Spike Lee took a moment to go after Bill Cosby. Over the past weekend, Lee’s 1988 film School Daze began trending on social media after it premiered on Netflix. The movie became a trending topic after its premiere.
Lee took a moment to share a few little-known facts about the film on his Twitter page. One major claim was that the concept behind School Daze, which was a look at HBCU life, was stolen by producers of “A Different World,” a spin-off of “The Cosby Show” about a fictional historically Black college campus.
Lee tweeted that School Daze was completed before “A Different World” premiered in 1987.
“And For Record, SCHOOL DAZE Was Shot Before DIFFERENT WORLD,” Lee tweeted. “Robbi Reed Cast Both. Bill Cosby Jacked Us. (sic)”
Cosby served as the executive producer of ”A Different World,” which premiered in September 1987, and School Daze hit theaters in February 1988.
Both projects featured actors Laurence Fishburne, Bill Nunn, Tisha Campbell, and Robbie Reed.
School Daze and “A Different World” became cult classics as the first film and TV project, respectively, to provide an inside look at HBCU schools and culture. They also served as inspiration for thousands of Black students who would go on to attend and graduate from an HBCU.
But while Lee appears to have beef with Cosby over the concept, both men came together when Cosby helped to fund 1992’s Malcolm X.
