DIFF'RENT STROKES (1978 - 1986)

Created by: Jeff Harris, Bernie Kukoff

Starring: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Abdul-Samad, Tommy Aguilar, Muhammad Ali, Martine Allard, Edward Andrews, David Anthony, Royce D. Applegate, Elaine Appleton, Jesse Aragon, Bob Ari, Russell Arms, Tami Arnold, Leon Askin, John Astin, Billy "Pop" Atmore, Hoyt Axton, Candice Azzara, Bonar Bain, Conrad Bain, H.B. Barnum III, Leona Baxter, Matthew "Stymie" Beard, John C. Becher, Billy Beck, Shari Belafonte, E.E. Bell, Ned Bellamy, Fran Bennett, Marc Bentley, Milton Berle, Beau Bishop, Anna Bjorn, Weldon Bleiler, Alan Blumenfeld, Ray Bolger, David Bond, Rachel Bouchet, Christian Brackett-Zika, Denise Bradley, Steve Brady, John Brandon, Leonard Bremen, Patrick Brennan, Betty Bridges, Jimmy Bridges, Todd Bridges, Verda Bridges, Charlie Brill, Joel Brooks, Beverly Brown, Christopher M. Brown, Carol Bruce, Arthur Burghardt, Macki Burke, Carl Byrd, Julia Calderon, Joe Caliri, Helen Page Camp, Delores Cantu, Paul Carafotes, Cyndi Cardinal, Roger C. Carmel, Dixie Carter, Mary Jo Catlett, Michael Cavanaugh, Jon Cedar, Michael Chain, Lee Chamberlin, Sheron Chambers, Rosalind Chao, Zachary Charles, Lilyan Chauvin, Andrew Dice Clay, Clarence Clemons, David Coburn, Mindy Cohn, Dabney Coleman, Gary Coleman, Bart Conner, Danny Cooksey, Marc Copage, Natalie Core, Cosie Costa, Carl M. Craig, Patrick Cranshaw, Lee Crawford, James Crofwell, James Cromwell, Patrick Cronin, Dena Crowder, Catherine Curry, Tim Daggett, Gabriel Damon, Patrika Darbo, Vance Davis, Mark Davitt, Joe De Cenzo, Nadia DeLeye, Matt De Luccio, Peter DeLuise, Frank De Vol, LaShana Dendy, Barry Diamond, Abb Dickson, Don Dolan, Elinor Donahue, Stephen Dorff, Reginald T. Dorsey, Joan Douglas, Don Draper, Beau Dremann, Moosie Drier, Robert Dubac, Jane Dulo, Olive Dunbar, Diane Duncan, Michael Durrell, Geoff Edwards, Hector Elias, Maxine Elliott Hicks, Woody Eney, Bradford English, Krista Errickson, Frank Farmer, Ron Feinberg, Don Fenwick, Martin Ferrero, Jere Fields, Kim Fields, Pat Finley, Keith Fisher, Rick Fitts, Eric Fleeks, Rana Ford, Andre Fox, Steve Franken, Ina Fried, Soleil Moon Frye, George Fulton, Wendy Fulton, Richard Fults, Monika Furness, Gina Gallego, James Gallery, Mitchell Gaylord, Rhoda Gemignani, Jami Gertz, Cal Gibson, Sue Ann Gilfillan, Clarence Gilyard Jr, Robert Ginty, Robin Givens, Joanna Gleason, Jesse D. Goins, Panchito Gomez, Dody Goodman, Kerry Gordy, Sarina C. Grant, Regi Green, Dawn Gregg, Arye Gross, Julie Anne Haddock, Huntz Hall, Shashawnee Hall, Florence Halop, Dorothy Hamill, John Hancock, Melora Hardin, Jim Hartung, David Hasselhoff, Gary Hays, Jean-Paul Hellendall, Bill Henderson, Tom Henschel, Bobby Herbeck, Jason Hervey, Steven Hirsch, Peter Hobbs, Paula Hoffman, Charles Holman, James Hong, Zero Hubbard, Ernie Hudson, Danyetta Hughes, Judith Hurst, Jim Hurts, James Ingersoll, Todd Isaacson, Bond Dale Jackson Jr, Donniece Jackson, Janet Jackson, Reggie Jackson, Rachel Jacobs, Bobby Jacoby, Todd Jeffries, Anne-Marie Johnson, Dave Johnson, Scott Johnson, Claude Earl Jones, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Renee Jones, Tracey Cherelle Jones, Bobbi Jordan, Gordon Jump, Laura Kamins, Ron Karabatsos, Art Kassul, Betty Kean, Jayne Kennedy, Enid Kent, Paul Kent, Brad Kesten, Dana Kimmell, Kip King, Terry Kiser, KITT, Bruce Kluger, Jack Knight, Milt Kogan, Kimberly Kordes, Gary Krakower, Robin LaValley, Michael Lamont, William Lanteau, Eric