The Cosby Show - Misplaced Pages

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The Cosby Show
Photo of the entire cast of The Cosby Show in 1989.
Created by	Bill Cosby E.D. Weinberger Michael J. Leeson
Starring	Bill Cosby Phylicia Rashad Sabrina Le Beauf Lisa Bonet Malcolm-Jamal Warner Tempestt Bledsoe Keshia Knight Pulliam Geoffrey Owens Joseph C. Phillips Raven-Symoné Erika Alexander
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	201
Production
Running time	About 24 minutes (per episode)
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 20, 1984 – April 30, 1992

The Cosby Show was an American television sitcom that ran from 1984 to 1992. Starring Bill Cosby, the sitcom was first broadcast on September 20, 1984 and ran for eight seasons on the NBC television network, until April 30, 1992.

Bill Cosby had a great deal of creative control over the show, which was unusual for a star at that time but has become commonplace now. Cosby wanted the program to be educational as well as entertaining, reflecting Cosby's own background in education: he was credited as "William H. Cosby, Jr., Ed.D" at the beginning of each program, referencing his doctoral degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts. He also insisted that the program be taped in New York City, where he lived, rather than Los Angeles, where most television programs were taped.

Overview

The show focused on the Huxtable family, an upper-middle class family living in Brooklyn, New York at 10 Stigwood Avenue. Patriarch Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable (an obstetrician/gynecologist) and his attorney wife Clair Huxtable presided over a raucous yet loving household. In every way, they were an utterly typical traditional American sitcom family, with the notable exception that they were African-American. The topics of the show involved the usual difficulties of children growing up, an example being son Theo experiences of dealing with dyslexia, based on Cosby's real-life child Ennis who was dyslexic. The show was very much centered around Cosby's real life, and portrayed his children's lives as well.

The show was extremely well-regarded, winning six Emmys, as well as three Golden Globes, five NAACP Image Awards, and a Peabody Award. It was also notable as being highly popular with white viewers and around the world, unlike many other television shows featuring mainly African-American characters. The show has been praised for its portrayal of positive child rearing methods.

For instance, in the first episode, Heathcliff confronts his son about his poor grades and Theo responds that he should accept his son's weaknesses and love him unconditionally because they are father and son—a typical sentimental idiom in family sitcoms of that time, and one which generated the typical applause from the studio audience. Heathcliff, however, to the audience's surprise and amused approval, immediately and angrily calls this sentiment "the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life," completely rejecting the notion that loving his son means he must quietly and willingly accept it when the boy does not give his best effort in school, and famously threatened him with the often quoted line, "I brought you in this world, and I can take you out."

At the time of the show's original broadcast, some people criticized the series for presenting an unrealistic portrayal of an African-American family as wealthy (though such families did and still do exist in real life) and for its lack of addressing black-white relations, and other contemporary issues such as poverty and the AIDS-HIV epidemic. Others felt that the show was simply a portrayal of what African-Americans could potentially become. They also felt that portraying an African-American family as a normal family with normal, and largely wholesome, family issues was generally a positive contribution to issues of race in the United States.

The sitcom had numerous guest star appearances, including Stevie Wonder, Willie Colon, Plácido Domingo, Tony Orlando, Dizzy Gillespie, B.B. King, Danny Kaye and Frank Robinson. Additionally, many actors had the show as their launching pad to success. Examples include Raven Symone,Angela Bassett, Patricia Richardson, Adam Sandler and among others. The late John Ritter guest starred on an episode with Amy Yasbeck, whom he soon started a relationship with and married eight years later, and legendary Rat Pack member Sammy Davis Jr appeared in an episode in 1989 playing a soon to be great-grandfather who does not know how to read. It was one of the last television appearances of Davis (he would die the next year).

Cast

Bill Cosby as Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable
Phylicia Rashad (née Ayers-Allen) as Clair Hanks Huxtable
Sabrina Le Beauf as Sondra Huxtable Tibideaux (1985-1992, recurring previously)
Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable Kendall (1984-1987, 1989-1991)
Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theo Huxtable
Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa Huxtable
Keshia Knight Pulliam as Rudy Lillian Huxtable
Geoffrey Owens as Elvin Tibideaux (1987-1992, recurring previously)
Joseph C. Phillips as Martin Kendall (1989-1991)
Raven-Symoné as Olivia Kendall (1989-1992)
Erika Alexander as Pam Tucker (1990-1992)

recurring cast

Earle Hyman as Russell Huxtable
Clarice Taylor as Anna Huxtable
Deon Richmond as Kenny (a.k.a. "Bud")
Carl Anthony Payne II as Walter Bradley (a.k.a. "Cockroach")
Michelle Thomas as Justine Phillips
Dondre T. Whitfield as Robert Foreman
Troy Winbush as Denny
Reno Wilson as Howard
Karen Malina White as Charmaine Brown
Allen Payne as Lance Rodman
Joe Williams as Al Hanks
Ethel Ayler as Carrie Hanks
Gary LeRoi Gray as Nelson Tibideaux
Jessica Ann Vaughn as Winnie Tibideaux
Elizabeth Narvaez as Kara
William Thomas Jr. as Dabnis Brickey
Adam Sandler as Smitty
Wallace Shawn as Jeffrey Engels
Peter Costa as Peter Chiara
Merlin Santana as Stanley
Mushond Lee as Arthur Bartell (a.k.a. "Slide")
Seth Gilliam as Aaron Dexter

