Where's the 'A Different World' Season 2-6 DVDs?

I love collecting my favorite Black shows on DVD. I already own the first three seasons of Girlfriends, own the first season of Living Single, and I'm working on acquiring the various Good Times seasons as well.

I'm a huge fan of A Different World, and even though I hated the first season, I bought the DVD set just to satisfy me in anticipation of purchasing Seasons 2-6. I'd even bought the Season 2 DVD online, but when Urbanworks got bought out, it delayed the release date twice and Season Two's release was eventually canceled.

Now I'm hearing that Viacom, who subsequently bought Ventura after it bought Urbanworks, will not only not release the Season 2 DVD of A Different World, it won't release Seasons 3-6 of the show either. Their excuse is that the poor sales of the Season One DVD is evidence that the show doesn't have a fan base.

Excuse me?

Umm, A Different World was a Top 5 show for five of the six years it was on the air from 1987-1993. Many HBCU's (historically Black college and university) credit this show with increasing enrollments at HBCU's by 25% during the 90's.

So the claim that this show doesn't have a fanbase is about as credible as Sarah Palin's claim to be more qualified for the presidency than Sen. Barack Obama.

Besides, the major reason the Season One DVD didn't sell well is how can I put this, season one sucked.

You had a writing team that had never attended, much less set foot on an HBCU campus try to recreate one on TV. Season One didn't even come close to having the authentic feel of an HBCU and it didn't happen until my Houston homegirl Debbie Allen took over as producer.



Under Debbie Allen, the show not only made a light years leap in quality, it actually began to have the flavor of an HBCU campus. Debbie was not only drawing from her experiences as a Howard University alum, she had the writing staff take an annual trip to Atlanta's Spelman College and talk to students, faculty and administrators about the issues they deal with.

The claim that there aren't enough A Different World fans to justify releasing seasons 2-6 of the show on DVD is crap. It's interesting to note that Seinfeld and Roseanne, Top 10 shows that were on during the same decade as A Different World have been fully released on DVD, but a quality show that tackled some interesting topics back in the day such as teen pregnancy, date rape, homelessness, divesting from South Africa, Black history, interracial dating, HIV/AIDS and the Gulf War isn't?

It's interesting to note that Living Single, another quality African-American show with Top 10 ratings, a loyal fanbase and topical shows hasn't been released beyond Season One either. But I'll save that debate for another post. A Different World's 2-6 seasons not being released on DVD is a travesty that needs to be corrected ASAP.

I'd love to see some of my favorite episodes again such as the battle for Dwayne's affections between Kinu and Whitley, Patti LaBelle's always humorous turns playing Adele Wayne, the always elegant Diahann Carroll playing Whitley's mom Marian, Sinbad's crazy self, Freddie and Ron's love-hate relationship, Jenifer Lewis playing Dean Dorothy Davenport and Debbie's recurring psychiatrist character Dr. Langhorne...well, you get the picture.



But what I'm really hoping to get is an opportunity to purchase and add to my television DVD collection season's 2-6 of A Different World.

Oh, Hell No! 'Girlfriends' Cancelled

My Girlfriends, there through thick and thin. My Girlfriends, there for anything.
My Girlfriends.

After eight seasons and numerous award nominations, we won't be hearing Angie Stone sing that theme song on Sunday nights any longer because Girlfriends has been cancelled.

One thing that is bothering many fans of the show is the knowledge that once again, Hollywood is following the trifling formula for building startup television networks that NBC used to rebuild its viewership when it was slipping in the 80's, Fox used to build itself from scratch in the 90's, and now UPN/the CW.

What is that formula you ask?

Put together a bunch of well written, sophisticated shows with an ensemble cast of African-American actors that we will watch. That ensemble cast can either have a well known actor or two or fresh faces. Once those shows have built ratings, name recognition, buzz, award nominations and enough ad revenue for your network to turn a profit and the network's survival is assured, then you cancel the African-American oriented shows and start putting shows that cater to white viewers in those time slots.



Now sadly, Girlfriends is being kicked to the curb. Other bloggers have commented on it, now it's my turn.

I've watched Girlfriends since it started back in 2000. I was on vacation and flipping channels one Monday night when I first stumbled across it. I noted that Mara Brock Akil was producing it and Tracee Ellis Ross, the daughter of legendary singer Diana Ross was one of the actors on this show along with cast members Reggie Hayes, Persia White, Golden Brooks, and my fellow Texan (from Dallas) Jill Marie Jones.