Lantis, Joey Lawrence, Gracia Lee, Lillian Lehman, Meadowlark Lemon, Lori Lethin, Tony Lettieri, Leonard Lightfoot, Damian London, Todd Lookinland, Sal Lopez, Vivian Lord, Janna Lowell, Edward Lynch, Philip Charles MacKenzie, Bruce Mahler, Geri Mamo, Anthony Mangano, John Mansfield, Jerry Marshak, Barney Martin, Daniel Martinez, Ron Masak, Pierrino Mascarino, Calvin Mason, Justin Mastro, John H. Mayer, Whitman Mayo, Macon McCalman, Chuck McCann, Nobu McCarthy, Edie McClurg, John McCook, William McDonald, Vonetta McGee, John McIntire, John McKinley Robertson, Michael McManus, Maureen McNamara, Audrey Meadows, George Memmoli, David Mendenhall, Dorothy Meyer, Kari Michaelsen, Mr. T, Mary Ann Mobley, Steven Mond, Lawrence Monoson, Lawrence Moran, Nancy Morgan, Jeanne Mori, Garrett Morris, Howard Morton, Mickey Morton, Rick Moser, David Moses, Erik Moses, John C. Moskoff, Greg Mullavey, Pat Mulligan, Charles Thomas Murphy, Christina Murrill, Rosanne Murrill, Shirley Neal, Edward Neely, Mark Neely, Angela Newell, Toy Newkirk, Pamela Newman, Denise Nicholas, Myles O'Brien, Jack O'Leary, Dick O'Neill, Gordon Oas-Heim, Soon-Tek Oh, Ken Olfson, Lawrie Osag, LaWanda Page, Lance Parrish, David J. Partington, David Paymer, Meeno Peluce, Edward Penn, Marla Pennington, George Pentecost, Tyren Perry, Ian Petrella, Julie Piekarski, Michael Joseph Pierce, William Pierson, Fred Pinkard, Dana Plato, Albert Adams Polinsky, Shannon Presby, J.A. Preston, Charlotte Rae, Bobby Ramsen, Nancy Reagan, Veronica Redd, Arlee Reed, Jozella Reed, Starwil Reed, Ellen Regan, James Reynolds, Madlyn Rhue, Frank Richards, Kim Richards, Lou Richards, Jack Riley, Molly Ringwald, Victor Rivas, Brian Robbins, Robert Rockwell, Ned Romero, Jennifer Rooney, Larry Rosenberg, Tom Rosqui, Joe Ross, Shavar Ross, Steve Rumph, Ernie Sabella, Michael St. Michaels, Brian Salmon, Henry G. Sanders, Dick Sargent, J. Jay Saunders, Felice Schachter, William G. Schilling, John Schuck, LaGloria Scott, Ralph Seymour, Matt Shakman, Sam Shamshak, Michael Shannon, Russell Shannon, S. Pearl Sharp, Michael Sharrett, Helen Shaw, David Sheehan, Laura Shuman, Johnny Silver, Troy Slaten, Kurt Smildsin, Shelley Smith, Harvey Solin, Louise Sorel, Don Spector, James Staley, John Starr, Philip Sterling, Carl Steven, Howard Stevens, Scooter Stevens, McLean Stevenson, Walter Stocker, Scott Strader, Duke Stroud, Darren Sullivan, Nikki Swasey Seaton, Elisabeth Talbot-Martin, Le Tari, Steven Tash, Irene Tedrow, Jonnetta Thomas, Anthony Thompkins, Donald Thompson, Robin Torell, Tammy Townsend, Solomon Trager, Ellen Travolta, Ronne Troup, Brad Trumbull, Michael Tucci, Dain Turner, Michael Twaine, Harry Varav, Robert Vega, Chick Vennera, Jack Verbois, Peter Vidmar, Harve Villechaize, Nedra Volz, Karin Vosberg, Ethan Tudor W., Cynthia Wakefield, Thyais Walsh, Perla Walter, Annrae Walterhouse, Jim Ward, James A. Watson Jr, Melanie Watson, Gary Waynesmith, Lee Weaver, Jimmy Weldon, Joan Welles, Rachel Wells, Lisa Whelchel, Forest Whitaker, Carol White, De'voreaux White, Dondre T. Whitfield, Brian Whitley, Donna Wilkes, Bill Willens, Aaron Williams, Dion Williams, Robbie Preston Williams, Stephanie Williams, Tony Williams, Spice Williams-Crosby, Alene Wilson, Art Wilson, Grant Wilson, Virginia Wing, Dick Winslow, Courtney Witas, Curtis Wong, Kim Woodson, Greer Wylder, David Wysocki, Emily Yancy, Sherry Yi, Richard Yniguez, Erica Yohn, Cory "Bumper" Yothers, Cameron Young, Keone Young, Deborah Zon, Michael Zorek 

