Original subtitles

Now the world don't move to the beat of just one drum. What might be right for

you may not be right for some.

Comedy shows always progress with the times.

What was allowed when I did the Brady Bunch didn't work in later years because

the social atmosphere was different. The social climate was different.

What's the matter with you?

She fainted because we're black.

Oh, she did?

Well, it's nice to be noticed.

It was a happier time.

And watching family TV was

part of the ordinary daily experience for the whole country.

What are we drinking to?

To our little family.

What a wonderful pain in the behind they can be.

I had just been a few years out of college, and my college years were the

hippie years, the summer of love, and it was kind of tailing off at that point.

And I think the advent of disco is a good demarcation because all that hippie

stuff was disappearing, and something much more...

I don't want to say obnoxious, but something much more platform shoes.

We could sum it up with just saying platform shoes. What's all this stuff

Is it Kunta Kinte's birthday?

And somebody says, would you like to come work for Norman Lear's company at

time in history? Right in the same building. We had One Day at a Time. We

The Jefferson.

A few buildings over, we had Archie Bunker. And these were not only landmark

shows, but in terms of the...

edginess and the punchiness of the humor and in terms of the politics they were

there they were out there so when somebody said come work on this norman

show we said wow you know this oh great we're going to be part of this you know

grouping and uh and different strokes and again i don't think that there's any

flaw in this because it became what it was and it was quite quite successful

much softer if you boys had left i was thinking about leaving with you

It was much less edgier, so I think in that way it was a new

product for that stable of shows. It was, I think, a much more different

Lear product.

I don't know if it was like this in all his other shows. With Different Strokes,

once he had it set, the premise, what it was, how it was going to be written,

who was producing, writing, etc.

then he seldom came near the show.

He would get all the scripts, of course, for approval, and he'd make notes here

and there.

But he seldom came down to the show to say, I don't like this, or you're doing

this wrong, or anything critical. He pretty much trusted us to do the show.

I was told then that Norman had an interest in this young fellow that had

brought from Illinois named Gary Coleman and that he'd done some commercials and

that Norman brought him out to make a remake of The Little Rascals and they

some of it and it didn't work and so on. And when Norman asked me if I wanted to

be on the show and then I said, who's doing it?

And he said, we've got a new young fellow named Gary Coleman.

I said, well, I'd sure like to meet him before I commit.

So he took me in to meet Gary Coleman.

When Gary walked through the door in his little suit, dressed immaculately, I

said, Norm, this show is going to last six episodes or six years at least. I'm

in. I'll do it.

He was just as sweet a kid as you'd ever want to.

be involved with. Certainly at that point, he was just, you know, a joy, I

thought. I remember meeting Gary for the first time before even there was even a

reading. He was walking down the hall and and he and I introduced myself.

I leaned down. I said, Gary, hi, I'm I'm one of the new writers on the show. And

he shook my hand and said, oh, yeah, I hear we've got some fine writers on this

show. You know, it sounded like something his parents had told him to

regardless, it was a sweet thing for him to say.

Welcome, gentlemen.

You're talking to us?

Of course.

How about that, Willis?

Downtown two minutes and all ready with Jim.

The story, the original concept of the story came from two writers named Kukoff

and Harris.

And I don't know the whole story about how they submitted that to Norman Lear,

our producer, but I know it appealed to him. The concept appealed to him.

And he was able to green light it, as they say, to go ahead.

And then there came a time when there were various discussions about the

and the story and the story characters.

And some of us were able to make a contribution to those discussions, I

them. And it was about the time when Mr. Silverman took over as head of NBC.

And I was told that he had decided to cancel his whole fall season because he

hadn't liked, I guess, what other people had selected.

And he asked Norman if he had anything, and he mentioned this, and he said, yes,

I'm interested.

Oh, there was a big conference meeting at NBC.

Fred Philbin was running it. Al Burton was there. Burton represented Tandem.

And we were discussing the pilot.

And in a few moments, Fred Philbin said, I don't want to do a pilot. I'll

paraphrase that. Forget the pilot. Let's just do the show.

So then he wanted to move fast because the times are fleeting and many of the

fall shows were already well underway.

So he said, all right, Gary and Conrad, but you cast the other boy.

And I won't be able to be there. This is Mr.

Silverman talking. But go over to Burbank next Friday morning, pick out a

scene, rehearse the three of the minute, and show it to the rest of the

executives. Everybody will be there with me.

Well, that was when we had to do the show for, I guess, the very beginning

before we got picked up. We did a 15 -minute or 20 -minute scene for the exec

over there.

You know, we were, I wasn't, you know, I was so used to being on a show and

doing it that I didn't have any problem with it. And Gary didn't have any

problem with it.

The camera was very well seasoned, as we know. So, you know, we just went over

there and did the show. Since I didn't have a script, I had two or three pages

that involved the two boys.

