http://www.bonethefish.com/viewtopics.php?102#

The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, first airing on September 20, 1984 and running for eight seasons on the NBC television network, until April 30, 1992. The show focused on the Huxtable family, an upper-middle class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York.

When Olivia usurped Rudy's role as the cute little kid and they brought in all those extra people.

I thought that when Lisa Bonet started becoming more and more recurring to the point of leaving the show, the show suffered. I think TSC needed the Denise character, and the show suffered because of Denise's absence. IMHO

It JTS when Cosby decided to lecture the audience instead of entertaining them.

Another vote for Olivia. :p

After season 5,


Best era for the show was season 2 to 5. Which explains why it was number 1

After season 5,


Best era for the show was season 2 to 5. Which explains why it was number 1
I'm taping some shows on DVR just to sample some Cosby Show episodes. To me it started losing steam come Season 3. I have been trying some Season 4 episodes too and unfortunately there is a spark that is missing. It doesn't grab me the way Season 1 and 2 have been. Of course, there are a lot more episodes to these two seasons than the ones that are being aired on DVR. So my opinion is only based on a sample, not all the episodes.

I'm taping some shows on DVR just to sample some Cosby Show episodes. To me it started losing steam come Season 3. I have been trying some Season 4 episodes too and unfortunately there is a spark that is missing. It doesn't grab me the way Season 1 and 2 have been. Of course, there are a lot more episodes to these two seasons than the ones that are being aired on DVR. So my opinion is only based on a sample, not all the episodes.



Not sure why you say that when denise was still on the show

Not sure why you say that when denise was still on the show
she was on the show, but wasn't her presence more sporadic? and wasn't there more conflicts between her and the rest of the cast at that time?

she was on the show, but wasn't her presence more sporadic? and wasn't there more conflicts between her and the rest of the cast at that time?


That was season 4

Well, I don't know then - maybe with Phylicia Rashad's pregnancy in Season 3? Was her presence more sporadic during that time? I don't have Season 3 DVD at this time to confirm. Something had to have caused the change. Or at least started it. I don't fault PR though. LOL. I'm just saying that it may have been the situation.

Well, I don't know then - maybe with Phylicia Rashad's pregnancy in Season 3? Was her presence more sporadic during that time? I don't have Season 3 DVD at this time to confirm. Something had to have caused the change. Or at least started it. I don't fault PR though. LOL. I'm just saying that it may have been the situation.

season 3 was when Phylicia Rashad was always laying down or sitting down because of her pregnancy

Well, without having all of Seasons 3 onward, I guess I can't say for sure what my opinion really is. Contrary to popular opinion though, I liked the addition of Elvin to the show because IMHO he was kind of funny, especially with his foot in his mouth half the time.

When the show started focusing on Pam and her friends.

What the heck is "boned the fish"? Is it another term for jumped the shark?

What the heck is "boned the fish"? Is it another term for jumped the shark?


Yes, the administrator allowed the OP to promote the BTF site on here to generate discussion on both sites

Yes, the administrator allowed the OP to promote the BTF site on here to generate discussion on both sites

Ok, I was wondering why I kept seeing bone the fish all over. I know that I haven't been on here a lot. I thought that it was a new saying that ya'll made up LOL.

Ok, I was wondering why I kept seeing bone the fish all over. I know that I haven't been on here a lot. I thought that it was a new saying that ya'll made up LOL.


The OP was getting attacked by a lot of people because they thought he was spamming the boards. Because if u noticed he wasn't involved in any of the bone the fish discussions lol

But the Administrator stepped in and explained why he was doing what he did

I voted for Claire. I hated when she thinks she is all that. Never making a mistake. Come on!! So unrealistic.

When the show started focusing on Pam and her friends.
Yeah at the time in the early 90's when The Simpsons was becoming a ratings juggernaut I kind of lost track on Cosby for awhile that when I did see an episode and see Pam I thought "who the hell are these people, where's Cliff, Theo?"

The Cosby Show jumped the shark when it became the "Cousin Pam and Friends" Show. Theo, Rudy, Vanessa, and Sondra were rarely seen anymore. Denise was completely off the show. Nearly every episode centered on horribly unfunny 'Cousin Pam', a character we had never heard of before, and cared nothing about.

I realize the young actors who had been involved in the show wanted to spend more time off-set, but couldn't they have convinced each Cosby kid to tape just two more episodes apiece? That would have saved us the horror of The Cosby Show slowly becoming 'Cousin Pam and Her Ghetto Friends'.

The Cosby Show jumped the shark when it became the "Cousin Pam and Friends" Show. Theo, Rudy, Vanessa, and Sondra were rarely seen anymore. Denise was completely off the show. Nearly every episode centered on horribly unfunny 'Cousin Pam', a character we had never heard of before, and cared nothing about.

I realize the young actors who had been involved in the show wanted to spend more time off-set, but couldn't they have convinced each Cosby kid to tape just two more episodes apiece? That would have saved us the horror of The Cosby Show slowly becoming 'Cousin Pam and Her Ghetto Friends'.
I actually think Season 7 wasn't bad if it weren't for Pam and her friends. I found Charmaine to be even more annoying than Pam. There were some really funny moments in Season 7, like in Bird in the Hand and You Can Go Home Again, but the introduction of Pam and her friends was a horrible idea.

I still feel that the show suffered without Denise being a regular anymore, especially starting in Season 4, and continuing in Season 5.

I actually think Season 7 wasn't bad if it weren't for Pam and her friends. I found Charmaine to be even more annoying than Pam. There were some really funny moments in Season 7, like in Bird in the Hand and You Can Go Home Again, but the introduction of Pam and her friends was a horrible idea.
If you removed Pam and Friends from every episode, you'd only have half a season. But that season would be much improved, I must admit.


I still feel that the show suffered without Denise being a regular anymore, especially starting in Season 4, and continuing in Season 5.
Quite correct. Denise was a big part of the show, a huge reason why the show rang true, and no amount of let's-stick-Sondra-in-that-scene would fix Denise's absence.

I feel nosy bringing this up because everytime I see Denise in an episode, I wonder what really went wrong. I know it's acting, but I don't really see tension between Denise and the cast when they're performing their roles, so the acting must have been good enough to cover all that up.

If Denise was the wrong party here, then it probably pained Cosby to fire her - I doubt he wanted to do that, but things must have gotten bad somehow.

I feel nosy bringing this up because everytime I see Denise in an episode, I wonder what really went wrong. I know it's acting, but I don't really see tension between Denise and the cast when they're performing their roles, so the acting must have been good enough to cover all that up.

If Denise was the wrong party here, then it probably pained Cosby to fire her - I doubt he wanted to do that, but things must have gotten bad somehow.
Well, my understanding is that he didn't approve of Lisa Bonet's boyfriend, Lenny Kravitz. And Cos gave her an ultimatum and she walked.

Yeah but that was for the first time he fired her. He rehired her in Season 6, I think, and fired her again in Season 7, and that was after the Kravitz stuff.

Lisa Bonet was not fired after Season 3, they decided to experiment with her character by giving her a spin-off. She wasn't forced from A Different World either, they originally planned for her to return to A Different World in season 3 after her pregnancy but due to the success of season 2, they sent her back to The Cosby Show.

For me, the show boned the fish when the Huxtable kids started appearing in only 9 episode per season. Though that option isn't available.

I mentioned in an earlier post that Season 7 would have been pretty good were it not for Pam and Co.

Well, that was before I experimented more with Season 7; after watching some episodes on my DVR I have to say that with the exception of a few episodes in there, Season 7 is where it got bad. Some of the episodes are not watchable to me, even some Pam-less ones. It was the downfall of a really good show. I have no idea about Season 8 - never tried most of it.

Season 8 is watchable for episode 8-07 (with Vanessa), 8-11 (with Rudy and Vanessa), 8-21 (Rudy and Sondra) and 8-24/25 (Theo's graduation/the final episode). The "Cousin Pam" episodes are dead to me.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070225141752/http://jumptheshark.com/


Other Thoughts:

