Eldergays Tell Me About Cosby Show

It was over hyped for what it was. Tune into the Charmings.

I loved it as a child but I tried watching it as an adult and it just wasn’t funny anymore. That was before everyone knew bill Cosby was a rapist too.

If you watch it in today's context there's a lot of creepy vibes going on

I loved the show as a kid. My racist father would talk shit the whole time but I tunes him out. I also loved the Fat Albert cartoons with Cosby. I thought the pudding man was lovable. Not anymore knowing he's a fucking piece of rat turd that prefers to rape women in a comatose state.

I remember for awhile the Cosby show was on the same night as Married with Children. Married with Children is actually better as an adult.

It was just after the early 80’s Crack epidemic, and important to show a professional, wealthy, well adjusted Black family on TV- with the same challenges, struggles and love a that Whites enjoy. A rising tide of equality lifts all boats, and I’ll go ahead and say I really didn’t focus on race while watching it- because the scripts didn’t come from an attitude of antagonizing Whites, restitution or blame.

Maybe that’s why it succeeded. Then that turd of a man Cosby ruined it for everybody.

The show was so wholesome as a child and coming from a broken home I wish my family was like the Cosbys. And I love Olivia she was so funny.

Wow, I must've taken something that made me real tired, because I slept through the whole thing?!

I found it unwatchable. I hated the way “Cos” mugged and talked like he’d had a stroke.

The entire family seemed uppity.

It's been forgotten what a big hit it was -- often #1 in the ratings. When the kids sang for their grandparents, it was one of those "events" that was talked about the next day.

Of course, when you're #1, you're going to get criticized. They were criticized for showing a very polished lifestyle and not the "urban realities" that a lot of Black people were facing. Which I think is kind of racist -- is it really impossible that there could be a Black family out there that was living comfortably and avoiding drugs and crime? It was criticized that Bill Cosby was supposedly a doctor but was hardly ever seen working.

The parents were oddly cold to their kids. I remember that when Vanessa left for college and was freaking out, the parents had a "Just leave already" attitude. The mom didn't even get off the couch as Vanessa left through the door.

R9, you are an insufferable cunt.

I loved Claire especially in this episode.

Kids weren't coddled in those days, R11 and I think the Cosby Show played that up a bit.

I came from a broken home and found the show comforting. Also grew up in a 2 sq mile town in Boston Harbor and no black children until the very last year of high school. While I understand the show had to be fashioned a certain way back then to succeed because of the “White gaze” of television executives, they did so in a clever and interesting way and it never became a minstrel show.

As a young, White boy, it offered a glimpse of a world and people I was not privy to, and showed me there was a whole other side of Black people I wouldn’t have known without it, so yes, it was important.

R15, Can we meet?

[quote] It was criticized that Bill Cosby was supposedly a doctor but was hardly ever seen working.

Cliff Huxtable was an obstetrician with an office downstairs in which he'd drug and diddle his patients. Hilarity often ensued. Claire Huxtable worked at a law office and made sure the sex pest husband got off scot-free every single time.

Spoken like the sitcom-watching numpty you are, r12.

R18, Rep yo set. Rep yo set.

Own it bitch.

Own it bitch.

I think it is safe to say that the shark was well and truly jumped by the time Dr. Huxtable gave birth to submarine sandwich

I love Maya Rudolph's QUeen Claire impersonation; spot on.

Claire Huxtable was such a smug bitch that I thoroughly disliked her, even when I watched the show at 10 years old. She was never wrong, always right and she had such a holier-than-thou attitude. She seemed to hate her kids.

When Phylicia Rashad did the "they're trying to destroy the legacy" in regards to Cosby's victims, she came off as cold and smug as Claire.

The show didn't wear well even before the revelations. Number one for several years in the '80s, other shows such as Married with Children and Roseanne explicitly stated that they were NOT The Cosby Show (and Roseanne managed to knock Cos out of the number one slot), so even at its peak, plenty of people weren't feeling it.

When it ended in '92, ratings had been sliding for awhile and though the reruns were sold into syndication for a record sum, it was written that the ratings for the reruns were only middling and not worth the price tag.

The Cosby Show was the perfect show (in terms of finding a large audience) for Reagan's second term, '84 - '88, which were its peak years. It matched the values of that era to a T. But outside of that era? It's pretty bland and preachy.

The show seemed dated even by its end in 1992. Same with other shows like Who's The Boss.

What is this television series you speak of, OP? I wasn’t born yet when it went off the air so I have no recollections of it, alas.

Unfunny. Bad acting. Philysha Rashad as a cuntress delivering her lines like she's doing Shakespear in the park!!

Lisa Bonet was above this.

Too bad ADW did better after she left.

She took a chance with Angel Heart and it ruined her career.

I watched THE COSBY SHOW a few times as a teen/ young adult and didn't understand the success. I liked how they changed the title sequence and music for it. Couldn't stand Cosby's facial expressions and in general disliked Cliff and Claire, thought they were much stricter than my conservative parents.

Vanessa and Theo were my favorite characters probably because they were often treated unfair by their parents. The grandparents were the most entertaining people on the show. MARRIED...WITH CHILDREN and THE SIMPSONS offered more relatable couple and family dynamics than THE COSBY SHOW which had the saccharine DNA of a 1950s show.

It's rather sad that THE COSBY SHOW was celebrated for being the sitcom with "successful blacks" by blacks because there were some other shows (Norman Lear isn't black but his SANFORD & SON and THE JEFFERSONS are) which were more groundbreaking in the 1970s.

It was flimed before a live studio audience

It was blah.

What is there to say about comfortable, attractive middle class people who aren't strung out messes and live normally? Like why is that even a show?

I get they thought it was groundbreaking to show black people in this light, but it was not interesting viewing.

I was a gay white kid who grew up watching the show in Virginia suburbs. I liked most of the characters and I liked the show overall. Saundra seemed like she had no personality at all and I never understood why she was there, and Bill was creepy to me because of the scrunchy, eye-rolling expressions he made and the way he moved sometimes. But I loved most of the girls: I kind of had a crush on Lisa Bonet (this was pre-puberty, so I thought she was pretty and I liked her put-upon attitude), I thought Rudy was funny, I liked the mom. And I liked Theo and the grandfather.

I think it was good for me to see this show along with others like the Jeffersons, Amen, 227, etc. given that I grew up in a very white suburb.

The show that really affected me, though, was A Different World. I learned a lot from it. I liked most of the characters but I learned so much from the show about African American history and immediately when I went to college, I took an African American lit course and it was enthralling to me. I took another the next year and ended up dropping the course because I had taken on too much that semester, but also because there were a lot more black students in that class and many of them asked me why I was there and it made me feel like I had no right to be there. 😔 A Different World broadcast similar information to viewers' homes all over the country and I think that went a very long way in educating people and breaking down barriers.

R31 writes as though they are still an impressionable child writing a book report on the Scarlet Letter.

"I learned so much from that show."

The most boring show ever on TV?

The show helped revive the sitcom and the fortunes on NBC. It was the right show at the right time. Cosby was beloved and despite being so Bouygues it was even more popular with blacks than whites. It was a simple show that was well done with likable characters. Sometimes that’s all you need. The anti-sit elements of “Married with Children” seemed forced and tiresome. Roseanne was a better written counterpoint and except for Roseanne herself better acted.

How did Angel Heart ruin LB’s career? The public loved LB and I would have expected she would have been given more chances even if a film flopped. RomComs, drama series, independent films. Maybe Cosby had her blacklisted.

Did LB’s leaving the Cosby Show have anything to do with her witnessing Cosby’s creepy behavior?

Lisa's leaving the show was part of his creepy behavior. The drugging rapist acted as the morality police and he condemned his TV daughter for her SHOCKING and DISGUSTING behavior (as an actress, on a set) because it tarnished his show's pristine image.

That was a cut-and-dry case of misogyny with a sexually abusive, controlling old man transferring his guilt onto an innocent young woman.

I hated Claire Huxtable. So entitled and self righteous. She was so cold to her kids.

I always thought Claire felt warm and loving. She was a lawyer, though, and I thought being kind of tough talking was in character.

