Cosby Show - Classic or Dud?

Remember that one end of an episode where she puts on a song and either sings or lip-syncs to it, "Candy" I think it was called?

Anyway, classic. My cousin told me I looked like one of Theo's friends from an obscure ep of the show. God knows if that was a compliment.

Seems like every televison house had a second floor while none of my friends nor I had one. Was this a regional thing, or a fantasy one?

but it kind of bugs me. it kind of seems like the stairs from the livingroom end up right next to the stairs from the kitchen. whats with that?

That first picture up there is one good reason to call this show classic, though it may have been dud to name the grandchildren Nelson and WINNIE.

I agree with Donna about the lip-synching, but would tune in were I guaranteed seeing this man play the trombone.

I wonder which cosby daughter had the largest clit.
-- Mike Hanle y (pennyson...), July 20th, 2001.

I never really liked this show.

There is a simple reason why this show was good; Bill Cosby is hilarious.

I wonder which cosby daughter had the largest clit.

-- Mike Hanle y (pennyson...), July 20th, 2001.

http://www.usasoda.com/images/coke72.JPG

"Snakes CANNOT climb stairs."

"Who TOLD you that?"

"It is a scientific fact."

"Then how do they get into trees?"

"They fall off the CLIFF!"

peter DID say stuff.

Still classic. I still DVR the occasionally episode and the humor holds up for me. Of course it is all Bill Cosby, the man is a comic genius. What really stands out for me is there is an inherent sweetness in his interaction with Clair and the kids. It was funny and feel good without being schmaltzy.

Jaymc reminded me of an episode in which it was Clair's birthday. At the end of the episode Cliff just kept bringing in cake after cake because she had previously refused to eat any. It was a such a sweet interaction. I can't imagine any current sitcom pulling off such a silly scene.

whenever i am stuck in an american hotel room for work, i always pray there will be cosby reruns.

I'm watching Season Three now, released on DVD a couple of weeks ago. I'm really struck by often Cliff and Claire alluded to sex, wondered when they were going to do it, and rubbed black-on-black sex into the very white Must See TV lineup of the mid eighties. And they were convincingly erotic too!

My cousin told me I looked like one of Theo's friends from an obscure ep of the show. God knows if that was a compliment.

-- Barima (Barima), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:07 (3 years ago) Link

If I remember what Barima looks like correctly, this is either Theo's NYU friend Ron (80% chance) or Theo's NYU friend Howard, with the flat-top and the black glasses (20% chance).

At the end of the episode Cliff just kept bringing in cake after cake

I was actually watching this one the other day: the thing that's neat about it is that the show turns into either a silent comedy or a cartoon, with jazz playing on the record player, absolutely no dialogue, and just this ridiculous bringing-in of cake after cake after cake. It might as well be Bugs Bunny. Best of all, Cosby does this incredible mincing walk, but it's not like gay-joke effeminate, it's just this snazzy-waiter mince. And it's hard not to laugh at -- in, yes, this very sweet way.

I think this is also the episode where he makes a banner for her 46th birthday, but makes it 64 instead, and then when she says it's backwards, he turns the 6 over and makes it 94. And then their friend sings "Besame Mucho" for like three minutes, but it's okay, because their friend turns out to be played by Placido Domingo.

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)

Yeah, we're talking about The Cosby Show here -- it's kind of transcendent.

Shakey in hating things people like shockah. *zzz*

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

actually, you've articulated why sports disgust me, except sub "quarterback" for "actor."

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

Sports "disgust" you? I mean, if not for lore and statistics, I'd find them pretty boring, too, but.

the only sports stories I enjoy are the ones involving guys pitching no-hitters while on acid

do ppl srsly get to be like adults while still thinking like me in 9th grade

how do people not grow out of hating on sports

It's one of the few fruitful, healthy antipathies.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/football/070202/f020219A.jpg
HOW CAN YOU HATE THAT FACE

I just didn't understand how Alfred went from Shakey saying "Sitcoms bore me" to being all "I know, just like how sports DISGUST me." Not that there aren't disgusting aspects of sports, it was just an odd leap.

Is there anything to parse? I was being glib, even if I meant it a little. With some exceptions a well-made sitcom has the same effect on me as an "exciting" football game.

I'm talking about your elision of boredom and disgust.

So, to clarify, you (a) dislike or (b) are entirely uneffected by sports?

B/c I know a ton of people who don't watch sports, but don't dislike them, or, alternatively, people who like some sports, but not others.