When the youngest daughter was too old to be cute.
How did that fourth older daughter appear out of nowhere? Is this the reverse of the Chuck Cunningham syndrome?
When Rudy had a deeper voice than Bill
When Lisa Bonet got naked with Mickey Rourke (ugh!)
the first time lip-synched to jazz/blues classic--or rather the second time
When Phyllicia Rashad realized that all acting could be reduced to one note: a patient endearing smile. (Middle of season two, I believe.)
Cosby jumped when Rudy wasn't cute anymore.
The first time Cliff Huxtable’s parents appeared on two consecutive shows.
About when Different World kicked in and Lisa Bonet left for that and to make Angel Heart, Cosby sorta went into neutral gear. When Stevie Wonder guest starred and Bill Cosby's character gave a lame excuse not to remain and share the stage with Wonder, that was the final nail in the coffin for me.
Hard to remember that this kicked off as a classic sitcom because by season two Bill became terribly concerned with presenting a responsible vision of a loving African-American family, an aim that doesn't produce a lot of yuks.
I think there is a tie for when this good comedy show of the eighties jumped. It was either when the family did the SECOND lip-sync to a jazz record for the grandparents birthday (the first one was funny with Rudie lip-syncing BABY-OH BABY) or it was when Cliff started wearing the SD button in honor of Sammie Davis Jr. Talk about blurring the line between reality and entertainment. I lost interest when dim witted Lisa Bonet brings home a husband.
Do you think Saundra and her husband regretted naming their twins Winnie and Nelson, even though the Mandelas divorced?
When Theo's friend Cockroach began to figure prominently in the plots. I can still hear Cosby's grating "****-a-ROACH!" every time he did something wrong. Also the constant parade of elderly jazzmen cast as Cliff Huxtable's relatives.
This show was always considered to be realistic, but I have to disagree. Remember when Theo wanted that shirt "Gordon Gartrelle", but Bill Cosby wouldn't get it for him? Then Lisa Bonet made him one except the sleeves were too long and too short and a bunch of **** was wrong with it. Then Theo's friends loved it and wanted her to make one. In real life he would have gotten his bitch-ass kicked right then and there, and then someone would have taken his shirt and wiped his ass with it.
This was probably the most overrated show in the history of TV. Bill Cosby is fine as a comedian, but do we really need his own family as his perpetual audience, chuckling over his dry, witty quips? "Cosby" worked better when it didn't go out of its way to showcase Bill. However, puberty was very unkind to the Cosby kids, especially Vanessa & Rudy. The good news was, we no longer had to see Rudy try to act cute. The bad news was, they had to pull the old "Adopt-A-Brat" hat trick again and bring in Denise's "adorable" stepdaughter. She was cute, but this was one show that could only have been HELPED by a shortage of overly cute kids. Bill, it's funny in a 30-second Jell-O pudding commercial, but 30 minutes is another story.
Rudy Huxtable, when she grew a moustache you knew the show was doomed.
When that little girl (Denise's step daughter?) joined the cast.
Jammin' on the One. Jam, Jam, Jam, Jammin' on the One.
The most over-rated show in television history. What was so damn funny? Cosby's endless camera mugging was nauseating. And what gave the rest of the cast their inflated egos and the belief that they had any talent?
I thought the show jumped when Raven Simone Showed up I hated her. RUDY rules! She was my girl and it was her show and some little deformed Brat comes in and tries to steal the show but I will always love RUDY.
This show was funny at first, but it got such great ratings that it went to old Bill's head. He became a nasty, smug, ridiculously authoritarian father. The last few seasons were a waste, especially when he would bring his cronies on (generally jazz musicians) and pass them off as "relatives." You ever wonder why they rarely show this in reruns?
It totally jumped around the time when Theo and Denise were both gone and it was all up to recently de-cuted Rudy and consistently un-cute Vanessa. This was also the time of the hideous cousin Pam and Denise's mysterious navy shipman. Claire and Cliff hardly seemed to notice who was in their house at any given moment, and it was finally clear that the days of episodes like Peter and the Juicer and Theo's Introduction to the Real World were long gone. A curse on cousin Pam, Grandma and Grandpa, Alvin, and Lisa Bonet.
When Rudy got old and we realized she could not act.
A funny show, it was your typical 80's family sitcom with all the trimmings. Except, it was a successful black family. That was certainly an innovation. Even though it was very popular, I think a lot of people, especially, minorities, took offense to this show because they said it wasn't "real". Why? Believe it or not, successful black families do exist in this country. If you ask me, it was one of the first shows that portrayed African-Americans in a non-stereotypical form. There weren't endless references to white people as honkys (has any black person ever used the word honky in real life?) and Theo didn't go around saying catch phrases like "Dynomite!" This family actually paid their bills and every show didn't revolve around the fact that they were poor and wondering where their next meal would come from. Even though there were a lot of serious or message type shows, I thought overall, it was very humorous, and had a wackiness about it that most family-type shows always seem to lack. A lot of people called this the Brady Bunch of the 80's, but it was way way way funnier and a lot more realistic. If I have to pick a time when it jumped it's during the last two or three years when that little girl came on and they started focusing more on Theo and all those other college-aged kids, who the hell were those people and where the hell did they come from? Also, it looked like Cliff and Claire kinda put their acting on auto-pilot during those final years......The one episode, I don't know exactly when it aired, when they try to play a joke on Cliff and he turns the tables and pretends like he's going to throw Alvin out of the house was one of the funniest things I've ever seen!
The big lip-syncing numbers put on for the grandparents. Yeah, families do that all the time. Isn't it amazing how a show this popular in its initial run has completely dropped off the radar?
When Rudy got a mustache, that was just nasty!
I think "Jammin' on a one" threw the entire country for a loop. I don't even think Stevie Wonder knew what the hell Theo was talking about. Maybe if he just hadn't repeated the phrase incessantly, things would've turned out okay.
I proposed that continuity error be a cause for shark-jumping, a perfect example being the Cosby Show. In the pilot episode, Clair asks Cliff, "Why did we have four kids?" to which he responds, "Because we did not want five." Then along came that annoying Sondra, spontaneously generated like Athena sprung from Zeus's head. Even at 14, I knew that was just sloppy. It was all over from there.
When the children started growing up and the show took off into A Different World.
I just saw the rerun where Rudy gets her period, I've been watching the reruns from the start, Rudy was cute but then after she got old.
Season Two. Once the freshness of TCS got old it was just another sitcom. And who told Phylicia Rashad she could act. That insipid self righteous smile of hers was just grating!! My secret wish was for her to drop the priss routine and rock old Cliffs world one nite in 5inch heels and stockings. On a side note, the morphing of Rudy from semi-cute to Treasure Troll.
That new theme song really sucked!
What was once a genuinely funny, heartwarming show (Esp. in the first 3 seasons) became truly unwatchable with the episode where Cliff dreams that all the men are pregnant. Trust me on this one: PREGNANT MEN ARE NOT FUNNY, THEY'VE NEVER BEEN FUNNY, AND THEY NEVER WILL BE FUNNY! Not only that, the whole "dream sequence" was horribly overacted by all involved; the worst part was when one of the guys gave birth to a hoagie (??????), and another gave birth to a sailboat (?!?!??!?!?). Truly the most vile episode of any series I once liked; what the hell was Cosby thinking????
Loved this show! Every Thursday night.
ONE WORD: OLIVIA!!! This little was too grown for the part!! She ran grown folks conversations...
On the Cosby Show: Raven Simone killed this show when she brought her little ass on!!! She also killed Hangin With Mr Cooper.
The Cosby Show should've stayed in the 1980's, but it was still okay until Pam came along. She and her friends made the show seem like the 80's but all of her issues were already done. Then by the time Theo was teaching in the Rec. Center while late into his college years the show was done for.
THAT LITTLE GIRL OLIVIA KILLED THE COSBY SHOW! IT WAS CLOSE TO IT'S DEATHBED, BUT WHEN THEY BROUGHT HER ON SHE TOOK MOST OF RUDY'S LINES; SO BASICALLY IN A NUT SHELL, RUDY WAS JUST IN THE BACKGROUND
2 WORDS: RAVEN SIMONE
Ok, I have to give this show some credit as a solid 80's program, by when they did the funky fairy tale episode it was a feeding frenzy for the shark. In this episode, which still makes me feel like I am going to puke, Olivia reads her story and the whole cast is sucked into some fantasy land. Picture "The Cosby Show" meets "The land of Make Believe." The basic story was that Olivia, the Huxtable grandparets, and Theo live in this sickingly happy kingdom where all they do is dance and piss of viewers. On the other side of the river, Cliff and the the fat white kid Peter rule an evil domain. Needless to say, the evil side comes over and enslaves all the annoying happy people. The episode should have ended right there. But no, the happy dorks revolt and take back their land. Then for some reason, the vanquished evil guys are suddenly happy. Go figure! To this day I want to shoot a hole in the TV every time this piece of crap comes on.
RAVEN SIMONE BEING ADDED THE SHOW REALLY WAS A DOWNFALL!!! SHE WAS TO GROWN UP ACTING!!! NOT MENTION WHEN THE SHOW REVOLVED AROUND HER AND HER PROBLEMS AFTER HER SECOND SECOND IT WAS THE COSBY AND RAVEN-SIMONE SHOW!! ALSO WHEN VANESSA GOT THAT BIG AFRO HAIRDO! THE SHOW STARTED IT'S EARLY SHARKING STAGES!!!
When film stars and Jazz musicians suddenly appeared at the door.
When tempest bledsoe a.k.a Vanessa, decided she was popular enough to have her own show.
That little girl named Olivia! The whole show was centered around her!!! I think Bill forgot about his other kids!!
Anytime Dick Vitale comes on my T.V., I have to change the channel. I have never seen a more annoying Human Being in all of my life.
In about the fifth season, an element that had been present in the show began, at least in my mind, to predominate to an obnoxious level: that is, Cliff's belief that any young person who doesn't go on to years of graduate school and become a doctor or lawyer is a slacker, and that all folks under the age of thirty are essentially dolts in desperate need of Cliff's firm guidance. It was one thing (and funny) when Cosby was rolling his eyes in reaction to the actions of young children; it was another (and not amusing) when he's rolling his eyes and fuming over the life decisions of twenty- and twenty-five-year old Denise, Sondra, etc. The worst example of this that I viewed was an episode when Sondra and her husband inform Mom and Dad that they've decided to open some kind of nature or health foods store rather than pursue post-graduate education -- Cliff and the Mrs. react as if the "kids" have decided to join a Satanic cult and offer Rudy as their first human sacrifice; and the episode is written and staged so as to demonstrate the righteousness of Cliff's position. I really felt that the joy and enthusiasm that was a part of Bill Cosby's humor (and which I thoroughly enjoyed for many years) all but left over the last few years of the show.
When the family put on the musical celebration for the grandparents' anniversary.
The show and all shows start to tank when the father starts dressing nice. In the beginning, Cosby ware sweats, it wasn't until he started wearing suits and $500 sweaters that the show began to take. This follows suit in other sitcoms as well (Family Ties and Growing Pains). I am not saying that he clothes make the show, its just another ploy writers use to draw attention away from the fact that they have nothing else to write about.
when rudy started dating and got older and fatter. I also couldn't understand why they brought on the "poor cousin from the wrong side of town with a heart o' gold" as a regular character
When did The Cosby Show jump the shark? Take your pick 1) When Theo and Cockroach got yelled at for performing Shakespeare in the living room? (This has never happened to any family, black or white or whatever) 2) When Sondra and Elvin decided to name their twin kids Winnie and Nelson after the Mandelas? (and considering the Mandela's subsequent bitter divorce, those kids are probably changing their names right now). 3) Olivia? (goes without saying) 4) The overuse of that chubby little white kid that was always over there and never said a word 5) That niece (or whatever she was) who moved in with them to give the show some "street" and brought her "street" friends to counter the criticism that the show was too "white", whatever that meant.
The Cosby Show: Cousin Pam--the worst! Rudy's hair was rather large during the final season.
When that little snot Raven Symone joined as Lisa Bonets daughter... All because Rudy was going into puberty... I know it is a common problem with sitcoms... But like you said on Howards show this morning, that is what the Simpsons have survived so long... the kids haven't grown up!!!
The episode when Cliff and some dude were playing patonk in the yard. It was just stupid. Even stupid-er was also in the show when Theo try to rock-climb the basement banister.
I think i'm right on the money with this one... I'm tellin' ya, I watched Cosby every week until Simpsons.
At about the beginning of the second season, I realized the show wasn't funny to begin with. I am still chortling over the comment where someone said that this was a particularly realistic show.
This show declined in different stages. The first being a new opening number where they're dressed in pastels and doing a synchronized dance in these Mediterranean pastels. Second, Elvin as a regular was weak (I won't even bring up his Jamaican father). Third, and skipping ahead a season or two, it pains me to watch Claire enjoy the new addition her husband built. A 50 yr. old woman dancing? Stop
One day, a couple years after I stopped watching this show, I turned it on again and there were like 2 new kids, but they were older than Rudy and Vanessa...huh? What the hell is going on?
After Vanessa went to college, they were strapped for kids. In comes Olivia, and "Cousin Pam". They just weren't funny at all... Whatever happened to Cockroach? After Theo graduated HS, he just disappeared. Why couldn't he come to Theo's college graduation, for the last show. I would have LOVED that!
Bill really knew he had us in his pocket when the whole show, late second or third season I believe, was a real/fake college commencement from a real/fake jerkwater colored college. My own commencement ceremonies were boring enough (God bless my family and friends). Bill gave us black educators right out of central casting, "When you meet a Hillman man, cook him a fiiiiiine meal (toothy grin)", dressed liked professional cornerbacks going to Halloween parties, from a women's college in Ohio. That's when this heretofore enjoyable show became a sententious bore.
I just saw about 3 episodes from one of the last seasons when Cliff's patients are more a part of the show than ANY of the children. I hated those episodes. That was when you knew the Cosby family was falling apart. just recently there have been reruns of this show on... I loved it as a kid but now I realize that none of the kids, except Rudy, could EVER act and Rudy joined them after she got older. This was right around the time they gave her part, as the "cute one", to Olivia. A show is DOOMED when they add another kid. Lisa Bonet was never believable as the wife of a Navy officer and a mother. Much of that season trying to cover the tattoo she had on her shoulders. That was also the season Cliff just got too old to care about his kids.
The addition of Pam to the cast and all of the stories around her character is when the show jumped the shark. It was a very, very funny show until then, but you have to end it when all of the kids grow up and you have to resort to bringing new, lame characters to the show.
When that cousin from the projects came to live with the Huxtables.
This show jumped when The Simpsons moved into the same time slot.
The Cosby show really dumped when Lisa Bonet began to look funky because of real life boyfriend rocker "what's his face". And the final nail in the coffin came when Theo became smart. What was up with that?? Bill Cosby himself is so annoying, he presently is painful even to channel surf past....jmho however. When comedians stop being funny and start being politically correct and opinionated we all suffer.
When Lisa Bonet left the show to go to Spellman, thus spawning "A Different World." After that, Sabrina Lebeouf (the oldest daughter) came back with Elton and Raven Simone, who tried too hard to be the next Rudi. Then when Theo was diagnosed with dyslexia, the circuit was complete.
I would love to say never but they should have made Rudy the last kid. The other girl Raven threw the whole show off.
When more thought went into making sure Cliff wore sweaters designed to offend my aesthetic sensibilities than in creating even a distant relative to a plot.
When Tempest decided to grow that ridiculous afro hairdo. I just wanted to throw up every time I saw her. Cousin Pam was the worst and her friends were just as bad. If that was real life all of them would have gotten the **** kicked out of them.
This show jumped when Rudy and Vanessa got weird looking. I am not sure what happened but Rudy turned into a teenager that could not have possibly been the child that played all those cute scenes with Daddy "Cos". I think the producers realized this fact as well, but contractual issues prevented them from ousting Tempest (Vanessa) and Keisha (Rudy). In retrospect I really feel sorry for them because they became like to forgotten children....maybe that episode where Cliff and Claire made the girls sleep in the basement was a sign of what was really to come. What the heck was up with Vanessa's hair (asymmetric bush)...in what lifetime was that fashionable!! I am sure there is an unemployable hair/make-up person some where regretting the day that do was done.
I was born in the early 80s and being african-american The Cosby show was a staple in my weekly life. So I don't agree with people who knock the earlier casts members. HOWEVER, when they added Olivia I wanted to hand myself. This was such a sick attempt at cute humor. I would have rather seen re-runs of small Rudy then this shameful display. And although the show had been going downhill for about the last five years the ultimate WORST show was when they had poor little sick Olivia lip sync for grandma and grandpa 1000th weeding anniversary. I just think God i didn't have a shot gun next to me cause i wouldn't be here writing this.
There was once a really lame episode that just came up short. I mean it literally ended with ten minutes left to go! Suddenly, the whole family is mesmerized by Dr. Martin Luther King giving his "I have been to the mountain top" speech on the T.V. Of course, we never see footage of the speech, just the teary-eyed, slack-jawed close-ups of the cast. No further dialogue, nothing. Boy, did that suck!
when all the children left and they brought in Olivia. She was cute but to GROWN UP. NOT CUTE. Cousin Pam not funny but her friends were hilarious (Lance and his girlfriend). None of the Cosby children were ever really good actors, especially THEO. Vanessa just never really seem to find the right look, Denise (when she returned with the husband and Olivia) looked like she needed a good bath, I think I could smell her through the TV. Saundra and Elvin please SNORE. Two most boring black people in the history of television. Rudy was a cute little girl but was clearly loosing the cutesy act to Olivia. Actually the show jumped when they decided to focus on non-acting, struggling to speak grammatically correct english Theo. Those kids could not ACT. Just watch the reruns.
The show just started to fall rapidly in the last few seasons. I liked Olivia but in smaller doses. The premise of the show needed a young child. The addition of Cousin Pam was a mistake and that whole thing about Vanessa marrying - not marrying - marrying - not marrying -- the older man was sad. Also, too many showcases of jazz musicians, etc.
Watched this show up until 1990 (when the Simpsons replaced it). I actually liked Olivia in her first season but I was a kid then. I can't watch the Pam episodes. Like the above guy said, I've seen some of the last two seasons in reruns and many of them center on Pam and her friends. Why? This was the Cosby Show, not the Pam and Her Friends Show. I did manage to catch the final episode when it aired and I felt it didn't live up to the hype.
The show jumped the shark when Bill Cosby began taking heat from the black community about being an "oreo" (if you're not familiar with this expression, just think hard about it). The show went from having white kids and friends over to the house, to bidding on exclusive African art. Soon, we were sent on a vapid ride through black-college land, and then there's Pam, whose jive-talking character was better suited for What's Happening than a show about upper class black families. You can also notice how the house changes, along with the kids' hair styles. Soon, Theo has lines shaved in his head, Vanessa had an enormous afro, and Denise looked like she came in from the Shaka-Zulu hunts. Coz's attempt to be more black was ill-conceived, as he should have realized that white viewers wouldn't watch this, as well as the majority of black families, which fall well below the income level supposedly achieved by the Cosby parents. Besides, what kind of successful doctor and lawyer do you know of that is always at the house, singing and dancing and raising stupid, stupid kids?
A commencement ceremony. Now that's entertainment.
Did anyone else think it was really stupid that, while Olivia at least part of the time called Denise "mom", she called her step-grandparents dr. huxtable and mrs. huxtable? She even lived with them! My step son is 16 and his Dad and I have only been married three years and he calls my grandparents grandma and grandpa!
When Raven was cast as the step-grandchild. She was treated better than the original Cosby children. It was a stunt to get back some ratings and it totally failed because she was such a spoiled little brat who was constantly interrupting the grown-ups conversations. What a mistake!!!!!
This show has some cool moments but I don't get how Cosby could get paid so much for syndication. Now that the price is lower I notice it is on cable back to back for about 7 times where I live. My god we Americans are really pathetic. People are so addicted to TV that we will watch 7 Cosbys a day over anything else. I could understand the Brady Bunch or say the Coz classic Fat Albert. But The Cosby Show? Why- do we not know how each episode will end? Either Cos and that chick he has for a wife will grin at each other because they think they are the smartest people in the world and so much smarter than their kids or Cos will spend 5 minutes mugging and the rest of the cast will act like it is the pinnacle of high comedy. Also Theo realizes that his parents made a fool out of him bring up the credits. In real life Theo would make the Cliff look like a dork and the mother a double standard hypocrite all the time.
There got to be too much sassiness. Every line had to be an exercise in sassiness, it just got tiring. There is only so much sassiness a person can take. um-hmmm, girlfriend!
...the harder they fall. This was my favorite show when i was like 5 or 6, and when it ended in second grade i cried, but dammit, this show jumped over about 16 sharks, one after the next...where do i start. One jump was bringing that stagnant little waste basket Raven Symone (the real patron saint if you ask me) onto the show. She wasn't cute, her dancing in the opening credits was horrendous. Second strike--all that damn preaching. Shut the f**k up! The show could never finish without Cliff talking for ten minutes straight and just boring us to death. MORE COCKROACH MORE COCKROACH!
When I was growing up watching this show was a Thursday night ritual in my family. I always found it so encouraging to see a moral, strong, close knit Black family that loved each other deeply. It was always funny and always original. It's also to encouraging to go and watch re-runs and recognize great entertainers such as Danny Kaye and Betty Carter as guest stars. It was well-written dialogue and wonderful to grow up with the members of the cast. Anyone who thinks this show was overrated didn't understand the eight-year phenomenon and can't appreciate good television.
When Rudy grew a moustache! It's true. The minute she grew up and they added that brat Raven Simone the show skidded out of control down an icy hill of bad comedy.
I think this show jumped the shark when i realized rudy huxtable had a thicker mustache than my dad.
Right about the time Pam came into the picture and it seemed everyone was always in the house at once..it was annoying.
This show jumped when they suddenly discovered Theo had dyslexia, which nobody noticed during the first 18 or so years of his life.
Being an African American female from a fully functioning, stable, educated family, I found relief and a reflection in the Cosby's. Unfortunately, as I grew up, I realized that the show just wasn't well written. It was an excellent representation of African American life that strongly contrasts its predecessors such as "Good Times"(the worst show ever made). Amazingly, it was the later shows - before Olivia- that I enjoyed the most. Before Pam and Olivia showed up the show finally started to get realistic, but it revealed that the parents had issues with both Vanessa and Rudy. Did anybody else notice that Denise and Theo were seldom yelled at and instead were taught cutesy lessons, but when Vanessa and Rudy got into the slightest bit of trouble, Claire was hollering and threatening to put the smack down? What brought this show down. Raven Simone. Poor thing. She doesn't deserve to be told she resulted in the downfall of a popular show, but its the cold, hard reality that is life.
"Because it's Hillman". I think that episode was the single most wasted half hour time slot of my life. That episode so disgusted me that I am proud to say I never watched the show again.
I knew this show was a goner when I saw the episode in which Stevie Wonder guest starred. That the writers had no idea what to do with him is shown by the amateurish quality of the script, which reads like a junior high production. There is no real plot, no reason for this episode to exist other than to proclaim, "Hey, here's Stevie Wonder. That ought to be enough."
When cousin Pam was brought in. Home many relatives can come and live in your house. Do you add one a year?
This mediocre sit-com well and truly jumped the shark when NBC decided to bump a Mets-RedSox series game back a 1/2 hour so they could show this sitcom. NBC finally believed its hype- the Cosby Show became the Most Important Show In the World. I never understood why this show was so loved. I guess TV really was a wasteland at that time. I never thought it was an accurate depiction of how blacks lived- right, all black families lip synch to old records and have aging jazzmen for relatives. I always thought the Jeffersons was a more realistic portrayal. Hell, even the gang from What's Happening! was more realistic. By the 3rd season, the show was boiled to a formula: Cliff acts all low-key and obscure, Claire shoots him a stern/loving look, Theo acts "street" (HAHA!) and the sisters...well, they were just there to be fashion victims. Remember Tempest Bledsoes hair? AHHAHAA! Sure, this was more important than a world series game....right. And how many people do you think are really named Heathcliffe!!!?!?!? I loved it when he would have a big group of kids on the show, and he always would do those condescending scenes with the fat slow white kid that couldn't speak. He was already auditioning for his future gig on kids say the darndest things. Sorry Billy boy- you don't mess with a Mets fan...
It was the last season or so, when they added the little girl. It was like they couldn't survive without some little kid in the house.
When Cliff become P whipped. His wife was such a bitch. She would not let him do anything. Won't let me eat a sandwich (he's a freakin doctor let the man eat his snack he knows what he is doing)
8 year phenomenon, eh? That's 4 years too long, at least. First, Lisa Bonet becomes this walking freak show in a house full of conservative dressers (and she marries a nerd. Yea, right!). The older one's husband whines more than Marge Simpson. And don't even get me started about Raven-Symone, the no-talent gnome. The plots were just excuses for the guest stars and for Bill to espouse pro-black themes (Bill: it was enough to just BE THERE and be successful, don't wallow in it). But I think what just got to me after awhile was Phillicia Rashad's stupid teethy smile and that smug, self-assured expression that came with it. I mean, she was fun to look at when she was dressed up, but she just seemed to lose any desire to act at all. She just smiled like a bimbo--Cliff's so funny, the kids're so cute, the old people make funny remarks. And way to much singing and Cos doing that stupid crap with the seductive music and feeding her stuff--too much of one good (not great) idea.
The show went downhill when they began to center episodes around Theo's goofy 30-something-looking YBR college buddies. I'll take Cockroach over those cornballs any day.
The Cosby show jumped shark when Denise all of a sudden appeared back on the show in 1990. Suddenly, she's married and has a little stepdaughter (Olivia) who becomes a huge part of the show. Couldn't the producers come up with anything else? Anyways, by then everyone just got too OLD! The show should have been canceled right then! It was too painful to watch the last 3 seasons of it.
It jumped the shark when Rudy became a teenager, when Olivia joined the show, and when Pam joined the show. When we could still remember Rudy as a six-year-old, nobody wanted to hear about her breasts. Olivia was just cute enough to be damn annoying. And there was no reason for Pam to be added in. She didn't serve any purpose.
I was young and naive when I watched Coz, and I stuck with the show long after the first few shark jumps. It was over for me, however, when I caught an episode in which everybody started telling a story about something called "Flooberoos." About 5 minutes into that episode I turned off the TV, and never saw another episode.
Cosby Show...When Theo pays Denise 30 bucks for his supposed Gordon Gartrel Shirt.
Denise (Lisa Bonet) gave The Cosby Show a much needed dose of sex appeal. When she left the show for 'A Different World': it was OVAH.
Agreed with the post about it being the most overrated show in TV history. The thing was grating at best from the beginning, with a father who won't accept the fact that his son simply doesn't do well in school. Oh, threaten physical violence, Cliff. What a great way to motivate your kid to study. And it just got worse. Take your pick from any of the comments above...the preachiness. The Shakespeare thing. Cousin Pam. Olivia (shudder...she makes Cousin Oliver look like a GOOD idea). Lisa taking off and returning. The grandparents in EVERY SINGLE EFFING EPISODE. Thank God for "The Simpsons". Made Thursday nights worthwhile during a nasty period for television.
This mediocre sit-com well and truly jumped the shark when NBC decided to bump a Mets-Red Sox series game back a 1/2 hour so they could show this sitcom. NBC finally believed its hype- the Cosby Show became the Most Important Show In the World.
In the eighties,The Cosby Show some good ****...until Bill Cosby gave that long ass speech at the end of third season (at Denise's Gradation}.Denise's character was (and Theo's) realistic.I'm not into cute kids so screw Rudy (and later Olivia). After the third season,the show wasn't as funny anymore. We saw more of Sandra and Elvin (who were hilarious in the season premiere "You owe me 79,648 dollars and I want it back now!") But overall,the first episode were the funniest.Week after week you could count on a good laugh on Thursday nights @7pm central.The onslaught of jazz musicians:OVERKILL!The lipsynching gag was funny the first time,but the second time:OVERKILL! Theo was so funny at first.Somewhere along the way he got turned into a goody-goody ass punk.
This show jumped when you realized that it wasn't normal to 8 grandfathers.
This was the greatest and funniest show ever put on television. It showed black kids being friends with white kids which was good for me to see at the time because I didn't know many black kids. I know some people think it was unrealistic, and maybe it was, but come on, what sitcom isn't unrealistic? Or drama, for that matter? The point is, I have more good memories from that show than from any other, '80s or '90s, and "The Cosby Show" will always be my favourite show of all time! P.S. Lisa Bonet and whoever the hell played Saundra can't act but they were barely on.
This was a great show when the kids were kids, but like all kids they had to get older. Once the kids grew it jumped the shark.
The Cosby Show jumped the shark when the Huxtables all went to Hillman to welcome the new President of the college. What a worthless episode! What was the point of it, I still don't get it!?
Anybody else ever notice that the New Kid who sank the Brady Bunch was OLIVER, and the New Kid who killed Cosby was OLIVIA? Stay away from olives. Maybe I need a hobby.
When the oldest daughter, Sandra, had twins and named them Winnie and Nelson. Too corny. Ughh.
I loved this show, I thought it was so funny.... BUT... it was to "out there " at times. The perfect family?? kids who dont mouth off to they're parents, that never have sex or even try stuff like smoking?? im not saying they dont exist but jeeeeeez. They portrayed these kids to be angels minus the halo and wings. Mr & Mrs Huxtable were loaded, beyond just well off, they were loaded.. but yet Cliff would complain anytime one of his kids asked for 25 cents. This show jumped the shark for me several times, but i kept on watching. I couldnt stand Cliff's parents. His father belonged in a home. They were sooooo annoying with that Hillman crap. I really got tired of Cliff knowing every single jazz singer who ever lived, personally. I thought Olivia was totally adorable. This show basically IMO was really good it just had a very boring places, I still watch the reruns.
this show was going good till cousin pam showed. and to boot they never addressed whose cuz she was.
This show jumped the shark when either Lisa Bonet left and her older sister entered the show OR Lisa Bonet got married and brought her stepdaughter on- (This could go under the New Kid in Town area.)
When Kenny became the funniest person on the show and wasn't even part of the family (episode 2 i think). When Theo went from being as smart as a thumb tack to being a Rhodes Scholar. When Vanessa started looking like Weird Harold from the Cosby Cartoons of the 70s. When Rudy's mustache finally came in thicker than Theo's. WAY TOO much of that damn son-in-law Elvin. That guy was way light in the loafers and made me ashamed to be a man.
I liked the early years of this show, but after a few seasons, there was almost an anti-male attitude that appeared. All the men were always outsmarted somehow by the women on the show. Claire would beat down on Coz, never letting him eat what he wanted. She'd find a way to give him hell for something every damn show! Then give us that smug look. I hated it!!!! Elvin would get beaten down by Sondra. Denise would beat down on her husband. Theo would find a way to screw up with his woman....time after time. Even Rudy would go after "Bud". The male-pregnancy show was simply the climax of the male-bashing. It's surprising that Cosby would have taken this direction. It ruined the show for me.
I can't believe no one has mentioned this. A switch on a familiar category. When Saundra comes home from college (law school) one time, she has been fighting with Elvin. Somebody (a friend of hers, Cosby, ???), sets Saundra up with another guy on a date. After their date, Cosby starts pressuring the guy about the date, and getting him to ask Saundra out again, since he and Claire do not like Elvin. There is a dialogue between the guy and Cosby that went something like, (Cosby) "Are you going to ask her out again?" (Saundra's Date) "I don't know, I'd like to think about it." "There's no time!" "Why?" "Because he's coming!" "Who's coming?" "ELVIN!" "Who's Elvin?" "That's the guy she likes!" "If that's who Saundra likes, why am I here?" "Because you're the guy that *I* like!" (HaHaHaHahA). Who played Saundra's unlucky date? Lisa Bonet's future Military-Man Husband. This has bothered me for *years*, and I'm not 100% positive that they were the same actor -- I would love for someone to confirm this, or tell me these are different actors.
This show jumped the shark several times (particularly the episode that was "highlighted" by a college commencement address and the arrival of Olivia, the modern-day cousin Oliver). But there was one episode that really, REALLY pissed me off, proving Bill Cosby's rather elitist attitude. When Vanessa brings her "older" boyfriend Dabnus (don't know about the spelling) home for dinner to meet the family for the first time. Clair and Cliff came close to having strokes when they found out he was just a "janitor;" Cliff even told the guy, point blank, "I don't like you." For no reason. Even though Vanessa's boyfriend was nice, polite, and seemingly intelligent. When they found out Dabnus owned his own house, however, the parents' opinions of the man changed completely and they accepted him. What kind of snooty attitude was Cosby trying to get across? "You're not good enough to associate with my family unless you own stuff????" What an *******.
There were all so many children to begin with, but the show started to swim with the sharks when they brought on Olivia, the step-grandchild. We already went through Rudy's cute years and now here was another one.
The Cosby Show tanked when the twins were born and named "Nelson and Winnie". The show then had a political agenda. Also when cousin Pam was introduced, and the step-granddaughter Olivia. It was downhill all the way!!! I began to lose interest when the twins were born and named "Nelson" and "Winnie". It was too political and does not withstand the test of time. Winnie Mandela is now out of the picture, now that she is divorced from Nelson. And Winnie Mandela has also proved not to be the person people thought she was. This really ruins watching reruns in syndication.
The Cosby Show vaulted over the shark with the addition of Pam to the family. I couldn't bring myself to watch after that happened!
This show jumped around the '88/'89 season. I stopped watching when I could no longer keep track of who the hell was living in that house anymore...Theo moves out, Denise is in Africa but her HUSBAND AND DAUGHTER move in, then Theo Moves back in, then Denise comes back, and Sandra shows up with Alvin and THEY have to move in with these two nauseating twins, then THEO moves back out....what is worse is that Cosby himself begins to act more like a senile old coot who is constantly confused and frustrated over his childrens inability to get their **** together than like the responsible father he was in the FIRST season. And did they have to be on the cutting edge of fashion all the time? This show had the stupidest wardrobe on television. The Cosby show died a pathetic death...it did not go off the air until 4 years after it jumped the shark. Long and painful.
"The Cosby Show" was really a great show in its first season. I am not saying that it went downhill, but it just didn't match in its later seasons. I think that the people they picked were great actors/actresses (although, none of the kids looked like the parents, especially Sondra and Denise). They had a few episodes that weren't needed (Flooberoos, Welcoming of New Hillman President, etc.). Personally, I think that the show jumped the shark when Cousin Pam came to the show. There was really no point in her being on the show. I could deal with Olivia, although she could be annoying sometimes. The show also jumped the shark when all of the kids grew up. I really never noticed Rudy's moustache. I have to watch for it next time. I really never cared for Denise and Theo was funny in his early days. It was very sad when the show ended though, although the ending was weird and it seemed like things weren't completely finished. I would like for them to do a "Cosby Show Movie" like the "Growing Pains Movie" they did on ABC.
Ya'll ever notice how OLIVIA and OLIVER are basically the same name? And both cousins? AND both CAN'T ACT!?!?!?!? Think about it.
i love this show and it's hard to pick a point from where all the shows began to do poorly because there were some good shows even to the end. all i can say is that i'm sorry rudy was put in the background, that vanessa never became a good character, that theo didn't need help with growing up anymore, denise came and left without anyone caring, and that Saundra came to the show and she didn't come alone.
I loved the Cosby show, I watched it every Thurs. night until I went to college, in 1986. I never saw another episode until watching it in syndication last year while I was home after my baby was born. I still really enjoyed the episodes I had already seen, but after that things started to get really weird. I think the beginning of the Cosby show's JUMP from one of the more realistic and funny portrayals of family life for their time (remember, this was before the Simpsons and Roseanne) into total Wackville, was the birth of Saundra and Elvin's twins. I didn't mind their names (Winnie and Nelson, as in Mendela), some people (especially ones as irritating as S&E) do name their poor kids some goofy ****, but I was appalled at the way they treated those babies. I don't think I ever saw anyone pick one up and hold it in their arms. Like the episode where Claire agrees to babysit and then runs off to the office for like 15 hours leaving Cliff alone with them (yeah, I'd have let her babysit again, wouldn't you?) and he does standup for them but NEVER TAKES THEM OUT OF THE CARRIERS? Did Cosby's babies never **** or what? And they never wanted to be held? Give me a break. And when Denise babysits for them and the whole lesson for the day is about "sit the brats in front of the TV that's the only way to shut them up!?" What ever happened to - again - HOLDING them, or getting right down and PLAYING with them? And the episode where Saundra is frazzled out of her mind with twin newborns and has FINALLY gotten them to sleep (in the PLAYPEN, of course - no nursing or even rocking babies here) and Alvin comes in after like 10 hours at med school, wakes them both up ON PURPOSE, and then says, "Oh they'll settle right back down" and then locks himself in the bedroom to study? Any sane woman would have demanded a divorce right there, MUFFIN! I can't believe she married that totally annoying dweeb anyway. Actually, looking back, a lot of that was kind of funny, come to think of it. But it could have been a lot better had they tried to portray raising a baby a little more realistically. S&A as parents from Neptune were just the first dip in a downhill slide for the Cosby show, from moderately realistic and very funny to completely weird and not very funny. And all I can say to those of you who have posted here dissing Rudi and Olivia, hey it takes a lot of BALLS to criticize CHILDREN. How good an actor were YOU when you were ten years old? At least I'm ragging on snooty Saundra and Gag-me-with-a-MUFFIN Alvin!
For me, what really blew for "Cosby" was when they kept covering up Lisa Bonet's real life pregnancy during a whole season. She was always hiding behind something and wearing these stupid extra loose fitting clothes. It just lost all sense of reality to me then. I'm a big fan of Bill Cosby and have many of his classic stand up routines on tape. I think the first seasons were so funny because the episodes were taken straight out of those routines. The pilot even had a direct quote when Claire tells the kids to be quiet after they've gone to bed. "Do you want me to come up there?" and they all answer "No!" in unison. Simple yet funny, too bad it couldn't last.
This in response to the other person's comment. Yes, the person that Cliff tried to set up Saundra with for a date was THE SAME PERSON who later became Denise's husband. Besides the continuity problems from day one (4 kids, then Saundra shows up?) this show suffered from an overflowing cast of regulars. The 8 grandparents, the nieces, grandkids, in-laws, Raven Simone, the annoying next-door neighbor who looked like Hans Moleman....it was friggin' endless! And don't even get me started on Cliff and Claire as the snobby, hypocritical parents.
I could not stand this show after the first season, especially with Cliff and Claire's self-satisfied smugness, but I am totally in agreement with that person who wrote about the Dabnus episode. In other words, I could see why the ****head Reagans would consider this one of their favorite shows. Elitist, snobbish, and pro-money (the lowly janitor should not even think about dating the daughter of a doctor/lawyer-btw-unionized janitors make a LOT of money). I remember watching this episode and being amazed at the behavior being portrayed by Vanessa's parents towards the janitor-boyfriend character. I mean, writers actually had to sit down and write this yuppie crap. I think that was when the "Cos" went over the shark tank and was eaten, and pooped out by the Great White.
Say what you will about the errors of the later years on this show (and the criticisms are valid), one of my most vivid youthful memories is watching the very first episode of this show. The plot is that Theo is doing poorly at school, and Cliff confronts his kid about it. Theo gives this real sensitive-like speech that his dad should accept him the way he is. And the audience goes *clap*clap*clap* in empathy. Then the balloon is deflated when Cliff shouts, "Theo, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!" At a time when TV critics questioned whether the sitcom genre was dead, this show brought it new life, and you could say it caused many of the other dead-ball era sitcoms at the time to jump the shark.
That stupid child Olivia. Naming the twins Winnie and Nelson, 12 grandparents per side of the family, what was that SD Button anyway? Issues, issues, issues. I just want to laugh, not see how everyday life is.
When Stevie Wonder almost ran over Theo and Denise, he came to their house (instead of suing them like in real life), and they all proceeded to kiss his ass. YUCKO! That was when the chum went into the water.
I discovered this show in re-runs. I really enjoy it. Cosby is one of my favorite comedians. I like the chemistry between him and Rashad. Sorry it went away so soon.
I'm surprised this one isn't here already...geez, Cosby jumped the shark 10 times every season!!! But when Theo goes from being an underachieving slacker (funny!!!) to a mature, so-called intelligent adult - I mean come on!!!!! And what's with the way he started talking!?!?!? It's like he was talking in slow-motion!!!
I believe this show jumped the Shark when they tried to turn smart, sweet innocent Vanessa into a bad girl. Tell me that doesn't make the least bit of sense. Underage drinking, traveling to a concert her parents would flip over, trying to kill her sister Rudy, and engaging to a man twice her age that she just met in College? Doesn't make sense. And to a previous respondent, yes, that was Joseph C. Martin as Sondra's would-be beau and Denise's husband. But try this one out for size. One of Theo's friends was played by Adam Sandler. On second thought, that MIGHT explain Vanessa's behavior!
First of all, I think you people are WAY too hard on this show. At the heart, it is a TV show (a sitcom no less), so these demands for strict continuity and thespian-grade acting out of young children is preposterous. THAT BEING SAID, "Cosby Show" DEFINITELY jumped the shark when it got full of itself. Bill Cosby and his crew were way more about image control than we thought. I saw an "E True Hollywood Story" and the only interesting thing I saw there was that Bill was very tight with how those kids acted (so the buck stopped there). Besides, how well could those kids act when all anyone was paid to do for the longest was react to the long, drawn out, never-ending stories told by the mugging Bill Cosby (go get some Jell-O already and "Shut Up". Pam and her crew were brought in to counter "The Simpsons". One thing I never understood: They fired Lisa Bonet from "Different World" because they didn't want a pregnant college student -- but when they immediately brought her back to "Cosby" (still pregnant), they said NOTHING about the pregnancy. Why not just ADMIT that Lisa couldn't carry a show in the first place???
After the 1st season. I remember in season 1 many of the episodes would Cliff and Claire retiring to there bedroom with promises of some heavy action. Claire was a horny little Minx! After that the show became preachy, serious, and I don't think the couple ever had sex again. I guess I wouldn't either if I had a kid like Vanessa.
"The Cosby Show", although a classic 1980's sitcom, did "Jump-the-Shark" when Rudy Huxtable began going through puberty. She was a cute kid, but got very annoying when puberty started to sink in. I'm not too fond of the episodes in which Rudy complains about her lack of breasts, or when she has her first period. "Woman's Day" - Geesh!!! How silly.
When I was growing up my family watched Cosby every week. The first season was the best. It took every day situations and found the humor in them. The show jumped the shark when the kids were too old to be cute and we were given a lot of dream sequence episodes: (men get pregnant, fairytale, cliffs nightmare when he overeats). Also the battle of the sexes got old real quick. The men could NEVER do anything right, and Elvin constantly offending women were just stupid. Finally, Olivia was a sad attempt at a sweet kid. Always trying to outfox Dr. Huxtable..."I Know My Body! I Know My Body!" ...Sheesh
This show JTS when Vanessa's hair started to resemble that god awful wig Jan Brady tried sporting to differentiate herself from Marcia; the difference being Jan was delusional and suffered from inner voices spurring her on to irrational thought, but Vanessa was supposed to be a bright, young woman. Go figure, that doo was definitely a hair DON'T!! I still don't know why Claire let her go out of the house without insisting she run a rake through that mess!
Olivia! What's up with her eyebrows? Was she meant to replace Rudy? Not cute.
I used to watch every single episode, from its very first show. Then something happened. The shows just started rambling and getting pointless (the episode which caused this to dawn on me was the one where Cliff plays a game of cards with some older friends). The show didn't exactly jump the shark, it slowly waded into its jaws.
When Pam and Olivia showed up. They also kept Kenny as Rudy's only friend. My Question is what the hell happened to Peter. He at least made the show funny sometimes.
Does anyone remember the episode where Vanessa (bad hair) and her friends were trying to put together a singing group, and Claire objected to their suggestive dancing and outfits, so they took them to a jazz concert? What kind of punishment is that? I felt it jumped from there. Oh, and I couldn't stand Eldin (that's his name). How is he a weak man towards Sandra and have chauvinist views? A walking contradiction.
This thing jumped when Rashad seemed to forget during interviews that she was once married to Village People frontman Victor Willis.....and that she once recorded an album with them! "Josephine.....Superstar.....She's....The Queen Of The Stars!" BWAHAHA!
Being African-American, I know that skin tone can vary widely within the same family, but it always really bugged me that Saundra and Denise were like 10 shades lighter than the other kids, and no one ever mentioned it. I mean, compare with Family Matters, or most other shows.
When Rudy went through puberty I was amazed at how she changed. All of her cute little girl looks went down the drain and so did the show.
Those few episodes were Theo seemed to have some sort of horseness problem. It sounded like he was talking through a pile of gravel. Clear your throat or find a Sucrets, man! The other thing would absolutely have to be that damn Zerbert! It was cute once but when grandma and granpa start doing it...get a raincoat. Does anyone like being kissed by there grandparents let alone showered with old coffee drinking, stank breath! Oh I'd let someone zerbert me alright....ON MY ASS!
Hee hee hee hee....oh, that comment about zerberts was good! The whole show was begun with little foresight, I believe. I wonder if the creators even expected it to do well. Because it premiered so soon after Coz did the concert "Himself" (which WAS funny), I saw in show #1 that the main gags were going to be taken from Bill's routines, whenever possible. Example: during "Himself," Bill tells the audience that he and his wife have 5 children, and the reason that they HAVE 5 children is because they did not want 6. Funny. Good line. Then, in the first episode of TCS, Claire ASKS him, "Why do we have 5 children?" Why would ANYONE EVER ask a question like that unless they were setting up someone for a punchline? This did not bode well for Bill's Brood. And of course the way they went and added child #5 it insulted us all (but there were always so many over there all the time that the place began to look like a refugee camp). The over-reliance on kids is something else that makes me think that the show's popularity caught the writers by surprise. News flash: Kids grow up! I remember one funny moment when Rudy (too young yet for us to know that she couldn't act) tries to relay messages back and forth between Cliff and Claire, and she keeps getting the messages wrong. I was laughing, the audience was laughing, and even the other actors were laughing, because Keisha was just being herself. But somewhere along the line she got an agent and people started to pretend that she deserved to be doing a highly-rated sitcom when she shouldn't have been going beyond school plays. Well, I take that back. I don't know if the problem was that the dialogue sounded stupid because of the writers or the kids. Probably both. And does anyone believe that Cliff and Claire, in their 50's, are going to be so hot for each other, ALL THE TIME? As soon as the kids are gone, Cliff is nuzzling Claire and she's acting like he's NEVER EVER done it before, and it's just got her panties all moist and steamy. Another example of the non-realism of the show. For all of you who praise the realism of TCS, I can only shake my head in pity. 30 years into a marriage, a certain amount of apathy sets in. It happens. It's part of the deal. But not on TCS. The only time one of them wouldn't "feel like" gettin busy would have been if Claire was punishing Cliff for some reason (take a tip, ladies: withholding sex as punishment is bad for both partners. Grow up), like one of his many failures to listen and do exactly as his wife directed, because no woman on The Cosby Show was ever allowed to make a mistake if it would suggest or even hint, for one second, that women are not superior to men in every way.
Isn't it interesting how Cliff and Claire, a doctor and a lawyer, (two high-stress and high-time commitment careers) are always hanging around the house? And neither one is even a little emotionally distant from the kids? Yet another example of a tv show designed to make you feel bad about yourself because you're not perfect, like the folks on tv. And you need to believe THAT; Cosby intended to be an example of how well a family could function.
It would had to have been when Sondra showed up. In the very first episode, it is revealed that Cliff and Claire have 4 children. When Sondra came along, making it 5, it was basically like the creators said, "Ah, the audience is too stupid to notice." I really liked Coz; "Himself" was a severely funny concert. And like most of America, The Cosby Show was one of my Thursday night lynchpins for a long time. It was only after the show ended that I realized how truly stupid and insulting it was. Here's a typical lesson from The Cosby Show: Men are idiots. Actually, that was the lesson 7 times out of 10, because apparently it's ALWAYS funny to have Alvin (what a wuss; how the hell would HE ever get a fine woman like Sondra?) try to do something nice for his wife or mother-in-law and then get shot down for being chauvinistic without even trying. Men always had stupid ideas on the show, and the women would always be the voices of reason. It's like someone felt that the only! way to make up for Lucy and Ethel's schemes and acquiescence was to have every man in every sitcom for the rest of time humble himself before women, who ALWAYS know better. It's funny once or twice, but after a while it's like Thelma and Louise. The show then took another huge dive when Lisa Bonet somehow had a kid. Who's this? Your new husband? And he has a daughter? Well, why don't we let her live here? WHAT THE HELL? For someone who allegedly taught his kids to be self-reliant, Coz sure let them hang around the house a long time. Another low; the second lip-synch. The first one was funny because it was new, but by the second time, hell didn't they all have COSTUMES or something? This went beyond ridiculous. Dad is a doctor, mom is a lawyer, they're OBVIOUSLY done paying off that absurdly small house, and yet the "gift" they give the grandparents is a song and dance. Another huge dip (this show may have jumped more than any other) was the addition, in a relatively short span, it seemed to me, of any celebrity they could lay their hands on. Oh, and Grandpa is a jazz musician, too. Yeah, he used to blow with Monk and Charlie Parker. Let me introduce you to my close personal friends in this super-tight jazz combo. You'll never see these people again. And didn't it turn out that Grandpa once dated Lena Horne or some such thing? At least the show paved the way for other three-named child actors. If it wasn't for Coz, all three boys from Home Improvement would have had such PLAIN names....
AFTER THE FIRST THREE SEASONS - THE kids got too old and it lost its innovation. the novelty wore off quickly and the show sucked after that. I almost never watched the later shows but I did catch the Dabnus episode in syndication. the earlier posters misunderstood the parents objection. not because he was a janitor but because he was about 35 years old and had a lot of personal baggage - he was naming all the women he had lived with before meeting Vanessa - that was the problem - not class snobbery. overall this period of the show sucked but people should pay more attention before writing Marxist class-warfare rants.
A lot of people have said that Rudy got, well, ugly, as the show went on. Not so fast. Did you see her on the child stars edition of Weakest Link? She turned out to be very lovely actually. Not too bright, but very pretty. Wish I could say the same for the girl from Family Ties. She scares me.
The whole show just started crumbling when Denise got her haircut. Before that, we had the happy little Huxtable family, getting into trouble all by themselves. It was fun. The minute that hair came off, all the horrible storylines and characters started filtering in; Olivia, Elvin, twins, singing to Grandma & Grandpa at least once a month, you name it. If you look back, you'll see, it was the hair that did it. Just like it's ruined so many other good shows. Haven't producers figured it out yet? Hairstyle changes are THE CURSE.
The show jumped when Denise left. She was the only cool character, and she was a fox. After she left, it just sucked. I would also like to say that that no-talent who played Olivia made this show completely unwatchable.
Alright, this once great show was ruined as they continued to add more kids. The original cast was superb. And the majority of the nation watched them grow up. But as they grew they felt they needed to continue to add kids. It is like a show can't go on as people grow up. My family is much more entertaining now that I am in my early twenties and I am the youngest. The fact that you can't continue the show without more kids is ridiculous. It was like watching the old episodes all over again except for the fact that it wasn't at all funny. Also it just made me feel sad for the parents. I mean aren't they due for a vacation or something. I mean after 5 kids I know I would be.
The show jts'd when "Married with Children" came on the air and Al Bundy kicked Cliff's ass in the ratings.
What was up with all the dancing entrances? I never cared too much for the show to start with, every new season is a new dance sequence. C'mon!!!
Why do people give a rat's ass about opening sequences of television shows? That's the time to go get a drink or take a whiz.
I don't really think Olivia made this show jump; with this kind of comedy it can be funny even when the situations are getting a little tired. To me, though, this show really jumped once it became obvious that Bill Cosby had an attitude problem. Let me explain: I love the show. I think BC is a comic genius, and he really knew how to make "little kid" humor work. But there's a disturbing subtext to this show from day 1, if you look into it. Someone here said that all ol' Cliff cared about was that the kids make money and get good jobs. But there's a little more to it than that, in my book. If you watch the show carefully and think about the "hidden messages" behind "Dad"'s advice in each situation, you'll get it. It seems to me that what he was really doing was giving black kids a message: Education is the key to beating whites at their own game. Here you have an upper-class black family. The father's a doctor (a gynecologist with many white women patients), the Mom's a lawyer. The overriding "joke" in the show is that the kids are too dumb to realize that studying and getting an education is how to get the brass ring: M-O-N-E-Y. All they care about is partying. So Bill's saying, hey, if you apply yourself in school you can get rich, spend thousands on paintings, look down on the white people instead of being looked down on BY them because all you do is party all day. Does anyone sense some real bitterness on Cos' part towards whites?????????????? My dad remembered the early days with I-Spy and said that in those days the "black character" was always made out to look like a buffoon. So what does Cosby have? Very politically correct multiracial people accomplishing great things, getting rich and working hard. Except.....the white people on the show are always a little "off". The next-door neighbor is a fat loser who can't speak correctly and wears a cheesy hairpiece. Little "Pete" or whatever his name is is socially inept and also fat. The Huxtables tolerate the unfortunate whites who cross their paths. I don't have a big problem with this. I can still laugh at the show's jokes and enjoy it, but if I were black I'd be offended. Because according to Cos' way of looking at it, the black person's value is still measured in comparison to whites, only this time they're on top. That's kind of a childish viewpoint. Additionally I think that Bill's nonstop harangue about money, money, money, and how the kids don't have any until they earn their own and he and his wife are graciously "sharing" wealth with their children, is really potentially damaging. There is more to life than Money--unless you've got something to prove to someone, or to a whole race. To me these elements made a show that could have been "great" only "OK".
Many of you who posted in reference to The Cosby Show have serious problems and I feel sorry for you. The Cosby Show is one of the best shows that has ever aired on television. As an African-American male, whose family was and still is of upper middle class status, could relate to The Huxtables as a child growing up in the 80's. It was an uplifting, entertaining, and positive sitcom that I still enjoy watching to this day. You all need to realize that it was a situation comedy (sitcom)that was entertainment and therefore was not meant to be absolute reality. It it were "totally realistic" (meaning that everything that happened would have literally occurred in a family), it would have been boring. It needed excitement. It needed music, singing, dancing and other facets that was thought to not have occurred in a family. Of course certain things were added and altered to make the show more intriguing for example, introducing a "new" daughter who is already in college to the show. It seem incredible to have a doctor and lawyer as parents who devote much time to their family. It needed to be like this because if they were always working it would be like they were not emotionally supporting their family. It would have been silly for the show to have portrayed them as being so busy with their careers that they did not have as much time with family as they did on the show. I repeat it was a television show and needed to be spiced up for entertainment purposes. For you all who keep putting down Raven Simone ought to be ashamed. She was an innocent little girl who had the courage and the self-esteem to play a role in a very very popular sitcom which many of you would not have had the confidence to have done. I know that people are always going to complain about something. You can not make everyone happy. I do know that nothing is perfect. There were episodes that I did not care too much for but there was no "one" episode that made the show do downhill. I generally liked the show. I did began to lose interest after Pam and her friends joined the cast. Nevertheless, it was a great sitcom. For the person who posted that Bill Cosby thought it was ok for low class whites to be on the show or whatever nonsense you were trying to convey but you were basically stating that Bill Cosby had something against white people. Get a life. You are taking the show too personally.
To me, I don't think that the show never jumped...not seriously, anyway. It seems to me that it ended at just the right time, before the plot got to ridiculous and convoluted. And about the whole thing, adding Raven-Symone as Olivia to the cast and any other additions made, I believe that it kept the show real. I mean, it happens in families that people get married and have children and that there are some step children. It was only realistic also that Rudy should grow up, unless you're saying that by the time Rudy hit age ten or whatever, the show should have stopped. I have to agree that the whole pregnancy episode was pretty disgusting, but I don't think it was all over after that. The show could have jumped, but it didn't, really.
Sure, this show had its less-than-stellar moments, but it never jumped the shark. It achieved a rare feat in television--to go on for eight years while still keeping itself fresh and enjoyable. A lot of current shows could learn from The Cosby Show's example.
Whoever said that Al Bundy kicked the Cosby Show's butt is way off. The Cosby Show stayed in the top 20 throughout it's entire run. While Married.... Never cracked the top 20. Here are The Cosby Shows ratings by season: 1984-1985 #3 1985-1986 #1 1986-1987 #1 1987-1988 #1 1988-1989 #1 1989-1990 #2 1990-1991 #5 1991-1992 #18 I think the show was great. It just got weird because after a while there were too many people on the show. Has anyone else noticed that A Different World is shown a whole lot more in syndication than The Cosby Show???
Gotta agree about the lip-synching! It's like a friend showing a video of his Uncle Dave playing the 'Star-Spangled Banner' using his armpits. First time- funny! Second and every other time, boring and annoying! I wonder if the writers opted for that so they could regularly wrap up the scripts in time to beat the Manhattan rush-hour traffic home?
Raven Symone was rubbish and there's no way anyone can defend her. If viewers don't like her (and her character had plenty of time to bed down) she should have been given the sack - Tough words, but that's showbiz. She couldn't act and the producers tried too hard to make her like the new Rudy.
I agree with a lot of this. But yes actors were reused. In the Gordon gartrel episode, one of Theo's friend's is Kadeem Hardison who later ends up playing Dwayne Wayne on Diff. World. And Denise's husband was in that other episode. I mean yeah this show was great and I'm sure Cosby's heart was in the right place, but what was it just me or was Vanessa the most annoying thing on that show?! Despite the hai issues, she was ALWAYS complaining! It's like, Shut the hell up! And why was Olivia always dressed like a small circus performer. The final nail in the coffin was when that whole stanley, rudy, kenny love triangle began. And don't get me started on Theo's corny behind. The older he got, the more I hated him!
All shows do tend to go bad after a certain point- it's to be expected by most experienced sit-com junkies. However I must comment on the extremely harsh criticism of this show. Coming from a black perspective, THERE HAS BEEN NO OTHER SHOW LIKE THIS. Sure maybe the characters were a bit what some blacks consider "acting white, and proper", but in reality most black people are not the typical posturing-slick-super-slang-jiggy-glossy- UPN-MTV-puppets that are sadly mostly portrayed on televsion. And I know that most white people are not all Corny-cell-phone-AllyMcBeal-cynical- Senfeld-SUV-cornballs that dominate television. Cosby did what he set out to do, and the show ran out of steam. It's unfortunate that no other black entertainer has been able to take it to the next level..least not yet.
Looking back on it, this show jumped when they stopped mentioning Theo's friend Cockroach. Without a doubt. If only Theo would have gotten the Gordon Gartrell.
Anyone that thinks that this show was overrated obviously didn't watch the first 3 seasons. That's classic television right there. After the 3rd season when Denise left for A Different world, the show became kind dry. I think because the first 3 seasons of the show were actually based on Cosby's REAL life family. And I guess after the 3rd season there was nothing left to tell about his family. It still amazes me how this show was #1 for so many years, but now so many people hate it. Ah well, I guess times change.
