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Bill Cosby made three appearances, all in the first season, as Cliff Huxtable from The Cosby Show. Cliff is only seen in the Huxtable living room or kitchen on the other end of phone calls from Denise. Cliff's only appearance on the Hillman campus was seen in the Cosby Show episode which served as an introduction to A Different World.
While playing roommates on the show, co-stars Lisa Bonet and Marisa Tomei lived together in real life.
Originally, the character of Whitley was to only appear in the pilot. She became so popular that she become a regular, and made Jasmine Guy the star of the show.
Alfonso Ribeiro was originally set to reprise his role as Zach Duncan as a series regular. He chose to do The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990) instead.
The show's popularity with young African-American viewers has been credited with boosts in enrollments at several real life historically African American colleges. A number of non African American students have also claimed that they were inspired to pursue a college education by the series as well.
Although Lisa Bonet and Cree Summer were never on the show together, they're best friends in real life.