I tuned in and fell in love with Joan Clayton, Maya Wilkes, Toni Childs, Lynn Searcy and 'honorary Girlfriend' William Dent as gainfully employed professional people who shared my ethnic heritage discussed life, love, work, sex and relationships while weaving in social commentary about being Black in America. It was also cool to see the parade of guest stars that ranged from Jill Scott to Jenifer Lewis hilariously playing (what else) Toni's mother.

I'd been starving for that type of television show since A Different World and Living Single went off the air and didn't want to miss a minute of it. As a writer I love TV shows which not only realistically reflect my culture and the reality I deal with, I love intelligently written realistic dialogue and characters. I started taping the show since I was working Monday nights at the time.

Since I know as a writer that television shows on some level sometimes reflect the reality of the people that create them, I also looked at it as a transwoman as an entertaining opportunity to get a glimpse of how biowomen interact with each other, since I was in the process of looking for and building my own similar circle of girlfriends.

I love Girlfriends so much that I buy the DVD releases almost as fast as they become available. I even started watching The Game not only because it's a spinoff of Girlfriends and it's also produced by Mara Brock Akil, but it has Tia Mowry and Wendy Raquel Robinson as cast members.

I've always loved Tia Mowry, her twin sister Tamera and Wendy Raquel Robinson in their various shows and projects. Tia's The Game character Melanie Barnett was introduced on Girlfriends as Joan's cousin.

The CW had already irritated many African-American viewers when it cancelled Half and Half, the second highest rated African-American show behind Girlfriends amongst African-American viewers in the wake of the UPN/CW merger.

But the thing that I and many Girlfriends fans are upset about is that we're not going to get a proper farewell show because the CW is disrespectfully citing costs as a reason they aren't doing it.

Okay, this show helped make the UPN/CW millions thanks to 172 quality episodes. It built a loyal predominately African-American viewership and was the Number 1 rated show amongst African-Americans. It garnered numerous NAACP Image Award nominations, but you can't break down and spend the cash to do a farewell show.

If it stays on that long, I doubt the CW will cite the same fiscal concerns when it comes to a show like One Tree Hill or leave its fans hanging when they cancel it.

As I mentioned earlier in the post, Girlfriends was on for eight years. It deserved a farewell show.

Well, I'll have The Game and the Girlfriends DVD's to look at. But I'll still wonder if Joan and Toni will finally settle their differences and get their longtime friendship back on track. Did Lynn get out of her recording contract or resolve her creative differences and eventually start making hits? What was the gender of the child William and Monica finally had? Did Maya finally get her writing career back on track? Did she and Darnell survive shepherding Jabari through his teen years and are they going to have or adopt another child?

But the $64,000 question all Girlfriends fans want to know is did Aaron not only survive his deployment to Iraq, but did he and Joan finally get married?

To Be Human

One of the things I loved about Star Trek: The Next Generation was Lt. Commander Data.

I loved the fact that Brent Spiner, the actor who played him was from Houston. The other reason I adored Data was because I identified with him on another level. Data's journey during the 178 episode run from 1987-1994 was to be human, despite being an android.

Like transgender people, despite Data's obvious competence in his job duties onboard the USS Enterprise and service to Starfleet, faced prejudice and people questioning his abilities. He underwent a trial to determine whether he was Starfleet property or a sentient being. He used his off time to revel in the joys of discovering the simple things and pleasures about life that humans and the other lifeforms on the Enterprise took for granted. He tried to understand the nuanced socialization skills that being human requires. He spent much of his off duty time perfecting his attempts at mimicking human emotions and using them at the appropriate times when possible.

Despite his great intelligence, processing ability and desire to get it right, he didn't always succeed. Sometimes he nailed it, sometimes it turned out awkwardly, but he kept plugging away at it. He asked cogent questions, he worked diligently perfecting it, but in the end he proved to be more human than many people in Starfleet and the Enterprise's crew.

Data's series long journey, in many respects is similar to what we go through as transgender people. Despite the circumstances that we start out with in terms of being in a mismatched body, like Data, we transpeople are on a quest for our humanity as well.