Phylicia Rashad on the other hand seems like a cult member when she talks about Cosby. She only calls him "Dr. Cosby" even though they played spouses for years and she has an impressive CV as an actor. Despite all the accusations and the evidence, she defiantly insisted "Dr. Cosby" is a genius and can't be a bad person. Just the fact that they were colleagues who played spouses all those years and she speaks of him so formally is evidence to me that he's a creep.

Bill had a terrible time with black people. They were accusing him of not portraying their experience and that black people weren’t well off like he portrayed with the husband and wife having successful careers and living in a nice house. That’s why one season intro is African themed and he started adding black cultural references such as his grandchildren being named Winnie and Nelson.

The first few seasons were pretty good. Some really funny, classic episodes and as child actors go they had a pretty talented group. The Gorden Gartrell shirt episode still cracks me up. "No 14 year old boy should have a $95 shirt unless he's onstage with his 4 brothers!" But the show got too far up its own ass pretty quick (mostly because of Cosby being up his own ass when he wasn't raping women).

One thing I did like about the show was Cosby was consistent in demanding Black representation. The show featured Black artists, professionals, workers in all walks of life. The kids had posters of Black singers and athletes on their walls. That might not seem like much now, but in the 80s that absolutely stood out.

The Cosby Show led the way for A Different World, Living Single, Family Matters, Fresh Prince, Sister, Sister and The Bernie Mac Show which were superior to TCS.

I loved Clair Huxtable.

[R36], that was what he chose to publicly blame her firing on. He could have had other reasons he wanted her off the show, but he thought making it a moral issue made him look good, righteous.

Did Cosby diddle her?

R43 I think it made a lot of people dislike him temporarily but I think in the long run it was calculated to lock in his already "wholesome" image—he just couldn't let that WHORE Lisa Bonet with that NOSE RING corrupt the nation's youth as a disgusting slutpig role model.

Then he went off about black boys' pants falling off.

And on and on.

He's like Trump, like all the Christian child rapists. All are holier than thou and all are practitioners of dark arts.

But it worked. Cosby was regarded as "America's dad" and "America's most trusted celebrity" for years.

You guys are misremembering. Lisa Bonet wasn't fired after Angel Heart. Cosby trashed the movie but he did not publicly criticize Lisa for it, he actually said he was supportive of her having a career outside the show. She got A Different World later that year and no one took that as her being "fired" from The Cosby Show--it was obviously a step up for her as one of the most popular cast members. Denise was going off to college and in typical sitcom mode she would have just been seen less. Instead they gave her her own show and a much bigger platform. And they kept a strong connection between the 2 shows.

She left A Different World after she got pregnant. THAT is what made Cosby mad. Debbie Allen and Lisa wanted to work her pregnancy into the show, but Cosby made it clear Denise would not be portrayed as an unwed college student mother and so Lisa left. But Cosby still orchestrated a storyline where Denise leaves college and goes to Africa (to avoid Lisa's pregnancy) and the Denise gets married and comes back to the Cosby show as a married stepmother.

Grandpa Huxtable was an out gay man in real life. I always got vibes from him watching the show as a young gayling.

Did stupid things to hide Phylicia Rashad’s pregnancy? How many scenes had Claire lying in bed under a ton of blankets?

I do love that while Cosby was scolding and lecturing and creating this image of the ultra-perfect family, he was at the same time luring attractive young women into private situations with false promises, drugging them, exposing their genitals, and ramming his erect penis into their unlubricated anuses and vaginas.

America’s Dad!

It really does restore my lack of faith in humanity.

^^^ further to that, let’s not forget that he was getting excited by the idea that he was tricking, humiliating and obscenely violating these women. He was such a big star, he could have had all the pussy he wanted. But he wanted to defile. That’s what aroused him.

Was Cosby ever funny? The other cast members were the reason to tune in.

Salon sucks these days. But, I did like this article written years ago on The Cosby Show.

[quote]Phylicia Rashad on the other hand seems like a cult member when she talks about Cosby. She only calls him "Dr. Cosby" even though they played spouses for years and she has an impressive CV as an actor. Despite all the accusations and the evidence, she defiantly insisted "Dr. Cosby" is a genius and can't be a bad person. Just the fact that they were colleagues who played spouses all those years and she speaks of him so formally is evidence to me that he's a creep.

I have always thought that was weird. Keisha Knight Pulliam pretty much only refers to him as "Mr. Cosby" or "Mr. Bill Cosby". Phylicia and Keisha seemed to be the biggest ass kissers in The Cosby Show bunch.

If I had met Grandpa Huxstable at Morris Baths, the Hangar, or Traxx, in my 40’s when I was still single he could’ve gotten some!

The favoritism towards Sondra and Rudy and later Olivia made it clear they weren't a perfect family. Theo and Vanessa were relatable because they were normal teens who did stupid things and got harshly scolded by their parents. Granted the Huxtables were realistic in that regard as black teens in NYC regardless of income would be profiled by police. Sondra was such a pointless addition to the cast. I still wonder whether if Whitney Houston got the role would she have added something different. She would have looked more realistic as a Huxtable than Sabrina Le Bouf or Lisa Bonet did.

Eddie Murphy gets a call from Bill Cosby

Sondra got top billing in the early credits after Cosy and Rashad. Very weird. I honestly forgot for decades that she was even a character. I don't remember a single storyline involving her, but I clearly remember Theo, Denise, Vanessa and Rudy (the Cosbys were too fertile!) and even Elvin and Olivia.

R13, I knew it was going to be that episode before I clicked your link.

I've only seen it in reruns.

From what I have read, the success of the show took Hollywood by surprise--it was a pretty banal family sitcom but the conventional wisdom is that people were ready for that after the more socially conscious and realistic sitcoms of the 70s (All In The Family, Maude, Good Times) - People wanted desperately to believe that it was Morning In America and forget about all the nasty stuff of the 70s.

The whole "Black People are doing well in our post-racist America and look, they have professional jobs and families just like ours!!" vibe played into that.

One thing I never got was why the kids all had very different accents. The son sounded very Black while the older daughters both sounded very white

Sondra also looked weirdly old, like the Andrea Zuckerman effect.

You'd think the Cosby Show wouldn't want to cast a child who looks 15 years younger than her mother...it could give the wrong impression that Claire was a teen mother.

R57 Rumor has it. Sabrina was Cosby's mistress. She is a bland actress with little charisma. All Sondra did was exist to prove the successful parenting of Cliff and Clare. She was a college graduate and married young to another educated man. Sorts to contrast Denise, Theo and Vanessa who were still in their rebellious teen phases.

Sondra and Elvin's kids were adorable though. Gary Leroi Gray, one of the actors who played Nelson was in the gay movie Blackbird with Mo'Nique and Isaiah Washington.

Wow, just got to the end of the interview I posted at R60.

Sabrina talks about how she is mixed race and how she was told she wasn't dark enough to play a black character or light enough to play a white one, and she cites the successes of Rae Dawn Chong, Jennifer Beals and Lisa Bonet as examples of how that was beginning to change.

The interviewer said, "Isn't it wonderful, there's a new category: Black exotic!"

Sabrina corrected her: "Dark exotic."

Eep.

Sabrina Le Beauf is Creole like Tina Knowles and Robert Ri'chard. A lot of people don't understand historically, Creoles never identified as being black because they lived in a French and Spanish terrority. They aren't the same as light-skinned black people like Vanessa Williams and Smokey Robinson who lived by a one-drop rule.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Rashad was just a pretty nobody who owes her entire life — including her marriage — to her role as “America’s mom” on Cosby.

She’s not bright but she’s also not a moron, and obviously knows rapo Cosby is human filth. But if he’s a lie, the show’s a lie, and she’s one too.

R59, That's because Theo actually sounded like he was from Brooklyn. Sandra and Denise sounded Becky's from flyover or San Fran. Rudy and Vanessa also sounded like they were from the northeast, though not necessarily Brooklyn.

My Wife and Kids (a knockoff Cosby Show) had a similar thing where the middle child Claire had a valley girl type of accent. While the parents, Damon Wayans and Tisha Campbell had that Northeast street type of accent. Though the first actress who played Claire who was dark-skinned looked even less related to the family .

