The Cosby Show

The Cosby Show, starring Bill Cosby, is an American sitcom that was first broadcast in 1984. The show ran for eight seasons on the NBC television network, until the spring of 1992.

Overview

The show focused on the Huxtable family, an upper-middle-class family living in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Patriarch Heathcliff (an obstetrician/gynecologist) and his wife Clair (a lawyer) 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 were the usual difficulties of children growing up, an example being son Theo's experiences of dealing with dyslexia, based on Cosby's real-life child Ennis who was dyslexic.

Related Topics:
Brooklyn - New York - USA - Obstetrician - Gynecologist - Lawyer - African-American - Dyslexia - Ennis

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The show was extremely well-regarded, winning three Emmys as well as three 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 plot sentimental idiom in family sitcoms of that time, and which generated the typical applause from the studio audience. Heathcliff, however, to the audience's surprised 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.

Related Topics:
Emmys - NAACP Image Award - Peabody Award

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At the time of the show's original broadcast, some people criticized the show for presenting an unrealistic portrayal of an African-American family as wealthy and for its lack of addressing black-white relations. 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 family issues was generally a positive contribution to issues of race in the United States.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The success of the show spawned a spin-off series called A Different World, which dealt with the life of Denise, the second-eldest Huxtable daughter, at Hillman, a fictional Historically Black College.

Related Topics:
Spin-off - A Different World - Historically Black College

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The sitcom aired its series finale within a week of the April 1992 Los Angeles riots. Many people pointed to this fact to say that the show's promotion of silence on racism was in vain, compared with reality.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~