The Cosby Show
The cast of The Cosby Show in 1989.
Created by	Bill Cosby Ed. 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
Opening theme	"Kiss Me" - written by Stu Gardner & Bill Cosby performed by: Bobby McFerrin (Season 4) Oregon Symphony (Season 5) Craig Handy (Seasons 6-7) Lester Bowie (Season 8)
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	201
Production
Running time	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 and where the show was set, rather than Los Angeles, where most television programs were taped.

The show focused on the Huxtable family, an upper-middle class family living in Brooklyn, New York at 10 Stigwood Avenue.^[1] Patriarch Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable, an obstetrician, 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's experiences of dealing with dyslexia, based on Cosby's real-life child Ennis who was dyslexic. The show was very much centered on 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'll 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 (though upper-middle class professional African-American families did exist and others praised the show for noting this), and for not addressing black-white relations and 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, Robert Culp, 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-Symoné, Angela Bassett, and Adam Sandler among others. John Ritter guest starred on an episode with Amy Yasbeck, whom he soon started a relationship with and married eight years later, and 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). During every episode of the following season, Heathcliff is seen wearing a black circle pin with "SDJR" on it, in commemoration of Davis' death.

The popularity of The Cosby Show was often seen as a symbol of hope and progress for African-Americans in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Ironically, as the final episode was airing on April 30, 1992, a series of race riots was raging throughout the city of Los Angeles, in the aftermath of the previous day's controversial verdict in the Rodney King trial.

The exterior of the Huxtable home was actually the brownstone facade of a private residence at 10 St. Luke's Place near 7th Avenue in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. That home is not a single family home but rather was divided into an owner's duplex and four tiny one-bedroom apartments. When looking out of the door of the house into the street, the fence of the park really located across the street from the real house is used as a backdrop.

The show featured several unusual dream episodes. One guest starred The Muppets, with Cliff falling asleep after overeating and finding himself in a nightmare populated with muppets. (This was no coincidence as head writer Matt Robinson was the first actor to play Gordon Robinson on Sesame Street and Bill Cosby had appeared in another CTW production, The Electric Company. In addition, Clarice Taylor, who had a recurring role as Cliff's mother, Anna, also had a recurring role on Sesame Street, as David's grandmother. Also, both Sesame Street and The Cosby Show were taped at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York.) Another was about all the men of the cast experiencing pregnancy.

The final episode broke the fourth wall. Cosby/Cliff steps away from the Huxtable home, which was revealed to be a set surrounded by cameras and a studio audience.

• Bill Cosby as Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable (name appears as Clifford Huxtable on the sign outside of his office door in early episodes)
• Phylicia Rashad (née Ayers-Allen) as Clair Huxtable (née Hanks)
• Sabrina Le Beauf as Sondra Tibideaux (née Huxtable) (1985-1992, recurring previously)
• Lisa Bonet as Denise Kendall (née Huxtable) (1984-1987, 1989-1991)
• Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theodore "Theo" Huxtable
• Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa Huxtable
• Keshia Knight Pulliam as Rudith Lillian "Rudy" 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 members

• 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")
• Adam Sandler as "Smitty"
• Michelle Thomas as Justine Phillips
• Dondre T. Whitfield as Robert Foreman
• Troy Winbush as Denny
• Reno Wilson as Howard
• Alex Ruiz as Lou Hernandez
• 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
• Vanessa A. Williams as Jade and Cheryl
• 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

• Debbie Allen as Emma ("If the Dress Fits, Wear It", Season 5)
• Tichina Arnold as Delores ("Theo's Women", 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)
• Betty Carter as Amanda Woods ("How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall", 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)
• Moses Gunn as Joe Kendall ("Grampy and NuNu Visit the Huxtables", Season 6)
• 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)
• Alicia Keys as Maria ("Slumber Party", Season 1)
• B.B. King as Riley Jackson ("Not Everybody Loves the Blues", Season 6)
• LaChanze as Sylvia ("The Prom", Season 4)
• Audrey Landers as Cookie Bennett ("Cliff and Jake", Season 7)
• Sheldon Leonard as Dr. Wexler ("Physician of the Year," Season 1)
• Nancy Lieberman as Opponent #1 ("The Boys of Winter", Season 5)
• Lena Horne as herself ("Cliff's Birthday", Season 1)
• 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)

