Info:
DVD Release Date: November 8, 2005 (UrbanWorks)
Color
MSRP: $39.99
Number of Discs: 4
Number of Episodes: 22 (23 including the "lost"
episode)
Running Time: 575 minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: approx. 51 minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English; No
Subtitles; Closed Captioned.
Special Features: The "Lost" Episode: "Homie Don't Ya
Know Me" featuring TuPac Shakur and Jada
Pinkett-Smith; E! Entertainment's "I Was a Network TV
Star" retrospective look at "A Different World",
Bloopers and a "The Cosby Show" trailer.
Introduction:
"A Different World" made it's debut on NBC in 1987 and
instantly became the #2 hit that season as a part of
NBC's "Must-See" Thursday lineup. The popular series
was a spin-off of "The Cosby Show" and followed Lisa
Bonet as Denise Huxtable in her sophomore year at
Hillman College. Hillman is a placed steeped in
tradition and Denise feels compelled to do the best
that she can, but as you will see, that's not always
possible. Along with her roomates, 26-year-old
divorcee Jalessa Vinson (Dawnn Lewis) and the
talkative Maggie Lauten (Marissa Tomei), Denise has
money trouble, joins the track team, wears a pig nose,
has man troubles and develops long-lasting
friendships, even with snooty Southern Belle, Whitley
Gilbert, played by Jasmine Guy, who would take the
lead in the series' second season after Bonet departs.
And a character that would have the most development,
geeky and smart Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison), who
serves as the leading man as well as love-interest to
both Denise and later Whitley.
Also involved this season are brief recurring
appearances by future regulars, Darryl Bell as
girl-crazy schemer Ron Johnson and Sinbad as the hip
and fun dorm director Walter Oakes. It really is a
different world after all in this 4 disc set, making A
DIFFERENT WORLD available on DVD for the very first
time!
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
In reviewing the sets that I do, it appears, to me at
least, that there are a lot of memorable episodes from
the first seasons, so here's a short list of what
episodes I consider to be memorable. Episodes include
"Reconcilable Differences" in which Denise immediately
clashes with the very different Jalessa. "Pilot" in
which Marissa Tomei's character, Maggie Lauten, is
introduced. "Pork De Bergerac" in which Denise is
forced to wear a pig nose after leaving litter in the
dorm. "Those Who Can't…Tutor" in which Dwayne tutors
Denise late at night, but when rumors fly, they
involve Whitley! "Rudy and the Snow Queen," in which
we see Denise has little time for her sister, Rudy, so
she spends all of her time with Whitley. "Sometimes
You Get the Bear, Sometimes the Bear Gets You" in
which Russell's visit dampens Denise's plans to help
steal the rival school's mascot. "The Prime of Miss
Lettie Bostic" in which a power hungry Jalessa leads a
revolt against the new dorm director, Lettie Bostic,
as Mary Alice joins the cast. "The Show Must Go On" in
which Denise and Whitley are both convinced their
leading man in a school play, Rick, has fallen for
her. "Mr. Hillman," in which we see Dwayne participate
in a female beauty pageant. "Speech Therapy" in which
we see Jalessa must overcome her phobia of stage
fright. "Clair's Last Stand" in which Clair visits and
hotly protests Denise's plans to go to Greece for the
summer. Finally "If Only for One Night" in which
Denise and Dwayne go on an official date and even
share a lingering kiss afterwards.
Memorable guest starts this season include Loretta
Devine as brief series regular, Stevie Rallen. After
Devine exits the series, Mary Alice joins the cast in
the series regular role of Lettie Bostic. Also
appearing this season in recurring roles are Kim
Wayans (sister of the Wayans brothers), daytime soap
star Marie-Alise Recasner as Whitley's insufferable
"assistant" Millie. In continuing with the trend of
cast members from the parent show, Bill Cosby ("Cliff
Huxtable"), Keshia Knight Pulliam ("Rudy Huxtable"),
Phylicia Rashad ("Clair Huxtable") and Malcolm Jamal
Warner ("Theo Huxtable") all appear as their "The
Cosby Show" characters throughout the season. Earle
Hyman also reprised his role as Cliff's father in "The
Cosby Show," Russell Huxtable. As for guest
appearances, we were treated to Keenen Ivory Wayans
(as Professor Lawrence) and Damon Wayans (as Marvin
Haven) in the episode "War of Words." David Allan
Grier (as Byron Walcott) in the episode "Romancing Mr.
Stone", daytime-star Kristoff St. John (as E.Z.
Brooks) in the episode "Advise and Descent", Ron
O'Neal (as the Dean) in the episode "The Prime of Miss
Lettie Bostic". It's interesting to note that Kristoff
St. John appeared as Denise's boyfriend in a 1984
episode of "The Cosby Show" (different characters)
while Ron O'Neal would go on in future seasons to
portray Mercer Gilbert, Whitley's doting father.
Packaging:
The cover art is white with purple polka dots and
features Dwayne, Whitley and Denise on the cover (in
that order). On top of the cover is the rest of the
cast, with their names above their pictures. Lisa
Bonet and Marisa Tomei are kept obviously separate
from the rest of the regular cast. On the back is the
general listing of special features as well as a good
summary of what the show is about as well as three
color pictures from episodes. Inside the main box is a
pull out case (with the exact same cover art as the
main box, but the inside cover features Jalessa,
Maggie and Denise and the back features Dwayne and
Ron) that holds the four overlapping discs (the same
design used for "The Golden Girls," for example).
