Day 294 - Stay Strong Todd Bridges

May 29th, 2010

Not only was "Diff'rent Strokes" the first of a series of sitcoms that I would watch on Saturday nights in the early 80's, it also pioneered the "I smell Emmy" premise that its evidently perfectly normal for wealthy Caucasians to adopt small statured African American boys. You know who you are Emmanuel Lewis.

Gary Coleman has crossed over to join the scores of child stars to make campy laugh-track-esque sitcoms in the sky. I expressed my take on this gone too soon child actor fad/fiasco on day 215's entry, "Minus a Corey" http://jacquelinekabat.blogspot.com/2010/03/day-215-minus-corey.html

Tragedy is so prevalent among the cast of "Diff'rent Strokes" that some have speculated that the sitcom could have been cursed. Does this mean that Phillip Drummond(Conrad Bain, now 87) and the original maid, Mrs Garrett( Charlotte Rae, now 84) should expect their demise to be the result of that pesky death by natural causes curse?

Mr. Coleman played the show's darling, Arnold Jackson, and became synonymous with the catch phrase "What'choo talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

Todd Bridges(who played this misunderstood Willis) has had his own post "Diff'rent Strokes" life challenges. Some cocaine...some altercations...maybe he murdered a guy. But...of the three children residing in Mr. Drummond's penthouse, Bridges has now raised the bar high by simply being alive. He's 45.

He's doing something right(by having a heartbeat) and the world needs to know his wisdom, secrets and skin care rituals. I spoke to Bridges on the Harlem basketball court where Mr. Drummond pulled up in his limo, picked up(kidnapped) and took Arnold and Willis to his deluxe apartment in the sky.

My interview will be published in an online pamphlet, "What Was Willis talking About?" You can find it...online.

I don't want to give too much away from my sure to be bestselling pamphlet, but if you finally want to know who shot Kennedy, the cure for the common cold and why there really had to be a disturbingly creepy "very special episode" that guest starred Gordon Jump as a pedophile bicycle-shop owner, who attempted to sexually molest Arnold and Dudley....

...then let Willis tell you what he was talking about.