It's a shame to see so many people hate on an intelligent, funny, and positive show. And then see people praise CRAP, like The Simpsons and Friends. People don't know that without The Cosby Show, there would be no Friends, Seinfeld, Will & Grace, Veronica's Closet etc; The Cosby Show is responsible for NBC's successful Thursday night line up. And all the shows that are mentioned above and more benefit from it. True, the show had run it's course by the 6th season, but I don't see how so many people can ignore the fact that this show captivated for 6 years. being #1 for 5 straight years. Being the ONLY black sitcom to be #1 in the Nielsen ratings. I don't know why people always have to look on the negative side of things. And I'm surprised no one mentioned the brilliant opening themes. I especially enjoyed the Caribbean style one they did during the 5th season. Too bad they couldn't use the 7th season opening until the 8th season because some guy said that they used the wall without permission. That means we could've had a new opening sequence during the 8th season. Anybody ever check out "Cosby" that use to air on CBS??? It's really funny as long as you remember that you're not watching The Cosby Show. Which is kinda hard since Phylicia Rashad stars alongside Cosby. But I do believe The Cosby Show jumped once Rudy got her period. That was just too weird for me to stomach. Especially since I was 9 years old when that episode originally aired.
Most definitely when Olivia was added to the scene to replace the "cuteness" that was once Rudy. I remember one particular episode when Gram-T was in town and they were all supposed to go to church but little miss smart-ass Olivia wanted to go to the zoo. That did it for me (for good)! In the real world, there would not have been any discussion of the matter.
The Cosby Show didn't totally jump until Olivia came along. Other posters have commented enough on her, so I'll refrain from doing so. However, I agree with several here who have pointed out that Dr. and Mrs. H. had an underlying snobbishness when it came to their childrens' career choices. I liked this show, but there seemed to be an implied message that anyone who chooses to "only" get a regular job and not go to college is a "slacker" or "not fulfilling their potential." There are many kids like Theo who simply DO NOT HAVE WHAT IT TAKES for college or careers as professionals. Their minds don't click that way due to genetics and other natural factors. They can only hope to be "regular" people, job-wise. As a previous poster said, threatening physical violence ("I'm your father. I brought you in this world, and I can take you out") more than likely wouldn't work with a child who just doesn't have it upstairs. When you have a son/daughter like that, you have to encourage them to develop whatever abilities they do possess. You don't tell them that the idea of loving and accepting them is "the dumbest thing [you've] ever heard in [your] life," as Cliff insensitively said to Theo. Loving and accepting your children is "THE DUMBEST THING YOU'VE EVER HEARD IN YOUR LIFE???" What was Cliff's major malfunction? It's like yelling at a paralyzed person for not being able to walk. Also, there are those for whom big money doesn't mean a whole lot, as when Elvin and Sondra wanted to open the (I THINK) health food store (correct me on this if I'm wrong). Those with rose-colored glasses might say "oh, Cliff and Claire only wanted the best for their kids, they 'had to' threaten them once in a while, yada yada yada," but to me, the underlying message was this: kids, you can be whatever you want, but we have a mental clause which says that if you want us to treat you civilly, we HAVE TO APPROVE of whatever you choose for your job. If you don't pick something that we personally dig, we're going to threaten you, call you "dumb", make you pay rent as punishment (whereas if you picked a career we liked, you could live here for free) or kick you out of the house and speak to you in cold, formal, short sentences if you try to call and visit. This is what causes families to feud and break up--making issues out of non-issues. Your children's choosing to do something "different" or less financially profitable than your career choice--if that's what they want, and if they're happy with that, who are you to tell them they're "wrong?" It's not going to hurt you as a parent to still give them unconditional love, with no clauses or sub-clauses. As Theo told Cliff, being a doctor or lawyer might be fine for people like Dr. and Mrs. Huxtable (who were probably blessed with natural intelligence to start with), but not everybody. But hey, this is all my opinion, so let me get off my soapbox! It was still an entertaining show if you didn't take it too seriously. I'll take a bacon-burger dog any day. PEACE!
Having been born in 1985, I missed out on the Cosby Show during its early run. However, watching it now in syndication on TBS, I still cannot believe that this was the highest rated show on TV from 1985-1989. The Cosby Show has to be one of the lamest, most overrated shows ever on television. I can't even force myself to laugh while watching this show. Perhaps it's because I'm a child of the 90s, and grew up on family sitcoms like Full House, Family Matters, Roseanne, Home Improvement, The Simpsons etc. I hypothesize that the reason why Cosby was popular back in the late 80s was due to the demographics of the time. In the 80s baby boomers were reaching their 30s and were having children and raising kids. They wanted to see something on TV with their children, and family sitcoms like Cosby and Family Ties became extremely popular as they projected wholesome family values. Now the boomers are approaching their 50s, and their kids are teenagers. No sane parent watches TV with their kids anymore. My deepest sympathies for the parent of today. What is the mother of an 8-year old to watch with their child on prime time TV? Are there any good, wholesome, family shows like Cosby (supposedly) on the air these days. I still maintain that if The Cosby Show aired today, in the age of Ally McBeal, Friends, Temptation Island, and Friends... it wouldn't even crack the top 20. Seinfeld killed the family sitcom. Cosby was lucky in that it came around at just the right time. The Cosby Show would never survive today.
I'm sorry but I must say something to the poster above. I was born in 1981 so I remember watching The Cosby Show as a very young child. True, after having brilliant Anti-Cosby shows like Simpsons, Friends, Seinfeld etc; in the 90's it kind of dampens The Cosby Show's hilarity. But how can you even compare the Cosby show to crap like Full House or Family Matters???? I'll admit I grew up watching TGIF, but it's almost impossible for me to watch any of that crap now. Boy meets world is marginal. I still watch The Cosby show to this day, and it's still pretty funny. And to whoever said the male-pregnancy episode sucked is crazy. That was one of the funniest ones. I don't care what anybody says, Bill Cosby is a genius....Too bad he was sniffin' paint thinner when he added Olivia and Pam to the cast. However, Erica Alexander (Pam) was great on the Fox comedy Living Single.
ALRIGHT, I have to address the posts about the episode where Cliff and Claire meet Dabnis. It was NOT the fact that he didn't have a "high-class" job like Elvin or Martin that was the reason Cliff and Claire didn't like him. If you will carefully listen to Cliff's dialogue, you will find out the fault is all Vanessa's. As a matter of fact, her mother even said "You're not ready!" It was a combination of a couple of things working in Vanessa: (1) she herself in her own subtle way is ashamed of Dabnis' lack of stature and convinces herself that her parents won't like him either, and (2) it is plainly obvious that she is not ready to get married, but she seems to think that getting engaged to a "maintenance man" will get a rise out of her parents. I applauded the later episode when Vanessa kept announcing wedding dates just to see her parents' reaction and her folks coolly stood their ground, knowing FOOL WELL that it would never make it that far. Cliff and Claire, I believe, really liked Dabnis, but he was presented to them as "trash" through Vanessa's subtleties. Throughout the run of the show you saw the kids having self-induced problems thinking that Mom and Dad would not accept anything less than a college education and making tons of money from them when, in fact, the opposite was true.
OLIVIA. She was so annoying. I loved this show up until this point. It was obvious they brought her on in a last attempt situation. Rudy was the bomb. (Oh, I also didn't like how they gave Saundra so much air time, and her dumb children... that too was really lame)
Vanessa's lopsided afro circa season 6. I know adolescence can be hard but damn girl....your parents are that rich and you can't afford a stylist? The hair was essentially a symptom of a much larger issue. The Cosby kids all started going through their awkward growing up phase and they just weren't cute & cuddly anymore. Yes, Miss Rudy's 'stache was tough to deal with too. Theo had a few hair-related mishaps of his own through the years (can we say rat-tail). But as much as that show started sucking, it will always be in the words of a young Theo Huxtable "Jammin on the one."
"Jammin On The One". What in the hell was he talking about? I don't even listen to rap that much, but I knew that term didn't make sense to me.
What lame ass thought a college commencement honoring the retirement of some old coot windbag president would be entertaining? I dread having to sit through graduations because they boring as hell. I am sooo sure that a doctor and lawyer can put their hectic schedules on hold to pay homage and kiss ass for some old fossil that doesn't have the sense to retire in his sixties and enjoy the rest of his life. Nooo! I'll retire when I'm eighty and close to death. And what was with the woman that was going to replace him? Her hair was so big that she couldn't even wear the ceremonial cap. Then she had the nerve to say, "I was a recent Hillman graduate with a perfect 4.0 grade average (everyone applauds) and I was concerned with my future and needed someone to talk to." What an arrogant bitch! That shows low self-esteem if you have to brag about your average. And with a 4.0, what's the concern? I've never seen a perspective employer say "Big deal" at a perfect average. I liked the episode where Claire hires young plumbers and they turn out to have Master's Degrees in Psychology, Literature, etc. When Cliff asks one of the girls why she's a plumber and not a psychologist, she responds that she couldn't find a decent paying job in her field and she has bills to pay. And plumbers make decent money! Reality check: most people with degrees can't find work in their chosen profession. No wonder Theo was so keen on being a regular person. I know a guy who got a GED, never took a college course, and is a garbage man. Guess what, this "regular person" makes twice what I make and I'm a computer programmer with a Bachelor's degree. He can even retire at 55 and still live comfortably. I'm not jealous. Life's a crap shoot. Being a regular person is not the end of the world. Most people are regular people.
I stayed loyal to this show through all the rough stuff. Denise dropping out of college and coming back married with a kid. Beautiful Sandra having a ugly stupid husband with an ugly stupid name like Elvin. All of Vanessa's ugly hairdo's until somebody finally must have protested until she got braided extensions. I even loved little Olivia and Theo finally acting like he had some sense. Here they go, up the ramp with Theo and the kids at the "Center" (just like Weezy and the Help Center) but they jumped that darn shark tank (can't say damn on the Cosby show) with the advent of Cousin Pam and her friends. That was the living end.
Two things I distinctly hate about the Cosby Show: One, Sondra, Elvin, and the twins. I just feel that the four of them are so sickly sweet, it makes me want to puke every time I hear about them. Besides, the casting staff just added Sondra to give Cliff an eldest daughter in college. Two, the episode that everyone wants to go to the Michael Jackson "Bad" concert because it was allegedly his last concert. Two to three years later, there was the ill-fated "Dangerous" tour, and there is talk of an "Invincible" tour as I write this. That miscalculation always bugs me out every time I think about it!
I forgot how good this show was during the first few seasons. I have been watching it on Nick at Nite, and think the first two seasons are hilarious. The one where Cliff wants to show Theo that the real world is tougher than he thinks was funny as hell. Cliff is Harley the Landlord, Rudy is the owner of the bank, and Denise is the fashion agent, and the rest all play different roles. That episode was clever & funny. I haven't seen one clunker since the marathon has started (it's up to season 2 I think). I loved it in the 80's and still do now. HOWEVER, I remember when I STOPPED watching it during its first run & thinking it will never be as good as it was. Sondra & Elvin always bugged me. The way they acted towards each other was just sickingly sweet & unrealistic. Then they got married and had twins...Winnie & Nelson? Didn't the real Winnie & Nelson get a divorce? The focus on them, I thought was boring and NOT funny. Right around that point I started watching The Simpsons. Then I remember once turning it on when Olivia and Pam were on it and I thought I was watching a different show.
Wow. Talk about your "before they were famous" episodes -- Adam Sandler, in his pre-MTV days, and pre-Hollywood mogul days, playing a typical teenager prom date on the show. I should have been paying more attention to my retro curricula back in the late 1980s. Caviar, crackers, helicopters, and fly-away hair. I guess that makes for a comedic prom date episode.
First of all, I really like this show. It wasn't as corny as typical sitcoms and it was genuinely funny. I especially liked Rudy. Then, in the last two seasons, when Rudy turned 10 or 11, they had to have a cute little girl. Yes, Olivia was very cute, but the show could have done just fine with Rudy as the youngest. True, she wasn't as cute anymore, but it could have been interesting to watch Rudy grow up and deal with teenage problems when everyone was used to her being the baby of the family. I don't like watching the later episodes because all the other kids, especially Rudy, are completely overshadowed by Olivia.
Did anyone else notice before Saundra was done with school she date Denise furture husband Martin. He was the one Cliff liked, and Elvin is the one Saundra liked. Also in the Gorden Gartrell episode one of Theo's friends was DeWayne Wayne from a Different World!
When Joseph C. Phillips double dipped Cosby daughters, playing Sondra's boyfriend, and Denise's husband. And truth be told, he stunk in both roles.
As a matter of fact, for the exception of Rudy, all three of the Cosby girls dated or either married a nerd. Elvin'sandra, Denise/whatever that guy name is and Vanessa/dabnis. Is their a pattern here?
Cosby neared the end when in one later episode, Lisa Bonet corrects her little sister on ethnic classifications. So as not to be considered a racist cretin, she instructs her to refer to white people as "Caucasians" in everyday dialogue. E-gads... Sounds like the Huxtable family was watching too much 'Dragnet'...
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. The Cosby Show almost lost me on day one with the arrogant "Dr. William H. Cosby, Jr., Ed. D." prominently displayed in the opening credits. Everyone knows you don't put "Dr." AND "Ed. D." in the same title, it's either one or the other. Seems like nobody bothered to tell Bill until like the 3rd season when the "Dr." was FINALLY dropped. And why was this even necessary? Oh, like I'm just so f**king impressed over Cosby's educational credentials to produce a sitcom!!!
Clifford Huxtable, MD. becomes Heathcliff Huxtable, MD
The post on Theo being disowned because he wasn't going to be a doctor or lawyer is dead on. It brings how so many Americans are obsessed by money. I thought that was one thing cool about Black America. Unlike much of its White urban counterpart, In Black America being filthy rich isn't the end all to life. I thought Blacks realized you could be filthy rich, still not have your act together and be uncool. Cosbys constant emphasis on money over intrinsic values brings up the greed in America that surrounds such scandals as Enron and the overall corruption of the Stock Market (White Collar Crime- Fortune Magazine (internet version) 3/18/02) But I think more should be added to the poster's comments. I would further state that the negativeness goes further. In most CS episodes there is also the bitter, angry, patronizing, elitist feeling that any youth culture Cosby doesn't approve of or think he knows more about than everyone else is trash. And using Cosby logic it follows that if the culture is trash than the kids are trasy. In Cosby's world, the kids can only be cool and worthwhile if they like the same Teen orientated activities as Cosby. It is pathetic how angry, bitter and offended Cliff becomes when he finds out that Theo is listening to an MTV video along the lines of Walk Like An Egyptian- a harmless, pretty good song. How can you be so angry about a song that is in the same league as Sugar Sugar by the Archies? Or in universal terms a song that is likeable, harmless upbeat pop? But Cliff has to be the purveyor of cool- it's not his find so he won't even try to accept that his kid likes it. OK that's fine, but does he have to browbeat Theo over something like the Bangles just because the other kids in the family are acting like Theo knows what is cool and Dad is clueless. And lets analyze Cliff's or should I say Bill Cosby's music. Jazz comes out of the whorehouses and is directly associated with the prostitute culture. Most of the legendary Jazz musicians spent a lot of time in these places. Many Jazz musicians were also involved in numerous criminal activities. Jazz is largely about black men acting like what you would think Cliff/Bill would call ******s. Yet because they are Cliff's find of cool these Jazzmen are treated like they are more upstanding solid citizens than William Lloyd Garrison. But if you are going to start judging the behaviors of entertainers let's be honest about Cliff/Bill's great Jazz men. There behaviours include dropping out of school, being playas, shooting up the heroin, acting macho and superior to the "womins". Let's talk about what happened to Miles Davis and Charlie Parker as a result of their addictions to very hard drugs. And many of the players of Jazz were also very violent men. For example, Charles Mingus played Jazz like it was a big band version of hardcore Punk music. This is because he was a man with a trigger finger temper who regularly kicked major ass. The dude was nuts man and might kick your ass at any moment. And Billie Holiday- is this the kind of life story the Cos has in mind as a black role model? Louie Armstrong? Let's just say he was MAJOR spinning when he sang Ain't Misbehaving. And as for guest star B.B. King- he has 16 different kids by 16 different wives. How can you be that dumb? I mean the poster calls Theo dumb. Can you imagine someone as dumb as to get 16 different chicks pregnant? That takes the cake for ******** man. The cake. And yet there he is front and center as Cosby's pick for cool role model. I guess when B.B. sang about how he let the Good Times Roll he forgot to protect himself against the Womins. Why would the Great Coz want to feature someone on the show who perpetuates the worst stereotypes about how Black men can't keep it in their pants and young unmarried Black women keep getting pregnant. Is this the upperclass positive message that Cosby is trying to promote through the show? And how can Walk Like An Egyptian compare to any of that? I'll admit that I listen to some Jazz- the kind that isn't egotistical bragadocious noodling, or smooth crap. The kind that has real feeling too it, and gives you what you need without filler and unnecessary passages that ramble. But for Cosby to try to say his culture is so much more intellectual and cooler/better than everyone elses shows how the money has gone to the dude's mind. Forget B.B's 16 bastards- although can you imagine if Theo brought home a kid? He'd be out the door that minute and Claire would serve him with an injunction to stay out of the house. If he tried to come back Cliff or Claire would call the cops. He'd probably be shot as an intruder. Is this the kind of behavior Cliff wants to promote for his kids? If it is why doesn't he get off his big tight cheap ass, take out his wallet and give some of his lawyer/doctor money or credit card to Theo so he can go out buy him a Ho. That's what these great role model Jazz men did. Also the Ray Charles' song Night time Is The Right Time that the family lip sync too is about Illicit copulating. Not making love, one night stand ho style sex. And each one of the Rayettes singing in the background of the song had to bang Charles in order to get their job. I don't get it. Why would Cliff have innocent Rudy lip the lead for that song? For posters not familiar with the significance of that song- when Rudy walks down the steps like that she is acting out the role of a braggadocious Ho in a brothel. It's like she's telling you she's the ultimate Black queen hooker. Isn't that suggesting pedophilia? Dude, Cos what's up with that? Is this your bitter way of getting back at the kids for not worshipping you as the king of cool? And I don't understand why Cliff criticizes his kids for acting like a fool when he mugs and plays the fool all the time. Cos, are you jealous because the kids got to rap Shakespeare in a way that made them look "cool". Are you so insecure that you constantly worry your younger actors will upstage you and get more laughs? Cosby was real cool in his old standup and with Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. FAATCK was a non-hypocritical, good, positive message to people of all colors. Note that this was before Cosby started to spin and hide that he wasn't a playa who skipped school, got low grades and flunked college by skipping class and partying. Not exactly what you do if you want to be a lawyer or doctor is it Bill? What a great example for the kids. And banging that chick who claims she has your bastard. Cos, why would you do that if you want to be like Cliff Huxtable. Is this the kind of example you want to set for the Black kids? That it's cool to cheat on your wife, act like a fool and get your lovers pregnant. And why would you want to make it by mugging in front of the camera like a black clown? No you do not have to represent lower class Blacks to achieve a positive black message. The idea of showcasing an Upperclass Black family is a good one. But the "positive" message in the upperclass Huxtable family is marred by hypocricy,elitism, snobbery, double standards and one upmanship. Cliff plays an I'm the cooler Black than you game in TCS by preventing his kids from having the ability to be cool. Instead the kids are angrily told to act dazzled by the fashion/dancing/singing and whatever else show Cliff and Claire put on before they go out on the town. The kids acting cool and/or any chance of upstaging the Cos will not be allowed. It's like Cos is trying to be the head rapper by preventing Theo from having the chance to out rap him. What a great positive message. And the ego present in that message is sickening. Dude, you're not God, get over yourself. It's too bad that the Great Coz was turning into King Midas with no clothes during TCS because there are some great ideas in TCS and Cosby's agenda hurts them. It's really sad that a man can have so much in life and yet let so much angry bitter baggage ruin it for him. This man use to come across to me as happy. In the 60s up until the end of Fat Albert Cosby was a good time. Now as a billionaire Cosby seems so unhappy and bitter. His monologues are angry bitterness that the kids are in his observation at least considered cool because they appreciate The Blair Witch project. The Cos is all pissed off because he feels he should be appreciated as cool and not them. Maybe he has become like Citizen Kane and is trapped by his own success. Bill, dude what went so wrong? What causes you to have such anger? Why do you have to smack around a neurologically disordered man like Tommy Smothers in Vegas? You don't do stuff like that unless there is something really wrong. AND TO THE MOTHER WHO CLAIMS WE SHOULD LIKE OLIVIA BECAUSE SHE IS ADVANCED FOR HER AGE AND TRYING SO HARD. I DON'T CARE HOW HARD SHE MIGHT BE TRYING SHE SUCKS. THEY SHOULD HAVE SENT HER TO ED MCMAHON AND STAR SEARCH.
I don't get Cosby's bitterness about his or anyone else's kids getting to have fun and act young. From what I understand Cosby was a real rebel child and a bad student who was practically passed through school to get rid of him. As an adult he was supposedly partied a lot and did the kind of things he tells young people they are never to do. So my problem with The Cosby Show is how "The Cos" can be negative and bitter and hard on young people. The only explanation I have is that he expects to be worshipped like the combination of Brad Pitt, N Sync, Brittany Spears, Colby Briant, Shaq, Carson Daily and the entire cast of American Pie everytime he makes faces at the camera and that didn't work out for him. But I do get how Cosby uses the show as a platform to support young black people whose parents provide them with money and opportunity so they don't have to rely on others. Unfortunately in America it's human nature to go with the winners regardless of how they win. But man the few times I've seen TCS, I want the kids to bash the Cos on the head with a baseball bat. And don't get me started with the wife. Having said that Theo kicks ass and is one of the few real cool kids on Television. I like when he did the Shakespeare rap with cockroach.
When Theo, the classic screw around high school kid ends up finding out that his "dyslexia" was the problem all along. Yeah right--dyslexia is what caused him to choose friends over studying and always screw off. Once they discover he has dyslexia all of the sudden he is Mr. NYU intellectual, the expert in psychology. Please! In reality Theo would have been a frat boy at some low grade public university, cutting class, getting drunk and chasing girls.
The first two seasons of this show were actually very funny. However, this over-hyped sitcom begin to wane at the beginning of the 3rd season. Season Premiere: Rudy thinks there's a snake in the basement!! Talk about Must-See-TV! (Not!) From there it was all down hill ending in the 3rd season finale where the family attends a graduation ceremony at fictional Hillman college (BORING!) Maybe the intent was to set up the spin-off series, "A Different World," which premiered the next year. Anyway, the show became less funny and more charmy and cutesy. This was especially true when Raven-Symone was added to the cast. This little girl was made to say all these funny lines- but they didn't ring true!! No 3-year old would say the things she did. It just wasn't funny. That's the problem with this show. It doesn't hold up to the test of time. Definitely not funny now if you catch the reruns on Nick at Nite!
In response to the post about Saundra's date later becoming Denise's husband. You're absolutely right. How dumb is that. He should at least have had the same name. But, I guess you can finally get some sleep.
Most of your people are straight HATERS!! I've read a lot of comments that said that TCS jumped shark due to inconsistencies that occurred from the 1st episode, like the house layout, the fact that they had 4 kids, and Cliff's name was Clifford Huxtable. Let me enlighten you. When a show is being presented as a pilot to the network, more often that not, there are MANY changes from the 1st episode that are not applied within the rest of the show when adopted. But I guess you guys don't notice the inconsistencies of pilot shows in other series, huh? Stop hating and appreciate TCS for what it was: A breath of fresh air and a bit of reality in TV
I haven't seen the episodes where the new Hillman president is welcomed or the commencement, but, I know that I am sick of Hillman. The smallest reference to it makes my skin crawl. Shut the flying f*ck up about Hillman Cos!!!!! Cosby's show was always trite, but, it had a sense of originality that was charming. Hillman references on cosby's show seemed to exists only to keep that unwatchably bad spin off "A Different World" on television. Another thing, Hillman was supposed to be a prestigious school, yet look at the brainless wonders who went there (shown on a different world).
Who on earth thought it was funny or cute whenever Rudy would say "Buuuuddddd." It was/is extremely annoying and makes me want to murder a 6 year old kid. That can't be good for ratings.
Easy: it jumped when the kids grew up. Once those kids got too old for Bill to just do his goofy fatherhood bits they started making up all these really bizarre scenarios to get one or more of them to stay or move back home. Didn't Lisa Bonet Huxtable & her navy husband have to live in tha' Casa Del Huxtable for an extra season because she forgot to reserve their beds in the Navy; just in time for them to have an Adorable little kid for Bill to be cute with? Did that even make sense?
It's jumped the day I saw Vanessa's horribly deformed arms. It happened in the episode where she wanted to wear a sleeveless party dress which Cliff disapproved of. Up until that point those arms had been tactfully hidden from the world. It looked like someone poured sulfuric acid on her arms, covered them with peanut butter and allowed 50 hungry and diseased rats to gnaw on them. It was the grossest thing I ever saw. I could never watch the Cosby show again after seeing her arms.
Totally jumped when the men were pregnant. Also when Vanessa's hair went out of control!!
The Cosby Show never jumped the shark for me, I think you all are way too hard on this show. And that's all it was, was a show, meant to be what it was, a situation comedy and we've all had situations in our lives and we've all had comedy in our lives we all like to look good and not everybody likes to pick babies up all the time. So let's just look at it for what it was a time in our lives that was there and now it's gone, because I tell you one thing i bet you can all say where you were during the time of the Cosby show just like a song we may not like a particular song, but every time we hear it we know exactly where we were and what we were doing during it's duration. So let's not beat up on Bill Cosby or the show. It was a "Sit-Com" to make us laugh.
For the first five seasons; this was a great show, truly great family comedy. If it's anything from the first five seasons I'll watch it. I quit watching when the 6th seasons started when Olivia moved in; after that I just didn't care anymore. Even at the young age of 10, I knew that bringing in a new kid was just a way for them to bring in a cute character that replaced Rudy. After the first episode of season 6, I didn't watch another episode until the final one a few years later. Today on reruns if I switch it on and see either Olivia or the equally repulsive Pam, I'll switch it to something else. I suggest you do the same. The first five seasons are great; after that it's all downhill.
I think the biggest ongoing "jump" of the Cosby Show is Claire Huxtable. Is there anything this woman can't do? From rattling off on-the-spot fluent Portuguese with Theo's teacher Mrs. Westlake to being a high powered attorney and partner of a purportedly exclusive law firm while seemingly having tons of free time to chew out her children and keep a spotless, orderly house with a larger than average family. Rarely does Claire seem to work or even care about it much. She is the black counterpart to the Julia Sugarbaker of Designing Women. Claire is always so perfect, so right all of the time, always getting on some kind of soap box. So self-righteous and so sanctimonious always ready and willing to point out the kids' flaws. She was a raving bitch to Rudy in the episode where all Rudy wants to do is wear a stupid summer dress and there are plenty of other episodes just like this. You would have thought Rudy was smoking crack Claire got so mad. One more thing I've always wanted to know. If Cliff and Claire are so brilliant and put education on such a high pedestal then why do they have such stupid kids??? OK, so they give Theo an excuse for dyslexia. What about Denise? Vanessa or Rudy never struck me as being that remarkably bright either. Sondra - who knows? She was hardly ever on it and never had much personality to begin with.
I did enjoy TCS in the beginning. It had an understated, low-key feel. And Cosby was so effortlessly funny. But I don’t know if it was the success of the show going to his head or what but somewhere around the time that Lisa Bonet left the first time, I started becoming disenchanted. Cosby became so self-righteous and it was message, message, message. I’d rather not have to be preached to when I watch a family-sitcom show. I can understand that Cosby felt the need to educate the masses about the plight of the African-American in our Country but there are other forums for that. Weighing down a nice, easy-going family sit-com with that kind of rhetoric is pomposity, plain and simple. How this show lasted 8 years is beyond my comprehension.
I remember the first season being funny, but around the second season I think Cosby and his cohorts bought into the words "landmark" and "important" in many of their press clippings. I think the moment came when they were watching the "I Have A Dream" speech after a fight. Theo was looking at it so intently the veins on his foreheads were going to explode.
This show turned into a man-hating orgy. Every other episode ol' Cliff was telling his unfortunate son in law Elvin to pander to that unreasonable little troll Sondra. Damn she needed a little valium in her life. If it wasnt Sondra it was Claire talking about how stupid Cliff was and in one episode where Sondra and Elvin come to dinner and bring the twins, it was nothing but a little man hating party going on in the kitchen, all the while saying how perfect and flawless they were. Those poor men were so pu$$y-whipped it's not even funny. What was with the not-so-subtle political statement with Sondra's kids names (Winnie & Nelson) gee where did that come from? How sappy.
Several things jumped, the biggest one being adding Raven-Symone to the cast. She was and still is horrible and obnoxious (Dr. Doolittle anyone?). Others are Rudy growing up (but she couldn't help that); Denise leaving and coming back married and funkier; adding Pam (why did she join exactly?) and the gradual self-righteous evolution of the series (from cute and fun to serious and socially conscious). Watch the always-changing opening credit sequences (including theme song version) and all of them reflect the tone of that season's episodes. The most fun seasons are numbers three (latin mambo opening theme) and four (Bobby McFerrin's a cappella theme).
The show couldn't avoid the shark long when Olivia joined the cast. Rudy was cute. Olivia was annoying. As a side note, did anyone else notice that Denise's husband - Olivia's father - was played by the same guy that Cliff tried to get to date Sondra a few seasons earlier?
Blaming the addition of Olivia for the show's failure is a cop out. As stupid as it was to add her to the show, she was good. The show just stopped working, it was a good show, and for the longest time there was no problem with it, but shows just can't last forever. Could you pick a defining moment when Seinfeld jumped the shark? No, it was just time for it to end. Olivia just came at the unlucky time when the show just stopped working. But to blame it on her isn't fair, nor is it fair to pick one specific episode and say, "When that happened it started sucking." I agree the fairy tale episode sucked, the singing for the grandparents gave me the creeps, and the pregnant man bit actually made me confused non-stop for two or three days, yet the next episode after that was probably good, and then the show didn't jump the shark. Certain shows do have immanent doomsayers but this isn't one of them, and to blame Olivia (Who was hilarious in Cosby though she sucked in all her future projects) is unjust. Sure she was just a copy-off Rudy, but Olivia is a better actress then Rudy so who cares?
While Olivia wasn't the sole cause of Cos jumping the shark, she was definitely a strong contributor who exacerbated the show's downfall. I guess TCS truly jumped when four year old Olivia became smarter than 21 year old Denise as was the case with the episode where the two babysit Winnie and Nelson. Denise had to ask Olivia what to do with the twins! Olivia ("I'm still alive!!!") consistently had the most forced and contrived dialogue that no four year old would EVER say I don't care how cute and precocious she is. And Denise and everyone around her going off on how smart Olivia is. PLEASE! Virtually everyone on earth became smarter than airhead Denise who seemed to get dumber and stupider as the years progressed. (Denise goes from being accepted at colleges like Brown and Berkeley to dropping out of Hillman to forgetting to confirm her husband's housing reservation at the army base and not telling him until they arrive among other dim-bulb things.) You would have thought Olivia rather than Denise would be a blood offspring of Cliff and Claire. At least it would make more sense.
In the first episode of The Cosby Show there were only 4 children. Now in that episode claire asked Cliff, "why do we have ""4"" children?" and he replied "because we don't won't 5". How is it that they ended up with Sandra in the show? The other is when rudy started to grow up. Once she got older she wasn't cute anymore. Then when they put in olivia to try and replace the cuteness that was there it didn't work. But the biggest was the Sandra situation.
About the time Sondra and Eldin bought the wilderness store, "The Cosby Show" took a turn for the worse. Sondra quits law school, Denise drops out of Hillman, and Theo is the same screw-up he always has been. The kids were portrayed as f**k-ups simply because they got tired of beating their heads into the wall that is higher education. Agreeing with similar posts, Bill preached the values of schooling ad nauseum without considering that a degree is ABSOLUTELY NO guarantee for success. Look at several examples... 1) the richest sonuvabitch on the planet dropped out of Harvard to found a little software company, 2) Dave Thomas dropped out of high school to pay the bills and to create a better-quality fast food restaurant than McDonald's, 3) a year after I earned an engineering degree, I opted for grad school since I couldn't find a relevant job in this retched 2001-02 economy. Ask most recent college grads today, Bill, if becoming "educated" (insecure people use this term to make themselves feel important) was worth it!!! I give praise to Cosby for advising people to give their best if they have the means, but with his platform, he constantly overstepped his boundaries and insulted those who did not have such opportunities and are happy with their position in life, with or without degrees.
OK, have been watching Nick at Nite this week where they are currently showing season five episodes. In two back-to-back episodes, it is revealed that Cliff was in the NAVY!! First, when he's having a heart-to-heart talk with Denise's Navy husband Martin and second, in that incredibly bizarre episode where Cliff has yet another nightmare (this time featuring the Muppets, the first one being the pregnant men episode) because he ate a hoagie and didn't listen yet again to all-wise and all-knowing Claire. But getting back to the Navy thing, at no time in the previous four years does Cliff mention he was ever in the military and this just comes out of nowhere. Is there anything Cliff hasn't done? OK, I can sort of buy that he graduated college, played Hillman football AND (albeit unlikely) was ALSO on the Hillman track team, then he went on to graduate from medical school. Cliff did all this while apparently marrying pretty young (based on Clair's age and Cliff apparently not being that much older and the already adult Sondra) and starting a large family. Oh, but wait!!! On top of this all, he now did a stint in the military! COME ON!!! Enough with all of this sanctimonious, over-achiever preaching. Cliff was much more low key and down to earth in the earlier seasons, but then he's turned into this pretentious bore by series end.
Well it really annoyed me when in the later episodes (the one where Vanessa and her 2 friends made a music video) Rudy was going aroud the house singing "do it to me all night" Cliff was upset that she was listening to lyrics like this so he said, "Rudy, what does "it" mean?" Rudy who was 11 years old replied "holding hands and kissing" now what kind of 11 year old doesn't know what sex is and isn't comfortable talking to their parents about it? COME ON!!! i knew about sex when i was 5 years old!!! that just really upset me.
The reunion Show (5/19/02). The clips were fine, but it was not all of them sitting around together, it was Pontificating Bill talking about how great he is and how great his show was. There is always a curiosity factor with reunion shows. So i tuned in (for a while, I lost interest) to see what they have been doing since they went off the air. One word: EATING!!!!! Wow, everyone has put on weight.
The Cosby Show jumped the shark when Rudy grew up. That whole episode about not wanting to go to school because she didn't have breasts yet? Ugh.
It never did. Quite simply it was and is one of the best shows on television. Humorous, entertaining, and enlightening. I am overwhelmed by the amount of bitterness exhibited on these postings. I am overwhelmed by the number of people, both white and black who are so uncomfortable with themselves and their own lives that they cannot see why this show was so incredible, so groundbreaking, so important AND SO DAMN FUNNY. Its worth noting, that this show and then the Fresh Prince were two of the last occasions where you saw black characters, decent folks, albeit comical (hence "sitcom") on television. I am glad Nick at Nite has made it possible for me to re-live childhood memories provided by the show....I loved the show then and now as an adult (and a corporate attorney who like Claire, has a heart and loves her family)....the show remains refreshing and entertaining. To all of you bitter folks, you should get over it--learn to laugh a little and stop being such critics.
Cousin Pam She might not have been on too many of the episodes but jeez, those were some of the most pointless episodes ever. There was no point of having Pam on there, unless NBC was trying to make spin-off for her. This was one more character the Cosby Show didn't need.
I've been watching the re-runs on Nick At Nite & I have to put in a vote for the "SD" button. That button is so distracting. Does he have to wear it on EVERY freakin' outfit?! Last night, I saw an episode where Cliff is about to leave the house & he has a trenchcoat on with the button. In the next scene, he has arrived at his destination & has already hung his coat up. But the button is now on the sports jacket he had on underneath the trenchcoat. Now, are we supposed to think that he has a ton of these buttons, already pinned to his outfits ready to go? Or are we supposed to think that he got to the place, took the time to take the button off of the trenchcoat & stick it to his sports jacket?! And the other night I saw it on his pajamas as he was hopping into bed! Now that's just ridiculous! There is not a single person on this planet who would put a button on their sleepwear before going to bed. Who's gonna see it except the person you're sleeping with?! And I'm sure it's already been crammed down their throats already if you're wearing the damn thing to bed for crying out loud!
The Cosby Show jumped when the Cosby Show turned into the Cousin Pam Show. The last 2 seasons are practically devoted exclusively to Cousin Pam. And why should we care about Cousin Pam? She just shows up out of nowhere with some unbelievable story about how her mother had to leave to care for a relative. Why wouldn't Cousin Pam go with her? Then after just showing up, we're all supposed to be so fascinated with her ghetto-like lifestyle and friends. If Cosby wanted to do a show like this, he should have just produced one on its own (a la Different World). The Cousin Pam story as an extension of the Cosby Show just didn't mesh well. We all tuned into the Cosby Show to see the Huxtables, and the last two seasons, it's almost as if the entire Huxtable family becomes an afterthought! Cousin Pam and Olivia aren't true Huxtables.
After season 3 when the ratings took a huge nose dive, it seemed like they were trying NOT to be funny anymore. The 4th season was incredibly boring, although the 6th season had potential to be funny, but they gave Olivia too much air time. It wasn't the fact that they added her, but she had at least 4x as much airtime as any of the ORIGINAL huxtable kids. And I understand that the grandparents were there to bring family history to the show, but they were HORRIBLY boring. I didn't mind Vanessa's afro during the 5th season too much, but when she put a Jerry curl on it, and then added a pony tail..it just made you want to throw up every time you saw her. I don't know if anyone notices, but there is a HUGE difference between Cliff's character at the beginning of the show and maybe towards the middle through the end. Because in the beginning MOST of the humor was found in Cliff's one liners and reactions to the kids antics. Towards the middle and the end, something would happen then Cliff would mug the camera for laughs. His greasy face was nauseating, I don't what motivated him to use this as the showcase of his performance. I still like the show with it's many flaws because I grew up watching it. But it was in it's prime the first 2 seasons, no episode in any of the seasons after could top those.
You could always tell when a Cosby show had 18 minutes of plot for a 22 minute show when... Bill Cosby would get a straight man and drag out every word of a lame skit. "YOU WANT MEEE to Serve YOUUU ice cream? Now let me get this straight YOU? WANT ME? TO SERVE YOU ICE CREAM?" Oh god! His "Improvisational comedic talent" would just take over and drive that episode right into the ground. It's amazing how such a wildly sucessful 1st run holds up so badly in re-runs. Did people really love this show so much?
The Cosby Show jumped when the completely unlikeable Olivia joined the cast. Who thought she was cute, anyway? This was of course followed by the addition of the hateful Cousin Pam, an even worse mistake.
This show was pretty funny (not surprisingly) at the beginning. But when Denise goes to college the house became a bit empty and I remember a big crisis was when Vanessa was caught wearing make-up. Denise had a bit of an edge to her and it was pretty funny how Lisa Bonet couldn't behave for Mr. Cosby even though she was interesting. He wanted her to fit the "Up with People" positive role model mould that she couldn't (in a way), even though it's supposed to be about being who you want to be. Denise was the cool daughter. The showed soon drowned in its good intentions- it was like that movie "Sister Act II"- positive messages are all well and good but it doesn't make for good entertainment. Then Theo became a preacher- no wait- teacher, cousin Pam was off the streets who needed to shape up. Though whole episodes were dedicated to her and her friends- big mistake. Once in a while a good episode came up when the kids disappointed Cliff and Claire- these were strangely satisfying. Like when Sondra and Eldin wanted to give up their law/medical degrees and open a wilderness store. Claire said something about planting flowers and getting weeds instead- Denise was in the jungle, Sondra's in the wilderness, and Vanessa's doing the locomotion (she stuffed her bra and did a dance routine to the Locomotion). That was a bright spot but they eventually had too much responsibility to the viewers and all the kids did the right thing- re-enrolling at school, even Denise (though Lisa Bonet had to leave again). Also, Rudy grew up and we saw Keshia Knight Pulliam couldn't act. It was fun until the greed of the late 80's made it like everything else- slick and corporate.
Married with Children had more real life, dimensional characters than this piece of fluff. I remember when Bill Cosby used to be funny...it's coming to me...wait...that's right, it was before he decided that Phylicia Rashad had any talent. As a man, I find the entire concept of the males of the household being portrayed as bumbling children, kept in line by their smarmy wives, mothers, and sisters. Its a damn good thing Al and Peg booted Cliff and Claire from the airwaves.
Before Cuba Gooding Jr; even before Jordy on Star Trek...there was Alvin. If ever there was proof of The Man's endless efforts to oppress people of color, Alvin was it. This guy (and I use the term generously) made Urkel look like Schwarzenegger. Continuing on, I was always amazed at how Cliff could never be trusted to take care of the kids on his own. So many episodes centered around one of the charming little ones taking advantage of him whenever Claire was not around. So what if he was the father of 5 kids in real life? So what if his character had raised 5 more on the show? He was a man, so of course he had to be incompetent when it came to looking after children...
Purely and simply, TCS bit the big one when Bill Cosby decided that he was a **STAR**
The Cosby Show NEVER "jumped the shark".Anybody who badmouths or tries to embarrass the show is shallow and is missing the point. And for that one idiot who said that "Married...With Children" was more 'realistic' than TCS.Huh? 'MWC' was pure satire whereas TCS was realistic for millions of families(of all colors and classes)and it was funny.And for your information,Keshia Knight Pulliam and Lisa Bonet(and the whole cast) CAN act! There was NOTHING wrong with this show!!!!
To the above poster who stated that this show was realistic, I have one question for you: "What show were you watching?" The situations were ridicilous- ex.- Clair holds Theo on trial in the living room because he was late from school. Hmmm, my parents never put me on trial. Other examples- Cosby moans and groans that his kids won't leave the nest when it's very obvious his writers don't want them to, thus, necessiting forced situations (Theo forgot to mail a check and can't get a dorm room, Denise forgot to call about Navy housing, Sondra's new house needs repairs so her and her family need a roof to crash under). Not to mention all the "special guest stars" (read: musicians, most of them nobody heard of) who constantly paraded in and out of this show week after week as some old friend, relative or acquaintance of the family.
Only one poster mentioned Olivia's dancing in the opening credits...but they neglected to mention what was so terribly sickening about it. She was dancing the Vogue! The Vogue! That was not cool! Olivia's presence's potential as shark-jumper was tragically affirmed by the Vogue! VOGUE VOGUE VOGUE! VOGUE IS BAD! NO VOGUE!
Poor Theo, he was the only semi-cool person in this series. But having that bitch of a mom and those airhead sisters, I'm surprised he didn't go postal on the whole family. Also, that Elvin/Alvin guy was without a doubt the biggest ***** in the history of television. I think he went on to play one of the Teletubbies...nah, even they're too manly for him!
This show had potential when it first hit the airwaves. It gave me a few chuckles, but success quickly ruined what could've been a decent show. Instead, this so-called comedy turned into highly rated dreck. Let's review: In every episode we had the same set up. Cosby mugged for the cameras while extolling the virtues of education and jazz music. His wife stood there, grinning like an idiot, while playing the perfect wife/mother. Please, this bitch needed acting lessons. Not only was she WAY to young to realistically play his wife, she wasn't at all convincing as a career-mom/attorney. Here's a tip: Just because you carry around a briefcase and spout "LET THE RECORD SHOW" ad nauseum in your living room doesn't make you a believable lawyer. Then there was the robotic supposedly intellectual Sondra, who if truth be told acted like a major space case who's was smoking reefer, and her idiot husband Elvin, the most emasculated man ever to appear on TV. His only existence on the show can only be because Cos didn't want to shock the audience by having his perfect daughter dump her loser boyfriend/husband. But what did a supposedly smart, educated woman see in a pig like that- he WASN'T even attractive!! Then, there was that idiot-savant, Theo, who was probably dropped on his head as a child (thus explaining his inability to speak CORRECTLY) because he nearly flunks out of high school and then guess what- years later he's really dyslexic so he's not as stupid as we all thought and graduates college WITH HONORS!! Please! That was the most lame-ass self-serving B.S. this show tried to pass off as "realism." Not to mention Airhead Vanessa, whose helmet hair got WAY out of control at the beginning of the 5th season. No wonder the writers shipped her off to college (Before she even graduated high school!) And poor little Rudy. Cuteness doesn't mean your a great actress. Face it, that Emmy nom was a fluke! Unfortunately for you, the older you got, the cuteness wore off, which was evident when they replaced you with that no-talent Olivia. The way you spouted off "BUUUUUUDDD" as if were high comedy, I truly felt sorry for you. Let's not forget Grandpa Huxtable, a pretentious bore, who supposedly graduated Hillman and preached education but was a professional trumpet player (HUH)? Which brings us to Denise- the only likable character in the bunch. She alone made the show. She had her own fashion sense and seemed like a real person- until the character assassination began. The Cos apparently threw a hissy fit when she did a racy movie (Angel Heart) and married a struggling musician (Lenny Kravitz) and thus the downward spiral of Denise began. First off, it's none of his DAMN business what this adult did when she was not on the set of the show. But ever the high and mighty, Cos decided to ruin her character- thinking perhaps the audience might turn on her and like his character better. FAT CHANCE! It all started pre-"A Different World," when Denise home from Hillman confessed she was struggling in college. Okay, that's natural- most kids who got good grades in college have difficulty their freshman year. But it got worse: Denise then appeared on "A Different World" as (GASP) a big flake. She couldn't balance her checkbook, keep up with her studies and her dates and her room was a pig sty. A year later, when Lisa Bonet, who WAS legally married by the way, became pregnant, COS threw her off "A Different World" and "The Cosby Show" altogether by having her drop out of school (this from the man who had his own illicit affairs and illegitimate children). Poor Denise was now a joke of a student who couldn't handle the pressures of college (HUH!!- the same smart, hip confident girl from the show's inception) and become a bigger flake going from one flunky job to another. Finally, in a saving grace, he shipped her off to Africa. HUH? Why not just send Denise to study abroad for a semester? Or transfer schools altogether? She never really wanted to go to Hillman in the first place and was pressured into going by that idiot grandfather and father just to please them. That's when the first shark jump occurred (although the show was already crap by then). However, things got even worse when Denise returned a year later with a secret husband and stepdaughter (NOW that's what I call comedy- NOT!) Denise was made to look even worse (Lisa, Honey, you should NEVER have came back!!) She married the squarest man alive, I'm not even sure he had a pulse, but of course Dad liked him because they were both Navy men. Not only that but Denise is now saddled with an annoying brat who spouted off lines full of innuendos and hip lingo that a real 3 year old would NEVER say, let alone understand. But the Denise downward spiral continued. Denise, the airhead, forgets to call to confirm some Navy housing and gets berated by her husband AND her mother. OH NO, no self-respecting woman would stand for that!! First, I'd tell that BITCH of a mother to mind her own F***ing business, then I'd tell that dumb-ass hubby that while i forgot to call for housing, I sure didn't forget to call my divorce lawyer. Apparently MR. Cos had enough of Bonet and didn't invite her back the final season (I think she was fired half-way thru season 7). But by then, who cares? Denise was ruined and the show was already KA-PUT!! Too bad, somebody forgot to inform Mr. COSBY.
I could handle Olivia...she was cute. I could handle that absolutely horrible afro hairdo on Vanessa because she was my favorite. I was relieved when she grew it out and had the big hair around season 6...but then she chopped it off again! But anyway, the real shark jumping came with Cousin Pam...what a waste. She sucked and so did her annoying friends.
It never jumped! You all are so stupid for saying that Rudy couldn't act and all that crap! Sure, she wasn't as cute as the series went on, but is anyone really as cute when they're 12 as they were when they were 5? I mean come on! And there was no one named Alvin ever on the show. His name was Elvin! And Joseph C. Phillips only played one character, Martin. The Cosby Show was the best show of all time!
Yes his name was E-L-V-I-N. That was annoying me also. And hate to break it to you guy, but Martin did indeed play a different character as a boyfriend to Sondra in about the second or third season. Look it up on Nick at Nite. I remember because that was the first case of "Same Actor, Different Character" I had ever encountered when Martin showed up as Denise's husband. I was only 9 years old at the time and it really freaked me out.
Back when the show first started, critics complained that the show wasn't representative of African American families. Ridiculous! How many of the other sitcoms were representative of white families? In every 80's sitcom, families had perfect parents and a living room that's bigger than most Americans' whole house! (It wasn't until Roseanne that tv had families that were more representative of the viewing public.) And aside from the sitcoms, it was the evening soaps like Dynasty that ruled 80s tv. How many white/black viewers could say that their family lived like that? I wasn't so annoyed by Olivia; I thought she was an adorable kid. Sondra and Elvin (for the longest time I thought his name was Eldin) having twins was far worse. Especially when the son had the same rat-tail that Elvin did. When I was a kid I was annoyed immensely by the episodes where characters just sat around and did nothing but talked (and Seinfeld thought he had corned the market on shows about nothing?). But now that I'm older, these shows don't bother me so much anymore. Come back and watch again in a few years.
This show died the moment Denise left the show, then came back, then left. Bad call, Bill Cosby, since she added major sex-appeal to the otherwise ugly Huxtable family. Plus she was the only Huxtable kid who had real problems, who wasn't perfect like the other kids, and she was rebellious (much like Bonet on the Cosby set). To make things worse, they brought Denise back but they made her a mother with a boring SOB of a husband. Guess old Cos couldn't stop meddling in Lisa Bonet's life (watch E! True Hollywood Stories on the The Cosby Show to see what I'm saying) so he had to ruin her character on the show. Which shows us that Cosby himself is nothing but a judgmental loser, along with the equally bitchy Phylisha Rashad. Recently in the news he has bashed "The Osbournes", calling them sad and immoral people and are as pathetic as Tiny Tim. What a jealous hypocrite! Guess old Cos forgot that he cheated on his darling Camille years ago (supposedly there are some illegitimate children) and he was a truant kid back in the day. Take your puritanical views Bill and shove them where the sun don't shine! At least shows like "The Osbournes" and "Roseanne" represent American families far better than your show ever did with your 900 grandpas who were famous jazz musicians and uber-mom, Claire Huxtable!
I take JTS very seriously and I have to say I'd be lying to think Cosby ever jumped. It is a classic show. I can say that time was bad to the show thow. The episodes toward the end of the run started to get a little too preachy in areas. Also, even though there was a pretty large cast to work with in a 1/2 hour, you'd think they could fit each person in. Yet we were subjected over and over again to the opening credits displaying up to 10 people. Then the show would only have 4 people on all night, some of which were not even regulars!!! They quit JUST in the nick of being ahead....had they gone on any further......
When every episode became devoted to Cliff's "the importance of higher education" sermons. Was he getting paid by colleges to push this stuff? Cliff and Claire acted as if you will be a total failure in life with no prospects whatsoever if you don't have at least a bachelor's and preferably a post-grad degree. Also, I got tired of the male-bashing and the constant putdown on traditional attitudes. They took Elvin and Kenny, put them at an extreme, and then used it to mock people who believed in more traditional male/female roles. Also, TOO MANY JAZZ MUSICIANS!!!
The thing that ruined this show was the constant references to Hillman, the fictional all-black college attended not only by Cliff and Clair, but also grandpa Huxtable AND Denise. Give me a break! I just saw the episode last night on "Nick at Nite" where the entire family attends a graduation ceremony at Hillman. What was the point of that? It was boring as Hell and served no other purpose than to spin-off the show into "A Different World," (which by the way SUCKED big time). Cliff, one of the thousands of graduates, is personally chosen to be the Master of Ceremonies by the university pres (sure that makes sense, especially when they reveal he was not the best student at school). Is that the best the school could come up with, an unknown obstetrician who cracks a few lame jokes in a graduation speech? Not only that but his wife, not the greatest singer in the world, sings a solo backed by the entire choir of the school. Then there was boring speeches going on and on about Hillman. The new president says she chose to be president "because it's HILLMAN!" as if that means anything to us. The old pres goes on and on encouraging alumni to show favoritism to Hillman grads when hiring. Talk about nepotism! Then, poor Sandra, a straight "A" student at Princeton, one of the country's most prestigious schools, is made to feel like a traitor time and again because she didn't choose Hillman. The constant references to Hillman is what killed this show. Okay, Bill, we get it, you encourage higher education, but did you have to hit us over the heads with constant talk of Hillman?? Now every time I watch an old re-run and someone even mentions Hillman I head for the remote.
Dring the original Bob Newhart Show (the Psychologist one), someone started a drinking game, in which you had to down a shot every time someone on the show said "Bob". I used to hate the Cosby Show until I began applying the same drinking game every time someone said "Hillman" on Cosby. I was usually on the floor before the first commercial break, and it became waaaay more palatable to sit through Bill & Co.
Did you ever notice that Cosby put on airs when his buddies came over? They never played Poker - they played Pinochle. They never went bowling - they played Bocce. And he would introduce his friends as "Joe Bloe, Harvard M.B.A, Nobel Peace Prize," and "John Doe, doctor AND and a lawyer." Really annoying.
There was an episode where Rudy has a classmate over and he tells (rather than asks) her to get some juice. Okay, I can understand the Huxtable kids not being allowed to have soda pop, but every in kid Brooklyn? Come on! Speaking of Brooklyn, why wasn't this set in Cosby's hometown of Philadelphia? And why was Cliff's occupation changed from plumber to doctor in pre-production? I guess Cosby went along with the elitist media crap that allows for patronizing portrayals of working class people or live outisde of New York or Los Angeles. Then there's the wilderness store incident. What's wrong with starting a small business? Sure the risks are great (most small businesses fail within a year), but so are the rewards (Wal-mart started with one store. Cliff and Claire should have supported their duaghter's efforts to chart her own path. Then again, I'm not sure if I'd want Dr. Huxtable taking care of my wife and unborn child or his wife defending me in court.
Hey, some of you people seriously need to take a chill pill, like yesterday! A lot of these comments I've been reading are just plain NUTS! They're insane and SICK! "The Cosby Show" is one of the most classy shows in the history of television, a show that promotes family love and unity, in addition to pride in the African-American lifestyle and heritage. As for them "putting down white people," now that's just TOO sick! They always had white people hanging around, that weren't losers. They were not superior or inferior to Caucasian people. Looks like a lot of you just can't handle that fact. As for it being "overrated," another lie. It has earned the recognition it continues to receive. It's a show that stands out due to its style, sophistication, fine cast, and good, solid writing. "The Cosby Show" continues to be one of my favorite shows of all-time, and one of the best shows ever, despite the avalanche of ridiculous, insane comments over here... GROW UP!
I just read the above comment about the wilderness store incident and I have to agree 100% The problem with this show is that it was all about $$$. Cliff and Clair always brought things down to the bottom line- starting from the first episode where Theo tells Cliff he just wants to be "regular people" and then Cliff pulls out some play Monopoly money to demonstrate how poor a schlub he would really be if he doesn't go to college. That's it- that was the underlying message in EVERY freakin' episode from there. When Denise wanted to buy a car WITH HER OWN MONEY- Clair gets snippy, then Cliff tells her SHE OWES THEM something $400, 000 for raising her. WHAT?? If you didn't want to PAY for the costs of raising 5 kids, COS, then you and your grinning wife should have used protection. The same thing happened in the wilderness episode. Sondra announces she's not going to law school and Clair demands she pay back every cent they spent on her at Princeton. WHAT THE HELL?? Sondra graduated college and wants to open her own business- a college education could certainly give her an edge, it's not like her pricey education will have gone to waste. And another thing, in that same episode, Cliff and Clair are so proud that Elvin and Sondra are going to follow in their footsteps- then are devastated to learn they're not. CONTINUITY ERROR!! Obviously, this was just a set-up for this episode because if you look back at previous episode Elvin was an ART MAJOR in the episode where Clair wants to buy an expensive painting at an art auction (Again with the $$). And Sondra- she was a psychology and NEVER once talked about going to law school (Despite Clair's claims that it was all she talked about). Then, there was an episode where they threw Theo out the house and charged him $$ to move back in to show him how "the real world" lives. Money, money, money... that's all COS and his wife cared about. SCREW THE KIDS- Clair gets bent out of shape when Rudy borrows some chump change to buy a cheap sweater, Clair's so cheap she won't let Rudy buy a Mega-Woman doll and makes her work like a slave just to earn enough money to buy it. Then, COS was always bitching and moaning that the kids will never leave the house- well buy a freakin' bigger house you cheap skate! The Bottom Line: THE COSBY Show was really all about $$$ and that's the sad truth!
I have a few problems with Olivia. Why did she always dress like a midget clown? Why did she have a birthday party episode just like pre-mustashioed Rudy? Why did her parents leave her? Here are the answers: She dressed like a midget clown because she just had to be the center of attention...it made me want to punt her. She got a birthday party episode like Rudy because the the Cosby show had run its course, the writers were all brain dead by this point. Finally, her parents left her because she deserved it. I hate Oliver...I mean Olivia.
Wow! People are brutal! What's so wrong with Olivia?! I love her! if you don't like that they brought her on the show, that's not her fault! I think she was great!
I love this show! I even made my own website of it, BUT I have to say it jumped during seasons 7-8. Olivia did try to fill the "cuteness" void left by maturing Rudy BUT with Olivia it seemed kind of forced but with Rudy it was more natural. the writing also weakened and Denise and Theo were totally different. the first 5 seasons were great though. I liked Theo and Denise the best. To those people who say Married With Children is more realistic WTF?!? MWC is pure satire and people mistake that for realism. If you have a life like the Bundys, although it is entertaining, I feel very very sorry for you. Its too bad Denise couldn't stay around longer with all the fights her and Cosby had.
When this show first aired, it was refreshing to see African-Americans portrayed in a different light. The first season was pretty good. Then the second season started and I could already see things that were beginning to bother me: Claire's constant smirking, the wardrobe (at times, the show resembled a fashion show more than a sitcom), Vanessa's constantly changing hair style, etc. As stated in other posts, an elitist attitude started creeping in, and this show just started going downhill at record speed. Has there been any other show that has jumped the shark more often? Realistic? I don't think so. It didn't have to be, it's a sitcom after all, but it was so ridiculous at times that it was to hard to take. The grandparents looked the same age as Cliff, and everybody got along. The house was never a mess and Cliff and Claire were home all the time despite their professions. And the parade of guest stars and musicians -- terrible. I don't know much about the characters the other posts have brought up (Pam, the little girl that was "adopted", and other things because I stopped watching long before that), but from what I've read I didn't miss much. What really pisses me off about this show was that it had so much potential, but it denigrated into a snobbish, lecturing type of show due to Cosby's egomania. I've always felt this show was better suited for Saturday morning instead of Thursday night.
The above poster is right on the money. It WAS great seeing African Americans who can finally pay their bills for change, not living off of oatmeal everyday or getting evicted. The first season was OK, but it became apparent that the show was getting stale. As for the kids, none were my favorite. As far as being that "cool" kid of the family, Denise gets my vote. What were so special about the others? Theo? Was he funny, cool? Vanessa? Rudy? cute and that's it. Sandra? lame. Don't even mention that husband of hers.