We struggle to deal with all the phases of transition. We fight through the awkward 'tweener' phase in which our bodies are morphing from one gender to the other. We struggle to learn the appropriate age based gender knowledge, gestures, body posture of our desired gender without having the decades long trial and error socialization period to do so. We get used to the subtle and not so subtle differences between the genders and sometimes revel in the journey of discovery as it unfolds.

We also fight for our right to simply be part of the human family. We fight for our right to exist, to be respected, loved and live a happy and productive life.

And just as Data's was a constantly evolving one until the series ended, so is ours as transgender people. We also discover that the peace of mind and joy we receive from traveling through the gender frontier and being comfortable with who we are and in our own skin is worth more than all the latinum in the galaxy.

Live long and prosper, trans Trekkies.

Caprica Is A Go

If you're a Battlestar Galactica junkie like I am, you were tuned in last week to see the Season 4 midseason finale. The Colonial Fleet after three years of travel, having their twelve home planets nuked, finding and losing the Pegasus, a Cylon civil war, and surviving the New Caprica occupation arrive at Earth.

Only one problem. It's a radioactive wasteland.

You'll find out how it got that way and who the final Cylon is when they broadcast the final ten Battlestar Galactica episodes in 2009.

In the meantime, while we're waiting for those last BSG episodes, executive producers Ron Moore and David Eick have another project to keep them busy with the help of Remi Aubuchon.

It's been rumored for a few years, but it's gonna happen. The Caprica series, which takes place 50 years before the events of BSG, got greenlighted.

Caprica will follow the lives of two Caprican families who are on opposite sides of the Colonial artificial intelligence debate, the Graystones and the Adamas.

Yep, those Adamas. The Adamas oppose the creation of the intelligent robots that result from the scientific breakthrough that will have major consequences for Caprica, the Colonies, and the human race.

The pilot is scheduled for a December 1, 2008 air date, and they're assembling the cast as we speak. Actor Eric Stoltz was recently signed to play Dr. Daniel Graystone, the creator of the Toasters, err Cylons. Esai Morales will play Joseph Adama, Admiral Bill Adama's father and Vice President Lee Adama's grandfather.

The BSG show also will not end with the broadcast of the final ten episodes. They are talking about filming up to three BSG movies similar to Razor, which explore backstory events in the BSG series. The movies have the blessing of the current Battlestar actors, although which BSG character appears in what movie will depend on whether they're available from their post-BSG work. Katee Sackhoff is getting a lot of offers as a result of her BSG work and other cast members are garnering attention as well.

While I'm sad that Battlestar will be ending after four years, I am looking forward to seeing Caprica and whatever BSG movies are on the horizon.

Battlestar Galactica-Season 4

Like all Battlestar Galactica fans I was glued to the television starting at 10 PM EDT for an hour last night watching the season premiere.

Technically, Razor was the season premier back in November, but it was cool to see the cast for what is going to be 'sniff-sniff' the last season of BSG.

And to think I was once one of the OBSG (original Battlestar Galactica) fans who ranted about how I wasn't gonna in my words, "watch this travesty."

It's been a fun filled roller coaster ride and the writing in this long awaited season premiere didn't disappoint. I died laughing during one scene in which Admiral Adama said upon Kara's seemingly miraculous return from the dead, "Do you believe in miracles?' and Tigh answered "No" alluding to Al Michaels famous call of the final moments of the US-Soviet Union Olympic hockey game in 1980.

I have to get the Season 3 DVDs and catch up since I didn't see much of that season due to them moving it to Sunday nights ands I was working Sundays at the time.

If last nights show is indicative of what were going to see form the last season of Battlestar, then its gonna go out with all guns blazing.

The Final Five Sellouts

This ENDA mess is reminding me more and more of Battlestar Galactica.



Mara Keisling reminds me of Gaius Baltar, who was seduced by Number Six only to discover to his horror within moments of the devastating Cylon nuclear attack on the Colonies that she was a Cylon. He also discovered that he unwittingly aided and abetted the destruction of the Colonies (think transgender community) by letting his girlfriend poke around the Colonial Military defense mainframe computer. He also submitted a Command Navigation Program to the Colonial military (think the 'HRC Is Our Friends' PR strategy) that contained an electronic backdoor that the Cylons used to neutralize Colonial defenses.