189 episodes

(TV-PG - adult themes, adult situations)

PLOT:

The misadventures of a wealthy Manhattan family who adopted the children of their late African American housekeeper from Harlem.

season 1 - 

Philip Drummond is a wealthy Manhattan industrialist who takes in Arnold and Willis Jackson, the two sons of his late housekeeper; Drummond is white and the boys are black. Arnold, age 8, is excited about the opportunity of a privileged life, but Willis, age 13, feels that Mr. Drummond is trying to buy their love with expensive gifts. A social worker investigates the boys' home life and tells Mr. Drummond that she believes black children belong in black households. When Drummond tells this to Mrs. Garrett while she is vacuuming the living room, Arnold overhears this and comes to the conclusion that he doesn't want them around anymore. Mr. Drummond's mother arrives for an unscheduled visit and has an adverse reaction to her son's new family situation. Mr. Drummond is excited about the possibility of the boys enrolling at his old prep school. Arnold is caught throwing water bombs off the balcony and Mr. Drummond feels that a fitting punishment is a spanking. After Kimberly donates Arnold's ratty old doll named Homer to charity and it is sold, he can't sleep. Mr. Drummond quickly tires of this, so he hires a detective to try and find the doll. After reading a book on the American legal system, Willis demands a fair trial for Arnold after he is accused of putting his goldfish in the hot tub. The Drummonds reminisce about the time they have spent together since Arnold and Willis joined the family. Clips from past episodes are featured. Over Mr. Drummond's objections, Willis teaches Arnold how to fight a playground bully. Willis misses his friends from Harlem so he has a club meeting at the penthouse. Mr. Drummond introduces the family to a woman in his life that he plans to propose to. Arnold feels he's being ignored by the other members of the family, so he pretends to wet the bed in order to get attention and sympathy. A relative of the boys comes to visit from Detroit. She plans to stay only a night, but then fakes an injury and quickly overstays her welcome. Willis is doing poorly in school, so Mr. Drummond hires a tutor. However, he is not pleased by his unconventional methods of teaching. The Drummonds may have to move when the new landlord enforces a rule forbidding children Arnold's age from living there. Willis starts to feel that Arnold is a nuisance and wants his own space away from him. Mrs. Garrett feels that her life goals have not been fulfilled and she wants to leave her job. Willis gets a job at a gas station, which lasts for only a few hours. Mr. Drummond's company has bought out a radio station in Portland, Oregon, where his old army buddy, Larry Alder, hosts a talk show. Arnold witnesses a mugging with his telescope. Willis wants to have his birthday party at a friend's house in Harlem, but Mr. Drummond is concerned about going there on a Saturday night. Mrs. Garrett bonds with the girls at Eastlake Academy, the school Kimberly attends. 