[quote]The favoritism towards Sondra and Rudy and later Olivia made it clear they weren't a perfect family. Theo and Vanessa were relatable because they were normal teens who did stupid things and got harshly scolded by their parents. Granted the Huxtables were realistic in that regard as black teens in NYC regardless of income would be profiled by police. Sondra was such a pointless addition to the cast. I still wonder whether if Whitney Houston got the role would she have added something different. She would have looked more realistic as a Huxtable than Sabrina Le Bouf or Lisa Bonet did.

The Cosby Show did take on the favoritism aspect of parents quite well. Some shows seemed to always show the parents never playing favorites. I was the youngest of four kids. My oldest sibling and I weren't my parents' favorites. Any time we made a mistake, we were lectured harshly and pretty much torn a new asshole. The two middle children are/were my parents' favorites. Any time they fucked up, there weren't lectured. It was weird how the middle kids were the favorites, but looking back I think the main issues was that my mom couldn't stand that my oldest brother and I were the types who didn't take things at face value and questioned various things.

I am surprised that the accent thing wasn't more of an issue.

It was as if Peter Brady had a heavy Southern accent and no one ever noticed or commented on it.

R69 Everybody Hates Chris and Malcolm in the Middle did the favorite thing realistically too. But in the case that favored child was harshly treated due to higher expectations. Like in many working class families, the child shows potential is put a heavier burden to break the family cycle.

I really like Lisa Bonet but she just didn't work on A Different World. Her character was too passive and hippy to be the main star.

I didn't think that Whitley would work as one of the main stars of the show since she was a supporting character for the first season, but Jasmine Guy managed to make it work, making Whitley more likable but not completely changing the character from season one. And she and Kadeem Hardison had great chemistry. Bonet and Marisa Tomei just didn't really mesh with the show and the changes made before season two were the right ones.

Lisa and Sabrina were just off casting. Cosby had a Philly accent and Phylicia had a slight Southern accent. Theo, Vanessa and Keisha all were believable as NYC kids. Lisa and Sabrina weren't, they sounded like valley girls like Hillary Banks or Lisa Turtle. Whitney would have been a more believable Sondra but her singing career would been limited.

OP It was a stupid show. The sweaters they wore were ugly and the house looked like it was designed by Grandma Moses which is fitting because the sexless parents seemed more like the kid's grandparents. And even though Cosby was some sort of doctor he acted like an idiot.

Like r22, I couldn’t stand Claire. She was an imperious cunt. But I did like the rest of the characters, and enjoyed the show.

I wonder if Bill Cosby got inappropriate with Lisa Bonet.

A lot of people have issues with Phylicia Rashad. I have heard that she is a bit pompous.

She's peculiar.

R77 There was gossip somewhere on DL that Rashad was a cunt during the filming of Creed.

[quote] A lot of people have issues with Phylicia Rashad. I have heard that she is a bit pompous.

I'll just leave this here.

Y'all think Cosby diddled Malcolm-Jamal Warner?

r27 I'm masturbating.

I think Lisa Bonet must have had other things going on than one flop movie and a child birth, which prevented her from being in half of everything henceforth. She could have had the world at her feet back then, and just.... disappeared. It was odd.

R76 I have wondered that too. But, I think if he had Bonet would have come out and said it.

Actress Michelle Hurd said years ago that she was a stand in on The Cosby Show and Cosby invited her to lunch in his dressing room for awhile and that he did some weird acting exercise where he would moved his hands around her body. Later on, he invited her to his house so she could shower and so her hair could be straightened or something. She didn't go over and she later heard similar stories from other stand ins. Based on that story, I have the theory that Cosby went after stand ins because he didn't want to risk targeting Bonet and other actresses in the cast.

Denise and Theo were cool.

Lisa Bonet is a strikingly pretty woman, but she has little range as an actress and even less charisma.

Grandpa Huxstable, top or bottom?

It’s pronounced “Husstable”

R65 While I think Whitney would have been great as Sondra, I didn’t find the casting to be off because the kids reminded me of my family - I’m medium-dark, my sister is very light skinned like Lisa Bonet and my brother a couple of shades darker than me. So it was believable to see a family with a color range.

Also, in the 80s in black families, it was probably more common to find an accent range. Things have changed a lot in the last 25 or so years as having a “blaccenr” or a southern accent has become more common across racial/ethnic groups, regional groups and class groups.

“The first play I ever saw was a present from my parents on my 13th birthday — Nazimova in Ghosts at Brighton Beach on the subway circuit — and I just freaked out.”

Fag

A tv show about an Upper Middle Class black family is NOT funny.

What's Happening!- that was FUNNY

Mama- Roga, give your mama some suga

Roger- ( As she squeezes him hard)- Mama , I cant breath !

[quote] Lisa Bonet is a strikingly pretty woman, but she has little range as an actress and even less charisma.

Same goes for Zoe

More funny What's Happening! dialog -

Rerun- Hey Shirley , what's the scoop?

Shirley- Scoop is YOU'RE FAT!

R74- Howard Stern used to say he NEVER saw black people behaving like they did on the Cosby Show in real life.

Lisa was fine on the Cosby Show, but she was awful on A Different World. She had no presence whatsoever. The rest of the cast overshadowed her, including the actress who played Millie. Lisa was out of her element as a lead on a sitcom. I always thought she got pregnant on purpose, cause she knew the Cos would be pissed and she would not be welcomed back on the show. It was her way out. But I liked her on the Cosby show, and she did a good job married to Martin and being a stepmom to Olivia.

My favorite episodes were whenever Claire would beat the shit out of that lying cunt Vanessa.

Bonet's lack of range has never stopped Julia Roberts.

[quote] I cant breath

Oh, dear!

[quote]But I liked her on the Cosby show, and she did a good job married to Martin and being a stepmom to Olivia.

Watched the entire run of the show in reruns in the early 2000s, and even back then I sensed that there was some low-key character assassination of the Denise character going on in the later seasons, especially when she'd be outsmarted by her 5-year-old stepdaughter.

^that was just the weed

The "Dr. Cosby" stuff is just part of black culture. If you've earned a degree, then people will call you Dr. _____. It's a normal demonstration of respect.

In real life, Bill Cosby has 5 children, 4 girls and 1 boy (Ennis, who was killed). Same as the show.

R94 Stern was a racist and aside from Robin Quivers what black people did he ever spend time with?

Howard hates everyone.

There are plenty of black families who are respectable and accomplished. They just don’t get the attention (they don’t want it!). It’s the same way with teenagers; there are plenty of nice kids who are decent and well-behaved, but we only talk about the bad apples.

R103, he grew up in a town that had become mostly black due to white flight. His parents refused to move and he went to a high school with a lot of black kids. It wasn’t a good experience for a gangly Jewish kid.

There are only two things I remember vividly from this show:

1.Because it's HILLMAN!

2.The unbearable episode where they all sat around quoting Shakespeare for what seemed like 3 days. WHO IN ACTUAL FUCK DOES THIS?

[quote] It’s the same way with Millennials and Zoomers; there are plenty of nice kids who are decent, well-educated and have good jobs, but we only talk about the bad apples.

It was stupid. A crap show just like the star in it.

Never watched it because I could not stand Bill Cosby. Turns out my hunch was right.

Phylicia is SO FULL OF SHIT in r78's clip. The Showtime documentary We Need To Talk About Bill Cosby had a man who worked on the set of the Cosby show for a long time and he said he never saw Camille Cosby visit the set even once. He said that young, attractive women were frequently going into Bill's dressing room and the door was always closed. It was always just Bill and the young women in there. Everybody on the set knew what was going on.

I remember watching some interview that Camille and Bill did years ago and she came off as smug. IIRC, the parents in The Cosby Show were originally supposed be a plumber and a limo driver, but Camille thought it was dumb and complained to Bill and the occupations were changed to a doctor and a lawyer.

It's crazy that Camille never visited the set lol

People who call Zs “zoomers” have never worked with them lol

R91, shut your uncultured ass up.

R96 wins, best comment.

^ = R96

I always thought Camille Cosby was a lady lover.

Does Camille have alopecia?

