[2] The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, respectively, who are two boys from Harlem taken in by a wealthy Park Avenue businessman and his daughter.

Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain) is a widower for whom their deceased mother previously worked; his daughter, Kimberly, is played by Dana Plato.

The series made stars of Coleman, Bridges, and Plato and became known for the very special episodes, in which serious issues such as racism, illegal drug use, alcoholism, hitchhiking, kidnapping, and child sexual abuse were dramatically explored.

Ten-year-old Coleman, meanwhile, had caught producers' attention after appearing in a number of commercials and TV guest roles, and the previous year had starred in three pilot episodes by Lear that attempted to revive the Little Rascals film series of the 1920-40s.

Producers immediately decided child actor Todd Bridges should play the older brother; he had appeared in a number of commercials and guest roles.

Producer Al Burton had spotted Dana Plato as part of a cheerleading team auditioning on The Gong Show and felt she had a spark about her, and recommended her for the role of Drummond's daughter Kimberly.

[7] Producers were keen to cast Charlotte Rae as housekeeper Edna Garrett, feeling that her more "traditional sitcom" talents would work well for the unusual line-up and that as an older character she would have good chemistry with Bain.

Appearing on a semi-regular basis, she effectively filled the same function as Adelaide as the older female character in many stories, and is present in many third and fourth season episodes.

The second episode of the fifth season, "In The Swim", introduced Mary Jo Catlett as the rotund, ever-cheerful Pearl Gallagher, the last of the Drummond household's three maids.

Catlett joined the main cast, appeared in almost every episode until the end of the show's run, and was billed on the opening credits from the sixth season onward.

The fifth season also continued the upturn of many more storylines dealing with serious topics, becoming the epitome of the "Very Special Episode" concept employed by 1980s sitcoms,[citation needed] a trend that continued until the end of the show's run; the best-known example[15] being the fifth season two-parter "The Bicycle Man" (originally broadcast on February 5 and 12, 1983), in which Arnold and Dudley are lured in by pedophilic bicycle shop owner Mr. Horton (Gordon Jump) who attempts to molest the boys.

Although still pulling in reasonable viewing figures by this time, ratings were beginning to fall, so producers decided to add several new characters to the cast to freshen the series up and open up future storylines.

Dixie Carter and Danny Cooksey were cast to portray recently divorced television aerobics instructor Margaret "Maggie" McKinney and her son Sam, respectively.

Kimberly was written out of the show with the explanation that she moved to Paris to study for a couple of years, but returned as a guest star for the season finale "A Special Friend", after Plato gave birth.

However, Embassy Television subsequently reached a deal with ABC to pick up the series for an eighth season; the network change saw Diff'rent Strokes move back to its original night, Friday, airing at 9:00 pm ET.

(Fellow Embassy sitcoms and former NBC stablemates The Facts of Life and Silver Spoons—respectively entering their seventh and fourth seasons—also debuted similarly updated versions of their theme songs for the 1985–86 season.)

[13] She was replaced in the role by Mary Ann Mobley, who had previously played an unrelated, one-off love interest of Drummond's in the second-season episode "Teacher's Pet".

Her final appearance, in the episode "Bulimia" (originally aired on January 17, 1986), dealt with the revelation of Kimberly's eating disorder, and won praise both for Plato's performance and the sensitivity of the writing.

The final episode, "The Front Page" (originally aired on March 7, 1986), involves Arnold writing an investigative report for his school newspaper on student athletes using anabolic steroids.

In the fall of 1985, when the series moved to ABC for the seventh season, Arnold, Dudley and Lisa entered high school, where they gained a new friend in Charlie (Jason Hervey).

The Facts of Life (1979–1988) is a spin-off of Diff'rent Strokes featuring Drummond's former housekeeper, Mrs. Garrett, who had accepted a job as the housemother for a dormitory at Eastland, an all-girls private school that Kimberly was attending.

The Diff'rent Strokes cast appeared in the first episode of The Facts of Life (at one point, Drummond asks Mrs. Garrett "Are you sure we can't change your mind to come back to us?").

In 1994, Coleman appeared in an episode of Married... with Children ("How Green Was My Apple"), playing a building code inspector whom Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) called to report an illegal driveway.

When Kelly (Christina Applegate) recognizes him, he denies any connection to Arnold Jackson, but utters his catchphrase to Al, "What'cha talkin' about, Bundy?"

In 1996, Coleman and Bain reprised their roles for the series finale of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air entitled "I, Done Part II", where they consider buying the Banks mansion.

The press and fans of the series blamed the cast's personal problems and faltering careers on what was eventually dubbed the "curse of Diff'rent Strokes" by various tabloids.

[25] On May 26, 2010, Coleman, who had battled health problems since childhood caused by congenital kidney disease, was admitted to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo after falling and hitting his head after suffering a seizure.

Due to financial difficulties and her severe addiction to drugs and alcohol, Plato voluntarily relinquished custody of her son, Tyler, to Lambert.

In an attempt to boost her faltering career, Plato posed for Playboy in June 1989, but her appearance in the magazine did not help her land acting jobs.

[44] On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library, including Diff'rent Strokes.