I think The Cosby Show jumped around the seventh and eighth season. You never saw the original cast members anymore it was all Pam and her friends and Olivia! Plus my favorite character Denise wasn't in the last season so i dont even watch the eighth season because of dumb Cosby!! I couldn't stand to watch any of the other characters they were just so lame and boring!
The show jumped the shark when Cliff wore that DAMN SD button in the 7th season. I never really noticed it before, as I had pretty much stopped watching the show at the time and started watching "The Simpsons"- a MUCH, MUCH funnier show by the way. But now, watching the reruns on "Nick at Nite," I realize how far he took it. He wore that DAMN thing on everything- even his pajamas when he went to bed AND his hospital scrubs when he was going to deliver a baby. Please, we get the point!! COS wanted to honor a man he admired who guest starred ONCE and ONLY ONCE on his show. But there are more subtle ways to do it. On "Cheers," the Coach died and to honor him, the show had a picture of an Indian behind the bar (I think it was from the dressing room of the actor who played Coach). On "Dallas," Jock died and the show hung a portrait of him in the family living room. But in both of those cases, it wasn't so OBVIOUSLY FORCED down the viewers throats. No offense to the late Sammy Davis, Jr., but what WAS THE F***ING point, COS, if only to annoy the audience?!
I can't believe no one has mentioned this before. But this was just typical of just how annoying The Cosby Show could get. The episode where there was some world famous tap dancer that Cliff just happened to know. And they sat there in the Huxtable living room challenging each other to a tap dancing contest. OK, now that was only sort of annoying. But it was how the guest star kept yelling "Chall-ANGE" after he was done. What the hell was that? Who talks like that? Nobody. Well, except just about everybody on that show.
When Cliff started making "get a job" a catch phrase. To tell this to s 7 year old is funny once. but enough already..this was his solution to everything. True, getting a job is good, but how often is the retort funny?
How I wish I could say this program never jumped, but it did big time with the addition of Pam. It wasn't necessarily the character that bothered me as much as the fact that the last season seem to mostly evolve around her, she even had her own group of friends. She even had scenes with these friends at school as they dealt with issues. Just how many times over the years did any of the Cosby Kids be shown at school with their friends, at home, yes but I seldom saw any of them at school hanging out with their friends, at least not for long periods of time and not dominating the entire episode. The sad thing is I hardly knew Pam before they started centering the whole program on her and I sure didn't know her friends, and before long I could of cared less about any of them. I have read many a post about how Raven Simone ruined the program, and I disagree, Simone's character added to the dynamic of the program and it was kind of funny to see Rudy get a taste of her own medicine. Over the years she would get away with murder because she was the youngest, now there was someone younger then her in the house who was tormenting her. Also it was kind of interesting to see irresponsible Denise have to learn grow up and be a responsible parent. In short the addition of the Olivia character kept the program moving and evolving. Although I don't think the character should of been kept after Denise and her husband were off the program, come on they were her parents she belonged with them. But I could forgive this, but I couldn't forgive the whole Pam takes over the show fiasco.
Some episodes of Cosby were just BORING BORING BORING. That stupid graduation commencement thing---UGH! Rudy's mustache was horrid. But I don't think it entirely jumped until stupid cousin Pam came on. Her story lines were dumb and she just couldn't save the show's demise. They were much better off without her.
The Huxtables were never the same after Denise left the house for A Different World. Then again, neither was Lisa Bonet.
You know what??? I think the reason why the show went down the hill wasn't because of character additions or subtractions. It was Bill himself. In the beginning he seemed more driven to make the show work and make it funny. After about season 3 or 4 it seemed as if he got too comfortable since the show was so high rated. And it was almost like he had nothing left to prove, so he could be lazy and have boring episodes and now worry about it. Which basically he didn't have to because the show stayed #1 even after it had became unfunny. The middle years of this show were so bad (Particularly seasons 3, 4, and 7) Season 8 was a definite improvement, though the show had hit rock bottom in quality by then and there was almost no saving it. I mean seriously watch the pilot episode of this show, and then watch an episode in season 7 and you'll see the difference. Yes we all know that Cosby's humor is supposed to be dry, but nothing TOO dry survives. Oh and one more thing..... Bill Cosby was sooooooo worried about Lisa Bonet's off screen life, but let Tempestt Bledsoe go ON CAMERA with those awful hairdos??? I mean it looked like she was a spokesperson for the worst perm care kit on the market.
It is true that when the kids got older the show got weak but what got me hooked on the show was the episode where Denise is babysitting sondra's kids and B-O-B comes along. it was hilarious. i was laughing until i was crying, and i dont laugh easy in shows like this. Also the character that i really like is Kenny. i love that kid
The title says it all...when the men gave birth to sandwiches, the advertisers should have asked for a refund. One of the worst 30 minutes of TV EVER! Olivia and Pam rank right up there though.
I can't believe no one else has mentioned this, but I really feel this needs to be mentioned. The thing that ruined this show was simple- it stopped being FUNNY!! And for a sitcom (situation COMEDY), humor is essential. Look back on the pilot and the early seasons (1-2) and you'll see what I mean. Sure, there was a charmingness to the show that carried through the whole run, but the scripts and situations were actually funny that they would make you laugh. As the series progressed, I don't what happened or when it happened exactly, but the show actually stopped making me laugh and I realized it just wasn't FUNNY anymore. In addition to getting on his high horse and becoming preachy, Cos lost his sense of humor. Or actually what HE thought was funny, just wasn't, simply CORNY. The amazing thing is the show was still the #1 rated show and it wasn't funny. I remember watching several episodes (Hillman graduation, Rudy's fairy tale, Cliff babysits the twin, just to name a few), scratching my head wondering where the humor was. Then I listened to the laugh track of the studio audience and thought, wow THAT was supposed to be FUNNY?! By the time, "The Simpsons" came along and aired opposed "The Cosby Show," I gave on the Huxtables altogether. I mean, "The Simpsons" dared to be funny (and continues to do so) while Cosby just settled for being preachy, charming and comfortable. But isn't the whole point of a sitcom to make people laugh?
The show jumped when they brought on 'Pam, the cousin' If she was there to boost ratings, they failed miserably. I loved the show up until she showed up. I was even able to sit through Rudy's 'old age', Vanessa's (and Denise's) grotesque hair styles, Denise's 'garage sale' clothes, and Eldin's poor acting. I quit watching the show after Pam showed up.
I personally love the Cosby Show. I think it is one of the best, and funniest, shows of all time. I'm twenty years old now, and I was only 2 when the show premiered in 1984, so although I may have seen the earliest episodes when they first premiered, I only remember seeing them in reruns. I think it was around the third or fourth season that I was conscious of watching the show. From that point on I watched the show every Thursday to the very end (I was 10 when it ended). Still, it wasn't until a couple of months ago that I noticed one of the biggest inconsistent storylines I have ever seen. I think it starts at the beginning of season 7. Rudy is starting sixth grade, and is all upset because she hasn't started developing breasts yet. Remember the scene where she opens the door and her friend walks in with the breasts she developed over the summer, and Rudy runs upstairs? Anyway, I think this is the season premiere. About halfway through the season, there is the episode where Rudy gets her period. Unlike some people, I don't have a problem with that episode. But, in my experience, it was a long time after I started to develop breasts (about 3 years, I think), before I got my period. Now, I know that it's different for different people, but puberty, in and of itself, is a process that takes a couple of years. So, my question is this: How could Rudy go from not having started to develop to getting her period, ALL IN THE COURSE OF A FEW MONTHS???!!!
Whoever posted about Denise's future husband being the same actor as the guy she had the mixed-up blind date with, I noticed this too during a rerun a couple of months ago. Very astute observation, I'm like 99 percent sure it's the same actor. I think this show went through several milestone shark-jumps, probably a grand total of about 20 fatal mistakes, all of which have already been mentioned here, so I won't bore anyone by commenting further.
Actually, the last few years of the show were not nearly as good as the early years. It got too preachy as the kids grew up. "Winnie" and "Nelson"???? Come on. I assume Winnie has had a name change since.
I'm glad someone else noticed what I'm about to point out. I didn't notice until this past summer, on the "Camp Nick at Nite" thing, when they were showing lots of episodes in one night, several times a week. Remember how Cliff's office was a room in the basement, and how there were stairs and a door that could be used to enter from the outside? Whenever they do a close-up of this part of the house (from the outside), you see the brass plate with Cliff's name, and it reads "Heathcliff Huxtable, M.D." I noticed, in one of the earliest episodes from the first season, that when they did a close-up of that part of the house, the brass plate said "CLIFFORD Huxtable, M.D.!" It may have happened more than once, but that was the only time I noticed. Perhaps it was an oversight that they forgot to correct when the show went into production.
Definitely when Olivia joined the cast. Is she the love child of Cousin Oliver from "The Brady Bunch" and Dee from "What's Happening!"? By the way, why did Cosby use so many light-skinned half white/half black kids on the show? Sort of devalues all of us black kids watching the show. J-J-J-Jammin' on the one! R-R-Rob-Robert! I don't know what to say! La-La-La-La! Who told Phylesha that she could sing? Mmm-MMM-MMM!
This show jumped the shark when Raven Simone showed up. They needed a cute litle girl because Rudy had a darker mustache than Theo (Malcolm Jamal Warner) had.
Someone said they couldn't believe this show was once #1, being that it doesn't hold up in reruns. And for the most part, they're right. The most I can take away from it watching it now, is that the '80s were only slightly better than the '70s for fashion. You need sunglasses to tone down all the loud clashing colors of the clothes the Cosbys wore, and I won't get started on the shoulder pads that could be used in the NFL, or the hair. But watching it today, what stands out most was the utter pretentiousness of this show. Granted it was still a novelty on TV in the '80s to have a well-to-do Black family in a sitcom. Unfortunate, but true. So with that in mind I guess ol' Cos felt it was his duty to drive home the point that such families do exist, via constant references to a fictional Black college and annoying scenes where the whole family (including grandparents!) sits around in the living room and discuss the Civil Rights movement of the '60s. Like that happens-- anywhere. I don't watch a sitcom to be educated-- hate to burst your bubble Cos! And speaking of annoying, that sing-songy delivery of Phylicia Rashad had me tearing my hair out at the roots. Maybe that works on a 3-year old, but not when you're talking to your husband or grown children. I *hate* people who talk like that, because you never know whether they're putting you on or being serious. And how emasculating is it when a man can't have a hoagie in his own home? A good half of the shows are built around Cliff just trying to sneak a bite out of a sandwich or a damn piece of pie. I have to say the comic value of such scenes is negligible. Clair, he's not SMOKING CRACK. Ease up on him! Maybe it's because of you that your daughters chose such limp-wristed wimps to marry. That's right, it's not just Elvin. Check out Martin's mincing little dance in the opening sequence (the one with the swingin' sax music). Work it, girl! Sondra and Denise are just carrying on an apparently long family tradition of ball bustin' women. These things are fascinating to watch in 20-year retrospect, as I didn't catch them the first time around, but more for the camp value than humor.
I'd say what bugged me most about this show was how Claire would nag the hell out of Cliff about eating Junk food. Lighten up you witch! He's just trying to enjoy himself! She had to be the most whiny and irritating wife on any t.v. show. In reality Cliff would have either ran out on her or started cheating on her.
Okay, the show was called The COSBY show, so let's pin the blame where it belongs. The show jumped the shark because of MR. COSBY HIMSELF!! He was actually funny the first few seasons, but his act got OLD, real quick. His constant mugging, contorting his face and rolling his eyes, in front of the camera, that was TOO much. Plus, his slow delivery of lines emphasizing EVERY other word. The sad truth is COS, a once great comedian, was NOT the best actor in the world and as the show went on, he SUCKED big time!! Plus, whoever said that Cosby and children were funny were DEAD WRONG!! The early seasons there were episodes so blatantly set up for Cosby to mug with children it was sickening- one particular bad example that sticks out is when COS takes Rudy and her grade school friends to a fancy restaurant and bitches and complains when they don't like the food or can't sit still. What the F***? Who would really do that in real life?? A similar episode was when COS took Rudy and friends to a lame-ass corny vaudeville show, then he bitches again when they don't find it funny. Well, it WASN'T, damn it!! Then, as Rudy got older, they shove her to the backburner and bring in Olivia, who DOMINATED the show. In every episode there had to be at least one scene with COS and Olivia that had nothing to do with the main plot but was thrown in for cuteness, but it was so damn sickening it wasn't even funny. Olivia was cute but couldn't act (hey, it wasn't her fault, she was only 3), but COS thought she was the ultimate. One particular bad episode was when COS explained to Olivia how babies are born and she disagrees with him giving her own theory. This must of been the precursor to that other lame ass COSBY show, Kids Say the DARNDEST thing, because it was so f**cking annoying and so blatantly obvious COS was setting her up to exploit her ignorance for comedy. So, to wrap up, pin the blame on COS, it was his show and he killed it with his never-ending lame-ass shtick, constant mugging, bad acting, slllooooww delivery of lines and interactions with cute little kids.
Cousin Pam, the Fresh Princess of Brooklyn. Just *why* was she there anyway? I don't remember the exact reason except it had something to do with her mother and was incredibly lame. The mother was still alive. Why would she palm off her adult daughter on rich relatives? That made no sense. Anyway, Pam was the ultimate shark jump on a show that had many smaller jumps over the course of its run. Do not watch the last season unless you want to be nauseated by Pam and her jive-talking boyfriend (who had me spitting nails every time he opened his mouth: "Well ya see, Mr. Huxtable, I'm gon' check out dis college just to see if it meet my high standards"), Pam and her caricature girlfriend who sounded like Minnie Mouse on helium, Olivia and Cos in painful scenes that seemed to go on forever, and later, Winnie and Nelson in the same type scenes with Cos, who had (and still has) the mistaken notion that he's entertaining with small children and people can't get enough of his rubber-faced shtick. Kids do say the darndest things, especially when they've been coached. But that's another story, and another show. Or maybe not. Much of the last season of TCS is indistinguishable from KSTDT. As TCS got more popular, you could see the progression of Cosby's ego in his acting. And once he got that Ed.D, which according to several reliable accounts he virtually phoned in-- he became Moses atop the mount on every talk show, dispensing his words of wisdom on everything from how to raise children to how other comics should perform. I'm sure the latter was great advice. Just ask Sinbad, who must be raking in big bucks on the Black college circuit. Right? The '80s were a very disturbing time for sitcoms, as Cosby pretty much dominated the genre and spawned a lot of copycat efforts that were doomed right out of the box (Anyone remember Gladys Knight's show? Didn't think so). As Richard Pryor once advised him, "Have a Coke and a smile and shut the f*** up"!
My goodness, responses are so scathing here! I lost interest in TCS after about two seasons, which was about when Denise left the first time (I may be wrong on that). I would watch it occasionally after that, but never liked it quite as much and eventually stopped watching altogether. I found the early episodes charming and funny, and to me the jibes from the parents to the kids re school, money, etc. were lighthearted and not to be taken seriously (very much like early Roseanne episodes, jokes like "alligators have the right idea, they eat their young.") Then something happened and TCS's preachiness became insufferable (much like later Roseanne episodes, where the kids' incessant whining and sassing were appalling, the so-called adults mean-spirited, everything nasty and totally unrealistic). At the time, I chalked up some of the prevailing attitude of TCS to the general ultra-capitalistic and conservative attitude that had the country by the throat in the godawful 80s (hmm, kinda like now). I also used to give Cos some slack because, in those days, regardless of the ratings, it seemed that he couldn't win with the show's critics: some groups complained because it wasn't realistic enough; other groups had previously complained because blacks were always shown as poor and struggling. (It's nice to see some folks on this site who share my opinion that Good Times was colossally unfunny drek!) Then I recently saw some of the later eppies of TCS that I hadn't seen before; zoiks! I guess the Huxtables should've added one more song to their all-too-vast repertoire of lip-synch: "Money Makes the World Go Round" from Cabaret. How could such a light and charming little show morph into something so dark and creepy? This is more than my own personal vendetta against the 80s in general (hideous decade for fashion, music, social consciousness and attitudes). And yes, the male-bashing, EWWW. Dreadful. Being a female baby-boomer, I've never understood what good could possibly come of turning around and doing exactly what we so dislike having done to us. This is no way to preach understanding between the sexes to the unconverted!! (Or was this merely someone's way of getting back at the producers of I Love Lucy??) TCS may be a first ... it's still jumping the shark in rerun-land!! Cosby, Cosby, what were you thinking? BTW, for those of you who have posted and used this term, I respectfully offer this correction: it's spelled AD NAUSEAM, not AD NAUSEUM. Not that I'm trying to be elitist or anything :-)
The show where we were subjected to 30 minutes of idiocy, as Rudy had miserable dreams of Olivia's charm ruining her life. All this because the Cosby Show writers were running out of ideas. Soon after, Pam joined the series, and it was all South from there.
When they started reusing the same actors to play different characters. Also, when Theo became intellectual he became boring! Vanessa was funny when she was young...a really funny comment by her was something like "Denise locked Rudy out of the bathroom and she didn't wash the shampoo out of her hair and now Rudy might go blind! If she does can we get a dog?"
The actress who played Sondra was far to pretty for the part. They should have used a dorkier person with thick glasses or something.
All the kids left, and then Olivia came on, just to add the missing "cuteness factor". The premise was ridiculous.
This show jumped the shark with the addition of Olivia. It was not Raven Symone's fault, just a sign that Rudy (always the cutest Cosby kid) was hitting puberty. Yes, this show may have been overrated, but take it for what it is. An innocent sometimes funny family show. A lot of shows don't hold up as well over time and you have to consider the time period of when it aired. When this came onto the air the sitcom genre was practically dead. This made Cosby seem like absolute Shakespeare when it debuted. Plus, Cosby will be remembered foremost for its historical contribution to TV. Besides depicting the family lives of the first affleunt African American family, The Cosby Show also revived the dying sitcom genre and practically single handedly saved a dying network (NBC). The Cosby Show at the time had a block on the network tv ratings too...ratings that such shows as Seinfeld and Friends can only dream about today.
The Cosby show jumped the shark when, the Cos decided that the show would be politically correct pablum, and hired a Harvard psychiatrist to approve the scrips and we got **** like 'no witches for the halloween episodes, because they foster negative female images'. What kind of **** is that?!?
There are so many shark jumping incidents for this show. The oldest daughter Sondra comes out of nowhere. Where was she anyway? Chillin with Amy Osborne I guess. She served absolutely no purpose other than to make the show mirror Cosby's real life by having five kids. And where was this girl from? Melissa Gilbert had more soul than she did. Then there's the Cockroach buildup. We're led to believe that Cockroach is this bad ass, then he show's up and he's more square than the Huxtable kids. There's Claire and Denise's hairstyle changing EVERY FRIGGIN EPISODE!!! And Vanessa's gravity defying afro during the Alvin Ailey season. Claire finds a joint in Theo's school book and Theo says it's not his and they believe him. Yeah, right! And what's with Cliff offering to pay just about every person he comes in contact with college educations. He offers to pay for Sondra's Law school AND Elvin's med school education, when they decide to 'throw away their Princeton degrees' to go into business for themselves. And he talks about paying his wife's 4th cousin twice removed Pam's way through college. Yet when one of his kids asks for 50 cents, he's friggin Pa Walton! Apparently his budget only allowed for expensive funky ass sweaters and sending everyone and their mother to college and grad school. Rudy gets hit with an ugly stick (but as someone pointed out, Kiesha Knight Pulliam is SLAMMIN now! Awkward stage I guess), Theo goes from being an carefree slacker, to a responsible, pontificating genius in one season, and Denise goes from being a bright, focused, free spirit, to an incompetent airhead. And all of a sudden, after six seasons, Cos decides that the show needs 'real' black kids, so he give's us cousin Pam and her crew. I smell buzzard meat!
Raven-Symone as Olivia really ruined this show, as well as them bringing back Lisa Bonet, after they had finally gotten rid of her. Denise was always free-spirited, 'flower child' sort of girl. That she would've married a military man was totally unbelievable. But, that little Raven-Symone was the final straw. Yes, she was cute. But, the show turned into "The Olivia Show" & became totally unwatchable. I held on though, until Vanessa brought home that boring Dabnis. DABNIS? What kind of name is that? It's Sinbad, spelled backwards. Ridiculous.
The annual, 'we can't come up with any material so let's have the family do a lame lipsync act for grandma and grandpa'. It really burned my ass when grandpa (who seemed as light in the loafers as Elvin) asked Cliff if they were going to do "something from old blue eyes". Sinatra?!? Yeah like that would happen! An obvious case of pandering to the show's 'mainstream' audience. Hey Bill! Sync your lips on THIS!!!
Jumped the shark when John Ritter was a guest star. This had to be the worst special guest star episode in the history of television. Ritter was doing the Jack Tripper scthick that made him famous. It was funny when he was in his twenties, but pushing fifty? I don't think so. And he and Cosby had absolutely NO comic chemistry.
The Cosby Show had its moments, but does anyone remember that revolting blue flared pantsuit with bright red shoes that Denise wore in one episode circa 1990? Even by the standards of the 70s fashion revival of the time that outfit was truly hideous! Speaking of clothes, how about Bill Cosby's sweaters that looked like they were designed by a patient in a psychiatric institution? Cosby's long, drawn-out dialogue didn't help much either, the guy was worse than Sally Jessy Raphael! Also the dance routines during the opening credits, Bill Cosby jerking and writhing awkwardly and looking like he's about to throw up...I guess the major qualifier for casting on this show was to have the most unusual names in the world.(Tempestt?)
The episode where the family attends the ceremonies honoring the new president of Hillman was one of the WORST episodes of Cosby ever. What was the point? Where was the humor? More importantly, where was the comedy? If I WANT to be preached to, "inspired" or "motivated", I'll watch one of those kinds of shows... but when I watch The Cosby Show it's because I want to be ENTERTAINED.
I watch The Cosby Show every night before I go to bed, because I want to see something light and funny and happy at the end of the day... Although I will admit the show did probably jump the shark when cousin Pam came. It just kind of lost a lot of the humor. To the poster who mentioned the Hillman episode, I completely agree, and that's the other issue I had with this show- the just threw their morals and beliefs right in your face, and I have an issue with that. I mean, they could make it more subtle... they still say what they want to say, but it's a lot better for those of us who don't like to be preached to...
This show is still one of my favorites, based on its first four seasons, but from season 5 on, it was definitely moving up the ramp. Sure, the annoying "Hillman Commencement" show had already aired a couple of years earlier, but at least in season 4, Lisa Bonet wasn't around much, since "A Different World" kept her, er, "busy." Then, in season 5, Denise dropped out of college(AKA, Bonet got fired from her show), and she just takes up space, until she goes "on safari." BTW, it was in season 5 that Tempestt Bledsoe had the first of many weird haircuts, and Rudy was still acting like a little kid, even if she no longer looked like one. Oh, and the season 5 title sequence was just too weird and pretentious; the elaborate staged ballet number, with symphonic accompaniment just didn't work. By season 6, the show was really rolling downhill, with the "grown-up" kids, and all the new characters. And trying to turn it into the "Cousin Pam" show didn't help either. Cliff and Clair still had some damn goof scenes, when they would bother to use them instead of the "newbies." Season 8 is just about unwatchable; "Winnie and Nelson" had to go through the "sitcom aging process" so that they could be old enough to talk and have supposedly-funny dialogue, and all the various marriage/relationship storylines never went anywhere. And that season's "rap" title sequence was the absolute worst!
This show jumped when Stevie Wonder was a special guest. It was hilarious, though not obviously in the way the writers intended. I guess I must have been about 10 years old when I this episode aired, and even then I couldn't believe what I was seeing. "Oh my God, you won't believe whose limousine we hit! Stevie Wonder!" I'm sure Denise must have been really impressed: "It's the guy who sings that crap song that's on the radio all the time! You know, the one that makes me want to puke!?" Then he invites them to the studio. It was utterly classic. I keep waiting for Nick at Nite to show this episode just so I can hear Cliff say "Baby, baby", Rudy make some dumb giraffe noise, Vanessa say "Robert", Clair pretend she can sing, and, of course, "J-J-Jammin on the one." Oh, that first comment about "Raven Symone" being dressed like a tiny circus performer was hysterical. What was that about?
Okay, I have many bones to pick with this show. One: Claire and Cliff act like they are struggling to make ends meet constantly, and that they can't afford to help their kids financially, yet he's a doctor and she's a lawyer. Those are two of the most lucrative jobs today....what gives? Two: they are so condescending to anyone who doesn't want to have a similar job. When Denise mentioned that she may just forget school and be a stay at home mother to Olivia, they acted as if it was a stupid idea and that she wasn't "allowed" because they were highly educated. And then they acted holier-than-thou to any adult that didn't have a prestigious college education. Remember Denise's husband and Vanessa's fiance?
You can tell how bad A Cosby Show episode will be by how annoying the opening segment is. It got worse with each new season. And if you ever come across the opening where they all dressed in beach clothing, and are doing some Indian style dance, and you can't find your remote control, throw something solid at your TV. Better to have to buy a new TV than to be subjected to 2 seconds of that crap.
The Cosby Show totally sucked. The mother sucked the Dad sucked and the kids were REALLY suckie. Vanessa, Theo and Olivia were worst then the rest of the kids. What made the show jump was for the simple fact that it was BOOOORING! What the hell was suppose to be so damn funny?
This show NEVER jumped. You don't see reruns of WKRP in Cinncinati. You see reruns of the COSBY Show, and not just on one network or cable station. The Cosby Show was awesome. Some of the episodes were cheesy, like all sitcoms. Although, they were so close to the lifestyle that many middle-class black families experience and live in. You had Claire, your stern mother-all she had to do was give that devilish smile and you knew you were in for it. You had all the old black men, reminiscing on old times, talking your ear off, and always in the house teaching someone a lesson. You had Rudy, cute when young and not so cute as a pre-teen. THIS IS SO REALISTIC. Who the heck looks like Tyra Banks at 12??? Keisha Knight Pulliam is beautiful now. You had the annoying, and prudish sister Vanessa. And Theo, who never stayed the same. The rebellious sister and the grown up sisters. I thought Olivia was adorable. She reminds me of one of my terrible two cousins. This show is such a classic and it the only show so far about intelligent black people and their daily lives that mainstream America has taken any real interest in.
The Cosby Show jumped anytime some old coach, professor or mentor would visit Cliff. Yeah, right. Like anyone's coach would still keep in contact with an average and forgettable player of decades ago. And yet almost every season, they would repeat this plot of trotting out some old geezer from Cliff's glory days to stroll down memory lane. The most ridiculous example of this is when the Huxtable's are at Hillman and this philosophy professor not only remembers both Cliff and Claire which is unlikely in itself, but also this guy remembers where they sat in the classroom and what grades they got!!! Not to mention the additional fact that any mentor or teacher of Cliff's would either be retired or dead!! Maybe if Cliff had just graduated that year it would have an ounce of credibility, but we're talking again like several decades ago. Another unbelievable aspect is Vanessa's never-ending popularity among boys. She almost always had a boyfriend. They tried to make her like Denise, but Vanessa was much too uglier to realistically have such consistent opposite sex action.
Olivia. Even the name is appropriate: Olivia. Oliver. Olivia. Oliver.... See? It fits the profile. The show never really worked after the introduction of the "new cute kid."
This is to all the posters who have commented on how much bull**** they have been fed watching Theo magically turn into an intellectual after being diagnosed with dyslexia, which wasn't noticed in the first 18 years of his life. For those of you who don't know, "The Cosby Show" was based very much on Bill Cosby's family life: he had four daughters and one son, the late Ennis Cosby, murdered in 1997 in a roadside robbery attempt. Anyway, Ennis struggled all through high school, and even after he got to Morehouse College, he was still struggling. He wasn't dumb, but he just wasn't doing well on tests. Well, one day, his mother, Bill's wife Camille, suggested he take a dyslexia test, and he did, and he was subsequently diagnosed with dyslexia. You probably remember Theo, Cliff, and Clair celebrating when Theo's test results came back; similarly, Ennis said that finding out he was dyslexic was the happiest day of his life. Ennis picked up the learning skills he needed, and even made the honor roll at Morehouse. He went on to Columbia University's Teachers' College for graduate school. He wanted to teach children with learning disabilities, and worked as a student-teacher as part of his curriculum, much like Theo worked at the community center while getting his Psychology degree, and in the process helped a kid who had undetected dyslexia, just like he had. He was murdered at age 27, before he completed his degree. So shut the f**k up about how "unrealistic" Theo's transformation is! Theo basically WAS Ennis Cosby. It really tears me up just thinking about Ennis Cosby being murdered for some dumbf**k robbery...I don't know him, and at the same time I do. Just imagine Theo being murdered. Really, more than anything else, "The Cosby Show" was about the character based on Ennis, Theo Huxtable. After all, the pilot dealt with Theo's struggles as a high school freshman and the final episode has Theo graduating from college. Imagine instead the final episode where Theo gets murdered. It's pitiful. Ennis's memory is carried on, though, in the kids' show "Little Bill"; "Hello, friend" was how Ennis would greet people. Anyway, I've been rambling enough (must sound like the Cos!), and as for when the show Jumped the Shark: the show got wholly unentertaining once Cockroach left. Theo's new friends were cornballs, and soon after we have things like Cousin Pam, Olivia, the twins, and the constant male bashing. Carl Anthony Payne II aka "Walter Bradley" aka "Scrap Iron" aka "Cockroach" is the best recurring character in sitcom history, in my opinion. I've read that Carl Payne was reportedly fired by Cos after refusing to cut his hair. NOT cool!
The show had been teasing the shark for a long time, but it took the great leap when Denise brought home her new husband Martin. That episode epitomizes Cosby's obsession with money and prestige. It had already been established that Denise was not college material, yet Cliff and Claire were planning her life for her while she was in Africa, getting her back into Hillman. Many have brought up how Cliff and Claire were towards Vanessa's beau Dabnis (who worked in maintenance) when she announced they were engaged. Cliff to Dabnis: We don't like you! Contrast that with the way Martin ( a naval officer) was treated. They practically gave him the deed to the house. And Denise had gotten MARRIED, not engaged, to a man with a child, without bothering to tell her parents. Talk about a bad presentation! Regarding Cliff being in the Navy, he did mention that a few times before Martin joined the family.
Without a doubt, it JTS when Olivia came on board. When you bring younger kids to replace the "cuteness factor" lost by another child, it's rev up the motor time. I haven't seen this mentioned by previous posts, but does anyone remember the friend of Vanessa's that talked really fast? She used to drive me up the wall!!! I swore that girl must be on crack!! Also on the dislike list: the male-bashing (evident on the episode when Claire's sister is planning her marriage), that goddamn SD button (I realize Sammy Davis Jr. was your friend Cos, but jeez), Cos's constant mugging (every frigging episode starter ended with his smirky smile). The episodes I liked was during season 2 when Denise had short hair & a sassy attitude.
This show easily jumped the shark with the addition of little Olivia since that gave Cosby the ability to recycle old plotlines. Two examples-one was when Olivia had a birthday party and for whatever reason Cliff is in charge of about a dozen little crazy tykes-Oh the chaos that ensues. This episode was better when it was originally done when Rudy and a bunch of her little friends had a sleepover. Another episode was where the Huxtables were having a anniversary celebration for the grandparents. Now, I enjoyed the earlier episodes where the family would all lip-synch a song (who could forget little Rudy doing the snake and yelling BABY!). But, this episode had Olivia lyp-synching with Rudy and Cliff playing guitar and drums. Claire didn't even participate, and other than Pam I don't know they even had any other Cosby kids present (Not that I would consider Pam a real Cosby kid, but you know what I'm saying). There was even a couple there they passed off as good friends. The show had gotten so bad that no one wanted to show up! Cosby didn't know when to quit while he was ahead.
This show jumped the shark MAJORLY with the pregnant men episode. That was the worst 30 minutes of any kind of show, sit-com or not, EVER in the history of cable television. I didn't catch the whole thing, just when they all started to go into labor. I hate it on shows and movies when there is more than one pregnant lady (man, in this case) and they both start having contractions right at the same time. Right. I don't think so. And that guy who plays Sondra's husband is the ****tiest actor I have ever seen in my entire life, on any kind of show, ever. And all the ****tiness of this episode was when Cliff gave birth to a like 20 foot hoagie and orange soda (that is just NASTY), Denise's husband gave birth to a sailboat (WHAT???, and Theo, accompanied by his GRANDPARENTS, gave birth to a car. This episode is a television travesty.
Two words: goldfish funeral. How the hell did anyone think that this was going to be funny?
When Martin and Cliff spend the day together, when the chicks at Cafe DeBalzac flirt with them, is the episode when Martin told Cliff when they were married Denise was a virgin. That was definitely a shark right there. Also, to the person who asked about where was cockroach, bill cosby fired him because he refused to cut his hair in 1989, because he wanted a high top fro. bill cosby said all the men would have "gentleman" cuts and be respectable, cockroach got his tentacles and left.
Claire Huxtable: The most perfect, infallible, omnipotent and righteous woman to ever grace God's green earth. This point is addressed ad nauseum throughout the entire history of The Cosby Show. She's even crowned with a tiara in the last season when she is given her own office in the house. All men fawn over how perfect she is like in the episode where Claire is defending Sondra and Cliff and some audience observer gush incessantly over her. Or in the episode where Claire is a panelist on a local debate TV program and after knowing the exact reference (even down to having the page number memorized!!) of some obscure book, Cliff again talks to some stagehand who refers to Claire as "LA MUJER PERFECTA!". Ugh! And on and on and on with countless other Claire perfection references. We get it. Claire is so perfect in every way and she apparently needs constant reinforcement of this fact that she is essentially beyond reproach.
How about the episode where Rudy took the $2.30 that Claire had left on the counter, and Claire proceeded to tear the house apart looking for it? Come on, she's a lawyer for Christ sake, married to a doctor, living in a million dollar brownstone in Brooklyn Heights, and she's really gonna be that upset about losing $2.30? Rudy could have found that money between the couch cushions!
I will admit the show did JTS when Olivia showed up. I was never fond of the child. I'm still not to crazy about her to this day. Rudy was your typical cute kid on TV when the show first started. When you saw Rudy on TV you can tell that the actress was not affected by the glam of the TV world. The little girl who played Olivia apparently was already affected and it showed which made her character not likable. I know that's stupid, but that's how I saw it. I think when they brought in cousin Pam and her friends from the wrong side of the tracks that's when the sharks came a chomping. It was then when I couldn't take the show any longer and quit watching all together.
I wouldn't say it actually "Jumped", but it did have its irritations. After reading these posts, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who couldn't stand Claire Huxtable! Good lord! She was Ms. Perfect. As far as the elitist, "you're nothing unless you have a college degree" attitude goes, that is very realistic among anyone in the teaching profession. Every teacher I know has been and IS that way. I think because they are "teaching", they begin to suffer from egomania, which in turn, causes them to believe they know what's best for each and every creature they come into contact with. Or possibly, it's a psychological defense mechanism to cover their deep insecurities about their pathetic salaries; what, not much above minimum wage, right? Secretaries with little or no college education make more money than teachers. This is a known fact.
I want to know why, if Clair is a lawyer and Cliff is a doctor, they can't afford to get their homely children some clothes that match and a decent hairstylist. No one will ever forget Theo's "soup can" hairdo, Vanessa's extremely disturbing 'fro, Denise's 10 ft dread locks, or Sondra's gigantic ball of fluff. As for Rudy- well, any ten year old girl with a mustache darker than her father's speaks for herself, bad hair or not.
The Cosby Show jumped when mustache sporting 12 year old Rudy had Kenny and Stanley fighting over her. It also jumped whenever Cosby tried to treat a serious subject. Notice how these subjects never happened directly to any of the Huxtables; it was always somebody else: Cousin Pam, Theo's friend having cancer, Denise's friend getting pregnant out of wedlock, Cliff's friend's daughter doing drugs, etc. If anything, these occasional episodes, obviously designed for some sort of contrived realism, underscore how totally and painfully unrealistic the Huxtables were for their time. They never had any **REAL** problems.
This show never JTS. However, to the poster above...you are clearly upset that Claire Huxtable was a proponent of obtaining a college degree. You decide that this is elitist and it makes me wonder if you have a college degree? Obviously, you don't because you cannot realize the importance of having a college degree is getting a job. Also you state that the reason teachers state that "you are nothing without a college degree" is because they are ashamed of their small salaries. Actually, teachers are upset over their small salaries because it is true that in some cases there are secretaries that make more than teachers and this is an absolute outrage. Teaching is the most demanding profession in the world and probably the most underpaid. It is unfortunate that because of your failure as a student and your ignorance as a human being that you must attack the teaching profession to make up for your own inadequacies. You should probably less time on the internet, spouting out meaningless tripe about the shortcomings of teachers and actually get a degree to find out what exactly Claire was talking about. Oh, I realize that there are some big words in this posting, perhaps you can get a teacher to read them for you.
The second Raven Symone joined the cast. She is the shark incarnate. The only facial expression she knows is that silicon-fake smile, which she turns on and off like a flaky Christmas light. She violated the Cosby Show, and then defiled with her presence this (previously) wonderful show. I am one of those suburban liberals who actively opposes the death penalty, but if they ever catch the spawned-of-Satan casting agent who picked her, I might be willing to bend my beliefs...
After the focus of the show moved from the a house full of kids, it was closed to the end. But the show really jumped the shark when cousin Pam moved into the Huxtable residence. She kept addressing her hosts as Cousin Claire and Cousin Cliff. It got really annoying.
This show jumped the shark as soon as Pam, the cousin, arrived. That is all there is to it. The show should have been stopped right then and there. You really hate to see a classic show like that go, but they kept it going until they moved and they took management of a Flower Shop for goodness sake! It is still a nice family show to watch, but enough is enough! When Pam arrived it really went downhill from there, nothing was ever as funny and there was more parental lectures than funny Heathcliff Huxtible moments!
I concur with others that Rudy's upper lip hair growth marked the beginning of the end of the program.
The Cosby Show has got to be one of my favorite sitcoms of all time! Almost every episode cracked me up! However, I thought the show really jumped the sharks in the later episodes (1990-1992). The storylines just weren't as good anymore. Like when Vanessa wanted to marry that old Dabnus dude and when Sondra gave birth to Winnie and Nelson and that whole Denise/Martin/Olivia thing just wasn't very good. The show just sort of died and it didn't make the audience laugh as hard. Overall, The Cosby Show was superb...one of the best sitcoms ever!
The Cosby Show jumped when I could no longer figure out who was living in the Huxtable house anymore. There were only 3 people that lived there consistently throughout the series: Cliff, Claire and Rudy. The last 3 seasons portrayed the Huxtable house as a literal revolving door with Martin, Denise, Olivia, Theo, Vanessa, Cousin Pam, Sondra, Elvin, Winnie and Nelson (am I forgetting anybody?) all coming and going incessantly. How many bedrooms was this house supposed to have anyway??? No wonder Rudy seemed so pissed all the time!! If I had to share my bedroom with Olivia for any length of time, I'd hang myself!
Not my favourite show, but it's all right once in a while. The first three seasons were the best, the others not as good. Malcolm Jamal-Warner was hot :) I saw the poster who complained that Bill would bring in jazz musicians and pass them off as relatives. Did you ever see that parody on the Simpsons? "Meet your new Grandpa. He's a great Jazz musician!" "But we have three Grampas already!" :)
I argue that The Cosby Show never jumped. Sure there were bad episodes. Bad episodes were even more prevalent when Pam arrived, etc. However, the good always outweighed the bad. The best shows may have been the early ones, but there were priceless moments throughout the series. Without out a doubt The Cosby Show is the finest non-animated sit-com ever. 201 episodes, eight seasons, and it never got unwatchable. Bill Cosby and the rest of the cast are sealed into the memory of the United States culture for the foreseeable future.
It jumped the shark when Olivia joined the cast....but I think it really jumped before she came along. Remember Denise? She left the show to do a series, "A Different World", and the Cosby Show wasn't nearly as good as it used to be. This was one of my favorite 1980s show as a teenager during that decade....I still remember the family's dance and song sequence for Cliff's parents (their anniversary) and Cliff made these funny faces...I enjoyed that one! :)
I’ve had lots of fun commenting about some of my favorite shows on this site & usually avoid doing so on ones that have TONS of other entries already I feel I couldn’t possibly contribute more to. This show was always a fave, though so here goes: it seems lots of people want to confuse the Actors’ personal lives playing the roles (Bill Cosby, Lisa Bonet) and have lost sight of “was it a good comedy program or not”? It was, absolutely! Did it take risks? Yes! Did they always pan out? No, when you look at “Cousin Pam/Olivia”, and some other things. But I’d much rather see a show like this that had intelligent, well-rounded humor lots of people can enjoy instead of this so-called “edgy” crap the WB keeps spewing out like “Hughleys”! I won’t bother with this “hostile for no reason” show due alone to the ads for it with the “…white people this…white people that…” garbage for some reason someone thinks is funny and not just insulting. Or shows like “Moesha” with characters that say some inane thing then look right out at the audience like they’re asking them “did I just say the latest dumb buzz-phrase we can run in to the ground yet?” Bill Cosby CHOSE TO pull the plug on this show, if you remember and that took some class. True, he probably should’ve done so a year or so earlier before things got so bad, but those are more risks in a long-running series (like Roseanne’s awful last season that was just all her “writings”). I thought Cosby/the writers also made some really hackneyed plots more funny like the kids moving in & out and how he kept griping to Claire about them “never going to have the house totally to themselves”. Or when Olivia showed up that funny dream show Rudy had with the Doo-Wah girls and how it was ruining her life! The funniest intro I thought was the “Jamaican musical” one. It always makes me laugh and it used the whole cast, so no one could gripe…he/she was on 2 seconds longer than me…!” Now about the characters/actors playing the kids- Sabrina Lebeauf (Sondra) may have had a dull role plunked in the middle sloppily, but what I liked about her was that she had the most clear, beautiful speaking voice that hopefully got her further in voice-over, narrative roles later on. “Vanessa” in my book was the most ANNOYING whiny girl in league with the screechy one in the “Thriller” video that you wouldn’t mind see getting Ko’ed just to shut her up! Denise…well, I don’t get her ever-changing skin tones throughout – from latte tones to bluish! Was Lisa Bonet sickly? For all of the Rudy-bashing when she got older and “awkward” – so did Eve Plumb’s “Jan Brady” for years until the last season when she turned “teen-va-va-VOOM” and grew in to a pretty young woman. Keisha K-P is, I agree with another person a lovely young woman now – she was just at the beginning of her changes, that’s all. Lastly, I notice for some “chauvinistic” reason no one ever seems to comment on the changed appearance of guys on shows like this and others…namely how Malcom-Jamal really chubbed up in last couple of seasons – no it wasn’t muscle! Much like how both “Matts” on “Friends” have on-cam gone up & down over the years…!
Top two signs the show was about to jump: 1) Addition of Raven Symone and Erika Alexander and all other newcomers to this ever expanding household. 2) Fox realizing the show was beginning its decline and scheduling The Simpsons opposite it on Thursdays. But the actual, absitively posulutely, official moment of jumpage was a strange synthesis of both. Cliff, aghast to discover Olivia wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt, reacts by looking into the camera with an expression of comedic exasperation at what he must endure (thereby letting viewers know he's in on the joke, too). I can't recount a moment prior to this on The Cosby Show when characters had to break the fourth wall in order to elicit a laugh. While Bill Cosby was clearly always the funniest member of the Huxtable family, the show's brightest comedic moments always came from within the family dynamic (i.e. how the characters remained consistent and interacted with one another). And yes, a lot of the time when Cliff would make funny faces or voices, it was obviously directed more to the viewing audience than those around him - but with one crucial difference - none of those instances involved characters winking at the audience. Alright, alright, I know, it's just a TV show. But seriously, once the show's writers decided that in order to make a situation funny, they had to have Cliff engage the audience directly (as Bill Cosby began doing on the second season of the much less humorous Cosby), it was clear that a lot of the show's original magic had disappeared.
This show jumped the shark when Cosby got mad at Lisa Bonet and made her character very flaky and irresponsible around the third season. When she left for A Different World the show wasn't as good. The other characters were just not as interesting or funny. Also when Denise came back with her step- daughter Olivia, that definitely jumped the shark. Olivia was soo annoying! and why did they dress her up like a clown? I don't get it. And another thing why did Bill Cosby fire the actor who played Cockroach just because he wouldn't cut his hair and not fire Tempesst for not cutting her ridiculous slanted afro!! why didn't he fight her to cut her hair? That would of made more sense. Not to mention she can't even act, I mean have you ever heard her laugh, it sounds like nails on a blackboard. Every time I see her on the screen I have to change the channel. I liked Rudy's character in the first 2 seasons and the last season, but in between that she was just annoying and was obvious that she couldn't act either. By the 8th season though her acting improved. And what was up with Clair Huxtable always laughing and grinning all the time? Every time Cosby said something funny she would crack up. You didn't see the rest of the cast laughing all the time. It obviously didn't take much to make Phylicia laugh.
When Denise dropped out of college it destroyed the image of the Cosby Kids. Denise was probably the best character to capitalize off of Cosbymania. But Lisa Bonet had a poor work ethic without Bill Cosby so she came back. Also no show can last longer then 6 seasons with out it going down the crapper so that didn't help. But if Denise would have stayed at college it would have worked.
I think by far the most disturbing episode of the Cosbys EVER was the men giving birth - it seemed to be a total mockery of all things natural. However, to the person up there that said you don't see reruns of WKRP in Cincinnati, you DO. EVERY DAY. That show was awesome. Obviously you're not paying attention.
I hated Kenny. He was an awful addition to the cast and his interactions with her were supposed to be funny(?) I only wish this Kenny had moved to South Park where he could have been killed off on a weekly basis.
So Theo has dyslexia midway through his college career and suddenly he turns into a genius the next season? Give me a break! Yet before the dyslexia storyline, Theo was just an under-achieving high school screw up who didn't care about college. So how the hell did this moron get into a prestigious school like New York University (NYU)? And while we're on the subject, before Denise's character assassination by humor-free Cosby she got accepted into Princeton. Yet she turned it down for some lame school named Hillman out of guilt for her family? If this is Cosby's portrayal of a real family, I'd hate to see what his bizarro portrayal of one is.
I have two major complaints about this show. Number one: Cliff was a doctor and Clair was a lawyer. If one of the kids asked for so much as ten cents, Cliff would go on and on about how they needed to get a job and spent all of his hard earned money. It's cool that they didn't spoil their kids, but jeez! Number two: What were they thinking hiring the two actresses that played Sondra and Denise. It looks like Clair had a little cream in her coffee.
used to love this show back in the beginning but it really started to blow when every other episode became about black history. I know they were a black family but im sure half or more of their audience wasnt. I was just waiting for Nelson Mandela to guest star as cliff's high school track coach. Hell, who knows, maybe he did and i missed it.
To the above poster who mentioned that Cliff was always telling the kids to get jobs - Why in hell didn't those spoiled Huxtable brats ever get jobs? None of them ever worked even a part-time pizza place job like most high school kids do. Cliff and Claire should have stopped handing over cars, free room and board (for the adult kids), and college tuition checks on silver platters and make them actually work for something. None of them were apparently bright enough to get scholarships. Cliff and Claire's actions certainly didn't jive with their words. Hell, they even gave idiotic Elvin all the cash he needed to get through medical school. They even agreed to pay for Elvin's sorry ass after he changed his mind about the wilderness store and went back to med school! (Like any reputable med school would take this pathetic flake back after changing his mind.) I also want to know how in hell Elvin and Sondra could afford a house if both are in med/law school and no income coming in? Where are they getting this cash? Don't tell me! Cliff and Claire are forking over the $$$ for that, too???? And they even agree to pay for Cousin Pam's college!!! I guess in the Huxtable family, mediocrity and laziness reaps rewards. It makes me ill thinking about those spoiled, bratty Huxtable kids and their spouses receiving all this free education $$ for these prestigious universities. Absolutely none of them were portrayed as brilliant students (except for Theo in the last 2 seasons only!!).
This show definitely jumped the shark with too many "Very Special" episodes, especially during the last few seasons. The show became too damn preachy and not at all funny. It's no wonder the ratings dropped significantly in the last few years. Those very special episodes included entire episodes based on Pam contemplating losing her virginity, Theo and the kids at the community center, Theo and the joint, Cliff counseling a bunch of male teens on their career plans, Pam and friends helping some oldsters boycott their local supermarket because of high prices, the Huxtable clan forming an intervention to get their elderly neighbor to take her meds, etc., etc. Damn, what was funny about that. One particular bad episode was the one where one of the kids at Theo's community center found a wad of cash and then Theo had the kids debate whether or not he should return it. YAWN, not only has that plot device been used to death (from Brady Bunch to Saved by the Bell), but it was not the least bit entertaining and served no other purpose than to push Cosby's so-called moral agenda. (YEAH, right, the same man who cheated on his wife and had illegitimate kids). Half the episodes felt like after school specials rather than a family sitcom. And on a side note, Cosby supposedly earned a doctorate in education, which he prominently displayed in the opening and closing credits. However, it seemed as those he had no clue about what goes on in a real classroom setting because all those school based scenes were totally unrealistic. I hear that Cos wrote his Ph.D. thesis about "Fat Albert," well, that might explain it. For example, an entire episode revolved around Rudy and her classmates spending an entire week learning about "etiquette." HUH? Another episode revolved around Rudy being forced to take tap dance to participate in a class presentation. What happened to good old fashion reading, writing and arithmetic? Similarly, in the one episode where Cliff mentors the male teens, they too say he spent the previous Saturday educating them on "etiquette." And do you ever notice that Theo always talked about his college courses that had nothing to do with his major- i.e., Mythology, Asian Studies, etc. Sure, this is the same kid who couldn't understand Shakespeare in high school. Yeah, I know about his so-called "dyslexia" (another Very Special episode) but please, get real, Theo was the ultimate slacker and not only did his IQ go up about 50 points after his dyslexia diagnosis, but so did his attitude and moral convictions. And Denise attended two years of school at Hillman, however, when she tries to re-enroll in another school later, she is only given credit for one class- archery. How realistic was that? All those education episodes were really boring, totally unrealistic and not at all funny. And another thing, I agree 100% with the above poster who commented on how Clair could do no wrong, another example, of how this "reality" based sitcom was anything but. Let's review, Clair not only graduates magna cum laude at fictitious "HILLMAN", she's also the former homecoming queen, majorette, singer, then gives birth to Sondra while attending law school. Clair the so-called brilliant lawyer single-handedly wins every court case assigned to her yet is able to be in the house every night just in time to make dinner for her family. In one particularly slanted episode, Clair represents a neighborhood park PRO BONO while her lawyer friend represents the MEAN, GREEDY corporation that wants to tear it down. Guess who wins that one? Additionally, Clair beats Cliff at the pinochle tournament (although she doesn't seem especially skilled at the game), volunteers her legal services at neighborhood community services on weekends, wins the "smooth contest" over Cliff, outbids everyone at an expensive art auction (where her ancestor was the paint no less) and comes in second in a squash growing contest. Plus, she speaks Spanish to a tee, is ALWAYS right and never EVER makes a mistake. And to hammer that point home, she always flashes that patronizing smile while speaking in that condescending voice of hers. Give us a break, Clair Huxtable was more of a cartoon (a.k.a. "Fat Albert) than she was a real person, which was symptomatic of the problems of the show in general. While this sitcom tried to portrayal "reality," it did so in some bizarro world where every day was a "A Very Special Episode" in which yet another boring lecture and lesson was forced down viewers' throats. But where's the fun in that??
I have to say it was Pam that grated me more than Olivia. Though Olivia hogged the show case, Pam has the distinction of being the only character in any TV show to simultaneously make my want to throw out my TV and confuse me. She confused me because I don't get her and her friend Charmain (or however the hell that's spelled): in one episode Pam has good grades and her friends are getting on her case about it, yet in another episode it's Charmain who has her pick of top colleges and Pam is barely making it. So which is it: is Pam smart and subjected to teasing because of it, or is Pam dumb but willing to work harder? The longer I think about it the more my head hurts and Pam isn't worth that, so let's move along. I'd have to say the episode that makes me want to throw my TV out the window is the episode when South African singing sensation Miriam Makeba guest stars. Now, how they got the wonderful Ms. Makeba to agree to be in this role we'll never know, especially since the entire episode seemed to be just making fun of her and her culture! First, it's one of the many Olivia-centered episodes. Martin is being shipped off and Olivia is being all pissy about it, so she hides in a closet. The whole family tears off to look for her, leaving Ms. Makeba alone. My first question is if they were so damn worried why didn't they look in the living room first?! That's where they all were so it was as good a place as any to start! And then Ms. Makeba finds Olivia and starts to tell her what names are in her language. Olivia just clicks her tongue (making fun of the sound of Ms. Makeba's real name) and then just looks at her blankly and says "right", like she couldn't care less. Bet Ms. Makeba felt wonderful after that one. And when Pam is introduced in this episode she begins to spout off so many buzzwords that I wanted to vomit repeatedly. And she was dressed in a very poor representation of the South African formal wear. I don't know about Ms. Makeba, but I have friends who dislike it a lot when people who don't know anything about their cultures start trying to duplicate it based on stereotypes. (I have a friend, for example, whose parents are Japanese and absolutely hates it when people bow while introducing themselves to him while he has his hand extened ready to shake hands.) And finally Ms. Makeba starts talking about how she sees South Africa (after Theo rather rudely asks her how she can love it so much now that it's going to hell, more or less), causing everyone to watch with rapt attention. Then she starts singing one of her beautiful African songs. Not to be upstaged, the whole Huxtable family (including the twins) all join in and start singing, even though they don't know the words, thus ruining this beautiful song! Not only did all of this grate me all around, but the episode seemed to prove just how stuck-up the Huxtable family had become. Love it how Rudy says "I'll go. I always go", but more because it's the kind of drama teenagers actually use than because I liked how she said it (making it the only realistic moment in the show).
This show jumped the shark when I noticed the 8th season's opening credits dance. Olivia's smile looks suspiciously forced, flase, stretched, and put on. Pam's smile looked too bright and looked as if it were pasted on.
A lot of people bash Olivia, but I think they are missing something crucial: the show already had two cute kids it could have banked on. Instead they brought in Olivia and where were the twins half the time? You didn't know. Sondra and Elvin got a lot more screentime than the twins did, and it was generally believed that (in later seasons) the twins were off somewhere else just being kids, I guess. I personally found the scenes with Winnie and Nelson adorable, their bad names aside. They should have been in it a lot more. Hell, they should have forgotten Olivia and given them more screentime. (But then everyone would have been complaining that the later seasons took the focus off Rudy and paid more attention to the twins.) When they were shown, it was usually Bill Cosby just trying to get them to go away or be quiet. I think if these kids grow up with a complex, it won't be because of their horrible names; it'll be abandonment issues, neglect, and possibly some sort of weird incestuous connection from having only each other as company throughout their formative years.
'The Cosby Show' JTS from Day One! Actually, its not so much the scripts. What I hate is Cosby's stupid mugging in front of the the camera. He acts like a stereotypical black character on a 1930's movie! And many critics felt Cosby's portrayal was 'dignified?' I can certainly understand Cosby's preference for creating a sitcom about an affluent African-American family amidst the TV world of lily-white Seaver or Brady families, but I do think he TOTALLY screwed up his own program! At least the father on 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' acted normal.
Every time Clair talks about Cliff to one of the kids or to another person - she calls him Dr. Huxtable. Yes Clair, we get it. You are married to a successful Black man. Even Olivia calls him that - and he would be her step grand parent. Ridiculous. My husband is an officer in the USMC and if I ever referred to him as The General or General ***** - I'd be the laughingstock of the base.
That episode where they are having a block party or something with all the neighbors out in the street and Mrs. Cosby launches into some Porgy & Bess musical thing. OH MY GOD! That was one of the most ridiculous scenes in the history of television. Even the extras had that "What the hell is this?" look on their face. That was in the last season, a night when the shark must have been getting the blood lust going real strong.
That stupid episode that was centered around Claire stubbing her toe on the bed frame was definitely a shark moment if there ever was one. Some of those sweaters Bill used to wear looked like some varmit puked on it. Overall, a great show. I always had the hots for Lisa Bonet. She was a cool lookin' semi punk chick. Elvin was just a big ***** who was scared of everybody. Why is it that sitcoms always seem to portray men as cowering to their wives?? Elvin was a double-dip because he was scared of his inlaws too. I thought the Martin Luther King episode when they were all watching it on TV was great because they were all having this petty argument and the King speech put everything in perspective for them.
It jumped the shark because Jessica Vaughn(or Winnie) should have been the replacement for Rudy, not Olivia. Jessica Vaughn was way cuter than Olivia, and so much prettier and more innocent. Had Jess been older, she would have been the replacement for Rudy. It makes me sad when they chose Olivia, a person who is not very cute or innocent in the first place. Rudy should have been replaced with someone like Jessica.
Ohhh...that know-it-all-Claire could really get my goat with her condescending tone and preaching. Most of the time, I could shrug it off because she was a looker. However, there was one time she really got on my nerves and I wouldn't blame Cliff if he clocked her one. It was the last season, and everybody was living in the Huxtable household and sponging off of Cliff. It was tax time and Cliff was upset that, despite running a free hotel, he could only write off Rudy as a dependent. He cleverly buys a tax book and after studying it for hours comes up with dozens of things he can write off. This is what any normal person would do. I understand that taxes need to be paid, but I'll be darned if I give the IRS or the state a penny more than they are entitled. Anyway, Cliff tells Claire of all the deductions, but in her smugness, she happily shots down everyone one of Cliff's deductions. She actually acts as if Cliff is being greedy, petty, and selfish for trying not to overpay taxes on their hard earned money. It's almost as if she's happy about having to pay more taxes! For example, despite that Vanessa and Theo are both over eighteen, Cliff can still claim them as dependents because they are full-time students. Claire says that Vanessa and Theo are adults and should enjoy being able to claim themselves on their taxes, despite that Cliff is footing all the bills, paying for their tuition and the two spoiled brats don't even have a job. Cliff finds out that he can claim Olivia and Pam if he has the okay of their parents (which he does). After all, he is supporting them. Claire is infuriated by this suggestion and tells Cliff that he's a cheapskate because by claiming Oliva and Pam, their parents would no longer be able to take that deduction themselves. If I had dumped my kids on a relative to take care off, I would INSIST that they claim them as dependants. No way would I say, "Hey, Cliff, can my daughter Pam live with you so she can go to school in a better neighborhood. Oh, by the way, can you foot all the bills as I have no means to pay you back? But I still want to claim her on my taxes despite the fact that you're practically raising her." Why doesn't Claire just tell her employer to send her entire paycheck to the IRS? Forget being a lawyer. If you are so hard and unmerciful on your own husband, you'd be the poster girl for recruiting tax auditors.
