Diff'rent Strokes ran for eight seasons, from 1978 to 1986 The sitcom made a star out of child actor Gary Coleman and launched the successful spinoff, The Facts of Life

Melanie Watson Bernhardt, the trailblazing actress who played Kathy Gordon for four episodes on the 1980s sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes” and became one of the first disabled performers onscreen, died on F...

Back then it was uncommon for a person with a disability to be depicted on television, and Watson’s authentic portrayal of a young person with a disability was widely noted, according to Forbes.