Raise your hand that of you Discolovers has never seen an episode of ‘Arnold’ !!! I imagined it … you all followed the story of the young black boy catapulted to Manhattan!
‘My Friend Arnold’ (the original title was: Different Strokes) was a Situation Comedy produced in the USA by Tandem Productions and broadcast in 189 self-contained episodes divided into 8 seasons, in the period between 1978 and 1986: until 1985 by NBC, later by ABC.
In Italy it went on air starting from 1980 on local private televisions (the first two seasons and part of the third) and subsequently broadcast, nationally, by Canale 5 and Italia Uno. Since 2006 it is still aired at night by Mediaset channels and with the arrival of Digital Terrestrial the show is still on the air.
The series tells the stories of two African American brothers, Arnold and Willis Jackson, aged 8 and 13, respectively, who are adopted by a wealthy businessman, Philip Drummond, who in doing so takes them out of the misery of Harlem and brings them to live. in the wealth of Manhattan. This was in fact the last will of the mother of the 2 boys, Mr. Drummond’s housekeeper, shortly before dying from a bad disease. Over the years, various situations, both comic and dramatic, will alternate on this trend, making this Sitcom an international success for years and years.
Other regular characters include Kimberly, Mr. Drummond’s lovely daughter, and Mrs. Edna Garrett, the nice housekeeper. Arnold and Willis were legally adopted after about a year, in a dramatic one-hour special episode. From this point on, Mr. Drummond officially becomes their father. In 1984, at the end of the sixth season, the series undergoes a radical change following the marriage of Philip Drummond to Maggie McKinney, an aerobics teacher. The new wife of Mr. Drummond and his son Sam, a lively 8-year-old boy, join the cast until the end of the series.
After the passage on the ABC television network, in March 1986 the series was definitively concluded, without a precise ending, as happens in most sitcoms. It is likely that the decision to remove it from the schedule was taken after the end of the last season.
The series was a huge success, but it did not bring luck to the majority of its protagonists. Arnold Jackson was played by Gary Coleman, who, due to kidney dysfunction, had growth problems to the point of never exceeding the height of 1.30 m. But his life was all marked by bad luck and controversy. He has been in litigation with his parents for having arbitrarily stolen the proceeds of his acting business. In 2003 he returned to the pages of the news for having run in the primaries of Governor of California in the Republican Party, arriving in eighth place as electoral preferences: to win was another actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. She subsequently had problems with justice for domestic violence. On May 28, 2010, he died following an accident at his Salt Lake City home. Willis Jackson instead had the face of Todd Bridges, and after the end of the series he became infamous for serious problems with justice (drug use, attempted murder of a drug dealer). Today he declares himself rehabilitated and is back in the entertainment world. Kimberly Drummond was instead played by Dana Plato. It too had a bad future. Already in 1984, during the last season of the series, her appearances were sporadic, as she was expecting a baby. After the television series ended, her career began to decline, leading her first to disappear from the entertainment world and then to return with pornographic short films and naked appearances in Playboy magazine. She was said to have been abusing drugs for years. She was arrested and placed on probation for falsifying a prescription from Valium. Then, fatally, after an interview in which a return to popularity was revealed, she was found dead in her home, probably suicidal, from an overdose of drugs. It was 1999, he was 34 years old.
Here the first two seasons of the series were broadcast under the title ‘Harlem vs Manhattan’. The title ‘My friend Arnold’, (later reduced simply to ‘Arnold’), was given only later, in the passage of the series to Canale 5, in order to give greater weight to the character played by Coleman, who was certainly the best known. of the series and had indirectly led the public to rename the series with the name of this protagonist. The theme song of the first cycle entitled Arnold was sung by Nico Fidenco and was a great record success in 1980. Subsequently the original theme was reused, except in a short period, between 1983 and 1984, when it was replaced by an English song called Shake your body, played by black singer LJ Sedlar and recorded on 45 rpm on Five Records label.
The characters of Arnold and Mr. Drummond, also played by Gary Coleman and Conrad Bain, will also appear in the final episode of the series ‘Willy the Prince of Bel Air’ expressing interest in Willy’s apartment as possible buyers. In this episode Arnold changes his catchphrase for the occasion to “What the hell are you saying Willy?”, Addressed to the protagonist of the series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHqaNfq4RkI