“The Cosby Show” (1984-1992) was a US television comedy about an upper-middle-class Black family that lived in a Brooklyn brownstone. It starred Bill Cosby as Dr Cliff Huxtable, the happily married husband of a lovely lawyer, Clair, and the beloved father of Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy.
From 1985 to 1989 it was the number one show on US television, a hit with both Blacks and Whites. By 1995 NBC had made a billion dollars.
As far back as 1966 Cosby had been thinking of doing the show:
“Someday I want to do a family situation comedy on television and it will be a hit because people want to see what goes on in a Negro home today.”
But in 1969 he noted:
“if you’re really going to do a series about a black family, you’re going to have to bring out the heavy, and who is the heavy but the white bigot? This would be very painful for most whites to see, a show that talks about the white man and puts him down.”
*sniff*
By 1984 he had the answer: avoid the issue of race altogether, something he had long been doing in his comedy. White-owned NBC agreed. He got to show the Black family in a good light week after week – no mean feat after nearly 300 years of demonization.
But there was a drawback: As a study by Sut Jhally and Justin Lewis later showed:
“The Cosby Show, we discovered, helps to cultivate an impression, particularly among white people, that racism is no longer a problem in the United States. Our audience study revealed that the overwhelming majority of white TV viewers felt racism was a sin of the past”
If Cliff and Clair can make it so can any Black person!
While Whites were watching “The Cosby Show”, apparently as a documentary, many Blacks were living through the Crack Era. And as the last episode aired, on April 30th 1992, LA burned.
Whitewashed: Not only did the Huxtables live in a science-fiction post-racial universe on the planet Brooklyn, they were becoming Whiter. Critical race theorist Patricia J. Williams observed:
“As The Cosby Show’s warm, even smarmy appeal has made it a staple in homes around the country, black cultural inflections that were initially quite conspicuous (speech patterns, the undercurrent of jazz music, hairstyles ranging from dreadlocks to ‘high-top fades’) have become normalized and invisible … so that The Cosby Show has been described as little more than a portrayal of blacks costumed in cultural whiteface.”
Denise went to an HBCU, Theo went to NYU.
At least the Ellis Wilson painting was still up:
But it gets worse. Michael Eric Dyson:
“Each time Cosby cringed at the very thought of color or race in comedy, he bought the logic of normative white identity hook, punch line and sinker. Cosby didn’t cringe at race or color per se, he cringed at blackness. He didn’t see the color of whiteness; it was the ‘universal’ he embraced.”
– Abagond, 2018.
Sources: mainly “Is Bill Cosby Right?” (2005) by Michael Eric Dyson; “Critical Race Theory” (1995) edited by Kimberlé Crenshaw et al.
See also:
- tropes
- being universal
- respectability politics
- accidental Blackness
- frames
- cast members I have done posts on:
- Bill Cosby – Cliff
- Lisa Bonet – Denise
- Sabrina LeBeauf – Sondra
- Raven-Symoné – Olivia, a step-granddaughter
- Michael Eric Dyson
- Crack Era
- The BET Fallacy – viewing Black entertainment as documentary. Goes back to at least Mark Twain.
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Bill Cosby is disgusting too me can’t watch this show anymore.
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I have always loved that Ellis Wilson painting The Funeral Procession.
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After the Evans family who lived in the ghetto in Chicago, The Cosby Show was a breath of fresh air, but there was something kind of off about it. Something that to this day I cannot put my finger on, I think it might have been the dialogue of the script that seemed contrived looking back it just seemed staged but that was the 80’s. I like the family on Black-ish so much better than the Huxtables they are much more natural and funnier. But i have to admit the best episode of the Cosby show was the lip syncing of Ray Charles Night Time Is The Right Time that was entertaining.
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It’s interesting that while Mr. I Spy was telling the urban youth to pull up their pants, the real American spycreeps were flooding South Central with Iran-Contra back-end crack. And to think that used to be just a rumor (a cough conspiracy theory), not unlike the whispers about the comedian.
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There have always been successful black families. The Cosby show was a picture of a successful black family, nothing more! Bill Cosby was a successful actor.
There were picture of other families and black individuals not so successful. Why pick on this one picture.
Those whites who say they thought that there was no prejudice are still with us and will be with us until the end of time. Nothing will change them because it is bred into them from the time they are born. Race, ethnics, religion, coloration, and origin are all taught in infancy and in the home or local community.
Of course if you did not know any successful black families you could believe they did not exist; however they just stayed quiet in the communities.
To look back on the attempts of directors to portray black life different then losers and complain is the same as the “in the barrel” thing.
Who today can provide a picture of the “total black”? I would believe no one.
Bill Cosby is an actor, when one looks at his films he is one of many. To condemn his action concerning his personal life is one thing (hate him all you want) to condemn the movies with many other actors is foolish. Why are you destroying the careers of so many because of the personal actions of one.
Do you do the same for ‘all” white actors?
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@ Allen Shaw
“Bill Cosby is an actor, when one looks at his films he is one of many. To condemn his action concerning his personal life is one thing (hate him all you want) to condemn the movies with many other actors is foolish.”
Still defending Mr. “acceptable Black”, White worshiping, rapist scum like Bill Cosby at this late date, huh?
Successful Black families are in the eyes of the beholders. I know successful Black families that look nothing like the phony Huxtables…and they don’t always “stay quiet” in the community. Many successful Black families are community leaders with generations of service to the people in their neighborhoods.
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Allen Shaw always the apologist for for rapist and white supremacy. So disgusting.
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So you saw my name and did not read just responded. I did not defend Mr. Cosby I defended the other actors on the show.
You “know” and we are talking about the 84s! That was 33 years ago.