season 2 - 

Arnold must have an appendectomy. Fred Tanner wants his daughter Alice put in a bedroom away from Arnold. When the two learn of this, they run away. Arnold's life is put on the line when the kids find out they cannot share a hospital room and end up running away on the night before Arnold's surgery. At Arnold's suggestion, a TV producer gives Larry Alder an audition for a TV hosting job. Mrs. Garrett receives a marriage proposal from a younger man with whom she attends night school. Arnold wants to know where babies come from, but no one will give him a straight answer until one of the other tenants in the building, a woman whose pregnancy sparked Arnold's curiosity, complains to Mr. Drummond. Arnold wants to meet his hero, world champion boxer Muhammad Ali. Willis and Kimberly meet him and say that their little brother is dying and that his last wish is to meet him. Mr. Drummond's plans to officially adopt Arnold and Willis are delayed when a man claiming to be the boys' cousin claims he was promised custody in their father's will. While Mr. Drummond's lawyers investigate Jethro Simpson's claim, Arnold and Willis prepare themselves for the possibility that they may have to live with the man. Willis wants to beat an obnoxious braggart in an upcoming father and son athletic competition at the YMCA. Believing Mr. Drummond may not be able do it, he asks another man to be his "father". Mr. Drummond's old friend, Larry Alder, visits New York on a business trip to present a business plan for purchasing a television station. A girl at school pretends that she likes Arnold only so that she can get close to Willis. Arnold and Willis find an expensive watch in the hall of their building and then Willis is accused of stealing it from a neighbor's suite. Arnold saves a dog from being hit by a car, but when the dog bites him, Mr. Drummond thinks the dog might have rabies. While a new housekeeper, Adelaide Brubaker, takes over from Mrs. Garrett, Mr. Drummond decides to run for city council after a friend's suggestion. Mr. Drummond is lonely so Arnold and Willis set him up with a date from a computer dating service but do not know that Mr. Drummond's friend set him up with a date as well. Arnold and Willis apply for welfare when they think Mr. Drummond's company may be going under. Arnold and Willis go into business together selling Adelaide's homemade brownies. Arnold is tired of being bullied at school so he takes karate lessons. Arnold and Willis get trapped in the building's storage room and reminisce about time with the Drummonds. Mr. Drummond scolds Arnold for secretly recording other people's conversations. Arnold disobeys him and records Kimberly's boyfriend Roger making racist comments about Willis to his sister. Arnold's classmates accuse him of being a teacher's pet when their teacher, Miss Osbourne, goes out with Mr. Drummond. A huge fight ensues when Kimberly invites her friends from Eastland Academy over at the same time that Willis has his friends over. Arnold's beloved goldfish Abraham passes away. Willis joins a gang in spite of Mr. Drummond's warnings. 

season 3 - 

Arnold and Willis become hostages during a bank robbery by two experienced criminals. After Arnold buys a toy train that doesn't work, he takes the owner of the store, who refuses to refund his money, to small claims court. When Adelaide goes away, Drummond hires a temporary housekeeper to take her place. With the new housekeeper, Arnold soon realizes that she reminds him a lot of his mom and tries to arrange it so that she and Drummond fall in love. Everyone is planning a huge surprise party for Drummond on his 50th birthday. But the real surprise is a very tragic one: On his way home, Drummond is critically injured in an accident caused by a drunk driver. A misunderstanding with a visiting friend leads Drummond, Arnold, and Willis to believe that Kimberly is pregnant. When he sees that Arnold is heartbroken after not making his Pee Wee league football team, Drummond secretly meets with the coach and agrees to buy the team new uniforms in exchange for Arnold being given a spot on the team. With his grades down, Drummond forbids Willis to see his new girlfriend, Charlene. However, a love-struck Willis is determined to see her, even if means doing it behind Drummond's back. When Arnold finds out that he will only grow to be 5 foot tall, he becomes very depressed. To make him feel better, Drummond introduces him to a friend's daughter who is very upbeat despite being confined to a wheelchair. Arnold befriends the doorman who asks him for a $100 loan so he can bet it on a horse race. Mr. Drummond worries that Willis's newfound Afrocentric attitudes are dividing the family. Arnold's poor dental checkup has Drummond suspecting that the easy availability of junk food from vending machines at school is to blame. But when Drummond begins a campaign to replace the hot dogs, cookies, potato chips and soft drinks with more healthy foods, Arnold's friends try to convince him to get his father to reconsider. Arnold's joy of being transferred to an all-white school (and riding a bus to get there) is shaken to its very core when a racist busing opponent calls the Drummond household warning the pro-busing family patriarch not to send his black children to the new school, or else. Kimberly gets a role in a school play, and turns to Blair for help in looking like an older woman. While rehearsing, she meets and accepts a date from a 25-year-old man who thinks she's at least 20. Arnold and Willis find out about the date and sneak off to the movie theater to try to stop the date before Drummond finds out. Arnold has had enough of Susie, his pesky, know-it-all new neighbor, and chooses not to invite her to his birthday party, unknowing that she has a terrible secret in her life. With a magazine reporter and Ed "Too Tall" Jones coming over to the house, Arnold decides to show off his talents by putting on a magic show. He plays a silly trick on everyone that leaves him out on the balcony ledge, afraid to move. Drummond creates controversy with his shareholders when he recommends hiring a woman with whom he starts dating to head up a new division in his company. The children, shareholders themselves, are all for it until Kimberly overhears her talking to a mystery man on the phone. Drummond is initially excited to hear that he is the owner of a two million dollar piece of land in Harlem only to later find out that the ancestor whom he inherited it from was a slave trader. He must now decide whether to donate it to be used as a community center or decline it. After getting a D in history, Arnold is forced to stay home from a hockey game to study. While at home, he and Drummond meet Milos, a Czech immigrant who is going to night school to try and become a US citizen. Worried that his foster father's unemployed status will send him to another foster home, Dudley runs away and hides in Arnold's room in hopes that Arnold can convince Drummond to adopt him too. Willis, the star pitcher of his junior high team, is recruited by a coach from a high school with a reputation for producing major league talent. When Drummonds learns that attending this school entails lying and grade fixing, he forbids Willis to go. 

