Kadeem Hardison and Darryl M. Bell are rewatching ‘A Different World’ together—and bringing fans along

The actors are revisiting the classic sitcom together, blending behind-the-scenes memories with their enduring real-life bond.

Kadeem Hardison and Darryl M. Bell epitomize evolving Black male friendships.

The two men—who first worked together on opposite sides of Spike Lee’s “Da Fellas vs. Gammas” debate in “School Daze” (filmed in 1987, released in 1988)—practically became inseparable when the original “A Different World” was blasted into living rooms across the country in 1987. Hardison’s affection for Bell in real life is just as potent and genuine as the dynamic between Dwayne Wayne and Ron Johnson on screen, to the point where people don’t even call them by their real names, but by their iconic characters (or sometimes, in Hardison’s case: Craig Cooper from “K.C. Undercover”). 

Thus, after decades of “giving away their best stuff” in conversations and one-liners behind the scenes, the two fulfilled an idea sparked not long after season two debuted in 1988: their own show as talking heads. 

“Kadeem says he’s tired of wasting all his best material on me,” Bell told theGrio in an exclusive interview about the origins of “A Different World View with Darryl and Kadeem,” their rewind podcast dedicated to the original “A Different World,” which launches on Thursday. “But we always kept saying we should have our own show.”

When Debbie Allen took over as showrunner starting with season 2, the pair frequently found themselves at Los Angeles Clippers games because of Allen’s husband, then-Clippers point guard Norm Nixon. Being around NBA players sparked an idea for Hardison and Bell—two lifelong sports fans who thought they knew more than the commentators and analysts. Over the years, there were variations of a “talk show” from the two, including a 2009 episode of “Real Husbands of Hollywood” on BET. 

Plus, when you’re two friends who think you have the best conversations, you want the world to be in on it.

“We want hour episodes and we want longer episodes.” – Darryl M. Bell on one of his desires for season 2 of Netflix’s “A Different World”

Reliving the first season, Hardison admits, will take some getting used to. During the show’s original run, he reveals he never went back and watched episodes because “he lived them.” The podcast represents “scary fun” in looking back at scenes he wasn’t in and moments that have now become part of pop culture history. 

Although he didn’t have the firmest idea the show would be part of the zeitgeist at the time, Bell instantly knew they had a hit on their hands.

“There’s no way we saw what it would become in season one,” Hardison says. “That was more like basic training or boot camp for what was about to come. Shorty [Bell] knew from day one. I don’t know how, but his vision with all of them thick glasses.”

The tonal shift from season one to season two, making Hillman an HBCU, was all Allen. It turned the show into must-see TV on Thursday nights and built a writers’ room of Black talent that would help shape television and film for the next 30-plus years; talent that included Reggie and Gina Prince Bythewood, Yvette Lee Bowser, Susan Fails, and more.

What the two did not foresee was the sequel landing and becoming, overnight, one of the most talked-about shows on TV. Since its September 24 debut, the sequel has reached peaks of No. 1 in the US on Netflix and No. 4 globally. And Bell admits he wants people to lodge complaints, particularly two.

“We want hour episodes and we want longer episodes,” he says with a laugh. 

As fan fervor for the show has ramped up thanks to social media, Hardison and Bell are both keenly aware of the various fan theories that have come about, including Ellington Kendall perhaps being the secret son of Dwayne Wayne. Hardison can’t help but bring it up, because even to him, it sounds ridiculous.

“All the Internet Batmans trying to figure it out.”

The characters’ evolution from the original and the sequel itself has sparked long-form discussions, think pieces, and more. Cultural conversation like this hasn’t been seen around a Black TV show since the days of “Insecure,” which both men believe is the highest praise because people connect with the work. As actors, it let Hardison and Bell dig deeper into what made Dwayne and Ron so palpable as friends and as Black men. For Bell in particular, it helped him reframe Ron Johnson for many, even as a lover and one of the great “spin the block artists” in television history, into a father navigating grief in his own way.

“That’s a really good question,” Bell says. “I think Ron likes to think of himself as a gigolo, but he’s not successful. At his core, he’s a good guy. What you saw with Ron and Dwayne, in fact, all of the characters, was a maturation process. But Ron always had discipline. He might have had all the different ventures throughout the show, but once he got to the nightclub, he was successful. He was resilient. And that always stuck with him when it came to finding love.”

The duo’s podcast represents, for Hardison in particular, a moment to look back on the show’s most viral moment: him interrupting Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy)’s wedding to Sen. Byron Douglas (Joe Morton). The sequel to “A Different World” references the iconic scene, which was the one surprise everyone involved kept close to the vest. Still, years later, Hardison says he had anxiety leading up to the scene. Not only because he wanted it to live up to his standards and the show, but because even he couldn’t get past the idea of Dwayne doing something that bold.

“I had a hard time committing to the words and the action,” he says. “Like, I can’t break this up, man. This is so far-fetched. Like, we are reaching into the void for this. I have no idea what’s happening. But we caught lightning in a bottle.”

Bell adds, “People loved the fact Byron came back to get his piece of flesh. And we had to keep a lid on that spoiler the whole time we were promoting the show. And it’s cool people connect Byron and Papa Pope, because when he came back, ‘Byron is a gangsta from the CIA!’ And what I find fun about it, my reference for Joe Morton is ‘Brother From Another Planet.’ I’m like, ‘Whitley’s getting married to the Brother From Another Planet?!’

The love for the sequel and the care taken with it have everyone hyped for season 2. The writers’ room, according to Bell, wants to slow down and dig deeper into stories. “Make everybody lose their mind,” he says.

Hardison and Bell, through reliving the original, get to remind people that they, not “Martin” or “The Fresh Prince,” were the “promotional department for Nike” in the late ’80s and wore all the flyest Jordans and shoes, to the point Nike CEO Phil Knight asked them for an autographed picture. But their love of shoes and fashion, two items uniquely tied to “A Different World,” go back to their days on the set of “School Daze.”

“Spike wouldn’t let the Gammas wear Jordans; we had to wear Air Forces,” Bell says, laughing. “Da Fellas got Jordans. I wanted to wear the Jordans Kadeem was rocking! And somebody said, nah, you gotta wear the Forces. You’re killing me, you’re killing me!”

With a trip down memory lane firmly in place with their new podcast, Hardison and Bell already have large visions for the sequel’s upcoming second season as the perfect reminder of the impact of the original show and what can be done with expanded time.

“I already made my pitch to the writers. I need an all-hands-on-deck Thanksgiving with Mama Wayne (Patti LaBelle) at the crib. Everybody got to be there. Prune cobbler, it’s gonna be off the chain,” Bell says.

Hardison adds, “Or a Christmas episode with all the moms. Dwayne’s mom, Rashida’s mom. Whitley … it would be nuts. And do it in Brooklyn! Let’s go back to Brooklyn, baby!”