Bill Cosby didn't ruin his legacy, he was doing this before the Cosby show. He used to joke in his stand up about Spanish Fly, and drugging women.

He fucked up all that worked on the Cosby show from getting residuals from reruns, because the show doesn't air anymore. The question is why did Bill Cosby have to be such a perverted, rapist and make his comedic talent unwatchable.

The whole cast, aside from Lisa and Tempest, call him either Dr. Cosby or Mr. Cosby. It is really weird and never really impacted me til I heard Tempest on a talk show call him Bill.

[quote]Grandpa Huxtable was an out gay man in real life.

Seriously? Panthro from The Thundercats liked cock?

[quote]The parents were oddly cold to their kids. I remember that when Vanessa left for college and was freaking out, the parents had a "Just leave already" attitude. The mom didn't even get off the couch as Vanessa left through the door.

When the show went into reruns, more and more people noticed the way Vanessa was treated. I believe in some of Cosby's old stand-up, he jokes about how there's always one kid in a large family who gets picked on, so I assume that's where the idea of Vanessa came from. However, in practice, it was pretty harsh, mostly because Phylicia Rashad is so cold and awful. There were many times when Vanessa did something that on any other sitcom would have resulted in punishment but hugs and understanding. On "The Cosby Show," her mom would call her a bitch or scream into her face so hard that her hair would blow backwards.

I looked it up and I apologize, Claire didn't call Vanessa a bitch, she called her a "little wench."

Vanessa was the Jan Brady of the show.

Largely unwatchable show now with smug, preachy parents who we are supposed to believe probably didn’t even use the bathroom. I was a teen during its peak and aside from 60 Minutes which was number one for one season, the decade was ruled by three shows being number one, Dynasty, Dallas and CS. Dynasty and Dallas had their faults, but really brought it in terms of melodrama, camp and edge. I could never understand why CS was a massive hit. Pill Cosby was never funny to me. I loved Bonet in it, partly because she didn’t take any shit off of Pill offstage. Absolutely no nuance or real struggle from the parents with their we are always right and our kids are always wrong. The rest of it just your normal sitcom family crap.

Clare Huxtable was that old school black mom who didn't put up with shit. No matter how well dressed or soft spoken she was, she'd still be ready to slap you sideways for backtalk. Phylicia even did those death stares perfectly. She even gave the same unamused look to Cliff to stop the nonsense. As for her singling out Vanessa, probably that was tough love. Vanessa was overdramatic and whiny, Clare wanted to toughen her out for the real world as a black girl who would need to work twice as hard. At least that's my theory. Some parents are harder on kids they feel need tougher discipline to reach their potential.

R119 Tempestt doesn't seem to be Cosby ass kisser like some of the cast members. I remember Malcolm-Jamal Warner bitching a few years back about losing income via residuals.

Apparently the show never did that well on syndication just like other 80s family shows like Growing Pains, Who's The Boss? and Alf.

Alf was savage.

Loved me some Alf!

Was Alf a perv?

I don’t think so, but he did have a nice fuzzy dick.

Alf was unwatchable. What a POS that was.

Was there ever an attempt to syndicate Alf? I don't remember ever seeing that unfunny mess again after the show ended its run.

There is some random pay cable channel that runs Who's the Boss and Growing Pains.

I think Alf turned up on one of the Mesothelioma channels a few years ago.

Alf streams on Pluto

R78 Rashad is so idiotic in that clip. She claims she didn’t say forget these women. She said it’s not about the women, it’s about the legacy of the show. Wtf is the difference bitch? Yup. The legacy of some overrated preachy show is more important than countless raped women. She’s so far up his ass she can’t see daylight.

R135, stfu you moral absolutist. Hate ppl like you.

[quote] Was there ever an attempt to syndicate Alf? I don't remember ever seeing that unfunny mess again after the show ended its run.

I remember seeing it sometime in the late 90s on WGN America for a bit.

I’ve never watched it. I didn’t own a television set in the 1980’s.

Alf was terrible back in 1986. It must be torture to watch nowadays.

So many of the '80s sitcoms didn't age well, and as someone who loves '80s nostalgia, it pains me to say that.

r139 I was a kid back then and watched all the sitcoms like Growing Pains, Different Strokes, Webster etc. In my adult life I find all of those 80s family sitcoms unwatchable, I can't even watch two minutes of any of them in reruns. To tie into the subject of this thread, The Cosby Show is interminable to me now. Claire was such a bitch to all of those kids.

Back in those days when there were only three networks to choose from and no internet you had very few options. It's amazing some of the shows that were total shit but ended up being big hits because there was nothing else.

True, r140. I don't mind some of the episodes of Family Ties and Gimme a Break. But the rest are hard to sit through.

And I agree about Claire.

R140 there was something else: reading, biking, hanging with friends, movies, Monopoly, Battleship, card games . . .

r142 different people have different situations

^and should create a situation rather than being a 'couch potato'

Who's to say they didn't do those other options?? r142

Claire Huxtable is no longer the biggest cunt on this thread thanks to r142/r144

R145 No one. TV is an EZ no brainer no-activity that many wasted countless hours watching. Time that they'll never get back. It became a routine, and a habit and TV is so routine.

I couldn’t stand the way Bill came across as mr family man yet got Lisa Binet kicked off the show because that’s when she started dating Lenny Kravitz and Angel Heart. He also got the guy who played cockroach off the show because he was wearing an earring.

The funniest episode though was when Elvin and Saundra moved into that shitty apartment.

Didn’t The Cosby Show usher in Thursday night Must See TV? Fox even changed The Simpsons to from Thursday at 8 to Sunday at 8 so it didn’t have to go up against Cosby.

STFU r147. Don't post on a thread about a tv show if you hate tv so much.

R149 where does it say that comments regarding TV or any subject have to be favorable?

The Showtime doc is really good. Cosby was a monster.

[quote] TV is an EZ no brainer no-activity that many wasted countless hours watching. Time that they'll never get back. It became a routine, and a habit and TV is so routine.

I agree that that is true, and at the same time, that seems like a natural evolution.

In the industrialized world, many of us live lives of luxury. We work to a limited degree. We have a lot of downtime. Pre-electronic entertainment, this was generally not true and people's days were spent toiling at work and home. We don't have anything to fill our hours to the same degrees today. Consider how laundry, cooking and other tasks take little to no time today and took many hours each, sometimes a full day, before modern conveniences.

And there were still plenty of time wasters. Cards, both in groups and as solitaire-type games, wasted people's time. Other games wasted people's time. Drinking alcohol wasted people's time and lives.

"The art of conversation" may be lamented as a loss but it is relatively modern and it developed among the elite as a skilled means of social interaction.

Storytelling was common among all classes—a storyteller lectured and most people listened...like TV and movies today.

And what is being wasted, anyway? The human population is far too high, to the point our existence is endangering our existence. The dangers come from exploitation of resources and consumption of resources—in other words, productivity. Human beings would do better by ourselves and all living creatures on Earth to waste more time entertaining ourselves and spend less time being productive, because productivity is destructive to the physical world. Even traveling is extremely damaging to the world. We are better custodians of our environment when we spend a lot of time living in our imaginations and less time destroying and consuming in the name of productivity.

Married with Children was originally titled "Not The Cosbys" and there's a rumor it was supposed to be about a ghetto black family in Chicago before Fox demanded them to be white to avoid controversy. NBC was a punching bag for the MwC writers, they were constantly mocking the shows like Cosby, Fresh Prince, Friends, Seinfeld, etc.

I wonder what Madeline Kahn thought of Cosby? She was on his later show, the one that was supposed to be based on the British show “One Foot in the Grave.”

Telma Hopkins was originally supposed to play the wife, but Cosby got nervous and dumped her and brought on Rashad.

Married with Children was trashy, but I liked that it dumped on The Cosby Show and the smug parents.

For a supposed comedy it was not very funny. The Cosby mugging got really old really fast

I watched an A&E documentary about the show in which people talked about the importance of the show to the black community. They showed a scene of Cosby bidding at an auction via phone, and he appeared like such an idiot and his mugging was ridiculous. I wonder how black men felt about this representation. Wasn't his character some a doctor? Based on that documentary alone the show looked dreary and phony.

