13 Facts You Never Knew About Diff’rent Strokes

8. Coleman Had A Kidney Transplant During Its Run.

Coleman’s short stature was the result of drugs given to the youngster to address a genetic birth defect: he was born with one atrophied kidney and the other already failing. By age five, he had received his first kidney transplant. After getting a second one in 1984 and facing another operation in 1986, Coleman opted for dialysis four times daily instead. Through it all, the drugs are given to manage his condition resulted in a suppressed growth phase. By age 14, Coleman knew he wouldn’t grow beyond four feet eight inches. One episode of the series was even devoted to his character coming to grips with the same affliction.

9. Arnold Appeared on Other Shows.

With NBC executives eager to have Coleman use his magic on the rest of their schedule, Arnold was jettisoned to Silver Spoons, Strokes spinoff The Facts of Life, and even on the wholly-unrelated Steven Spielberg-produced anthology series Amazing Stories. In “Remote Control Man,” a henpecked husband is able to transform his domestic existence into something out of a sitcom, running into Arnold along the way.

10. Coleman Lobbied to Be Less of a Kid.

As he neared adulthood, a teenaged Coleman began to grow very weary of playing an adolescent Arnold. For the last season, he successfully petitioned the writers to place Arnold in high school in order to feed more mature plots like dating and driving, with less jumping into Mr. Drummond’s lap. He also convinced NBC to give him a dramatic role in 1985 as the lead in a TV movie, Playing with Fire, about a child arsonist who wants to set the family dog ablaze. Like his Very Special Episodes, it ends with a strong message for would-be firebugs: “Get therapy.”

11. Todd Bridges Played a Guy Who Sold Drugs to a Younger Todd Bridges.

Life after Strokes was not kind to its juvenile performers. Dana Plato, who portrayed Kimberly Drummond, struggled with substance abuse and once robbed a convenience store before dying of a drug overdose in 1999. A near-unemployable Coleman died in 2010 of complications owing to a fall, and Bridges was involved in a series of drug-related incidents before settling down. For a 2000 Fox docudrama about the making of the show, Bridges plays a drug dealer who sells drugs to an actor playing his younger self. In a 2006 TV movie, his real-life sister, Verda, portrays his mother.

12. Willis Won the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes.

A 2013 ad campaign for wish-fulfillment Publishers Clearing House used archival footage from old sitcoms to portray characters answering the door and seeing the “Prize Patrol.” In a spot fashioned out of Diff’rent Strokes footage, Arnold is chagrined to find out Willis has won the million-dollar prize.

13. Coleman Said Goodbye to Arnold on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Despite being vocal about wanting to move on from the show, Coleman agreed to reprise the character of Arnold for the 1996 series finale of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. After the Banks clan decides to separate to pursue separate opportunities, Will (Will Smith) shows their home to prospective buyers, including Arnold and Mr. Drummond, who provides some meta-commentary after Arnold deploys his catchphrase. “You know, Arnold,” he says, “those things were a lot funnier when you were still a little child.”

Credits: mentalfloss.com