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.
― dell, Monday, 17 September 2007 00:56 (sixteen years ago) link
u mad
― HI DERE, Monday, 17 September 2007 01:16 (sixteen years ago) link
I loved this show when I was growing up. Every time I catch a rerun on Nick at Nite, I still laugh. V. classic.
― Sara R-C, Monday, 17 September 2007 01:53 (sixteen years ago) link
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."
― J0hn D., Monday, 17 September 2007 02:02 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― dell, Monday, 17 September 2007 02:49 (sixteen years ago) link
J0hn D: Bill Cosby: Himself = CLASSIC
― The Reverend, Monday, 17 September 2007 05:06 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― Ivan, Monday, 17 September 2007 07:46 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― nabisco, Monday, 17 September 2007 16:40 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 17 September 2007 16:46 (sixteen years ago) link
I don’t think you could get more classic.
― Mr. Goodman, Monday, 17 September 2007 16:49 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― polyphonic, Monday, 17 September 2007 16:53 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 17 September 2007 16:54 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― mizzell, Monday, 17 September 2007 17:05 (sixteen years ago) link
i meant doug e doug, sorry.
― mizzell, Monday, 17 September 2007 17:09 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 17 September 2007 17:13 (sixteen years ago) link
This show is uber-classic. Also, it was my intro to Ray Charles.
This could not be more OTM.
Claire was hot, and her three eldest daughters were no slouches either.
― B.L.A.M., Monday, 17 September 2007 18:34 (sixteen years ago) link
Boy howdy do I hope you're talking about late-seasons Vanessa there.
― nabisco, Monday, 17 September 2007 18:39 (sixteen years ago) link
There was a brief period when Lisa Bonet looked like she could have played on Prince's Parade.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 17 September 2007 18:41 (sixteen years ago) link
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??"
― nabisco, Monday, 17 September 2007 18:42 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― nabisco, Monday, 17 September 2007 18:44 (sixteen years ago) link
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."
― nabisco, Monday, 17 September 2007 18:46 (sixteen years ago) link
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."
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 17 September 2007 18:47 (sixteen years ago) link
i would have got it but that tshirt is hella lame
― tremendoid, Monday, 17 September 2007 18:53 (sixteen years ago) link
does that place sell a Walking Lemons shirt? x-post
― mizzell, Monday, 17 September 2007 18:55 (sixteen years ago) link
lolz at Keshia/Raven cute-off
(Then again, Raven is working and Keshia is not, so maybe being hideously ugly has its advantages.)
― HI DERE, Monday, 17 September 2007 19:00 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― B.L.A.M., Monday, 17 September 2007 19:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Places I have seen K working, generally lately: Beauty Shop, cohosting VH1 special with Candace Cameron
― nabisco, Monday, 17 September 2007 19:10 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― nabisco, Monday, 17 September 2007 19:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Speaking of trapezoids, she had an incredibly poor hairstyling choice for at least one season.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 17 September 2007 19:51 (sixteen years ago) link
That is precisely The Trapezoid I'm talking about!
― nabisco, Monday, 17 September 2007 19:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Ah, gotcha!
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 17 September 2007 20:00 (sixteen years ago) link
I totally understand. My comments re: her hotness were entirely based on her appearance during later seasons, particularly while involved with Dabness.
― B.L.A.M., Monday, 17 September 2007 20:57 (sixteen years ago) link
I will never understand ILMs forgiving attitude towards shitcoms
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 17 September 2007 20:59 (sixteen years ago) link
(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.
― milo z, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:03 (sixteen years ago) link
Does Shakey ever fantasize about sexually assaulting Claire Huxtable, or is that only a Rachael Ray thing?
― milo z, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:05 (sixteen years ago) link
oh dam
― HI DERE, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:07 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't really watch sitcoms; "Cosby" was an exception. Theo was hot!
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:08 (sixteen years ago) link
get one new joke milo
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:10 (sixteen years ago) link
(altho no I'm not into shoulderpads and feathered hair)
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:11 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, we're talking about The Cosby Show here -- it's kind of transcendent.
― jaymc, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:11 (sixteen years ago) link
Shakey in hating things people like shockah. *zzz*
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:18 (sixteen years ago) link
I guess... when I see it now it looks just as boring as every other sitcom. I don't see what really makes it unique, apart from (debatably) the carefully honed comic chops of its lead actor.
Frank's Place was better.
x-post
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:20 (sixteen years ago) link
actually, you've articulated why sports disgust me, except sub "quarterback" for "actor."
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:24 (sixteen years ago) link
well hey perhaps not so coincidentally I'm also one of those rare American males who does not give a single shit about any professional sports whatsoever
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:26 (sixteen years ago) link
Sports "disgust" you? I mean, if not for lore and statistics, I'd find them pretty boring, too, but.
― jaymc, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:27 (sixteen years ago) link
the only sports stories I enjoy are the ones involving guys pitching no-hitters while on acid
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:29 (sixteen years ago) link
do ppl srsly get to be like adults while still thinking like me in 9th grade
― ghost rider, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:36 (sixteen years ago) link
how do people not grow out of hating on sports
― J0hn D., Monday, 17 September 2007 21:39 (sixteen years ago) link
It's one of the few fruitful, healthy antipathies.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 17 September 2007 21:45 (sixteen years ago) link