Vanessa was a bit obnoxiously self centered. But Claire was rude and snippy towards her and Denise at times. I never warmed up to her.

They added Sondra's husband, Denise's stepdaughter Olivia and cousin Pam to the cast in hopes to keep the show relevant. Pam and her friends were added to give the Huxtables some street cred now that NWA and Spike Lee Afrocentrism was in. Olivia was added to replace Rudy as the cute little kid as Rudy was now becoming a teen and older than Vanessa when the show started.

Lots of missed opportunities with this show.

Like having Pam's friend, Lance, get shot or Theo roughed up by the NYPD.

Or delve into why Vanessa would seek solace with a much older man (Dabniss Brickey) as a substitute for her neglectful parents.

Or Rudy's domination of Bu-u-u-u-d as continuing the line of abuse her mother inflicts on others.

It's been years since I've watched The Cosby Show, but were there any episodes of the kids being discriminated against?

I never saw it.

I didn't single it out for that; I basically stopped watching sitcoms in the late 70s, and never started again.

This made me laugh

A few months ago after Gilbert Gottfried died, I watch some of his standup videos. Gottfried annoyed me at times. But, I cracked up during this video where he mentioned Cosby and did an impression of him.

Bill Cosby went out of his way to avoid the stereotypes and tropes of previous sitcoms that dealt with African American life. He even hired Dr. Alvin Poussaint, a noted black psychologist, to be a consultant. Paintings and other artwork featured in the Huxtable home were done by black artists to give the show a strong black aesthetic. Dr. Poussaint even axed a scene where Rudy cries when Claire attempts to comb her hair. Dr. Poussaint said that this would send a negative message to blacks and nonblack audiences about black hair.

But I don’t think that it was a good idea to totally avoid the racial issues of the time.

R136 we know that’s you Phylicia. Kindly go fuck yourself.

R165 They were walking on eggshells in the 80s. I appreciate the effort and it did open doors for a variety of black sitcoms to follow. It's insane they couldn't even include that scene of Claire combing Rudy's hair, every black little girl relates to that. I thought it was cool Sondra, Vanessa, Denise and Rudy all rocked natural hairstyles.

[quote] True, [R140]. I don't mind some of the episodes of Family Ties and Gimme a Break. But the rest are hard to sit through.

I've been watching reruns of Gimme a Break off and on for the past several months and some episodes weren't bad.

R39, that’s not quite right.

Cosby ran around talking MAJOR shit about black people, however, by then it was already widely rumored that he was a creepy pervert at best, and a rapist at worst, AND rumors were also circulating that he had a daughter who was addicted to crack cocaine for whatever “reasons”.

He ran around telling black men to pull their pants up, which I have always agreed with because it looks absolutely RIDICULOUS.

However, black people wondered why this guy’s daughter was a full blown crack addict, why rumors of his sexual inappropriateness plagued him, even while he himself, had his pants pulled up in public.

And when Lisa Bonet left the show, people wondered why in the world the star of the show left so suddenly. Shit wasn’t adding up, and black people who worked in entertainment knew it, while others suspected something was really off, and turns out… it was!

Didn't some comedian make fun of Cosby's crack addict daughter in a standup set?

R169 Lisa wasn’t the star of the show. She showed up at the table read for the beginning of the last season. Something went down. Either she was stoned or told Pill to go fuck himself or both. So Cosby let her go. I’m sure Lisa didn’t give a shit. She was on borrowed time anyway after Angel Heart. She always disliked him. I’m unsure why she even came back after A Different World. They probably threw some nice bucks her way to make it worth tolerating Cosby every day.

I wonder if Bonet is just waiting for Cos to croak, then she'll spill the beans.

[quote]Grandpa Huxtable was an out gay man in real life. I always got vibes from him watching the show as a young gayling.

Earl Hyman was related to the late singer Phyllis Hyman, they were cousins.

Earl was in a 50 year relationship with a Norwegian seaman, Rolf Sirnes. Hyman described their relationship as "a passionate friendship", though, he did claim Rolf as his partner.

Earle learned to speak Norwegian through Sirnes, they spent some time living in Norway. In the 1990s, they lived in New York City.

Earle appeared in many Shakespearean roles.

R161 only by discriminating viewers

R172 Why would she need to wait? What could Cosby possibly due to her at this point? He's a pariah he's a pariah

I don't think Bonet will spill any beans after Cosby dies. But, I suspect others in showbiz might spill some beans. I have the feeling other stand up comedians have some dirt on him, but have kept quiet for various reasons. I'm thinking that Eddie Murphy might have some beans to spill after Cosby dies.

Fun fact: The role of Claire was down to Phyllis Hyman and Phylicia. Hyman almost got it.

R72, Whitley Gilbert is such an underrated character. Really one of the funniest characters from sitcome tv.

R178 I love Whitley. Jasmine Guy is awesome. I was about 11 when Different World was in it's third season and I remember how excited I was to find a Jasmine Guy cassette at the library along with Milli Vanilli and Debbie Gibsons third album.

Jasmine Guy should have had a bigger career post A Different World.

This is always a classic....

I love how Family Guy took a dig at NBC by having the peacock drugged. I vaguely recall some NBC employee came out several years ago and said that Cosby was always paying off his mistresses. Has NBC ever been sued in regards to Cosby?

Everybody on The Cosby Show knew Bill was a serial cheater, although the drugging and rape was not known as far as anyone has admitted. Cosby had his mistresses on the set all the time, and Camille was never there.

Ugh. It was no Seinfeld.

I saw Jasmine Guy in a road production of "Chicago" in Chicago a long time ago. She is an exquisite woman and an excellent dancer. I was surprised to find she wasn't just a sitcom actress. (I thought Whitley was very annoying.)

I liked Jasmine Guy on Melrose Place. She played a good bitch and was a worthy adversary for Amanda but she was only on for a few episodes.

C U NEXT THURSDAY Alert!

You can take whatever's in that bank account of yours and go Discover America.

God, Lisa Bonet was beautiful

Didn't a lot of shit go down in front of Jasmine Guy's house?

These women just had to ruin things by going after a feeble old man, so many years after these events supposedly occurred. Very sad.

Why R182 did NBC drug is mistresses?

^his mistresses?

Funny enough, Bill Cosby is on this episode of TOUCHED By An Angel playing Phil, the Angel of Reconciliation, on Pluto right now.

Well, so kind of you to be understanding about sex abuse and trauma r189.

Isn’t the guy who played Lisa Bonnet’s husband on Cosby a MAGAT? He was so handsome in his Navy uniform. He was also the original Justus on GH.

Only on DL could the political affiliation of a minor, long-forgotten actor from thirty years ago be a topic of interest.

Well, I agree with r194, he was really handsome. So it was disappointing to learn he was ultra-conservative in real life.

r175, OH EFFIN DEAR

I envy Lisa Bonet for getting Jason Momoa's dick in her on the regular. Lucky bitch.

R187 it's nauseating. You wanna slap Phylicia Rashad

[quote]Funny enough, Bill Cosby is on this episode of TOUCHED By An Angel playing Phil, the Angel of Reconciliation, on Pluto right now.

I remember seeing that episode when I was kid. Touched by an Angel was a guilty pleasure show for me when it originally aired. I remember how CBS made a huge deal with high profile guests. They heavily promoted the episodes Cosby was in. They did the same when Cloris Leachman, Estelle Getty, and Kirk Douglas guest starred in episodes.

I can't remember.

[quote]These women just had to ruin things by going after a feeble old man, so many years after these events supposedly occurred. Very sad.

Feeble old man? Are you serious. You're either a troll or know little about the Cosby situation. When the sexual assaults, drugging and rapes started, they go way back into the 1970s. He knew exactly what he was doing, he got off on the power of these situations. When he started to sexually abuse all those women, Cosby was already quite rich and famous, he could have fucked any woman who consented, he chose to rape women instead.

If this thread has done anything it has inspired me to crack open my Cosby Show DVD set I got for Xmas years ago.

Lisa Bonet grew very pretty in the Cosby show.

I remember that I thought the older son was hot.

OP is 38.

