Todd Bridges on Everybody Hates Chris? Whatchutalkinbout?!

It takes Diff'rent Strokes to move the world, and nobody knows that better than Todd Bridges. Tonight, he begins a recurring gig as a crazed ex-military man named Monk on Everybody Hates Chris (8 pm/ET, on the CW), so we had to see what the former Willis Drummond is talkin' 'bout these days.

TV Guide: From Skating with Celebrities [see the 2006 Q&A] to working with Chris Rock? Not bad!
Todd Bridges: I had a feeling if I stayed sober and did the next right thing, everything would [work out]. I've been in showbiz since 1971 and... there is no reason I shouldn't be acting. Five years ago, everything sort of turned around.

TV Guide: Is that when you got clean?
Bridges: No, I got clean 13 years ago. But you always got to be happy where you are.

TV Guide: And you just did 1 vs 100, too?
Bridges: Oh, god, you don't want to know about that. I am terrible at [game shows]. I can't answer! I go into some sort of shock. Honestly, if they ask me, "Is your name Todd, Gary or Willis?" I'm like, "Uh, ummm, Gary! No, that's not it!" [Laughs]

TV Guide: Speaking of Willis, how different is it for kid actors like Chris' Tyler James Williams than it was for you and Gary Coleman?
Bridges: They have so many things: cell phones, they text-message.... We never had that stuff. And they have a lot more beautiful girls growing up with them in the business. We didn't really have any gorgeous girls when we were that age.

TV Guide: Hello? The Facts of Life!
Bridges: They were all we had! Today they've got everybody, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan.... And now they can date within the [industry]. Who were we going to date? Once you went through The Facts of Life cast, you were done. [Laughs]

Send your comments on this Q&A to letters@tvguide.com.