List of Diff'rent Strokes episodes

Wealthy Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain) prepares to take in two boys from Harlem, Arnold (Gary Coleman) and Willis Jackson (Todd Bridges), who were the sons of his late housekeeper. Mr. Drummond plans to have the boys live in his Park Avenue apartment with him, his daughter Kimberly (Dana Plato), and new housekeeper Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae). Arnold appreciates Mr. Drummond's offer to take him in, but Willis wants to move back to their former home in Harlem. Arnold helps convince him otherwise.

Mr. Drummond enrolls Arnold and Willis at his former school, but the headmaster (Howard Morton) makes arrangements for them to fail their entrance exams.

The Drummond family recall past events on their first Christmas with Willis and Arnold.

Arnold is forced to deal with a bully at school; Mr. Drummond doesn't want him to fight, but Willis thinks fighting is the only option.

Mrs. Garrett helps out the girls of the chaotic dormitory at Kimberly's school.

The Alders visit New York in this second crossover with Hello, Larry, as the Drummonds help Larry get a job hosting a talk show.

The time comes for Mr. Drummond to officially adopt Arnold and Willis, but a junk dealer named Jethro Simpson (Whitman Mayo) pretends to be their cousin and tries to interfere with the adoption in order to obtain an inheritance coming to the boys.

A girl feigns interest in Arnold so she can get close to Willis.

Mr. Drummond makes a last minute bid to run for a local political office.

Arnold's teacher (Mary Ann Mobley) begins favoring him after she dates Mr. Drummond.

Willis' friends and Kimberly's schoolmates clash over who gets to do what in the apartment, and ruin Mr. Drummond's date in the process.

Arnold wants to impress Tootie with his "riches" when the Drummond family goes on a trip, so he and Willis go to the bank to make a withdrawal, but the two of them along with Mr. Drummond get trapped during a holdup by robbers. In the end, quick thinking by Arnold and Mr. Drummond saves the day.

Mr. Drummond doesn't want Willis to see his girlfriend Charlene because it's interfering with his schoolwork, so the two make secret arrangements to be together.

Arnold is made to give up junk food, which is difficult since his school has junk food vending machines, and having them removed may hurt his chances at winning a school election.

Kimberly dons a wig for a class play and ends up getting a date with an older man, so Arnold and Willis try to put a stop to it.

A student in an immigration and naturalization class (Rosalind Chao) becomes the suspect in a robbery.

Willis has trouble making friends at his new school, until it's discovered that his family is rich. Then he gets asked to buy marijuana for a party. Guest Star: Kim Fields as Tootie.

Willis is upset when he doesn't make the basketball team because a white student takes his place, so he plans to take legal action.

Arnold attends Kimberly's ballet recital, where he hits it off with everyone and proves to be a surprisingly-adept dancer. So he enrolls in his sister's class, which makes Willis very uncomfortable since he considers ballet a less-than-manly pastime.

Kimberly decides to transfer to Willis' school, and gets into a confrontation when she tries to join the all-male swim team.

Arnold tries to help Dudley woo classmate Lisa (Nikki Swasey), but the plan backfires when Lisa thinks Arnold is the one who likes her.

Arnold and Dudley befriend a bicycle shop owner named Mr. Horton (Gordon Jump), who is actually a pedophile trying to scope the two unwary boys out.

After watching an X-rated cartoon at the bike shop, Arnold decides he's had enough of Mr. Horton and goes home, leaving Dudley behind. Arnold lets slip details about his experiences with the seemingly congenial Mr. Horton, and Mr. Drummond calls the authorities. The police arrive just as Mr. Horton is making his move on Dudley (who had been given a sedative "to relax"), saving their friend from a potentially frightening experience.

When an episode of The A-Team is filmed in the Drummonds' apartment, Arnold has to compete with Mr. T for the affection of Dudley's cousin Angela, so Arnold tries to turn himself into a mini Mr. T, with embarrassing results.

A burglar holds the family hostage in their penthouse, but is knocked out and arrested. Drummond, Willis, and Arnold (aka "Captain Karate") all have different interpretations of what happened; then Pearl, who was in the kitchen and saw everything, tells Kimberly what really took place.

Mr. Drummond tries to make a business deal with exercise instructor Maggie McKinney (Dixie Carter), and falls in love with her.