I know very few who, across the board, dislike all sports.

And I am not trying to hi-jack the thread. I am asking to see if I should start another one.

That was directed to Shakey and Alfred

I distrust most communal experiences, even concerts. Something about the expectations forced on me.

BUT LET'S GET BACK TO RUDY HUXTABLE LIPSYNCHING "I GOT THAT FEELIN'"

I distrust most communal experiences, even concerts. Something about the expectations forced on me.

I don't mean to be rude, but CRAZYPANTS

It doesn't stop me from going! But I enjoy music more than sports.

Unanymity of opinion disturbs me; hence my scowling when people whoop, cheer, and applaud loudly. Why is this so hard to understand?

Srsly, CRAZYPANTS

I don't like concerts or most activities where there's a crowd, but not because I feel I'm forced to feel or act any particular way. I just don't like a lot of people being that close to me.

http://www.colleenkenny.com/images/ignatius.jpg

I also wash my hands at the sink until they bleed.

I do actually dislike large concerts because the greater the distance from the stage, the more I have to concentrate to prevent the crowd around me from getting in the way of my connection with the music. They don't even have to be behaving a certain way, either, I just don't like them dominating my senses.

Unanymity of opinion disturbs me; hence my scowling when people whoop, cheer, and applaud loudly. Why is this so hard to understand?

b/c it's insanely contrarian?

Alright, so...you do acknowledge the fact that, typically, a sports contest has at least two factions, and often more, if its a multi-competitor sport?

Look, if your dislike of sport is just a general grinchness towards sports FOR WHATEVER REASON I'll back off. But a whole lot of people like sports. I am one of them. I am constantly curious as to why some people don't.

Even at my most anti-social times in my life, I still dug basketball. To the fullest.

Oh, I'm pretty social, but I accepted long ago that there are many other kinds of camaraderie in which I can find lasting pleasure. Last Thursday I sang loudly to "Inbetween Days" at a bar, so...whatevs.

I'm going to spend the rest of the evening cracking up over imagining these guys at funerals.

"They've asked me to say a few words, and here they are: good riddance to old Aunt Jane. The woman voted for Dole, for god's sake. Indulge in your pious weeping if you must, but the woman was a hidebound reactionary, and god knows I won't miss that cat-urine smell of hers a bit."

I come down more on the "boredom" side than "disgust" (although there's no shortage of disgusting things about professional sports, really). I'll go to ballgames with my dad or my coworkers if asked, I can sit through a game on TV if someone else wants to watch it, my wife makes me watch the Olympics, etc. But it just does not hold my interest at all, I find myself unable to assign any kind of importance to feats of physical acumen and as such my mind will just wander off.

I don't necessarily have Alfred's aversions to crowds but I do have an aversion to stadiums, which are pretty much invariably disgusting/uncomfortable/creepy.

(many x-posts)

- "It is always a tragedy when a child is taken from us so young ..."
- "DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO THINK, PREACHERMAN."

(and btw I know there's other people here who may find it hard to believe - but I do actually respect the dead, provided they were worthy of respect while alive)

^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!

nabisco, that sounds more like you than me!

Fair enough. It sounds like you all can be categorized thusly:

1) Doesn't particularly like sports, but doesn't hate the sports themselves
2) Has serious problems with the cultures surrounding sports, from kids to pros
2a) This includes expressive sports fans
3) Finds other things that they enjoy to do, be it with other people or alone

That combo sounds totally understandable to me.

Its the "I hate ALL things about sports because I do" folks that strike me as wierd.

This concludes this test of the BLAM Trying to Understand Normative Behavior and Its Iterations. Back to the Cosby Show!

http://www.richardhellergallery.com/dynamic/images/display/44_19_ONSPORTS5P.jpg

^^^usually what I think about whenever I'm stuck watching pro-sports (esp the Ted Williams bit)

(hmm which seems to be cut off, oh well)

did i ever tell you that I love the episode in which Rudy plays a wide receiver?

Her endzone dance is great.

OTM. I would put Rudy on my fantasy football team.

I'm willing to be cap'n save-a-shakey here. People are allowed to dislike sports, for crying out loud. And it doesn't mean that they are by default stuck in some junior high school mentality, as ghost rider seemed to be implying upthread.

I enjoy watching some sports, but also feel that there is a certain obnoxiousness that goes with American sports which is hard for me to endure (I'll lazily call it "the John Madden factor). Curiously, though, I do enjoy what is arguably the most "American" of sports-- baseball.

