Q 01/05

On which network did A Different World air from 1987 to 1993?

A) CBS

B) ABC

C) NBC

D) Fox

Answer · why

C) NBC

NBC. Bill Cosby spun the series off from his own NBC hit, The Cosby Show, by sending Denise Huxtable away to her parents' old college.

Q 02/05

Which future Waiting to Exhale star played dorm director Stevie Rallen in season one of A Different World?

A) Angela Bassett

B) Lela Rochon

C) Loretta Devine

D) Whitney Houston

Answer · why

C) Loretta Devine

Loretta Devine. Her graduate-student dorm director was dropped in the season-two overhaul, and Mary Alice's Lettie Bostic took over the dorm.

Q 03/05

Which actress played Denise Huxtable, the original lead of A Different World?

A) Dawnn Lewis

B) Jasmine Guy

C) Marisa Tomei

D) Lisa Bonet

Answer · why

D) Lisa Bonet

Lisa Bonet. She left after a single season, and the show was rebuilt as an ensemble around Whitley and Dwayne.

Q 04/05

Hillman College is a fictional historically Black college in which state?

A) Georgia

B) Virginia

C) North Carolina

D) Maryland

Answer · why

B) Virginia

Virginia. The series never says which town, and its story ideas came from farther south: the writers went each spring to visit Black college campuses ...

Q 05/05

Who played Southern belle Whitley Gilbert on A Different World?

A) Dawnn Lewis

B) Jasmine Guy

C) Charnele Brown

D) Ajai Sanders

Answer · why

B) Jasmine Guy

Jasmine Guy. Whitley started out as a snobbish supporting character, and after season one the show was retooled with a mellower Whitley as its lead.