Sitcom star Emmanuel Lewis was one of the biggest young celebs of the 1980s, and then
he pretty much vanished from the small screen.
Here's what TV's Webster has been up to ever since.
College via limousine
Usually a person gets a theater degree and then, if they're lucky, they go on to star
on a major TV series.
Emmanuel Lewis did it the other way around.
When Webster wrapped in 1989, Lewis was 18, the age most Americans are when they begin
college.
So he enrolled at Clark Atlanta University, where his older brother Chris was a year ahead
of him.
He initially majored in mass communications, and also initially got to and from his classes
in a chauffeured Mercedes.
He took his time with school, eventually graduating in 1997 with a degree in theater arts.
During his time in Atlanta, Lewis took a sabbatical from college to start a limousine service.
He got the idea for E. Lewis Limo because as a celebrity, he knew what limousine riders
expected out of a car service.
He explained to Jet Magazine that these expectations included amenities such as,
"A radio that works, snacks, cold drinks, nice plush seats, a nice driver who knows
the city well and can take you to places you didn't know existed."
Alas, the company struggled and it officially went out of business in 1998.
Emmanuel plays 'Emmanuel'
Despite his thorough education in the dramatic arts, Lewis couldn't find steady work in film
or television after Webster.
Forever tied to the child star role that made him famous, his acting career consists mostly
of cameos where he plays himself or otherwise exploits the nostalgia factor.
He popped up in '90s sitcoms such as Family Matters, Moesha, and
Malcolm & Eddie, as well as nostalgia-heavy movies like Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.
Fortunately for Lewis, his transition from child star to adult performer coincided with
the rise of reality TV, allowing him to put his experience playing himself to further
use.
Plenty of unscripted TV and game shows have welcomed this living '80s flashback.
On a special all-former-child-stars edition of NBC's The Weakest Link in 2001, Lewis won
$10,000 for charity.
And in 2003, he was in the first season of The WB's The Surreal Life, which was basically
The Real World but with celebrities.
"Almost everything I do is funny.
It's the name that just makes you go crazy."
Small-time media mogul
Emmanuel Lewis is kind of like Ron Howard.
Both started off as child actors and then eventually moved to the other side of the
camera.
While Howard became a producer and Academy Award-winning director, Lewis founded some
small production companies, such as Emmanuel Lewis Entertainment Enterprises and Global
Entertainment Media Company.
Neither company got many projects off the ground, though, and they were dissolved in
2008 and 2011, respectively.
In the early 2000s, Lewis formed a record label called Flex Floss Entertainment.
The first act he signed was an R&B duo called Face II Face, but unfortunately they never
made it big.
High-ranking Freemason
There are a lot of conspiracies floating around about the fraternal organizations known as
the Freemasons.
In particular, there's the theory that they secretly run the world and destroy the lives
of anyone who attempts to grab some of that Freemason power.
"I'd love to be a freemason.
Freemasonry opens doors.
I mean, I was … I was a bit on edge just now, but if I was a mason I'd just sit at
the back and not get in anyone's way."
But that theory probably isn't true.
The Freemason group today is basically a mix between a men's lodge and a community booster
organization.
No matter what the Freemasons do or don't do, it's on the record that Emmanuel Lewis
had some pull there.
From 2013 to 2014, he was Commander in Chief of Atlanta Consistory 24-A, meaning he was
basically president of the Atlanta chapter of the Freemasons.
"The Gary Coleman-Emmanuel Lewis Project"
Webster debuted in 1983, five years after the premiere of the Gary Coleman-starring
Diff'rent Strokes, a show which had a nearly identical premise.
Strokes was about a diminutive African-American boy and his older brother who were adopted
by a white man.
Webster was about a diminutive African-American boy who was adopted by a white couple.
Some might say that Webster was a ripoff of Diff'rent Strokes, and that Lewis stole a
little of Coleman's style.
Despite that, the two '80s stars almost starred in a movie together.
Long before Dan Fogelman wrote Crazy, Stupid, Love. or created This Is Us, he wrote a screenplay
with the working title "The Gary Coleman-Emmanuel Lewis Project."
Michael Bay was even reportedly interested in producing.
Both actors would play themselves in the action comedy, but the potential comeback vehicle
never got made.
And it almost certainly never will, as Coleman sadly passed away in 2010.
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