"Whatchoo talkin' bout, Willis?" - Gary Coleman as Arnold Jackson
Diff'rent Strokes: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
Fame is fickle. An actor can be at the top of the ratings one day and on the top of the trash heap the next. A star's post-fame life can affect our view of the show that made them famous in the first place. Can anyone watch Baretta these days - the first episode of which features the undercover cop's fiancée being gunned down as they leave an Italian restaurant - and not think about star Robert Blake's current legal woes? Diff'rent Strokes never rose higher than number 17 in the ratings, but it was a huge hit for NBC during a period in which having a NBC show in the top twenty was almost a pipedream. America fell in love with its young stars - Gary Coleman, Todd Bridges, and Dana Plato - but once the series left the air, the tragic off screen lives of the very same stars came to overshadow the series that brought them fame. The DVD release of Diff'rent Strokes: The Complete First Season allows us to revisit the series and again judge it on its own terms.
Philip Drummond (Conrad Bain) is a good hearted multimillionaire widower who lives in a gigantic Park Avenue penthouse with his thirteen year-old daughter, Kimberly (Plato). When his widowed housekeeper falls ill, he promises on her deathbed that he will care for her soon-to-be orphaned children, Arnold (Coleman), a precocious eight year-old, and Willis (Bridges), a jaded thirteen year-old. He follows through on his promise, but the transfer of two African-American children from a poor Harlem neighborhood to a glitzy life downtown with a Caucasian family isn't exactly a smooth one. The new family fits together perfectly, but the outside world often has problems accepting Mr. Drummond's new "sons." Helping out around the cavernous apartment is the family's new housekeeper, ditzy Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae).
Predictably, many of the early episodes rely on endless variations of the chasm between blacks and whites. In "The Social Worker," guest Ellen Travolta tries to have the brothers placed with a more "appropriate" (i.e. black) family. Mr. Drummond tries to enroll the boys in his alma mater in "Prep School," but the family is forced to confront a racist testing system and an unsympathetic headmaster (Gimme a Break's Howard Morton). Mr. Drummond's snooty mother (Irene Tedrow) must come to terms with her new "grandchildren" in "Mother's Last Visit." Willis' new social status goes to his head when he tries to impress his old friends in "The Club Meeting." Other episodes deal with standard sitcom plotlines, like Arnold losing his favorite doll, Mr. Drummond dating a woman (Father Knows Best's Elinor Donahue) his children do not like, Willis mistakenly believing that the others have forgotten his birthday. Even though the plots are not always original, the show always manages to be entertaining thanks to snappy dialogue and terrific performances by its gifted cast.
When people think of Gary Coleman these days, it is likely in the context of his unsuccessful bid to become California's governor, his alleged battery of a woman while working as a security guard, or his claims that his parents squandered the money that he earned from Diff'rent Strokes. This year's Tony Award-winning Best Musical Avenue Q even reimagines him as the washed up superintendent of a rundown New York City apartment building. It is easy, then, to forget just how talented he is. A mere ten years old when these episodes were filmed, Coleman has the timing and delivery that comedians five times his age would envy. He is truly a powerhouse performer, milking laughs from lines and situations that would have fallen flat with a less talented actor. It is also fun to watch his growth as an actor and a comedian as the season progresses. In the early episodes, his delivery is perfect, but at times he seems to forget that he is on camera once he has delivered his lines. By the end of the season, he has shaken off this and similar bad habits, honing his performance into one that is as professional as it is funny.
Coleman is also a gifted physical comedian. He perfectly exploits his appearance for laughs, rolling his wide, expressive eyes, flashing his toothless grin, and puffing his already puffy cheeks. The twinkle in his eyes is so strong one wonders if it is battery powered. He bounds around the set with the energy and enthusiasm of a small puppy. The effect is not unlike that of a living Muppet.
We now know that his small size and cherubic cheeks were due, in part, to physical illness. This in no way diminishes from his endearing performance. It does raise questions about treating children like a commodity for entertainment purposes, but that is a debate best left for other forums. Oddly enough, though, the series itself often treats Coleman like an object rather than as a person. Arnold is supposedly eight, but he is physically treated like a two year old, infantilized to the point that he is often picked up and moved around like a prop. It's as if Willie Tyler & Lester broke up, and now Lester is striking out on his own by starring in a sitcom. This effect is partially explained in one of the commentaries accompanying this set when it is revealed that because of Coleman's size, it was difficult to shoot "two shots" - shots that included Coleman and one of the other actors. Often the easiest solution was to have Bain, for example, scoop Coleman up and sit him on his knee.