This show jumped the shark BIG TIME when Olivia came on board for season 6 ('89-90). Seriously, watch the best early episodes and you'll realize something: the Huxtable kids do something crazy that normal kids do or dream of something that normal kids dream of, and ol' Cos will bring 'em back down to earth with a mix of creativity and harshness. Theo gets his ear pierced ("Your ears still boppin' to what's left of your brain?") or wants to move out on his own? ('Harley Weewax', one of the great one-shot characters ever!) Vanessa plays the alphabet game with her friends and some Jack Daniels? ("You're in an 'L' of a jam now!") Rudy's juicer episode? ("This is MINE, MINE, MINE!") One of the kids leaves Rudy alone at the mall? ("Wait UNDER the car!") And don't forget the Monopoly scene in the pilot. Great stuff all. But once Olivia came on board, it was just her saying cute lines (Doctor Crusher, the doctor / middle linebacker? PLEASE!) and Cos reacting, a la "Kids say the Darndest Things". He really didn't have anything to do anymore. Everyone I knew was oohing and aahing about how this was the cutest thing they ever saw, which didn't help. Give me the first five seasons, pre-Jaws, any day. And remember, "That is the DUMBEST thing I have ever heard in my life! I brought you into this world, and I'll take you out!"
I grew up on Bill Cosby--we had his records and I loved the show prior to this when he was the gym coach. I saw Phylicia Rashad (then Ayers-Allen) in a play in NY a few years before Cosby and fell in love--believe it or not, she CAN act! I was thrilled when this show came on. I come from a stable, two-parent Black family -and tho we werent nearly as rich as the Huxtables, I knew many families like this. But the Cosby Show...like 'All In the Family' and 'MASH' is a classic example of a damn good show-groundbreaking even, that sunk and sunk and sunk. I tried to read ALL the posts, so I would hopefully ADD something. I can only amplify what's been said- -where the HELL did Sandra come from (and WHY?); Rudy was ADORABLE till she got older (love the first season episode where Bill literally turns her upside down in the snowsuit); Clare was absolutely more 'complex' and gritty in the early years and sexy as hell in her Tina Turner costume--this fine actress was WASTED in the last few years; Cockroach was SUPERFLUOUS; Ravensimone should NEVER be allowed in front of a camera ever again; Pam was SUPERFLUOUS and her whiny ghetto girlfriend was UNWATCHABLE; Cliff & Clare DID become snobby--which is NOT the same as having high standards; I detested Cliff's Mom (met her in NY and she is a real BITCH), I never liked Vanessa (ok, she reminded me of my OWN little sister), ELDIN and SANDRA were INDEED the two most boring Black folks ever on TV; "because it's Hillman" (yikes!); The I have a dream episode--what a MISSED opportunity--why not show the family going out and DOING something in the community, if its nothing but dropping off food to the soup kitchen, Eldin's sexism - and Clare giving him his comeuppance COULD have been funny, IF ONLY it was WRITTEN BETTER and the guy playing him COULD ACT; the revolving door of kids, step-grandkids, grandkids, relatives-who-added-nothing-to-the-story--bless you, poster who pointed out the WASTE of Stevie Wonder (and WHY WASNT BILL ONSTAGE WITH HIM?) not enough room for both egos?, the WASTE of Lena Horne: "look at this beautiful family" Well, with all due respect, Ms. Horne, we can SEE that--why are you there?, the second lip-synching, and finally, as someone said more articulately than I: why the heavy-handed political messages? A show with a strong, involved pair of Black parents (who are ALSO professionals), who unapologetically embrace their culture yet aren't cultural chauvinists, are graduates of HBCs, etc. IS A POLITICAL STATEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A 'truth' is no less true when whispered as opposed to shouted. I think the 'matter of factness' of the presentation of this Black family WAS its strength--when it became a "Black" after school special, well........cue the Jazz version of the Jaws music!!!!!!!!!!
I think there are two major points at which this show really jumped the shark. (1) The introduction of Raven Simone's character (a classic sitcom floatation device when all of the other children in the family grow up). Cosby interacts best with young children. More than half of his original standup routines were based on his interactions as a child and as an adult with children, so he needed to have a young child around to play off of. Unfortunately, Raven Simone is affected by what I like to call the "trained monkey" disease. Unlike, Rudy, whose interactions with Bill Cosby were natural and unaffected, Olivia needed to "act" cute, since it is clear that she was encouraged to be adult and precocious by her stage mother. Just watch the way she walks in a room in the episodes-she definitely has the walk of a child who had been in modeling or in beauty pageants. The second point is when, about three or four seasons in, Claire's character takes every opportunity on the show to not only belittle her husband, but to preach about the strength and equality of women. Not that there is anything wrong with the concept of equality, but its a sitcom for God's sake. Not every venture in the kitchen or meeting with her daughter's husbands needs to end with Claire providing some kind of speech about how to treat women. (See also: sassiness posting above.)
I didn't vote day 1 because I thought it was the worst horrible show of all time. I voted day 1 because the episode was the greatest pilot episode of all time. The show in some ways ignored the pilot. All the characters were different except Cosby and even the house was different and there was no Saundra, Sandra was a good addition in my opinion though. Anyways almost all the characters, except Rudy were different. Clare was a lawyer/mother who looked like was ready to get a shot gun and kill everyone. That was the only episode were Denise was somewhat a tough punk. She was dating a prisoner. Theo looked like a dumb troublemaker. Vanessa was a person who thought about herself, by the way puberty was a nice to her as Politicians are to each other. She aged 5 years in season 2. Anyways if you notice, the house is different too. Cos was the man in the first episode. Who could forget the line when he was pissed at Theo, " I brought you in this world and I can take you out". That episode was one of the greatest episodes of all time. By episode 2 and then on everything changed. The house changed and the characters changed. Bill mellowed down. Clare became perfect like the Fonz. Vanessa would complain. Denise was still a rebel but her bark was starting to be worse then her bite and every episde Theo was becoming the perfect son. I Bill was trying to show that a Black family could be warming and loving on TV and he left his roots from the first episode. The characters on the first episode had a few problems with each other but I could relate to those characters from the pilot Bill. If Cos stuck with it the Cosby show could have been on the "never jumped" list but after episode 1 it jumped the shark. After season one it went shark hunting to kick the sharks A#@ and Oliva and Cousin Pam pissed of the shark and the shark at Cos and his sweaters. Why did you turn on the pilot Bill. The Pilot had a robust 48 rating meaning about half the country watched it. All you Cos fans need to watch the pilot episode and you will see that the show never lived up to the greatest pilot episode and one of the greatest episodes of all time
I'll have to almost agree with the above poster saying it jumped with the pilot. As a kid in the 80's I was always under the impression this was a funny show. Having seen it in reruns though, I stand corrected. The first season was relatively funny-the rest was absolute crap. They toned this down to appeal to middle America, a group of people I could frankly do without. Phylicia Rashad SUCKED plain and simple. More gripes: Cosby was quite the egomaniac with his constant pro college B.S. It seemed like every show we had to hear about Hillman and how Cliff was some campus big man. Get over yourself Bill. Cliff's parents sucked one too. Nothing said boring like them or other old timers reminiscing about the past every other show. My last complaint is how embarrassing the final seasons were. The theme for the last year is so dated with the Cross Colors fashion and the Cos yuking it up as some hip hop guy. Not buying it. You ever notice good TV has a sort of timeless quality to it. Cheers was from the 80's but it doesn't scream it. The first season of Cosby was from '84 or so but it sort of felt like it could have been happening at any time. The end in the early 90's was just a desperate attempt by Co$by to draw in viewers. Bottom line: Someone should recheck this one- maybe a lot of people watched it but a lot watch Leno too and outside of cheap laughs that simple-minded, vanilla people think are great it doesn't pass the test for me. The King of the Funny Faces had one good year at best.
Nick at Nite is currently showing the final season episodes where Cliff and Claire are constantly making a huge deal over how they cosigned the loan for Elvina and Sondra's house and since Elvin and Sondra are both doctor and lawyer now, they will have no problem making the mortgage payments. Gee! I didn't know it only took a season or two to not only finish either school, but also have enough money to support twins and buy a house with no student debt to worry about (thanks to Cliff and Claire). What fantasy are the Huxtables living in anyway? The very notion that Elvin would be done with medical school after just starting a scant year or two earlier is preposterous. Then there is the equally ridiculous earlier episode of how Denise and Martin can't afford even a craphole of an apartment in Brooklyn. Isn't Martin an officer in the Navy? Can't Cliff and Claire cosign a loan for them, too? And what's the deal with Grandpa Huxtable showing up in just about every episode in the final season? His character is not nearly as interesting as Cosby thinks and works better as strictly an occasional visitor to the Huxtable home - much like his wife, Anna, who is rarely and inexplicably seen with her beloved Russell in these episodes.
The jazz shows are the all time WORST episodes. Whose idea was it to put all these together in one boooooring weekend? Yikes!
Like so many people who have posted here, I grew up watching TCS, and, as a kid, I found it to be funny. In reruns, though, several things bother me. 1) Cousin Pam, who we weren't even given a chance to know and like over the years TAKES OVER THE SHOW! 2) Olivia. I'm not going to hold it against Raven Symone, she was just a little kid, but geez! 3) I went to college for a time, got good grades, and then decided it wasn't for me. So I ended up going to (and completing) broadcasting school. Now, I am a housewife and mother who is an independent music artist. I'm only known locally, and my full-time (in the most literal sense of the word) job doesn't even pay. But I'm HAPPY, and I don't appreciate that Cosby & co. tried so hard to make people who didn't go through college feel small. That's why I liked Denise for most of her time on the show. She had her own way of doing things. 4) My husband is a lawyer, and he doesn't have the time to hang around the house all day. He works his butt off during the week, just so he can have a weekend with me and our 3 month old son. Of course, maybe that changes when you've been at it awhile. (He only graduated law school a few years ago) I doubt it, though.
Like many, I agree that this show jumped the shark with the addition of cousin Pam. BUT- I cannot believe some of the mean-spirited posts that have been written about this show. From the ones that I have read, it seems painfully clear, that the poster(s) are obviously uncomfortable with a program in which (1)African-Americans are portrayed intelligently (2) Are not poor and downtrodden (3)Are actually PROUD of their heritage and not whining about how their lives suck compared to whites or are fawning over them while singing the praises of Western culture. I find this particularly transparent with regard to the posters who decided to comment on the afro-centric hairstyles and who bemoaned the idea of the historically black colleges being represented on the program. For all of its minor faults, The Cosby Show is the ONLY show ever produced that even attempted to depict African-Americans in a positive light. It gave hope to kids like me who lived in the ghetto, and showed us that an authentic African-American life does not necessarily entail drugs, crime, moral depravity or any of the other things whites have ascribed to African-Americans. It will always be the number 1 show in America in my book. I am not surprised at how so many think that Friends or Seinfeld are the quintessence of Comedy with their all WHITE casts and scripts that are written with the idea that African-Americans do not exist to perturb their existence.
To the previous poster: The fact that the Huxtables were black and portrayed in a positive light really isn't an issue. The issue is that this show had a definite agenda and Cosby's lack of subtlety regarding this agenda is the true shark jumper. The heavy-handed, almost incessant messages and preach parties regarding education for starters. From the over-the-top, overkill Hillman commencement to the character sabotage of Denise for dropping out of Hillman among countless other examples already talked about here. Then there is the sanctimonious attitude and general aura of pretention that permeates from the Cosby Show. The we-are-better-than-you-because-we-have-advanced-college-degrees-and-make-lots-of-money attitude that seems to progressively worsen toward the later seasons. What is made even more abundantly clear is that the only two "acceptable" professions that don't rake in the big bucks are that of a teacher, military officer and, of course, jazz musician. If "positive light" means downright snobby, snooty, self-important, arrogant and pretentious characters then you can take the Cosby Show.
I have not read one good comment on Pam. She wasn't that bad. Everyone's comments about her were negative. I admit I was wondering and narrowing my eyes when I saw her and thought about her "Why is she here?" But that's it. She didn't make the show jump the shark. She was just a regular new character. She was pretty, bright, and intelligent. So what if she came from the ghetto? It's not her fault she's from the ghetto. She was a good character. She didn't take up too much space on the show.
Great show initially, even with that switch from 4 kids to 5. One thing that annoyed me, though, was Coz was so socially conscious that too many episodes focused on Cliff's eating habits and Claire's warnings about colesterol got to be preachy. Yeah, it was funny to see him get caught trying to put a slice of pie back, but that got old. And the episode where the men had the babies was one of the funniest things on TV at that time. But when all these new kids started showing up, I think the show lost its identity. Elvin and Saundra were okay, but did we have to have a second daughter - who didn't quite fit into her own spinoff series A Different World - come back with a husband, then a cousin moved in. It got to be too much. I still watch some of the reruns, but not faithfully.
The dieting crap. Cliff is a doctor and the husband/father of the family. If he wants a damn piece of pie or a burger once ina while, let him have it! And if he cannot, how much love is the family showing their father when they give him a bowl of limp salad (without dressing of course, oh no!), when they all sit down to a greasy, hot, fried chicken dinner at the same table. It really burned me that they man could not eat what he wanted, he paid for half the food didn';t he? But what made it worse was Claire eating everything, without taking Cliff into account.
The Cosby Show jumped the shark when the producers started focusing on new people, aka people we actually don't care about. (Think Sandra and her hubby Elvin, Claire's sister, that gawd-awful Pam, Denise and her husband and don't get me started on that dang Olivia. I'm leaving "Bud" off the list because at least he was good for a chuckle or two.
To all the above posters who are extremely critical of this show, you must realize one thing. It is just TV. There are going to be slight exaggerations going on. If the show was based on reality (for example my life or any other typical American) it would REALLY be boring. Overall the Cosby Show was one of the best TV shows of all time. I definitely think it was one of the best shows for African Americans. Prior to Cosby look what we as African Americans had to look at. The WHITE SAVIOR for poor Project kids, Diffrent Strokes. The GOOD TIMES, Project Dwellers. The JIVE talking Flip Wilson show as well as many other negative shows which made us look like buffoons. Give me a break! That was one thing I loved about Cosby. There wasn't any buffoonery. Being a product of a mother and father who both have Graduate Degrees I can totally relate to a lot of the subject matters presented here. I don't think that Cos or Claire were putting down anyone who didn't go to school, however I do think, as with most parents, that they expect a lot from their children. Most parents EXPECT their kids to do better than they did. WHAT IS WRONG WITH HAVING HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR YOUR CHILDREN. Enough Preaching, I thought this show jumped the Shark as soon as it became apparent to Cos that the kids were growing up and not leaving the house. For example, Elvin and Sandra moving back home with their kids. Pam and Olivia moving in. If this continues Cos and Claire will be taking care of children well into their geriatric years.
Someone slips a joint in Theo's book. That right there had be one of the dumbest episodes I've ever seen. And Bill's trying to tell the kid that HE has a problem. He's not the boy's father. That Stevie Wonder epsode is interesting. I haven't watched it in years. I can remember Stevie recording Bill's voice, but were they actually together during that part. I don't think they were. Didn't he drop them off at the studio or something? Help me out.
This was a great show. This is Cosby as a regular guy - not the arrogant, preachy jerk that he would later become on the terrible '80's "Cosby Show". The above posts pointed out some funny episodes so I won't repeat it here but on this show Cosby was funny as hell, and subtle - a trait he would lose later on. Other than "I Spy", this is the best he has done on television.
The show jumped the shark in the episode where Cliff, Martin, Elivin abd Theo got pregnant. How the heck it was possible. Puberty did not take a natrual in this stage of the game. And did anyone notice what they got out of their Stoamch? I did, and it was pretty unusual.
The Cosby Show never jumped the shark. I mean, sure they might've been overdoing it when they added more characters to the cast(example: Olivia, Pam, Elvin, Martin, etc) but this was a very funny show throughout its entire run. In fact, I thought Raven Symones introduction as Olivia was very cute. She brought a new vibe to the show. She was just like Rudy in her early years. Whatever funny thing she did in various episodes, I was laughing my head off. I remember one episode where she accidently put her crayon in the washing machine and Cliff later discovered it by trying to scare her out of her hiding place by pretending to be a ghost. Another funny moment from her run in the show was when Olivia was watching a kids show and she was making a phone call to a 900 number for a joke she was seeing on that show and Cliff discovered it and told her not to make any more calls that would raise up the phone bill. I was laughing my head off at that too. I'll flash back to before Olivia came into the picture and post a very confused but funny episode where Denise meets a guy she talks to on the phone and they set up a date together. However, she met a guy who was actually Cliffs hospital assistant and mistook her for her date. Shortly after Cliff and his assistant left, her real date showed up. That was such a funny episode. I still laugh at it up to this day.
I like the show but there are "shark-jumping" moments: 1) The Cosby Show "jumped the shark" when Cosby brought Theo's refrigerator over. It seemed like all the stories Cosby told afterward, that Theo was being that "classic screw up" from one of the comments I've heard from other people. I mean, since theo screwed up in high school, the last episode should be based on him dropping out of high school. AND ANYWAY, HOW ON EARTH THEO GOT TO COLLEGE WITH BAD GRADES TO START WITH? THIS SHOULD BE CARTOONIZED SINCE THIS IS NOT REALISTIC. 2) In a later episode Cliff tries to narrow Vanessa's social life by saying she should read, not go to the mall, searching for boys. It's like Cliff's real life was basically that, and he wanted to be an actor for this show because he read books that the series was based on. It could be possible, but rare. 3) When Vanessa lied to her parents just to go to Baltimore to see a forbidden concert. Clair gets so angry, especially when she hears that the house Vanessa stayed at was on fire, and nobody was in there, or getting hurt. Then she heard of some stolen car, which linked to the place the liar and her friends really were at. Vanessa apologizes, and says would not happen again. But the parents, especially Clair, declined to believe her. 4)I have nothing else to say about the show now, I really think this show RULZ. That "SD" pin is not really distracting. I do not believe I ever saw it except for maybe yesterday
Elvin was the first shark I seen.. Was he a punk or what? Now this is a show I really didnt want to shark but for reasons only I can comprehend I must. All was well and fine when they were young Theo after Bill Cosby was the star of that show and then surprisingly a Young Vanessa was quite funny too. Who didnt want to grow up in their household they always had plenty of food and money and they had friends over all the time. Shark sighting Rudy starts growing up and is just plain annoying. Once Theo went to college the luster was off the show. The whole thing with Theo was that he was such a below average student his trials and tribulations became a source of strength for the show.Last but not least in no particular order...Olivia,the twins Winnie & Nelson,Denise moving back home,Cousin Pam these odd characters took all the fun out of the show. Too many individuals that the tv viewer didn't care about.
Personally, I think that Olivia was a successful way of keeping the show afloat. It was that evil Pam who made the show jump the shark. If she was such a close relative, then why the heck haven't we seen her in the previous episodes? I'm sure that the writers could have thought of something better than HER. She was stupid, so she was taught by the "intellectual" Theo... sheesh...
Didn't Jump. This was a very good show. This is the Cosby of the 60's - not the arrogant, stuffy, know-it-all Cosby of "The Cosby Show". Cosby, in this particular vehicle, played one Mr. Chet Kincaid, a school teacher. I can't remember too many episodes, but there was one where Kincaid's birthday is coming up and he thinks his family and friends are going to give him a big surprise party. Kincaid thinks he's on to them and he spends the whole show going from one place to the next, trying to get people to confess and say they are in on this big surprise party. Of course, at the end of the show, Kincaid discovers there was no party, and one was never planned. His mother just gave him a gift and some cake. Excellent show. Too bad it wasn't on longer.
Oh come on! I can't believe I'm the first one to say this. Claire Huxtable was the most annoying t.v. character to EVER grace a program. She was always right about everything...even when she was wrong. This premise started out as cute when she and Bill got into disagreements, but quickly became annoying. She would just give him that "don't mess with me look" and it was all over. This wouldn't have been a problem, but she was this way until the series ended. Shallow acting should be a crime.
The episode when Cliff has the tap dancing challenge with the skinny old dude with Coke-bottle glasses is absolutely hilarious. Cosby's delievery is unbelievable in that scene. The old dude beat Cliff, but Cliff would have flexed on him on the Pa-tonk court.
This show sunk under the immense weight of Cosby's ego. This was still an excellent show, few shows were this funny while having completly clean humor. This show also meant so much to black viewers finally seeing a wealthy black family on TV. Cosby started to get all self important and stopped being as funny. All the Afro-centric stuff got tired since they started off as a very normal upper class black family. Preachy shows never make good television, but Cliff began to get overbearing in promoting education and being wealthy over just having a working class job. It was ok at the beginning, because we could see Bill Cosby was just playing a character, but when it became apparent that he wanted this to be a vessel for promoting education, the show got a bit hard to take at times. The show went stale when Raven came aboard. She was an adorable little girl, but terrible for the show, way too stiff and mannered. Family Guy's skit where Theo was trying to tell his dad that he got a girl pregnant while Cliff was mugging and making funny voices hit the nail right on the head. Best one was another episode where Stewie was on Kids Say The Darndest Things, and he said "this show should be called Old Black Comedians Who Never Shut the Hell Up."
When Cliff and Claire become self-important egomaniacs as supposed "pillars of the community" and act like they have all of the wisdom and advice to offer people on subjects completely unrelated to their respective professions. Meg Foster plays a colleague of Claire that is having marital problems so rather than seeking the advice of a professional marriage counselor, Meg invites her husband to have a group counseling session with all knowing lawyer Claire - and in Claire's office no less. Later, one of the Landers sisters plays the daughter of Jake of Jake's Appliance Store. Out of the blue, the Landers gal solicits Cliff for guidance with some ongoing family feud dispute. She then makes a special visit with her husband to Cliff's in-home doctor's office. Why would either situation be presented to Cliff or Claire to solve? It is painfully obvious that both "problems" were silly gratuitous contrivances that any half-brained "unprofessional" type could solve in 5 minutes (which, of course, they both do). Yes, we are so impressed with your intellect Cliff and Claire!!!
I loved the Cosby Show. But they could have had a nice easy out when they kids grew up. Rudy wasn't cute anymore.. and she had a mustashe. Vanessa was getting married to Daveness ( whatever his damn name was) Theo was had smarts, and who knows what Denis was doing and do we care.. NO. They had to many kids in the house.. a gaceful end would be to exclude the cousin Pam bit.
The moment this show JTS was the moment they put Raven-Symone on camera. It's extremely obvious that she was trained to act "cute"(as someone previously posted). I hated how she got so much air time on the show yet almost every time they showed her it had nothing to do with the storyline of the episode (I loved how someone pointed out how she dressed like a midget clown). They also gave a lot of air time to Cousin Pam (where in hell did she come from?) who's mere presence was aggravating an already bad situation. I mean seriously, they should have just renamed it the "Pam & Olivia Show" at that point. Also, I hated how the parent ALWAYS had to get into their grown kids business, Like when Denise came back from Africa married and with a stepdaughter (not the best move on the writers part). What the heck can the parents do? She is a grown adult! Or when Theo wanted to go on an archaeological dig in Egypt and he had to asked his parents for permission?!? I mean understand that he needs their financial backing but he doesn't need their permission, he's in college for God's Sake! Also, I read what was posted about how the men on the show were belittled constantly. This is 100% true. I am writing this as a young female and I find it disgusting. If it were the other way around (being that the women were being brought down) Cosby would have so many Women groups up his ass it wouldn't even be funny. It is becoming a sad double standard in this country, but I feel that neither gender should be brought down just for the sake of a joke that really isn't funny anyway. And is it me or are Cliff and Claire just down right mean to those kids sometimes? If they were my parents....well let me tell you the moment I moved out of that house I would tell both of them off. On a sidenote, I noticed that three of the children stars in this show have grown up and starred in other sitcoms, The first one, I'm sure you already know, that damn Raven is the star (ugh, I really can't stand her) of an original Disney channel series "That's So Raven." Next we have Kenny, who starred in "Sister, Sister" as Tamera's boyfriend Jordan. Lastly, we have little Nelson who stars as, guess who......Nelson! He plays Ren's I'm-allergic-to-everything-imagible childhood pal on the Disney channel series "Even Stevens."
I watched the final episode again recently. It was rather bittersweet knowing that the character of Theo was based on Cosby own son. I actually cried! I absolutely loved that "BBBBBuuuudddd's" quote from his brother was actually profound. I still hate Sondra - and aren't the writer's embarressed they named the kids Nelson and Winnie? That held up well.
The finale - Theo's graduation. Yes, graduating from college is a big deal especially for former moron and now Rhodes scholar material Theo. BUT ... it's not like Theo invented penicillin or anything. He is receving a liberal arts bachelor's degree. I hardly think the occasion is remarkable enough that 30+ people (particularly those that are not immediate family) would care that much to want to attend the commencement ceremony. And since when are tickets required for graduations? Not one that I've ever attended. This is a graduation, most of which are snoozers like the Hillman episode, not a Beetles concert! (Maybe in Cosby's fantasy world it is.)
i think the cosby show jts when olivia came on-she tried to take rudy's spot-i dont think it matters that rudy grew up-i mean everyone does-rudy was still the baby of the family-plus olivia was not funny-she was also very fresh and needed a spanking-sorry if i sound lyk a mom
Jumped with the miscasting of Claire and Russell "Grandpa" Huxtable. Phylica Rashad (born 1948) is eleven years younger than Cosby and Earle Hyman (born 1926)is 11 years older than Cosby. Phylicia was way too young to be playing Cosby's wife especially considering she had a baby during the show's run when Claire was supposed to be 46 around that same time and already had grown children. This is the reason for all of the disingenuous dialogue regarding Claire looking so good for her age - she wasn't that old!!! She could have been Sondra's older sister (Sabrina Lebeauf only 10 years younger than Phylicia!). Same with Russell who looks more like Cliff's older brother rather than his father. In the later seasons, it's very apparent that Cosby was starting to show his age and couldn't get away with it like they had before, so they started giving Phylicia these godawful hairdos to make her look the real age of Claire.
This totally LEAPED when Dr. "I am Never at Work and all of my patients are miraculously black ,Asian, or Hispanic: Huxtable started wearing all those stupid college T-shirts and sweatshirts. Take a memo Cliff: wearing the name of 1,000 different colleges across your chest doesn't make you any more intelligent-it just makes you annoying.
To the person(s) who said that the show jumped when Rudy got older and wasn't cute anymore, wouldn't people be creeped out if they saw a 12-year old acting like a six-year old? I think that they stopped Rudy being cute at the right time. Just in time.
The show never JTS. It kept introducing new charaters like Olivia and Pam. The Cosby Show would get real boring if the same characters did the same things over and over again. Sure, the first few episodes where the best, but that doesn't mean the later ones are worth critique. The Cosby Show was one of the greatest sitcoms ever made. It was the "I Love Lucy" of modern times. All the characters had chemistry. They all had distinctive characteristics and worked well with each other. Such characteristics are lacking in today's shows. The Cosby Show will live forever for future generations to enjoy.
I agree with so many of the comments previously posted, it would take forever to list them all. As a black man growing up in a middle class family, and my father was a HUGE fan of the show, The Cosby show was not just a TV show, it was an event. I must admit I looked forward to this show every Thursday night. But the how, IMO, jumped after the second season. The first season was classic and Cosby was on its way to being one of the truly great sitcoms in TV history. The second season, though not as good as the first, was still very good. By the third, I could see the show was headed downhill fast. By the middle of the third season I stopped watching regularly, by the start of the fourth I wasn't watching at all. I saw some of the eps after Lisa Bonet came back with the husband and stepchild, but the show just stopped being funny by then. Bill Cosby should be commended for presenting a TV show with a black cast without the usual stereo types associated with shows like Good Times, The Jeffersons, and others. But he forgot the key component in making a sitcom, IT SHOULD BE FUNNY. The show just became unwatchable some time around season 4. I put this show with Happy Days as a potentially classic sitcom, that slid faster and farther than any other show. Sorry Cos.
I don't think this show EVER jumped the shark. Sure, they had their week episodes, but for the most part, this show is great from start to finish. Admittedly, Pam was not that great a character, but she didn't ruin the show.
William Cosby, EdD.... Anyone who has ever worked in a classroom knows that a doctorate in education is the most worthless piece of paper ever created. An EdD means this: At one time, you were interested in being a teacher. Once you got to that level, you realized that you hated it and/or were no good at it. You then returned to college, where a bunch of professors who know nothing about teaching will teach you, and you will get your advanced degrees. Then, you can look down your nose at the hardworking teachers who actually give a s**t and stay in the classroom because now you are A DOCTOR OF EDUCATION!! Don't be fooled by titles, people! And Elvin was the biggest sissypants nancyboy POO-SAY to ever grace a TV screen.
I love this show. I watch it in reurns on Nick at Nite. I think it was a groundbreaking show, finally breaking the stereotypes of blacks and showing that they can be affluent in America. And for about the first 4 seasons it was really at its best. the show wasn't unrealistic as some skeptics always brand it. In fact, in the episodes of seasons 1 and 2, alot of them can be based in reality (not all of them, but a very good amount). Rudy was the adorable 4 year old, while Vanessa seemed to have sort of of Jan Brady-middle-child complex. Theo seemed to be an everyday Joe although he was a bit of a bad student. Denise was the rebellious free spirit of the house, and seemed to be the "Black Sheep" of the family (with her cool fashion and attitude), which gave a bit more intrigue than the rest of the family. Theo and Denise were always my favorite and were the realest kids on the show. The only one I never really liked was Sondra. They really added her on as a last minute decision, seeing that Cliff and Clair needed a child to represent what they were trying to enforce : education. This, the fact that she was the symbol of education, was a little annoying. She always came home just to spout out unneccesary psychological crap out at 80 mph ad nauseum, most of the time never having a clue of what she was talking about. If she's so smart, then why'd she move into that rundown apartment with Elvin? A Princeton girl should've known better. Anyway, around the time Denise left for college, the show had lost something. Denise added a sex appeal and colorful energy to the show, and at times it seemed as if it needed an adrenaline shot. Then in the 6th season, it happened. The show nearly took a 180/ For me, even though i can still watch the episodes from the last 3 seasons, the show clearly jumped the shark. Denise came back with a husband and Olivia, that was just needed to spit our precocious lines and be "cute" (in my opinion, Rudy was a cuter child and her lines came naturally, while Olivia's were a bit more forced), Theo became Mr. Intelligence, and the show's writing dimmed.it went from an innovative show to a show where men become pregnant and Muppets run lose, two of the epsidoes I find unbearable to watch to this day. About Pam, I don't think she neccesarily hurt the show, but she really didn't help it either. I think that if you want to see TCS at it's best, see seasons 1-3, and possibly season 4.
I haven't a racist bone in my body, and feel I have to preface my comment by saying that. However, later into the show, is it me or was everyone either paying tribute to a dead or near death jazz musician, wearing a turban and African jewelry, or otherwise highlighting something or someone as though every month were Black History Month? Granted, there is nothing wrong with a person expressing PC concepts or pride in their race, but I was more interested in the Cosbys and the comedy they provided the first couple of seasons, and not Bill's soap box. If I wanted that, I would have taken up reading about civil rights issues and afrocentricism.
OK let me get this straight. Cliff is a highly respected and venerated OBGYN in Brooklyn with umpteen years of experience examining countless pregnant women and delivering countless babies and yet he doesn't even suspect, let alone know just by looking at her, that Sondra is going to deliver more than one baby!
Never jumped. Yeah, it was PC. Yeah, Raven Simone is awful, and has only gotten worse with age (have you seen her new show? *shudder*). And I wasn't a big fan of Cousin Pam (where did she come from!?). But even with all that, the show remained sweet and funny until the end. It goes beyond that, though. A lot of people criticize Bill Cosby for showing a "white-washed" version of life as a black person, and to a certain extent that't true. But they're missing the point. As a white kid growing up in the 80s, Bill Cosby WAS my dad. That is, he was the prototypical image of a perfect father, much like Ward Cleaver was to my parents' generation. The fact that my Ward Cleaver was black may not be a civil rights milestone, but I think it DID have an impact. Whatever else Cosby may have done, at least he can be proud of that. Even if Raven Simone IS awful.
The Cosby Show jumped the shark twice. The first time back in `89 when they brought in Raven Symone to the show for the cute little kid factor. IT DID NOT WORK. Instead of being cute, she was sickening and made me stop watching. Now it's bad enough that she was on there and thay had those dumbass episodes like the men giving birth to sandwiches, and 2 liter sodas but they still had a couple of good episodes. The last good episode Cosby had was the episode where Vanessa and her friends snuck off to a concert in Baltimore and when Clair finds out and her and Cliff bring her home, Clair yells at her almost to the point of cursing her out. The second shark jump was when they bought in Pam in the next season. She was worse than Raven (how could that happen). But by that time, the Simpsons moved to the 8:00/7:00 time slot and took my attention away from Cosby. The show should have ended in `90 because they would have been much better off if they did.
This show jumped shark for a lot of reasons. I picked the departure of Denise as the main reason though. Denise was the only Huxtable kid that wasn't bland and boring. She really left a hole in the show when she left. Why did stupid Bill Cosby think anyone wanted to see perfect kids with perfect parents? In many ways, this show is worse than Leave It To Beaver in his unrealistic way they behave. Also, Claire and Cliff were bad parents. They tried to force their kids to be exactly like them and be perfect. It just proves how WRONG they were when almost all the kids ended up moving back home with them. Then when they did move back home, Cliff would constantly tell them to get out and stop eating their food. If one of my parents ever talked to me like that, I would be really hurt and when I did get back on my feet, I would have nothing to do with them for being so cruel. I also hated how this show would do a very special black history moment for no apparent reason. For example, how Martin Luther King was mentioned every 6th episode. He might have been a great man but I don't think mentioning him on a sitcom was needed. How many white shows mention white role models for no apparnet reason? That's right, they don't because that would be racist. The addition of Olivia was a bad mistake too and Pam was also stupid. I hated Pam's friends too.
Bill Cosby owes me money. I had to buy 100 different television sets to get the right color/hue/vertical/horozontal/tint to adjust my set to Bill's awful sweaters.
When Olivia was born. Vanessa brought home her unexpected fiance. Cliff got old. Rudy became an older girl.
Phylicia Rashad looking like a wide-eyed, grinning and toothy jack-o'-lantern 95% of the time. The actress that plays no-nonsense Charmain looking, sounding and acting like a teenage version of Florence on the early years of the Jeffersons. Grandpa Huxtable's Elizabethan accent mysteriously heard on the MacBeth record album of Theo and Cockroach. Need I say more??
Cosby JTS when I heard Vanessa's 'fro was being considered as the eighth wonder of the world.
The episode where they hauled that old-as-the-hills bat "Gram Tee" out of some ghastly, haunted sepulcher so Cosby could treat us with 20 minutes of torture as Gram Tee pours on that Civil War-era heavy handed (this is The Cosby Show after all) yet folksy charm informing us all of the virtues of education. Then we're all treated to sheer boredom for another 10 minutes while a Gladys Knight sound alike with a multi-ethnic gospel choir sing praises to now 500-year old Gram Tee in a church she clearly would not have even attended let alone know anyone besides the Huxtables since she didn't even live there!
When Denise went to college is when the show jumped the shark. Let's be real. After that the SEX appeal for the show was gone. However, the reason to keep watching was still intact. Bill Cosby was the only reason to watch NBC back in the 80's. The guy kicked ass in a way never seen before. He loved to fatass on sandwiches, which made his legend grow in the sandwich organizations across the county. My favorite show was when Clair was attemping to keep him from eating so damn much unhealthy food, anyway Bill had himself a GIANT SUB and topped it with some salty potato chips. - Talk about greatness, this guy could totally fatass with the best of 'em. Cosby ruled, rules, and shall rule.
The show jumped when Pam was broght into the house. What made it worse was the horrendous girl that played her best friend. The final season seemed to focus more on Pam and her friends then anyone else in the family. Oh yeah, Elvin was pretty much a ********* as well.
The show was pretty consistently good, but some of it was hard to watch. I stopped watching all together when cousin Pam and her group of ridiculous friends came on the scene. Damn, they should have just canceled that season.
What's with all of the incessant apple juice drinking on The Cosby Show? Did Cos own stock in Treetop or something? I find it hard to believe that Cliff and Claire are so wholesome as to not drink any alcohol EVER. Only Vanessa expermiments with the wild side of booze and quickly learns her lesson of this evil. Also, the Cosby kids are all goody two shoes (unbelievable for the time and context) and never seriously consider, let alone take up, premarital sex (except for Pam but she was a non-Huxtable ghetto girl), smoking or any other "vice" that most teenagers and young adults consider. I think Bill Cosby inadvertently reached a new TV threshold - The Huxtables were TV's first black Mormon family!
Bill Cosby himself said that a sitcom has maybe five good years of life and that's about it. Too bad he didn't follow his own advice and end the Cosby show on the fifth year. By season four the show was wearing thin, by season five it should have been given the boot. So what happened in season six? Denis returns from Africa with a husband and that little spoiler Olivia. Theo is dyslexic Cliff dreams he's pregnant Enter the bluesmen and the deathnail?....The Simpsons Cosby joked that the Simpsons was a big nothing to him. How long has the Simpsons been on the air? Humble pie...it's bitter and tough.
Probably the best argument for not building a sit-com around children. Saw it first run in the 80s, but stopped watching once I joined the Army. Didn't see it in reruns until my daughter decided to start watching it on Nick at Nite. Very hard to take, so I successfully weaned her off of this show. Maybe I'm too critical, but where exactly is the love in this show? As far as I'm concerned, there is more love in The Honeymooners, The Odd Couple, Bonanza, and any number of other truly classic TV shows. Think about it - is there ever a tender moment when the parents tell the kids how much they love them despite their failings? Do the kids ever tell each other how much they love each other? As for the laughs, they really seem forced twenty years after the fact. I suppose all shows deserve to be criticized in the context of the era in which they were produced, not the era in which they are seen in reruns. That said, there were some laughs in the first season. Cliff is listening to a recording of jazz pianist Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson and Theo asks him what is this junk? Cliff says Cleanhead Vinson - the man is a genius! At what? Theo asks Cliff. what?
Cliff and Claire getting all hot and heavy for each other at the conclusion of at least 1 out of every 3 episodes (no exaggeration if you watch consistently) after 25+ years of marriage and raising 5+ kids. PLEASE! It's amazing they didn't have 20 kids the way these 2 got on. Also, Cliff and Claire leisurely sitting around the house when they both are supposed to have very demanding careers. The earlier episodes did a better job occasionally showing Cliff and Claire realistically frazzled, but by the last season it's almost like the writers forgot that Cliff and Claire still had jobs!
The episode with Danny Kaye as the dentist was the funniest episode ever, with Danny and Bill mugging at each other to relax one of Bill's god-knows-how-many-daughters enough to sit still for her first check-up. Great show. Therefore everything after that had to be down hill.
I'm shocked that no one pointed out that Cockroach was fired off the Cosby show because he wanted to grow his hair out and refused a haircut. Because of this, he was immediately X'd out Cosby Show with no explanation; this also happened to Theo's other friends as well (THe Geek that looks like Raj for What's Happening also got a exit stage left when his high top fade grew past 5 inches. Adam Sandler and the Puerto Rican kid from 227 in the early years exited right before teh Alvin Ailey Years because of haircare. Other Cosby Kids friends got the boot as well (we all remember peter...before there was BUDDD there was Peter...his mommy refused to trim him up like the youngest son from Eight Is Enough as we never saw him after Cockroach left either). So yes Bill Cosby definetely was on some Ozzie Nelson bullcrap with being a clean cut all American boy on his show, and as you see, only clean shaven, short hair cut people stayed. ALSO NOTE: The season that Theo went to Africa he was rarely seen because he died his hair Red and grew the braid in the back of his hair (as were most people of that era) and Cosby only fetured him in 2 of that season's episodes. When we saw him again, he was clean shaven and back to his own hair color.
When Theo and Cockroach are yelled at for doing Shakespeare in the Living Room!
This show jumped when Claire absolutely ripped Vanessa apart for going to the concert without permission, and Cliff standing by and doing absolutely nothing. Not only was it the worst case of overacting I ever saw (Claire, that is), but also it was unrealistic and downright verbal abuse. I think after she's done yelling her and Cliff have a calm chat as if nothing happened. To this day, I lost all respect for Phylicia Rashad as a performer.
I've finally figured out The Cosby Show. It's not supposed to be real, but an ideal. It's no more a show of a typical African American family than the Brady Bunch was about two step families trying to be one family. The fact that it's about an African American family means nothing, it's as absurd trying to be real as any family of any nationality. Mom and Dad are lawyer and doctor. How is it that they are always home? With such a large family and two very good incomes, why don't they as least have a housekeeper a la the Brady's like Alice - and Carol Brady didn't even work except for the odd charity group on occasion. The show was actually quite good the first season or two. The first family "music" performance, Denise and boyfriend singing regae music with the TV, while Cliff is trying to find peace and quiet in the house, and Cosby's endearing interactions with Rudy and friends, to name a few. A personal problem I had was about the snacks. Everytime someone wanted a snack it was always juice in a pitcher (6 people in the house, yet someone always had time to put juice in the pitcher?) or fruit. It seems the only one who got to eat anything else was Cliff (when Clair allowed it). Another peeve is when Vanessa was dating Dabnis. Yes he was a maintenance man (but head of maintenance) and he had a house, savings, served in the army, churchgoing man, close to his family and was actually a good catch. To really make it interesting, he should have been a struggling maintenance man with little posessions and no ambition, then we'd see how much Cliff and Clair would have not approved - not simply because Vanessa was too young but you find out that they really are elitest snobs. All in all, the fact that I can still watch and enjoy it says something; sort of like the same sort of camp value that the Brady's had. In years to come, it will be interesting to see if there will be parodies of the show, like the "real Brady Bunch".
Slogging through the numerous season 2 and 3 episodes which focus on Denise deciding on, preparing for and eventually leaving for Hillman (in preparation for 'Different World') is irritating, painful and downright embarrassing considering we all know what a loser Denise ends up being at the end of the show. Even 10 years later on the Cosby reunion, Phylicia Rashad predicted that Denise would be living in a trailer park now. No wonder Lisa Bonet wanted nothing to do with it.
Cliff had the dream where all the men were pregnant and went into labor and Theo gave birth to a car and Martin gave birth to something else and then Cliff gave birth to a HUGE sub sandwich. He woke up and it was all just a dream. That was Grade A jump the shark material right there.
Look, I don't care what your views on women's liberation are. The topic of menstruating for the first time does not belong anywhere near a sitcom. It also doesn't belong anywhere near a drama, crime drama, adventure, documentary, infomercial or even a 15 second ad. It's gross, natural though it may be. So is afterbirth for that matter. Should we have a sitcom episode about afterbirth too? Now that this male chauvanist pig has had his say, menstruation, even if it wasn't gross and inappropriate for family sitcoms, simply isn't funny or entertaining. Most women I know dread it, and most men I know don't want to discuss it, so why force this crap on us? Christ Bill, you're a man! Act like it. That crap would never be in any sitcom my name was attached to. I realize this a "wonderful, natural time in a woman's reproductive life", but save it for a Tampax commercial. It's just not funny. It was the reason I never watched Roseanne, a decision I have never regretted, and the reason I stopped watching this, which is now totally unwatchable in reruns.
I used to think this show was hilarious. When it was on NBC I laughed and laughed. Then it went off the air. I was sad. But I moved on. However, then, well actually probably before it was off the air, the show went into syndication. Then it was on ALL THE TIME! Nick at nite seems to think people would like this show if it was on 15 times a night! Give me a break! The show has had so much overkill lately, I cant even watch it. Its too bad that the show has been ruined by all this overexposure.
I dont know what the hell is wrong with you people! The Cosby Show absolutely rocked. Yes there were bad parts after reading all your attacking, demeaning entries. Yes Elvin was rather sensitive. Yes Clair was bossing Cliff around about his eating habits and finances and decision makings. Yeah a wifes opinion should count just not shutting down the husband all the time. Elvin and Sondra were the sensitive type couple but hey they were cool. Yes Lisa Bonet and the Cos off-camera had a not so budding relationship. And we all know Theo went from dumbass to graduating successfully to Rudy growing up (Keshia Knight Pulliam sure as heck looks good now!) and Vanessa being that pestering kid in the shows beginning episodes. But over the 8 years of its run (part of which I wasnt alive for), it had something called DRAMA! There was a lot of drama. It has up and downs esp a show running long like that. As for those additional unimportant characters. Pam wasnt so bad but her gossipy, fast talking friend made me puke. The eps that involved she and her friends werent interesting. Olivia- yeah had somewhat of a bad mouth and was a pain. Speaking of fast talkers, yeah Vanessa's friend Cara annoyed me to no end. All in all, I sound I'm saying negatives but all these characters made the show hilarious. It was funny. Vanessa sneaking off to Baltimore, where you expect her to sneak off to: Madison Square Garden? Something like that make it interesting and funny. Kids today would do that. Theo screwing up in the beginning and graduating very well- its called improvement over the years. And most important, its just television. Its not reality. And plus it wasnt like how most of us live now in the present. You hafta consider how far it goes back. And the main man the show, the Cos- he did a hell of a job with that show. He brought the show back in a time where TV was going down the drain. He got a lot of viewers for that show to become interested. I wish that show couldve continued beyond '92. Sure a show fades after a while, but this one did not. Imagine if it went ten years? Awesome. What would make the show even more dramatic is if all the kids (incl those that are parents) at the same time came moving back into Cliff and Clairs. That would absolutely make the show dramatic with Cliffs attempts to get them all out. All five of his children, his in-laws, grandchildren, steps, cousins, etc. basically Cos was a funny guy who was bringing the entertainment value back into television.
The Cosby Show was hands down one of the most overrated and terminally irritating programs of the 1980s and definitely makes my top ten list of the worst and most overrated television shows of all time. Bill Cosby is not the least bit funny and the show serves as little more than a forum for his shameless, annoying facial mugging and dumb stories. Why anyone with half a brain would like this show is something I'm still trying to figure out. Every year on The (Brain Dead) People's Choice Awards (another program I loathe), the producers would employ Army Archerd in an endless series of stupid publicity stunts to give Cosby another trophy that the mental simpletons who love this show voted to give him. Personally I'd like to see someone whack him with a shovel and see what kind of facial expressions he comes up with then.
The Cosby show jumped the shark several times after the 1st season, but when Phylicia Rashaad decided that the only way black women reacted to anything was with a roll of the eyes and a twist of the neck or a **** eating grin, I just couldn't take it anymore. Suffice it to say that the whole show sucked ass as soon as there was any talk about the Civil Rights movement, where the granparents droned on and on. The "I Have a Dream" episode, or any other episode where there was a moral lesson to be learned - NOT FUNNY. The absolute WORST show was the one where Rudy wants to wear a summer dress to a winter party. She goes on to ask the older kids if they have to ask permission to wear certain outfits after Mom tells her that she can't wear it. Long story short, they spent like five ****ing minutes with Rudy up in her room, looking sad, pensive, and dare I say mildly retarted while daning with the ****ing dress. The whole time they played a song by Ray Charles. Then, Theo starts to talk with like a lisp or something. Is that a side effect of being diagnosed with dyslexia in your twenties? Also, if he was so bad in high school, how did he get into NYU? Although we were led to believe that there were originally four kids, adding the fifth didn't bother me until she started showing up with Elvin. And finally, Olivia lip synching. Their first time, funny (when it was the whole family) the second time just proved that the writers were lazy.
The Cosby show jumped the shark when Pam was added to the cast. When a show starts adding characters just to boost ratings it is definitely time to call it quits.
This show was one of the best sitcoms ever b/c of the fact that it showed a rich black family, which was a rarity in the 80's (on TV atleast). Sure, people can whine and complain about Cliff and Claire staying home a lot and all that. BIG DEAL!!! A lot of shows have been like that where a parent who is supposed to have a job stays home all the time. Also, LAY OFF RAVEN!!!!!! Cosby was tanking before she came. The only reason they added her was b/c Rudy was getting old, I'll give you that. But, the character Olivia actually jump-started a dying show. So, in other words, instead of bashing Ms. Raven and saying that she's a new Ted McGinley, you should be thanking her that she basically helped "The Cosby Show" chug along for those last couple of years. She must have been a pretty damn good actress if she worked alongside Eddie Murphy and other big names. She has her own show, "That's So Raven" that I didn't like at first b/c I thought that the premise was hella stupid. I still think that, but seeing a familiar face on TV for the first time in several years is rather refreshing, so I quickly warmed up to it. So, in short, Raven did NOT cause "Cosby" or "Hanging with Mr. Cooper" to JTS. I also wish her luck in later projects that she may work on, including her singing career.
The episode where the family and requisite old coot of a coach sit around for about 15 minutes looking at about 25 video clips of Cliff playing basketball. 2 or 3 clips, OK - but they made these nonstop clips the cornerstone of the plot. Painfully BORING!! Talk about lazy writing. Can anyone please tell me what exactly the point of that episode was? So with this episode, the only sport where we don't here about Cliff's athletic prowess and triumphs is baseball. What? Lou Rawls wasn't available to play Cliff's coach?
This show jumped the shark when Raven came on. Her character was the most annoying child characters in the history of television. They tried to make her TOO cute. Also when they dump poor Denise off to college. To me, Denise was one of the most real teenage girl character on television. Usually they made teenage girls whiny, stupid, and annoying. But Denise was REAL! Sondra was too pretentious (especially after she gave birth to the twins), Vanessa was a complete dumbass, and Pam's friend Lance was more interesting. At least I did enjoy the Rudy-Stanley-Kenny triangle. I think Kenny made the show
When Martin informs Cliff, whom he barely knows on the episode in question, that Denise was a virgin on their wedding night. Not only was this juicy bit of information none of Cliff's business and, let's face it, unbelievable considering Denise's partying ways at Hillman, but if I were sponging off and trying to impress my brand new in-laws I think I would keep my big, fat trap shut about stuff like that. If I were Denise and found out that Martin had told my father I would have thrown his sorry ass along with his brat baby Olivia out on the street!!
It never jumped. This show was a classic. Anyone remember the very first episode when Theo brought home his report card and Cosby started talking to him on how his grades are gonna affect his life...so he brings out this Monopoly Money, gives Theo $300 a week and starts taking the money away when he explains about the government taking some of his money, then how he had to pay his bills, then how he has to get an apartment, get a car (then Theo counters by saying he would ride a motorbike to New Jersey) and for clothes, etc. There's another classic part when Theo was like "$200. So...no problem" and Cosby was like "There is a problem YOU HAVEN'T EATEN YET!!" and Theo was saying "I could live by Baloney and Cereal". In the end, Cliff asked his son "You getting a girlfriend?" and Theo said "For sure" and Cliff takes the remaining $200 and starts saying "Regular People". Another one of those classics was when after Theo makes that speech about wanting his parents to accept him for who he is even if he wants to be a regular person, Cliff stated "Theo, that's the most dumbest thing I ever heard. No wonder you're getting D's yadda yadda yadda... and you are going to try hard because I said so. I'm your father...I brought you in this world, and I can take you out!" Ho yeah, a true classic moment all right!
Olivia. Perfectly well-adjusted, happy-go-lucky and not to mention unbelievably precocious despite the fact that her real mother unceremoniously left her followed by Martin marrying the first dumb girl he could find (Denise) to be mommy while he takes off in the Navy for months at a time and later is dumped again in the last season when both Martin and Denise take off for Singapore and is left behind with Cliff and Claire.
This is to the comment above me. It wasn't Olivia's fault that she kept getting left. She didn't ask to be born, and didn't ask to be dumped two times. Once by her mother, Paula, and the other time by Martin and Denise.
This show first debuted when I was in the 6th grade and I really loved it. It was almost instantly the number 1 show in the country. It made NBC the number 1 network. (I think CBS had the crown for like 10 years straight or so.) My family couldn't wait to watch it every Thursday night. We talked about it all the time in school. Everyone was excited the year that it started running in re-runs in '88 or something, but the one thing I kept hearing over and over again was that "it wasn't a realistic portrayal of black people. Black families didn't have both parents working, especially a dad that was a doctor and a mom that was a lawyer." I say, who cares? It was a television show. A sitcom. I know this phrase has probably been uttered a million times on this site regarding various shows, but it has to be repeated, IT'S A TELEVISION SHOW. IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE REALISTIC! People complained so much to the point that Cosby decided to make it "blacker." In the beginning, it was just a show about a family that just happened to be black. I don't know what's wrong with that, but I guess it wasn't good enough for people so they started wearing African-styled clothing. Every other episode was about black history. At least that's how it seemed. And they introduced all these characters that nobody really cared about. In one season, they introduced Pam, the street-wise cousin. Denise's new husband from the military, and the little girl. And we were supposed to care about all of them. I guess. Well, I know I didn't. Not only those characters, but they felt the need to introduce all of these reoccuring characters that seemed to dominate the show each week (whatever happened to cockroach?) Hell, by the end of the show, a lot of the main storylines involved characters that weren't even on the show when it first aired. Cosby and Clair weren't even home half the time. This show was guilty of what a lot of shows have always been guilty of: changing things on us. Audiences, especially sitcom audiences, do not respond well to change. It's been documented countless times in the past. Of course, this show didn't seem to change because of creative bankruptcy, it appeared to change for different reasons.
When Olivia showed up. We didn't need her. She was not cute. And close second is more Sondra and Elvin. I never liked them, and their kids were annoying. The Nelson and Winnie twin names sure didn't stand up in light of what happened to that couple.
The show jumped when that dude started crying because his daughter was addicted to cocaine. A bumbling grown man in tears has no place on a sitcom. My dad used to yell and threaten us with his belt if he caught us watching Cosby, but now I realize he was protecting us from that insipid drivel.
The final season is simply unwatchable. First you have pontificating Theo strutting around as a school counselor saying he doesn't care about money (yeah, well since Theo never had to get a real PAYING job I can see why!). Then there are episodes focused exclusively on Pam and her gangbanging pals. Then an Olivia centered episode is thrown in here and there. Toss in some Dabnis and Vanessa drama and Sondra and Elvin buying a house (with no jobs to pay the mortgage, by the way), Denise vanishing a second time, Cliff proudly exclaiming the dated 1991 reference, "HAMMER TIME!!", as if it was brilliant comedy, topping it off with a horrendous hip-hop version of the theme song and that pretty much sums up this godawful season.
The Cosby Show jumped the shark as soon as Malcolm Jamal "CHEEKS" Warner started getting older, rocking flat-tops and glasses and his cheeks began to get bigger. Oh yeah, also when that guy Dabnes was shacking up with Vanessa Huxtable. At that point, the show got boring and more unrealistic. It really started to suck also when they stopped showing the little fat kid, "Peter", always running out of the house like a fat, little beeotch. Once again, the show sucked when "CHEEKS" got older and COCKROACH left.
I grew up in the 80's and the Cosby Show was a staple in my house every Thursday night. I really liked it. Even now, as an adult, I sometimes catch the reruns on Nick at Nite. I've noticed now that the show's characters got more obnoxious and stuck up as the seasons progressed. I find it really irritating that whenever the phone rings, they answer it "Huxtable residence". Who the hell does that? Why couldn't Cliff eat a hoagie if he wanted to? What exactly is a "bacon-burger-dog"? God bless youth and innocence.
How is it that Earle Hyman, who played Grandpa Huxtable, never was featured as a regular on the opening credits? I never realized until watching this show in syndication just how many episodes he's on ... and he's on A LOT of them throughout the entire run. He's on FAR more than Sondra, Elvin and Martin, all of which are featured at some point on the opening credits. Not that I'm a huge fan of folksy, salt-of-the-earth Grandpa and his boring, longwinded stories, but if Cosby was going to feature him as much as he did he deserved to be on the opening credits.
The Cosby Show jumped when the kids all reached puberty. Much like my own children, when young they are cute; once they reach middle school age, however, they are terrors!
It's very hard to pinpoint when this show jumped. There are easy answers, yes. The presence of Olivia and Pam and the ridiculous character changes of Denise and Theo are very compelling jump-the-shark moments. But really, those complaints seem somewhat trite when you compare them to the very DANGEROUS underlying messages in the Cosby show. I am appalled at those who see the show as anti-male!! Don’t you see that the poor treatment of males on that show is really indicative of a more upsetting theme? The show (and probably Cosby himself) is vehemently anti-FEMALE! Think about how ALL the women on that show are portrayed. They’re either flighty airheads (Denise, Pam, Vanessa) or domineering, controlling bitches (Claire, Rudy, Sondra). And then Cliff schools the men on the show on how to “deal” with women?!?! It’s completely disgusting! And the Theo character change is extremely disturbing, particularly after seeing that misogynist, Bill Cosby being interviewed on the True Hollywood Story and proclaimed, “Malcolm [Jamal-Warner] was [his] favorite.” Theo (the only son) is suddenly the only child worth anything in the later seasons, complete with the do-gooder attitude toward school and the community and the “nice” girlfriend. Clearly Cosby was playing favorites…with the only son! But that isn’t even the worst part. By far, the most dangerous message that the Cosby Show broadcasts (loud and clear, by the way) is that people—African Americans in particular—are in complete control of their own destinies. It seems to say that if only these kids “had it together” enough to go to college, success is possible. This show completely ignores the possibility that racism is alive and well in the ‘80s (and beyond) and that certain structural issues endemic to American society can prevent all people, though mostly African Americans, from succeeding monetarily. Life is unfair and the Cosby Show sends the opposite message.
When every episode had to preach at the viewers how men are so rotten and stupid and how women are perfect in every way and do no wrong. Usually Claire would go on a feminist rant at somebody in the show and this got real annoying after a while! And as this show went on, the husbands just became bigger wimps and were whipped by the wives! And the wives still had to go on preaching about how rotten their husbands were no matter how much they did for the wives! This show jumped like M*A*S*H did when Alan Alda took over the show and started preaching his values at everybody! Quit telling me how I should live my life and how if I believe certain things then I'm a bad person! Just make me laugh and leave it at that!
I used to love "The Cosby Show" back in the late '80s, namely the first few seasons. Unfortunately the show totally jumped the shark not only once but twice with step-daughter Olivia and cousin Pam, the two most grating characters on the show.
