Which episodes does everyone prefer. With or without Sam McKinney? Personally, I thought he was a very good addition. Anyone think he wasn't necessary?


[This message has been edited by Madness (edited 02-18-2001).]

Ah. I thought Sam was a cute kid. He was a good addition. He looked up to Arnold. My favorite Sam episode was when he was kidnapped.

BY THE TIME SAM JOINED THE CAST OF DIFFERENT STROKES THE SHOW WAS PAST IT'S PRIME AND HEADING DOWNHILL.

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sam was cool but it was too late for DS its going a bit down little by little. I think the eps. where they kidnapped sam should have been the final eps. ABC kinda screwed over DS on purpose to boost Webster which never compared to DS.

I agree about ABC, why did they get the show anyways? DS was still getting reasonable ratings during the 1984-1985 season, yet ABC got the rights instead. And they placed DS up against Dallas, and never gave it any promotion either. Diff'rent Strokes could've ran maybe another season (nobody knew it was on ABC, I used to watch it on NBC when I was little, and had no idea the last season even happened), or at least had a proper farewell episode had ABC treated it better. But still, the show had seen it's peak when Sam came in.

I prefer the episodes without Sam, they re-used many of the same ideas - he bedwets, he's kidnapped, he has a party, etc..

but Diff'rent Strokes was always a top rated show with kids so I can see why they made the addition..

I heard that NBC was canceling the show. It's good that ABC did pick it up. As a kid, it would frustrate me that ABC had pulled the plug for a few weeks then bring it back to a Different night.
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Ellen: You have always wanted to be the center of attention. Honestly Eunice, don't you ever give up?

Eunice: You're just jealous because my husband doesn't run around with other women.

Ellen: 'Course not. Who'd want him?

prefered the ones without sam but all were enjoyable

The Addition of Sam was a Great edition of The Series Diff'rent Strokes

Sam was just there because Arnold was not a cute little preteen anymore.

I basically completely stopped watching this show when they added castmembers.

I never would watch them in syndication either. The show should have ended in 84 IMO~~

Wasn't Drummond's wife played by two different actresses(a.k.a Family Matters and Prince of Bel Air)?

Sam was okay, but he seem to put on that phoney Texas accent he had.

Wasn't Drummond's wife played by two different actresses(a.k.a Family Matters and Prince of Bel Air)?

Sam was okay, but he seem to put on that phoney Texas accent he had.

Just for the record, Danny Cooksey (who played Sam) hailed from Oklahoma, which is just to the north of the Lone Star State. You can check out his biography at http://imdb.com/name/nm0177528/.

:lol: of course, I didn't care for the little squirt myself. Looking like a red net and he had the worst voice in the world.. Man, that little boy use to irk me so. I preferred the episodes with the original cast before Mr. Drummond got married. Which episodes does everyone prefer. With or without Sam McKinney? Personally, I thought he was a very good addition. Anyone think he wasn't necessary?


[This message has been edited by Madness (edited 02-18-2001).]

Talk about jumping the shark! JtS moment #6!

New Kid in town...Sam!!!

Like Laverne and Shirley, I hold this show to also jump twice in the same time period. Why? B/C:

It jumped when:

- Mr. Drummond got married to Maggie (yes, two actresses played the same role)

- And the addition of Sam, the equivalent of the addition of Olivia on the Cosby Show and why Cobsy JtS'd later on as well!

I couldn't stand Sam, b/c he kept on asking too many stupid questions at the wrong times!

I also couldn't stomach the last two seasons also, b/c:

-ABC screwed DS big time, especially since Webster was also on that network
-And of all three Embassy Television shows (DS, Facts of Life, and Silver Spoons in particular) that updated their themes in their later seasons, DS has the worst-sounding theme update of the three!