Desperate to get home in time for their dad's 50th birthday party, Arnold and Kimberly disobey a family rule by thumbing a ride with a stranger named Bill (Woody Eney). Twenty years ago, Bill was in love with Kimberly's mom...who turned him down to marry Phillip. Before this comes out, however, Bill takes both kids for a ride in more than one sense: he brings them to his apartment, locks Arnold in the bedroom, and makes anything-but-proper advances toward Kimberly.

After escaping from a kidnapper/serial rapist without Kimberly, Arnold makes it home but can't remember where Bill resides...until the police hypnotize the boy and he recalls Bill's license plate number, which the cops trace to Kimberly just in time. Afterwards, the girl is urged to testify against Bill in court so that he'll never claim another victim. For Arnold and Kimberly, knowing something good came out of all this pales beside learning the hard way that some free rides aren't remotely worth the price.

Mr. Drummond travels to Hollywood and proposes to Maggie, and finds out she has a young son named Sam (Danny Cooksey). Meanwhile, Arnold and Dudley try to meet the star of Knight Rider (David Hasselhoff) and sneak into a car on the set that's about to be blown up.

Part 1: Arrangements are being made for the wedding between Mr. Drummond and Maggie, and Maggie becomes furious when she finds out that Mr. Drummond's lawyer suggested a pre-nuptial agreement.
Part 2: The wedding is about to take place, until Maggie and Mr. Drummond realize that neither of them called anybody to perform the ceremony.

After an argument with her father, Charlene moves in with the Drummonds and ends up fighting with Willis.

Kimberly plans to move in with her boyfriend, who her dad doesn't like, by tricking the family into thinking she's moving in with her girlfriend instead.

In this take-off on Ghostbusters, Arnold and Sam explore a haunted house.

Arnold and Sam go into business selling roach spray, but Arnold's greed causes Sam to go his own way.

Drummond's coaching background comes in handy when he's called in to help Sam's low-ranked little league baseball team. But, for Drummond, turning things around means benching his own stepson...which leaves Sam feeling very betrayed.

Sam's Cub Scout troop is called to work with handpicked retirement home-residents on various projects, but Sam's designated partner (John McIntire) calls Sam a brat and refuses to help. This forces Sam to assemble a model airplane by himself, with disastrous results. Humiliated by his troop-mates, Sam decides that all elderly people must be like the one who left him in the lurch. So Drummond has a chat with the man, hoping it will prompt him and Sam to patch things up.

Mr. Drummond goes undercover at his company to find out how his employees really feel about working there.

Arnold and Sam befriend a street performer, much to Mr. Drummond's dismay. When they try to tell her they can't hang out with her anymore, she begins having an epileptic seizure. At first the two are scared by the incident, but later on they start to make jokes about her condition. When Pearl overhears them, she reveals that she herself is epileptic, which causes the two to patch things up with their friend.

Part 1: Donald Brown (Royce D. Applegate), whose family has never recovered from the death of eldest son Tommy, kidnaps Sam to replace him.
Part 2: Braving Donald's threats on the Drummonds' lives, Sam calls home and gives Arnold the Browns' phone number...which the cops trace to the Brown residence. Sam is happily reunited with his family, but not before Philip is targeted by a con-artist seeking the $50 thousand cash reward which is being offered for Sam's whereabouts.

A tough guy (Forest Whitaker) wants Arnold to take care of his girlfriend while he is away, but the girl develops feelings for Arnold.

Arnold tries to impress a new girl by forming a rock group, the Frozen Headz. (He even agrees to let Sam join, since Robbie's singing makes Alfalfa Switzer sound like Luciano Pavarotti.) But Arnold's saxophone-playing is so lousy that it gets him the boot from his own band.

Arnold gets the rap when large amounts of food mysteriously disappear from the Drummond household. The real culprit, however, is Kimberly...who has developed bulimia.

Sam gets into a fight at Hamburger Hangar with bully Kurt (Carl Steven). Sam changes his tune, however, when he discovers that Kurt is a foster child...and very jealous of how well-off Sam is.

Willis persuades an old friend's sister (Robin Givens) to go out with Arnold by getting them tickets to see the rock group Rainbow Lobotomy. When Arnold soon learns the truth, he doesn't take it well...until it turns out the girl likes Arnold for real.

Arnold and Lisa get stuck working together on a school assignment, and get locked in their school's darkroom. This leads to the two of them coming to an understanding about their adversarial relationship, and they both end up liking each other, but it doesn't last.

Arnold finds out that several athletes at school are using anabolic steroids, so he goes undercover to expose the full story.