Diff'rent Strokes'Todd Bridges on Dealing with Racism as a Teen Star — and His Real Thoughts on Costar Gary Coleman

Mar. 15, 2025

Todd Bridges on ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ and in 2018.Photo: Getty(2)`

Todd Bridgeshas a lot of complex feelings looking back on hisDiff’rent Strokesfame.

The actor, 59, appeared on theAllison Interviewspodcast, chatting with host Allison Kugel about how becoming famous as a teenager playing Willis Jackson on the beloved sitcom was “exciting,” but not without its pitfalls.

“It was exciting, because you were well known. But then also you had a target on your back. And it was a lot different living in southern California then it was living in San Francisco. In San Francisco everyone got along and nobody cared what color you were. When I moved to Los Angeles, my first experience with racism was when we were buying a house in Culver City,” he recalled.

Bridges explained that his mother, lateGood Timesactress Betty A. Bridges, “sounded like a White lady on the phone.”

“So they were like, ‘Oh yes, Mrs. Bridges. Your credit checks out and you have the money. We have a house for you and it’s perfect.’ And we go there and they see all these Black people with big afros,” he laughed, adding, And they were like, ‘Oh no, we don’t have any houses for sale here anymore.’"

The family ended up with the home after the savvy actress “got one of her White friends to go in, and they actually got the house for us. It was hard to handle as a kid, being famous and still dealing with that.”

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Race also came up on set, and not just in the poignant moments inserted into storylines. Bridges recalls himself and late costarGary Colemanadvocating for more Black cast and crew members to be hired.

“Me and Gary Coleman were the only Black people on that show at that time, and we had no Black crew members. Then I started speaking up and they finally got Black crew members, and we got a Black director, finally. And that was making us feel a lot better, because we had people around us who looked like us,” he said.

Bridges also noted thatDiff’rent Strokesdoesn’t get the accolades some other shows in television history have gotten, especially in the conversation of advancing Black employees in the entertainment industry.

“It’s interesting, because sometimes they bring up Black shows and they don’t talk aboutDiff’rent Strokes. And I’m like, ‘How could you not talk aboutDiff’rent Strokes?’ That was a pivotal point for a lot of other shows to start happening,” he said of the series, which ran from 1978 to 1986.

“It paved the way for a lot of other Black actors to come into this business and to push further.”

Gary Coleman as Arnold and Todd Bridges as Willis in “Diff’rent Strokes” in 1985.ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Taking a stand to make a difference was especially important to Bridges and Coleman in advocating for themselves and their characters. Bridges recalls a time where his character was asked to share an opinion that the actor himself didn’t agree with.

“They wanted me to insult Muhammad Ali on an episode ofDiff’rent Strokes, and that’s one of my idols. And I was like, ‘I’m not gonna say this. I’m not going to insult my hero,' " he shares.

“And [the producers] were like, ‘Well, then we’ll fire you.’ My mom said, ‘Go ahead and fire him for it. That’s fine. We don’t need this job that bad. I’m not going to mess up his integrity to insult somebody he loves.' "

Standing their ground paid off, as the producers later came back and told Bridges he didn’t have to say the line after all. He noted, “You have to keep your integrity in a situation like that.”

Betty A. Bridges with son Todd Bridges on the set of “Diff’rent Strokes” in the 1980s.Paul Drinkwater/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank

Paul Drinkwater/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank

Off-set, Bridges shared, several of the show’s stars were grappling with personal battles as well. When it came to Coleman, Bridges said he and many others on set felt that the actor’s parents “valued money more than Gary Coleman, and that’s what happened to him. They valued money way more.”

“We all knew right away. Gary had a kidney transplant, and he was back at work two weeks later. It shouldn’t have been like that, and it was terrible. He was throwing up and all that. He was under so much stress that his body rejected the kidney. He shouldn’t have been at work at all. It was all about money,” he shared.

“[His parents] both stopped working and they’re living off the kid. You can’t just give up your whole lives for your kid that’s in the business. My parents both had jobs. My mom was a big manager. She taughtNia Long,Regina King, Lamont Bentley, Sanaa Lathan. My mom trained all those people in her academy. She trained all those people and made them stars.”

Gary Coleman as Arnold Jackson, Todd Bridges as Willis Jackson, Dana Plato as Kimberly Drummond and Conrad Bain as Philip Drummond on ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ in the 1980s.

The personal lives of the cast members on the originalDiff’rent Strokes, in some ways, overshadowed the show’s legacy in its immediate aftermath. But Bridges argued that the continued love for the show means there’s hope for a future.

source: people.com