Curses to the Sam-era eps.!!! :mad:

Sam wasn't cute nor funny. He really brought down the show.

i thought he was ok!!!:)

But like The Brady Bunch, they always think adding a new kid will ensure the survival of the series itself. It always backfires and never works..:p

But like The Brady Bunch, they always think adding a new kid will ensure the survival of the series itself. It always backfires and never works..:p

And The Cosby Show followed suit as well w/ Olivia years later.

My favorite Sam episode was when he was kidnapped.

Says it all, doesn't it ? :D

Eeeeew Sam. Actually, he wasn't as bad as his Mother (The 2nd one). Ugh!

And The Cosby Show followed suit as well w/ Olivia years later.

One thing I could say about Sam is that he was TEN TIMES BETTER than Olivia Kendall.

I never liked Sam. At that point, Diff'rent Strokes was already dying and Sam was just the final nail in the coffin. Diff'rent Strokes should have ended on a high note like Sienfeld.

I think that if they spead out the focus evenly on Willis, Arnold, and Sam the seventh season would have been alot better

I think that if they spead out the focus evenly on Willis, Arnold, and Sam the seventh season would have been alot better


Or atleast try to spin Willis off if he wasn't going to be used

I never got to see the addition of sam because comcast took off DS after the episode of "stress what stress"

Sam was a miserable character. After he destroyed Strokes (in all fairness, he wa san "add-a-kid" becaus ethe show had jumped the shark), I had a hard time watching that clown (danny Cooksey) on anything. I was seven years old or so when he guest starred in an episide of Growing Pains. Even then I wanted to beat him up. I can't watch Smokey Mountain Christmas to this day because he's on it. Has he ever made the successful transition to adult actor?

Sam was a miserable character. After he destroyed Strokes (in all fairness, he wa san "add-a-kid" becaus ethe show had jumped the shark), I had a hard time watching that clown (danny Cooksey) on anything. I was seven years old or so when he guest starred in an episide of Growing Pains. Even then I wanted to beat him up. I can't watch Smokey Mountain Christmas to this day because he's on it. Has he ever made the successful transition to adult actor?

He played on Salute Your Shorts which only lasted one year.

Like Growing Pains added Christine(Ashley Johnson to the show when it was almost over, and suddenly in a year she went from a baby to like 5 years old.)

Step by Step added (Emily Mae Young and in a year she went from a baby to 5 years old.)

Brady Bunch added Cousin Oliver.

Gimme a Break added Joey Lawarance real life brother to the show right before it went off the air(Mathew Lawarance)

Fresh Prince added Nikki(played on movie Little Rascels and went from a baby to like almost 5 in a year or so.)

Murphy Brown had a baby like 2 years before show went off the air.

Roseanne had Darlene have a baby right before it went off the air.

Family Ties added Andy later in the show.

Don't know why shows have to add kids, or have more than one person play the same character, or yet get a new character if one of the regulars leave.

Then they have disappearing character with no explaination at all. Like Happy Days Chuck, Family Matters Judy, Barney Miller his wife suddenly disappeared.

Sorry was not a Sam fan. I did not understand why they needed to bring in another kid? I thought Sam was annoying.And I could not stand the way he talked "Mr.D Mr.D Mr.D"!!!
Speaking of Sam the actor that played Sam was in Terminator 2 he played John Conners friend. I just found that out not to long ago.I scene that movie hundreds of times and never knew that was Sam.

Funny enough I couldn't stand Sam during the first season he appeared but grew to like him him during the last ABC year. Always struck me as a new wave version of the kid who wore braces and was a friend of Arnold and Dudley's in during the earlier seasons (I think his name was Robbie).

I hate Sam.

Why did you not like sam

He annoyed me.

He annoyed me.

Sam's whole precocious, wide-eyed country boy act got really corny and grating really fast.

i think it sucked with sam

I liked his character.

Didn't mind him, although the country accent was pretty bad.

I didn't mind the final season, but that revamped theme song was also pretty bad lol...

Talk about jumping the shark! JtS moment #6!

New Kid in town...Sam!!!

