LIGHT UP THE SKY LIKE A FLAME: Not long after she left the Howard stage (left), Debbie Allen took the stage at the Golden Globes, winning for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy. Left photo: The Bison 1971, p.238, Howard University Archives, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Washington, D.C. Right photo courtesy Debbie Allen.
NOW: Debbie Allen prepares her students to be the next generation of artists. Photo by Oliver Bolkeberg.
THEN: Howard student Debbie Allen (left) in a campus variety show. Photo: The Bison 1969, p.169, Howard University Archives, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Washington, D.C.
as the model — literally. In October 2025, it introduced the Debbie Allen doll as the latest edition to its Barbie Tribute Collection. The doll replicates Allen’s signature look in her “Fame” role and is made with 11 “articulation points” so it can be positioned in a variety of dance poses. Allen has been a go-to choreographer and producer for Motown, bringing the magic of the label’s heyday into the present. For the “Motown Returns to the Apollo” special, she produced and choreographed the “Tall, Tan, and Teasin” segment, which used contemporary dancers and singers to pay tribute to Black women who set the vocal standard over decades, including Dinah Washington, Bessie Smith, Josephine Baker, and Billie Holliday, whom Allen herself portrayed while singing “God Bless the Child.” More recently, Allen produced the 2024 Motown Christmas Special. Her Motown moments make clear a sentiment that manifests itself throughout Allen’s body of work: She remembers. She is a consummate student of history and humanities — she studied Greek at Howard — but also has a deep appreciation for the times in which she lives. It fuels much of the passion evident in her projects. It was perhaps fate that “The Cosby Show,” starring Allen’s sister, Phylicia Rashad, would yield a spinoff based on the mythical HBCU, Hillman College. Hillman was alma mater of Rashad’s character Claire and husband Heathcliff. While the show was an instant hit, something was off. The show, which was supposed to be about an HBCU, seemed like it could have been set at virtually any college. It was missing authenticity. After visiting the set, Rashad knew that a fix was needed and knew exactly who could fix it — someone who remembered what it was like to attend an HBCU and understood its unique rhythm and culture. In stepped Rashad’s sister, Debbie. As director and producer of the show for five seasons, she made “A
generations have identified it as the touchpoint that made them want to attend college, and HBCUs in particular. The data backs it up. A report from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics found that annual enrollment at HBCUs increased by 26% between 1976 and 1994, but virtually all of the increase occurred during the show’s run from 1987-1993. As an HBCU graduate, Allen was uniquely qualified for her work on the series. “I lived and breathed it,” Allen said of her HBCU experience. “I was at Howard when we took over the A [administration] building and demanded Afrocentric studies. I mean, we were so not afraid and brave and understanding that we had to stand up. I know how important the college experience is and how defining it is, not just for individuals, but also for a community, for a country. If the young population is silent, the country is in a coma. ‘A Different World’ had all the potential, but it was dealing with trivia and foolishness. There was nothing that was culturally relevant other than there was a Black school. They didn’t have the right people and they didn’t have someone in charge of the show that understood HBCUs. And so I was able to just bring my entire Howard University experience. We did a protest in the show where they took over the A building [at Hillman College] over a radio show. There was no Greek life on the show. What HBCU was that? What I brought was really freedom and a blueprint for the writers. There were some wonderful writers who did the work. And I just had to set people free. I put hot sauce on the table.” Directing “A Different World” made her a legend behind the camera, but Allen’s knack for directing has been on stark display during most of her career. She
made her credited directorial debut directing the 1984 “Dream Street” video for her fellow “Good Times” guest star, Janet Jackson. She directed 10 episodes of “Fame” and two episodes of “Family Ties,” the Thursday night “Must See TV” NBC show whose timeslot, ironically, was subsequently taken by “A Different World.” She lent her directorial talents to an incredibly diverse array of other television shows, from comedies such as “The Sinbad Show,” “The Jamie Foxx Show,” “That’s So Raven,” “Girlfriends,” “Insecure,” and “Everybody Hates Chris” to science fiction shows like “The Twilight Zone” and “Quantum Leap” to dramas like “Empire,” “Scandal,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” and “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” and even “dramedies” like “The Game,” in which she worked with fellow Howard alumna Wendy Raquel Robinson. Overall, she’s credited with directing over 50 television shows — and counting. She’s equally at home as a producer, making the logistics and business decisions that bring a show to fruition. She’s produced movies, television shows, television specials, music videos, and theatre productions, in addition to 122 episodes of “A Different World.” Contemporary audiences may also recognize her work on another show in which she has been instrumental, Shondaland’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” I just had to set people free. I put hot sauce on the table.
Different World,” well, different from other shows. She imbued it with the trademarks of HBCU culture, from step shows to Greek-letter organizations to homecomings and marching bands. Most important, she ensured that the students and faculty at Hillman were portrayed as family who cared as much about each other as they did about their own lives, characters such as Whitley, Dwayne, Jaleesa, Kim, Freddie, Ron, Lena, Mr. Gaines, Colonel Taylor, and the one and only Charmaine Brown, portrayed by former Miss Howard Karen Malina White (BFA ’86). At times, in defiance of the powerful network and studio, Allen made sure that show discussed issues affecting young Black people, including apartheid, date rape, police brutality, and AIDS, at the time a taboo subject that no other show would touch. It showed the world that HBCU students are uniquely gifted, brilliant, fearless, and ready to be leaders in any field. The sitcom consistently ranked in the top five of all television shows for most of its run. When “A Different World” debuted, many talented Black students were being steered away from HBCUs. The schools were stereotyped as inferior, underfunded, and “not realistic.” The only part of the stereotype that was true, wanton underfunding, made it hard for the schools to counter that narrative without large expenditures on marketing and public relations. “A Different World” filled that gap, showing that, far from inferiority, HBCUs were bastions of ingenuity and ambition where students were both challenged and nurtured as they emerged from adolescence. Whether they watched it on broadcast television, in syndication, or streaming, multiple
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Howard Magazine
Fall 2025
Fall 2025
Howard Magazine
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