Bill Cosby had made quite a few movies and was on national TV. How many other blacks were on national TV at that time. Of course there was the civil right movement that made it possible for him to be in a major set of movies.
History:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Television_series_created_by_Bill_Cosby
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Bill_Cosby_live_albums
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Spy_(1965_TV_series)
So you can condemn Mr. Cosby because you personally know the facts; however, please do not deny that he was a pioneer in the movie industry for blacks. (in this world one can go from sugar to ____).
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@ Allen Shaw
I responded after I read your comment.
The other actors (of the Cosby Show) performed on a show that was Bill Cosby’s brainchild.
I disagree that Cosby was a pioneer in the movie or television industry. The true Black pioneers in film included Josephine Baker, Paul Robeson, Nina Mae McKinney, Louise Beavers,The Nicolas Brothers and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.
There was also the powerhouse writer, producer, director Oscar Micheaux
https://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BYzAzODJmYWEtNTdjYi00OGNiLTkxMmQtYzgxMDgxM2ViMjBlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDkzNTM2ODg@.V1.jpg
In television, Billy Daniels and Nat King Cole had their own TV show in the early to mid 1950s. At the same time Cosby starred in I Spy, there were six shows that featured Black actors:
Hogan’s Heroes (1965-1970)
The Sammy Davis, Jr. Show (1966)
Hawk (1966)
Star Trek (1966-1969)
Daktari (1966-1969)
Mission: Impossible (1966-1973)
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Oscar Micheaux
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@ Afrofem
There was also Julia, which premiered in 1968.
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Great history. I will save it; however it does not stop Bill Crosby from being a pioneer also.
You cannot take a mans accomplishment away from him because he screwed up. You do not know anything about the personal lives of other people because no one talked about such thing in the 50s.
It is only now that we are digging into the live of men who have violated women that this conversation is coming up. Mr. Cosby seems to be a pioneer in that also.
All men prior to Mr. Cosby were perfect gentlemen.
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“Bill Cosby is an actor, when one looks at his films he is one of many. To condemn his action concerning his personal life is one thing (hate him all you want) to condemn the movies with many other actors is foolish. Why are you destroying the careers of so many because of the personal actions of one.”
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@ Allen Shaw
The critique has nothing to do with Cosby’s personal life. Point to one thing in the post that I could not have written ten years ago. I did not even make an Obama comparison. The quotes are from 2005 or before. You are creating a straw-man argument.
And I gave Cosby his due:
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@ Mary
Comment deleted for name-calling.
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corny, and i seen most of em and all whats happening and diffrnt strokes like when the dr’s are arguing about fixing the damn radiator hose or whatever please planet somewhere else a bubble against the 80’s cocaine etc i guess i get it but bill cosby got a nasty court date, out here in the county i think
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@ abagond
Sorry sir I did not mean to respond to you I was responding to the two other commentators before me. me bad!
My last comment was a copy of part of an earlier comment I made. See it is in quotation marks.
Please go back to my original response Mar 18.
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v8driver
corny, and i seen most of em and all whats happening and diffrnt strokes like when the dr’s are arguing about fixing the damn radiator hose or whatever please planet somewhere else a bubble against the 80’s cocaine etc i guess i get it but bill cosby got a nasty court date, out here in the county i think
What the hell are you talking about???
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@Allen Shaw
“Who today can provide a picture of the “total black”? I would believe no one.”
What is a total black?
“Great history. I will save it; however it does not stop Bill Crosby from being a pioneer also.”
“And I gave Cosby his due:
“He got to show the Black family in a good light week after week – no mean feat after nearly 300 years of demonization.”
He did do that. Bill Cosby introduced the working “upper middle class” black family to American television. But, as mentioned by others, there were other firsts before Mr. Cosby. For example:
Although not upper middle class, I do remember Diane Carroll as Julia and Mannix with Gail Fisher as his secretary. Raymond St. Jacques appeared in the series Rawhide as a regular.
” You cannot take a mans accomplishment away from him because he screwed up. You do not know anything about the personal lives of other people because no one talked about such thing in the 50s.
It is only now that we are digging into the live of men who have violated women that this conversation is coming up. Mr. Cosby seems to be a pioneer in that also.
All men prior to Mr. Cosby were perfect gentlemen. ”
LOL !!!! Was this sarcasm?
In the 1920’s, “Fatty” Arbuckle was accused of rape and manslaughter of an actress. He was acquitted. He began working under an alias as a director.
Charlie Chaplin had a problem with very young girls.
Ingrid Bergman and Rossellini.
Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher.
Errol Flynn, accused of raping a 17 year old girl, was cleared of charges.
Lana Turner, her daughter and boyfriend.
Roman Polanski
Woody Allen
are but a few examples.
Looking backwards, it sort of appears that Cosby was singled out and made an example of, along with other black males (some as young as 14 years old), including Jack Johnson and Chuck Berry. I wonder why. Johnson did receive a posthumous pardon 70 years later. George Stinney was exonerated 70 plus years later.
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@shaw ah dude im goin thru it, not trying to be rude, i consider the show corny, agreeing with abagond its about 6 roatations away from this universe, and i considered the drs (characters) the wives are at home or something and the dudes car got stuck? and it was a minor maintenance issue like a radiator hose, so and also my wife watches all tv, but mostly black shows, so like im not ignorant? sorry bout that?
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and also i went sideways because bill cosby is all about philly and temple or whatever but i think they moved the venue to um montgomery county for his arraingment? or preliminary yay the commonwealth laws not like new jersey nor new york
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so was he roofieing (sp) women in the 80s when it was supposed to be wholesome entertainment? and then the jello pop commercials or whatever corny
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