• One signature running gag is when Cliff usually tells long, rambling stories, which the kids usually get tired of after a while. One episode in the eighth season, did a reversal on this when Theo, telling an overwrought Kenny, who was trying to convince Olivia (whom he was babysitting) to eat her vegetables, told Kenny a story about "the Foogroupa family," claiming he was going to give Kenny the "condensed Theo version." This wasn't condensed enough however, as by the end of the story, Kenny fell asleep.
• Cliff, when he dances, usually dances in what Clair compares to as like being in a wrestling match. Elvin once impersonated Cliff's dancing when he imitated Cliff to the amusement of Vanessa and Rudy, not knowing that Cliff and Theo had entered a few seconds later until the last minute.
• In the early seasons, Vanessa is usually considered as being nosy, as she does try to find out what goes on in the Huxtable house. In "Theo's Joint", when she is convinced that Theo is keeping something from her (that Cliff and Clair found a marijuana joint in his textbook that came from another student who wanted to smoke it later) that she would "go to her other sources", to which Theo threatens to throw a dart at her if she didn't leave the room.
• A running gag during the eighth season was when anybody rung the doorbell, the bell would make an unusual noise such as the bell ringing then clunking or making a zapping noise. Usually immediately afterward Claire or another member of the family would complain about said doorbell. In the series finale, "And So We Commence", Cliff went on his word that he would fix it. When he did, he asks Clair to test it out in which she promptly gets shocked and startled when she gets zapped by the doorbell. Kenny also gets zapped and yells out "Dang!", which gets Theo's attention and after Theo opens the door, Kenny is seen waving the index finger that got shocked. In the final scene, Cliff fixes the door which rung to the tune of the calypso band featured in an earlier episode, after which Cliff and Clair danced and walked off-stage.
• Cliff had an obsession with submarine sandwiches in later seasons.
• The character of Peter (played by Peter Costa); whenever someone (often Rudy) got into trouble, always ran to the door to make his exit. This was a characteristic of his, as during the six seasons he appeared on the show, Peter had very little spoken dialogue.

The show's theme music is called "Kiss Me," composed by Stu Gardner and Bill Cosby. Seven versions of this theme were used during the run of the series, making it one of the few television series to use multiple versions of the same theme song in the course of a series.

The opening credits for the first season featured the Huxtable family playing sports in the park. This sequence heavily used zooming and frame-by-frame movement of each still in the sequence. For the season two opening sequence, the opening credits changed feature a gray room with the cast dancing. This began a running theme for the opening credits for the rest of the series as the producers attempted to change the sequence each season.

For season three, featured each cast member dancing to Latin jazz in a bluish gray room. Both seasons' opening sequence featured each cast member dancing alongside Cosby. This changed in season four, in which the sequence featured the cast dancing happily to vocal funk/jazz performed by Bobby McFerrin. Each cast member dressed in formal attire as opposed to the casual attire each cast member dressed in the opening sequence the past two seasons. In addition, none of the cast danced with Cosby. The season five opening credit sequence featured the cast dancing on a veranda to music performed by the Oregon Symphony orchestra, in Hawaiian-style clothing. It shall be noted that this was the only opening sequence in the entire run of the series that featured the entire cast dancing together instead of separately. This was the only sequence not to feature both long and short versions of the sequence.

Seasons six and seven's opening sequence featured the cast dancing to classical saxophone jazz, performed by Craig Handy, at the Apollo Theater. Each cast member danced separately much like in season four's opening credits. The only alterations to the sequence were a slightly shortened long version of the sequence which Bill Cosby walks away after the music stops; Cosby saying "this is the best elevator music I've ever heard" being edited out and changed producer credits as well as an added credit for Erika Alexander before the producers' names appear.

The producers during the eighth and final season decided to use a mural entitled "Street of Dreams," painted by an inner-city youth group from the Creative Arts Workshop in Harlem, originally to have been used as the seventh season's opening credit sequence and would feature the cast dancing to a drum/trumpet combo performed by Lester Bowie. The producers discarded the idea for season seven when their lawyers said that in order to use the mural they would have to get permission from all 63 young artists first. Instead, a mock-up of the mural, which had combined certain elements of the group's mural and used many of the colors of the actual one. The owners of the mural threatened to file a lawsuit against the producers and denounced the show for ripping off the children.

The Carsey-Werner Company tried to negotiate a settlement with the Creative Arts Workshop, but Bill Cosby instead decided to replace the mural sequence with the sixth season opening credit sequence. Only four episodes featured the mural sequence, and only a few cities saw this version. The sequence was to originally also feature Lisa Bonet and Joseph C. Phillips, but their scenes in the sequence were removed as they left the series before the end of the previous season. After the controversy from season seven, the producers decided to give recognition to the painters of the original mural near the end of the closing credits in the eighth season. Malcolm-Jamal Warner wore glasses in this sequence, but never wore glasses in any episodes.