NTAC and current chair Ethan St. Pierre is represented by Admiral William Adara, who because of his previous service in the First Cylon War refused to network the computers on the Galactica, which saved his ship from destruction (and as we found out later and it was expounded on in Razor, the Pegasus as well because it was undergoing a retrofit at the Scorpian shipyards.

Admiral Helena Cain, AKA Dawn Wilson not only figured out what happened after the attack, but has been an unrelenting opponent of the Cylons (oops, HRC).

But people in the transgender community, despite her obvious talents and leadership skills, fear her.

You have President Laura Roslin, AKA former NTAC chair Vanessa Edwards Foster, who has grown into leadership stature despite being attacked by the cancerous whisper campaign orchestrated by the head of NCTE, outright efforts to sabotage her organization by repeated raids on the NTAC BOD and calls by transgender sheeple for NTAC to close its doors and merge with NCTE.

While all this was going on she was being called 'crazy' like myself and others who refused to drink the 'HRC is our friends' Kool-Aid.

Joe Solmonese is Aaron Doral, the smooth talking polished media pro who excels at sowing seeds of confusion and deception. Ask the folks who were in attendance at the 2007 SCC who parted with $20,000 of hard earned cash during his speech how good he is.

But as entertaining as this Battlestar analogy is getting, I'm going to skip ahead and get to the heart of it. It seems as though the HRCylons and Barney Frank are tired of me and the Admiral Adamas in the transgender Colonial Fleet criticizing them over their duplicitous amoral BS around ENDA and want to hand pick their own leaders to negotiate with.

The word from the transgender grapevine is that Mara is out and they are grooming Susan Stanton to become their new spokessellout. She's perfect in their eyes for the job. She doesn't know the community history because she's new, has a nationally known name, a very public discrimination story that played out in front of television cameras and hasn't had an opportunity to talk to us old HRCylon War vets about HRC's sorry history.

HRC in conjunction with Barney Frank's office are putting together their own transgender 'leaders' that they feel will be pliable enough for them to work with.

I've seen this game run before. It's the same one the Republican Party has been trying to run on the African-American community for decades. The GOP doesn't wanna talk to the NAACP or our elected leadership in the Congressional Black Caucus, so they have spent millions cultivating their network of megachurch black preachers and black conservatives that they conveniently use and ignore when it suits their purposes. HRC and Barney Frank are trying to run the same game on the transgender community.

The information that we do have on the Final Five sellouts thanks to Donna Rose is that they are upper middle class white transwomen.

No peeps of color, no transmen, no working class transpeeps who will inconveniently call them out like Commander Lee Adama on cutting transpeople out of ENDA. So far Susan Stanton's name is the only one that has surfaced, and we are working hard to find out the identities of the Final Five.

Fortunately I won't have to do what Deanna Biers (aka Number 3) did to find out that information and I'll definitely let you TransGriot readers in on the secret when they are revealed.

Battlestar Galactica-Razor

I can't wait for this two hour movie to be televised at 9 PM EST on Saturday night and I'm definitely getting the DVD when it comes out December 4.

I was checking out the prequel flashbacks on the SciFi Battlestar Galactica website that featured a rookie William Adama during the First Cylon War. The best part was it had a battle scene with old school Cylons and old school Cylon Raiders in them.

BSG-Razor will not only will be the backdrop for many of Season Four's events, which unfortunately will be the last season for Battlestar Galactica unless some peeps change their minds, it also fills in some backstory from previous BSG seasons as well.

BSG-Razor takes us back to the day of the Cylon surprise nuclear attack on the Colonies, but tells the survival story from the viewpoint of the Pegasus and Admiral Helena Cain. The Pegasus was undergoing a refit and upgrade and was docked at the Scorpian Shipyards. The ship survived the Cylon nuke attack on the yards because its computers with Baltar's CNG program (that Number Six wrote a backdoor into that crippled Colonial defenses) were offline and Admiral Cain ordered a blind jump from the Scorpian Shipyards.

It will introduce us to a few new characters, bring back not only Admiral Helena Cain but Colonel Jack Fisk as well. It will give us some background on why Admiral Cain hates the Cylons with a passion. She especially hates Gina, the Cylon that infiltrated the Pegasus for an interesting reason. Speaking of passion, the rumors are flying that Admiral Cain will be coming out of the closet during this movie.