season 4 - 

With the help of Arnold, Willis gets everyone to leave the house so that he and Charlene can make love for the first time. However when the moment occurs, things do not go as smoothly as he expected. Willis, struggling to make friends in his first days of high school, agrees to buy marijuana so that he can go to a party with upperclassmen. Kimberly lands a modeling job at a department store which leads to her being selected for an upcoming modeling show in Paris. Drummond, initially dead-set against the trip, caves in and decides to take the whole family to Paris. Willis sues the school basketball team when he loses his position to a white player because of their Affirmative Action policy. For his initiation into a club, Arnold attempts to steal a comic book from a store. When he gets caught, he and Drummond are shocked to learn that the comic is a collector's item worth $400 and he is charged with grand theft. Arnold's plans to go out on his first date are in jeopardy when Drummond won't allow him to go out at night without a chaperon. Tired of being treated like a child, Kimberly and a friend plan a ski weekend in which they will be staying with guys. She has a lot of explaining to do when Drummond and Willis drop by the lodge to surprise her. Drummond is excited to learn that he will be honored as Athlete of the Year by his health club. Arnold and Willis, however, secretly do not share in his excitement as they are denied access to the health club because they are black and decide not to tell Drummond because they don't want to spoil his big night. When it is learned that Drummond's upcoming construction project may be located on top of an ancient Indian burial ground, he faces protest from a Native American who threatens to go on a hunger strike if the land is built on. Arnold and Willis follow suit by going on a hunger strike of their own. A visit from a Korean woman reveals that Mr. Drummond may have fathered her son during the Korean War. After Willis and Charlene have a fight, Arnold and Kimberly spot her at the movies with another guy. With Willis upset by this, Arnold comes up with a scheme to get them back together. After Drummond cancels a family fishing trip to go on a business flight to Canada, Arnold begins to have nightmares which prompts Drummond to contact a therapist. After being selected to play Abraham Lincoln in his school play, Arnold develops a case of stage fright. His confidence suffers even more after Kathy blows up at him when he tries to convince her to walk with her crutches. When Drummond and his sister Sophia get word that a part of their building is on fire, they try to keep it a secret from the kids in hopes that it will be put out quickly without spreading. Drummond's plan to tear down old apartments and replace them with luxury condominiums creates anger among one soon-to-be homeless elderly woman who refuses to leave the Drummond household. Willis realizes the reason Charlene decided to date another boy is because Willis doesn't have a car and the other boy does. This leads to a decision that has far-reaching consequences for Willis and his relationships with both Charlene, the law and - when he finds out - his very angry father. Arnold and Dudley, unsure how to deal with two schoolyard teenage bullies who demand their lunch money, decide to ditch school to avoid them. After the schoolyard bullies put Willis in the hospital, Arnold considers wearing a wire to try and get evidence on them. While trying to impress an exclusive club, Willis distances himself from the family. When this happens, it breaks Arnold's heart. Aunt Sophia pleads with Drummond to get involved with an effort to address pollution, but Drummond stubbornly refuses. Then, Kimberly's hair turns green after washing it with dirty water. Sophia fixes Drummond up with one of her friends whose simple lifestyle conflicts with Drummond's high class living. After Willis saves Arnold from a falling piano, he gets annoyed by Arnold's tireless efforts to try and pay him back. So he come up with a plan to make Arnold look like a hero by staging a phony holdup at the garage he works at. Willis, suffering from stress due to a hectic schedule, makes a false promise to Drummond that he will quit the school election, which stresses Arnold out when he finds out. Willis forms a band with his friends but faces a tough decision when the band members favor Kimberly over Charlene as the lead singer. Arnold's self-consciousness over his short stature once again rises to the surface when he realizes all of his friends have girlfriends, but not him. Drummond has to convince his son that looks - or in this case, height - aren't everything. Arnold's sudden interest in ballet is hampered when Willis tells him that dancing will give him a 'sissy' label. 

