Gary Coleman’s Father Tried to Get Willis Fired From ‘Diff’rent Strokes’

The one question that people always ask Diff’rent Strokes star Todd Bridges is easy to guess. 

“What you talkin’ bout, Willis?”

Gary Coleman’s adopted father had the same question, likely spiked with salty expletives, after the two sitcom brothers got into a physical fight on the set of their hit show. “At 13 years old, Gary slapped me,” Bridges told Patrick Labyorteaux on The Patrick LabyorSheaux podcast. “And I slapped him back.”

Things weren’t always so heated between Coleman and Bridges. During the first three years of Diff’rent Strokes, “me and Gary were close, tight like brothers,” Bridges said. “Just like brothers.”

But when Coleman’s adopted dad Willie started coming to the set, “everything changed on the show,” said Bridges. “Just became totally different. It wasn't a fun set to be on.”

The boys’ real-life relationship grew tense, culminating with the slap exchange. And when Bridges struck back at Coleman, “Gary’s father tried to have me fired.” Willie went to the producers and insisted that Bridges lose his job: “‘We got to fire him. He slapped the star. Blah blah blah.’”

The producers shot down the idea. “They were like, ‘Willie, we can’t fire Willis. The show is about Willis and Arnold. We can’t fire Willis. It’d be dumb. We don’t want to make the show go under fast.”

Bridges kept his job, but his relationship with Coleman was strained. “Willie Coleman separated us for a few years,” he said. “When the show ended, I didn’t talk to Gary because, you know, I was having my own issues.”

Ironically, the two reunited for the same reason they split apart: Willie. “We became very close again because now Gary didn’t want anything to do with his parents,” Bridges explained.

The way the two mended fences is “the funniest story,” Bridges said. He was boarding a plane bound for New York when someone told him his brother was on the plane. Bridges protested — he’d just left his brother at home. “Oh, you’ll see,” said the flight attendant. Bridges found his seat right next to Gary Coleman. The two actors laughed at the coincidence.

Upon arrival in NYC, Bridges pushed Coleman (whose physical ailments made walking difficult) in a wheelchair. Coleman was suspicious: “Why are you pushing me after the things I’ve said about you?”

“Gary, you’re still my brother, man,” Bridges replied. “It doesn’t matter. We’re okay. You know, I got my life together. I’ve been sober for a while. Everything’s fine.”

Coleman got it. “And then we became really close again.” 

It was just like the old days before Willie Coleman arrived on the set. In the wake of the show’s early success, Bridges wasn’t even jealous of all the attention and magazine covers that Coleman received.

“Gary was the star. I was okay with that,” Bridges said, explaining why he was so cool with his second-banana status. “The audience was predominantly young girls, right? When I would come out, they would lose it. So I was like, ‘Yeah, you can be the star, but I’m getting the girls.’”