So I'm looking forward to checking this one out. I'll have plenty of popcorn on hand and leftover turkey sandwiches to munch on while I check out this movie on the SciFi channel.

Can't wait for Season Four of Battlestar Galactica to start, too. I want to find out what time period Earth is in when the Galactica arrives and if the Cylons are hot on their tails when they do.

Romijn Keen To Be 'True' Transsexual

November 15, 2007

Rebecca Romijn was so determined to accurately portray a transsexual in the hit TV show 'Ugly Betty', she asked her transgender pals for acting tips.

The actress, who plays transsexual Alexis Meade in the comedy series, was desperate not to come across as a man in drag and wanted her character to be as glamorous as possible.




She says, "I have several transgender friends, so a lot of choices I've made, especially early on, were made with them in mind.

"One of my close friends is a man who became a woman and she's as feminine as any biological women you've ever met. Another, I didn't realize was transgender until I'd known her for years.

"I felt this role was an incredible opportunity, something that hadn't been done on primetime TV."

Copyright World Entertainment News Network

(c) 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co.

Battlestar Galactica With Soul

TransGriot Note: Battlestar Galactica is one of my favorite shows. As a writing exercise, one day I took this scene from the miniseries, imagined that Gaius Baltar and Number Six were Black and started writing.


We're at the phat crib of Dr. Darius Baltar, scientific genius and playa-playa. He's got a honey dip in his bedroom and Number 36-24-36 is quietly watching him.

"Trick, get up," said 36-24-36.
"Who the frack are you?"
"Get the frack up out of his bed before you find out who I am."
"Darius, you gonna let her talk to me like that?"
"Sorry babe, she’s got it going on," said Darius. “I did tell you before we got busy I was seeing somebody.”
"So it’s like that, huh?”
“Yep Terri, it is.”
“My girlfriend Aisha warned me to leave your tired ass alone,” Terri said as she put her clothes on.
"Whatever tramp, get out." said 36-24-36 as Darius puts on his robe.
After Terri finished putting on her clothes, she rolled her eyes at Darius before storming out of the bedroom and slamming the door on her way out.

“Baby, I'm sorry...," he said with a contrite expression on his face.
"Spare me, Darius. I came here because I need to tell your dog ass something."
"And what's that?"
"I'm a Cylon."
"You're fracking kidding me, right?"
"No, I'm not. Didn't you notice anything unusual about me?"
"Naw baby, you’re fine as hell. But now that I think about it, there was that night I thought I saw red lights when we were doing the wild thang at the Caprica City Hilton."

He stepped back to take another good look at 36-24-36's shapely honey brown figure and hazel eyes.
“Dayum! Y'all sure have come a long way, baby. Last time I peeped Cylons y'all looked like walking chrome toasters."
"That's not all I have to tell you.”
“What? You have a sister?”
“I have many sisters. But that’s not important right now. Remember when I asked you for that little favor to look around the Colonial Fleet’s defense mainframe computers?"
"Yeah. Your point?"
"The point is that I played your pussy whipped punk azz. I needed you to help me complete my mission.”
"What mission?"
"We needed to find out what was up with the Colonial Fleet. Thanks to you I got the information I needed and sent it to the brothers and sistahs back on Cylon."
"YOU DID WHAT?" said Darius.
"I said I sent that information on the mainframe back to Cylon. Every fracking file."
"Girl, you know what they'll do to a brotha if they find out?"
"No, what?"

"They'll fry my black azz for treason."
“That’s your problem, not mine,” said 36-24-36. “What are you doing?"
"I need to call my lawyer," Darius said as he picked up his phone.
"That won't be necessary."
"What do you mean, that won't be necessary?"
"You heard me, that won’t be necessary,” said 36-24-36. “In a few hours there won't be anybody left on this planet to charge you with anything."
"What are you talking about?"
"The children humanity kicked to the curb are coming home,” said 36-24-36. “Today."

Nichelle Nichols

Another installment in my ongoing series of articles on transgender and non-transgender women who have qualities that I admire.

photos-Nichelle Nichols in 2004, as Lt Uhura, the EBONY magazine cover, Dr. Mae Jemison, Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan, the christening of the Space Shuttle Enterprise

Nichelle Nichols in addition to being a trailblazing actress has been an inspiration for people of my generation and subsequent ones to not only follow their dreams, but reach for the stars.

