Cosby Show - Classic or Dud?

I've gone off about this on other threads (and amazingly not here), but ... if you want a show about nothing, Cosby is basically king, with entire episode plotlines like "Cliff's parents stop by for dinner," and scenes like this one, which is just three and a half really funny minutes of four middle-aged men playing cards:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oi1C1DcPmOQ

It's weird how the parenting lessons came off smug but Cliff Huxtable's jazz/R&B pretensions never did. This show was my introduction to James Brown, Ray Charles, and Charlie Parker's "Night in Tunisia."

Also: his reaction shots, after the children have related some absurdity, are priceless.

in the card-playing scene above, was Cliff's father actually older than Cliff/Bill?

"Cosby", from the late '90's >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "The Cosby Show"

No smugness to be found, just Cosby constantly fucking up and irritating the hell out of his wife. Plus Doug E. Doug's clueless slacker character with hilarious and naive puppy dog charm...Plus Madeline Kahn!

Where do the Cosby Mysteries fit into that continuum?

Also, you are batshit crazy.

i have no nostalgia for the cosby show, fuck a sweater.

this is interesting
"Ratings in syndication for Cosby were a big disappointment. Normally, it had been thought that black sitcoms do not test as well in syndication as white sitcoms. But with the extremely high ratings of the network run, it was thought that the Cosby Show would be an exception. Viacom began selling the syndication rights for Cosby in 1986 for five runs per week beginning in October of 1988. In New York City, WOR-TV (now WWOR) put in a record high bid outbidding higher rated rivals like WNYW Fox 5 and WPIX. This set the tone for unusually high bids for the other markets. This show was not only extremely expensive but there was also a minute of national barter ads that had to be run as well. Beginning in October of 1988, the show was offered five days a week and in most markets ran in the 4 PM, 5 PM, or 6 PM hour. The show was expected to be top rated in its time slots but was in third place or even lower in most markets. In Boston, the show rated so low on WCVB, that the station began running its five runs on the weekend wherever they could fit it in. Oprah Winfrey moved into the 4 PM time slot after that and is still run there today.

By 1990, stations wanted out of their contract to run Cosby. In many markets, it was sold second hand at a loss to the number 2 or even number 3 independent station where ratings were still mediocre. In 1991, the show was offered on a cash basis at a much lower rate. The show continues to air in syndication in some markets during the morning or afternoon hours. It's also offered on Nick-at-Nite as well as TBS. Still, while the show has fair ratings, its not nearly as dominant as it was during its network run. In fact reruns of the show were only mediocre while new episodes still aired on NBC."

low ratings in Boston, big surprise!

lol

Well, in the Cosby Show, the outline of his character is not terribly far from '50's-era Father Knows Best, Beaver variety of sitcoms. Huxtable is a successful professional who is forever trying to keep up with sorting out his exasperating kids' problems. In some sense, it's like a Jello Pudding Pop commercial crossed with the Cosby incarnation of "Kids Say the Darndest Things", and extended into a half-hour format.

The very premise of his character in "Cosby", on the other hand, better lends itself to Hilarity. A hapless, bumbling unemployed grownup is a thousand times funnier than kids screwing up and then learning important Life Lessons on how to be more responsible people.

u mad

I loved this show when I was growing up. Every time I catch a rerun on Nick at Nite, I still laugh. V. classic.

I really enjoyed this show kinda despite myself - it was awful pedantic, I was a teenager, I bristled at how normative its general aims seemed. But Cosby's comic timing just kills me, always has, he had a live-on-stage movie from maybe before the Cosby Show or maybe during, dunno, where he did the whole "going to the dentist" bit and "the kids want ice cream" bit and while these are sorta the sources of all the parodies, they cracked me up. Not exactly subversive stuff, but y'know, who gives a shit? Too, Lisa Bonet had some pretty decent comic chops in the ensemble. And yes Felicia Rashad, holy Christ she was just incredibly sexy. So classic. The question reminds me of one of my favorite song lyrics ever: "I sure hate those people who like the Smiths, but I/sure as fuck don't trust nobody who don't."

And yes Felicia Rashad, holy Christ she was just incredibly sexy

ugh. To quote from dude upthread:
Clair Huxtable, the impossibly perfect, unbearably smug Superwoman, was one of the most punchable characters in TV history.

J0hn D: Bill Cosby: Himself = CLASSIC

Ugh, this was playing at work one day and it made me so sad. In the episode, Rudy was all sad because she couldn't pick her clothes or go out or anything. She went to her room and some song started playing ("It's Not Easy Being Green"?), then she proceeded to mope, smile, cry, try on clothes, etc. I'm not doing it justice, I found it terribly heart-wrenching.

C

You guys are misremembering some sweet / treacly / perfect version of this show that didn't really exist.