Like Laverne and Shirley, I hold this show to also jump twice in the same time period. Why? B/C:

It jumped when:

- Mr. Drummond got married to Maggie (yes, two actresses played the same role)

- And the addition of Sam, the equivalent of the addition of Olivia on the Cosby Show and why Cobsy JtS'd later on as well!

I couldn't stand Sam, b/c he kept on asking too many stupid questions at the wrong times!

I also couldn't stomach the last two seasons also, b/c:

-ABC screwed DS big time, especially since Webster was also on that network
-And of all three Embassy Television shows (DS, Facts of Life, and Silver Spoons in particular) that updated their themes in their later seasons, DS has the worst-sounding theme update of the three!

Curses to the Sam-era eps.!!! :mad:

I couldn't stand Sam either, from his country accent (even if it was real) to his bad hairdo. It seemed a lot of these "New Kids" had bad [long] hair, from Cousin Oliver (Though he didn't look as bad w/ it, somehow.) to Ricky Stevens on The Partridge Family and even Andrew Keaton on Family Ties. Maybe they were all trying to look like the original annoying kid actor, Mason Reese.

Maybe they were all trying to look like the original annoying kid actor, Mason Reese.

I googled Mason Reese and stumbled across your worst nightmare. :lol:
watch?v=dj4leeQVG8M

Sam was awful. The episode where he gets kidnapped should have been a highlight of the show. Unfortunately, he was returned to the Drummonds.

That episode is very unrealistic. If anybody kidnapped him in real life, they would have been so annoyed that they would have returned him within 2 hours.

Bo and Luke Duke never should have helped Sam either (I forget what Danny Cooksey's name was in the Dukes of Hazzard episode in which he appeared).

he also should have been shunned as the fake Ben ("who's that weenie?") in that episode of Growing Pains. I hope Mr. Cooksey has a prosperous life, but he was the most annoying child actor of the 80's.

http://www.avclub.com/article/what-tv-character-manages-ruin-show-you-230712

Will Harris

I’m answering this with the caveat that the show was clearly already past its sell-by date at that point anyway, but in my mind, there has always been a direct correlation between my falling out of love with Diff’rent Strokes and the arrival of Sam McKinney, played by Danny Cooksey. Sam—the red-headed 7-year-old son of Mr. Drummond’s new love interest, Maggie—joined the series during its sixth season, and he was absolutely insufferable, completely throwing off the balance of the show. I don’t blame Cooksey, who earned redemption for his sins by virtue of his work in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, not to mention his subsequent career as a voice actor. But his character cemented my recognition of when a family-centric show is attempting to survive the aging of the kids in its cast by bringing in new kids to regurgitate the gags that the old kids used to deliver. Instead of attempting to evolve and move forward, Diff’rent Strokes made a conscious effort to maintain the status quo, and it failed miserably: After Sam moved in, I tuned out. Thankfully, I didn’t know until after the fact that the show had done an episode where Sam was kidnapped. I probably would’ve rooted for the kidnapper.

Family Ties added Andy later in the show.

Interestingly enough, while it seems like Family Ties brought the Andy character in later in the show's run, Elyse became pregnant with Andy in the second episode of season 3. It was quite an early development in the show's run.

I never liked Sam. At that point, Diff'rent Strokes was already dying and Sam was just the final nail in the coffin. Diff'rent Strokes should have ended on a high note like Sienfeld.
Seinfeld actually stunk towards the end, and the extremely hyped final episode was absolutely awful.

^---Technically that would be "stank", but I actually loved the series finale, lol :-)

Why did you not like sam

Sam was in essence, the '80s equivalent to "Cousin Oliver". Arnold was at an age where they could have focused on some of his growing pains, but instead he was always shown hanging out and babysitting (with Willis giving little to do most of the time) a precocious kid a few years younger than himself.

He played on Salute Your Shorts which only lasted one year.

Like Growing Pains added Christine(Ashley Johnson to the show when it was almost over, and suddenly in a year she went from a baby to like 5 years old.)