I do feel uncomfortable sometimes in massive crowd or stadium situations. It brings to mind too much for my comfort the fact that I am an organism; makes me feel like I am a bacterium among a throng of countless others.

lazily enough, in fact, to leave the end quote off, whoo!

this fucking board needs a preview function...

Also, I have, at various points crushed on both Rachel Ray and Lisa Bonet, (as Denise Hux) so make of that what you will.

Her endzone dance is great

Wasn't her nickname Sweet Feet or Happy Feet?

This is the last time I'll raise the subject: I'm shocked that my admissions seemed so bizarre on, of all places, ILX. Of all the hundreds of thousands of things I've posted in the last three years, I suspect what I said tonight will follow me forever.

I so did not mean to jump down anyones throat! I figured that, if anywhere, I could ask for an explanation as to why someone doesn't like sports. I have always, but recognize that others don't. Its just always been too charged a topic to bring up.

Seriously - there wasn't any judgment involved.

there's GOT to be a thread about it already, no...?

Yeah, there was. This has gone on too long. My bad. I'm sorry. I'll leave ILX for the rest of the day.

Naw, B.L.A.M., it's all good -- at the next Marlins game the chili fries are on me.

i don't really like sports but i'm not particularly proud of it

I assume you take medicine to offset the revulsion and nausea you feel when you happen upon a sporting event on television, then.

Seriously, Alfred, the only reason I brought it up at all was because I wanted to raise an eyebrow at your conflation of boredom and disgust. If you had said "I'm bored by sports in the same way that you're bored by sitcoms," I wouldn't have said a single word. Disliking sports is perfectly understandable. I don't particularly like watching games, and the beginning of football season always vaguely depresses me, but I enjoy baseball in particular as a colorful cultural phenomenon and as a minefield for statistics on par with Billboard charts and baby-name lists.

i actually kinda like sports in theory... i just don't really have the attention span for games, i always get distracted!

My Cosby nostalgia is dead now. You people killed it.

Cue Shakey: "Good riddance!"

They've been having a great time reading comments:

http://www.tvguide.com/images/pgimg/cosby-show.jpg

Why Claire Huxtable rules, while wearing a purple El Debarge tanktop

hmm she is kinda hot but the hair is terrible

It was 1980-something. Everyone had terrible hair.

NOT LISA BONET, WHO IS ALWAYS CELESTIAL IN BEAUTY.

http://www.raquenel.com/different/bonet1b.jpg

Exhibit A

http://www.serieslive.com/img/series/casting/cosby_show.jpg

Exhibit B

Claire looks like that chick from the "Black and White" morphing scene.

(Granted, Vanessa's hair kind of eclipses everything else in the picture but Denise's do is just not particularly flattering.)

eh, regardless, as a thirteen-year-old, Denise, YEAH!!; Clair, WHATEVER, she looks like my friend's mom, etc.

There was a brief time when Theo had a ridiculously tall fade. I wonder if 89-90 hairstyles will ever be repopularlized among black men.

I HOPE NOT

What's wrong with her hair in that youtube clip? It's fairly standard for, like, late-20th-century late-30s/early-40s middle-class black woman hair.

I get defensive about Cliff and Claire sometimes because my parents are weirdly like them. (It's possible this show was a formative influence in their US cultural assimilation, I dunno. There are certainly a few picked up mannerisms driving home the "my mom" = "Claire" part, but that might just be general haughtiness.)

I was in a class of all-white Idahoans once accusing the Cosby Show of being all Uncle Tommed out and I was like, stfu, you're the people who told the Murphy's (mom of Yo was English teacher at my HS) where the KFC was when they first moved to town.

The only character that seems insufferably smug in retrospect is Sandra (I always wound up sympathizing with poor misogynist, confused Elvin), but then again she had burden of having named her children Winnie and Nelson.

Her one great moment is the episode in which she and Elvin tell the Huxes that they're dropping out of their Ivy League grad school programs to open a "wilderness store."

It was more like, "Why are they saying that black people should MAKE MONEY and HAVE NICE HOUSES and GOOD JOBS?"

Sandra's greatest moment was when she was sick and Claire and Elvin's mom took the babies for the day. She got worked up later and hunted them down feverishly with a surgical mask on.