And we worked it out.

I used a studio, an office, one of the exec's offices.

And there wasn't enough room, so I had all the furniture put into the hallway.

And what I did was I used a few chairs to indicate spaces on the set.

This chair is a staircase.

This right over here, there's a mirror on the wall here.

And, of course, none of that existed.

When it came time for the people to come in, the executives from NBC, they all

wondered where they would sit.

And I said, there are no chairs.

You have to sit on the floor, which at first they were horrified.

And then they got into the spirit of it. I said, just pretend you're back at

camp and you're 14 years old.

They all managed to sit down, some with great difficulty.

And we went on with the scene.

They saw the chemistry.

They saw Willis. They saw Arnold.

They saw Mr. Drummond.

And he saw this. I remember we did it. It was on the balcony.

I've got a surprise for you.

Look, you can see the whole city from here.

We're on the 30th floor.

Ain't that something?

Imagine, living up so high you can't even smell the garbage.

But I do remember that after we were done, they just loved it.

And within an hour and a half or two hours, Norman called me to tell me

bought the whole season.

So we never did make a pilot.

And back then when you got picked up, you got picked up for 27 shows.

I mean, 26 shows, you didn't get picked up for like half a season. Like, you

know, now you get like, okay, we're going to try for seven shows.

Arnold, after Papa died, who was it that looked after you while Mama worked?

You did, Willie.

Well, now I'm your Mama and your Papa.

For me, I was excited at the whole fact that I was able to be an older brother.

for a kid, because I had always been, you know, the baby of the family, so to

have a kid who could be, you know, an older brother to me, that's great.

This is Arnold, and this is Willis, Kimberly.

Hi there.

Hi. Hi, metal mouth.

Oh, Daddy, isn't this delicious?

We've just met, and already he's insulting me like a real brother.

By the way, guys, stay out of my room, or I'll punch you out.

Well, she was so pretty and fresh, and...

and her whole being was attractive and bright.

She was very bright and with it and fun to work with. When you hired me

yesterday, you said you had one 13 -year -old daughter.

You didn't say anything about two boys coming to live here. I don't do windows

and I don't do boys.

I got involved with different strokes because of Norman Lear.

When I was in New York originally, I did a lot of things, and one of the things

I did was the Colgate Comedy Hour, and he was one of the producers and writers

of it.

So when I came out to California after many years in New York with my family,

they were very, very wonderful because I would do little guest shots,

you know, guest appearances on all of his sitcoms.

And then I was doing something called the Eddie Capra Murder Mysteries,

and I was at Universal in costume, and they called and asked me

to come and meet with the producers and everything, and I was wearing an

old schleppy thing that I wore for the character for the Murder Mysteries.

And I sat down, and I was expecting to read.

They didn't have me read. We just talked.

And they asked me about how I felt this housekeeper should be with these two

boys and with Mr.

Drummond. And I told them the way I felt.

And the next thing I knew, I had the part.

When Mr. Drummond finds out, you're going to be the spanky.

Oh, no, he won't, Mrs. Garrett. Daddy's fair.

He'd never spank the boys if it was only an accident.

My head believes you, but my other end says get out of town.

Yeah, my ends with his end.

We became a family very quick because we...

We're one of the first shows on the particular lot, I think, that had kids

it. And so we became really close, and we did a lot of things together.

And, you know, it was a lot of fun.

Plus,

in those days, working at KTTV, it was like such a hub of activity.

You know, you couldn't spit, but hit a star.

And even the guest stars that were coming through there, it was a total

environment. And different strokes just fit right into it. Literally, there was

the reception desk, and off here was the Jeffersons, and off here was different

strokes. And the place was humming.

And the lot itself was humming, mostly with various Norman Lear shows.

We're going to fly.

What are you talking about, Mr. D?

I think doing a situation comedy or any comedy in front of an audience, to

me, is absolutely essential because I don't think writers, actors, directors,

anybody really knows what's funny. The only people that know what's funny are

audience, the people we do it for.

And I can't imagine doing a situation comedy without the advantage of an

audience. I say no way, no how, no time and no chance.

Get the picture?

A lot of our work came into play then. Because, again, in those days,

in the Norman Lear offices, you would do a show in front of an audience, there'd

be a dinner break, and then you'd do another show in front of an audience.

Not like today where you seldom do more than one show in front of an audience.

And, in fact, as a young writer, one of the only chances I could really fight

for my material was I'd say, Please let this joke stay in the first taping. And

if the audience doesn't laugh, I'll write you five more at dinner.

And the older guys would literally, they'd say, I'll bet you $10 that joke

going to work. I'd say, I'll bet you $10 it will.

And if it did, it was a great.

It's like looking at your dad and saying, see, pal, I told you I could do

And if you didn't, you'd flunk off instead of eating dinner. You'd have to

some new jokes that would fit in that space.