Step by Step added (Emily Mae Young and in a year she went from a baby to 5 years old.)

Brady Bunch added Cousin Oliver.

Gimme a Break added Joey Lawarance real life brother to the show right before it went off the air(Mathew Lawarance)

Fresh Prince added Nikki(played on movie Little Rascels and went from a baby to like almost 5 in a year or so.)

Murphy Brown had a baby like 2 years before show went off the air.

Roseanne had Darlene have a baby right before it went off the air.

Family Ties added Andy later in the show.

Don't know why shows have to add kids, or have more than one person play the same character, or yet get a new character if one of the regulars leave.

Then they have disappearing character with no explaination at all. Like Happy Days Chuck, Family Matters Judy, Barney Miller his wife suddenly disappeared.
And Full House added Nicky and Alex Katsopolis.

Married With Children had the good sense of kicking off their little kid Seven.

So that was season 6 out of a total of 8 seasons when he started w/ Maggie. I liked it better WITHOUT the both of them, but I know the show had been going on for 6 seasons & I'm sure they needed some new blood (characters) on the show to keep it interesting. There wasn't much left to show with Willis & Kimberly because they were pretty grown up & ready to move out of the house pretty much.

I liked Sam. He and Maggie breathed new life into the show and I liked how Arnold played the big brother role to him.

Sam was obnoxious. I liked Maggie, she's the only reason I can stomach those later episodes.

Sam was awful, one of the worst characters in sitcom history. Diff'rent Strokes was a great show- until Sam and Maggie came.

The Pre-Sam Era of Different Strokes are the best in my opinion

Sam was actually a great kid and he was truly his own person.

never cared for sam but did not hate him

I didn't mind Sam, but I did miss Kimberly.

Danny Cooksey, Sam, guest starred on one episode of "Mr. Belvedere".

He also guest stared in a episode of Growing Pains.
This is your like. He played replacement Ben.

For a long time, I didn't care for the addition of Sam to the show. I blamed him for the downfall of the show. In hindsight, I was upset that Arnold was growing up. He no longer was the cute kid. In fact, Arnold became mean and that was an underlying theme that Arnold would be rude toward his little brother until the last minute of the show.

He also guest stared in a episode of Growing Pains.
This is your like. He played replacement Ben.
That's also the episode that Alan Hale Jr. (The Skipper from Gilligan's Island) guest starred as the cab driver.

I liked Sam. He and Maggie breathed new life into the show and I liked how Arnold played the big brother role to him.

What made the series WORK in the beginning was the element of having these two young adopted brothers from Harlem thrust into an upscale lifestyle, and seeing how they navigated having a white sister, a rich white father, and a whitebread lifestyle. Remove those elements (the children aging, the older sister) and add new characters and you change the show too much. Willis started to play a secondary role around this time. It also ruined the show because it was their bond that also made the show.

I can't stand Sam. I didn't like him when I was a kid, and I don't like him now as an adult.

He has the most punchable face I have ever seen!

Obnoxious and whenever he acted "disappointed and sad" - he tried way too hard.

I liked Sam, but I like the show best when Arnold, Kimberly, Willis, and Mr. Drummond were on the show.

Sam was awful. Not cute or funny. Different Strokes was way past its prime at that point. NBC should have ended the show after the Mr. Drummond got married. The last two seasons were terrible and it was cleared Gary Coleman wanted off the show. He looked miserable and angry those final two years of the show.

Sam was awful. Not cute or funny. Different Strokes was way past its prime at that point. NBC should have ended the show after the Mr. Drummond got married. The last two seasons were terrible and it was cleared Gary Coleman wanted off the show. He looked miserable and angry those final two years of the show.

He supposedly didn't get along with Dixie Carter. He got his way and she was gone for season 8.

Now that season was the one that REALLY shouldn't have happened. The only thing good about it was the new opening. The worst thing was the casting of Mary Ann Mobley.