Elvin, who changes his mind about med school in late '88 when the twins are born, thus would start med school sometime in '89 at the earliest and suddenly is a doctor by early '92 when he and Sondra buy a house? Sorry, not buying it. And the whole Elvin and Sondra patterning themselves exactly after Cliff and Claire as doctor and lawyer respectively. Equally uninspired and ridiculous.
The show jumped the shark when Claire started her supposedly well-placed preachings about how men never did anything right and women were completely perfect. Whenever a man even got close to revenge, he was foiled like he was evil and then preached to until his head exploded. It was sickening. Bill Cosby shouldn't have a) been as loose with writers or b)written such stupidity into his show. This is just pathetic, even for the late 80s.
To me, "The Cosby Show" jumped during the middle of its run when Claire Huxtable went from being average American wife and mother to Miss Perfection, who was beyond reproach. From the first episode it was established that Claire was a working mother (an attorney, at that) but she had her flaws- in the pilot she wanted Cliff "to kill" Theo because he got bad grades. Somewhere along the road however, Claire become flawless and became exasperated at the slightest imperfections in her children. Claire looks her nose down at Sondra, who forgoes law school to open a wilderness store with her husband. Claire frowns disapprovingly when Denise quits college to find herself. Claire throws Theo out of the house after discovering he was living with his girlfriend. Claire disapproves of Vanessa marrying a maintenance man. Claire nags Cliff to DEATH about his diet. And most annoyingly of all, Claire gets on her soapbox in each and every episode to espouse her views on why she is always right and never wrong. The world according to Claire- men are stupid, her children and husband stupider but Claire knows better then all of them. "Miss Perfection" (a.k.a.) Claire was the most condescending character ever to appear on television. When Claire stopped being "real" (or even bare any resemblance to reality), that's when "The Cosby Show" jumped the shark.
This show was great in the first 5 years. The kids were fun to watch, and at the time the show aired, it was a breath of fresh air to see parents disciplining their kids in TV Land once again! In 1989, however, The Cosby Show took a turn for the worst when Denise got married. She was only a little quirky when the show started, and apparently a really good student, but then suddenly she decided to go to Africa, where she "found love!" (I'm not kidding.) By no means do I have an elitist attitude, I just thought this was an assault on Denise's character. I also agree with those who said that Cliff and Clair became snobby, and that Theo's dyslexia wasn't consistent with his previous slacker-type behavior. I know that in real life, Ennis Cosby had dyslexia, but he really did try hard and had a hell of a time reading. Theo was portrayed as a slacker in the beginning of the show (which only made him more appealing), so Theo wasn't really like Ennis in that way. And why the hell did the girls suddenly get stupid, anyway?
When Olivia came. Her lack of funniness and predictibility ruined it, as did her obviously rehearsed lines.
Jumped the shark when cousin Pam came. I like that actress, but when she came, all of a sudden they could talk about issues like birth control and teen pregnancy, which they did only peripherally before. Remember the episode when Denise had a shower for her friend and later told her mother that the girl was getting married because she had to? And I seem to remember that Bill Cosby specifically said they would not deal with issues like that because it was a sitcom. This was early on when they started getting criticism about being unrealistic. Like middle to upper class blacks don't have to deal with those issues. I was really offended that they used her as an excuse to bring on these topics. I could handle Olivia and the new Denise, because sometimes they had funny episodes, but after Pam, I pretty much stopped watching.
The lip synching on Grandma/Grandpa's anniversaries. The first one with Rudy "BABY!" was cute. The second one with Theo singing "I got the Feeling" wasn't quite as good if only because it was a knock-off of the first one. But wait! 4+ years later, Cosby decided to recycle this plot a THIRD time with Olivia vainly attempting to charm her pseudo great-grandparents. I can understand the family going all out for their 50th golden anniversary, but who in hell would throw a huge party, buy extravagant gifts and lip synch and choreograph a whole lame ass routine for their 49th and 55th year anniversaries?? And why would Olivia care about Russell/Anna - the fact that she calls Cliff "Dr. Huxtable" rather than "Grandpa" says it all.
Rudy started talking more, obviously when she hits puberty and has the whole scenario with 'JT Freeze' and the Kenny/other boy love triangle
Overall, Bill Cosby has been one of my favourite all-time entertainers. I saw all the episodes but my enjoyment certainly dimmed over the years. The Cosby Show at the time WAS... what it was and WHEN it was too. I have no urge to watch any episodes in reruns and the same goes for A Different World. I have to agree with most of the common criticisms and support the accolades too. It was refreshing to see Black characters in a positive light and not marginalised as the maid or a hooker etc. Even when 'Cliff became the ultra-PC "African-American" flagship, he still had my support. We deserved to have this on American TV even if it took until the 1980s. Sure it became way too preachy and stepped on nearly half the JTS landmines but I'm still proud of Cos for making that show.
The show NEVER jumped! However, this is a perspective you can only have in 2004. Name one African American sitcom that overall was funny as all hell, realistic (yes middle class black poeple do exist), positive (no we don't all talk like the Parkers), and enduring (8 seasons ain't half bad and I'm still cracking up at the reruns in syndication) all at the same time. Now yes, the last season wasn't as good as the first, but the last season was still better than most other programs on today. I recently watched on of the Raven Simone episodes and I must say she was a cute and very funny character, even Pam and her friends were hilarious. And unlike the original Cosby kids, those actors went on to bigger and better things, which is a testament to their talents. It is not like Cosby brought a bunch of slackers to the table. With the exception of myabe Friends, few other showa have gone to bat with other hit shows and remained intact to the end(e.g., Cosby v. Simpsons). While it is certainly just some's opinion that it was the best show ever, it certainly must be given the respect and credit it is due. Thanks for listening.
I think I'm the only one who loved Olivia. I liked Rudy too but loved watching Olivia. I wanted to say they jumped the shark when Rudy got her period or grew a mustache but I really think it was when Pam showed up. I have no clue who she is each time I see her on the show. It is kind of annoying that this show revolved around there being no less than 4 kids running the joint at all times.
This show jumped when I realized the guy who played Denise's husband played a totally different character in one of the earlier episodes. He played a medical student who dated Sondra.
I enjoyed watching the Cosby Show for many years and could not believe what my realization was when watching it in reruns. Just watch how many times Cosby mentions money, makes his kids feel guilty over wanting money or wanting to stay in the family home or even wanting to change rooms. He did not mean it (I hope), but it is always there. Hardly an episode when money does not figure in some conversation. In an odd way, the parents' love of money and their possessions was stronger than their love for their children. How often do truly loving parents bring up the fact that the relatively-young children owe their parents for their room and board and education? or that they should get out of the house? or that they are a burden financially and emotionally? or that they mooch on their very rich parents? It is often implied that the Huxtable parents would like to be left alone with their money and possessions. In an episode that was played recently, Cliff said to himself that his step-grandchild was the only one who would be welcome because she would have a paycheck to give him for her expenses. It just seems perverted and it is a very poor example for families. In the back of my mind, and although I realize it was fiction, I hope that M/M Huxtable are left alone and that the children and grandchildren never visit or call. It would serve them right! But just watch and count the times money is brought up. It is sickening.
The opening theme of the second season (the first theme when they all dance 1985-86) when Phylicia Rashad first comes on and waves her bony index finger around for a split second. This began Claire's decent into a woman who is perfect, but at the same time a complete bitch, which lasts the remainder of the series. Nobody here has mentioned that truly awful and excruciating episode of Claire's birthday when Placido Domingo sings "Beseme Mucho" to Claire, because he and every other man on the planet supposedly get a hard-on just looking at Claire, that lasts about 10 minutes, all the while Placido's wife is sitting there with a dumb look on her face while he not so subtly comes on to her. And Claire, the egomaniac bitch she is, just sits there, has that stupid grin on her face while he worships her and eats it up with a spoon as she always does in these situations - of which there are far too many to mention. Truly sickening.
The Cosby Show never jumped the shark. There are some episodes that I don't enjoy too much throughout the whole run, but in the end it was still good. The introduction of Pam and her friends, I must say, didn't do much for me. Up until that point, the show had been about the Huxtable kids growing up and Cliff trying to get them out of the house. Pam had no place in the house simply because she wasn't a Huxtable. Cliff couldn't try to kick her out of there, so what was the point of her being there in the first place? He couldn't even tell her what to do! Pam and her friends just hung around the house - no conflict, nothing. Anyway, even if there were some questionably unentertaining episodes, the show continued all the way until Cosby and Rashaad walked off of the set on the last episode. I must admit, though - the episode where Cliff throws a funeral for Rudy's goldfish may be the best episode that The Cosby Show ever produced.
As an alumnus of New York University (NYU), I am more than a little insulted that the character of Theo Huxtable is used to personify the typical NYU student. This is the same high school student who, perhaps because of his undiagnosed dyslexia, could not grasp Shakespeare's MacBeth and scored below average to average grades in Mrs. Westlake's geometry class, among other things. Claire even remarks in the series finale how she and Cliff were worried that Theo might have not graduated from high school. NYU does not accept C-average or B-average high school students. As bad as his grades and dyslexia are portrayed, there is no way in hell that Theo would have been accepted to NYU, even by 1988 standards, let alone survive NYU.
Having grown up in the 80s, the Cosby Show among others was a staple of life! It has always been a brilliant show, but I would have to say that by season 5, it did start to get on my nerves especially when Theo started at NYU and his friends Denny and Howard became recurring characters. They didn't have the same impact as the sorely missed Cockroach. Also I always thought that the season’s new opening credits was just a bit self-indulgent for Mr. Cosby (as EVERYONE must call him)...everyone just dancing around for him and then gathering around him like he was the self-proclaimed ‘god of education.’ Did I forget to mention Vanessa’s...was that an afro...hair? I could never tell what that was on her head! I personally didn’t mind little Raven-Symone (Olivia) in season 6 cause Rudy was never my favorite anyway. In fact I liked Raven better! I was happy to see Denise back for that time as well. So my vote is for season 5.
Elvin was a total bonehead and his worst moment occured, coincidentally, during the most cliched of all shark-jumping moments: the birth of twins. It wasn't enough that they decided to "surprise" the viewers by giving Elvin and Sandra twins (how original) but then Elvin decided that it was the perfect moment to announce that he was going back to medical school. The man has a low-paying job that barely pays enough to support his new babies. So, of course, he makes the wise decision that going through the huge expense of becoming a doctor is the best thing to do. How selfish and absent-minded is he? Well, that's not even the most selfish part of his decision. He does this, fully knowing that it's his in-laws who will be supporting him, his family and paying his tuition! What a loser.
This show started sucking in a major way when Rudy started going through puberty. There was an entire episode about other girls getting breast and ANOTHER episode about her period. Oh the humanity!! Too bad. The first 6 seasons contain some of the best sitcom writing ever and excellent family values.
Oh where to begin... This show, like "Friends", is one of those that made me just sit back and laugh hysterically - at the bandwagon-jumping American TV-viewing public who watched this "hilarious" show because they knew they were supposed to. I will say the ONE funny thing about this show was Lisa Bonet as the flaky and funky Denise - I was really disappointed when she was axed from "A Different World", a show I really thought was great! But back to horror of "Cosby"... Okay, why did everyone rave about how this show was so great for black role models - I mean, I'm not saying they should've been speaking in ebonics or anything, but come on... "Living Single", in my opinion, was by far a much more entertaining, positive and accurate depiction of black Americans. These people (the Huxtables) had no flava! The worst was the most annoying child actor ever, that god-awful Olivia! I remember being about 15 and watching an episode where Olivia was running around the Huxtable's ornate living room and performing "Pop Goes The Weasle" and Bill was making those idiotic "funny faces", bugging his eyes out and the studio audience was laughing uproariously - I mean, was the "Applause" sign attached to their seats with an electric-chair type device? And when those annoying grandparents started appearing in every other episode - puhlease! Old people are great on "The Golden Girls", but not in this drivel. I remember the Stevie Wonder episode, but not the "Jammin' on the One" part of it - I may have to try and catch it on "Nick and Nite" so I can make fun of it! A complaint against "The Cosby Show" would not be complete without an attack on that "master of comedy", Bill Cosby himself - I know from a producer who worked on the show he wanted his TV not dating ANY white people - oooh, reverse discrimination, great way to capture the audience's heart Bill! Then firing Lisa Bonet - none of your pathetic audience cared if she got kinky with Mickey Rourke in "Angel Heart" - oh wait, he was white, wasn't he - maybe the "no whites" rule applied to other roles outside of this show! Also, he is a damn cheating husband - that secret daughter of his he was paying off, plus if you read supermodel Janice Dickinson's autobiography, Cos tries to seduce her wrapped in a bath towel (yuck!) and doesn't go through his "talent development" plans for her when she turns him away in an act of extremely good taste. Although one thing he does get my utmost sympathy for was when that commie car jacker murdered his son Ennis - that was truly tragic.
This show never jumped the shark! The persons or people who are claiming don't have families or a strong and stable form of support from a group of people. I am currently 18 and only remember the last two seasons of this show but from what I have seen in reruns, I AM IMPRESSED! This show presented situations of a family, that's it A FAMILY!!!! They were a family first, the secondary things such as being black, successful, non-acting, bad-looking were just that secondary. I read an interview with Cosby and he says he is familiar with websites like this and says no matter when people thought he should have pulled the plug on his show, his show accomplished one thing----FAMILIES WATCHED IT!!! Just like families watched Step By Step, Family Matters, Thats So Raven, Just the Ten of Us, Bernie Mac, My Wife and My Kids, Everybody Loves Raymond---for the simple fact that they could know (*if even fictional) that they weren't the only ones going through it. And far as people who said that the show wasn't realistic, it was for me, we had creative punishments, college drop-outs, and who would want to stop their education at a bachelors or high school diploma, why not go for the Masters, Heathcliff and Clair weren't asking for much. The Cosbys was a great show that at one point made us feel special and warm, on one cold thursday night. And another thing for those who said Rudy was ugly during puberty (the latter seasons) e-mail me if you were hot and sexy during puberty. I Love the Cosby's and I miss it! The minute one of them dies everyone will fall in love with it again and laugh right along. And for those who say they weren't black, lets not even get started----WHY? BECAUSE THEY WEREN'T HAVING BASTARDS, GETTING HIGH, OR FIGHTING EACH OTHER OVER MONEY! In closing, next time you watch it Just think of that time when you had to be in before the street lights came on, you had balls at the end of your hair, and the only disagreements you had were who was going count the feet in the circle before a game of its or hide and go seek. THIS IS THE BEST ELEVATOR MUSIC I EVER HEARD!!!!!!!
To those questioning the realism of The Cosby Show, I think you have to draw a definite distinction between Cliff/Claire and the kids. All of the kids had their varying degrees of problems and flaws at various times, some more realistic than others. However, Cliff and Claire are the most sickening and disgustingly perfect couple on 1980s TV. These 2 never EVER had even a halfway serious quarrel ... and whenever they attempted to "fight" it was always over something so stupid and trivial (eg., Cliff's diet). But the vast majority of the time Cliff and Claire are all so cutesy-pie, kissy-face, and so damn agreeable with each other it is nauseating - and after 25(?) years of marriage to boot! The ultimate "functional" couple. Yeah, right!
I'm a fan of a lot of the episodes, and can even tolerate Claire and Cliff's money and education attitudes -- my parents act like them a lot of the time, and I tend to think that most people, no matter how wrong it seems, have an attitude similar to Cliare and Cliff -- you know, that you're nothing without college, you SHOULD go to college, you SHOULD do what your parents want to, and things like that; that being said, I would say that this show jumps the shark after that pregnant men episode. What does that have to do with anything? It's more annoying to watch than it would be considered funny. Most of the episodes after this one make me want to change the channel and wait for Roseanne or Cheers to come on.
This comedy has always been great. It truly defined a television show, it portrayed African Americans in the right of way as the media didn't. The Cosby show always had great comedy, no matter what it was when Theo got his earring. When Rudy and Vanessa could not just stop fighting and Bill Cosby made them live in the basement for a few hours. Even when the Huxtable residence was full of people, it always was funny. When Martin and Denise were introduced as a married couple, when Olivia went on her field trip, even when the twins and Elvin and Sandra had to live there. From the meekest moments in their children and families lives, Clair and Heathcliff or Clifford otherwise noted in early episodes of the show, have always shown that they were there, when someone needed a place to stay..they were there, when Pam wanted to go to college..they were there, and they were there even to see Theo graduate from college in the last two episodes of college and Bill Cosby had a flashback to when Theo was 14 and he had to go up stairs and talk to him about his grades (The first Episode.) This show pioneered the way of television in the 1980-early 1990s. This television show is the definition of situation comedy. Bill Cosby believes and still does believe that you dont need to have profanity to be funny. He displays this in this hilarious situation comedy. When times were good or bad, this show has always been a constant. We must never forget The Cosby show, nor how it has never jumped.
1. When Rudy grew up and became an ugly whining brat. 2. When Denise went to Africa and came back married with a stepdaughter. 3. The aforementioned stepdaughter, Olivia. Annoying! 4. That whole time period when Pam/Charmaine/Lance were on just about every single show. 5. The 2nd (and 3rd, and 4th, etc) time that they did the lip synching for the grandparent's anniversary or birthday or whatever. The first time was mad funny. I know this is probably hard to beleive after reading this, but I actually used to love the Cosby Show.
I'll agree with the previous posters that said the Cosby Show presented African Americans in a positive light, but this show and Family Ties, which ran alongside the Cosby Show for part of its run, produced perhaps the blandest hour of television entertainment in the last three decades. I found its wealth-means-success attitude at times unbearable. As far as it being the FIRST show to present black people in a good manner I have to disagree. Shows like "the Jeffersons" were based on the premise that a working-class person like George Jefferson could succeed through hard work and then reap the benefits of his success. Jefferson's struggles seemed to centred more around him being accepted in a world different from the one he grew up in while Cosby seemed to be telling everyone from high up on his pile of wealth that everyone should do the same as him and if they didn't, they were worth nothing. Even a show like "Good Times", which took place in the projects, portrayed a black family in which the father and mother were trying to instill in their children a sense for doing the right thing in spite of the conditions they had to endure. I'd rather watch James and Florida telling JJ, Thelma and Michael not to give up on their dreams than see Cosby chiding anyone around him who wanted to do anything other than be a doctor or a lawyer or a lecturer.
All the guest stars on the Cosby show taught us one thing: No matter how bad things may seem, just know that sooner or later a Jazz musician will drop by and fix everything.
Geez, cant they kick anyone out of that damn house? By the end of the series, I think the only one who they finally managed to kick out was Sondra and her family. I think Vanessa was also out too, but whatever. Its nearly impossible to have a house with that many people in it
As time goes on, "The Cosby Show" increasingly reeks from the same blandness and patness as "The Brady Bunch." Take race out of the equation and they are practically interchangeable.
The Cosby Show was one of the best comedies of the '80s and still holds up well today. That is until the later episodes, about the final two seasons, when suddenly Grandpa Huxtable is in every episode, that one daughter marries that unfunny guy in the Marines, Raven Symone replaces the "no-longer-adorable" Rudy and Theo gets all serious about his life. What a letdown. Shame on the writers for destroying this show.
You know, for parents who hold such high standards for their children, Cliff and Clair didn't do that good a job with their daughters. Cliff didn't like Elvin, but Sondra married him anyway. Then they dropped out of college for a while. Denise dropped out of college, then married Martin, a man Cliff & Clair had no knowledge of. Why did they let Denise get married? Most of the time, Martin was away. (Was this while he was Justus on General Hospital? I can't remember.) For a while, Vanessa was engaged to Dabnis, a man twice her age, that Cliff & Clair had no knowledge of. I guess Rudy was too young to get herself in any similar situations. (BTW, did you know that they changed Cliff's given name from "Clifford" to "Heathcliff?" On the earlier episodes, there's a sign next to the outside door to his office that reads "Clifford Huxtable.")
Olivia was SO annoying! Was there really a reason for putting her in there? I mean, Sondra & Elvin already had Winnie & Nelson. They'd grow up soon enough. But no...the producers of this show didn't want to wait a couple of years so they brought Olivia on. I especially wanted to wretch when she was trying to convince Cliff that she had grown a couple of inches since the day before."I KNOW my body!" Oh puhLEEEZZEE!!!
Jumped when Raven Symone was brought in to replace no longer cute Keshia Knight Pulliam, who TRIED to be cute waaaaaaay too long - I always cringe during the opening sequence of the fourth or fifth season (the one where Cliff is wearing a tux and the theme song is kind of jazzy-bluesy)watching 10 or 11 year old Rudy make that face like she's an oh so adorable 4 year old). Why not just let the youngest kid grow up, without replacing her? But as long as Olivia was in the household, did it bother anyone else that she had to call Cliff and Claire "Dr. and Mrs. Huxtable"? Nice message to send to stepchildren, Bill.
When Lisa Bonet returned with a husband and a step-child. "The Cosby Show" survived the traditional spin-off formula for disaster, forfeiting a character present at the beginning to a new show, while maintaining a five-year stranglehold on the Neilsen throne. "A Diff'rent World" was built around Lisa Bonet, but her pregnancy and complacent approach to rehearsal forced her out after only one season. Executive producer and mentor Bill Cosby was greatly disturbed by all of this. The last thing Cosby and his creative team wanted after successfully painting a positive picture of family life was to address single parenthood for a college student. Writers felt these issues would be better handled on "The Cosby Show" than on "A Different World". Bonet took the year off to have her baby. This provided enough time for writers to shape Denise's future. She returned married with a step-daughter, having side-stepped a pregnancy being written into the script. Martin Kendall was a fine character and Olivia was quite the little charmer. Their arrivals weren't the actual downward spiral. The Kendalls provided ideas for scripts, but not enough to last an entire season. As the sixth season neared an end, it was obvious writers were scraping the bottom of the barrel: dream sequences and pregnant men. Bummed for ideas is one thing, but that was just plain silly. It must be a rule for top-rated shows: the longer the stay, the louder the thud when it crashes!
The Cosby Show jumped the shark in the second season when the Cos, and kids started wearing designer outfits. Why did this cause a jump? Because the whole charming premise of the first season was that there was an upper-middle class who had money but had the same day-to-day minor hiccups as most families in America: their house was a mess (recall very first episode), appliances were breaking down, dealing with teenage angst, etc. The audience could relate to the Huxtables in Season 1. If you recall in the episode where Theo gets his "Gordon Gartrell" shirt, Cliff exclaims, "Even I don't own a $95 dollar shirt, and I have a job!" Yet the next season, not only did Cliff have $95 shirts, but $500 one of a kind sweaters to go with. In fact, the whole family were wearing designer outfits even when they are just lounging around the house! That focus on style over substance opened the door for the subsequent silly episodes: They meet celebrities almost every week, self-serving political messages, the "race card" and -- as other posters have mentioned -- an air of elitism. It was the mid-80's, and the "me" decade, and it was fashion that killed the video stars!
I'd say this show kind of started to approach the shark when the kids just got to old. It's not anybody's fault; that's just what happens. I liked Olivia; I don't know why everyone thinks she killed the show. I voted that the show jumped when Pam came into it. I still don't get what the point was of adding Pam, Lance, and Charmaine. What purpose did they serve? Also, there were too many changes. Earlier in the show, one part of the show that we all knew was that Theo was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. In the later years he was this really smart, mature, responsible, admirable man. Denise became an airhead. Vanessa quite as bad towards the end as she was in the middle. I was looking through the posts; does anybody remember (in the fifth season) when Rudy and Vanessa wouldn't stop fighting? Vanessa was acting like a seven-year-old! It was stupid. And the show never even addressed that little issue. I never had a problem with the fantasy episodes, like the one with the Muppets or the episode where there was some volcano eruption that poisoned the water and men who drank it could become pregnant. Then of course there is the fact that the show was totally realistic. A doctor and a lawyer (married) with five kids, who have a perfectly clean household (except in the first episode) and have done a wonderful job raising their kids, without the help of any type of maid or nanny? It couldn't happen! Doctors and lawyers are too busy in their jobs and to have five kids they would have had to have a maid or something. Oh yeah and Clair even spoke fluent Spanish. And does anybody remember the episode where Theo's teacher from Brazil came over and Clair started conversing with her in Portugese?!?!? PuhLEEZE! Anyway, though, the earlier part of the show it was good and a great comedy. In the later years it was just very boring and dull.
I don't think this show ever really jumped... maybe Cousin Pam, but it was still good even then. Olivia was adorable and played by a great child actress! I mean, Rudy grew up so they had to do SOMETHING. Also I think it's realistic that the children had a hard time becoming financially independent in an expensive city like NYC (although Cliff's constant complaining about crowdedness got a little tired). I liked Denise's husband Martin as a character, plus he was REALLY good-looking! Theo getting all serious never bothered me; we all have to grow up sometime. Vanessa and also Sondra's crew I could always take or leave, they were just OK. One thing, though... does anyone else have trouble believing that Sondra and Denise could possibly be the genetic offspring of Cliff and Clair? I think they must have had a white milkman in their early years of marriage!
A few of the later episodes aren't as good as the earlier ones, but even those are better than most sitcoms today The Cosby Show managed to be funny without any gutter humor. It is easy to make jokes when they are all about drugs and sex, but this show found the humor in everyday life.
Though I agree that this was the best family sitcom in television history, I will admit that it got a little strange toward the end. However, I must ask, have you people ever actually met real people?? Have you grown up in actual families? Have you ever actually watched any other sitcoms? If you answered yes to any of the previous questions you would know that no one is perfect and most people change. Theo matured...great...it happens. Rudy got less cute...great...that happened to you too. Vanessa was immature...if you don't have an immature sibling...then YOU are the immature sibling. Saundra was boring...Is it unrealisitc to believe that the daughter of two professionals would be quite tame? Lisa Bonet was the weird one...every family has a rebel... That is what you get when you have five kids...everyone is different and no one is perfect. I thought the show was quite realistic, but c'mon, if it were "REAL" it would be life and not entertainment. The acting on this show was as good as the acting on any other great sitcom. And as with any sitcom, this one explored different issues that many families have to face. Kids do elope. Cousins do have to move in. The house can stay clean. Corny couples name their kids cheesy names. But who am I to speak about what is realistic...I'm just your average black girl raised by a doctor mother and engineer Ph.D. father who spent plenty of time with their children...by the way...my parents, my siblings and I sang, danced, and spent plenty time with our gandparents and extended family.
I have to say the show jumped when Olivia became the center of attention of the show. I think a distinction has to be made in that I don't believe that the show jumped automatically when she joined the cast (AKA, the "New Kid in Town" jump). It was a fair addition to the cast, and they needed the cute kid now that Rudy was becoming a brooding adolescent. Rather, it was because they eventually changed the focus of the show from Cliff to Olivia. She was worked into so many scenes for no other reason than they wanted to milk her cuteness for all they could get out of it. I just recently realized how the show had changed, now that it's on Nick at Nite. I think the one scene that convinced me was where Olivia was telling Cliff about where babies came from. After that, I really got irked at how Olivia seemed to be on camera about half the time.
When the Cosby Show children grew up and the writers had to find another focus... so they bring in Denise's stepdaughter Olivia. Granted that Denise herself disappears not too long after, but Olivia remains. The shows focused less on Cliff's chiding of his children's hijinks and more on Olivia trying to be really cute and Cliff basically foreshadowing his role of host on "Kids Say the Darndest Things". I know the children grow up and mature, so making them the comic focus becomes more challenging, but they should have had more new focuses besides Olivia.
I have to admit, I love Bill Cosby and I think he's funny and very entertaining. I enjoyed his show but I realize a lot of things. Olivia was really downright annoying! She really did send Cosby Show into it's downfall. The male bashing- what kind of herbs are these men? It's sad that Elvin, who in his beginning was chauvinistic towards females, became a real herb after he married Sondra and his in-laws took control. Sondra would frequently complain about him being the way he was, next thing we know she owns him. When Martin came, I mean, he's a navy man! Outside of it, he's being ran by Denise?! I mean, did he not learn anything about discipline and control in the navy? Clair- so much to say! What a bitch! No matter the circumstance, she always found a way to think shes right. The football episode really showed it too. I mean, 3 people tackled Rudy, um....THATS THE RULES! THATS FOOTBALL! Then she fusses that 1 should only tackle and then feels someone should smack them. And people worshipped the woman. From Placido Domingo, to the man sitting the back room watching that lame TV show she did with those other attorneys, amongst others. Esp Cliff, when she would bitch about his eating habits. He pays for the food and mind you, your shelter, and gives you a lot of love, let the man eat what he wants! AND finally, as Cos portrays a doctor, who does Clair think she is trying to tell Cliff what to do when someone gets hurt, esp the episode where Rudy gets hurt playing circus with Theo? He's the doctor, what he says should go! You're a bitchy attorney who is nothing but a know-it-all! Clair was always spoiled as she always got her way. She never thought of anyone beyond herself, except for a few things. Now I loved Rudy. She did get old, considering she was that girl with the missing teeth, who aged and eventually was replaced by Olivia, but she really didn't get ugly. Back to my women point, when her friend Bud/Kenny would say something chauvinistic, the women took exception to it. Be it Clair, Rudy, etc. But it was okay to offend the men all they want right? Sondra was annoying. Especially when the grandmothers take the babies away while she was sick. Okay, it was a funny episode, but I mean, freaking out even when your relatives are taking care of your children?! Theo was fine. He never exactly dealt with Vanessa, Sondra or Denise's crap. He and Rudy mixed well. The only three likables are Cos, Rudy, and Theo. Vanessa was annoying! She was innocent in her beginnings, annoying and ridiculous here and there, but as her teen years passed, she became a rebel, doing things like drinking and sneaking off to Baltimore. Denise- Okay, Cos had no business butting into her outside life, but she was a rebel and said the most dumbest of things ever, esp during her 2nd run around. She would say things a 9th grader would say. Cos- Hilariously funny, loved seeing him get busted whenever that came. But how he dealt with his kids, no matter how severe the trouble, he was always calm and loving, especially while Clair would rant. Grandma and Grandpa Huxtable were alright, but once again, the grandma had control, but I loved the Grandpa. He came on more in the last few seasons, but he was good. That's how a grandpa oughta be. I won't go into Pam and her friends- the episodes on them were borefests and probably one of the biggest signs that signaled Cosby's end. Some repeated previous episodes, such as when Cliff entertained the little kids. First, circa 1985, he entertained for Rudy and her friends, then I think it was 1989, he did the same for Olivia, only it was with 4 year olds as to a 6 year old Rudy in 1985. Final thought- the dancing in the opening credits sucked, much as the music was cool. I liked the 5th season music (1988), but the dancing in Hawaiian clothes on a beach setting was rather lame.
I liked The Cosby Show until the episode when Heathcliff's father played with his old jazz combo in a nightclub, and when he did his solo the only people standing in the audience were the Huxtable clan, jumping up and down, excited, and blocking the view of the people sitting behind them. I thought to myself, these people are arrogant, and they think they're special. It was like the success of the show made the whole cast smug and overly proud of themselves. In the Hillman college episode, at the graduation ceremony Heathcliff gets asked, for some reason to moderate the ceremony and Claire gives a solo in the choir. Why them? Why are the Huxtables so special that they dominated the ceremony? What really finished me with the show was Sondra's husband Eldon. Boy was that character lame, weak and chauvanistic, and Claire and Heathcliff treated him with such judgemental contempt that I couldn't keep watching the show. I feel toward Eldon like I felt for Darlene's weak-lame boyfriend-husband who ruined her life on Roseanne. There should be a category for this that causes good shows to jump the shark--lame boyfriends who become sons in law.
Bill Cosby is one of the greatest standup comics of all time. His albums from the 60's are classics. I liked his BILL COSBY SHOW with Bill as Chet Kincaid, the basketball coach. Oh yeah, I sort of liked I SPY also. However, everything else he has done aince has come up short IMHO. I think THE COSBY SHOW was okay but could have been better. It was too bland. I watched it like everybody else in the country. Down through the years I've probably seen every episode. I liked the way the show ended with Theo graduating. After all, the show began with Bill threatening to take Theo out of the world if he didn't start trying in school. Olivia was brought in to give Bill someone to talk to- after all, he's always better with smaller kids. The big kids all thought he was losing his mind on the show. I think THE COSBY SHOW is fine family entertainment, nothing wrong with that, just not edgy enough for me.
This showed jumped quite a bit. 1) When it focused too much on the grandparents - who were B-O-R-I-N-G and lifeless 2) When Claire became "perfect" and above it all, and Cliff was basically a schlubby guy. (This also became a plot for many a tv sitcom and commercial to come - perfect, beautiful, smug wife and goofy (fat, whipped husband.) 3) When I realized that Phylicia Rashad was less than ten years older than the actress playing her oldest daughter - it's true - go to imdb.com. She's closer to her age than she is to Bill. 4) When Olivia came around. Am so surprised that actress has not ended like Dana Plato. She always struck me as some spoiled, sheltered little doll whose life would peak at eight years old. 5) When Pam came on the scene. Didn't think she was so bad, but you just know that kind of thing is shark bait to a show. This show had it's moments the first year, but just when downhill when they started making everyone so sterile. I understood that was in reaction to the sometimes exploitative black themed shows of the past, like Good Times and The Jeffersons. The writers created an atmosphere that was very positive, hell, when I was kid, I wanted to live in that house. But it avoided a lot of reality at times that even lesser shows would touch upon. Maybe that was the point!
Good Lord. When *didn't* this show jump the shark? It featured more grandparents than a half-price deal at Denny's. Eventually, I couldn't keep track of who was supposed to have sired whom. And what was up with that mystery grandparent who showed up at Hillman? Grammy Tee, or something? Who the hell was she supposed to be related to? They never saw fit to mention her character before, but nonetheless, everyone treated her like she was the Second Coming or something. And apropos of nothing, what was the deal with the voice/accent of Cliff's dad? Great googlymoogly, he sounded like someone who failed to nail the audition for Scooby Doo villain, for being wayyyy too over the top. This is certainly not politically correct to say, but come on, was I the only one who grew just a wee bit tired of all the Africa stuff? I'm not putting down the continent, as I've never been there, but geez...at one point everyone in the cast seemed to be sporting traditional African tribal garments, quoting African poets, telling stories about African places, customs, languages, leaders and what have you. The show seemed to turn into one big, undending Black History Month PSA. That would have been okay once in a while, but every week? Frankly, I was nauseated by having to watch whatever was left of the Cosby clan hanging off the edge of their seats, to hear the pearls of wisdom offered by all the obscure 'special guest stars' who turned the sitcom into a soapbox, week after week. I almost expected them to say 'and that's one to grow on!' at the end of their rants. And oh dear God, the 'family effort' singing and dancing numbers. Aaaaaaaaaaaaack. I'm not sure anything I type here will convey how offensive and contrived I found that. Actually, this type of musical nonsense ruins just about any show, in my opinion--including 'The Simpsons'. Maybe I should add an entry over there. Yes, Rudy's 'stache. Geez, couldn't someone have slipped that poor girl a bottle of Nair or something? The close-ups on that 'facial hair malfunction' were cringeworthy. The lame--and thankfully rare--attempts to weave Cliff's patients into a plot never worked, and positively reeked of spin-off hopes gone wrong. That episode where Cliff tried to show the 'clumsy white dude' how to toss a basketball was just embarrassing. I mean, come on! Does your OBGYN invite you back to his place to shoot hoops 'cause you're uncoordinated? I don't think so. Yes, the 'SD' pin was quite irritating. I Googled it a while back it to figure out what the heck it was supposed to mean, and I seem to remember it had something to do with Ray Charles' death, or something. But come on, Cosby...how was anyone supposed to piece that together? And even if they were able to, did you have to make the thing the size of a pie plate? And wear it over everything from pajamas to your bath towel? Cripes! I'm probably leaving a lot out, but I guess the number one thing that bothered me about the Cosby Show was all the MUGGING. No, not as in robberies. As in facial contortions. Whether it was Cliff's stupid smirk on the opening credits (I wanted to punch him--especially in the one where he does the finger waving over the eyes bit), Claire's one-of-only-three possible expressions (smug, mad or fakely serene), or the cutesy kids attempting to tug at the heartstrings of the audience, the mugging drove me mental. And hey, add another vote from someone who thought Pam was 'not so bad'. I'm not sure why she was loathed so much. In my opinion, she was a better character--and actress--than many who appeared on the show over the years.
To the poster one above: Cousin Pam wasn't "bad". I think the problem people have with Pam is that she just did not fit in with the context of the by-then well established show. The stories revolving around Pam and her "afterschool special" problems and issues simply did not mesh well when juxtaposed against the squeaky clean Huxtables. Especially the first few episodes with Pam and that godawful 2 part story about Pam wanting birth control pills. First of all, who IS Pam? The show never explains HOW she is related to the Huxtables. Whose cousin is she - Cliff's, Clair's, the kids'? Second, why is the audience supposed to suddenly care about somebody never mentioned or shown before to the point of devoting episodes almost exclusive to her? The character of Pam would have been much better suited as a separate, spin-off show. Of course, the implication of this is that life is supposedly a breeze for educated, upwardly mobile middle to upper class families - i.e., the Huxtables. This notion is underscored by Cosby's treatment of Denise and how it is beaten over the heads of the audience that one is doomed as an utter failure in life if higher education is not pursued to its fullest. Back to Pam: One will notice during the two Cousin Pam seasons is that Cosby gradually deemphasized Pam and her "problems" and made her pretty much blend in with the rest of the family by series end.
OLIVIA! What a brat! I don't know what possessed the producers of The Cosby Show to put her in. OK...granted Rudy had gotten out of the "overly cute" stage. But there was still Sondra & Elvin's twins Winnie & Nelson. And those poor kids weren't even given half a chance
For me, the show JTS both times Lisa Bonet's Denise leaves the show. The first time when she left for 'A Different World' and the second time when she was fired from the show in the middle of season 7. I related so much to the character of Denise. Not wanting pressure, struggling in college, not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, enjoying summer vacation. I remember a particular scene in season 7. It was the episode where Vanessa wrecks the car. The parents confront the kids on all the things they say and do that annoy them. The kids fight back by telling Cliff & Clair about the things THEY do that annoys the kids. It was the first time in a LONG time that the six original cast members shared a scene together. No Olivia, no Sondra, no Elvin, no cousin Pam. Just Cliff, Clair, Denise, Theo, Vanessa, and Rudy. These were the characters we loved and the characters that made the show great. This would be the last time that the six originals would all be in a scene together because Lisa Bonet was fired shortly afterwards. Seasons 1,2,6, & first half of seasons 5 & 7 were definitely my favorites.
THE COSBY SHOW began as a smart and relatively entertaining sitcom about an upper middle class black family living in Brooklyn. The father was a doctor and the mother was a lawyer (yeah, there are just millions of black doctors out there married to black lawyers, but I digree)and they had four, oops, five kids. Remember in the pilot when Clair asked Cliff, "Why do we have four children?" and he replies "Because we didn't want five." A few episodes later, Sondra, the forgotten Huxtable daughter returns from Princeton to announce she wants to run off to Paris for the summer. Again, I digress. THE COSBY SHOW jumped when, similar to the Alan Alda/M*A*S*H syndrome, Mr Cosby just got full of himself and decided he could pass off just about anything as a half-hour of entertainment. Remember when they went back to Hillman because the president was retiring and Clair sang with the choir? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Or when Cliff ran in those races? What made Mr. Cosby think we would find it entertaining to watch him running around a track in too-tight shorts for twenty minutes. Or when his father had a reunion with the jazz band he played with five hundred years ago? Don't get me wrong, there were some gems along the way: the lip-synching episodes were fabulous. I still laugh when I picture Rudy lip-synching to James Brown: "Baby, baby, baby...". I also loved when Cliff and Clair decided to introduce Theo to the "real world" and took all the stuff out of his bedroom and Cliff became his landlord, Harley Wewax. I loved when Cliff and Clair were both aggravated by Denise's boyfriend David, played by Kristoff St. John, who mocked both of their careers. But around the 3rd or 4th season, Mr. Cosby just got full of himself and thought he could do no wrong. I learned from E TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY that he fired Carl Payne, who played Theo's buddy, Cockroach, because he wouldn't get a haircut. I would also agree with the consensus of posters that the entrance of Raven Symone, the most annoying child actor since Robbie Rist, was the final nail on the coffin for this show. THE COSBY SHOW was a great idea in theory that just went horribly wrong due to the overinflated ego of its star.
Several shark-jumps, almost simultaneously: Cousin Pam (okay, what family-regardless of color-calls their cousin "Cousin ______ [Oliver, Pam, etc...]); ANNOYING little snit Olivia (what was with those stupid onesie/jumpsuit-type outfits they used to put on her, anyway??); Rudy hitting puberty (thus, the mustache!!); Cliff's sudden "jump" to haute couture..."Chess King" caled-they want their sweaters back!! (to his credit, though, they were definitely very representative of the '80's!!)
Well, I feel this show never jumped the shark, but there are things that get on your nerves in it. First of all, most of the people I've read about are right, Clair in the Coby Show has to much power, I'm like what is this, I just got done watching the episode, "Theogate", and Clair always gets her way and is always right, she makes me sick. Also, how can she tell Cliff what to do, he is the man of the house and also a doctor, I know they are one united since they're married, but if he wants a sndwhich, he can have one. Also, with Denise, the worse actor in the show and in the WORLD!!!, because 1. look at her hair, it is a disgrace, whoever said she was the best character, you don't know what a good character is. But anyway, she wearsthe worst things and takes things to serious, the only episode I did like Denise is the episode called "Hillman". But on Denise's military husband... what on earth? He's such a suck up and always gives Denise her way, it's ridiculous and doesn't make any sense at all. As for Sondra, Elvin, and the kids, they are a disgrace to the show... when Clair and Cliff said, "Why did we have 4 kids", they should have kept it that way. Sondra and the gang are the worst people in the whole show....EVER!!!!! Sondra, is like Denise so serious and doesn't take things to consideration, and Elvin's dumb*** sucks up to her b****y authority. The men in this show need to take charge and claim what's theirs. If Elvin couldn't handle a fine girl like Sondra, then why on Earth did he get married and have kids with her? To let "HER" boss him around, no they both should have a fair say. As far as their dumb kids, they were now cute or anything near that at all, they were annoying, and on the episode, "Cliff Babysits", he can't even control them. I swear I would have beat the crap out of those kids, mine or not. And who names their kids Winnie and Nelson? Not smart. But overall, the Cosby Show is a great show, but at first I didn't like it. Though I wasn't around from 1984-1990, I have to watch the re-runs. I wish I could have seen it as a kid. But to the directors and Bill Cosby, the show isn't realistic, no regular family does the silly things they do, though it is television and some of it is funny, if someone were to do this in real life, I wouldn't be suprised if they got killed pulling crap like that, also to Bill Cosby, why the heck did you kick Cockroach off the show, just because he refused to cut his HAIR?, hair com'on now. If your dumb enough to kick Cockroach off for that, Denise should have never been on the dog'on show, she looked worse than Cockroach with or without his hair wild. And if anyone is dumb enough to marry and none the less get pregnat by Lenny Kravitz, get the heck off any show. Denise is a phyco. The only people worth talking about on the show, is sometimes Bill Cosby, Theo, Rudy when she was little, Cockroach, and Olivia. She might be grown for her age, but she was cute, and still looks good now. She might have destroyed that generation, but in this one she good. And for some person, you'er right, the Cosby Show would never stand a chance in this age in time, all of them would get killed or something bad would happed to them. Though I critisized a lot I love this show and will remain watching it unless I keep reading the stuff you people put out on this site, but most of you guys are right. But yall make me pissed at the character
The only time the Cosby Show came close to jumping the shark was when they started becoming issue oriented, and you can tell THE COS was not comfortable doing shows like that. Cosby kept me in stitches laughing as a kid when I listened to his records. (NOAH!!!!!) and also, as an adult watching his shows, it was comedy we could all relate to, both as adults and as children. I’ve used some of THE COS’s lines on my own kids. Otherwise, this show was virtually sharkproof. I also liked the fact that they didn’t shove their “blackness” down your throat, because it was a show we could all relate to. One of my favorite episodes is when Vanessa came home drunk after playing some stupid game with her college/high school friends. I wish I could remember all of it, but in the end, her mother and father found out about it and gathered the whole family around to play the same game. MAN, THAT WAS HILARIOUS. Especially at the end when you found out they were drinking tea instead of whiskey. It got its point across without banging you over the head with it. The point being that doing stupid things leads to dire consequences, not only to yourself but those around you. That episode was priceless.
The fact is, white people needed to see another side of black people. As a black person, I recognize that some elements (namely the anniversary performances) were Hollywood. Not only that, but when Cosby realized that he had a show that people were paying attention, he decided to give back to his community by promoting HBC's (for those who don't get it: Historically Black Colleges) which provide tremendous opportunities to students of color. Many people would stick to their local state universities and not research and find out about these schools without hearing about them from Cosby. Also, even though their family was upper-middle class and proper, that doesn't mean that all of the aunts and cousins were. I have several "Cousin Pam"s in my family and they have stayed with my family every now and again. As for the kids, people change. I know that I went through a period of time where I was trying to act "more black" during high school because I grew up in the suburbs so this element of Rudy, Theo, and Vanessa's change is completely realistic. Also, as for Cliff being so self-righteous, when black people work to get something done and et a better life for their kids, they expect their children to do the same. My parents are the same and black kids that I went to school with- and most of my white friends- have parents and families for whom anything less than a degree is shocking and is a disownable offense (my sister was cut out of the will when she dropped out of school and wasn't put back in until she got a technical degree). Basically my rant is saying: This show is very realistic to people who know 1: how to distinguish Hollywood touches and necessary cultural critique from what the show was about and 2: people who know and understand black people an what needed to be shown on television.
The Cosby Show is okay to a certain extent. I vote for all the obvious jumps such as the all the episodes that involve guest stars, Olivia at the start of season six, and another thing that was on my mind. I can't stand the music that is played between 1984 and 1986. Why did the music director of this rely on using a Fender Rhodes electric piano and the boring sax work of Grover Washington Jr for this show's music? I use to be a die hard fan of his music until I became single recently. By the way, Grover Washington did the soundtrack for the first few years of this show.
When Olivia came. I know most sitcoms add-a-baby when the others get older, but they could have just let everyone grow up and adapted the storylines. Also, Vanessa's puke-a-licious hairstyle (rhomboid-shaped afro with a tail in the middle. WHAT?????) Also, oversaturation with jazz musicians.
When Cousin Pam moved in. I don't know if the show was "too white" or what, but Pam and her gang ruined the tone and class of the show.
PAM! What a horrible character. I thought Olivia was a great addition. They wrote her to be smart and didn't cute her up -- any cuteness that came through was all Raven Simone and not forced by the writers. Raven was a great actor, too, amazing timing for a 4 year old!
The show jumped when Denise left but then came back with a new husband and stepchild and moved back in with the Huxtables. Bill Cosby said the reason Lisa Bonet initially left the show was because her character didn't develope maturely enough. The writers could've developed her if they wanted to. They didn't have to make her quit college but thats what they wrote for her character. (Our maybe she "quit" college because Jasmine Guy was stealing too many scenes from her in "A Different World"...I dunno) Her character was being WRITTEN as an underachiever. Raven Simone did not hurt the show nor was it Pam(Erika Alexander). It jumped when the writters and Cosby wrote Denise back into the household for a disappointing reason. It felt as if we were just going in circles with her character and because of that you just didn't care for Denise anymore. The fact that she came back to square one just felt tedious to me and it had an overall effect on the show. I still watched the show but not as fanatically as earlier seasons.
The Cosby Show was really good TV during the time of declining quality in TV programming. One of the best things about Cosby Show, in my opinion, was the fact that it did not have to be cute and saccharine-sweet to get its point across - at least in the early years. Rudy was cute without having to become another Michelle Tanner (Full House) or Ruthie Camden (7th Heaven). And the people who watched TCS knew that Rudy was cute without having to hear infinitely-annoying "awww"s from the studio audience! Unlike other reviewers, who claim that the Huxtables were unrealistic, I think that TCS did present a realistic family situation. People have said that Dr. Huxtable, being a doctor, would not have had so much free time to hang around the house. Well, maybe so, but then the character of Dr. Huxtable would have made less of an appearance. It's willing suspension of disbelief. As for Hillman, I don't see anything wrong with introducing a fictional college; sitcoms feature fictional venues and such all the time. I do have to admit, however, that the episode that featured Dr. Huxtable speaking at the Hillman graduation was pretty meaningless. When I first saw it on Nick @ Nite, I remember thinking "what's the point of this episode?" I don't agree that "jammin' on the one" was the first sight of the shark fin for this show. The phrase probably will go down in history as an unexplained phenomenon of science. But I think it's premature to say that the first bad episode of TCS represents the turning point in the show's history. I think that TCS didn't start its decline until the arrival of Olivia. Before that time, TCS had managed to present a compelling story without resorting to cliche or saccharine cuteness. It's pretty obvious that when Rudy grew up, a "cute" vacuum formed that was filled by Olivia, who's main purpose in the show seemed to be "cute relief". In fact, Olivia became so saccharine that I didn't want to watch Cosby anymore. That's when the show jumped the shark for me.
Peter, the fat white kid was the glue that held the show together. When he got old or disappeared from the show it was never the same. Then they decided to give Rudy a new black friend BUD... When they got older the sexual tension never developed there...Same as when Roger, the kid with the afro-mullet got uncool and replaced... The fringe characters get no love from the producers. I'll bet that Peter's character could have gotten a spin-off and it would have been ten times more sucessful than a different world.
I don't think The Cosby Show ever jumped the Shark, despite some jarring decisions by the writers. Overall, it was a lovely show. I still watch the reruns and usually laugh out loud and/or grin a lot, which is rare for me with a TV show. I think it really was a great run all the way through and it meant a lot to me growing up - It hurts me to see all the negative comments here but I accept that everyone has different ways of reacting to things. Interestingly though, if I had to choose a really bad moment in the run, it would be the "men get pregnant" episode. I found that episode to be totally unwatchable and it repels me from the TV set when I see it re-airing. For a long-time, dedicated fan of the show, that is saying something. yick. The comment women often make where "if only men could experience pregnancy" or some such was better left to the imagination, thanks.
Cliff always telling his stories from when he and Claire dated and it would end up being about some skank named Eunice or some such crap. Anytime Claire and her female friends would be together, all the men were idiots in their eyes. None of the husbands could do anything. It is amazing that these men have successful businesses or practices. I certainly would not want a man whose wife thinks he is that dumb to even consider delivering my baby. She never let the man do anything he wanted. When Rudy got her period and Claire wanted to have "Woman's Day"...please not every female thinks of getting her period as a wonderful thing. Theo seemed to have trouble even pronouncing his own name. It always sounded like he was saing "Theordore". And the way he sucked in his cheeks like he thought he was some kind of sexy stud. That just made him look a little too homosexual. Denise was just flaky. Sondra was always trying to analyze every little situation and ended with Cliff always doing his "oh Lord" eye roll. Vanessa...what was up with the hair on that chick that one season? Rudy was just a nasty, unattractive girl. Elvin - everytime he showed up you just knew that he was going to say something to piss off Claire and Sondra. If he is such an idiot and chauvanistic pig, why the hell are you still with him? Olivia was just too damned whiny and know-it-all. All of the dream episodes were just awful. The writers must have written those after a weekend of some seriously hard partying and drugs. Those eps should have had a disclaimer before they aired that if you had drugs, take them before you watch.
However, the Cosby Show is still one of my favorite shows. It took me from elementary school to college. I still remember freshman year in the dorms and EVERYBODY watching the Cosby Show and a Different World and laughing at the same time. If you went to visit someone at a dorm, you would not be signed in until 8:26--between shows. I still get a little teary-eyed whenever I see the last episode. And for those of who think the parents were stuck-up for wanting their children to reach their potentials (or at least try) you clearly don't understand what being a parent is. Theo wasn't dumb, just lazy (remember the 89 on the math test when he actually studied?). The only reason they added that learning disorder later was because Cosby's son, Ennis, had a learning disorder. He brought musicians like BB King, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miriam Mkeba on to expose people to different types of music. And yes, Vanessa was whiny, Denise was weird, Sandra was overly analytical, but isn't that what a family is? A bunch of people who, despite getting on each other's nerves, still love each other? And if you can laugh at something, that's even better. I know all of my friends remember Rudy singing "Baby..." the Ray Charles song. And every time I see the episode with the Gordon Gartrell shirt, I laugh until I cry...
The unnecessary additions of Olivia and Cousin Pam ,both of which occurred in the same season,were the shark-jumps.The episodes in the last two seasons became cutesy,sugary,unfunny and often preachy(like the post-Hal Roach "Little Rascals")-sometimes,there were moments of the old humor(when Vanessa brings home her 29-year old fiance Dabnis Brickey the Maintenance man-played by William"Son of Buckwheat"Thomas III-it was funny...until Cliff decides to accept him because he owns his own house and therefore won't further crowd the Huxtable residence.Back to preachy.)Pam was ostensibly brought in to show the audience that yes,the ghetto exists even in Cosbyland-but she was BORING!! Olivia had her moments,but she was frequently annoying-especially when she showed off her off-key singing(not as funny as Vanessa's clarinet or Rudy's violin.)Well,at least Olivia fits in with the Huxtables in that respect-they're all at their best musically (except Clair,who CAN sing.)when they lip-synch to recordings!!
When that damn Raven-Symone (Olivia) came through there like a tornado. She just wrecked everything! THe issues that were revolved around her were already dealt with with the others! There was no purpose for her to come! She was supposed to bring up ratings, but she became the reason for its downfall! Oh, and when a Different World came out...Man, they almost killed the Cosby Show! It was #2 in the ratings-if more people tuned in to it, it would've been #1!
The only episode I truly despised was the one where Cliff is dreaming, and these disturbing Muppets start lecturing him about his diet, then one large muppet starts operating on him with a chainsaw(!). Then after the dream he looks into the refrigerator and THE FOOD STARTS TALKING! Ugh, it was not funny. Just creepy.
I HATED RUDY. She was so smart alecky & tried so hard to be sweet. I just wanted someone to smack her!
This show so obviously jumped the shark when it got political -- when Sondra and Elvin had twins and named them Nelson and Winnie (after the Mandelas). I never watched it again.
I really don't feel that the cosby show jumped the shark although a few characters could have been left out. I feel like Bill Cosby and all the wisdom that he has, tried to create a stable loving family in which african american viewers could look up to, Not that all things are perfect in a household but a family that has a close bond will last longer than one without it. I grew up watching the Cosby show and although my parents weren't doctors or lawyers it has inspired me to further my education. I enjoyed watching Claire with her natural beauty and down to reality responses to her children's wrong doings. I can't speak for any white household nor can I speak for every african -american household but I will say that in reality momma stands firm and for Claire to have displayed that she really stayed on the mark. She was loving and kind but left a thought in your head that education was important and without it there was no way to make it in this world. Education doesn't always come from a college. Listening to those that have been and following their lead can also make you successful. You can be educated by many people and through many sources and things. comments: No African American should be out to degrade the Cosby show and its efforts to (as the Bible says)call those things that are not as though they were. It taught us more lessons than any John Wayne movie about shooting and fighting could have ever taught us. Education as ooposed to War is always better. I don't care how you put it. I actually wished that Cliff and Claire could have been my parents groing up because I longed for parents that were stern instead of ones that would allow and accept any and every error with ease and grace. To the Cosby Show I love you all for life.
When all the new family members came...and I'll just start with one....Elvin. I couldn't STAND Elvin nor his lines. Whenever he was on, I would go in another room. Something about Elvin made me want to just holler "STOP BILL, STOP!!!" HOW COULD YOU PUT A CHARACTER LIKE THIS IN YOUR SHOW TO SHOW AFFLUENT BLACK PEOPLE???" UGH!!!!! bill must have been desparate to keep pleasing everyone, because Elvin never should have come to anyone's mind when looking for a new character.
When Olivia came aboard, it was like nails on a blackboard. None of the other kids on the show were as annoying as Olivia (Raven-Symone) during the entire run of the series. Sure, she was cute, but her personality was one of those "I'm 5 going on 40" things. In real life, a kid as obnoxious as Olivia would have been smacked across the mouth for some of her behavior. I know I'm in the minority, but I happen to think Rudy actually got cuter as she got older.
Ok, I have to give this show some credit as a solid 80's program, by when they did the funky fairy tale episode it was a feeding frenzy for the shark. In this episode, which still makes me feel like I am going to puke, Olivia reads her story and the whole cast is sucked into some fantasy land. Picture "The Cosby Show" meets "The land of Make Believe." The basic story was that Olivia, the Huxtable grandparents, and Theo live in this sickingly happy kingdom where all they do is dance and piss of viewers. On the other side of the river, Cliff and the the fat white kid Peter rule an evil domain. Needless to say, the evil side comes over and enslaves all the annoying happy people. The episode should have ended right there. But no, the happy dorks revolt and take back their land. Then for some reason, the vanquished evil guys are suddenly happy. Go figure! To this day I want to shoot a hole in the TV every time this piece of crap comes on.
People have made the comment about the reruns being on all the time. Please remember that when this show was sold into syndication it had the highest per-episode price ever which individual stations had to pay for broadcast rights. Boy were these stations surprised when the reruns tanked -- that's why 15 years later you're still seeing four episodes a night on Nick @ Nite trying to recoup that money.
I lost interest in the show after Cockroach left. I missed him and his catchphrase where he'd screw up his face and say "Whatchu talkin' 'bout Theo?!?!?"