season 5 - 

In his efforts to help Willis dethrone an arrogant video game champion at the local arcade, Arnold becomes hooked on video games. When Kimberly transfers to public school, she causes Willis embarrassment by insulting the class president and trying out for the boy's swim team. Drummond hires a new housekeeper with an impressive resume. Dudley, too shy to talk to Lisa, his love interest, turns to Arnold to help him woo her with poetry. However when the plan backfires, Arnold finds himself unable to get rid of Lisa, who is in love with him, and unable to talk to Dudley who is mad at him for stealing Lisa. Arnold, feeling sorry for a new boy at school who has no friends, asks Willis to serve as a big brother to him. When Willis begins spending all his time with his "new brother", Arnold feels neglected. Willis steps in to mediate a feud between rival gangs, which has been intensifying. When the effort fails, Willis finds out his personal safety is in danger, so he decides to buy a gun, a move that could really exacerbate matters. Arnold and his classmates gets really upset when a substitute teacher, filling in for Miss Chung, really piles on the homework. When the teacher accidentally strikes Arnold, who is fooling around in class, Arnold and Dudley decide to lie about the incident in hopes of getting him removed. Willis obtains a fake ID and dons a fake mustache to get into a nightclub. While at the club, he gets a date with a much older woman and spots Mr. Drummond on date with a much younger woman. Arnold's campaign to be elected class president hits a low point when a picture that Kimberly took of him in the shower showing his bare behind is accidentally published in the newspaper. A cassette tape, containing a recording of Arnold and Willis' deceased mother, is discovered in a trunk that is returned to the boys. When Drummond innocently plays the tape, it triggers Arnold's deep-seated grief about the loss of his mother. A run-in with the new landlord and his bullying son may cause Drummond and the family to be evicted. When Willis hears from a friend that Drummond's company does not hire blacks, he goes in for an interview using a fake name. When he is turned down for the job, he accuses the interviewer of being prejudice and "fires" him. A man dressed as Santa Claus breaks into the apartment and steals gifts. Fed up with living under Drummond's rules, Willis decides to move into an apartment with a friend whose dependence on alcohol is troubling. Drummond lies to the kids about not being able to go on a family camping trip so he can spend a night of romance with his tax attorney. Kimberly asserts her independence from her father by getting a job at a burger joint. Arnold and Dudley become friends with the owner of a local bicycle shop named Henry, unaware that he is a pedophile looking for his next victim. Drummond and Mr. Ramsey learn the truth about Mr. Horton, the seemingly friendly bicycle shop owner with a very sinister side. It soon becomes a race against time to get details out of Arnold after learning that Dudley is about to become Mr. Horton's latest victim. Kimberly impresses professional skater Dorothy Hamill with her ice skating, and is taken under her wing. But Kimberly is overwhelmed by the hard work it takes to become a professional skater, and devises a way out. Arnold, realizing that Kathy is struggling to fit in at public school, encourages her to become hall monitor. He quickly realizes that he has created a monster when she begins to take her job too literally. Arnold becomes attached to a cricket that he believes is bringing him luck. Unfortunately, Drummond and Willis do not share the same warm feelings toward the cricket, which keeps them up at night. With Willis needing a quiet room to study for his SAT tests, Arnold and Drummond agree to become roommates so that Willis can have Drummond's room to himself. As a reporter for the school newspaper, Arnold learns that drugs are being sold on school grounds. This attracts the concern of First Lady Nancy Reagan, who comes to the school to talk about her anti-drug campaign. Arnold is excited about auditioning for the role of Romeo in the school play "Romeo & Juliet" until he finds out that his nemesis, Lisa, got the role of Juliet. Willis asks Kimberly to help a classmate who lacks sensitivity to try and get a girl at school. However, the plan backfires when he falls in love with Kimberly. 