The final episode, titled "And So We Commence" (in syndication, this is only shown in part one), featured the season eight opening titles transitioning to clips of each cast member remaining dancing in the opening sequences from seasons four through six. Erika Alexander was the only cast member who did not have any additional clips from the opening credits of seasons past since this was the only one filmed with her in it. The sequence was accompanied by an elongated and reworked version of the theme music.

The Cosby Show is one of two television shows, All in the Family being the other, that has 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 Releases

• Seasons 1 and 2 have been released by Urbanworks until First Look Entertainment acquired Urbanworks in early 2006. Future seasons of The Cosby Show are planned to be released by First Look Entertainment along with A Different World in 2007. [1]

The Cosby Show 's producers 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 of the series after its inaugural season and the following season was revamped with the addition of director Debbie Allen and new characters. Fortunately for Lisa Bonet, she became a recurring The Cosby Show character in Seasons 4-5 and a star again in Seasons 6-7.

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.

The cartoon sitcom The Simpsons once aired on Thursday nights in the same time slot as The Cosby Show. The show's creators introduced a character named Doctor Hibbert, a relentlessly cheerful, African-American doctor who was intended as something of a parody of Cliff Huxtable. When off duty Dr. Hibbert often sports loud sweaters similar to the ones often worn by Cliff. In one early Simpsons episode he is seen at home with a family drawn to resemble the Huxtables. When The Cosby Show went off the air, The Simpsons did a brief tribute at the end of the "Three Men and a Comic Book" episode. Bart notes, "If I had a TV show, I'd run that sucker into the ground!"

Another parody was portrayed by Family Guy in the episode, "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater", where a cartoon sketch pictured a character resembling Dr. Huxtable going into a long rant that a Theo-lookalike was only briefly able to interrupt by yelling "Dad, you're not listening to me! I have a serious problem! I got a girl pregnant!" This parody poked fun at the show's failure to address more adult-themed problems.

In another episode of Family Guy, Brian Goes Back to College, Peter and his friends are at a fair when Peter says "Look! Bill Cosby Aerobics!" The Camera then pans to a group of people, led by a Cosby lookalike, dancing to the theme music of The Cosby Show, parodying the normal entrance to the show.

The Cosby Show was sent-up by Australian Comedy show Fast Forward with had Steve Vizard as Cliff Huxtable.

• Dr. Cliff Huxtable was first known as Clifford. Later he then was known as Heathcliff. On the first episode of the last season, Clair calls him Heathclifford, poking fun at this.
• Originally, Cliff was to be a blue-collared chauffer, with most of the humor coming from his interactions with customers. However, the show was remodeled before airing to have Cliff be a Doctor and the humor to come from his interactions with his family. The show was renowned for being one of the first to have an African-American having a white-collared job and the family being well-off.
• Whitney Houston was considered for the role of Sondra Huxtable.
• Initially the Huxtables had only four children. A fifth, Sondra, was added when Bill Cosby wanted the show to express the accomplishment of successfully raising a child (eg: a college graduate).
• The Huxtable family was to be two boys and two girls. Rudy, which was initially supposed to be a boy, was rewritten for a girl when no suitable boys showed up to audition.
• The show was originally pitched to ABC, which rejected it.
• Carl Anthony Payne II was fired from his role as Cockroach when he refused to cut his hair.
• Joseph Phillips played the boyfriend of Sondra on an episode before coming back as a new character and playing the husband of Denise.
• Lisa Bonet was initially fired from her role as Denise Huxtable after the 1986 season due to her forarys into the adult film business. When she threatened to press charges, the show A Different World was made as compensation in 1987. She returned to the Cosby show in 1988 and left the show for good in 1991.
• Only one swear word was ever muttered on the show when Cliff said "you damn right!" to Theo's poor grades on the pilot episode. A flashback of that scene was shown on a later episode.
• On one episode during the 1991-1992 season, Cliff wore a Bart Simpson mask. This was a playful jab at The Simpsons, which had taken audience away from The Cosby Show since 1989.

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

Emmy Awards

• Outstanding Comedy Series (1986-87) 2 nominations
• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Phylicia Rashad (1985-86) 2 nominations
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Lisa Bonet (1986)
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Keshia Knight Pulliam (1986)
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Malcolm-Jamal Warner (1986)

Golden Globe Awards

• Best TV Series-Comedy (1986-87) 2 nominations
• Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series-Comedy Bill Cosby (1987)

• List of The Cosby Show episodes
• A Different World
• Zrbtt

• The Cosby Show at CarseyWerner.net
• The Cosby Show at the Encyclopedia of Television
• The Cosby Show at meeVee