Debbie Allen Tells ‘The View’ That Whoopi Goldberg Was The “Secret Weapon” In ‘A Different World’s AIDS Episode: “Saved Millions Of Lives”

It was a different world back in the early 1990s — literally. On this morning’s episode of The View, the cast of ’90s hit A Different World recalled recruiting Whoopi Goldberg for a controversial episode that tackled the topic of AIDS.

Debbie Allen, who was a showrunner and producer on the hit sitcom, revealed why she asked Goldberg to guest-star in the April 1991 episode titled “If I Should Die Before I Wake.”

“I remember especially the degree of difficulty of doing a show about AIDS,” she said on The View. “And Whoopi Goldberg was our secret weapon. She was someone that I knew, we were friends. We all knew she was gonna win that Oscar that year.”

(Editor’s Note: The View is currently on hiatus; contrary to what you may have heard, The View was not canceled today. This article was originally published on April 17, 2024 when this episode first aired. The View will return with new episodes in September.)

Allen continued, “When we were the first network television show to address AIDS, after Magic Johnson made his announcement, I had to do something.”

The actress said she and the show’s lead writer and producer Susan Fales-Hill knew they had to bring on a “big gun” like Goldberg to help make the episode happen.

“Whoopi — I called her — and she said, ‘Yeah. I’ll do it,'” Allen said. “She was down. And it made it possible to save millions of lives that you said yes, Whoopi Goldberg!”

But despite bringing on Goldberg, they weren’t exactly out of the woods.

“The advertisers were pulling out. We had never had to show a script to an advertiser,” Allen said, noting that it ultimately became their “highest-rated episode.”

As a spinoff of The Cosby Show, A Different World ran for six seasons between 1987 and 1993. The series follows a group of students at a fictional historically Black college in Virginia. In the episode Allen brought up on The View, Whitley (Jasmine Guy) considers losing her virginity to Dwayne (Kadeem Hardison) — but has second thoughts when one of her classmates reveals she has AIDS.

Goldberg concluded the conversation by revealing why she agreed to make an appearance on the sitcom.

“This was also a unique opportunity that didn’t present itself,” she said. “And you know that because you only saw one show full of characters who were brown — about a school, a college, someplace you didn’t see us on television. It’s just a reminder.”

The moderator cheekily added, “And anytime Debbie asked me to do something, I just said yes.”

The View airs on weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.