Diff'rent Strokes was really the first show to teach me about racism. I was too young to understand All in the Family during its heydey. I was the same age as Arnold (8) when the show started. I never used to really think about people's races or nationalities before watching this show. I really learned just how narrow-minded people could be about race with the two-part "Arnold's girlfriend" episode from season two. I hated that guy's guts who wouldn't allow his daughter to stay in the same hospital room with Arnold because of his racism. A couple of little kids going through the ordeal of having operations who are in dire need of each other's friendship and a father is such an obtuse bigot that he takes it out on a couple of kids. At the time, I considered that to be one of the most disturbing TV episodes I had ever watched. Of course, a lot of episodes of the series were really heavy stuff for young kids, but nobody provided parental advisories on the tv at that time. Overall, Diff'rent Strokes was a show I enjoyed a lot as a kid. But many kids will be disturbed by many episodes.

Kids of today being disturbed by any episode of DS? That is total BS. Have you SEEN kids of today? How they act, dress, etc? You really think kids in todays mordern world will be afraid of an episode of DS? Gimme a break! Children are very forward and adult for their ages these days.

Are you suggesting that the Arnolds Girlfriend episode will turn kids into racists or scare them away from being friends to coloured people or people of different ethinic origins? Again, BS.

What a silly post.

I watched this show as a kid, and was never really affected in the way you were. I am sorry that that particular episode had such a negative effect on you, but to me episodes like that are good because they show kids what life is really like, and they don't try to sugar coat things. I know kids who were really sheltered throughout childhood, and basically weren't exposed to any part of the real world. They were taught that all you need is love, and that all was right in the world. Later on in life, when those kids grew up, they found out the hard way that life wasn't the wonderful, sugar coated place that their parents had made it out to be, and they were impacted deeply at that realization. I think episodes like this may be good because they help to prepare children for the bad things that are out there in life, and it gives them an idea of what they can expect in the real world.

RetroChick--I don't think that gregrob was saying the episode would turn kids into racists. I think he or she was only saying that it was distrubing, as a little kid, to see what a bigot the father was. The epidsode was quite blunt about the man's deep seated bogitry so it could be an eye-opening episode for many little kids.