\n<\/p>\n
Allen persisted, re-recruiting Pride: \u201cIt needs to be you,\u201d Allen told her. As Pride puts it, \u201cYou don\u2019t say no to Debbie.\u201d (Others are equally and passionately committed to Allen. The reboot wasn\u2019t going to happen without her, says Hardison. \u201cNot for me. She\u2019s the mama.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Reggie Rock Bythewood and Gina Prince-Bythewood, who met while working in the original show\u2019s writers\u2019 room\u2014they were hired a week apart, and have been together ever since\u2014came back to serve as executive producers on the reboot, together with Mandy Summers and Tom Werner. It\u2019s an especially fitting homecoming for the Bythewoods, whose youngest son now attends Morehouse College. In an interview, Gina remembers the acclaimed episode that Reggie wrote about dating violence, and a character whose boyfriend was beating her. The letters they received showed them that they were having an impact, she says, and that \u201chow we see ourselves, what we normalize for ourselves, is important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, a crew had been assembled that would do the original show justice. Episode one jumps right in, focusing on the university\u2019s budget crisis and funding cuts to predominantly Black institutions. Other season one storylines include a campus bomb threat, an ICE raid, the ongoing suppression of Black history, STDs, homophobia, chronic illness, and Black health. This time around, writers won\u2019t be told that students can\u2019t talk about the Amistad. Netflix has shown a tendency to be more social justice\u2013oriented than most traditional networks; its reboot of another beloved \u201980s sitcom, One Day at a Time,<\/em> tackled subjects like Cuban immigration, addiction, voting, PTSD, and veteran healthcare.<\/p>\n The streamer\u2019s co-CEO Ted Sarandos bought the new A Different World<\/em> an hour or two after Pride and Allen pitched it and immediately was behind their goal of portraying a myriad of Black experiences and identities. \u201cThe success of A Different World<\/em> had tremendous reaction worldwide,\u201d says Allen. \u201cI think Netflix was already poised to come in with a response that was very positive.\u201d In addition to Deborah, the new class of Hillman students includes Shaquille, a superstar athlete who could have gone to any number of universities, but chose an HBCU; Harlem-born Amir, who is gay and did a stint in juvenile detention; Hazel, the church-going daughter of a preacher; Kojo, who is British by way of Ghana and Nigeria; and Rashida, an outspoken student leader from Compton.<\/p>\n The original was a multicam show; the new version is shot with a cinematic, single-camera sensibility. It\u2019s designed to evoke a specific history and mood: Framed sepia-toned photos of young HBCU students from bygone eras in the background, along with strategically placed candid shots of political figures like Barbara Jordan and Michelle Obama. Exteriors were shot on actual HBCU campuses in the Atlanta area\u2014Clark, Spelman, and Morehouse\u2014unlike the original, which was filmed on a Studio City soundstage. Banned books like Audre Lorde\u2019s Sister Outsider<\/em> and Octavia Butler\u2019s Parable of the Sower<\/em> appear in dorm rooms or on the shelves of The Pit. Writer and co-executive producer Lisa McQuillan found this aspect of the set design especially refreshing: \u201cIt\u2019s nice to see book titles at all on a TV screen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n