Hey, y'all. I'm Felicia Pride, creator and showrunner of A Different World on Netflix, and this is all the things you may have missed.

[upbeat music playing] First of all, A Different World meant everything to me growing up. It was must-watch TV in my house. We watched it live as a family on Thursday nights. One of my favorite episodes is the step show episode, and I recorded it, and I learned that step show routine. ♪ Now slide ♪ ♪ Hip hop… ♪ I've never seen stepping like that, but I felt like I had friends. I felt like I knew these characters. I felt seen as someone who loved dancing and loved culture, and so it played a really, really big part in my life. Hey, how you doing? It was a no-brainer to bring the shades back. You know, Deborah Wayne is the daughter of Whitley Gilbert and Dwayne Wayne, and she has both Whitley Gilbert's style and sophistication, but she also has her father's big heart, and we wanted to show that, of course, through character development, but also through things that we could see, which was costumes. You know, costuming was so big in the original series. The fashion in the show is iconic, so we wanted to keep that same spirit, and the glasses were a no-brainer to tell us whose daughter this was, so the glasses were written into the pilot from jump. Preeminent HBCU in the country.

[chuckles] And I don't mind saying it louder for the people in the back. Am I right or am I right?

[crowd cheering]

[Felicia] In creating the new look of the locations… Well, first, it was like we wanted to think about how did Hillman College evolve over the last 40 years. But we wanted to start with the foundation, with the original set, so we referenced photos and videos in the original show, and then we built upon that foundation and really thought about how to organically evolve these locations while still keeping the nostalgia and the warm feeling, and that was just sort of our north star through creating the series in general. We wanted to make sure that it had the same spirit while also evolving it for the times. Oh my gosh, when they saw The Pit, it was emotional for some of them. It was exciting. There were some really historic moments in creating the show to see the legacy cast see The Pit all together for the first time, and then even to have them see Gilbert Hall, it was unbelievable for them.

[original theme intro playing]

[new theme song playing] ♪ It's a different world ♪ While we were developing the new main titles, we were using chords from the original show, so it was always sort of baked into what we were doing as a reminder, as a foundation, and then once we got the main title song, it was also like, how do we incorporate this in a way that lets people know that we understand the spirit of what we're doing, and then immediately goes into what the new show is? So it felt like just a nice nod to what we're doing, the respect that we have for the original show, but also, like, we started here and look at how far we've come. ♪ It's a different world ♪ ♪ Than where you come from ♪ First of all, Brandy is an icon, and she was so perfect for so many reasons. One, because she was also an icon in terms of '90s sitcoms, right, with Moesha. And she's an actress herself. So what she means to both the world of, like, Black television is huge, then what she means to the world of Black music is huge. And when we thought about, you know, Aretha Franklin having that iconic voice, singing the original theme song, we wanted someone who had an iconic voice, the moment you heard it, you knew who it was, and Brandy was… was just it. Dean Davenport, I've unpacked, called my mama, my man Lance, and the head of the business department to discuss career opportunities in a multinational corporation for multilingual African-American of the female persuasion, but he ain't home. We thought about wanting to make sure that our OG characters had organic storylines to our new series, but then they had inner dynamics with our new cast that felt fresh. In the original series, they had their Mr. Gaines, they had their Colonel Taylor, so now we look at Whitley and Ron and Dwayne and Freddie as the mentors to our new cast, and that's how we thought about building the storylines. We wanted to make sure that they had organic relationships to Hillman still, so we see Dwayne Wayne as provost, we see Freddie as a professor, we see Whitley on the board, we see Ron with his son as a manager and really involved in school politics because of that. And then finding moments for other OGs to pop in. One of my favorite, favorite moments is having Charmaine and Gina pop up at homecoming, and they dropped in and they provide that comic relief that we remember them for. So it was really important for us to both have the evolution of our characters and to show where they are now in life as parents, as grown adults, but then also to make sure we still have those senses of… We still see the Dwayne that we know and love. We still see the Charmaine that we know and love.

Hillman, your star has arrived…

[camera shutters clicking] …and a legend has returned. I think in episode two, we reveal one of our biggest Easter eggs of the season, which is Shaquille's mom, and this is sort of a deep cut for fans. And Shaquille's mom ends up being Jaclyn, who was played by the Halle Berry. I remember that moment in the writers' room. We were like…

[gasps] "It's gotta be Halle Berry. It's gotta be Jaclyn." And what we thought was so fun about that was, you know, Ron dated a lot of folks.