She was born in Robbins, IL as Grace Nichols on December 28, 1932, just outside Chicago. She toured the Unites States, Canada and Europe with the Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington bands. She appeared in a Chicago production of Carmen Jones before she moved west and had her fateful meeting with Gene Roddenberry. Before casting her as Lt. Nyota Upenda Uhura on Star Trek, she'd worked as a guest actress on Roddenberry's first television series The Lieutenant.

As we Trekkies all know, it was Star Trek that made her a historical icon, launched her life into a new direction and sharpened her interest in space exploration.

But she almost quit the show. Frustrated during the first season over what she perceived as playing just a glorified telephone operator, she was ready to hang up the Starfleet uniform until she ran into Dr. Martin Luther King at a civil rights rally. Dr. King was a huge Star Trek fan and urged her not to quit. He pointed out to her that she was the first African-American actress who was on a network TV show playing a non-stereotypical role.

According to Nichols, he told her "Don't you know you have the first non-stereotypical role in television? For the first time the world will see us as we should be seen -- people of quality in the future. You created a role with dignity and beauty and grace and intelligence. You're not just a role model for our children, but for people who don't look like us to see us for the first time as equals."

She stayed and later made television history with the first interracial kiss on TV with costar William Shatner. She costarred in the six subsequent Star Trek movies and eventually her character was promoted to Commander.

Once Star Trek ended, she worked for NASA in the 70's and early 80's as part of a program to not only encourage African-American youth to consider math and science careers but recruit women and minority astronauts for NASA. She recruited Dr. Sally K. Ride, US Air Force Col. Guion Bluford (the first African-American in space), Dr. Judith Resnik and Dr. Ron McNair, who flew missions before both were killed in the 1986 Challenger disaster. The essay contest I won in 8th grade in which I earned a trip to NASA was part of that program.

And like other issues that Dr. King was prescient on, he was on target in terms of Nichols being a role model to African-American children and others. She was the inspiration for another Chicago girl who grew up to become the first African-American woman in space, Dr. Mae C. Jemison. She also inspired a New York City girl by the name of Caryn Elaine Johnson to shoot for an entertainment career after seeing her on Star Trek. Caryn Elaine Johnson would not only accomplish that goal, but would have a recurring role herself on Star Trek-The Next Generation as Guinan.

Nichols is considered part of the NASA family. She flew aboard NASA's C-141 Astronomy Observatory on its eight hour high altitude mission to analyze the atmospheres of Mars and Saturn. She was present along with her Star Trek castmates when the first space shuttle Enterprise was christened and was a guest of the Jet Propulsion Lab when Viking 1 soft landed on Mars on July 17, 1976. She has written two science-fiction novels about a tough black woman in space, Saturn's Child and its sequel, Saturna's Quest and is working on a third. She has since the mid 80's sat on the Board of Governors for the National Space Society.

So if you haven't had the pleasure of meeting her like I did back in the mid 70's, check out this multi-talented and passionate ambassador for space exploration.

Live long and prosper, Nichelle.

Arsenioooooooooooooooooo Hall!

AC and I were talking politics one day over dinner. During the course of our discussion the Arsenio Hall show appearance of Brother Bill came up. I smiled when I remembered the nights I used to eagerly tune in to watch Arsenio.

Through 1,284 shows aired from January 3, 1989 to May 27, 1994 Cleveland-born Arsenio Hall gave Johnny Carson, David Letterman and Jay Leno major competition in the late night talk show arena. His show pulled a 3.9 rating at its peak which was remarkable considering it was syndicated and it varied in the times that it aired in various markets.

Some of the elements of Arsenio's show were timeless. He had a band led by Michael Wolff and he opened his show with a monologue. But it was a hip and cool talk show geared to my generation, the MTV generation and my culture.

It was groundbreaking as well. Before the end of the year people were barking and pumping their fists in the air mimicking Arsenio's shout outs to the 'Dog Pound' section of his studio.

He didn't have a sidekick or an anchor desk. He did have couches to give the guests the feeling as if they were sitting in his living room. He put a multiethnic cross section of artists, musicians athletes, comedians and other personalities on his stage who weren't normally invited to other late night shows.