The Cosby Show was losing steam when Olivia, Martin, Lance, Cousin Pam, etc. came along.

But I can't say it ever "Jumped The Shark." The meat and potatoes of the show was still good.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070225141752/http://jumptheshark.com/


Other Thoughts:

When the youngest daughter was too old to be cute.
How did that fourth older daughter appear out of nowhere? Is this the reverse of the Chuck Cunningham syndrome?
When Rudy had a deeper voice than Bill
When Lisa Bonet got naked with Mickey Rourke (ugh!)
the first time lip-synched to jazz/blues classic--or rather the second time
When Phyllicia Rashad realized that all acting could be reduced to one note: a patient endearing smile. (Middle of season two, I believe.)
Cosby jumped when Rudy wasn't cute anymore.
The first time Cliff Huxtable’s parents appeared on two consecutive shows.
About when Different World kicked in and Lisa Bonet left for that and to make Angel Heart, Cosby sorta went into neutral gear. When Stevie Wonder guest starred and Bill Cosby's character gave a lame excuse not to remain and share the stage with Wonder, that was the final nail in the coffin for me.
Hard to remember that this kicked off as a classic sitcom because by season two Bill became terribly concerned with presenting a responsible vision of a loving African-American family, an aim that doesn't produce a lot of yuks.
I think there is a tie for when this good comedy show of the eighties jumped. It was either when the family did the SECOND lip-sync to a jazz record for the grandparents birthday (the first one was funny with Rudie lip-syncing BABY-OH BABY) or it was when Cliff started wearing the SD button in honor of Sammie Davis Jr. Talk about blurring the line between reality and entertainment. I lost interest when dim witted Lisa Bonet brings home a husband.
Do you think Saundra and her husband regretted naming their twins Winnie and Nelson, even though the Mandelas divorced?
When Theo's friend Cockroach began to figure prominently in the plots. I can still hear Cosby's grating "****-a-ROACH!" every time he did something wrong. Also the constant parade of elderly jazzmen cast as Cliff Huxtable's relatives.
This show was always considered to be realistic, but I have to disagree. Remember when Theo wanted that shirt "Gordon Gartrelle", but Bill Cosby wouldn't get it for him? Then Lisa Bonet made him one except the sleeves were too long and too short and a bunch of **** was wrong with it. Then Theo's friends loved it and wanted her to make one. In real life he would have gotten his bitch-ass kicked right then and there, and then someone would have taken his shirt and wiped his ass with it.
This was probably the most overrated show in the history of TV. Bill Cosby is fine as a comedian, but do we really need his own family as his perpetual audience, chuckling over his dry, witty quips? "Cosby" worked better when it didn't go out of its way to showcase Bill. However, puberty was very unkind to the Cosby kids, especially Vanessa & Rudy. The good news was, we no longer had to see Rudy try to act cute. The bad news was, they had to pull the old "Adopt-A-Brat" hat trick again and bring in Denise's "adorable" stepdaughter. She was cute, but this was one show that could only have been HELPED by a shortage of overly cute kids. Bill, it's funny in a 30-second Jell-O pudding commercial, but 30 minutes is another story.
Rudy Huxtable, when she grew a moustache you knew the show was doomed.
When that little girl (Denise's step daughter?) joined the cast.
Jammin' on the One. Jam, Jam, Jam, Jammin' on the One.
The most over-rated show in television history. What was so damn funny? Cosby's endless camera mugging was nauseating. And what gave the rest of the cast their inflated egos and the belief that they had any talent?
I thought the show jumped when Raven Simone Showed up I hated her. RUDY rules! She was my girl and it was her show and some little deformed Brat comes in and tries to steal the show but I will always love RUDY.
This show was funny at first, but it got such great ratings that it went to old Bill's head. He became a nasty, smug, ridiculously authoritarian father. The last few seasons were a waste, especially when he would bring his cronies on (generally jazz musicians) and pass them off as "relatives." You ever wonder why they rarely show this in reruns?
It totally jumped around the time when Theo and Denise were both gone and it was all up to recently de-cuted Rudy and consistently un-cute Vanessa. This was also the time of the hideous cousin Pam and Denise's mysterious navy shipman. Claire and Cliff hardly seemed to notice who was in their house at any given moment, and it was finally clear that the days of episodes like Peter and the Juicer and Theo's Introduction to the Real World were long gone. A curse on cousin Pam, Grandma and Grandpa, Alvin, and Lisa Bonet.
When Rudy got old and we realized she could not act.
A funny show, it was your typical 80's family sitcom with all the trimmings. Except, it was a successful black family. That was certainly an innovation. Even though it was very popular, I think a lot of people, especially, minorities, took offense to this show because they said it wasn't "real". Why? Believe it or not, successful black families do exist in this country. If you ask me, it was one of the first shows that portrayed African-Americans in a non-stereotypical form. There weren't endless references to white people as honkys (has any black person ever used the word honky in real life?) and Theo didn't go around saying catch phrases like "Dynomite!" This family actually paid their bills and every show didn't revolve around the fact that they were poor and wondering where their next meal would come from. Even though there were a lot of serious or message type shows, I thought overall, it was very humorous, and had a wackiness about it that most family-type shows always seem to lack. A lot of people called this the Brady Bunch of the 80's, but it was way way way funnier and a lot more realistic. If I have to pick a time when it jumped it's during the last two or three years when that little girl came on and they started focusing more on Theo and all those other college-aged kids, who the hell were those people and where the hell did they come from? Also, it looked like Cliff and Claire kinda put their acting on auto-pilot during those final years......The one episode, I don't know exactly when it aired, when they try to play a joke on Cliff and he turns the tables and pretends like he's going to throw Alvin out of the house was one of the funniest things I've ever seen!
The big lip-syncing numbers put on for the grandparents. Yeah, families do that all the time. Isn't it amazing how a show this popular in its initial run has completely dropped off the radar?
When Rudy got a mustache, that was just nasty!
I think "Jammin' on a one" threw the entire country for a loop. I don't even think Stevie Wonder knew what the hell Theo was talking about. Maybe if he just hadn't repeated the phrase incessantly, things would've turned out okay.
I proposed that continuity error be a cause for shark-jumping, a perfect example being the Cosby Show. In the pilot episode, Clair asks Cliff, "Why did we have four kids?" to which he responds, "Because we did not want five." Then along came that annoying Sondra, spontaneously generated like Athena sprung from Zeus's head. Even at 14, I knew that was just sloppy. It was all over from there.
When the children started growing up and the show took off into A Different World.
I just saw the rerun where Rudy gets her period, I've been watching the reruns from the start, Rudy was cute but then after she got old.
Season Two. Once the freshness of TCS got old it was just another sitcom. And who told Phylicia Rashad she could act. That insipid self righteous smile of hers was just grating!! My secret wish was for her to drop the priss routine and rock old Cliffs world one nite in 5inch heels and stockings. On a side note, the morphing of Rudy from semi-cute to Treasure Troll.
That new theme song really sucked!
What was once a genuinely funny, heartwarming show (Esp. in the first 3 seasons) became truly unwatchable with the episode where Cliff dreams that all the men are pregnant. Trust me on this one: PREGNANT MEN ARE NOT FUNNY, THEY'VE NEVER BEEN FUNNY, AND THEY NEVER WILL BE FUNNY! Not only that, the whole "dream sequence" was horribly overacted by all involved; the worst part was when one of the guys gave birth to a hoagie (??????), and another gave birth to a sailboat (?!?!??!?!?). Truly the most vile episode of any series I once liked; what the hell was Cosby thinking????
Loved this show! Every Thursday night.
ONE WORD: OLIVIA!!! This little was too grown for the part!! She ran grown folks conversations...
On the Cosby Show: Raven Simone killed this show when she brought her little ass on!!! She also killed Hangin With Mr Cooper.
The Cosby Show should've stayed in the 1980's, but it was still okay until Pam came along. She and her friends made the show seem like the 80's but all of her issues were already done. Then by the time Theo was teaching in the Rec. Center while late into his college years the show was done for.
THAT LITTLE GIRL OLIVIA KILLED THE COSBY SHOW! IT WAS CLOSE TO IT'S DEATHBED, BUT WHEN THEY BROUGHT HER ON SHE TOOK MOST OF RUDY'S LINES; SO BASICALLY IN A NUT SHELL, RUDY WAS JUST IN THE BACKGROUND
2 WORDS: RAVEN SIMONE
Ok, I have to give this show some credit as a solid 80's program, by when they did the funky fairy tale episode it was a feeding frenzy for the shark. In this episode, which still makes me feel like I am going to puke, Olivia reads her story and the whole cast is sucked into some fantasy land. Picture "The Cosby Show" meets "The land of Make Believe." The basic story was that Olivia, the Huxtable grandparets, and Theo live in this sickingly happy kingdom where all they do is dance and piss of viewers. On the other side of the river, Cliff and the the fat white kid Peter rule an evil domain. Needless to say, the evil side comes over and enslaves all the annoying happy people. The episode should have ended right there. But no, the happy dorks revolt and take back their land. Then for some reason, the vanquished evil guys are suddenly happy. Go figure! To this day I want to shoot a hole in the TV every time this piece of crap comes on.
RAVEN SIMONE BEING ADDED THE SHOW REALLY WAS A DOWNFALL!!! SHE WAS TO GROWN UP ACTING!!! NOT MENTION WHEN THE SHOW REVOLVED AROUND HER AND HER PROBLEMS AFTER HER SECOND SECOND IT WAS THE COSBY AND RAVEN-SIMONE SHOW!! ALSO WHEN VANESSA GOT THAT BIG AFRO HAIRDO! THE SHOW STARTED IT'S EARLY SHARKING STAGES!!!
When film stars and Jazz musicians suddenly appeared at the door.
When tempest bledsoe a.k.a Vanessa, decided she was popular enough to have her own show.
That little girl named Olivia! The whole show was centered around her!!! I think Bill forgot about his other kids!!
Anytime Dick Vitale comes on my T.V., I have to change the channel. I have never seen a more annoying Human Being in all of my life.
In about the fifth season, an element that had been present in the show began, at least in my mind, to predominate to an obnoxious level: that is, Cliff's belief that any young person who doesn't go on to years of graduate school and become a doctor or lawyer is a slacker, and that all folks under the age of thirty are essentially dolts in desperate need of Cliff's firm guidance. It was one thing (and funny) when Cosby was rolling his eyes in reaction to the actions of young children; it was another (and not amusing) when he's rolling his eyes and fuming over the life decisions of twenty- and twenty-five-year old Denise, Sondra, etc. The worst example of this that I viewed was an episode when Sondra and her husband inform Mom and Dad that they've decided to open some kind of nature or health foods store rather than pursue post-graduate education -- Cliff and the Mrs. react as if the "kids" have decided to join a Satanic cult and offer Rudy as their first human sacrifice; and the episode is written and staged so as to demonstrate the righteousness of Cliff's position. I really felt that the joy and enthusiasm that was a part of Bill Cosby's humor (and which I thoroughly enjoyed for many years) all but left over the last few years of the show.
When the family put on the musical celebration for the grandparents' anniversary.
The show and all shows start to tank when the father starts dressing nice. In the beginning, Cosby ware sweats, it wasn't until he started wearing suits and $500 sweaters that the show began to take. This follows suit in other sitcoms as well (Family Ties and Growing Pains). I am not saying that he clothes make the show, its just another ploy writers use to draw attention away from the fact that they have nothing else to write about.
when rudy started dating and got older and fatter. I also couldn't understand why they brought on the "poor cousin from the wrong side of town with a heart o' gold" as a regular character
When did The Cosby Show jump the shark? Take your pick 1) When Theo and Cockroach got yelled at for performing Shakespeare in the living room? (This has never happened to any family, black or white or whatever) 2) When Sondra and Elvin decided to name their twin kids Winnie and Nelson after the Mandelas? (and considering the Mandela's subsequent bitter divorce, those kids are probably changing their names right now). 3) Olivia? (goes without saying) 4) The overuse of that chubby little white kid that was always over there and never said a word 5) That niece (or whatever she was) who moved in with them to give the show some "street" and brought her "street" friends to counter the criticism that the show was too "white", whatever that meant.
The Cosby Show: Cousin Pam--the worst! Rudy's hair was rather large during the final season.
When that little snot Raven Symone joined as Lisa Bonets daughter... All because Rudy was going into puberty... I know it is a common problem with sitcoms... But like you said on Howards show this morning, that is what the Simpsons have survived so long... the kids haven't grown up!!!
The episode when Cliff and some dude were playing patonk in the yard. It was just stupid. Even stupid-er was also in the show when Theo try to rock-climb the basement banister.
I think i'm right on the money with this one... I'm tellin' ya, I watched Cosby every week until Simpsons.
At about the beginning of the second season, I realized the show wasn't funny to begin with. I am still chortling over the comment where someone said that this was a particularly realistic show.
This show declined in different stages. The first being a new opening number where they're dressed in pastels and doing a synchronized dance in these Mediterranean pastels. Second, Elvin as a regular was weak (I won't even bring up his Jamaican father). Third, and skipping ahead a season or two, it pains me to watch Claire enjoy the new addition her husband built. A 50 yr. old woman dancing? Stop
One day, a couple years after I stopped watching this show, I turned it on again and there were like 2 new kids, but they were older than Rudy and Vanessa...huh? What the hell is going on?
After Vanessa went to college, they were strapped for kids. In comes Olivia, and "Cousin Pam". They just weren't funny at all... Whatever happened to Cockroach? After Theo graduated HS, he just disappeared. Why couldn't he come to Theo's college graduation, for the last show. I would have LOVED that!
Bill really knew he had us in his pocket when the whole show, late second or third season I believe, was a real/fake college commencement from a real/fake jerkwater colored college. My own commencement ceremonies were boring enough (God bless my family and friends). Bill gave us black educators right out of central casting, "When you meet a Hillman man, cook him a fiiiiiine meal (toothy grin)", dressed liked professional cornerbacks going to Halloween parties, from a women's college in Ohio. That's when this heretofore enjoyable show became a sententious bore.
I just saw about 3 episodes from one of the last seasons when Cliff's patients are more a part of the show than ANY of the children. I hated those episodes. That was when you knew the Cosby family was falling apart. just recently there have been reruns of this show on... I loved it as a kid but now I realize that none of the kids, except Rudy, could EVER act and Rudy joined them after she got older. This was right around the time they gave her part, as the "cute one", to Olivia. A show is DOOMED when they add another kid. Lisa Bonet was never believable as the wife of a Navy officer and a mother. Much of that season trying to cover the tattoo she had on her shoulders. That was also the season Cliff just got too old to care about his kids.
The addition of Pam to the cast and all of the stories around her character is when the show jumped the shark. It was a very, very funny show until then, but you have to end it when all of the kids grow up and you have to resort to bringing new, lame characters to the show.
When that cousin from the projects came to live with the Huxtables.
This show jumped when The Simpsons moved into the same time slot.
The Cosby show really dumped when Lisa Bonet began to look funky because of real life boyfriend rocker "what's his face". And the final nail in the coffin came when Theo became smart. What was up with that?? Bill Cosby himself is so annoying, he presently is painful even to channel surf past....jmho however. When comedians stop being funny and start being politically correct and opinionated we all suffer.
When Lisa Bonet left the show to go to Spellman, thus spawning "A Different World." After that, Sabrina Lebeouf (the oldest daughter) came back with Elton and Raven Simone, who tried too hard to be the next Rudi. Then when Theo was diagnosed with dyslexia, the circuit was complete.
I would love to say never but they should have made Rudy the last kid. The other girl Raven threw the whole show off.
When more thought went into making sure Cliff wore sweaters designed to offend my aesthetic sensibilities than in creating even a distant relative to a plot.
When Tempest decided to grow that ridiculous afro hairdo. I just wanted to throw up every time I saw her. Cousin Pam was the worst and her friends were just as bad. If that was real life all of them would have gotten the **** kicked out of them.
This show jumped when Rudy and Vanessa got weird looking. I am not sure what happened but Rudy turned into a teenager that could not have possibly been the child that played all those cute scenes with Daddy "Cos". I think the producers realized this fact as well, but contractual issues prevented them from ousting Tempest (Vanessa) and Keisha (Rudy). In retrospect I really feel sorry for them because they became like to forgotten children....maybe that episode where Cliff and Claire made the girls sleep in the basement was a sign of what was really to come. What the heck was up with Vanessa's hair (asymmetric bush)...in what lifetime was that fashionable!! I am sure there is an unemployable hair/make-up person some where regretting the day that do was done.
I was born in the early 80s and being african-american The Cosby show was a staple in my weekly life. So I don't agree with people who knock the earlier casts members. HOWEVER, when they added Olivia I wanted to hand myself. This was such a sick attempt at cute humor. I would have rather seen re-runs of small Rudy then this shameful display. And although the show had been going downhill for about the last five years the ultimate WORST show was when they had poor little sick Olivia lip sync for grandma and grandpa 1000th weeding anniversary. I just think God i didn't have a shot gun next to me cause i wouldn't be here writing this.
There was once a really lame episode that just came up short. I mean it literally ended with ten minutes left to go! Suddenly, the whole family is mesmerized by Dr. Martin Luther King giving his "I have been to the mountain top" speech on the T.V. Of course, we never see footage of the speech, just the teary-eyed, slack-jawed close-ups of the cast. No further dialogue, nothing. Boy, did that suck!
when all the children left and they brought in Olivia. She was cute but to GROWN UP. NOT CUTE. Cousin Pam not funny but her friends were hilarious (Lance and his girlfriend). None of the Cosby children were ever really good actors, especially THEO. Vanessa just never really seem to find the right look, Denise (when she returned with the husband and Olivia) looked like she needed a good bath, I think I could smell her through the TV. Saundra and Elvin please SNORE. Two most boring black people in the history of television. Rudy was a cute little girl but was clearly loosing the cutesy act to Olivia. Actually the show jumped when they decided to focus on non-acting, struggling to speak grammatically correct english Theo. Those kids could not ACT. Just watch the reruns.
The show just started to fall rapidly in the last few seasons. I liked Olivia but in smaller doses. The premise of the show needed a young child. The addition of Cousin Pam was a mistake and that whole thing about Vanessa marrying - not marrying - marrying - not marrying -- the older man was sad. Also, too many showcases of jazz musicians, etc.
Watched this show up until 1990 (when the Simpsons replaced it). I actually liked Olivia in her first season but I was a kid then. I can't watch the Pam episodes. Like the above guy said, I've seen some of the last two seasons in reruns and many of them center on Pam and her friends. Why? This was the Cosby Show, not the Pam and Her Friends Show. I did manage to catch the final episode when it aired and I felt it didn't live up to the hype.
The show jumped the shark when Bill Cosby began taking heat from the black community about being an "oreo" (if you're not familiar with this expression, just think hard about it). The show went from having white kids and friends over to the house, to bidding on exclusive African art. Soon, we were sent on a vapid ride through black-college land, and then there's Pam, whose jive-talking character was better suited for What's Happening than a show about upper class black families. You can also notice how the house changes, along with the kids' hair styles. Soon, Theo has lines shaved in his head, Vanessa had an enormous afro, and Denise looked like she came in from the Shaka-Zulu hunts. Coz's attempt to be more black was ill-conceived, as he should have realized that white viewers wouldn't watch this, as well as the majority of black families, which fall well below the income level supposedly achieved by the Cosby parents. Besides, what kind of successful doctor and lawyer do you know of that is always at the house, singing and dancing and raising stupid, stupid kids?
A commencement ceremony. Now that's entertainment.
Did anyone else think it was really stupid that, while Olivia at least part of the time called Denise "mom", she called her step-grandparents dr. huxtable and mrs. huxtable? She even lived with them! My step son is 16 and his Dad and I have only been married three years and he calls my grandparents grandma and grandpa!
When Raven was cast as the step-grandchild. She was treated better than the original Cosby children. It was a stunt to get back some ratings and it totally failed because she was such a spoiled little brat who was constantly interrupting the grown-ups conversations. What a mistake!!!!!
This show has some cool moments but I don't get how Cosby could get paid so much for syndication. Now that the price is lower I notice it is on cable back to back for about 7 times where I live. My god we Americans are really pathetic. People are so addicted to TV that we will watch 7 Cosbys a day over anything else. I could understand the Brady Bunch or say the Coz classic Fat Albert. But The Cosby Show? Why- do we not know how each episode will end? Either Cos and that chick he has for a wife will grin at each other because they think they are the smartest people in the world and so much smarter than their kids or Cos will spend 5 minutes mugging and the rest of the cast will act like it is the pinnacle of high comedy. Also Theo realizes that his parents made a fool out of him bring up the credits. In real life Theo would make the Cliff look like a dork and the mother a double standard hypocrite all the time.
There got to be too much sassiness. Every line had to be an exercise in sassiness, it just got tiring. There is only so much sassiness a person can take. um-hmmm, girlfriend!
...the harder they fall. This was my favorite show when i was like 5 or 6, and when it ended in second grade i cried, but dammit, this show jumped over about 16 sharks, one after the next...where do i start. One jump was bringing that stagnant little waste basket Raven Symone (the real patron saint if you ask me) onto the show. She wasn't cute, her dancing in the opening credits was horrendous. Second strike--all that damn preaching. Shut the f**k up! The show could never finish without Cliff talking for ten minutes straight and just boring us to death. MORE COCKROACH MORE COCKROACH!
When I was growing up watching this show was a Thursday night ritual in my family. I always found it so encouraging to see a moral, strong, close knit Black family that loved each other deeply. It was always funny and always original. It's also to encouraging to go and watch re-runs and recognize great entertainers such as Danny Kaye and Betty Carter as guest stars. It was well-written dialogue and wonderful to grow up with the members of the cast. Anyone who thinks this show was overrated didn't understand the eight-year phenomenon and can't appreciate good television.
When Rudy grew a moustache! It's true. The minute she grew up and they added that brat Raven Simone the show skidded out of control down an icy hill of bad comedy.
I think this show jumped the shark when i realized rudy huxtable had a thicker mustache than my dad.
Right about the time Pam came into the picture and it seemed everyone was always in the house at once..it was annoying.
This show jumped when they suddenly discovered Theo had dyslexia, which nobody noticed during the first 18 or so years of his life.
Being an African American female from a fully functioning, stable, educated family, I found relief and a reflection in the Cosby's. Unfortunately, as I grew up, I realized that the show just wasn't well written. It was an excellent representation of African American life that strongly contrasts its predecessors such as "Good Times"(the worst show ever made). Amazingly, it was the later shows - before Olivia- that I enjoyed the most. Before Pam and Olivia showed up the show finally started to get realistic, but it revealed that the parents had issues with both Vanessa and Rudy. Did anybody else notice that Denise and Theo were seldom yelled at and instead were taught cutesy lessons, but when Vanessa and Rudy got into the slightest bit of trouble, Claire was hollering and threatening to put the smack down? What brought this show down. Raven Simone. Poor thing. She doesn't deserve to be told she resulted in the downfall of a popular show, but its the cold, hard reality that is life.
"Because it's Hillman". I think that episode was the single most wasted half hour time slot of my life. That episode so disgusted me that I am proud to say I never watched the show again.
I knew this show was a goner when I saw the episode in which Stevie Wonder guest starred. That the writers had no idea what to do with him is shown by the amateurish quality of the script, which reads like a junior high production. There is no real plot, no reason for this episode to exist other than to proclaim, "Hey, here's Stevie Wonder. That ought to be enough."
When cousin Pam was brought in. Home many relatives can come and live in your house. Do you add one a year?
This mediocre sit-com well and truly jumped the shark when NBC decided to bump a Mets-RedSox series game back a 1/2 hour so they could show this sitcom. NBC finally believed its hype- the Cosby Show became the Most Important Show In the World. I never understood why this show was so loved. I guess TV really was a wasteland at that time. I never thought it was an accurate depiction of how blacks lived- right, all black families lip synch to old records and have aging jazzmen for relatives. I always thought the Jeffersons was a more realistic portrayal. Hell, even the gang from What's Happening! was more realistic. By the 3rd season, the show was boiled to a formula: Cliff acts all low-key and obscure, Claire shoots him a stern/loving look, Theo acts "street" (HAHA!) and the sisters...well, they were just there to be fashion victims. Remember Tempest Bledsoes hair? AHHAHAA! Sure, this was more important than a world series game....right. And how many people do you think are really named Heathcliffe!!!?!?!? I loved it when he would have a big group of kids on the show, and he always would do those condescending scenes with the fat slow white kid that couldn't speak. He was already auditioning for his future gig on kids say the darndest things. Sorry Billy boy- you don't mess with a Mets fan...
It was the last season or so, when they added the little girl. It was like they couldn't survive without some little kid in the house.
When Cliff become P whipped. His wife was such a bitch. She would not let him do anything. Won't let me eat a sandwich (he's a freakin doctor let the man eat his snack he knows what he is doing)
8 year phenomenon, eh? That's 4 years too long, at least. First, Lisa Bonet becomes this walking freak show in a house full of conservative dressers (and she marries a nerd. Yea, right!). The older one's husband whines more than Marge Simpson. And don't even get me started about Raven-Symone, the no-talent gnome. The plots were just excuses for the guest stars and for Bill to espouse pro-black themes (Bill: it was enough to just BE THERE and be successful, don't wallow in it). But I think what just got to me after awhile was Phillicia Rashad's stupid teethy smile and that smug, self-assured expression that came with it. I mean, she was fun to look at when she was dressed up, but she just seemed to lose any desire to act at all. She just smiled like a bimbo--Cliff's so funny, the kids're so cute, the old people make funny remarks. And way to much singing and Cos doing that stupid crap with the seductive music and feeding her stuff--too much of one good (not great) idea.
The show went downhill when they began to center episodes around Theo's goofy 30-something-looking YBR college buddies. I'll take Cockroach over those cornballs any day.
The Cosby show jumped shark when Denise all of a sudden appeared back on the show in 1990. Suddenly, she's married and has a little stepdaughter (Olivia) who becomes a huge part of the show. Couldn't the producers come up with anything else? Anyways, by then everyone just got too OLD! The show should have been canceled right then! It was too painful to watch the last 3 seasons of it.
It jumped the shark when Rudy became a teenager, when Olivia joined the show, and when Pam joined the show. When we could still remember Rudy as a six-year-old, nobody wanted to hear about her breasts. Olivia was just cute enough to be damn annoying. And there was no reason for Pam to be added in. She didn't serve any purpose.
I was young and naive when I watched Coz, and I stuck with the show long after the first few shark jumps. It was over for me, however, when I caught an episode in which everybody started telling a story about something called "Flooberoos." About 5 minutes into that episode I turned off the TV, and never saw another episode.
Cosby Show...When Theo pays Denise 30 bucks for his supposed Gordon Gartrel Shirt.
Denise (Lisa Bonet) gave The Cosby Show a much needed dose of sex appeal. When she left the show for 'A Different World': it was OVAH.
Agreed with the post about it being the most overrated show in TV history. The thing was grating at best from the beginning, with a father who won't accept the fact that his son simply doesn't do well in school. Oh, threaten physical violence, Cliff. What a great way to motivate your kid to study. And it just got worse. Take your pick from any of the comments above...the preachiness. The Shakespeare thing. Cousin Pam. Olivia (shudder...she makes Cousin Oliver look like a GOOD idea). Lisa taking off and returning. The grandparents in EVERY SINGLE EFFING EPISODE. Thank God for "The Simpsons". Made Thursday nights worthwhile during a nasty period for television.
This mediocre sit-com well and truly jumped the shark when NBC decided to bump a Mets-Red Sox series game back a 1/2 hour so they could show this sitcom. NBC finally believed its hype- the Cosby Show became the Most Important Show In the World.
In the eighties,The Cosby Show some good ****...until Bill Cosby gave that long ass speech at the end of third season (at Denise's Gradation}.Denise's character was (and Theo's) realistic.I'm not into cute kids so screw Rudy (and later Olivia). After the third season,the show wasn't as funny anymore. We saw more of Sandra and Elvin (who were hilarious in the season premiere "You owe me 79,648 dollars and I want it back now!") But overall,the first episode were the funniest.Week after week you could count on a good laugh on Thursday nights @7pm central.The onslaught of jazz musicians:OVERKILL!The lipsynching gag was funny the first time,but the second time:OVERKILL! Theo was so funny at first.Somewhere along the way he got turned into a goody-goody ass punk.
This show jumped when you realized that it wasn't normal to 8 grandfathers.
This was the greatest and funniest show ever put on television. It showed black kids being friends with white kids which was good for me to see at the time because I didn't know many black kids. I know some people think it was unrealistic, and maybe it was, but come on, what sitcom isn't unrealistic? Or drama, for that matter? The point is, I have more good memories from that show than from any other, '80s or '90s, and "The Cosby Show" will always be my favourite show of all time! P.S. Lisa Bonet and whoever the hell played Saundra can't act but they were barely on.
This was a great show when the kids were kids, but like all kids they had to get older. Once the kids grew it jumped the shark.
The Cosby Show jumped the shark when the Huxtables all went to Hillman to welcome the new President of the college. What a worthless episode! What was the point of it, I still don't get it!?
Anybody else ever notice that the New Kid who sank the Brady Bunch was OLIVER, and the New Kid who killed Cosby was OLIVIA? Stay away from olives. Maybe I need a hobby.
When the oldest daughter, Sandra, had twins and named them Winnie and Nelson. Too corny. Ughh.
I loved this show, I thought it was so funny.... BUT... it was to "out there " at times. The perfect family?? kids who dont mouth off to they're parents, that never have sex or even try stuff like smoking?? im not saying they dont exist but jeeeeeez. They portrayed these kids to be angels minus the halo and wings. Mr & Mrs Huxtable were loaded, beyond just well off, they were loaded.. but yet Cliff would complain anytime one of his kids asked for 25 cents. This show jumped the shark for me several times, but i kept on watching. I couldnt stand Cliff's parents. His father belonged in a home. They were sooooo annoying with that Hillman crap. I really got tired of Cliff knowing every single jazz singer who ever lived, personally. I thought Olivia was totally adorable. This show basically IMO was really good it just had a very boring places, I still watch the reruns.
this show was going good till cousin pam showed. and to boot they never addressed whose cuz she was.
This show jumped the shark when either Lisa Bonet left and her older sister entered the show OR Lisa Bonet got married and brought her stepdaughter on- (This could go under the New Kid in Town area.)
When Kenny became the funniest person on the show and wasn't even part of the family (episode 2 i think). When Theo went from being as smart as a thumb tack to being a Rhodes Scholar. When Vanessa started looking like Weird Harold from the Cosby Cartoons of the 70s. When Rudy's mustache finally came in thicker than Theo's. WAY TOO much of that damn son-in-law Elvin. That guy was way light in the loafers and made me ashamed to be a man.
I liked the early years of this show, but after a few seasons, there was almost an anti-male attitude that appeared. All the men were always outsmarted somehow by the women on the show. Claire would beat down on Coz, never letting him eat what he wanted. She'd find a way to give him hell for something every damn show! Then give us that smug look. I hated it!!!! Elvin would get beaten down by Sondra. Denise would beat down on her husband. Theo would find a way to screw up with his woman....time after time. Even Rudy would go after "Bud". The male-pregnancy show was simply the climax of the male-bashing. It's surprising that Cosby would have taken this direction. It ruined the show for me.
I can't believe no one has mentioned this. A switch on a familiar category. When Saundra comes home from college (law school) one time, she has been fighting with Elvin. Somebody (a friend of hers, Cosby, ???), sets Saundra up with another guy on a date. After their date, Cosby starts pressuring the guy about the date, and getting him to ask Saundra out again, since he and Claire do not like Elvin. There is a dialogue between the guy and Cosby that went something like, (Cosby) "Are you going to ask her out again?" (Saundra's Date) "I don't know, I'd like to think about it." "There's no time!" "Why?" "Because he's coming!" "Who's coming?" "ELVIN!" "Who's Elvin?" "That's the guy she likes!" "If that's who Saundra likes, why am I here?" "Because you're the guy that *I* like!" (HaHaHaHahA). Who played Saundra's unlucky date? Lisa Bonet's future Military-Man Husband. This has bothered me for *years*, and I'm not 100% positive that they were the same actor -- I would love for someone to confirm this, or tell me these are different actors.
This show jumped the shark several times (particularly the episode that was "highlighted" by a college commencement address and the arrival of Olivia, the modern-day cousin Oliver). But there was one episode that really, REALLY pissed me off, proving Bill Cosby's rather elitist attitude. When Vanessa brings her "older" boyfriend Dabnus (don't know about the spelling) home for dinner to meet the family for the first time. Clair and Cliff came close to having strokes when they found out he was just a "janitor;" Cliff even told the guy, point blank, "I don't like you." For no reason. Even though Vanessa's boyfriend was nice, polite, and seemingly intelligent. When they found out Dabnus owned his own house, however, the parents' opinions of the man changed completely and they accepted him. What kind of snooty attitude was Cosby trying to get across? "You're not good enough to associate with my family unless you own stuff????" What an *******.
There were all so many children to begin with, but the show started to swim with the sharks when they brought on Olivia, the step-grandchild. We already went through Rudy's cute years and now here was another one.
The Cosby Show tanked when the twins were born and named "Nelson and Winnie". The show then had a political agenda. Also when cousin Pam was introduced, and the step-granddaughter Olivia. It was downhill all the way!!! I began to lose interest when the twins were born and named "Nelson" and "Winnie". It was too political and does not withstand the test of time. Winnie Mandela is now out of the picture, now that she is divorced from Nelson. And Winnie Mandela has also proved not to be the person people thought she was. This really ruins watching reruns in syndication.
The Cosby Show vaulted over the shark with the addition of Pam to the family. I couldn't bring myself to watch after that happened!
This show jumped around the '88/'89 season. I stopped watching when I could no longer keep track of who the hell was living in that house anymore...Theo moves out, Denise is in Africa but her HUSBAND AND DAUGHTER move in, then Theo Moves back in, then Denise comes back, and Sandra shows up with Alvin and THEY have to move in with these two nauseating twins, then THEO moves back out....what is worse is that Cosby himself begins to act more like a senile old coot who is constantly confused and frustrated over his childrens inability to get their **** together than like the responsible father he was in the FIRST season. And did they have to be on the cutting edge of fashion all the time? This show had the stupidest wardrobe on television. The Cosby show died a pathetic death...it did not go off the air until 4 years after it jumped the shark. Long and painful.
"The Cosby Show" was really a great show in its first season. I am not saying that it went downhill, but it just didn't match in its later seasons. I think that the people they picked were great actors/actresses (although, none of the kids looked like the parents, especially Sondra and Denise). They had a few episodes that weren't needed (Flooberoos, Welcoming of New Hillman President, etc.). Personally, I think that the show jumped the shark when Cousin Pam came to the show. There was really no point in her being on the show. I could deal with Olivia, although she could be annoying sometimes. The show also jumped the shark when all of the kids grew up. I really never noticed Rudy's moustache. I have to watch for it next time. I really never cared for Denise and Theo was funny in his early days. It was very sad when the show ended though, although the ending was weird and it seemed like things weren't completely finished. I would like for them to do a "Cosby Show Movie" like the "Growing Pains Movie" they did on ABC.
Ya'll ever notice how OLIVIA and OLIVER are basically the same name? And both cousins? AND both CAN'T ACT!?!?!?!? Think about it.
i love this show and it's hard to pick a point from where all the shows began to do poorly because there were some good shows even to the end. all i can say is that i'm sorry rudy was put in the background, that vanessa never became a good character, that theo didn't need help with growing up anymore, denise came and left without anyone caring, and that Saundra came to the show and she didn't come alone.
I loved the Cosby show, I watched it every Thurs. night until I went to college, in 1986. I never saw another episode until watching it in syndication last year while I was home after my baby was born. I still really enjoyed the episodes I had already seen, but after that things started to get really weird. I think the beginning of the Cosby show's JUMP from one of the more realistic and funny portrayals of family life for their time (remember, this was before the Simpsons and Roseanne) into total Wackville, was the birth of Saundra and Elvin's twins. I didn't mind their names (Winnie and Nelson, as in Mendela), some people (especially ones as irritating as S&E) do name their poor kids some goofy ****, but I was appalled at the way they treated those babies. I don't think I ever saw anyone pick one up and hold it in their arms. Like the episode where Claire agrees to babysit and then runs off to the office for like 15 hours leaving Cliff alone with them (yeah, I'd have let her babysit again, wouldn't you?) and he does standup for them but NEVER TAKES THEM OUT OF THE CARRIERS? Did Cosby's babies never **** or what? And they never wanted to be held? Give me a break. And when Denise babysits for them and the whole lesson for the day is about "sit the brats in front of the TV that's the only way to shut them up!?" What ever happened to - again - HOLDING them, or getting right down and PLAYING with them? And the episode where Saundra is frazzled out of her mind with twin newborns and has FINALLY gotten them to sleep (in the PLAYPEN, of course - no nursing or even rocking babies here) and Alvin comes in after like 10 hours at med school, wakes them both up ON PURPOSE, and then says, "Oh they'll settle right back down" and then locks himself in the bedroom to study? Any sane woman would have demanded a divorce right there, MUFFIN! I can't believe she married that totally annoying dweeb anyway. Actually, looking back, a lot of that was kind of funny, come to think of it. But it could have been a lot better had they tried to portray raising a baby a little more realistically. S&A as parents from Neptune were just the first dip in a downhill slide for the Cosby show, from moderately realistic and very funny to completely weird and not very funny. And all I can say to those of you who have posted here dissing Rudi and Olivia, hey it takes a lot of BALLS to criticize CHILDREN. How good an actor were YOU when you were ten years old? At least I'm ragging on snooty Saundra and Gag-me-with-a-MUFFIN Alvin!
For me, what really blew for "Cosby" was when they kept covering up Lisa Bonet's real life pregnancy during a whole season. She was always hiding behind something and wearing these stupid extra loose fitting clothes. It just lost all sense of reality to me then. I'm a big fan of Bill Cosby and have many of his classic stand up routines on tape. I think the first seasons were so funny because the episodes were taken straight out of those routines. The pilot even had a direct quote when Claire tells the kids to be quiet after they've gone to bed. "Do you want me to come up there?" and they all answer "No!" in unison. Simple yet funny, too bad it couldn't last.
This in response to the other person's comment. Yes, the person that Cliff tried to set up Saundra with for a date was THE SAME PERSON who later became Denise's husband. Besides the continuity problems from day one (4 kids, then Saundra shows up?) this show suffered from an overflowing cast of regulars. The 8 grandparents, the nieces, grandkids, in-laws, Raven Simone, the annoying next-door neighbor who looked like Hans Moleman....it was friggin' endless! And don't even get me started on Cliff and Claire as the snobby, hypocritical parents.
I could not stand this show after the first season, especially with Cliff and Claire's self-satisfied smugness, but I am totally in agreement with that person who wrote about the Dabnus episode. In other words, I could see why the ****head Reagans would consider this one of their favorite shows. Elitist, snobbish, and pro-money (the lowly janitor should not even think about dating the daughter of a doctor/lawyer-btw-unionized janitors make a LOT of money). I remember watching this episode and being amazed at the behavior being portrayed by Vanessa's parents towards the janitor-boyfriend character. I mean, writers actually had to sit down and write this yuppie crap. I think that was when the "Cos" went over the shark tank and was eaten, and pooped out by the Great White.
Say what you will about the errors of the later years on this show (and the criticisms are valid), one of my most vivid youthful memories is watching the very first episode of this show. The plot is that Theo is doing poorly at school, and Cliff confronts his kid about it. Theo gives this real sensitive-like speech that his dad should accept him the way he is. And the audience goes *clap*clap*clap* in empathy. Then the balloon is deflated when Cliff shouts, "Theo, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!" At a time when TV critics questioned whether the sitcom genre was dead, this show brought it new life, and you could say it caused many of the other dead-ball era sitcoms at the time to jump the shark.
That stupid child Olivia. Naming the twins Winnie and Nelson, 12 grandparents per side of the family, what was that SD Button anyway? Issues, issues, issues. I just want to laugh, not see how everyday life is.
When Stevie Wonder almost ran over Theo and Denise, he came to their house (instead of suing them like in real life), and they all proceeded to kiss his ass. YUCKO! That was when the chum went into the water.
I discovered this show in re-runs. I really enjoy it. Cosby is one of my favorite comedians. I like the chemistry between him and Rashad. Sorry it went away so soon.
I'm surprised this one isn't here already...geez, Cosby jumped the shark 10 times every season!!! But when Theo goes from being an underachieving slacker (funny!!!) to a mature, so-called intelligent adult - I mean come on!!!!! And what's with the way he started talking!?!?!? It's like he was talking in slow-motion!!!
I believe this show jumped the Shark when they tried to turn smart, sweet innocent Vanessa into a bad girl. Tell me that doesn't make the least bit of sense. Underage drinking, traveling to a concert her parents would flip over, trying to kill her sister Rudy, and engaging to a man twice her age that she just met in College? Doesn't make sense. And to a previous respondent, yes, that was Joseph C. Martin as Sondra's would-be beau and Denise's husband. But try this one out for size. One of Theo's friends was played by Adam Sandler. On second thought, that MIGHT explain Vanessa's behavior!
First of all, I think you people are WAY too hard on this show. At the heart, it is a TV show (a sitcom no less), so these demands for strict continuity and thespian-grade acting out of young children is preposterous. THAT BEING SAID, "Cosby Show" DEFINITELY jumped the shark when it got full of itself. Bill Cosby and his crew were way more about image control than we thought. I saw an "E True Hollywood Story" and the only interesting thing I saw there was that Bill was very tight with how those kids acted (so the buck stopped there). Besides, how well could those kids act when all anyone was paid to do for the longest was react to the long, drawn out, never-ending stories told by the mugging Bill Cosby (go get some Jell-O already and "Shut Up". Pam and her crew were brought in to counter "The Simpsons". One thing I never understood: They fired Lisa Bonet from "Different World" because they didn't want a pregnant college student -- but when they immediately brought her back to "Cosby" (still pregnant), they said NOTHING about the pregnancy. Why not just ADMIT that Lisa couldn't carry a show in the first place???
After the 1st season. I remember in season 1 many of the episodes would Cliff and Claire retiring to there bedroom with promises of some heavy action. Claire was a horny little Minx! After that the show became preachy, serious, and I don't think the couple ever had sex again. I guess I wouldn't either if I had a kid like Vanessa.
"The Cosby Show", although a classic 1980's sitcom, did "Jump-the-Shark" when Rudy Huxtable began going through puberty. She was a cute kid, but got very annoying when puberty started to sink in. I'm not too fond of the episodes in which Rudy complains about her lack of breasts, or when she has her first period. "Woman's Day" - Geesh!!! How silly.
When I was growing up my family watched Cosby every week. The first season was the best. It took every day situations and found the humor in them. The show jumped the shark when the kids were too old to be cute and we were given a lot of dream sequence episodes: (men get pregnant, fairytale, cliffs nightmare when he overeats). Also the battle of the sexes got old real quick. The men could NEVER do anything right, and Elvin constantly offending women were just stupid. Finally, Olivia was a sad attempt at a sweet kid. Always trying to outfox Dr. Huxtable..."I Know My Body! I Know My Body!" ...Sheesh
This show JTS when Vanessa's hair started to resemble that god awful wig Jan Brady tried sporting to differentiate herself from Marcia; the difference being Jan was delusional and suffered from inner voices spurring her on to irrational thought, but Vanessa was supposed to be a bright, young woman. Go figure, that doo was definitely a hair DON'T!! I still don't know why Claire let her go out of the house without insisting she run a rake through that mess!
Olivia! What's up with her eyebrows? Was she meant to replace Rudy? Not cute.
I used to watch every single episode, from its very first show. Then something happened. The shows just started rambling and getting pointless (the episode which caused this to dawn on me was the one where Cliff plays a game of cards with some older friends). The show didn't exactly jump the shark, it slowly waded into its jaws.
When Pam and Olivia showed up. They also kept Kenny as Rudy's only friend. My Question is what the hell happened to Peter. He at least made the show funny sometimes.
Does anyone remember the episode where Vanessa (bad hair) and her friends were trying to put together a singing group, and Claire objected to their suggestive dancing and outfits, so they took them to a jazz concert? What kind of punishment is that? I felt it jumped from there. Oh, and I couldn't stand Eldin (that's his name). How is he a weak man towards Sandra and have chauvinist views? A walking contradiction.
This thing jumped when Rashad seemed to forget during interviews that she was once married to Village People frontman Victor Willis.....and that she once recorded an album with them! "Josephine.....Superstar.....She's....The Queen Of The Stars!" BWAHAHA!
Being African-American, I know that skin tone can vary widely within the same family, but it always really bugged me that Saundra and Denise were like 10 shades lighter than the other kids, and no one ever mentioned it. I mean, compare with Family Matters, or most other shows.
When Rudy went through puberty I was amazed at how she changed. All of her cute little girl looks went down the drain and so did the show.
Those few episodes were Theo seemed to have some sort of horseness problem. It sounded like he was talking through a pile of gravel. Clear your throat or find a Sucrets, man! The other thing would absolutely have to be that damn Zerbert! It was cute once but when grandma and granpa start doing it...get a raincoat. Does anyone like being kissed by there grandparents let alone showered with old coffee drinking, stank breath! Oh I'd let someone zerbert me alright....ON MY ASS!
Hee hee hee hee....oh, that comment about zerberts was good! The whole show was begun with little foresight, I believe. I wonder if the creators even expected it to do well. Because it premiered so soon after Coz did the concert "Himself" (which WAS funny), I saw in show #1 that the main gags were going to be taken from Bill's routines, whenever possible. Example: during "Himself," Bill tells the audience that he and his wife have 5 children, and the reason that they HAVE 5 children is because they did not want 6. Funny. Good line. Then, in the first episode of TCS, Claire ASKS him, "Why do we have 5 children?" Why would ANYONE EVER ask a question like that unless they were setting up someone for a punchline? This did not bode well for Bill's Brood. And of course the way they went and added child #5 it insulted us all (but there were always so many over there all the time that the place began to look like a refugee camp). The over-reliance on kids is something else that makes me think that the show's popularity caught the writers by surprise. News flash: Kids grow up! I remember one funny moment when Rudy (too young yet for us to know that she couldn't act) tries to relay messages back and forth between Cliff and Claire, and she keeps getting the messages wrong. I was laughing, the audience was laughing, and even the other actors were laughing, because Keisha was just being herself. But somewhere along the line she got an agent and people started to pretend that she deserved to be doing a highly-rated sitcom when she shouldn't have been going beyond school plays. Well, I take that back. I don't know if the problem was that the dialogue sounded stupid because of the writers or the kids. Probably both. And does anyone believe that Cliff and Claire, in their 50's, are going to be so hot for each other, ALL THE TIME? As soon as the kids are gone, Cliff is nuzzling Claire and she's acting like he's NEVER EVER done it before, and it's just got her panties all moist and steamy. Another example of the non-realism of the show. For all of you who praise the realism of TCS, I can only shake my head in pity. 30 years into a marriage, a certain amount of apathy sets in. It happens. It's part of the deal. But not on TCS. The only time one of them wouldn't "feel like" gettin busy would have been if Claire was punishing Cliff for some reason (take a tip, ladies: withholding sex as punishment is bad for both partners. Grow up), like one of his many failures to listen and do exactly as his wife directed, because no woman on The Cosby Show was ever allowed to make a mistake if it would suggest or even hint, for one second, that women are not superior to men in every way.
Isn't it interesting how Cliff and Claire, a doctor and a lawyer, (two high-stress and high-time commitment careers) are always hanging around the house? And neither one is even a little emotionally distant from the kids? Yet another example of a tv show designed to make you feel bad about yourself because you're not perfect, like the folks on tv. And you need to believe THAT; Cosby intended to be an example of how well a family could function.
It would had to have been when Sondra showed up. In the very first episode, it is revealed that Cliff and Claire have 4 children. When Sondra came along, making it 5, it was basically like the creators said, "Ah, the audience is too stupid to notice." I really liked Coz; "Himself" was a severely funny concert. And like most of America, The Cosby Show was one of my Thursday night lynchpins for a long time. It was only after the show ended that I realized how truly stupid and insulting it was. Here's a typical lesson from The Cosby Show: Men are idiots. Actually, that was the lesson 7 times out of 10, because apparently it's ALWAYS funny to have Alvin (what a wuss; how the hell would HE ever get a fine woman like Sondra?) try to do something nice for his wife or mother-in-law and then get shot down for being chauvinistic without even trying. Men always had stupid ideas on the show, and the women would always be the voices of reason. It's like someone felt that the only! way to make up for Lucy and Ethel's schemes and acquiescence was to have every man in every sitcom for the rest of time humble himself before women, who ALWAYS know better. It's funny once or twice, but after a while it's like Thelma and Louise. The show then took another huge dive when Lisa Bonet somehow had a kid. Who's this? Your new husband? And he has a daughter? Well, why don't we let her live here? WHAT THE HELL? For someone who allegedly taught his kids to be self-reliant, Coz sure let them hang around the house a long time. Another low; the second lip-synch. The first one was funny because it was new, but by the second time, hell didn't they all have COSTUMES or something? This went beyond ridiculous. Dad is a doctor, mom is a lawyer, they're OBVIOUSLY done paying off that absurdly small house, and yet the "gift" they give the grandparents is a song and dance. Another huge dip (this show may have jumped more than any other) was the addition, in a relatively short span, it seemed to me, of any celebrity they could lay their hands on. Oh, and Grandpa is a jazz musician, too. Yeah, he used to blow with Monk and Charlie Parker. Let me introduce you to my close personal friends in this super-tight jazz combo. You'll never see these people again. And didn't it turn out that Grandpa once dated Lena Horne or some such thing? At least the show paved the way for other three-named child actors. If it wasn't for Coz, all three boys from Home Improvement would have had such PLAIN names....
AFTER THE FIRST THREE SEASONS - THE kids got too old and it lost its innovation. the novelty wore off quickly and the show sucked after that. I almost never watched the later shows but I did catch the Dabnus episode in syndication. the earlier posters misunderstood the parents objection. not because he was a janitor but because he was about 35 years old and had a lot of personal baggage - he was naming all the women he had lived with before meeting Vanessa - that was the problem - not class snobbery. overall this period of the show sucked but people should pay more attention before writing Marxist class-warfare rants.
A lot of people have said that Rudy got, well, ugly, as the show went on. Not so fast. Did you see her on the child stars edition of Weakest Link? She turned out to be very lovely actually. Not too bright, but very pretty. Wish I could say the same for the girl from Family Ties. She scares me.
The whole show just started crumbling when Denise got her haircut. Before that, we had the happy little Huxtable family, getting into trouble all by themselves. It was fun. The minute that hair came off, all the horrible storylines and characters started filtering in; Olivia, Elvin, twins, singing to Grandma & Grandpa at least once a month, you name it. If you look back, you'll see, it was the hair that did it. Just like it's ruined so many other good shows. Haven't producers figured it out yet? Hairstyle changes are THE CURSE.
The show jumped when Denise left. She was the only cool character, and she was a fox. After she left, it just sucked. I would also like to say that that no-talent who played Olivia made this show completely unwatchable.
Alright, this once great show was ruined as they continued to add more kids. The original cast was superb. And the majority of the nation watched them grow up. But as they grew they felt they needed to continue to add kids. It is like a show can't go on as people grow up. My family is much more entertaining now that I am in my early twenties and I am the youngest. The fact that you can't continue the show without more kids is ridiculous. It was like watching the old episodes all over again except for the fact that it wasn't at all funny. Also it just made me feel sad for the parents. I mean aren't they due for a vacation or something. I mean after 5 kids I know I would be.
