The productions have also included musical guests to perform the famous theme songs
Something New
You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have different strokes to move the world.
Two of the biggest sitcoms of the 1970s and 1980s, Diff’rent Strokes and its spinoff The Facts of Life, will be brought back to television for one night only on the show Live in Front of a Studio Audience presented by Jimmy Kimmel and Norman Lear. This will be the show’s latest recreation of specific episodes of popular sitcoms from decades past, with previous specials tackling All in the Family, Good Times, and The Jeffersons, starring Marisa Tomei and Woody Harrelson as Edith and Archie Bunker, Wanda Sykes and Jaime Foxx as Louise and George Jefferson, and Viola Davis and Andre Bres Evans.
Tomei and Harrelson performed All in the Family, Jennifer Hudson performed The Jeffersons, and Patti LaBelle performed Good Times. Given the popularity of the theme songs for The Facts of Life and Diff’rent Strokes – originally performed by Gloria Loring and Alan Thicke, respectively – it will be exciting to see who pops up to sing the opening titles this time.
Here’s a look at the two shows’ original casts, as well as who will be portraying them in this new special.
Diff’rent Strokes
Diff’rent Strokes is the story of a wealthy white man and his daughter who take in their Black former housekeeper’s two sons after she suddenly dies. The sitcom ran from 1978 to 1986, with the final season jumping from NBC to ABC.
The younger of the two Jackson brothers adopted by Mr. Drummond, Arnold was a star-making role for Gary Coleman. His catchphrase “Whatchu talkin’ about, Willis?” is one of the most famous of all time. Coleman passed away in 2010 at the age of 42 following a lifetime of medical problems.