The Cosby Show
 Virtually single-handedly, The Cosby Show revived sitcom
domination on US television, overturning the mid-1980s prominence
of soaps such as Dallas and Dynasty, and
crime/adventure dramas such as Magnum P.I.
It was the top-rated sitcom in America for four straight years,
matching the feat of I Love Lucy and bettered only by All
In The Family.
The Huxtable residence was a Brooklyn, New York City brownstone
where Cliff Huxtable (an obstetrician/gynaecologist) also
maintained his office.
He and his wife Clair (an attorney) tried
to bring up the kids with a combination of love and parental
firmness, while leading their own active professional lives.
Sondra, the oldest daughter was a senior at Princeton
University during the first season, graduating early in the
second; Denise and Theo ("No Problem!") were the
know-it-all teenagers; Vanessa the rambunctious 8-year old; and
Rudy the adorable, if mischievous little girl.
"I just hope they get out of the house before we
die," murmured an exhausted Cliff as he sank into bed at the
end of the premiere episode.
Although by no means a fuddy-duddy, being at least partially
hip to his kids generation, Cliff's values were very much of the
old school: respect, care, honesty and caution were his
bywords.
Scripts for The Cosby Show contained no sex, swearing or
ribaldry of any kind and the many things that were happening in
the Huxtable household were usually resolved happily.
At first, critics lined up to ravage the series as safe and
cutesy. What made them change their view was Cosby himself. He was
never less than brilliant in the lead role, bringing to the part
his impeccable sense of comic timing and facial mannerisms
developed on stage.
As the star, joint creator, co-owner, script editor and
executive consultant (and even co-author of the theme music),
Cosby maintained a tight control over the series, even insisting
that episodes were taped in New York when virtually every other US
networked sitcom was (and still is) made in Hollywood.
The remarkable thing about The Cosby Show is that it
could have featured a white cast - which means, in other words,
that it underlined beautifully the point that colour should make
absolutely no difference.
But while the show duly won 14 Image
awards from the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored Peoples (NAACP), it also upset the activists who wished
Cosby represented the black struggle.
Bill Cosby is very much the self-made man. He worked his way
out of poverty and into college, overcame colour prejudice and
established himself as a stand-up comedian on the night club scene
before breaking into films and TV.
Initially he spread his humour via records - discs which
indicated his empathy for children and deeply-held family values.
These are subjects that clearly fascinate the man: he even
returned to college in 1976, taking time off from his career toe
emerge with a doctorate in education (episodes of The Cosby
Show actually carry an executive consultant credit for
'William H Cosby Jr, Ed D').
One of Bill Cosby's biggest successes was a US TV children's
cartoon series show, Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids (1972
-1980), which the comedian hosted, voiced and produced.
The Cosby Show concluded on April 30, 1992, with a one
hour special in which Theo graduated from New York University and
left the nest, prompting Cosby to dance for joy and break
"the fourth wall", walking off the studio set and out
through the exit door.
But events overshadowed the farewell, and while the well-to-do
Huxtable's patted each other on the back one final time, Los
Angeles was in flames in the real life aftermath of the acquittal
of the white policemen who had beaten Rodney King.
 TV stations dumped all scheduled shows to carry live footage of
the burning and looting before the NBC affiliate cut to The
Cosby Show for an hour. Even though it was topped and tailed
by a couple of hastily taped messages from Cosby, requesting calm
and 'a better tomorrow', the juxtaposition was uncomfortable.
The Cosby Show led to a spin-off, A Different World,
created by Bill Cosby, and relating daughter Denise's college
experiences.
The fictional house in the series (10 Stigwood Avenue,
Brooklyn) was actually designed after the real Cosby family home
in Massachusetts.
Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad reunited in different roles, but
again as husband and wife, in the American version of the British
sitcom One Foot In The Grave, which took to the air in the
USA in September 1996, as Cosby.
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