ATLANTA — A reboot of the popular 1980s series “A Different World” is in the works and a pilot episode was filmed on the campus of an Atlanta HBCU.
The original “A Different World” ran from 1987 to 1993 and featured a mostly Black cast and centered around HBCU life at the fictional Hillman College.
Signs that read “Hillman College” started to pop up around Clark Atlanta University earlier this week and people became excited.
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“I was ecstatic because I was raised during that period getting ready to go to college,” Clark Atlanta University President George T. French Jr. told Channel 2’s Audrey Washington.
French said crews shot the pilot for a possible reboot of the series on campus.
“To now be on the campus of Clark Atlanta University and to see these Hillman signs, it’s beautiful,” French said.
Statistics show that from 1986 to 1994, “A Different World” contributed to a 26% increase in HBCU admissions.
French said he hopes the possible reboot will only continue to make HBCU enrollment spike.
“We are growing, busting at the seams, and it really all goes back to intentional efforts like ‘A Different World,’” French explained.
“I felt like Hillman was home, so I wanted to find an HBCU that was similar to that,” said CAU alumna Lillian Monroe.
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Monroe said she is a huge fan of the show and believes it was so groundbreaking because, for many Black people, it was the first time they saw themselves on screen studying engineering, medicine and art history.
“It’s still relevant, and it’s going to be relevant forever,” Monroe said.
“I grew up on ‘A Different World,’ which prompted me to go to Grambling State University, a HBCU,” said Cardellia Hunter, the director of the Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Film and Entertainment.
Hunter said if the series is picked up and shoots in and around Atlanta, it would be a big boost to the local film industry.
“Knowing that you can come to Atlanta and get background actors, to get quality people to work on set,” Hunter explained.
“I definitely think it’s going to be an impact, a positive impact,” Monroe added.
Washington heard from some of the cast members and crew.
They told her they cannot speak too much about the pilot until the show is officially greenlit.
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