A Different World (1987-1993)

When Lisa Bonet bailed from The Cosby Show and tried to become a bad girl with her skinful role in Angel Heart, there were those that said old man Cosby would never let her back into his aura of rating success. How wrong they were, as Bonet was brought back in this Cosby Show spin-off to reprise her role of Denise Huxtable, this time in the context of college life. But the notoriously fickle Bonet had second thoughts after the first season of her own show and bailed once more, leaving writers and producers scratching their heads as to what to do with the series now that the main character was gone. Fear not! They simply made two of the co-stars, Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy, the new stars, hooking them up in a romance and turning it into a different show altogether. After four seasons of the new format, which also gave screen time to soon-to-be stars Sinbad, Marissa Tomei, Jada Pinkett and Kim Wayans, faltering ratings saw the co-leads written off the show in what appeared to be a series finale. Only, it wasn’t - the producers, in one last throw of the dice, brought in (wait for it) Billy Dee Williams and Tupac Shakur, to save the day. They didn’t. The show ended a few episodes later.