S30E7: Gary Coleman

Trashy Divorces

Hemlock Creatives

Comedy, History

4.6 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Child actor Gary Coleman made a big cultural mark on the 1980s in his role as Arnold Jackson on Diff'rent Strokes - "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" was his notable catchphrase on the show. But the young man who emerged from the series in 1986 had a hard road ahead of him. Because of health issues stemming from his earliest days, he retained his childlike stature and appearance, and the $18 million he had earned as the highest paid child actor of the decade had been pilfered by none other than his parents. His life never got less complicated. Want early, ad-free episodes, regular Dumpster Dives, bonus divorces, limited series, Zoom hangouts, and more? Join us at patreon.com/trashydivorces! Want a personalized message for someone in your life? Check us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to trashy divorces. Everybody's favorite good podcast about bad relationships.
0:07.3	My name is Stacy and Alicia. We're going old school this week.
0:10.6	That we are, friends. It is Alicia here. And today I'm bringing you the trashy divorce of Gary Coleman,
0:18.5	child star galore of different strokes with quite a sad story.
0:24.6	Yeah, tough life he had.
0:26.1	There are a lot of really interesting bits, some really good spiderwebs too, but ultimately
0:31.3	just really sad stuff in this one.
0:34.4	I mean, there's a lot of trash as well.
0:36.7	It has heaps of everything, really.
0:39.6	Yeah. Let's include some health challenges, incredible fame, money swindling the crash after all the
0:46.8	fame, even a mountaintop wedding and so much probate drama as well. You know what they say,
0:54.6	Trash Pandas?
0:55.7	It takes different strokes to move the world.
0:58.0	And if we're going to move this episode,
0:59.9	we got to go, go, go.
1:22.3	Stacey, remember back to the late 1970s, early 1980s, and there was no lack of iconic sitcoms.
1:23.1	Truly not.
1:25.0	Early on the TV.
1:26.1	It was the thing.
1:27.6	It was the fad of the day for sure.
1:29.0	Let's walk down memory lane.
1:41.3	Some of the most popular ones included MASH, Happy Days, the Jefferson's, one day at a time, Alice, Laverne and Shirley, soap, and Three's company. But few sitcoms made a bigger cultural impact than different strokes.
	...

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