Why is it called The Cosby Show and not The Huxtables? (SP?) This show showed strong black women and black men. This was a family sitcom. It taught good decent values. It would have hated it's creator. Sort of like Dilbert. This is good stuff we could show our children and it would make them better people. We do not have to give cosby money and we strip his name from it, but we could still show it and leave his name on the credits and when kids ask we can tell them the truth and it might be a good moment to talk about the problems of rape and things like that. Don't discuss any of this and let it die because we can only handle a couple of threads at a time.
Not being super familiar with it, I wonder how well it has aged. Given that Bill Cosby's status as white conservatives' favorite Black person predates our knowledge of his rapeyness (although I'm sure that helped cement it), I suspect the show may not have aged very well.
The Showtime documentary series from earlier this year had numerous clips and quotes of Cosby talking about Spanish Fly, and they showed this clip which, in hindsight, comes across as a pretty overt reference.
Yep. I loved the show as a kid. I thought Bill Cosby was hilarious, loved his stand up (Himself was sheer brilliance, IMO), and thought he was a really cool role model. Finding out how horrifying his personal life was just destroyed my enjoyment of the The Cosby Show. I can't watch it now, knowing what I know. Sometimes, it can be nearly impossible to separate the art from the artist, especially in a collaboration, because the awfulness of the acts in which Cosby engaged taints everything it touches.
In short....no. Black audiences were always pretty split on the show with many people happy to see TV move on from the hard luck stories Norman Lear brought to TV in the 70s and having the same escapist TV white audiences have always taken for granted, while a not insignificant number were critical of how Cosby nearly always chose to sidestep issues of race at every opportunity, and the few instances it was brought up, it was always "other people" it happened too. Basically, it's the same vibes I get about TNG's "No internal conflict" mandate. Me, I was just a bit too young to have any strong attachment to the show, so it cost me zero dollars to never have to watch his show ever again, but given how few black creatives there were that were directly influencing their own shows at that time, I can understand why black elders cling to him like he was revolutionary God. He wasn't. Much like JK Rowling, he was at the right place at the right time with an idea tweaked just enough to be seen as novel and he got to run with it. Also like JK Rowling, he has done considerable harm since then and society would be better off uplifting people who *don't* do that. It's not 1984 anymore, we've got plenty of black creatives behind the camera, in writer's rooms, as producers with their own studios (besides Tyler "George Lucas" Perry). Black culture has grown beyond a man who has held black folks in contempt for as long as I can remember. Fuck Cosby. With a cactus. Of the ass. (Also, if black folks want their escapist fantasy of black folks living their best lives as people who got out the hood, both Fresh Prince of Bel Air and it's dramatic [and far better than I expected, TBH!] reboot are still there and last I checked, no skeletons have yet to tumble out of James Avery's closet, so we can still cheer for Uncle Phil and dark skinned Aunt Viv )
When networks rerun the episodes, each should begin with the bulletin "This is what a rapist looks like. Always be vigilant."
Jose did this movie length documentary on the show marathoning it, and reviewing it season by season. TLDR version, even setting aside the rapeyness, it's LOADED with conservative bootstrap shit. I remember Simpsons and Roseanne were a breath of fresh air. Those shows have their own problems, but Homer and Dan weren't ever gonna tell me if I got an F in math, I may as well just go jump in a lake holding a boulder.
Yeah, I didn't feel like looking the vid up last night, but it's a good breakdown. I didn't grow up with the show but I was fairly aware at how many people, black and white, ate up his comformist schtick in his later routines, bashing on single mothers for picking terrible men to sleep, while having at least one bastard child of his own. Even if he wasn't a mass rapist he was a rank hypocrite in his own right, which is no surprise out of a conservative. Like I mentioned, you've got the Fresh Prince right there, which never shied away from tackling issues their audience may have to face such as police profiling, abscentee father's and the line between enjoying success and remembering where they came from. Aunt Viv grew up in Philly and it shows at times
Same. House of Cards being the exception, because the character he plays is just as slimy as Spacey is IRL. More slimy, in fact.
on that note... after the events of Solo, can we ever watch that Lando episode of SW: Rebels again without being a little creeped out?
