Diff’rent Strokes

This show was cool before it’s time only because the show’s concept avoided storylines that turned the living situation into a novelty. As a promise to his late housekeeper to take care of her two boys, Mega rich widower Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain) adopts two young African American boys from Harlem into his lily white, upscale New York residence. Dummond loves calling Arnold Jackson (Gary Coleman) and his brother, Willis Jackson (Todd Bridges) his sons. The chemistry is wonderfully entertaining by focusing on the blended family and the growing pains of youth. Arnold was a breakout roll for Coleman. Even Charlotte Rae started as housekeeper Edna Garrett for the Drummonds before going on to be the same housekeeper on spin-off The Facts of Life. Strokes and Facts are both on Rewind TV twice daily, seven days a week.