• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, September 24, 2026

Netflix positions a revival of the 1990s sitcom "A Different World" as a dramedy, but the show veers more toward drama than comedy.

Where this show is concerned, there really isn’t any comedy in the true sense of the word -- no jokes or silly business.

In this show, the comedy label refers mainly to scenes that are lighthearted. 

Near the end of Episode One, however, lightheartedness suddenly gives way to drama as a newly appointed provost at the show’s fictional historically black college, Hillman, thunderously welcomes the incoming class with a laundry list of challenges faced by African Americans. 

Like its predecessor, which aired on NBC from 1987 to 1993, the new “A Different World” follows a group of students at Hillman College.

Most of the characters we meet in Episode One, which the TV Blog previewed on Wednesday, are incoming freshmen, and we learn aspects of their lives.

One of the new students is Deborah Wayne (pronounced De-BOR-ah), who emerges as the central character in the show.

Played by Maleah Joi Moon, she is the daughter of Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert-Wayne (played by Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy, one-time stars of the original “A Different World”).

Deborah is the wealthy character in the ensemble of Hillman students. She comes to the college from Connecticut, where she attended an elite prep school.

Over the years since Whitley and Dwayne met and fell in love as Hillman students on the old show, Whitley founded a very successful cosmetics company. 

Meanwhile, Dwayne is the new Hillman provost, who gave the fiery speech at the freshman convocation.

Other principal student-body characters include Deborah’s roommate, Rashida Duvall (played by Alijah Kai), who is from the L.A. neighborhood of Compton and on a full academic scholarship; and football star Shaquille Johnson (Cornell Young IV).

Kai is the real-life daughter of comic actress Tichina Arnold (“Martin,” “The Neighborhood”). In the new “A Different World,” Arnold plays Rashida’s mother.

While the characters in the new show are culturally diverse in background, personality and character, actual ethnic diversity in the show is nonexistent.

This is not too surprising, since 76% of the students enrolled in HBCUs today are African American, according to multiple education websites.

Still, a quarter of the student bodies at HBCUs encompass other groups, including whites, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans.

Inclusion of some of these groups may have resulted in a more accurate depiction of life on HBCU campuses today, although I readily admit that I have no expertise or experience with this subject.

Suffice it to say, however, the updated “A Different World” has many appealing attributes, including the quality of its acting, writing and casting -- which includes a number of stars from the original.

The new “A Different World” starts streaming on Thursday (September 24) on Netflix.