05:28I remember I like this scene.
05:29I loved this particular scene.
05:32When Cree and Jasmine and Rosalind Cash are in there and Jasmine starts dancing.
05:41And then she goes from some weird kind of, I don't want to do this, into the crazy.
05:45She started doing a running man.
05:47Every time I see that, I fall out.
05:50How has it felt navigating Hollywood since then?
05:54I almost feel like there will be such like a spoiled experience.
05:56Maybe like starting, you know, there and then such diversity.
06:00And Debbie Allen, like, what was it like in projects after for you?
06:04Yeah, it was never quite as black, which was always kind of like, oh, man.
06:12You know, sometimes I watch movies and I look and I'm like, oh, there's no black faces.
06:16And I get it that they all can't be, you know, but still you want to just want to see a little bit of yourself and everything.
06:26Like, but you are because I'm here.
06:29So why can't I be there, too?
06:32But yeah, it was it was, you know, it wasn't as it wasn't paved with gold, as they say.
06:38It was, you know, a little bit of a struggle because I was afraid.
06:41I knew that if I did this for six years, you know, people might only see me as that and it'd be harder to break out of that and find other stuff.
06:50And it's been that, but it's been a much more rewarding journey now to find other stuff.
07:01And Jasmine kind of talked about this.
07:03I think it was in her Uncensored where she said, I think both of you were on like a limited contract in the beginning.
07:096K a week.
07:10Yeah.
07:11Can you kind of talk about navigating, you know, negotiating a better deal like for yourself?
07:17Yeah.
07:19Once you audition, once you decide that you're going to pursue it, this part, when they get down to making the final choice between you and me and her, we all have to sign six year deals.
07:33We all have to sign their choice.
07:38If I want you, you're here next year, the year after, the year after, the year after, the year after, and the year after.
07:44Okay.
07:47Owner's options.
07:50And usually when the show does well, then it's negotiation time.
07:55Okay.
07:56Then you say, yeah, well, I'm not a, I don't know, I'm not feeling the love.
08:01So, so, so, so I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it into work today until I get this new, what do you call them?
08:13Contract.
08:16So there's all kinds of ploys.
08:19I remember seeing the Friends cast all band together and hold out together until they all got a million an episode.
08:28And I was like, damn, damn, we didn't have that, we didn't have that kind of leverage, you know, and a hold.
08:41Yeah.
08:41So, so that couldn't happen, but there had, you know, there had to be that moment where you were ready to say, no, I'm not, that's not enough.
08:52Well, that's the, I want to ask, because you talked about, you know, wanting to be that movie star, you know, which was such the big thing, you know, 80s, 90s.
08:59But it's funny now that, you know, streaming has just opened up, you know, so much and it's all about television kind of now.
09:05How does that feel, you know, for you as an actor in this time?
09:10I love all the outlets and all the opportunities.
09:14Yeah.
09:14Because, you know, I've been able to do shows that feel like they could be little movies, like the kind of movies I wanted to do.
09:23But instead, they pay you for, you know, six months longer.
09:29And there's 10 episodes instead of one two-hour movie, we get 10 little one-hour movies.
09:36And I really enjoy that because it's what I kind of started it for.
09:42It's what I wanted to be in it for.
09:44And I should have looked this up before because now I feel embarrassed asking.
09:47But did you win an AP or the show?
09:50No.
09:51We weren't nominated.
09:53We never got invited to come and be at the show.
09:57Like, we didn't get to present.
09:59I think Jasmine might have presented one in our last season.
10:04What?
10:05Yeah, yeah, no, we weren't.
10:07They didn't even invite us to come and be like, hey, yeah, here's a table.
10:11Y'all sit down and we'll get a shot of y'all and, you know, come and present one.
10:16You know, you and this one from that number two show in the country.
10:20Sometimes number one show.
10:21Yeah, no, no.
10:23My Emmy came from my guy, Michael Che, gave me a reparations Emmy.
10:29Oh, man.
10:31A couple of years ago.
10:33Because I was really like, fuck the Emmy's.
10:35I'm not.
10:35I don't really care.
10:37Nah, not really.
10:38Yeah.
10:38And then he talked me down.
10:40Like, nah, bro.
10:41You deserve this shit.
10:43Like, you don't understand that, you know, what you meant to us.
10:46So, you and Marla Gibbs and Jaleel, I was like, y'all deserve reparations Emmy.
10:53I was like, that's hilarious.
10:56Okay, y'all, I'm in.
10:59I'm in.
11:00That sounds like fun.
11:02Yes.
11:03So, thank you so, so much.
11:06I enjoyed being with you.
11:09Just for your legacy.
11:10I appreciate it.
11:12Yeah, thank you.
11:13It was good.
11:14We did.
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