I thought there was only one son, R205.

[quote]when Different World was in it's third season

Oh, dear!

[quote]If this thread has done anything it has inspired me to crack open my Cosby Show DVD set

Please don’t say crack.

R206, I'm 33. Please do no disrespect me.

As a young gayling, I was obsessed with NBC sitcoms, included The Cosby Show. Each new season’s rollout of the opening credits was An Event. Also, before RuPaul, the Huxtables were lip-synching for their LIVES down that bannister. I ate that shit up.

Episodes that stick out for me: Rudy’s fish getting flushed down the toilet; Vanessa wearing a blouse that was too sexy and her and her friend’s singing Kylie Minogue’s version of “Locomotion”; that sick mustard and black shirt for Theo getting replicated to an unfortunate result. For some reason, I remember that one of Theo’s smart friends would “look up footnotes to the footnotes” in all of his texts.

I think Elton was my favourite character. And then Claire.

R211, I love you cinesnatch.

[quote] Isn’t the guy who played Lisa Bonnet’s husband on Cosby a MAGAT?

No, he's not. So put that in your African head wrap.

I don't know if he's a MAGAT but he is absolutely a far-right social conservative.

R214. Bill Cosby was never far right, he was a regular moralist Democrat who was saying shit some black people needed to hear but refused to listen. Black people need to fkin think about family and not abandon them once they are created. They also need to value education and not procreate for the sake of a welfare check.

He is also was a disturbed rapist. Sad.

[quote]I'm 33. Please do no disrespect me.

Give it up please. These “eldergay” threads are started by middle aged white gay guys who think they’re funny.

Ok, your logic may apply to some but not me. I'm not a middle age white man. Fuck off.

R215 my issue is everything he criticized applies to all Americans. He's delusional to think white people value family and education more than black people do. White Americans haven't worked hard at shit and have teen pregnancies, drug overdoses and commit crimes too. It's really only immigrants from Latin America, Asia and Africa who value their families and higher education.

Night Court was on for nine (!) seasons only because it followed The Cosby Show, Family Ties, and Cheers. I'm rewatching it now on FreeVee (formerly IMDB). Such a mediocre, inconsistent s(h)itcom. Markie Post was one of those LOUD actresses (like the girls on Laverne and Shirley). Insufferable!

R152 television induces passivity and laziness, The poster above R219 indicates that the only reason that a show called Night Court was popular for so long was because it followed a series of popular shows. People got into the routine and habit of television and remained sedentary for many hours.

r220 you might want to try the medicated douche.

R215, I think you misread the post. That person was talking about Denise's husband on th show, not Cosby.

If a middle or upper class white kid decides not to go to college, there’s disappointment, but on the whole they have their family’s support. He or she will have more options simply because of their whiteness.

If a black kid born in similar circumstances doesn’t want to go to college, all hell will break loose.

R148, the Simpsons started on Sundays. But it became a huge hit, at one point, FOX moved it to Thursdays at 8, up against Cosby. When that season started, at the beginning of an episode, Cliff looks up to see Rudy standing near him, wearing a Bart Simpson mask.

Fox eventually moved the Simpsons back to Sunday.

Remember the CBS sitcom Charlie and Company? Flip Wilson and Gladys Knight, with Urkel as one of their sons. I liked it much better than The Cosby Show.

It was actually Olivia who wore the Bart Simpson mask. It was the show's only cold opening, and it was for the first episode of Season 7 (their second-to-last season).

R223 I've worked in a school. And the white kids really don't give a shit about education. Especially now with Bitcoin, social media, coding, making clothes etc. They see a lot of alternatives aka shortcuts. The practical ones will at least consider going to a trade school or getting certified in a field. The most studious academically inclined kids are often East Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern, African and Hispanic since their parents push them harder to obtain a degree. College degrees are still necessary to get a decent paying job as companies will give precedence to college grads. White privilege is going to run out as the demographics shift and society becomes more classist than white supremacist.

Maybe you should try that R221 that is if you can get off your lazy ass. I'm assuming that's a product you learned about from watching commercial television.

r228 don't post in a tv thread if you don't like tv.

R229 I can see you are a child of television as you're already posting reruns.

NBC=Nothing But Crap

It's a shame Bill Cosby never drugged r230

(^.^) Why are INCELs so angry when people don't agree with them? We don't all like the same things after all!

The "I don't watch commercial television" people have been around forever and they're so tiresome.

So creepy that Cosby made Cliff Huxtable an OBGYN.

Remember when Cliff made his secret recipe BBQ sauce that made people horny?

and who would know better than you that they've been around forever R234? Just all part of your hall monitoring I suppose.

Just keep repeating: it's only a TV show it's only a TV show it's only a TV show it's only a TV show it's only a TV show it's only a TV show

r237 get fucked. You're a nuisance and unwelcome. But you knew that.

They played the barbeque sauce clip in the Showtime doc and yeah it was creepy to see it now.

R238 Is that an example of a clever retort you learned from TV?

Just keep repeating: it's only a TV show it's only a TV show it's only a TV show it's only a TV show it's only a TV show it's only a TV show

You're a sad person r240

R235 that's interesting. I would assume his being an OBGYN allowed Bill's 'proteges' to have a part on the show .

r242 that's what happened. The Showtime doc went into it in detail. There was a lot of fucked up shit on the Cosby Show set.

R241 and you sound so happy and so committed to trivia

just keep repeating: it's only a TV show it's only a TV show it's only a TV show it's only a TV show it's only a TV show

R243 Did Cosby ever suggest that Dr. Huxtable should have a coffee bar in his office?

[quote]just keep repeating: it's only a TV show it's only a TV show it's only a TV show it's only a TV show it's only a TV show

But that's what we're discussing right now. A TV show. Like we do on many threads. I don't understand why you're so opposed to that.

In the documentary several women Cosby assaulted were interviewed and god did you hate him after listening to their stories. Not only was he a rapist but also a huge manipulator who blamed the women when they got angry with him afterwards. He's a horrible person.

R243

Thanks. Wow! I never saw the Showtime documentary but I just looked it up it was 2002s WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT COSBY

BTW There's also a 2018 CNN special The Case against Bill Cosby

I guess they don't teach inference on TV R246 I guess everything has to be spelled out for the audience.

I didn't like him even before all the assault allegations R247 His mugging on those commercials was positively nauseating and on TV talk shows he came across as such a pompous ass!

r248 the Showtime doc is excellent, it goes into everything.

[quote]Now you don't even see it on television.

It's on cable every night.

Wow, Vanessa certainly grew into her looks.

Both The Cosby Show and 7th Heaven air on TV. The demand for "wholesome" family stuff is still high. Also R. Kelly, Michael Jackson and Elvis are still regularly played. Many "cancelled" celebrities are already back to work like Ansel Elgort, Mel Gibson, James Franco, etc. Most people aren't deep thinkers and don't care about the artist's personal lives. Socially-conscious people who live online all day have to realize that people in real life are not at all passionate about justice and most people just avoid thinking about uncomfortable realities.

The Cosby Show was a real fluke of its time while simultaneously being ground breaking.

Sitcoms were considered dead at the time of TCS premier, much less a show centering on a black family.

Then to survive a major recasting of the lead actress after having been on several seasons but NBC was smart and went with a talented lookalike so audiences easily forgave the switcheroo.

R255, who are you talking about?

R256, I believe it was the 3rd or 4th season that they replaced lead actress Phylicia Ayers-Allen with near lookalike Phylicia Rashad.

I think drugs may have been involved (not the ones Cosby was spiking drinks with) cause I remember reading in the tabloids that she and her ex-husband (I think he was a famous musician or something) had major drug issues and would order pizza only to have it delivered with drugs inside the pizza box.

I can imagine this made the network antsy.

One thing I do give the producers credit for is having the replacement actress be darker than the original.

As we've seen with Fresh Prince (Aunt Viv) and the mom from Family Matters, networks tend to lighten up the actresses.

Ayers-Allen was more of a high yellow whereas Rashad was a few shades darker.

Another groundbreaking example of Cosby's influence.

In the late 70s/early 80s Phylicia was married to Victor Willis, who was the cop in the Village People. If that wasn't bizarre enough, they collaborated on a disco concept album called "Josephine Superstar," about the life of Josephine Baker, which was embarrassingly awful.

R257, my dear that is the same person. Are you ok?

[quote]I believe it was the 3rd or 4th season that they replaced lead actress Phylicia Ayers-Allen with near lookalike Phylicia Rashad.

WTF are you talking about?

R261, either that person is a troll, ancient as Medusa, or profoundly mentally ill.

[quote] Both The Cosby Show and 7th Heaven air on TV. The demand for "wholesome" family stuff is still high. Also R. Kelly, Michael Jackson and Elvis are still regularly played. Many "cancelled" celebrities are already back to work like Ansel Elgort, Mel Gibson, James Franco, etc. Most people aren't deep thinkers and don't care about the artist's personal lives. Socially-conscious people who live online all day have to realize that people in real life are not at all passionate about justice and most people just avoid thinking about uncomfortable realities.

I agree, there will always be a demand for "wholesome" entertainment and I think in some way The Cosby Show and 7th Heaven will always be on some kind of entertainment platform even if it's not cable or satellite TV channels. 7th Heaven was yanked from airings on UpTV. But, viewers contacted the station and said they were able separate Stephen Collins from the character he played and they wanted to see the show return. UpTV started to air reruns for awhile. 7th Heaven is available on Paramount + and Hulu. The Cosby Show is still being aired on TV One. For awhile, it was on Amazon Prime. At some point, I think TV One will stop the reruns, but the show will probably end up on a streaming platform. I think both shows have retained enough fans for there to be demand for the show to be on some kind of platform.

Outside of celebs with sex scandals, there will also be TV shows that will never completely go away despite controversial people in the cast. Best example is the original Roseanne sitcom. Roseanne Barr as a person has always come off as a loon, but when I watched her show as a kid and teenager, I somehow separated her real life personality from the show. I enjoyed the show because I grew up in a family that had occasional money struggles and my mom has always worked manual labor type jobs. Barr wasn't a great actress on the show. Laurie Metcalfe, John Goodman, and the guest stars like Estelle Parsons and Shelly Winters were the MVPs of the show. The original Roseanne is still being on CMT and it's on Peacock along with the reboot season Barr did.

IMHO I thought the whole Twitter controversy with Roseanne was blown all out of proportion and she shouldn't have been fired from the show. She did a stupid thing but an apology would've sufficed, the hysterical reaction people had was such overblown bullshit. Again, just my opinion.

I loved her defense R264- I thought the bitch was white!

R259 I would like to hear that album.

R265, Roseanne so mentally ill and Valerie is so fair skin, she might did think she was white.

[quote]IMHO I thought the whole Twitter controversy with Roseanne was blown all out of proportion and she shouldn't have been fired from the show.

Now you know that wasn't the only reason she was fired. It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

They had already been on her for her tweeting conspiracy theories. She even said her son changed her twitter password so she would stop. The network called her to remove tweets frequently. Sarah Gilbert wanted her gone and she openly blames her now. The tweet gave them the reason but they were waiting for anything. She could be (which she is) a Trump supporter, she could not tweet about Nazis and Parkland students while wacked out on ambien. She was a liability.

[quote]The parents were oddly cold to their kids. I remember that when Vanessa left for college and was freaking out, the parents had a "Just leave already" attitude. The mom didn't even get off the couch as Vanessa left through the door.

Claire is kind to her and even gives her a heartfelt pep talk. Cliff is the one trying to rush her out because it was Season 7. The running gag was that the kids move out but they always move back in. He made a joke about Denise leaving because she and Olivia were living with them at the time. He made one about Rudy leaving before all of this.

It was also a setup for "Cousin Pam" to join the series because Denise leaves and she arrives. This was them starting the theme that took them to the end of the show: they just wanted everyone out, done with school and their house back.

DataLounge hates Claire Huxtable because DataLounge longs to be Claire Huxtable.

Smart.

Successful.

Sharp in those 80s power outfits.

And cutting the children down to size with an acid tongue.

Cousin Pam was basically an annoying adult version of Cousin Oliver. I also hated how Pam referred to Cliff and Claire as "Cousin Cliff" and "Cousin Claire".

Cousin Pam was just a lame attempt of making the show more relatable to the 'urban' audience, with her being the product of a single-parent household and having lived in a small apartment before moving in with the Huxtables. It was no coincidence that she debuted just a few episodes after Vanessa was shipped off to college (a year early, mind you!).

Pam got storylines that would never have been written for Vanessa. In one episode, she approached Dr Huxtable to ask about birth control pills as she was being pressured by her boyfriend Slide (who the Huxtables would never have allowed to be anywhere near Vanessa) to 'take their relationship to the next level'. Claire would have beaten the crap out of Vanessa had she even thought of doing the same.

It's sad how these woman had to come out of the woodwork so many years later to slander and tarnish the legacy of a man that brought us such a great show.

[quote]Cousin Pam was just a lame attempt of making the show more relatable to the 'urban' audience, with her being the product of a single-parent household and having lived in a small apartment before moving in with the Huxtables.

Pam was their, "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." She was there so Cliff and Claire could "educate" her on how to act civilized. Pam is either being lectured by them or treated like she's dumb by the writing on the show -- but living with the Cosbys is going to fix her! Right? She was there to demonstrate more of Cosby's self-righteousness.

After living with the Cosbys she decides she wants to go to college but she only has a 1.9 GPA. The show thinks it's funny, not sad. Her best friend, Charmaine, ended up getting into Hillman and being on "A Different World."

[quote]I also hated how Pam referred to Cliff and Claire as "Cousin Cliff" and "Cousin Claire".

Me too. Some people speculate it was to emphasize the fact that "hood rat" Pam wasn't their child in case the audience forgot why a new kid was living with them.

I'm happy Erika Alexander went on to play the iconic "Maxine Shaw, Attorney at Law" on "Living Single" and will be remembered for that and that Karen Malina White/Charmaine has had a great career.

R271, Dead. Too funny and true.

I'm watching the first season now and it actually holds up as pretty funny but this is before Bill was mugging all over the place and Rashad is still warm and a caring mother. When exactly did it run off the rails?

These first few episodes are interesting cause Rudy is kept to a minimum and Bonet just sort of breezes in and out of scenes.

It is Theo (who plays slick and scheming extremely well) and Vanessa (who plays the deadpan smartass really well).

The pilot had a different house which looked dumpy and Clair, though referenced as a lawyer, certainly didn't dress/act the part.

The dead fish episode was very funny. Cosby and Bledsoe play off each other really well.

Gay grandpa Huxtable just popped up now for the first time.

[quote]It is Theo (who plays slick and scheming extremely well) and Vanessa (who plays the deadpan smartass really well)

who get the meaty storylines to play around with and they both really elevate the material.

When Vanessa got engaged to that groundskeeper the Huxtables treated him like shit on their shoes.

[quote] I'm happy Erika Alexander went on to play the iconic "Maxine Shaw, Attorney at Law" on "Living Single" and will be remembered for that and that Karen Malina White/Charmaine has had a great career.

I liked her on Living Single. But, I hated how her character was written on The Cosby Show.

[quote]I'm watching the first season now and it actually holds up as pretty funny but this is before Bill was mugging all over the place and Rashad is still warm and a caring mother.

Season 1 is probably the most enjoyable of all the seasons, and I think since it wasn't #1 in the ratings quite yet - that would start in season 2 - it was not yet up its own butt, and the egos and agendas hadn't started to creep into the writing. Theo was more interested in sports, music and girls than his studies. Rudy was at her cutest. Claire hadn't started her hate-on for Vanessa yet. Many of the episodes focused on one kid at a time ("Theo and the Joint", "Vanessa's New Class", "Rudy's Party") very successfully, as R275 and R276 pointed out. We saw Cliff actually being an OBGYN and interacting with patients in many episodes. There was no cutesy dancing in the opening credits. The season really is an anomaly compared to the others.

[quote]When exactly did it run off the rails?

Somewhere in Season 2. Probably from the very beginning of the season. Season 2 definitely was when SuperClaire emerged and could do anything and everything, like when she started speaking to Theo's Math teacher in fluent Portuguese. Yeah, Phylicia was already fluent in Spanish and Claire spoke Spanish a few times in Season 1, but come on....

[quote]When Vanessa got engaged to that groundskeeper the Huxtables treated him like shit on their shoes.

Cliff and Claire were more upset with Vanessa not telling them about Dabnis before their engagement than they were about Denise not telling them about Martin and Olivia two years earlier! Back when full episodes were on YouTube, the top comments for that episode echoed the Huxtables' feelings (of course), with some of them remarking on how Vanessa was their least favorite Huxtable kid. Maybe that's why Vanessa was my sympathetic favorite, she acted more like a realistic teenager, bending/breaking the rules and getting into trouble, as teenagers are wont to do.

Didn't Sondra get engaged to a Trader Joe's cashier? At least they have good benefits.

r279 you are WAY too invested in this 30 year-old shit

Didn't Theo have some sort of learning disability and Cliff was upset for having dogged him over the years about his grades only for Claire to immediately dismiss his feelings and guilt cause there was no way they knew about it.

Yeah, that was a bit fucked up.

For kids in the 80s, Theo and Denise were cool.

Looking back, Tempestt Bledsoe was amazing. When she shows up in a black leotard to the goldfish's funeral and explains something like "this is all I had in black" - great. It was written, of course, but she was the one who should have been nominated for Emmys.

Also, she had the best name in real life.

R283 for the win.

"Lamont is DECREASED."

Full of pud-ding from Pop the Dentist and some boojie cow who always had a superior look on her face, her proud go-to look to mask her ignorance about just about everything.

Horrible show. Plainly demented.

[quote]Season 2 definitely was when SuperClaire emerged and could do anything and everything, like when she started speaking to Theo's Math teacher in fluent Portuguese. Yeah, Phylicia was already fluent in Spanish and Claire spoke Spanish a few times in Season 1, but come on....

That's actually what helped her get cast. They wanted a female, "Ricky Ricardo." They were looking for a Dominican actress to play the role and while she wasn't Dominican she could at least speak Spanish.

Cosby's patients and even the kids' friends are usually either black or latino.

I did hate that Claire was never wrong about anything, ever to the point where it became obnoxious but I wasn't entirely bothered by her knowing Spanish.

I was in college when it premiered, and I was on board for a few seasons but it got too smug and impressed with itself, especially when they did musical numbers. I am always thankful that it brought the ratings up for Cheers, though.

It would be interesting to learn of the casting process for hiring the child actors on Cosby Show. Were they unknown actors prior to The Cosby Show? Did they enjoy their time in the show? Did they get along? I don’t recall much tabloid fodder about any of the kids save LB.

From what I understand Jaleel White was originally supposed to play Rudy but it didn't work out. Once Keshia came in to read it was over. She was too adorable.

I don't think they really keep up with one another nowadays.

Especially after the allegations/convictions hit.

You had Rashad, Warner and Pulliam defending him while Bonet, LeBeauf and Bledsoe maintained radio silence.

When 3 of your 5 "kids" don't jump to your defense, it makes me wonder how much they really saw going on as much as the others say they were shielded from it all.

When Cosby's son Ennis was killed, Malcolm-Jamal Warner was making the media rounds talking about how he and Ennis were close friends. I wouldn't be surprised if Warner felt he had maintain loyalty to Cosby because of Ennis.

^Re$idual$

I don’t blame them for speaking up. They were young when they worked with him.

But fuck Rashad and Warner. Trash.

I understand why they may have conflicting views. But they need to understand while Cosby did great things and helped them out careerwise. That doesn't mean he wasn't also a monster who preyed on young women. People are complicated like that. They can defend his work and still condemn him as the person.

Thankfully, Night Court has always been a scandal-free sitcom!

[quote]Bonet, LeBeauf and Bledsoe maintained radio silence.

Bonet did speak up and said that she didn't know anything, but that "There was just energy. And that type of sinister, shadow energy cannot be concealed,” inside of Bill. She also said that he always seemed like he always had a dark side. She would have been the one to see that more than any of the other cast members.

Joseph C. Phillips who played Denise's husband said "of course" he was guilty but that he too never saw or heard anything. However, he did ask an actress who he was friends with (that Bill "mentored") if Bill tried anything with her. She said yes, told him the whole story, and then he was fully on board since he knew that person wouldn't lie to him.

[quote]I understand why they may have conflicting views. But they need to understand while Cosby did great things and helped them out careerwise ...

Raven-Symone took a while to come up with a response to say but she was honest about it being hard for her since she has her career because of him. She eventually said, “I want everybody who deserves justice to get justice.”

And yes, I think that was a lesson for a lot of people to "do two things at once." You can condemn Cosby for what he did, but also acknowledge the show was a huge positive influence not just in the black community but as a TV series, period.

Who would have thought little Raven-Symone would have been a big child and teen star and still be relatively stable (she's a bit eccentric but harmless), continuously working in the industry today.

Also let's not forget to bring up Michelle Thomas who played Theo's longtime girlfriend, Justine Phillips (and Myrna on Family Matters.) What a tragic story. It was sweet that her former costar and ex, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, was with her at the end.

Lord, R299's link reminds me of why I couldn't stand that show.

R300 I remember her. Very sad story. She had a role on Young and the Restless in 1998 and I remember soap sites broke the news of her death pretty quickly and then other news outlets followed because people remembered her from Family Matters. I was shocked that she was 30 at the time of her death. She looked more like early to mid 20s.

Several years later, I was looking at Jenna von Oy's website. Jenna played Six on Blossom. Anyway, Jenna had some kind of journal entry where she talked about Michelle. It was really nice entry about Michelle had met her at some event and wanted Jenna to be possibly co-star on a show. Jenna talked about how they trying to developing a show together and that script was close to being finished around the time of Michelle's death.

Also, here's a video of Jaleel White talking about Michelle Thomas. She sounds like she was very sweet person.

Cosby's best show was Fat Albert.

I watched a few episodes yesterday after I read through and commented in this thread. I had forgotten about the "Dance Mania" episode where Claire gets Theo tickets to the show. He brings Cockroach along only to discover that there was no guarantee of actually getting on the stage. When one slot opens up, Theo tries to be the bigger person, with also the intent of going on, except his quick negotiation with Cockroach leads to him getting left behind. He gets really passive-aggressively with Vanessa and Rudy, and gives his folks an attitude as well, until things hit a breaking point. Claire and him talk about what happened, and she explains to him how even though he had a right to his feelings, he was completely misdirecting his anger. Theo collects himself and then joins his family. Malcolm Jamal Warner did some fine acting in this episode. I teared up towards the end, and I can only surmise it was because Warner was so on-point, and I could relate to being like that when I was a teenager.

I watched a few more episodes. Maybe it was a dumb luck, but they all ran in contradiction to R22's assertion that Claire was always such a smug bitch. I agree she was at times. But, not in this episode or the ones I saw. In one, we saw her want to lose 5 lbs. It was the only one with Debbie Allen and they worked really well off of each other. We saw Claire as extremely vulnerable and at the mercy of her sister (who played an aerobics instructor). There was another episode where there was a snake in the house, and Claire was scared shitless the entire episode. In these two episodes, she was decidedly NOT a smug bitch. I watched a total of five or six episodes over the first five seasons.

I know there are online layouts of the Cosby house and these sets never translate to real liven but where would the entrance to Cliff’s medical office be? There had to be an exterior door - was it behind the house? Just curious.

There were 2 townhomes in the exterior shots, right? I assumed the right-hand door was the one to the doctor's office.

Debbie Allen was hilarious as the aerobics instructor / Claire's personal trainer.

"I saw that! Don't you be rollin' your eyes at ME! I'm not the one whose thighs got a mind of their own, lookin' like two pigs in a blanket!"

Y'all leave my daddy alone.

Hasn't he suffered enough?

The exterior of Cliff's office is near the front door below street level.

[quote] I teared up towards the end

MAAAARY!

The Cosby show was a great, wholesome family show. What is sad is how all these floosies came out of the woodwork, years later to attack and slander a feeble, defenseless old man.

R312 bye Phylicia