Before They Were "Where Are They Now?" Fodder

Growing up, I was a sucker for Diff'rent Strokes. Every afternoon I'd watch the re-runs and chant the Arnold mantra of "Wacha talkin' about, Willis?" as he spewed it out every episode without fail. I even stuck with the show after Mr. Drummond got married and they brought in the annoying little step-brother Sam, who would later get kidnapped in the show. That was just one of many touchy storylines the show covered over the years. There was perverts, racism, epilepsy, amongst others, all thrown into this family sitcom one could label "cute."

Needless to say, I was closet-excited when I first saw the checklist for Donruss Americana II. Not only were Arnold and Willis featured on their own autograph cards, but there was a dual Co-Stars autograph featuring much aged versions of the on-screen brothers. I finally pulled the trigger and picked one up. While I'm not a huge fan of the sticker autographs, the design is very nice otherwise. To one or two souls out there, the ink color variants for the signatures and the serial numbering out of 50 might excite them. For me, I'm happy to add the autographs of a couple of my childhood icons to my collection.

For your viewing pleasure, Ed "Too Tall" Jones guest stars on a Diff'rent Strokes Minisode: