UB Celebrates 40th Anniversary of ‘The Cosby Show’ w/ Keshia Knight Pulliam

Today, marks the 40th Anniversary of the ratings breaking series “The Cosby Show.”

The program premiered on NBC on Thursday September 20th, 1984.

The comedy series changed the face of American television and set a new standard for representing Black families in non-stereotyped roles.

“The Cosby Show” dominated TV in the ‘80s & topped the ratings for 5 straight years.

Bill Cosby depicted the Huxtables as an American family that happened to be black, rather than as an African-American family. For Bill, family was more important than race.

Although the show was a comedy, the show was used to talk about serious issues like teen pregnancy, learning disabilities, suicide and gun control.

Also Bill Cosby made an effort to incorporate characters in non-stereotypical roles (i.e., Asian characters as friends and neighbors, not just Chinese food delivery people or dry cleaners or cooks.)

Numerous black entertainment icons made appearances on the series, such as Sammy Davis Jr., BB King, Dizzy Gillespie, Lena Horne and Stevie Wonder.

Jazz & blues music were apart of the soundtrack to the series and often integrated into the storylines.

Clair (Phylicia Rashad) was often seen reading books by noted black authors, with paintings & other artworks by Black artists that were displayed on the set.

UB spoke with Keshia Knight Pulliam about the 40th Anniversary of “The Cosby Show” and she tells UB, all of that was indeed intentional!

The Cosby Show, one of the biggest surprise hits in American television history, dominated Thursday evenings from 1984 to 1992. Focusing on the everyday adventures of an upper-middle-class black family, the series revived a television genre (situation comedy), saved a beleaguered network (NBC), and sparked controversy about race and class in America.

The Cosby Show premiered on September 20th, 1984 and shot to the top of the ratings almost immediately. Indeed, the series finished third in the ratings its first season (1984-85), and first for the next four seasons. The Cosby Show fell from the very top of the ratings only after its sixth season (1989-90), when it finished second behind another family-oriented situation comedy.

But The Cosby Show was almost not to be. NBC recruited Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner to develop the sitcom after a Bill Cosby monologue about child rearing on NBC’s Tonight Show impressed the network’s entertainment chief.

However, despite Cosby‘s widespread popularity– he had registered one of the highest audience appeal ratings in history as a commercial pitchman–programmers initially viewed his star potential with suspicion. His television career history was mixed. After co-starring in the hit series I Spy (1965-68), Cosby appeared in a string ratings failures: The Bill Cosby Show (1969), The New Bill Cosby Show (1972), and Cos (1976).

While NBC fretted over questions concerning Cosby‘s viability as a television star and situation comedy’s status as a dying genre, Carsey and Werner presented the idea to ABC. But that network was not interested. At the last minute, just in time for inclusion in the fall schedule, NBC gave a firm commitment to Carsey and Werner to produce a pilot and five episodes for the sitcom. The extraordinary success of the show quickly propelled also-ran NBC into first-place in the primetime ratings.

Set and taped before a studio audience in Brooklyn, New York, The Cosby Show revolved around the day-to-day situations faced by Cliff (Bill Cosby) and Clair Huxtable (Phylicia Ayers-Allen, later Phylicia Rashad) and their five children. This family was unlike other black families previously seen on television in that it was solidly upper-middle-class–the Huxtables lived in a fashionable Flatbush brownstone, the father was a respected gynecologist, and the mother a successful attorney.

Theo (Malcolm Jamal-Warner), the only son, was something of an underachiever who enjoyed a special relationship with his father. The oldest daughter, Sondra (Sabrina LeBeauf), was a college student at prestigious Princeton University.

The next daughter in age, Denise (Lisa Bonet), tested her parents’ patience with rather eccentric, new-age preoccupations. She left the series after the third season to attend the fictitious, historically black Hillman College; her experiences there became the basis of a spin-off, A Different World (1987-93).

The two younger daughters, Rudy (Keisha Knight Pulliam) and Vanessa (Tempestt Bledsoe), were cute preteens who served admirably as foils to Cosby‘s hilarious child-rearing routines. Secure in a cocoon of loving parents and affluence, the Huxtable kids steered clear of trouble as they grew up over the series’ eight-year run.

Indeed, TV Guide compared the Huxtable’s lifestyle to that of other black families in America and described the family as the most “atypical black family in television history.”

For many observers, The Cosby Show was unique in other ways as well. For example, unlike many situation comedies, the program avoided one-liners, buffoonery and other standard tactics designed to win laughs.

Instead, series writers remained true to Cosby’s vision of finding humor in realistic family situations, in the minutiae of human behavior. Thus episodes generally shunned typical sitcom formulas by featuring, instead, a rather loose story structure and unpredictable pacing.

Moreover, the soundtrack was sweetened with jazz, and the Huxtable home prominently featured contemporary African American art. Several observers described the result as “classy.”

In many respects, The Cosby Show and its “classy” aura were designed to address a long history of black negative portrayals on television. Indeed, Alvin Poussaint, a prominent black psychiatrist, was hired by producers as a consultant to help “recode blackness” in the minds of audience members.

In contrast to the families in other popular black situation comedies–for example, those in Sanford and Son (1972-77), Good Times (1974-79), and The Jeffersons (1975-85)–the Huxtables were given a particular mix of qualities that its creators thought would challenge common black stereotypes.

These qualities included: a strong father figure; a strong nuclear family; parents who were professionals; affluence and fiscal responsibility; a strong emphasis on education; a multigenerational family; multiracial friends; and low-key racial pride.

This project, of course, was not without its critics. Some observers described the show as a 1980‘s version of Father Knows Best, the Huxtables as a white family in blackface.

Moreover, as the show’s debut coincided with the President Reagan‘s landslide reelection, and as many of the Huxtables‘ “qualities” seemed to echo key Republican themes, critics labeled the show’s politics as “reformist conservatism.”

On April 30th, 1992, the farewell episode of The Cosby Show aired.

The Cosby Show changed the face of American television and set a new standard for representing African American families in non-stereotyped roles.

It rewrote the book on syndication when Viacom required stations to bid for the privilege of airing the show (Heuton, 1990), and it fuelled the networks’ efforts to have the FCC’s financial-syndication rules repealed to allow NBC to share in the show’s $600 million syndication revenues (Andrews, 1992).

The Cosby Show also profoundly altered international television syndication, proving the international marketability of the now staple comedy format, establishing Viacom as a major distributor during a time of global deregulation, and drawing dedicated audiences as only Dallas and Dynasty previously had.

Dr Heathcliff (Cliff) Huxtable………………………. Bill Cosby

Clair Huxtable………………………………….Phylicia Rashad

Sondra Huxtable Tibideaux………………..Sabrina Le Beauf

Denise Huxtable Kendall…………………………..Lisa Bonet

Theodore Huxtable…………………..Malcolm-Jamal Warner

Vanessa Huxtable………………………….Tempestt Bledsoe

Rudy Huxtable…………………………Keshia Knight Pulliam

Anna Huxtable……………………………………Clarice Taylor

Russel Huxtable…………………………………….Earl Hyman

Peter Chiara (1985-1989)………………………….Peter Costa

Elvin Tibideaux (1986-1992)…………………Geoffrey Owens

Kenny (“Bud”) (1986-1992)………………….Deon Richmond

Cockroach (1986-1987)………………Carl Anthony Payne II

Denny (1987-1991)…………………………..Troy Winbush Lt.

Martin Kendall (1989-1992)……………….Joseph C. Phillips

Olivia Kendall (1989-1992)……………………Raven-Symone

Pam Tucker (1990-1992)……………………Erika Alexander

Dabnis Brickey (1991-1992)…………..William Thomas, Jr

Producers: Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner, Caryn Sneider, Bill Cosby

Take A Trip Down Memory Lane With “The Cosby Show!