[laughs] So being able to give a nod to someone we know he dated, but then creating this fun backstory that they rekindled and reconnected, you know, after the show aired, and they had a son, they had a child.

Hey.

[siren wailing] You okay? Yeah, just shaken up. That's fine.

I'm gonna call you back.

Whatever you need, I'm here. Yeah.

Who that?

Huh? One of our other big Easter eggs this season that I am so excited for fans to uncover is that Ellington Kendall is the son of Denise and Martin Kendall. The show originally centered on Denise's character. So to have her son be at Hillman is huge. And not only to have her son be at Hillman, but to have her son be at Hillman and be a love interest of Deborah, Whitley's daughter, which we thought was so fun, 'cause Whitley and Denise's relationship was so spicy. But also Dwayne. Dwayne loved himself some Denise. So his daughter dating Denise's son, it's just nice and messy and spicy in all the ways. We found Vincent, who plays Ellington, who, you know, is a phenomenal actor. Amazing, amazing actor. Everybody, when they saw his tape, they're like, "That's him." They have my address, you two. Bite me. I think titles of episodes are really, really important. And so I was like, "What could be a nod to the original series that feels honest, but also fresh?" So that decision came really early in the pilot stage. And then we were able to carry it on, but it just felt like a fun way to have a nod to the original while also finding those organic connections. And then relax, relate, release. Relax.

[both] Relate. Release. One of the things that we wanted to continue to do was pay homage to the original series, because they had iconic lines, right, that people still recite to this day. So one of our favorites is, of course, Dwayne trying to win Whitley over at her wedding. Baby, please!

Please!

I do! So we had a really fun opportunity to do that with Mr. Joe Morton, uh, who pays, in episode six, he pays Dwayne a visit and mocks his pleading. "Baby, please." [chuckles] "Please." [laughs] Damn. He got me on that one. And even at that point, Kadeem, uh, improv'd at the end of that scene. "Damn, he got me there." And we just had to keep it 'cause it was so good. But to see that… that relationship between them and the dig using his own pleading, it was just too good not to… not to do. And, you know, Joe… Mr. Joe Morton had such a fun time giving us different versions. And the one where he's laughing was just perfect.

[laughing] It was perfect. You gotta learn how to relax, relate, and release.

Ooh, girl, I'm releasing, okay?

Who's next? Oh. Okay. Another Easter egg that was really, really important to us was the idea that the underground railroad ran underneath Gilbert Hall. We thought that was such a touching story from the original series that we wanted to find a way to pay homage to that. So when we have episode eight, which is our storm, tornado episode, and Amir and Hazel are trying to reconcile. One of the beautiful things about their reconciliation is that, you know, it deals with faith, but it also deals with ancestors. A different type of faith for Black people, calling on the ancestors. And we see Hazel interacting and thinking about calling on her ancestors. And we're able to connect that through their discovery of this plaque that Freddie discovered in the original series. Uh, and so what's interesting is we built that set to show, you know, that even within their drama between as friends, young friends, trying to figure it out, we still have these moments around history, legacy, uh, justice. I feel like that moment's so beautiful because it also, to me, is very reflective of what the show is and how we're able to blend those things. I feel so naughty. Come on, Mary Magdalene. The other thing that I love, and when we talk about the love and care and… and family behind the show, is that we actually have family ties in the show. So first and foremost, we have Professor Baptiste is played by Norman Nixon Jr., who is Miss Debbie Allen's son. Then we have something that was more organic was Cree's brother, Rainbow Sun, as Amir's parole officer, Larry. We also have Jasmine Guy's daughter, Imani Guy Duckett. She did band practice and everything to make sure she looked legit playing those drums. Kadeem Hardison's daughter, Sophia Hardison, is in the background in episode 110 at the gala. It was just so special to have those types of family ties on set, and then to see them in the show, and to see them flourish and be great. You know this is my bin. You saw me wheel it from the yard. And I appreciate it. Now you can go and get you another one.

Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!

Mom! There's my baby girl. Be sure to watch A Different World on Netflix, streaming now, and you can learn more about the show on Tudum.