Clair = not perfect; her best comic trick involved walking around mumbling angrily to herself ("there's nobody there, dear"), and I think it's safe to say her sudden haughty outbursts were meant to come off funny, if not a bit batty

Cliff = spends half his time talking about killing or abandoning his children ("this is a great, wonderful country we live in, but they still don't have anyplace you can go to get rid of your children"), and his most common predictable joke is the "these people are never going to leave the house one" -- it comes off anything but mean-spirited, of course, but it's not freaking Father Knows Best

Rashad pulls off the rare trick of being Super Bitch to her children when the occasion demands AND being batshit silly with Cliff in private.

I don’t think you could get more classic.

That pinochle scene is great!

I don't know how anyone could think that "Cosby" was better than "The Cosby Show", but to each his own. I'd rather watch almost anything than "Cosby". It was "Becker" bad.

I'm surprised at the Phylicia Rashad hate in this thread, damn. People must just be working off abstract memories of her character and such, because if you watch it every night in reruns it's much easier to pick up the shades of grey in Claire Huxtable's seemingly hot/cold personality. She should've won an Emmy at least twice.

o man this reminded me of "where i live" doug e fresh's other sitcom. does anyone remember this? i loved it when i was, i guess, 13 or 14 but all I remember is dudes hanging out on their stoop.

i meant doug e doug, sorry.

cosby haterz don't know what gangsta is.

i love this show, preachy and goofy and everything.

clair huxtable was the hottest thing in weird 80s pants. except maybe denise.

This show is uber-classic. Also, it was my intro to Ray Charles.

Rashad pulls off the rare trick of being Super Bitch to her children when the occasion demands AND being batshit silly with Cliff in private.

This could not be more OTM.

Claire was hot, and her three eldest daughters were no slouches either.

Boy howdy do I hope you're talking about late-seasons Vanessa there.

There was a brief period when Lisa Bonet looked like she could have played on Prince's Parade.

Sometimes I imagine 2007-Rudy tracking down 2007-Olivia and being all like "WHO'S CUTER NOW, HUH? WHO NEEDS TO REPLACE WHO FOR CUTENESS NOW??"

P.S. Holy crap, this shirt --

http://images.cafepress.com/product/58282368v1_240x240_Front.jpg

-- says "This is a Gordon Gartrelle original."

I am going to buy one, and anyone I meet who gets it is my friend forever.

In epsiode 5, where Theo goes and buys a $95 shirt for his date with Christine, the brand of the shirt is a Gordon Gartrelle. If you look in the credits at the beginning of the show, Gordon Gartrelle is also a writer and a producer (1991-1992) of The Cosby Show.

"Theo, I don't even have a $95 shirt, and I have a job."

People must just be working off abstract memories of her character and such, because if you watch it every night in reruns it's much easier to pick up the shades of grey in Claire Huxtable's seemingly hot/cold personality. She should've won an Emmy at least twice.

She deserved it for that scene in which she says goodbye to Denise before the latter goes to college:
"I want you to know that I'm very proud of you. Not because I love you, but because I like you."

i would have got it but that tshirt is hella lame

does that place sell a Walking Lemons shirt?
x-post

lolz at Keshia/Raven cute-off

(Then again, Raven is working and Keshia is not, so maybe being hideously ugly has its advantages.)

Boy howdy do I hope you're talking about late-seasons Vanessa there.

Of course. Despite ALL evidence and practice by the American media today, you can't be viewed as "hot" by adults until you have reached the age of adult consent.

Which, in my mind, is at least 21, even if the law says different.

Places I have seen K working, generally lately: Beauty Shop, cohosting VH1 special with Candace Cameron

I think post Beauty Shop she might be lining up some more roles -- I mean, if she felt like it, you know she could play random hot chicks on like Half and Half and All of Us and stuff until the cows came home.

BLAM I wasn't talking legality, I was just thinking of how she spent the first few seasons being, like, what, 10 or 11? I think the trapezoid was like a becoming-a-woman rite of passage for her.

Speaking of trapezoids, she had an incredibly poor hairstyling choice for at least one season.

That is precisely The Trapezoid I'm talking about!

Ah, gotcha!

I totally understand. My comments re: her hotness were entirely based on her appearance during later seasons, particularly while involved with Dabness.

I will never understand ILMs forgiving attitude towards shitcoms

(ILX rather)

The pinochle scene would have been better if Cosby had dialed it back about 50%. Fewer goofy faces and drawn out head-rubs, please.

Does Shakey ever fantasize about sexually assaulting Claire Huxtable, or is that only a Rachael Ray thing?

oh dam

I don't really watch sitcoms; "Cosby" was an exception. Theo was hot!

get one new joke milo

(altho no I'm not into shoulderpads and feathered hair)