To realize just how groundbreaking The Arsenio Hall Show was you have to see old videotapes of it (or just check out the TransGriot Video). Every major act of the 90's from MC Hammer to TLC to Mariah Carey performed on that stage. The rap world got a major boost from various artists being spotlighted on his show. Even old school artists like James Brown and Prince came on Arsenio to perform.

He also used the show as an education platform as well. Magic Johnson made his first public appearance on Arsenio's show after disclosing he'd contracted HIV. He did one commemorating Dr. King and his legacy. Jesse Jackson, Sr. made an appearance. Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan was one guest that caused controversy along with Andrew 'Dice' Clay. Then presidential candidate Bill Clinton came on Arsenio in a surprise appearance that many pundits agree probably won the 1992 election for him.

Hall received two NAACP Image Awards in 1991 and a Key of Life Award for his work as “a crusader in the fight of human rights."

Since 1994 the late night talk show world hasn't been the same without Arsenio around. Here's hoping that one day he'll grace our late night TV screens again with his presence.

Battlestar Galactica-Frakking Awesome

During my junior year of high school the original Battlestar Galactica debuted on ABC in 1978. I quickly fell in love with the show and was dismayed when it was cancelled after only a year. Over the years I hoped that the original show would be revived and kept up with news of the various attempts of Richard 'Apollo' Hatch to do just that.

In 2003 a 'reimagined' version written by veteran Star Trek writer Ron Moore debuted as a miniseries. It had some radical changes to the basic story. The Thousand Year War between the Cylons and humans was shortened to 40 years. The robot Cylons were now creations of humanity that rebelled and nearly destroyed their masters, not an alien race. To throw another curve ball into the mix the Cylons not only have 12 humanoid models, they don't die. Their consciousnesses are downloaded and they wake up in somewhere else in a resurrection chamber.

The Galactica was about to be decommissioned and serve as a museum. Even some familiar characters like Colonel Tigh, Commander Adama, Starbuck and Boomer changed race and in some cases gender. In Boomer's case, she was revealed to be a Cylon sleeper agent. They also gave all those characters first names.


When the Pegasus appeared in this version of Battlestar it was commanded by Admiral Helena Cain. Even Baltar's character underwent changes. Instead of crassly selling out the human race for his own personal gain and getting double crossed by the Cylons, Gaius Baltar is a scientific genius who couldn't keep his pants on. He lets his girlfriend poke around the Colonial Fleet mainframe and submits a command navigation program she wrote to the fleet. Unfortunately for humanity Baltar's girlfriend (Number 6)is a Cylon. The algorithm program she wrote contains a backdoor that the Cylons use to cripple Colonial defenses for the surprise Cylon nuclear attack on the Colonies and the Fleet.

New characters are introduced such as Laura Roslin, the Secretary of Education 43rd in the Colonial line of succession. She becomes president of the Colonies in the aftermath of the attack. She discovered just before leaving Caprica City for Galactica's decommissioning ceremony that she has terminal breast cancer. We're introduced to Chief Galen Tyrol, Lt. Felix Gaeta, Laura Roslin's aide Billy Keikeya, Tom Zarek, the Cylon Number Six and Chief Petty Officer Anastasia 'Dee' Dualla.

When the new 'reimagined' show debuted I was still pissed about the fact that the highest ranking character that looked like me was Chief Petty Officer Anastasia Dualla and boycotted it. On the original BSG Booomer and Colonel Tigh were African-Americans and were respectively the third in command of Galactica's best fighter squadron and the XO of the ship. I also had to wrap my mind around a female Starbuck named Kara Thrace.

When they repeated it the next year in preparation for the first season I decided that my love of Edward James Olmos as an actor outweighed my anger over some of my fave characters from the old show being played by new actors. Curiosity also got me to tune in. I wanted to see Edward James Olmos play Commander William Adama. I'm glad I did.

One of the things I constantly complain about besides my outright hatred and refusal to watch 'reality shows' is the lack of good writing in the non-reality TV shows that are currently being broadcast.

This version of Battlestar delivers the goods. I fell in love with it. The writing is first rate and they always keep you guessing in terms of the plot. The various episodes cover issues that seem as though they were ripped fresh from the headlines. It's fascinating to see a world similar to ours in which they have this space travel technology far in excess of our own, but yet haven't found a cure for cancer. It's interesting that they use projectile weapons and guns instead of lasers to fight battles.