So particularly for my partner and I, a lot of our work would come in at

dinnertime in between the two shows. I'm sure you've learned your lesson.

Yeah, I learned another lesson, too.

Good. What's that?

The next time I do anything wrong, I'm going to find a better hiding place than

this apartment.

They were like morality plays.

But it was never done with the idea of we're going to teach you a lesson if you

watch the show.

Never. So we wrote it on two levels.

Number one, be funny.

And say something.

Let the audience take something positive away.

from every show, and we did it. We did that week after week.

We tried to have a little moral to every story and make some

kind of a social point without going overboard and making it too heavy.

After all, this wasn't a dramatic show, although we did use some dramatic

subjects.

in a comedic way, but we treated the subject seriously.

We had one hell of a show where Drummond bought little Gary Arnold a telescope.

So he would look from the penthouse patio at New York down below.

And one day, through the telescope, he sees a man

steal something from another man and run away.

Arnold, what is it?

I just saw a big hold -up. A hold -up?

A hold -up? Drummond says, well, what are you going to do about that, Gary? He

says, I think we ought to tell the police. And Drummond says, absolutely.

That's a good citizen.

That's him.

That's the hold -up man.

Are you sure, Arnold?

Positive. Hey, great. Frank, the kid thing. You're to bring him in, will you?

You're right, Sergeant.

Arnold, you did great.

Now, all you got to do is identify him and align him.

Drummond gets a phone call, the house, saying... What do you mean? You want

kid alive or whatever, you know? Yes.

Yes, I understand. Now, as a father, he's concerned about the kid.

And he's saying, I don't want you to go down there.

Now, Arnold, you did the right thing by calling the police.

And you were very brave.

But sometimes bravery can cause more trouble than not being brave.

And so not being brave can be a kind of bravery in itself.

Who's he talking about, Mr. D?

And now the kid feels bad and he talks about it over with Todd and with

Kimberly. You gotta go to the police station tomorrow.

Why do I gotta?

Because if you don't help people when they're in trouble, they won't help you

when you're in trouble. We gotta get involved.

We're really dealing with something important here.

And the kid decides, by God, he doesn't want to disobey Drummond, but he's got

to do it because that bad man shouldn't get away with it.

Look who's here, our star witness.

Hey, Frank, get that bum in the lineup.

And by God, he identifies the guy, and they lock up the man, you know, and

Drummond at the end says, you're right.

Well, I forgive you this time.

But don't do it again.

You guys don't know what you've done.

I mean, you could have got into a terrible... I mean, even if what you did

right, you might have... Good heavens, I didn't even know you were gone. And

you... Oh, what the heck.

Hey, you guys, I'm proud of you.

You know, it was interesting because we all really enjoyed each other.

There was a great...

deal of laughter on the set.

On new shows, there's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of stress. There's a lot

of unhappiness. I don't remember a lick of it on the first or a different

stroke. I mean, the kids were always in a good mood. They were always running

around. They were being kids.

Gary and Todd went on strike for something that my partner and I wanted.

remember what it was, what the issue was. Oh, I think we wanted to be extras.

I think we were just demanding to be extras in one of the episodes.

And they wouldn't let us. And so Gary and Todd came to the reading on strike.

They had little picket signs.

They wouldn't work unless we got to be extras.

You know, they were those kinds of kids. They were real kids.

And at least for the year or two I was there, that didn't change much.

It was the era of the 70s where, you know, still kind of a lot of race things

going on in different parts of the world.

But it was showing the world that people can live together no matter what color

they are as long as they love each other.

And I think that's what it showed. And it made a lot of the world wake up and

go, hey, you know, this can happen. This can work.

Olivia, are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Yeah, baby.

It's obvious that these boys belong here, black or white.

It's love that comes.

I just think that it's a show that changed the times, and I think that's

made it so successful.

Ironically, when I lecture around the country, and they read my resume when

introduce me,

People could care less about anything I've done. And I've done some good

I did Family Matters. I did A Night Court. I did Mama's Family.

I did a lot of good shows. When they hear different strokes, that's what they

want to talk about.

Tell us about different strokes.

I think all of us that still admit to having worked on different strokes, it's

going to follow us until our dying days.

I took away a lot of good feelings.

Very good feelings. And the main feeling was I couldn't wait until the season

began again so I could be with my family.

They were wonderful.

Well, we tried to make it as real as possible.

And if people really felt that warmth and humor.

That's what it's all about. That's what we wanted to do. I'm glad.

I'm so glad to have been a part of a really first -rate show with brilliant

people.

Well, I think that anybody that watches this DVD, I hope they will have the same

pleasure in watching it that we had in making it.

Different Strokes will always be the number one show.

No show will ever beat it!

Different strokes to move the world, yes it does indeed.

Different strokes to move the world.