Notable guest stars

Debbie Allen as Emma ("If the Dress Fits, Wear It", Season 5)
Senator Bill Bradley as Cliff's teammate #1 ("The Boys of Winter", Season 5)
Sônia Braga as Anna Maria Westlake ("Mrs. Westlake" and "An Early Spring", Season 2)
Naomi Campbell as Julia ("The Birth" and "Cyranoise de Bergington", Season 5)
Robert Culp as Scott Kelly ("Bald and Beautiful", Season 3)
Sammy Davis, Jr. as Ray Palomino ("No Way, Baby", Season 5)
Dave DeBusschere as Cliff's teammate #2 ("The Boys of Winter", Season 5)
Plácido Domingo as Alberto Santiago ("Bithday Blues", Season 5)
Teresa Edwards as Opponent #2 ("The Boys of Winter", Season 5)
Al Freeman, Jr. as Ernie Scott ("Back to the Track, Jack", Season 1)
Dizzy Gillespie as Mr. Hampton ("Play It Again Vanessa", Season 1)
Robin Givens as Susanne ("Theo and the Older Woman", Season 2)
Walt Hazzard as Cliff's teammate #3 ("The Boys of Winter", Season 5)
Iman as Mrs. Montgomery ("Theo and the Joint", Season 1)
Danny Kaye as Dr. Burns ("The Dentist", Season 2)
B.B. King as Riley Jackson ("Not Everybody Loves the Blues", Season 6)
LaChanze as Sylvia ("The Prom", Season 4)
Nancy Lieberman as Opponent #1 ("The Boys of Winter", Season 5)
Miriam Makeba as herself ("Olivia Comes Out of the Closet", Season 8)
Rita Moreno as Mrs. Granger ("You Only Hurt the One You Love", Season 3)
Tony Orlando as Tony Castillo ("Mr. Quiet", Season 1)
Tito Puente as timbal player ("Play It Again, Russell", Season 2)
John Ritter as Ray Evans ("Total Control", Season 7)
Frank Robinson as Frank Potter ("There's Still No Joy in Mudville", Season 7)
Howard "Sandman" Sims as himself ("Mr. Sandman", Season 6)
Bern Nadette Stanis as Carolyn Thompson ("Adventures in Babysitting", Season 7)
Leslie Uggams as Kris Temple (The Return of the Clairettes", Season 7)
Blair Underwood as Mark ("Theo and the Older Woman", Season 2)
Jim Valvano as John Velarde ("The Getaway", Season 8)
Dick Vitale as Dan Vicente ("The Getaway", Season 8)
Nancy Wilson as Lorraine Kendall ("Grampy and NuNu Visit the Huxtables", Season 6)
Stevie Wonder as himself ("A Touch of Wonder", Season 2)

Ratings

The Cosby Show is one of two television shows, All in the Family being the other, that have been number 1 in the Nielsen Ratings for 5 consecutive TV seasons.

The ratings for each season, at the end of the season, were:

Season	Ratings Rank
1984-1985	#3
1985-1986	#1
1986-1987	#1
1987-1988	#1
1988-1989	#1
1989-1990	#1 (tied with Roseanne)
1990-1991	#5
1991-1992	#18

Spinoff

After Lisa Bonet threatened to sue for wrongful termination from the show, Cosby's producters created a spin-off series called A Different World, which initially dealt with the life of Denise, the second eldest Huxtable daughter, at Hillman College, a fictional historically black college. Denise was written out the series after its inaugural season and the following season was revamped with the addition of director Debbie Allen and new characters.

Criticisms of The Cosby Show

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There has been criticism concerning the portrayal of African-Americans in The Cosby Show. Critics argue that the lack of discussion on race issues and lack of racial problems facing the Huxtables is an inaccurate portrayal of the typical African-American family. The trouble free success of the Huxtable family has also been noted as a problem because it seems to put the blame on racial problems as coming from within a group instead of racial problems resulting from institutional racism.

Other critics, however, have noted that such objections are inherently racist themselves, including the premise that a prosperous black family is unrealistic or the premise that black families are overly obsessed with racial issues and thus typical household discussions revolve around such issues. Theo's dyslexia is a perfect example, as it shows that the Huxtables were not as trouble-free as the above critics claim. However, the writers did not want the characters obsessing over whether it would have been discovered if they weren't black; instead, they show Theo learning to triumph over it.

Trivia

In 2000, a sixth-season episode of Moesha entitled "Definitely Not the Cosbys" paid tribute to The Cosby Show. In a "fantasy" sequence, the Moesha cast assumes the roles of Cosby Show characters, with William Allen Young (Frank) as Cliff, Sheryl Lee Ralph (Dee) as Clair, Brandy (Moesha) as Denise, Ray J (Dorian) as Theo, Shar Jackson (Niecy) as Vanessa, Marcus T. Paulk (Myles) as a male Rudy, and Lamont Bentley (Hakeem) as A Different World's Dwayne Wayne. The episode's title is likely derived from Not the Cosbys, the pre-production working title of Married... with Children.

Awards & nominations

Awards Won

Emmy Awards

Outstanding Comedy Series (1985)
Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series (1984) Michael J. Leeson and Ed. Weinberger

Golden Globe Awards

Best TV Series-Comedy (1985)
Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series-Comedy Bill Cosby (1985-86) 2 wins

Awards Nominated