AFTER DIFF'RENT STROKES AIRED

I must say it was a relief, a physical and emotional relief, to settle back after viewing the two-hour movie shown on NBC last night giving America some insight into the lives of the people involved in the long-running sit-com, "Diff'rent Strokes" starring Gary Coleman, Todd Bridges, and the late Dana Plato.

Yes, I know there were adult actors in the show, including Conrad Bain…but you won't be surprised that my focus was on the depiction of my friends. How closely would they track the Truth, at least as I knew it to be? Would the writers and actors play Fair? You just never know about these things. The only project that left me with this same sense of satisfaction in the past was the well received "Child Stars; Their Story" on A&E, Produced and Directed by our own Melissa Gilbert and Tony Dow.

Was I completely satisfied with last night's telecast? No, but then, that never happens. Chalk it up to my training and admittedly passionate point of view. What I was most pleased about was that the acting was first rate, and the characters were allowed to develop so you, the audience, could get a feeling for the people who were faced with Fame and the subsequent aftermath that flowed from those choices. I know so many of the players I was fearful a singular point of view would surface, but what I ended up realizing is that Gary and Todd were providing guidance and counsel throughout the presentation…which is a very good thing indeed. The reason the movie stayed on track was that two highly trained industry professionals were on board.

What did I miss? Two minor points, really, remembering that this was a movie. I would love to have seen a tight explanation of the business structure that so-called caring adults erected around Gary Coleman. The Court testimony I witnessed was riveting, especially when the Judge finally "got it" and understood that everyone around Gary had an economic "interest" and that no one, mother and father included, saw the person inside the performer. Frankly, it's amazing that at least two of the "kids" survived. But boy, what a price they've paid.

My last observation is that the most disturbing element of all that I saw and learned back in the days when A Minor Consideration was just getting started, was an observation made by two of the lawyers that helped Gary win his lawsuit against those who put Zephyr Productions together, Phillip Boesch and Drew Ryce: "When you realize the mortality rate of Gary's kidney disease," they told me, "and you see what the survival rates were back in the 80's, the truth is that no one expected Gary to live past his Nineteenth birthday…and if that would have happened, they would have gotten away with it."

Most frightening of all, of course, is that what happened to the children on this popular television show back in the 80's is happening today, right now, and we all have to wonder if today's versions of the commissioned schemers think they're going to get away with it, too.

There ought be a Law.
There will be, so help me God.

Paul Petersen