Jasmine Guy Says ‘A Different World’ Show Was Told, ‘We were always told we stayed on the air because Cosby’s on the air’
Actress Jasmine Guy starred in one of the most popular shows in the late 1980s to the early 90s when she was in “A Different World.”
The show which first aired in 1987 followed a diverse Black men and women attending the fictional historically Black institution, Hillman College. However, during the second season, it was easy to see the how premise was focused on showing Black college life and the realities of being a young Black person going through life.
“A Different World,” which was a spin-off of “The Cosby Show,” wasn’t scared to dive into topics of politics, racism, colorism and more. However, the show still had diffculty being green lit by the show’s network NBC.
“It was always a fight with them,” Guy said when thought back on the struggles to depict storylines that would deeply resonate with society. Guy said one time in particular when the show’s creator, Bill Cosby, flew in to “put his foot down for the AIDS episode with NBC because they didn’t want to do it.”
The episode aired in 1991 during the fourth season, was the only one of the series to be labeled TV-MA (for mature audiences). At that time, AIDS was recognized as an epidemic and had stigmas and misinformation, some of which the episode tired to discuss. It was no easy task getting NBC on board with the story, said Guy in a interview. “They [NBC] never wanted to do anything deep that we wanted to do.”
“We were always told we stayed on the air because Cosby’s on the air,” said the actress. “Our power was always diminished in Hollywood, to the networks, to the powers that be. We were not treated as I saw other actors treated on other hit shows,” she said.
![MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL (Broadway) – Medley [LIVE @ The 2013 Tony Awards]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RVnAi-LgmFQ/maxresdefault.jpg "MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL (Broadway) – Medley [LIVE @ The 2013 Tony Awards]")
The cast of the Broadway musical MOTOWN, perform a medley from the show live at the 2013 Tony Awards source
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