In promoting this book, Todd Bridges in his interview with 'Today' show co-host Meredith Vieira on NBC on March 15, 2010, and later with Joy Behar on her show on CNN, spoke openly and honestly about his ordeal of physical, sexual and emotional abuse he faced from the very people who were responsible for his best interest and safety. He has lived through the most difficult days of abuse, the harassment from police; intense racism in Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in 1980s and 1990s, addiction to controlled substances, life on the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles, repeated criminal charges including a murder charge, and bad publicity surrounding Diff'rent Strokes other actors, Gary Coleman and Dana Plato. Incidentally Dana died tragically at a very young age due to drug addiction and drug overdose on May 8, 1999. It is absolutely overwhelming for any man let alone a kid to face this trauma, yet Todd proves that you need to fight your way out, never relent to momentary setbacks, and you can still emerge as a reformed positive role model for kids who face similar challenges. He has turned his life around by becoming an author, a family man, a responsible father, working actor, director and a producer. This is absolutely incredible saga of an individual who had everything to the very lowest point in life. This is especially hard for fans who watched Diff'rent Strokes on TV regularly during 1970s and 80s.
The middle pages are especially hard to read as Todd Bridges describes in great detail his unfortunate addiction to various controlled substances and then becoming a drug trafficker himself living on the most dangerous streets of South Central LA, and dealing with worst offenders. Constant harassment of LAPD, racism he experienced from them at a very young age when he could not understand what it meant. Todd describes a very happy childhood growing in San Francisco where he faces very little racism, but moving to Los Angeles would change everything; it is not only fame, money, girls, drugs and sex but also the law going incessantly after him.
From this book, we also get to know the working relationship between three young actors of the show. Gary Coleman guided by his father was mean and unfriendly. The friendship between Dana Plato and Todd Bridges is not so sweet after all. Dana had addition to drugs since the age of 13, and everyone on the set knew her problem because she was using them on the set and was a highly unreliable cast member. Both of them had several years of sexual relationship and drug use, but Todd Bridges still regards her as his best friend whom he wanted to help in her final days by persuading her to check into a rehab clinic. This story is deeply saddening and hard to read especially for fans who adored the show.
The middle pages are especially hard to read as Todd Bridges describes in great detail his unfortunate addiction to various controlled substances and then becoming a drug trafficker himself living on the most dangerous streets of South Central LA, and dealing with worst offenders. Constant harassment of LAPD, racism he experienced from them at a very young age when he could not understand what it meant. Todd describes a very happy childhood growing in San Francisco where he faces very little racism, but moving to Los Angeles would change everything; it is not only fame, money, girls, drugs and sex but also the law going incessantly after him.
From this book, we also get to know the working relationship between three young actors of the show. Gary Coleman guided by his father was mean and unfriendly. The friendship between Dana Plato and Todd Bridges is not so sweet after all. Dana had addition to drugs since the age of 13, and everyone on the set knew her problem because she was using them on the set and was a highly unreliable cast member. Both of them had several years of sexual relationship and drug use, but Todd Bridges still regards her as his best friend whom he wanted to help in her final days by persuading her to check into a rehab clinic. This story is deeply saddening and hard to read especially for fans who adored the show.
Reference: Killing Willis: From Diff'rent Strokes to the Mean Streets to the Life I Always Wanted by Todd Bridges
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