season 6 - 

Arnold and his friends meet Mr. T in this tale about Arnold trying to win the heart of a classmate. In his first few days at junior high, Arnold has trouble breaking out of Willis's shadow. So he comes up with a plan to kidnap the school mascot and then become a hero by "finding" and returning it. After a burglar's attempt to rob the house is foiled, Arnold, Willis, and Drummond all give different accounts of how it happen. Willis lies about his qualifications so that he can get a job at Arnold's carnival. A computer glitch which identifies Arnold as being 18-years of age and drafted into the military leaves Drummond fighting mad. The Drummonds' Dutch relatives come to visit. However it's anything but a happy visitation for Arnold and Willis, who end up taking the rap for the mischievous behavior of their cousin Hans. Arnold is upset when his favorite teacher lies to him about working as a waitress at a sleazy nightclub. With her 18th birthday approaching, Kimberly decides that she wants to delay her college education so she can live in Europe for a year. However, Drummond is dead-set against the idea. With only two days left until the class election, Arnold resigns as Dudley's campaign manager and decides to run against him. After appearing on TV for giving a huge donation to charity, Drummond is threatened by extortionists. Instead of giving in to their demands, he tries to catch them in the act by hiring a bodyguard who turns out to be the female version of Mr. T. Kimberly wants to force the school to admit girls into the Letterman's club. Willis opposes this idea, so he enters the school's beauty pageant to prove his point. Arnold and Dudley give into peer pressure and experiment with smoking. They realize they don't like the effects of cigarettes, but the real persuasion to have them kick the habit comes from someone very close to home from Dudley - his father, whom despite having had a lung operation, is still a chronic smoker. After an unfavorable first encounter with a local fitness host named Maggie McKinney, Drummond still decides to invest in her business. He soon realizes that he wants it to be more than a business venture. Arnold and Kimberly learn the dangers of hitch hiking when they are abducted and held captive by a sinister man. Arnold escapes his captor and seeks help from the police. After Maggie breaks off their relationship, Drummond decides to take the family to Hollywood to meet up with her and find out why. Drummond proposes marriage to Maggie, only to find out that she has a 7-year old son named Sam. Everyone is excited about the prospect of having new family members except for Arnold who feels that he will be neglected. Drummond's wedding plans hit a snag after his lawyer convinces him to ask Maggie to sign a prenuptial agreement, which does not go over too well with her. On the night of a big party, Arnold is stuck at home babysitting Sam. Arnold thinks of converting to Judaism when he sees how many presents and checks his friend Robbie collects for his Bar Mitzvah. As part of Kathy's wheelchair games, Arnold decides to host a fund-raising party. He gets stuck with Lisa as a date and bribes Robby to take Kathy. He faces a problem when Maggie throws away his old sneakers which contain the donated money. Charlene temporarily moves in to the Drummond household after a fight with her father. She soon realizes that she and Willis have different ideas about marriage. Kimberly lies to Drummond about moving in with her boyfriend whom he is not very fond of to begin with. 

season 7 - 

After hearing that a nearby house is supposedly haunted by the ghost of its dead owner, Arnold and Sam decide to visit the house and do some investigating on their own. Arnold, Dudley, and Robbie, sick and tired of Lisa squealing on them, decide to sabotage her project for the science fair. However, they have second thoughts when Lisa's mom becomes their new teacher. When Sam starts wetting the bed, Arnold is anything but sensitive to his problem. Willis starts romancing the new girl at school who turns out to be an undercover narcotics agent. In order to impress a girl, Arnold becomes the ringleader of a student strike formed to protest the new school dress code. However, things take a turn for the worse when he is the only one suspended from school. Maggie gets very emotional when Sam decides that he wants to temporarily stay with his father. When Sam gets bullied by the Gooch at his school, Arnold tries to stand up to him but is unsuccessful. So he decides to get the new Italian exchange student to fight the Gooch in exchange for the promise of a date with the unsuspecting Willis. Arnold starts up a door-to-door business selling bug spray with Sam as his assistant. When he gets greedy and cuts Sam out of the profits, Sam decides to quit working for him and compete against him. Arnold faces a tough decision when he is appointed judge of his classroom court and he must choose between his friend Robbie and his girlfriend Jennifer. Willis's paralyzed friend, Stuart, who was once a terrific gymnast, comes home to visit. Drummond and Willis surprise him by naming a gymnasium after him and inviting the US Olympic Gymnastics team to the ceremony. However, Stuart makes it known that he is fed up with everyone's charity. Drummond sets a bad example when he talks Sam into going to the hospital for a tonsillectomy but later refuses to be checked in himself for a knee injury. Arnold finds himself in a difficult spot when he promises his class that he can deliver a celebrity for the school talent show but has no luck finding anyone. When Sam's little-league baseball-coach quits, Drummond takes over - but Drummond's coaching methods antagonize the other kids' parents. Meanwhile, Willis yearns for an expensive car as his graduation present. Upon hearing that Sam's favorite morning show host will be losing his show due to cancellation and replaced by Maggie's exercise show, Arnold organizes a letter-writing campaign to try and save the show. As part of his cub scout project, Sam must go to a retirement home and adopt a grandparent to work on a model airplane. However, when his adopted grandparent storms out on him, Sam is left feeling down in the dumps. Kimberly returns home from school in Paris to surprise Drummond on his birthday prompting Arnold and Willis to try and match her special gift, they decide to change their name to Drummond, until Willis suddenly has second thoughts. Drummond faces a tough decision when Sam asks if he can have a sleepover party with his new friend, who happens to be a girl. Arnold's innocent action of setting off a model rocket ship attracts international attention when the school project lands on the Russian Embassy building! Can Drummond and the others clear up this misunderstanding before they are branded international terrorists? Arnold faces being permanently grounded when Drummond gets a call from school saying he was caught in the boy's bathroom with a bottle of whiskey, in violation of the school's zero-tolerance policy on alcohol. Arnold must find a way to explain the misunderstanding: He was trying to stop a friend who was actually the alcoholic beverage's owner from imbibing. Drummond takes Arnold and Sam camping to strengthen the bonds. But this bonding session is seriously hampered when Sam's father shows up. Arnold is on cloud nine after he meets a girl whom he really likes- until his friends convince him to dump her so he can go out with a more popular girl. Putting his career and reputation on the line, Drummond covertly takes a job on the assembly lines at one of his Trans-Allied factories as part of an attempt to get in touch with his employees and make recommendations to boost morale and production. Arnold is traumatized after becoming a street mugger's latest victim. However, Arnold puts up his bravado in front of his friends, claiming he held his own ... until a classroom exercise brings Arnold's true emotions (which he tried to conceal to the knowing Drummond) to the surface. Arnold and Sam learn that their new friend, a street performer, has epilepsy. Their emotions become a ball of confusion and misconception ... until someone very close to them (namely, Pearl) shares her experiences with the disorder. 