OK, yes that is very creepy knowing he knew what he did. However, I will still point out that those were all consenting adults in relationships, and when a kid came in contact with it the character of Cliff did run right over and stop him from eating any. A substance that would enhance amorous feelings would be perfectly fine if used between people in love or who are wanting to participate in romantic activities. IIRC the episode involved tensions between the couples and the sauce was used to remind them of their feelings for each other rather than to rape them. This is not what cosby did with women. How many parents have looked at their kids having trivial family arguments during family gatherings and wanted to have them remember some good times and be more pleasant? This is why lots of families drink during the holidays. There are shows that flat out show drinking as a solution to arguments and we do not bitch at them.
That is a good point. I am probably just wondering because I do not know if children watch old sitcoms like I did back in the day. You are probably right that they have so many more options now for syndicated TV shows that we probably could afford to lose the cosby show and they would never be lacking for content. The old Fresh Prince probably shows a more diverse black universe than the cosby show ever did. Back in the day they used to run the cosby show next to family ties. Those were two shows that really had the perfect families so to speak. Here is what your family should look like people, and none of our families ever really looked like that.
I find it interesting that nobody talks about the first show that was centered around him (as opposed to I, Spy, where he was a co-star). In that one, he was a little more "average Joe" than he was on his other shows. He also touched on things like how one could be minding their own business and have the cops fuck up their entire day. (This aired in an era when a show like 1-Adam-12 could routinely have scenes with cops arriving at an incident, using a bullhorn to say, "This is the police, remain calm." and not have to worry about 90% of their audience laughing hysterically and shouting, "Fuck that! I'm getting the fuck out of here!")
Oh, and this is the Cos' most recent role: Skip to about 15 minutes in to get to the actual content. Yes, the animation isn't great, but neither is the animation in Bob's Burgers or Home Movies, so you can't hold that against them. What you can hold against them (aside from hiring Cosby) is the audio quality. Quite literally, one can do better with a $15 headset mic and some free software than what they did for that shite. You want to get fancy? Then this set up is only $31, and has professional sound quality. For about $40 more, you can add this, which will totally take things to the "pro" level. But hell, if you're a broke-ass mofo, then spend $7, and get this, which will get rid of the popping in that shit, no matter what mic you have.
That video Dicky linked up there touched on how everyone and their mother was leaning in on Reagan-esque convervatism and "family values." The Cosby Show was the perfect storm of conformity and brownie points on something resembling diversity. It's pretty telling that during the days long LA riots, the Cosby finale was the only break that the NBC affiliate took, with a message that went something along the lines of "Look, here's one of the Good Ones!"
This is why I ask. I did like how the cosby show did put the fandom of jazz and blues into what should be fandom of african american culture considering the history of the whites of america chasing the artists of that community. From the white angle the huxtables were the sort of family you wanted to know. From a white perspective I think the idea was important because so many were willing to just write off black people as different to the point that segregation was an option. The daughters were the most interesting characters. It was portraying black females in a way that was attractive for the times, and as an option. I do not know how it was coming off in the black community, but for me and my white friends it did make the grandparent and parent racists look stupid. It wasn't that black people had to be white, but that it was stupid to count them out of relationships and the community. This was also pre-fresh prince fame wave. Eddie was the cool young black guy who was infiltrating our homes. There was just such a binary TV system back then. Sinbad was also hitting the comedian scene at the time. There was also Pryor doing comedy movies and stand up. We were starting to get a variety of images of black people in our youth, and Cosby's Cliff Huxtable was something the parents could trust. However, like you say there is much more diversity portrayed now so we do not need to hang onto it. My worry was that there would not be something like that, but there is far more around than in my youth.
IIRC this was the sitcom paradigm of the time. What the video talked about with disaster really not falling on the family, but around them was the way of a lot of sitcoms. The Huxtables just seem to fit into the style of the family sitcom of the time. What's Happening probably addressed problems much more directly than the huxtables.
@Jenee what? that last scene with Chopper, Lando is definitely hitting on/grooming him. "Don't worry my small, metal friend... we SHALL meet again", all breathless and shit? who needs roofies when you can just mind wipe'em?
