Shows Like
Shows Like A Different World for Campus Comedies
By Jordan A. · · 4 min read
Hillman College is open again. Netflix brought back A Different World as a ten-part revival of the 1987 classic, and it shot straight into the global conversation, landing at No. 3 on the Netflix Top 10 shows for the week of September 28 with 5.1 million views. The streamer has already renewed it for a second season, so the Hillman crowd is sticking around. If the reboot left you wanting more college halls, chosen family, and jokes with something on their mind, here is where to go next.
The original A Different World ran six seasons from 1987 to 1993 and was never just a hangout comedy. Under Debbie Allen, who directed much of its run, the show took on money, colorism, consent, and the world outside the dorm, all while making you laugh. It launched a generation of talent and sent a wave of real students toward historically Black colleges. The revival inherits that weight, and the shows below carry some piece of it too, whether it is the campus setting, the ensemble warmth, or the willingness to get serious when it counts.
Grown-ish is the closest match
Grown-ish is almost a spiritual sequel. The black-ish spinoff follows Zoey Johnson and her friends through college, and it does exactly what A Different World did, using young adulthood as a way to talk about identity, pressure, and growing up in public. Yara Shahidi anchors it, and over its run the show followed her crew all the way through school and out the other side into early adulthood. It leans a little more Instagram than Hillman ever did, but the DNA is the same, a tight friend group arguing, dating, and slowly becoming the people they want to be. You can stream it on Hulu, and it runs long enough to keep you busy for a while.
Dear White People brings the edge
If you want the campus conversation with sharper teeth, Dear White People is the pick. The Netflix series follows students at a mostly white Ivy League school navigating race, activism, and their own messy lives, and it moves between satire and real feeling without losing its footing. Justin Simien built it out of his own 2014 film, and across four seasons it keeps finding new angles on the same campus. It is funnier and angrier than the A Different World revival, and it rewards a full binge because the perspective shifts character to character across the season, so you see the same week through very different eyes.
The Sex Lives of College Girls keeps it loose
For the pure comedy end of the spectrum, The Sex Lives of College Girls on HBO Max is a blast. Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble created it, and it throws four very different freshmen roommates together at a New England university, then lets the chaos write itself. It is raunchier than Hillman, sure, but the heart of it is the same, four people becoming a family because they got assigned the same suite. The ensemble chemistry is the whole engine, which is the exact thing A Different World always did best.
Abbott Elementary proves the format still sings
A Different World worked because it put specific, lovable people in an institution and let them bounce off each other. Abbott Elementary does the same trick in a Philadelphia public school. Quinta Brunson's mockumentary is one of the most beloved comedies on TV right now, streaming on Hulu, and it shares the revival's gift for being warm and sharp at once. If you like characters who care about something bigger than the punchline, this is your show. We keep a running list of the best in our guide to the best comedy shows of 2026.
Community turns school into an ensemble playground
Different setting, same spirit. Community on Peacock drops a mismatched study group into a scrappy community college and builds an entire found-family comedy out of it. It gets much weirder than A Different World ever did, with paintball episodes and genre parodies, but underneath the chaos it is about outsiders who become each other's people. For more of that misfit-ensemble energy, our roundup of shows like Derry Girls is full of them.
A few more to enroll in
Still want more? These three keep the streak going:
- black-ish on Hulu, the family comedy that launched the whole Johnson universe and shares Grown-ish's knack for turning a sitcom into a conversation.
- Insecure on HBO Max, Issa Rae's sharp, funny look at friendship and ambition just past the college years.
- The original A Different World itself, if you somehow never saw it, because the 1987 run still holds up and gives the revival its whole emotional foundation.
What ties all of these together is people figuring themselves out together, usually while cracking jokes and occasionally while fighting about something that actually matters. That is the recipe A Different World perfected almost forty years ago, long before streaming existed, and it is why the Netflix revival clicked so fast with viewers who were not even born when Hillman first opened. The college years make for great television because everyone is changing at once, and a good ensemble turns that churn into comfort viewing you can return to again and again. If you are not sure which one to start, our guide to shows like The Office covers more comfort-watch ensembles worth your time. Or let BingeNext scan everything you already pay for and hand you the next one that fits your mood. Get TV recommendations and keep the semester going.
Topics covered: a different world, campus comedies, hbcu, netflix revival, college shows
About the author
Jordan A., Founder, BingeNext
Jordan A. is the founder of BingeNext and is responsible for every guide published on this site. He built the recommendation engine after one too many nights lost to the streaming menu. Dates, season counts and where-to-watch details in these guides are checked against official sources before publishing, and corrections are welcome at Jordan@Bingenext.com.