The following is an actual dialogue that Kathryn and I had one night this week...
Matt: Do you remember that Diff'rent Strokes episode that Adrian mentioned tonight?
Kathryn: I can't remember any Diff'rent Strokes episodes. All I remember was Tootie.
Matt: Tootie was in the Facts of Life. You don't remember Diff'rent Strokes?
Kathryn: I guess not.
Matt: Wait, you're telling me you've never seen an episode of Diff'rent Strokes?
Kathryn: Nope.
Matt: Do you know what "Whatchu talkin' bout Willis?" is?
Kathryn: No.
Matt: Wait! You've never heard the expression "Whatchu talkin' bout Willis???"
Kathryn: Never heard of it.
Matt: Holy crap, I'm writing a blog about this.
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5 comments:
Wow. K-Ho is going to need some serious catch-up. I have the claim to fame of knowing every Different Strokes episode. Methinks It jumped the shark when Sam (hound dog eyes) joined the cast with pre-Designing Women Dixie Carter as Philip Drummond's wife. That was painful. very painful.
On another note, my friend Jen McFarland went to a summer program at UCLA when we were in high school (late 80s/ early 90s)... who should she happen to run into but Gary Coleman. He was spending his days playing in an LA arcade. I like to think Donkey Kong was his poison. He ended up hanging out with them one night but refused with a dogged passion to say that phrase that made him so famous. The story goes they finally got it out of him. Oh to have been there....
Several years later, my roommate in NYC (a writer for a national entertainment magazine) was tasked to interview Gary Coleman. Gary missed him at work so left a message on our apartment answering machine..... "Hey Dave. This is Gaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrry Coleman!" (inflected similarly to "here's johnny' from the Tonight Show) It got lots of play time.
Kathryn, I've never seen Different Strokes, either. I have, however, heard the phrase "Watchu talkin bout, Willis" before. I knew it was from a TV show, but didn't know which one. I wonder if NetFlix has a copy...
I am very pleased to be mentioned in your blog, but a little depressed that people with college degrees and careers (who were not homeschooled) do not remember Different Strokes. I feel old. It should be noted that Facts of Life was a spin-off of the "Strokes" and Tootie has indeed made cameos on Strokes.
And Julia I thought that Strokes jumped the shark when arnold started growing a beard.
i don't know a thing about diff'rent strokes or facts of life.... beat that.
(oh, and julia needs her own blog if she's gonna write that much!!)
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