Diff'rent Strokes

Diff'rent Strokes

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

Genre: ComedyDramaFamily

Cast:Gary ColemanTodd BridgesConrad BainDana PlatoMary Jo CatlettDanny CookseyShavar RossCharlotte RaeDixie CarterSteven MondNedra VolzMary Ann MobleyNikki Swasey SeatonJanet JacksonJason HerveyRosalind ChaoDody GoodmanBobby Herbeck


1Season 3

S3.E1 ∙ The Bank Job

Wed, Nov 12, 1980

Arnold and Willis become hostages during a bank robbery by two experienced criminals.

2Season 3

S3.E2 ∙ Small Claims Court

Wed, Nov 19, 1980

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.

3Season 3

S3.E3 ∙ Substitute Mother

Wed, Nov 26, 1980

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.

4Season 3

S3.E4 ∙ The Accident

Wed, Dec 3, 1980

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.

5Season 3

S3.E5 ∙ Little Mother

Wed, Dec 10, 1980

A misunderstanding with a visiting friend leads Drummond, Arnold, and Willis to believe that Kimberly is pregnant.

6Season 3

S3.E6 ∙ Football Father

Wed, Dec 17, 1980

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.

7Season 3

S3.E7 ∙ First Love

Wed, Dec 31, 1980

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.

8Season 3

S3.E8 ∙ Count Your Blessings

Wed, Jan 7, 1981

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.

9Season 3

S3.E9 ∙ The Loan

Wed, Jan 14, 1981

Arnold befriends the doorman who asks him for a $100 loan so he can bet it on a horse race.

10Season 3

S3.E10 ∙ Roots

Wed, Jan 21, 1981

Mr. Drummond worries that Willis's newfound Afrocentric attitudes are dividing the family.

11Season 3

S3.E11 ∙ Junk Food Junkie

Wed, Jan 28, 1981

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.

12Season 3

S3.E12 ∙ The Bus

Wed, Feb 4, 1981

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.

13Season 3

S3.E13 ∙ The Older Man

Wed, Feb 25, 1981

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.

14Season 3

S3.E14 ∙ Where There's Hope

Wed, Mar 4, 1981

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.

15Season 3

S3.E15 ∙ The Magician

Wed, Mar 11, 1981

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.

16Season 3

S3.E16 ∙ Drummond's Fair Lady

Wed, Mar 18, 1981

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.

17Season 3

S3.E17 ∙ The Ancestors

Wed, Mar 25, 1981

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.

18Season 3

S3.E18 ∙ Almost American

Wed, Apr 1, 1981

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.

19Season 3

S3.E19 ∙ Room for One More

Wed, May 6, 1981

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.

20Season 3

S3.E20 ∙ The Athlete

Wed, May 13, 1981

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.