Oh man, you want Cosby fashion amazingness: there is a later episode where they're having a barbecue, and Elvin and Theo are planning a bachelor party for Martin (who's about to marry Denise), and talk of a stripper creates a massive argument between every male/female pairing in the whole house (down to Cliff's parents) -- and through it all, Sandra is wearing an outfit that will BLOW YOUR MIND like PA-DOW like MINDBOGGLING YOU HAVE NO IDEA

(short version: umm, tight yellowish patterned pants, but they're not pants, they come up to an extremely high waist and then become a cross between built-in suspenders and overalls, and amazingly enough for an item of women's clothing require the wearer to have zero breasts whatsoever, and show it; it's like the equivalent of a low-cut top and corset in an alternate universe where you grandly show off that you're extremely flat-chested, rather than the opposite -- and then there is this crazy hip stuff going on that just ... it's mindblowing, so much so that the mere fact that she's pulling it off makes it seem awesome and hot)

There was a brief time when Theo had a ridiculously tall fade. I wonder if 89-90 hairstyles will ever be repopularlized among black men.

-- Johnny Fever, Monday, September 17, 2007 11:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

fwiw Yung Joc is trying to bring back the Gumby-style Bobby Brown slope. I'm not even kidding.

Wait, Martin was already married to Denise when he first showed up, wasn't he? They must have been planning a retrospective bachelor party. Anyway, Cliff's dad demonstrates how fan dancing works.

Martin was on a few years prior to actually playing Martin as well...he was one of Cliff's med students who ended up being mistaken for Denise's date.

"Elvin is the fellow that she LIKES."

"Oh. So why am I here?"

"Cuz you're the fellow THAT I LIKE."

Oh right! It was Sandra!

There was a brief time when Theo Sandra had a ridiculously tall fade wore suspenders. I wonder if 89-90 hairstyles suspenders will ever be repopularized...

...among women

Or did electroclash do that? I slept through the first couple years of this decade.

Umm, no. Suspenders are back nowish, and more among men. Usually for a kind of urchiny look.

Urchiny and/or farmhandy, with the occasional formal

Are you serious? Like, Dexys' urchiny?

(I gotta know).

MORE COSBY.

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/8594/new125qx7.gif

pls delete or I do vangogh on both my eyes...& please braille me the name of a prostitute who might be flattered by such a gesture (NB, momus not included)

i actually kinda like sports in theory... i just don't really have the attention span for games, i always get distracted!

this = me

in fact i LOVE reading about sports, espec baseball, but can't remember the last time i watched a game on tv (going to one is fun now and then).

I think one of the better things my father did in raising me was not impressing that I should have a favorite NFL team. We always rooted for the team that beat the spread. I wish I could even be that impartial in politics, but I'm not.

That said, I'll be a Cardinals fan til I die even though Budweiser gives me the worst hangovers.

Yes, Dexy's urchiny.

Greatest monologue in TV history at 2:15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfVsmAok-jQ&feature=related

Really? I love The Cosby Show, and I love his occasional monologues on the show, but that one in particular seems really minor.

"For twenty years you and I have had constant battles with these people, and the question always was, what were we fighting about? It's about the house. They want the house."

so much hate! i thought everyone liked this show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srRec16PfpA

I don't see a lot of hate upthread!

i was suprised there was any! for me it's like hating Warners cartoons or whatever. i'm just too sensitive about it i guess cause i can't think of any other show that my whole family watched together and liked as much.

Cosby Show is very divisive but it's mostly argued about by a) people who want to talk about racial politics, not the quality of the comedy and/or b) people who don't actually know why the show was funny and are judging Cosby off of pudding pop commercials and that Simpsons parody

anybody who hates the Cosby show can get the fuck out of my house

"that is the DUMBEST thing I've ever heard! No wonder you get Ds in school!"

didn't realise until v recently that Bonet was fired from the show twice for not falling in line with the shows values etc. i recall reading he was cool with the nude Angel Heart scene and whatnot. not so!

how would you feel watching your daughter fuck mickey rourke

You can tell Cosby had problems with Bonet from her chronology. At the end of the first season, Denise is thinking about going to Hillman. At the end of the second, she's finally decided to go yet keeps making intermittent appearances (coinciding with Bonet's movie career and "A Different World"). Then she comes back for a few episodes in the fifth season before leaving to Africa to study the Pygmies. She's gone for another year before returning with Martin and Olivia. By this point Cliff and Sandra barely share scenes, and it's obvious there's tension.

*Cliff and Denise

sometimes the show had so many characters I didn't realize who was around and who wasn't.

Cliff and Claire would agree!

Just watched this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvzOSZjSsSw
Kind of beautiful.