Included inside is a miniature black and white colored
school journal (like most kids use at school) and
inside the journal features a description of the show
as well as summaries of each episode and little facts
underneath the episode as well as original airdates.
Disc One, with Dwayne on the cover, contains episodes
1-8. Disc Two, with Whitley on the cover, contains
episodes 9-15. Disc 3, with Denise on the cover,
contains episodes 16-22. Disc Four, with Maggie, Ron,
Walter and Jalessa on the cover, contains all of the
special features included in this set.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The main menu is very nice. It features a sort of
movie reel slide show of some scenes from the episodes
this season as well as the pictures of each main cast
member (when one fades out, another appears, which is
neat). The main menu has the same design as the box
art. The theme song from the first season plays
continuously in the background. You can choose the
popular "Play All" feature or choose "Episodes" and
you get a list of the episodes you can choose from.
That menu has actual clips from each episode next to
the episode title. Disc 4, with the special features,
presents virtually the same design, although it's a
little different because there are no episodes to
choose from (and what's nice is they include a "Play
All" option).
Video and Audio Quality:
The video quality, despite being syndicated cuts, is
outstanding. Crisp and clear. The color is bright and
vibrant, although sometimes you'll encounter some dust
or some fuzziness in the video. But there are
basically no issues to be concerned with that I could
see. The audio is also very good. It is nice and
audible--unlike other older series releases. It's also
hard to believe that this show is over 18 years old
from the premiere date! So it was a great restoration.
It will be even better with uncut episodes. Yep, the
episodes are NOT uncut this go-around. Nevertheless,
the good thing is that there are chapter skips during
each episode but the bad thing is that each episode is
syndicated. Yes, that means each episode only runs
about 22 minutes when they should run about 24
minutes. UrbanWorks has promised Season 2 will feature
uncut episodes as has Carsey-Werner, the distributor
of the episodes. Also of note, the episodes are
presented in original airdate order as they aired on
NBC.
Special Features:
It was a nice surprise to have so many special bonus
features available on this set. Here's a brief rundown
of each and the approximate times they all run (if
applicable).
* The Lost Episode "Homie Don't Ya Know Me" (approx.
22 minutes)
First off, although this season 6 episode never did
air on NBC, it was aired in local syndication and
continues to air on cable on Oxygen (and TBS before
that). It's nice they included this episode. It boasts
a guest appearance by TuPac Shakur as Lena's (then
series regular Jada Pinkett, later Smith after she
marries Will Smith) "from the hood" ex-boyfriend and
also features regular cast member Ajai Sanders as
Gina, a student at Hillman. Also in the cast at that
time was Karen Malina White as talktative Charmaine
(the character got her start on "The Cosby Show" in
one of their later seasons). But in this episode,
then series regulars, Darryl M. Bell (Ron), Cree
Summer (Freddie) and Glynn Turman (Colonel Taylor) do
not appear. The last season had most of the episodes
centered on the "new" group of teens (Dorian, Lena,
Gina, Charmaine and Terrell) and the former group took
an almost backseat to the new crew. And if you're
wondering, this episode was indeed only 22 minutes in
length—so when season six comes on DVD (if we make it
that far…) we might see the full unedited version!
That is something to look forward to.
* E! Entertainment & UNCLE Film + Television Presents
"I Was a Network TV Star!" (Approx. 22 minutes)
Going into this, I assumed this was an older piece. I
have little information about when this was done. Was
it for the DVDs or was it an actual piece that aired
on E!? (I'm pretty sure it was the latter, and I must
have missed it). Anyway, it boasts what looks like
fairly recent interviews with Debbie Allen (producer
of the series), Jasmine Guy (Whitley), Kadeem Hardison
(Dwayne), Darryl M. Bell (Ron), Dawnn Lewis (Jalessa)
and Ajai Sanders (Gina). Phylicia Rashad (Clair, of
"The Cosby Show") was also included. And the funniest
part is? Even though these are newer interviews, NONE
of them look a day older than they were. Heh. Overall,
it's mostly a summary of the stars of the series as
well as an overview of the show itself, how it came
together, etc. It's an awesome inclusion and I have to
thank UrbanWorks for including it!
* Bloopers (approx. 5 minutes)
This is a nice addition. I've always been a fan of
including bloopers in a DVD release. A lot of these
are from season 1 but are not confined to just the
first season. This is a fun addition to the set.
* The Cosby Show Trailer (approx. 2 minutes)
It's a really well put together trailer that
advertises the series itself but also the 2002 "The
Cosby Show: A Look Back" special that aired on NBC.
It's included in the first season release of "The
Cosby Show" and is advertised as such.
Final Comments:
Wow, what a release. I was pleasantly surprised and I
think most A Different World fans will be to. We've
got bloopers and cast interviews, what more could you
want? I would suggest to UrbanWorks they try and get
some commentary on future releases. The entire cast
seems more than willing to support the show and would
more than likely record tracks for episodes. Other
than that, the audio and video were great, the design
of the set was great and it was just a fun release
from UrbanWorks. Unfortunately, as I stated before,
the episodes are not uncut and the blame can fall on
Carsey-Warner, who distributes the episodes. They, as
well as UrbanWorks, have promised Season 2 and up will
contain the original episodes. In conclusion, I
definitely encourage all fans to go out and get this
very informative set. It really does the show justice.
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars - How our point system works)
Video Quality: 5/5
Audio Quality: 4/5
Special Features: 4/5
Menu Design/Navigation: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5
--Reviewed by TVJunkie101 on 10/26/05
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