Best TV Couple #4: Dwayne Wayne & Whitley Gilbert

College sweethearts, Dwayne (Kadeem Hardison) and Whitley (Jasmine Guy) took the slow burning route to relationship road.

A Different World showed black students attending college-- a black college-- and experiencing the good alongside the bad. It was beneficial for these young adults to have trusted mentors instilling necessary values-- parental figures to watch out for them. In the meantime, they fell in and out of love. One of the greatest romantic sagas was Dwayne and Whitley.

At Hillman University, funky named Dwayne Cleophus Wayne (what were his parents thinking!) tried to get with every girl that caught his bifocal vision on campus, starting with fickle Denise Huxtable who couldn't return his feelings. She left to pursue other avenues. That left rich, spoiled Southern lady, Whitley Gilbert-- following in the footsteps of her alunmi parents.

Whitley tried to fight her feelings for Dwayne, but even her fantasies told on her.

With those perfectly composed scrunchy ponytails, Whitley was the uppity girl dressed to the nines in expensive clothes and jewelry, her head always thrown high, her obsession with ladylike behavior a strict belief beneath her snobbery veil. She also majored in art history-- a subject severely lacking black figureheads (especially if considering current cries for art museum diversity fellows). While pursuing a solid liberal arts, French, and business education, she hoped to marry her equal.

Dwayne was the opposite-- an underprivileged "other side of the tracks" only child. The tall, dark, and handsome nerd excelled proficiently in math and set memorable fashion standards with the double glasses and oversized sweatshirts. He often took initiative, showed sensitive nature (not often explored on television for black male characters), and followed his dreams almost to a T.

Love simmered and prevailed.

In the first season, Dwayne and Whitley traded harmless banter-- Dwayne calling Whitley spoiled and self centered and Whitley making fun of his cavalier manners. However in season one, episode four's "Those Who Don't.... Tutor," after helping Denise with calculus past curfew, Dwayne accidentally slips into Whitley's room by mistake. As he climbs out of her bedroom, he is caught red handed and doesn't say anything to protect Whitley's reputation. In "Mr. Hillman," he campaigns against her in a competitive beauty pageant (an honor bestowed on her mother and grandmother) and begins understanding that his treatment of women is atrocious.

Yet "If Only For One Night" something new blossomed for Whitley and Dwayne. Yes, Whitley paid for Dwayne's date with Denise and crashes said date. Dwayne comforts her, caring and thoughtful despite the interference and encourages her to stand up to her mother.

The second season shows Dwayne and Whitley maintain a platonic friendship. Charged moments brew between them, persuading a changing of minds about each other. Whitley is more hesitant than Dwayne, wanting to concentrate on school. Whitley's mother is still pressuring her to find a husband and put the studies second. Whitley has to choose to a future of mirroring her mother or finding her own path in life-- choosing a career as love takes its subtle bloom. 

A real kiss to heat things up.

Whitley and Dwayne share a plane ride back to school in the season three opener, Strangers on a Plane." Dwayne's evolution is impressing the former prissy queen, forcing Whitley to take another look at the math geek-- fresh from his summer internship with determination in his eyes, dressed in a sharp suit. Again, sparks are flying ferociously. Yet Whitley cannot break the judgmental side of herself, the reservation dedicated to the prestige of one's appearance. She would confess her feelings only to change her mind at Dwayne's awkward dancing. Although he lays on some serious black Casanova smooches, Whitley holds off on having a relationship with him.

In "Everything Must Change," the fourth season's first episode, Whitley has a huge change of heart, ready to pursue Dwayne. Whilst summer interning in Japan, he has been writing her letters (yes, the ultimate romantic move). Unfortunately, he returns to Hillman with a new girlfriend. Whitley plays plenty of games throughout-- kissing Dwayne's best friend in front of him, not playing the decathlon, and super kissing up to Dwayne's mother. "Love Thy Neighbor," episode eight, Whitley confesses to Dwayne that she loves him. Later, on the fire escape, Whitley hands him over her bundled letters, Dwayne says, "I love you too," and they share a beautiful kiss. By the end of the season, opportunities are had for both of them-- Whitley being an art buyer and Dwayne teaching and attending grad school. At the end of fourth season, Dwayne proposes to Whitley just as she is flying to New York.

Season five, Whitley and Dwayne are newly engaged, but Dwayne isn't ready. In fact, he doesn't talk to Whitley about it. He goes on a date and holds hands with someone who seems more compatible than him and Whitley. Unfortunately, a hurt Whitley finds out, calls off the engagement, and gives Dwayne his ring back. They struggle to be friends for the remainder of the season. Dwayne regrets his mistakes. Whitley is devoted to her duties as art buyer and Hillman's dorm director, eventually seeing a senatorial candidate, Byron Douglas III. She agrees to marry him. Dwayne is crushed, having let a wonderful woman slip through his fingers.

In "Save the Best for Last Part I," Dwayne comes to Richmond, Virginia the night before Whitney's wedding to Byron. They share a long overdue conversation:

"The woman that I couldn't stand became my best friend, my girl, my lover. Even though you challenged me every step of the way, Baby," Dwayne says.

"Well, you know me-- all or nothing," Whitley responds.

"You better not change."

"Dwayne, I always thought that I would be dependent on a man. I thought that's just the way it was going to be, but you taught me how to depend on myself."

"You taught me how to love, Whitley."

"You taught me how to love." 

In part two, Dwayne interrupts Whitley's nuptials in one of the most epic wedding crashes of all time. As fate would allow, they marry right then and there.

The goodbye party.

The sixth and final season, Dwayne and Whitley are adjusting to married life. As Dwayne receives the opportunity of a lifetime (to work in Tokyo, Japan), Whitley realizes she's pregnant. They decide to move to Japan together and leave the Hillman Campus behind. 

Dwayne and Whitley made a cultural impact thanks to Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy's convincing portraits of college sweethearts making a steadfast commitment to be together for the long haul. Both of them matured throughout the course of the series, Hardison the cute nerd with the memorable flip up glasses transformed into an incredible romantic lead. Guy's Whitley became less narcissistic, softening around the edges whilst still holding her good Southern respectability and moral high ground. They will always be nostalgic goodness-- with the best part being that their characters had a lovely happily ever after.