(That might be a totally middling ep for all I know. I just hadn't watched the show in forever.)

"Who is it?"
(Rudy and Denise enter)
"No no no...when someone says 'who is it', you're supposed to say who it is. Go back out, let's try it again."
(Rudy and Denise leave, knock again)
"Who is it?"
"WHO IT IS"

This is the funniest bit of the entire series for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crnPfls0fHw

MJW in that shirt is never not funny.

ahahahahaha I love that one. especially Bill trying and failing to conceal his laughter.

The reveal of the shirt after Denise is sitting on her bed with Vanessa, building up a little tension/anticipation, is one of the funniest tv moments I've ever seen.

"It's tucked into my SOCKS."

The uploader has not made this video available in your country.

:(

"No 14-y-old boy should own a $95 shirt unless he's on stage with his four brothers!"

RIP Clarice Taylor

such a cool grandma. I like the episode where they celebrate their 50th anniversary and Cliff triers to call them, unaware until an embarrassing reveal that his parents were fucking.

rip! we've been watching some early episodes of the cosby show on netflix instant and i'm kind of amazed at how funny i stil find them.

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

We watched the ball hit you in the face, we watched the ball hit you in the back, and a couple of times we watched you say as the ball went past, "Hey, what's the big deal?" And finally the big game. The final score was 75 to 98. Between the two teams there was three hits, 672 errors, 547 walks, three kids were beaned, and we had to wait two hours for one kid to stop crying. The game was busted open by a grand-slam bunt!

i LOVED cosby's records as a kid but really disliked the cosby show as a young punk rocker - i kinda wanted to like it but it was a huge disappointment to me. i checked it out again a few years ago hoping i was just being reactionary but it just seemed like an exceedingly dull sitcom to me. maybe i they just weren't playing a good episode when i stumbled on it on my tv. so what's the best episode to give it a final chance? (in sXeX format if possible)

Weird, I got into The Cosby Show and the Velvet Underground around the same time. Dunno what that means. I dug the first 1-3 seasons of Cosby, and him putting Art Blakey, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, and Tommy Flanagan in an episode was fucking wonderful.

the one episode i saw where he goes off on some long tangent hyping some obscure jazz album was the only thing i ever saw that i liked about the program

I still watch the Cosby reruns but they're sort of wearing thin, Cliff isn't funny now so much as whiny and gratingly annoying. I have the same problem with My Wife and Kids and George Lopez, whiny authoritative dad characters. I'm still upset that Cosby has been in syndication forever and there are DVDs of all seasons while Night Court can barely make it through a two year run on TV Land and A&E.

Now I'm whining...

You all are mental.

totally

thirded

how do you do
welcome to the zoo

i told you i could rhyme
i do it all the time

^^ is that the episode in which Vanessa tries to ingratiate herself with cheerleaders? The one with this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO35dhxNjYI

apparently it is! I'd always had that scene disembodied from the rest of the episode, but just looked it up and it's from that one. cool...I need to d/l this one

i'll also never forget the one with the dream where all the men are pregnant and giving birth to sandwiches

trying to find the ep where theo explains that he doesn't need to work hard at school because he doesn't want to be an obstetrician like his dad, he just wants to be 'regular people'... i think it might even be the pilot, but that one's great.

my gf was really skeptical about how great the cosby show could be, and scoffed when i moved in and she saw the dvd of season 1 on the shelf, but i conned her into watching a few and she was pretty quickly seduced by it tbh. there's nothing radical abt the show really, it doesnt toy with the paradigm like genius 21st C sitcoms. its just, to me, the apex of the trad familiy sitcom, with sharp scripts, good performances, and one of the most charismatic comedic actors of his time clearly relishing his role.

@stevie -- yep, that one is the pilot.

also otm with your last paragraph

nabisco correct upthread about "The Cosby Show" being the original Show About Nothing ("Cliff eats a sandwich. Rudy brings over a new friend. Claire and Cliff fuck.")

yup. he worked in mini comedy routines into most episodes too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmZ0tVOTr3o

love this comedy bit of his.....

http://mistercomfypants.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/cosby-show-6-engalls.png?w=348&h=261

I don't just love Bill Cosby's sweaters, I want to become them.

Personal favorite of mine, his 67 satirical music album, Hooray for the Salvation Army Band. If you pick on of the top plays from the album it should give you about the entire album, including the singles like "Don't Cha Know" and his Barry White spoof, "Yes Yes Yes."