The series was conceived by super producer Norman Lear (All in the Family, Good Times) as a vehicle for Coleman, but the other stars shine, too. As melancholy realist Willis, Bridges is intensely sympathetic, effectively portraying a character who sometimes talks tough as a cover for his tender heart. Plato's Kimberly plays a lesser role here than she would in subsequent seasons. She only appears in a handful of episodes, but she still manages to create a fully-formed character. As Mrs. Garrett, Rae gives a performance so strange and idiosyncratic - and utterly likeable - that her character was spun off into her own series (The Facts of Life) in the last episode of the first season.
The biggest revelation, however, is Conrad Bain. Bain had spent the previous six seasons playing neighbor Dr. Arthur Harmon on Lear's Maude. Here he provides Diff'rent Strokes' heart and moral center. He manages to simultaneously convey cool WASPishness and palpable loving warmth. When mentally running down a list of the show's characters and stars, Bain's name is probably the last one to spring to mind. It is surprising, then, to realize that he is actually responsible for much of the show's most touching and comforting moments.
The fact is, while watching the show, you will probably not think about the sad fates of its child stars. Coleman's adorable cheekiness, Plato's fresh and honest performance, Bridges' sweet-and-tough demeanor, Bain's gentle paternalism, and Rae's waivering voice and twitching face elicit genuine belly laughs. The storylines are often secondary to the humor that the cast derives from them.
The cast cannot overcome every one of the trite scripts, but they valiantly try. One low point is the two-part "Retrospective." This Christmas episode features the characters reminiscing about their time together. That's right - a show that is only eight episodes old is already resorting to a clip show featuring flashbacks to its previous seven installments - including flashbacks to an episode that had presumably been run only a week before. Just as bad is the two-part nightmare known as "The Trip." During Diff'rent Strokes' first year, the show that followed it on the NBC schedule was Hello, Larry. Larry starred former M*A*S*H actor McLean Stevenson as a divorced radio talkshow host. Viewers stayed away from the series in droves, but since it came from the same production company (Lear's Tandem Productions) responsible for Diff'rent Strokes, executives decided to have Arnold and the gang visit Larry in an attempt to goose its ratings. "The Trip" is the result. For years, Hello, Larry has been the butt of jokes about bad TV, and it's pretty easy to see why. These episodes are abysmal. The late Stevenson's performance is so terrible it's as if he does not speak English and has learned his lines phonetically. The other Larry cast members, including the usually reliable Joanna Gleason (Boogie Nights) and Kim Richards (Escape to Witch Mountain), do not fare much better. Part two is actually the Hello, Larry episode on which the Diff'rent Strokes cast appeared. It has here been reclaimed as a Diff'rent Strokes episode so that the story that began on Strokes can reach its conclusion. Perhaps a better idea would have been to simply junk both parts.
Another of the show's flaws is its overall look. Shot on videotape rather than film, Tandem shows were known for their grungy, grubby look. This style worked for shows like All in the Family, Good Times, and Sanford and Son where the settings were supposed to look shabby. The Drummond penthouse, however, is the chintziest millionaire's pad ever. The sets look dingy and fake. With its half naked cherub statues in the stairwell and its Salvation Army furnishings, the home looks more like a garage sale at a tacky Italian restaurant.
The twenty-four episodes that make up the first season are divided onto three discs. The discs are housed in slim, clear keepcases. The front covers each feature a different publicity photo of Coleman. The back covers include episode numbers, episode titles, plot synopses, and basic creative credits. The double-sided coversheets show through to the inside of the case, but there is no decoration. They simply feature solid pastel colors that mirror the bold autumn colors used on the front and back of each case. The DVDs feature the same publicity stills included on the case covers. Overall, the design is simple yet bold. The three keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve which highlights yet another Coleman publicity photo backed by a smaller photo of the remaining cast members.
The DVD menus feature the same photo included on the cardboard box. Viewers can play all episodes or choose an individual episode. Although there are no scene selection menus, chapter stops are included.