This Battlestar is one of the highest rated show on Sci-Fi and has garnered several awards over the past two seasons. There have been rumors over the years since Richard Hatch joined the cast to play Tom Zarek that other original BSG actors would either be doing the same or come onboard to do guest appearances.

One interesting guest actor on this show is Lucy Lawless of Xena fame. She's currently playing Cylon Deanna Biers. They even addressed one of my issues with it when Dualla was promoted to lieutenant and second in command of the Pegasus under Lee 'Apollo' Adama at the end of Season 2. Unfortunately the Pegasus got destroyed in the escape from New Caprica.

Season 3 picks up where it left off January 21. I'll be tuned in. Until then I'll be watching my collection of Battlestar DVD's trying to figure out what the Cylon Plan is.

A Different World

A few nights ago I was watching my DVD set of the first season of A Different World. I have been a huge fan of the show ever since it aired on September 24, 1987 and I'm anxiously awaiting the releases of the DVD sets for Seasons 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. With the passage of time and after watching the show in syndication I have come to appreciate just how groundbreaking and special A Different World actually was.

A Different World introduced us to Jasmine Guy (Whitley Gilbert), Kadeem Hardison (Dwayne Wayne), Dawnn Lewis (Jaleesa Vinson-Taylor), Charnele Brown (Kimberly Reese), Cree Summer (Winifred 'Freddie' Brooks) and Darryl Bell (Ron Johnson) as students of Hillman College, we got an opportunity every Thursday night to see young African-Americans portrayed in a positive light on their local NBC stations.

While I was overjoyed to see representations of my generation on TV, it was glaringly obvious during Season One that the unique flavor a HBCU (Historically Black College and University) has wasn't being replicated onscreen. After that first season Bill Cosby brought in Howard University alum (and Houston homegirl) Debbie Allen as producer to shake up the show and make it more relevant to our culture.

To accomplish that task, she drew upon her experiences at Howard and instituted a yearly trip to Atlanta's Morehouse and Spelman colleges for the show's writers. During those trips they got the opportunity to talk to professors, administrators and students. During those conversations several story ideas came out of them.

In addition to fostering an increase in HBCU enrollments A Different World was an incubator for a generation of African-American writers and directors such as Gina Prince-Bythewood and Yvette Lee Bowser. It also launched the careers of Jada Pinkett Smith, Allen Payne, Sinbad, Gary Dourdan, Kim Wayans, Jenifer Lewis, Eriq LaSalle and Halle Berry and provided quality work for others. Blair Underwood, Phylicia Rashad, Thomas Mikal Ford, Khandi Alexander, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Damon Wayans, Kristoff St. John, Tisha Campbell, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Obba Babatunde and the late Tupac Shakur are some of the long list of people who made guest appearances on the show.

We also got a chance to see long time African-American actors get introduced to a new generation. Ron O'Neal of Super Fly fame played Whitley's father Judge Mercer Gilbert. Richard Roundtree played Kim Reese's father. Glynn Turman played Colonel Bradford Taylor, Hillman's military science and math teacher. Lou Myers played Vernon Gaines, the elder statesman of The Pit to whom all the Hillman students turned to for advice at one time or another. Roscoe Lee Brown played Professor Foster. Robert Guillaume and Rosalind Cash had recurring roles as deans.

And who could forget the legendary Patti LaBelle endlessly bragging about her 'Chipmunk' and spoon feeding Dwayne her infamous prune cobbler in her role as Adele Wayne? Diahann Carroll playing Whitley's socialite mother Marion Gilbert?
Even Debbie Allen had a recurring role as therapist Dr. Langhorne who advised her clients to 'relax, relate and release'.

It was definitely 'Must See TV'. Nestled in a timeslot between NBC powerhouses Cosby and Cheers, A Different World was ranked Number 2 in its first season and was a Top 5 show for five of those six years In its final season it was ranked number 18. It tackled topics such as AIDS, date rape, race relations, pledging, the LA riots, apartheid and the South African divestiture issue that was raging on college campuses at the time.

It garnered numerous NAACP Image Award nominations, earned Jasmine Guy a 1992 Image Award and set a standard for excellence that future shows featuring African-American casts would do well to imitate.