A Different World made campus life, ambition and friendship central to a sitcom, and its mix of humor and heartfelt growing pains still resonates. If you're looking for more stories about young people finding their way, these ten series explore college, school and the transitions into adulthood from a range of perspectives.
College life and fresh starts
Grown-ish follows Zoey Johnson as she leaves home for college, where independence brings both opportunity and missteps. In Dear White People, students at a fictional Ivy League university navigate campus life through different viewpoints, with questions of identity and community woven into the comedy-drama.
The Sex Lives of College Girls centers on four roommates learning about themselves and the value of friendship at a fictional college. British series Boarders shifts the setting to an elite boarding school, following five scholarship students adapting to a new environment.
Stories of identity, ambition and belonging
Bel-Air reimagines a familiar sitcom premise as a contemporary drama about a teenager adjusting to life with relatives in a very different community. Overcompensating takes a comic approach to a college freshman's journey toward self-acceptance, while All American follows a talented football player balancing life between two neighborhoods.
Never Have I Ever brings humor to a teenager's efforts to navigate school, family and growing up. The docuseries Deaf U follows students at Gallaudet University, offering a close look at campus relationships and life in a Deaf community. And for a return to the source, the original A Different World remains a landmark sitcom focused on student life and achievement at a historically Black college.
Together, these shows illustrate how stories about education and belonging can make space for more voices--and help future audiences see their own paths reflected on screen.