season 8 - 

Drummond and Maggie begin an all-out effort to rescue Sam from their captors through a variety of methods, some of which backfire. Meanwhile, Don goes to great lengths to hide from his own family the fact that he kidnapped Sam. But the 7-year-old Sam uses his intuition and instinct to rescue himself, knowing that everyone he loves could face a very violent death if he is caught. A school bully orders Arnold to "guard" his girlfriend, but things become complicated when the girl falls for Arnold instead. Drummond and Maggie's hectic schedules and lack of time spent with each other leads Sam to believe that they'll be getting divorced soon. After a difficult first week of college, Willis comes home and fakes sickness so that he won't have to go back. After landing a job as a photographer at a small newspaper with Drummond's help, Arnold quickly gets tired of being an errand boy for a cranky boss and considers quitting. Remember Mr. Wilkes, the no-nonsense substitute teacher whose career was nearly destroyed when Arnold claimed he hit him? Well, Mr. Wilkes is back ... and gotten full-time employment as Arnold's hard-nosed English literature teacher, in this tale about Arnold goofing off in class, acting like a know-it-all and then Mr. Wilkes demanding that his deviant student put up or shut up - by teaching the class for a day. The task: Teach the students Dickens' classic "A Tale of Two Cities." In order to impress a girl, Arnold gets his friends and Sam to start up a band. After practicing a few times, they realize that Arnold is terrible and ask Sam to fire him. Arnold and Drummond have a difference of opinion when Arnold and his friends consider throwing fruit to protest a local civic group that is against black people. Feeling peer pressure from the guys, Arnold lies about having sex with his girlfriend. However when the actual opportunity arises, he is anything but ready. With Sam depressed that no one will come to his birthday party, Drummond pulls some strings and gets the popular kids TV show host Captain Jack to appear. However, the plan does not work out very well for Sam when the kids at the party ignore him and pay more attention to Captain Jack. Arnold's desire to join a coveted elite club at school has serious consequences for the busboy at the local hamburger joint when the prank prompts the busboy's unsympathetic boss - without investigating the situation - to unmercifully fire him on the spot. Kimberly makes a return visit home and all seems well with her, except that she's hiding a dark secret. The fact that she has been utilizing the dangerous Bulimic practice of staying thin by eating and then regurgitating it back out in the bathroom. She does her best to hide this from everyone until it becomes all too clear that her health is in jeopardy. Arnold gets jealous when Sam begins spending more time with Willis and he is the odd man out. Arnold overhears Drummond's phone conversation where he authorizes the firing of a poorly performing employee. Knowing he is getting an F in geometry (and fearing similar treatment from his father), Arnold turns to a con artist to forge his report card and Drummond's signature. But things backfire when Drummond - elated when he thinks his son had done outstanding in the class - plans to have him enrolled in an advanced placement course. Sam considers getting into a fist fight with a new kid in school who is constantly picking on him. Drummond and the family are featured on a television show about the rich and famous. Seeing that Arnold is afraid to ask out a pretty girl from his school, Willis bribes her with concert tickets so that she will ask him out. The plan backfires when Arnold eventually finds out. Arnold gets locked in a closet with his schoolyard rival Lisa. Arnold discovers a steroid ring operating among athletes at his school and tries to publicize it in the school newspaper.

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