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hooray+for+the+salvation+army+band+bill+cosby&aq=f

http://roflrazzi.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/84eed786-0d00-46f6-9f1f-3a7f666727ef.gif

From the NYT's appreciation:

Everyone has favorite Cosby moments: particular episodes or scenes from his various projects, especially “The Cosby Show” (1984-1992), one of the best and most popular series television has ever seen. Has there been a smarter, better played few minutes in a family sitcom than the moment in the pilot when Mr. Cosby’s character, Cliff Huxtable, uses Monopoly money to explain to his son why he should not be content with a report card full of D’s? No, there hasn’t.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/arts/television/bill-cosby-appreciation-and-screenings-at-paley-center-for-media.html?ref=arts

agreed

i may change my dn to harvey weewax again in trib

^ do this!

THE NAME IS HARVEY. HARVEY WEEWAX.

so Theo has some dad sitcom, huh?

he guested some in community s02

ahem "he guested some in community s02"

wasn't that scene in like the first episode of Cosby? the Harvey Weewax scene? so genius.

It was later. Rudy was old enough to have extended bits of dialogue.

is it not this one?

"Pilot" Jay Sandrich Michael Leeson & Ed. Weinberger September 20, 1984 0101
Cliff and Clair deal with the daily pressures of having children. Theo gets four D's on his report card, while Denise goes on a date with an older boy. Cliff illustrates the cost of living to Theo using Monopoly money. When he tries to reason with his father about loving him regardless of his grades, Cliff responds by saying, "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard in my life!" Theo resolves to do better in school. Meanwhile Rudy can't sleep because Rudy claims she heard the Wolfman growling in her closet, so Rudy and Vanessa sleep with Cliff & Clair.

it was 2-22, "Theo's Holiday":

Jay Sandrich Carmen Finestra, John Markus & Matt Williams April 3, 1986 0221

After Theo claims that he'll have no problem making it in the "real world", the Huxtables convert their house in the "Real World Apartments" and teach him a lesson about the real world; i.e., needing employment and references to get an apartment, income to get a bank loan, having to pay for his meals, etc.

okay, those two episodes are fused together in my mind - time to go get s02 on dvd!

Seasons Two through Four are the peak imo.

Has there been a smarter, better played few minutes in a family sitcom than the moment in the pilot when Mr. Cosby’s character, Cliff Huxtable, uses Monopoly money to explain to his son why he should not be content with a report card full of D’s?

"No wonder you get D's in everything!"

mizzell - i conflated the harvey weewax episode with the monopoly money episode.

when i reboot the series in 2067 i intend to include both plots in the pilot.

Seasons Two through Four are the peak imo

This is a carved-in-marble truth, though I'll make an exception for the Gordon Gartrelle shirt episode from S1 as being one of the best episodes of the series.

^^^ I just watched this on Hulu last weekend and it holds up surprisingly well

no that was my fault, i thought you guys were discussing which episode was described in the article, rather than which one had harvey weewax.

i love all eras of the cosby show, really, i even like cousin pam. (though the less said about raven simone the better).
xxp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crnPfls0fHw

I think everyone can agree that Poochie Simone was a terrible idea

Still funny even after I've seen it a million times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeaayMlLQDc

I can always do with more Cousin Pam tho

I bet you can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czhjJdGa8ug

"Hammer time" indeed.

Pretty well encapsulates how I feel the early-period Huxtables would react to the late-period Huxtables. Someone needs to make a companion video for Roseanne.

Wonderful Phylicia Rashad interview: the erudition and hauteur of Claire Huxtable shines. Had no idea her mom was a poet who raised her in a fecund artistic community.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=MAv1k2p69-k&feature=endscreen

Best Cosby Show episode: http://www.glamour.com/entertainment/blogs/obsessed/2013/04/the-best-episode-of-the-cosby.html

Can't argue with that.

Favorite single moment is probably the "tacky barrette" reveal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6j8acFg_4I

HARVEY WEEWAX!

Watching this Season One episode in which Claire wants a baby, it's obvious the writers still had no idea what to do with her.

wooo it's back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NxxU9hZZgo

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY

ROOOOOBEERT

Christopher Plummer playing Cassius in the Huxtable living room.

Roscoe Lee Brown whinnying like a horse.

The Harvey Weewax episode is on!

The awesomeness of Clair:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2014/09/clair_huxtable_feminist_hero_the_cosby_show_wife_revisited_on_30th_anniversary.single.html

It was really weird in retrospect how Cosby and his "father" were almost the same age and no one seemed to care