The show jts'd when "Married with Children" came on the air and Al Bundy kicked Cliff's ass in the ratings.
What was up with all the dancing entrances? I never cared too much for the show to start with, every new season is a new dance sequence. C'mon!!!
Why do people give a rat's ass about opening sequences of television shows? That's the time to go get a drink or take a whiz.
I don't really think Olivia made this show jump; with this kind of comedy it can be funny even when the situations are getting a little tired. To me, though, this show really jumped once it became obvious that Bill Cosby had an attitude problem. Let me explain: I love the show. I think BC is a comic genius, and he really knew how to make "little kid" humor work. But there's a disturbing subtext to this show from day 1, if you look into it. Someone here said that all ol' Cliff cared about was that the kids make money and get good jobs. But there's a little more to it than that, in my book. If you watch the show carefully and think about the "hidden messages" behind "Dad"'s advice in each situation, you'll get it. It seems to me that what he was really doing was giving black kids a message: Education is the key to beating whites at their own game. Here you have an upper-class black family. The father's a doctor (a gynecologist with many white women patients), the Mom's a lawyer. The overriding "joke" in the show is that the kids are too dumb to realize that studying and getting an education is how to get the brass ring: M-O-N-E-Y. All they care about is partying. So Bill's saying, hey, if you apply yourself in school you can get rich, spend thousands on paintings, look down on the white people instead of being looked down on BY them because all you do is party all day. Does anyone sense some real bitterness on Cos' part towards whites?????????????? My dad remembered the early days with I-Spy and said that in those days the "black character" was always made out to look like a buffoon. So what does Cosby have? Very politically correct multiracial people accomplishing great things, getting rich and working hard. Except.....the white people on the show are always a little "off". The next-door neighbor is a fat loser who can't speak correctly and wears a cheesy hairpiece. Little "Pete" or whatever his name is is socially inept and also fat. The Huxtables tolerate the unfortunate whites who cross their paths. I don't have a big problem with this. I can still laugh at the show's jokes and enjoy it, but if I were black I'd be offended. Because according to Cos' way of looking at it, the black person's value is still measured in comparison to whites, only this time they're on top. That's kind of a childish viewpoint. Additionally I think that Bill's nonstop harangue about money, money, money, and how the kids don't have any until they earn their own and he and his wife are graciously "sharing" wealth with their children, is really potentially damaging. There is more to life than Money--unless you've got something to prove to someone, or to a whole race. To me these elements made a show that could have been "great" only "OK".
Many of you who posted in reference to The Cosby Show have serious problems and I feel sorry for you. The Cosby Show is one of the best shows that has ever aired on television. As an African-American male, whose family was and still is of upper middle class status, could relate to The Huxtables as a child growing up in the 80's. It was an uplifting, entertaining, and positive sitcom that I still enjoy watching to this day. You all need to realize that it was a situation comedy (sitcom)that was entertainment and therefore was not meant to be absolute reality. It it were "totally realistic" (meaning that everything that happened would have literally occurred in a family), it would have been boring. It needed excitement. It needed music, singing, dancing and other facets that was thought to not have occurred in a family. Of course certain things were added and altered to make the show more intriguing for example, introducing a "new" daughter who is already in college to the show. It seem incredible to have a doctor and lawyer as parents who devote much time to their family. It needed to be like this because if they were always working it would be like they were not emotionally supporting their family. It would have been silly for the show to have portrayed them as being so busy with their careers that they did not have as much time with family as they did on the show. I repeat it was a television show and needed to be spiced up for entertainment purposes. For you all who keep putting down Raven Simone ought to be ashamed. She was an innocent little girl who had the courage and the self-esteem to play a role in a very very popular sitcom which many of you would not have had the confidence to have done. I know that people are always going to complain about something. You can not make everyone happy. I do know that nothing is perfect. There were episodes that I did not care too much for but there was no "one" episode that made the show do downhill. I generally liked the show. I did began to lose interest after Pam and her friends joined the cast. Nevertheless, it was a great sitcom. For the person who posted that Bill Cosby thought it was ok for low class whites to be on the show or whatever nonsense you were trying to convey but you were basically stating that Bill Cosby had something against white people. Get a life. You are taking the show too personally.
To me, I don't think that the show never jumped...not seriously, anyway. It seems to me that it ended at just the right time, before the plot got to ridiculous and convoluted. And about the whole thing, adding Raven-Symone as Olivia to the cast and any other additions made, I believe that it kept the show real. I mean, it happens in families that people get married and have children and that there are some step children. It was only realistic also that Rudy should grow up, unless you're saying that by the time Rudy hit age ten or whatever, the show should have stopped. I have to agree that the whole pregnancy episode was pretty disgusting, but I don't think it was all over after that. The show could have jumped, but it didn't, really.
Sure, this show had its less-than-stellar moments, but it never jumped the shark. It achieved a rare feat in television--to go on for eight years while still keeping itself fresh and enjoyable. A lot of current shows could learn from The Cosby Show's example.
Whoever said that Al Bundy kicked the Cosby Show's butt is way off. The Cosby Show stayed in the top 20 throughout it's entire run. While Married.... Never cracked the top 20. Here are The Cosby Shows ratings by season: 1984-1985 #3 1985-1986 #1 1986-1987 #1 1987-1988 #1 1988-1989 #1 1989-1990 #2 1990-1991 #5 1991-1992 #18 I think the show was great. It just got weird because after a while there were too many people on the show. Has anyone else noticed that A Different World is shown a whole lot more in syndication than The Cosby Show???
Gotta agree about the lip-synching! It's like a friend showing a video of his Uncle Dave playing the 'Star-Spangled Banner' using his armpits. First time- funny! Second and every other time, boring and annoying! I wonder if the writers opted for that so they could regularly wrap up the scripts in time to beat the Manhattan rush-hour traffic home?
Raven Symone was rubbish and there's no way anyone can defend her. If viewers don't like her (and her character had plenty of time to bed down) she should have been given the sack - Tough words, but that's showbiz. She couldn't act and the producers tried too hard to make her like the new Rudy.
I agree with a lot of this. But yes actors were reused. In the Gordon gartrel episode, one of Theo's friend's is Kadeem Hardison who later ends up playing Dwayne Wayne on Diff. World. And Denise's husband was in that other episode. I mean yeah this show was great and I'm sure Cosby's heart was in the right place, but what was it just me or was Vanessa the most annoying thing on that show?! Despite the hai issues, she was ALWAYS complaining! It's like, Shut the hell up! And why was Olivia always dressed like a small circus performer. The final nail in the coffin was when that whole stanley, rudy, kenny love triangle began. And don't get me started on Theo's corny behind. The older he got, the more I hated him!
All shows do tend to go bad after a certain point- it's to be expected by most experienced sit-com junkies. However I must comment on the extremely harsh criticism of this show. Coming from a black perspective, THERE HAS BEEN NO OTHER SHOW LIKE THIS. Sure maybe the characters were a bit what some blacks consider "acting white, and proper", but in reality most black people are not the typical posturing-slick-super-slang-jiggy-glossy- UPN-MTV-puppets that are sadly mostly portrayed on televsion. And I know that most white people are not all Corny-cell-phone-AllyMcBeal-cynical- Senfeld-SUV-cornballs that dominate television. Cosby did what he set out to do, and the show ran out of steam. It's unfortunate that no other black entertainer has been able to take it to the next level..least not yet.
Looking back on it, this show jumped when they stopped mentioning Theo's friend Cockroach. Without a doubt. If only Theo would have gotten the Gordon Gartrell.
Anyone that thinks that this show was overrated obviously didn't watch the first 3 seasons. That's classic television right there. After the 3rd season when Denise left for A Different world, the show became kind dry. I think because the first 3 seasons of the show were actually based on Cosby's REAL life family. And I guess after the 3rd season there was nothing left to tell about his family. It still amazes me how this show was #1 for so many years, but now so many people hate it. Ah well, I guess times change.
It's a shame to see so many people hate on an intelligent, funny, and positive show. And then see people praise CRAP, like The Simpsons and Friends. People don't know that without The Cosby Show, there would be no Friends, Seinfeld, Will & Grace, Veronica's Closet etc; The Cosby Show is responsible for NBC's successful Thursday night line up. And all the shows that are mentioned above and more benefit from it. True, the show had run it's course by the 6th season, but I don't see how so many people can ignore the fact that this show captivated for 6 years. being #1 for 5 straight years. Being the ONLY black sitcom to be #1 in the Nielsen ratings. I don't know why people always have to look on the negative side of things. And I'm surprised no one mentioned the brilliant opening themes. I especially enjoyed the Caribbean style one they did during the 5th season. Too bad they couldn't use the 7th season opening until the 8th season because some guy said that they used the wall without permission. That means we could've had a new opening sequence during the 8th season. Anybody ever check out "Cosby" that use to air on CBS??? It's really funny as long as you remember that you're not watching The Cosby Show. Which is kinda hard since Phylicia Rashad stars alongside Cosby. But I do believe The Cosby Show jumped once Rudy got her period. That was just too weird for me to stomach. Especially since I was 9 years old when that episode originally aired.
Most definitely when Olivia was added to the scene to replace the "cuteness" that was once Rudy. I remember one particular episode when Gram-T was in town and they were all supposed to go to church but little miss smart-ass Olivia wanted to go to the zoo. That did it for me (for good)! In the real world, there would not have been any discussion of the matter.
The Cosby Show didn't totally jump until Olivia came along. Other posters have commented enough on her, so I'll refrain from doing so. However, I agree with several here who have pointed out that Dr. and Mrs. H. had an underlying snobbishness when it came to their childrens' career choices. I liked this show, but there seemed to be an implied message that anyone who chooses to "only" get a regular job and not go to college is a "slacker" or "not fulfilling their potential." There are many kids like Theo who simply DO NOT HAVE WHAT IT TAKES for college or careers as professionals. Their minds don't click that way due to genetics and other natural factors. They can only hope to be "regular" people, job-wise. As a previous poster said, threatening physical violence ("I'm your father. I brought you in this world, and I can take you out") more than likely wouldn't work with a child who just doesn't have it upstairs. When you have a son/daughter like that, you have to encourage them to develop whatever abilities they do possess. You don't tell them that the idea of loving and accepting them is "the dumbest thing [you've] ever heard in [your] life," as Cliff insensitively said to Theo. Loving and accepting your children is "THE DUMBEST THING YOU'VE EVER HEARD IN YOUR LIFE???" What was Cliff's major malfunction? It's like yelling at a paralyzed person for not being able to walk. Also, there are those for whom big money doesn't mean a whole lot, as when Elvin and Sondra wanted to open the (I THINK) health food store (correct me on this if I'm wrong). Those with rose-colored glasses might say "oh, Cliff and Claire only wanted the best for their kids, they 'had to' threaten them once in a while, yada yada yada," but to me, the underlying message was this: kids, you can be whatever you want, but we have a mental clause which says that if you want us to treat you civilly, we HAVE TO APPROVE of whatever you choose for your job. If you don't pick something that we personally dig, we're going to threaten you, call you "dumb", make you pay rent as punishment (whereas if you picked a career we liked, you could live here for free) or kick you out of the house and speak to you in cold, formal, short sentences if you try to call and visit. This is what causes families to feud and break up--making issues out of non-issues. Your children's choosing to do something "different" or less financially profitable than your career choice--if that's what they want, and if they're happy with that, who are you to tell them they're "wrong?" It's not going to hurt you as a parent to still give them unconditional love, with no clauses or sub-clauses. As Theo told Cliff, being a doctor or lawyer might be fine for people like Dr. and Mrs. Huxtable (who were probably blessed with natural intelligence to start with), but not everybody. But hey, this is all my opinion, so let me get off my soapbox! It was still an entertaining show if you didn't take it too seriously. I'll take a bacon-burger dog any day. PEACE!
Having been born in 1985, I missed out on the Cosby Show during its early run. However, watching it now in syndication on TBS, I still cannot believe that this was the highest rated show on TV from 1985-1989. The Cosby Show has to be one of the lamest, most overrated shows ever on television. I can't even force myself to laugh while watching this show. Perhaps it's because I'm a child of the 90s, and grew up on family sitcoms like Full House, Family Matters, Roseanne, Home Improvement, The Simpsons etc. I hypothesize that the reason why Cosby was popular back in the late 80s was due to the demographics of the time. In the 80s baby boomers were reaching their 30s and were having children and raising kids. They wanted to see something on TV with their children, and family sitcoms like Cosby and Family Ties became extremely popular as they projected wholesome family values. Now the boomers are approaching their 50s, and their kids are teenagers. No sane parent watches TV with their kids anymore. My deepest sympathies for the parent of today. What is the mother of an 8-year old to watch with their child on prime time TV? Are there any good, wholesome, family shows like Cosby (supposedly) on the air these days. I still maintain that if The Cosby Show aired today, in the age of Ally McBeal, Friends, Temptation Island, and Friends... it wouldn't even crack the top 20. Seinfeld killed the family sitcom. Cosby was lucky in that it came around at just the right time. The Cosby Show would never survive today.
I'm sorry but I must say something to the poster above. I was born in 1981 so I remember watching The Cosby Show as a very young child. True, after having brilliant Anti-Cosby shows like Simpsons, Friends, Seinfeld etc; in the 90's it kind of dampens The Cosby Show's hilarity. But how can you even compare the Cosby show to crap like Full House or Family Matters???? I'll admit I grew up watching TGIF, but it's almost impossible for me to watch any of that crap now. Boy meets world is marginal. I still watch The Cosby show to this day, and it's still pretty funny. And to whoever said the male-pregnancy episode sucked is crazy. That was one of the funniest ones. I don't care what anybody says, Bill Cosby is a genius....Too bad he was sniffin' paint thinner when he added Olivia and Pam to the cast. However, Erica Alexander (Pam) was great on the Fox comedy Living Single.
ALRIGHT, I have to address the posts about the episode where Cliff and Claire meet Dabnis. It was NOT the fact that he didn't have a "high-class" job like Elvin or Martin that was the reason Cliff and Claire didn't like him. If you will carefully listen to Cliff's dialogue, you will find out the fault is all Vanessa's. As a matter of fact, her mother even said "You're not ready!" It was a combination of a couple of things working in Vanessa: (1) she herself in her own subtle way is ashamed of Dabnis' lack of stature and convinces herself that her parents won't like him either, and (2) it is plainly obvious that she is not ready to get married, but she seems to think that getting engaged to a "maintenance man" will get a rise out of her parents. I applauded the later episode when Vanessa kept announcing wedding dates just to see her parents' reaction and her folks coolly stood their ground, knowing FOOL WELL that it would never make it that far. Cliff and Claire, I believe, really liked Dabnis, but he was presented to them as "trash" through Vanessa's subtleties. Throughout the run of the show you saw the kids having self-induced problems thinking that Mom and Dad would not accept anything less than a college education and making tons of money from them when, in fact, the opposite was true.
OLIVIA. She was so annoying. I loved this show up until this point. It was obvious they brought her on in a last attempt situation. Rudy was the bomb. (Oh, I also didn't like how they gave Saundra so much air time, and her dumb children... that too was really lame)
Vanessa's lopsided afro circa season 6. I know adolescence can be hard but damn girl....your parents are that rich and you can't afford a stylist? The hair was essentially a symptom of a much larger issue. The Cosby kids all started going through their awkward growing up phase and they just weren't cute & cuddly anymore. Yes, Miss Rudy's 'stache was tough to deal with too. Theo had a few hair-related mishaps of his own through the years (can we say rat-tail). But as much as that show started sucking, it will always be in the words of a young Theo Huxtable "Jammin on the one."
"Jammin On The One". What in the hell was he talking about? I don't even listen to rap that much, but I knew that term didn't make sense to me.
What lame ass thought a college commencement honoring the retirement of some old coot windbag president would be entertaining? I dread having to sit through graduations because they boring as hell. I am sooo sure that a doctor and lawyer can put their hectic schedules on hold to pay homage and kiss ass for some old fossil that doesn't have the sense to retire in his sixties and enjoy the rest of his life. Nooo! I'll retire when I'm eighty and close to death. And what was with the woman that was going to replace him? Her hair was so big that she couldn't even wear the ceremonial cap. Then she had the nerve to say, "I was a recent Hillman graduate with a perfect 4.0 grade average (everyone applauds) and I was concerned with my future and needed someone to talk to." What an arrogant bitch! That shows low self-esteem if you have to brag about your average. And with a 4.0, what's the concern? I've never seen a perspective employer say "Big deal" at a perfect average. I liked the episode where Claire hires young plumbers and they turn out to have Master's Degrees in Psychology, Literature, etc. When Cliff asks one of the girls why she's a plumber and not a psychologist, she responds that she couldn't find a decent paying job in her field and she has bills to pay. And plumbers make decent money! Reality check: most people with degrees can't find work in their chosen profession. No wonder Theo was so keen on being a regular person. I know a guy who got a GED, never took a college course, and is a garbage man. Guess what, this "regular person" makes twice what I make and I'm a computer programmer with a Bachelor's degree. He can even retire at 55 and still live comfortably. I'm not jealous. Life's a crap shoot. Being a regular person is not the end of the world. Most people are regular people.
I stayed loyal to this show through all the rough stuff. Denise dropping out of college and coming back married with a kid. Beautiful Sandra having a ugly stupid husband with an ugly stupid name like Elvin. All of Vanessa's ugly hairdo's until somebody finally must have protested until she got braided extensions. I even loved little Olivia and Theo finally acting like he had some sense. Here they go, up the ramp with Theo and the kids at the "Center" (just like Weezy and the Help Center) but they jumped that darn shark tank (can't say damn on the Cosby show) with the advent of Cousin Pam and her friends. That was the living end.
Two things I distinctly hate about the Cosby Show: One, Sondra, Elvin, and the twins. I just feel that the four of them are so sickly sweet, it makes me want to puke every time I hear about them. Besides, the casting staff just added Sondra to give Cliff an eldest daughter in college. Two, the episode that everyone wants to go to the Michael Jackson "Bad" concert because it was allegedly his last concert. Two to three years later, there was the ill-fated "Dangerous" tour, and there is talk of an "Invincible" tour as I write this. That miscalculation always bugs me out every time I think about it!
I forgot how good this show was during the first few seasons. I have been watching it on Nick at Nite, and think the first two seasons are hilarious. The one where Cliff wants to show Theo that the real world is tougher than he thinks was funny as hell. Cliff is Harley the Landlord, Rudy is the owner of the bank, and Denise is the fashion agent, and the rest all play different roles. That episode was clever & funny. I haven't seen one clunker since the marathon has started (it's up to season 2 I think). I loved it in the 80's and still do now. HOWEVER, I remember when I STOPPED watching it during its first run & thinking it will never be as good as it was. Sondra & Elvin always bugged me. The way they acted towards each other was just sickingly sweet & unrealistic. Then they got married and had twins...Winnie & Nelson? Didn't the real Winnie & Nelson get a divorce? The focus on them, I thought was boring and NOT funny. Right around that point I started watching The Simpsons. Then I remember once turning it on when Olivia and Pam were on it and I thought I was watching a different show.
Wow. Talk about your "before they were famous" episodes -- Adam Sandler, in his pre-MTV days, and pre-Hollywood mogul days, playing a typical teenager prom date on the show. I should have been paying more attention to my retro curricula back in the late 1980s. Caviar, crackers, helicopters, and fly-away hair. I guess that makes for a comedic prom date episode.
First of all, I really like this show. It wasn't as corny as typical sitcoms and it was genuinely funny. I especially liked Rudy. Then, in the last two seasons, when Rudy turned 10 or 11, they had to have a cute little girl. Yes, Olivia was very cute, but the show could have done just fine with Rudy as the youngest. True, she wasn't as cute anymore, but it could have been interesting to watch Rudy grow up and deal with teenage problems when everyone was used to her being the baby of the family. I don't like watching the later episodes because all the other kids, especially Rudy, are completely overshadowed by Olivia.
Did anyone else notice before Saundra was done with school she date Denise furture husband Martin. He was the one Cliff liked, and Elvin is the one Saundra liked. Also in the Gorden Gartrell episode one of Theo's friends was DeWayne Wayne from a Different World!
When Joseph C. Phillips double dipped Cosby daughters, playing Sondra's boyfriend, and Denise's husband. And truth be told, he stunk in both roles.
As a matter of fact, for the exception of Rudy, all three of the Cosby girls dated or either married a nerd. Elvin'sandra, Denise/whatever that guy name is and Vanessa/dabnis. Is their a pattern here?
Cosby neared the end when in one later episode, Lisa Bonet corrects her little sister on ethnic classifications. So as not to be considered a racist cretin, she instructs her to refer to white people as "Caucasians" in everyday dialogue. E-gads... Sounds like the Huxtable family was watching too much 'Dragnet'...
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. The Cosby Show almost lost me on day one with the arrogant "Dr. William H. Cosby, Jr., Ed. D." prominently displayed in the opening credits. Everyone knows you don't put "Dr." AND "Ed. D." in the same title, it's either one or the other. Seems like nobody bothered to tell Bill until like the 3rd season when the "Dr." was FINALLY dropped. And why was this even necessary? Oh, like I'm just so f**king impressed over Cosby's educational credentials to produce a sitcom!!!
Clifford Huxtable, MD. becomes Heathcliff Huxtable, MD
The post on Theo being disowned because he wasn't going to be a doctor or lawyer is dead on. It brings how so many Americans are obsessed by money. I thought that was one thing cool about Black America. Unlike much of its White urban counterpart, In Black America being filthy rich isn't the end all to life. I thought Blacks realized you could be filthy rich, still not have your act together and be uncool. Cosbys constant emphasis on money over intrinsic values brings up the greed in America that surrounds such scandals as Enron and the overall corruption of the Stock Market (White Collar Crime- Fortune Magazine (internet version) 3/18/02) But I think more should be added to the poster's comments. I would further state that the negativeness goes further. In most CS episodes there is also the bitter, angry, patronizing, elitist feeling that any youth culture Cosby doesn't approve of or think he knows more about than everyone else is trash. And using Cosby logic it follows that if the culture is trash than the kids are trasy. In Cosby's world, the kids can only be cool and worthwhile if they like the same Teen orientated activities as Cosby. It is pathetic how angry, bitter and offended Cliff becomes when he finds out that Theo is listening to an MTV video along the lines of Walk Like An Egyptian- a harmless, pretty good song. How can you be so angry about a song that is in the same league as Sugar Sugar by the Archies? Or in universal terms a song that is likeable, harmless upbeat pop? But Cliff has to be the purveyor of cool- it's not his find so he won't even try to accept that his kid likes it. OK that's fine, but does he have to browbeat Theo over something like the Bangles just because the other kids in the family are acting like Theo knows what is cool and Dad is clueless. And lets analyze Cliff's or should I say Bill Cosby's music. Jazz comes out of the whorehouses and is directly associated with the prostitute culture. Most of the legendary Jazz musicians spent a lot of time in these places. Many Jazz musicians were also involved in numerous criminal activities. Jazz is largely about black men acting like what you would think Cliff/Bill would call ******s. Yet because they are Cliff's find of cool these Jazzmen are treated like they are more upstanding solid citizens than William Lloyd Garrison. But if you are going to start judging the behaviors of entertainers let's be honest about Cliff/Bill's great Jazz men. There behaviours include dropping out of school, being playas, shooting up the heroin, acting macho and superior to the "womins". Let's talk about what happened to Miles Davis and Charlie Parker as a result of their addictions to very hard drugs. And many of the players of Jazz were also very violent men. For example, Charles Mingus played Jazz like it was a big band version of hardcore Punk music. This is because he was a man with a trigger finger temper who regularly kicked major ass. The dude was nuts man and might kick your ass at any moment. And Billie Holiday- is this the kind of life story the Cos has in mind as a black role model? Louie Armstrong? Let's just say he was MAJOR spinning when he sang Ain't Misbehaving. And as for guest star B.B. King- he has 16 different kids by 16 different wives. How can you be that dumb? I mean the poster calls Theo dumb. Can you imagine someone as dumb as to get 16 different chicks pregnant? That takes the cake for ******** man. The cake. And yet there he is front and center as Cosby's pick for cool role model. I guess when B.B. sang about how he let the Good Times Roll he forgot to protect himself against the Womins. Why would the Great Coz want to feature someone on the show who perpetuates the worst stereotypes about how Black men can't keep it in their pants and young unmarried Black women keep getting pregnant. Is this the upperclass positive message that Cosby is trying to promote through the show? And how can Walk Like An Egyptian compare to any of that? I'll admit that I listen to some Jazz- the kind that isn't egotistical bragadocious noodling, or smooth crap. The kind that has real feeling too it, and gives you what you need without filler and unnecessary passages that ramble. But for Cosby to try to say his culture is so much more intellectual and cooler/better than everyone elses shows how the money has gone to the dude's mind. Forget B.B's 16 bastards- although can you imagine if Theo brought home a kid? He'd be out the door that minute and Claire would serve him with an injunction to stay out of the house. If he tried to come back Cliff or Claire would call the cops. He'd probably be shot as an intruder. Is this the kind of behavior Cliff wants to promote for his kids? If it is why doesn't he get off his big tight cheap ass, take out his wallet and give some of his lawyer/doctor money or credit card to Theo so he can go out buy him a Ho. That's what these great role model Jazz men did. Also the Ray Charles' song Night time Is The Right Time that the family lip sync too is about Illicit copulating. Not making love, one night stand ho style sex. And each one of the Rayettes singing in the background of the song had to bang Charles in order to get their job. I don't get it. Why would Cliff have innocent Rudy lip the lead for that song? For posters not familiar with the significance of that song- when Rudy walks down the steps like that she is acting out the role of a braggadocious Ho in a brothel. It's like she's telling you she's the ultimate Black queen hooker. Isn't that suggesting pedophilia? Dude, Cos what's up with that? Is this your bitter way of getting back at the kids for not worshipping you as the king of cool? And I don't understand why Cliff criticizes his kids for acting like a fool when he mugs and plays the fool all the time. Cos, are you jealous because the kids got to rap Shakespeare in a way that made them look "cool". Are you so insecure that you constantly worry your younger actors will upstage you and get more laughs? Cosby was real cool in his old standup and with Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. FAATCK was a non-hypocritical, good, positive message to people of all colors. Note that this was before Cosby started to spin and hide that he wasn't a playa who skipped school, got low grades and flunked college by skipping class and partying. Not exactly what you do if you want to be a lawyer or doctor is it Bill? What a great example for the kids. And banging that chick who claims she has your bastard. Cos, why would you do that if you want to be like Cliff Huxtable. Is this the kind of example you want to set for the Black kids? That it's cool to cheat on your wife, act like a fool and get your lovers pregnant. And why would you want to make it by mugging in front of the camera like a black clown? No you do not have to represent lower class Blacks to achieve a positive black message. The idea of showcasing an Upperclass Black family is a good one. But the "positive" message in the upperclass Huxtable family is marred by hypocricy,elitism, snobbery, double standards and one upmanship. Cliff plays an I'm the cooler Black than you game in TCS by preventing his kids from having the ability to be cool. Instead the kids are angrily told to act dazzled by the fashion/dancing/singing and whatever else show Cliff and Claire put on before they go out on the town. The kids acting cool and/or any chance of upstaging the Cos will not be allowed. It's like Cos is trying to be the head rapper by preventing Theo from having the chance to out rap him. What a great positive message. And the ego present in that message is sickening. Dude, you're not God, get over yourself. It's too bad that the Great Coz was turning into King Midas with no clothes during TCS because there are some great ideas in TCS and Cosby's agenda hurts them. It's really sad that a man can have so much in life and yet let so much angry bitter baggage ruin it for him. This man use to come across to me as happy. In the 60s up until the end of Fat Albert Cosby was a good time. Now as a billionaire Cosby seems so unhappy and bitter. His monologues are angry bitterness that the kids are in his observation at least considered cool because they appreciate The Blair Witch project. The Cos is all pissed off because he feels he should be appreciated as cool and not them. Maybe he has become like Citizen Kane and is trapped by his own success. Bill, dude what went so wrong? What causes you to have such anger? Why do you have to smack around a neurologically disordered man like Tommy Smothers in Vegas? You don't do stuff like that unless there is something really wrong. AND TO THE MOTHER WHO CLAIMS WE SHOULD LIKE OLIVIA BECAUSE SHE IS ADVANCED FOR HER AGE AND TRYING SO HARD. I DON'T CARE HOW HARD SHE MIGHT BE TRYING SHE SUCKS. THEY SHOULD HAVE SENT HER TO ED MCMAHON AND STAR SEARCH.
I don't get Cosby's bitterness about his or anyone else's kids getting to have fun and act young. From what I understand Cosby was a real rebel child and a bad student who was practically passed through school to get rid of him. As an adult he was supposedly partied a lot and did the kind of things he tells young people they are never to do. So my problem with The Cosby Show is how "The Cos" can be negative and bitter and hard on young people. The only explanation I have is that he expects to be worshipped like the combination of Brad Pitt, N Sync, Brittany Spears, Colby Briant, Shaq, Carson Daily and the entire cast of American Pie everytime he makes faces at the camera and that didn't work out for him. But I do get how Cosby uses the show as a platform to support young black people whose parents provide them with money and opportunity so they don't have to rely on others. Unfortunately in America it's human nature to go with the winners regardless of how they win. But man the few times I've seen TCS, I want the kids to bash the Cos on the head with a baseball bat. And don't get me started with the wife. Having said that Theo kicks ass and is one of the few real cool kids on Television. I like when he did the Shakespeare rap with cockroach.
When Theo, the classic screw around high school kid ends up finding out that his "dyslexia" was the problem all along. Yeah right--dyslexia is what caused him to choose friends over studying and always screw off. Once they discover he has dyslexia all of the sudden he is Mr. NYU intellectual, the expert in psychology. Please! In reality Theo would have been a frat boy at some low grade public university, cutting class, getting drunk and chasing girls.
The first two seasons of this show were actually very funny. However, this over-hyped sitcom begin to wane at the beginning of the 3rd season. Season Premiere: Rudy thinks there's a snake in the basement!! Talk about Must-See-TV! (Not!) From there it was all down hill ending in the 3rd season finale where the family attends a graduation ceremony at fictional Hillman college (BORING!) Maybe the intent was to set up the spin-off series, "A Different World," which premiered the next year. Anyway, the show became less funny and more charmy and cutesy. This was especially true when Raven-Symone was added to the cast. This little girl was made to say all these funny lines- but they didn't ring true!! No 3-year old would say the things she did. It just wasn't funny. That's the problem with this show. It doesn't hold up to the test of time. Definitely not funny now if you catch the reruns on Nick at Nite!
In response to the post about Saundra's date later becoming Denise's husband. You're absolutely right. How dumb is that. He should at least have had the same name. But, I guess you can finally get some sleep.
Most of your people are straight HATERS!! I've read a lot of comments that said that TCS jumped shark due to inconsistencies that occurred from the 1st episode, like the house layout, the fact that they had 4 kids, and Cliff's name was Clifford Huxtable. Let me enlighten you. When a show is being presented as a pilot to the network, more often that not, there are MANY changes from the 1st episode that are not applied within the rest of the show when adopted. But I guess you guys don't notice the inconsistencies of pilot shows in other series, huh? Stop hating and appreciate TCS for what it was: A breath of fresh air and a bit of reality in TV
I haven't seen the episodes where the new Hillman president is welcomed or the commencement, but, I know that I am sick of Hillman. The smallest reference to it makes my skin crawl. Shut the flying f*ck up about Hillman Cos!!!!! Cosby's show was always trite, but, it had a sense of originality that was charming. Hillman references on cosby's show seemed to exists only to keep that unwatchably bad spin off "A Different World" on television. Another thing, Hillman was supposed to be a prestigious school, yet look at the brainless wonders who went there (shown on a different world).
Who on earth thought it was funny or cute whenever Rudy would say "Buuuuddddd." It was/is extremely annoying and makes me want to murder a 6 year old kid. That can't be good for ratings.
Easy: it jumped when the kids grew up. Once those kids got too old for Bill to just do his goofy fatherhood bits they started making up all these really bizarre scenarios to get one or more of them to stay or move back home. Didn't Lisa Bonet Huxtable & her navy husband have to live in tha' Casa Del Huxtable for an extra season because she forgot to reserve their beds in the Navy; just in time for them to have an Adorable little kid for Bill to be cute with? Did that even make sense?
It's jumped the day I saw Vanessa's horribly deformed arms. It happened in the episode where she wanted to wear a sleeveless party dress which Cliff disapproved of. Up until that point those arms had been tactfully hidden from the world. It looked like someone poured sulfuric acid on her arms, covered them with peanut butter and allowed 50 hungry and diseased rats to gnaw on them. It was the grossest thing I ever saw. I could never watch the Cosby show again after seeing her arms.
Totally jumped when the men were pregnant. Also when Vanessa's hair went out of control!!
The Cosby Show never jumped the shark for me, I think you all are way too hard on this show. And that's all it was, was a show, meant to be what it was, a situation comedy and we've all had situations in our lives and we've all had comedy in our lives we all like to look good and not everybody likes to pick babies up all the time. So let's just look at it for what it was a time in our lives that was there and now it's gone, because I tell you one thing i bet you can all say where you were during the time of the Cosby show just like a song we may not like a particular song, but every time we hear it we know exactly where we were and what we were doing during it's duration. So let's not beat up on Bill Cosby or the show. It was a "Sit-Com" to make us laugh.
For the first five seasons; this was a great show, truly great family comedy. If it's anything from the first five seasons I'll watch it. I quit watching when the 6th seasons started when Olivia moved in; after that I just didn't care anymore. Even at the young age of 10, I knew that bringing in a new kid was just a way for them to bring in a cute character that replaced Rudy. After the first episode of season 6, I didn't watch another episode until the final one a few years later. Today on reruns if I switch it on and see either Olivia or the equally repulsive Pam, I'll switch it to something else. I suggest you do the same. The first five seasons are great; after that it's all downhill.
I think the biggest ongoing "jump" of the Cosby Show is Claire Huxtable. Is there anything this woman can't do? From rattling off on-the-spot fluent Portuguese with Theo's teacher Mrs. Westlake to being a high powered attorney and partner of a purportedly exclusive law firm while seemingly having tons of free time to chew out her children and keep a spotless, orderly house with a larger than average family. Rarely does Claire seem to work or even care about it much. She is the black counterpart to the Julia Sugarbaker of Designing Women. Claire is always so perfect, so right all of the time, always getting on some kind of soap box. So self-righteous and so sanctimonious always ready and willing to point out the kids' flaws. She was a raving bitch to Rudy in the episode where all Rudy wants to do is wear a stupid summer dress and there are plenty of other episodes just like this. You would have thought Rudy was smoking crack Claire got so mad. One more thing I've always wanted to know. If Cliff and Claire are so brilliant and put education on such a high pedestal then why do they have such stupid kids??? OK, so they give Theo an excuse for dyslexia. What about Denise? Vanessa or Rudy never struck me as being that remarkably bright either. Sondra - who knows? She was hardly ever on it and never had much personality to begin with.
I did enjoy TCS in the beginning. It had an understated, low-key feel. And Cosby was so effortlessly funny. But I don’t know if it was the success of the show going to his head or what but somewhere around the time that Lisa Bonet left the first time, I started becoming disenchanted. Cosby became so self-righteous and it was message, message, message. I’d rather not have to be preached to when I watch a family-sitcom show. I can understand that Cosby felt the need to educate the masses about the plight of the African-American in our Country but there are other forums for that. Weighing down a nice, easy-going family sit-com with that kind of rhetoric is pomposity, plain and simple. How this show lasted 8 years is beyond my comprehension.
I remember the first season being funny, but around the second season I think Cosby and his cohorts bought into the words "landmark" and "important" in many of their press clippings. I think the moment came when they were watching the "I Have A Dream" speech after a fight. Theo was looking at it so intently the veins on his foreheads were going to explode.
This show turned into a man-hating orgy. Every other episode ol' Cliff was telling his unfortunate son in law Elvin to pander to that unreasonable little troll Sondra. Damn she needed a little valium in her life. If it wasnt Sondra it was Claire talking about how stupid Cliff was and in one episode where Sondra and Elvin come to dinner and bring the twins, it was nothing but a little man hating party going on in the kitchen, all the while saying how perfect and flawless they were. Those poor men were so pu$$y-whipped it's not even funny. What was with the not-so-subtle political statement with Sondra's kids names (Winnie & Nelson) gee where did that come from? How sappy.
Several things jumped, the biggest one being adding Raven-Symone to the cast. She was and still is horrible and obnoxious (Dr. Doolittle anyone?). Others are Rudy growing up (but she couldn't help that); Denise leaving and coming back married and funkier; adding Pam (why did she join exactly?) and the gradual self-righteous evolution of the series (from cute and fun to serious and socially conscious). Watch the always-changing opening credit sequences (including theme song version) and all of them reflect the tone of that season's episodes. The most fun seasons are numbers three (latin mambo opening theme) and four (Bobby McFerrin's a cappella theme).
The show couldn't avoid the shark long when Olivia joined the cast. Rudy was cute. Olivia was annoying. As a side note, did anyone else notice that Denise's husband - Olivia's father - was played by the same guy that Cliff tried to get to date Sondra a few seasons earlier?
Blaming the addition of Olivia for the show's failure is a cop out. As stupid as it was to add her to the show, she was good. The show just stopped working, it was a good show, and for the longest time there was no problem with it, but shows just can't last forever. Could you pick a defining moment when Seinfeld jumped the shark? No, it was just time for it to end. Olivia just came at the unlucky time when the show just stopped working. But to blame it on her isn't fair, nor is it fair to pick one specific episode and say, "When that happened it started sucking." I agree the fairy tale episode sucked, the singing for the grandparents gave me the creeps, and the pregnant man bit actually made me confused non-stop for two or three days, yet the next episode after that was probably good, and then the show didn't jump the shark. Certain shows do have immanent doomsayers but this isn't one of them, and to blame Olivia (Who was hilarious in Cosby though she sucked in all her future projects) is unjust. Sure she was just a copy-off Rudy, but Olivia is a better actress then Rudy so who cares?
While Olivia wasn't the sole cause of Cos jumping the shark, she was definitely a strong contributor who exacerbated the show's downfall. I guess TCS truly jumped when four year old Olivia became smarter than 21 year old Denise as was the case with the episode where the two babysit Winnie and Nelson. Denise had to ask Olivia what to do with the twins! Olivia ("I'm still alive!!!") consistently had the most forced and contrived dialogue that no four year old would EVER say I don't care how cute and precocious she is. And Denise and everyone around her going off on how smart Olivia is. PLEASE! Virtually everyone on earth became smarter than airhead Denise who seemed to get dumber and stupider as the years progressed. (Denise goes from being accepted at colleges like Brown and Berkeley to dropping out of Hillman to forgetting to confirm her husband's housing reservation at the army base and not telling him until they arrive among other dim-bulb things.) You would have thought Olivia rather than Denise would be a blood offspring of Cliff and Claire. At least it would make more sense.
In the first episode of The Cosby Show there were only 4 children. Now in that episode claire asked Cliff, "why do we have ""4"" children?" and he replied "because we don't won't 5". How is it that they ended up with Sandra in the show? The other is when rudy started to grow up. Once she got older she wasn't cute anymore. Then when they put in olivia to try and replace the cuteness that was there it didn't work. But the biggest was the Sandra situation.
About the time Sondra and Eldin bought the wilderness store, "The Cosby Show" took a turn for the worse. Sondra quits law school, Denise drops out of Hillman, and Theo is the same screw-up he always has been. The kids were portrayed as f**k-ups simply because they got tired of beating their heads into the wall that is higher education. Agreeing with similar posts, Bill preached the values of schooling ad nauseum without considering that a degree is ABSOLUTELY NO guarantee for success. Look at several examples... 1) the richest sonuvabitch on the planet dropped out of Harvard to found a little software company, 2) Dave Thomas dropped out of high school to pay the bills and to create a better-quality fast food restaurant than McDonald's, 3) a year after I earned an engineering degree, I opted for grad school since I couldn't find a relevant job in this retched 2001-02 economy. Ask most recent college grads today, Bill, if becoming "educated" (insecure people use this term to make themselves feel important) was worth it!!! I give praise to Cosby for advising people to give their best if they have the means, but with his platform, he constantly overstepped his boundaries and insulted those who did not have such opportunities and are happy with their position in life, with or without degrees.
OK, have been watching Nick at Nite this week where they are currently showing season five episodes. In two back-to-back episodes, it is revealed that Cliff was in the NAVY!! First, when he's having a heart-to-heart talk with Denise's Navy husband Martin and second, in that incredibly bizarre episode where Cliff has yet another nightmare (this time featuring the Muppets, the first one being the pregnant men episode) because he ate a hoagie and didn't listen yet again to all-wise and all-knowing Claire. But getting back to the Navy thing, at no time in the previous four years does Cliff mention he was ever in the military and this just comes out of nowhere. Is there anything Cliff hasn't done? OK, I can sort of buy that he graduated college, played Hillman football AND (albeit unlikely) was ALSO on the Hillman track team, then he went on to graduate from medical school. Cliff did all this while apparently marrying pretty young (based on Clair's age and Cliff apparently not being that much older and the already adult Sondra) and starting a large family. Oh, but wait!!! On top of this all, he now did a stint in the military! COME ON!!! Enough with all of this sanctimonious, over-achiever preaching. Cliff was much more low key and down to earth in the earlier seasons, but then he's turned into this pretentious bore by series end.
Well it really annoyed me when in the later episodes (the one where Vanessa and her 2 friends made a music video) Rudy was going aroud the house singing "do it to me all night" Cliff was upset that she was listening to lyrics like this so he said, "Rudy, what does "it" mean?" Rudy who was 11 years old replied "holding hands and kissing" now what kind of 11 year old doesn't know what sex is and isn't comfortable talking to their parents about it? COME ON!!! i knew about sex when i was 5 years old!!! that just really upset me.
The reunion Show (5/19/02). The clips were fine, but it was not all of them sitting around together, it was Pontificating Bill talking about how great he is and how great his show was. There is always a curiosity factor with reunion shows. So i tuned in (for a while, I lost interest) to see what they have been doing since they went off the air. One word: EATING!!!!! Wow, everyone has put on weight.
The Cosby Show jumped the shark when Rudy grew up. That whole episode about not wanting to go to school because she didn't have breasts yet? Ugh.
It never did. Quite simply it was and is one of the best shows on television. Humorous, entertaining, and enlightening. I am overwhelmed by the amount of bitterness exhibited on these postings. I am overwhelmed by the number of people, both white and black who are so uncomfortable with themselves and their own lives that they cannot see why this show was so incredible, so groundbreaking, so important AND SO DAMN FUNNY. Its worth noting, that this show and then the Fresh Prince were two of the last occasions where you saw black characters, decent folks, albeit comical (hence "sitcom") on television. I am glad Nick at Nite has made it possible for me to re-live childhood memories provided by the show....I loved the show then and now as an adult (and a corporate attorney who like Claire, has a heart and loves her family)....the show remains refreshing and entertaining. To all of you bitter folks, you should get over it--learn to laugh a little and stop being such critics.
Cousin Pam She might not have been on too many of the episodes but jeez, those were some of the most pointless episodes ever. There was no point of having Pam on there, unless NBC was trying to make spin-off for her. This was one more character the Cosby Show didn't need.
I've been watching the re-runs on Nick At Nite & I have to put in a vote for the "SD" button. That button is so distracting. Does he have to wear it on EVERY freakin' outfit?! Last night, I saw an episode where Cliff is about to leave the house & he has a trenchcoat on with the button. In the next scene, he has arrived at his destination & has already hung his coat up. But the button is now on the sports jacket he had on underneath the trenchcoat. Now, are we supposed to think that he has a ton of these buttons, already pinned to his outfits ready to go? Or are we supposed to think that he got to the place, took the time to take the button off of the trenchcoat & stick it to his sports jacket?! And the other night I saw it on his pajamas as he was hopping into bed! Now that's just ridiculous! There is not a single person on this planet who would put a button on their sleepwear before going to bed. Who's gonna see it except the person you're sleeping with?! And I'm sure it's already been crammed down their throats already if you're wearing the damn thing to bed for crying out loud!
The Cosby Show jumped when the Cosby Show turned into the Cousin Pam Show. The last 2 seasons are practically devoted exclusively to Cousin Pam. And why should we care about Cousin Pam? She just shows up out of nowhere with some unbelievable story about how her mother had to leave to care for a relative. Why wouldn't Cousin Pam go with her? Then after just showing up, we're all supposed to be so fascinated with her ghetto-like lifestyle and friends. If Cosby wanted to do a show like this, he should have just produced one on its own (a la Different World). The Cousin Pam story as an extension of the Cosby Show just didn't mesh well. We all tuned into the Cosby Show to see the Huxtables, and the last two seasons, it's almost as if the entire Huxtable family becomes an afterthought! Cousin Pam and Olivia aren't true Huxtables.
After season 3 when the ratings took a huge nose dive, it seemed like they were trying NOT to be funny anymore. The 4th season was incredibly boring, although the 6th season had potential to be funny, but they gave Olivia too much air time. It wasn't the fact that they added her, but she had at least 4x as much airtime as any of the ORIGINAL huxtable kids. And I understand that the grandparents were there to bring family history to the show, but they were HORRIBLY boring. I didn't mind Vanessa's afro during the 5th season too much, but when she put a Jerry curl on it, and then added a pony tail..it just made you want to throw up every time you saw her. I don't know if anyone notices, but there is a HUGE difference between Cliff's character at the beginning of the show and maybe towards the middle through the end. Because in the beginning MOST of the humor was found in Cliff's one liners and reactions to the kids antics. Towards the middle and the end, something would happen then Cliff would mug the camera for laughs. His greasy face was nauseating, I don't what motivated him to use this as the showcase of his performance. I still like the show with it's many flaws because I grew up watching it. But it was in it's prime the first 2 seasons, no episode in any of the seasons after could top those.
You could always tell when a Cosby show had 18 minutes of plot for a 22 minute show when... Bill Cosby would get a straight man and drag out every word of a lame skit. "YOU WANT MEEE to Serve YOUUU ice cream? Now let me get this straight YOU? WANT ME? TO SERVE YOU ICE CREAM?" Oh god! His "Improvisational comedic talent" would just take over and drive that episode right into the ground. It's amazing how such a wildly sucessful 1st run holds up so badly in re-runs. Did people really love this show so much?
The Cosby Show jumped when the completely unlikeable Olivia joined the cast. Who thought she was cute, anyway? This was of course followed by the addition of the hateful Cousin Pam, an even worse mistake.
This show was pretty funny (not surprisingly) at the beginning. But when Denise goes to college the house became a bit empty and I remember a big crisis was when Vanessa was caught wearing make-up. Denise had a bit of an edge to her and it was pretty funny how Lisa Bonet couldn't behave for Mr. Cosby even though she was interesting. He wanted her to fit the "Up with People" positive role model mould that she couldn't (in a way), even though it's supposed to be about being who you want to be. Denise was the cool daughter. The showed soon drowned in its good intentions- it was like that movie "Sister Act II"- positive messages are all well and good but it doesn't make for good entertainment. Then Theo became a preacher- no wait- teacher, cousin Pam was off the streets who needed to shape up. Though whole episodes were dedicated to her and her friends- big mistake. Once in a while a good episode came up when the kids disappointed Cliff and Claire- these were strangely satisfying. Like when Sondra and Eldin wanted to give up their law/medical degrees and open a wilderness store. Claire said something about planting flowers and getting weeds instead- Denise was in the jungle, Sondra's in the wilderness, and Vanessa's doing the locomotion (she stuffed her bra and did a dance routine to the Locomotion). That was a bright spot but they eventually had too much responsibility to the viewers and all the kids did the right thing- re-enrolling at school, even Denise (though Lisa Bonet had to leave again). Also, Rudy grew up and we saw Keshia Knight Pulliam couldn't act. It was fun until the greed of the late 80's made it like everything else- slick and corporate.
Married with Children had more real life, dimensional characters than this piece of fluff. I remember when Bill Cosby used to be funny...it's coming to me...wait...that's right, it was before he decided that Phylicia Rashad had any talent. As a man, I find the entire concept of the males of the household being portrayed as bumbling children, kept in line by their smarmy wives, mothers, and sisters. Its a damn good thing Al and Peg booted Cliff and Claire from the airwaves.
Before Cuba Gooding Jr; even before Jordy on Star Trek...there was Alvin. If ever there was proof of The Man's endless efforts to oppress people of color, Alvin was it. This guy (and I use the term generously) made Urkel look like Schwarzenegger. Continuing on, I was always amazed at how Cliff could never be trusted to take care of the kids on his own. So many episodes centered around one of the charming little ones taking advantage of him whenever Claire was not around. So what if he was the father of 5 kids in real life? So what if his character had raised 5 more on the show? He was a man, so of course he had to be incompetent when it came to looking after children...
Purely and simply, TCS bit the big one when Bill Cosby decided that he was a **STAR**
The Cosby Show NEVER "jumped the shark".Anybody who badmouths or tries to embarrass the show is shallow and is missing the point. And for that one idiot who said that "Married...With Children" was more 'realistic' than TCS.Huh? 'MWC' was pure satire whereas TCS was realistic for millions of families(of all colors and classes)and it was funny.And for your information,Keshia Knight Pulliam and Lisa Bonet(and the whole cast) CAN act! There was NOTHING wrong with this show!!!!
To the above poster who stated that this show was realistic, I have one question for you: "What show were you watching?" The situations were ridicilous- ex.- Clair holds Theo on trial in the living room because he was late from school. Hmmm, my parents never put me on trial. Other examples- Cosby moans and groans that his kids won't leave the nest when it's very obvious his writers don't want them to, thus, necessiting forced situations (Theo forgot to mail a check and can't get a dorm room, Denise forgot to call about Navy housing, Sondra's new house needs repairs so her and her family need a roof to crash under). Not to mention all the "special guest stars" (read: musicians, most of them nobody heard of) who constantly paraded in and out of this show week after week as some old friend, relative or acquaintance of the family.
Only one poster mentioned Olivia's dancing in the opening credits...but they neglected to mention what was so terribly sickening about it. She was dancing the Vogue! The Vogue! That was not cool! Olivia's presence's potential as shark-jumper was tragically affirmed by the Vogue! VOGUE VOGUE VOGUE! VOGUE IS BAD! NO VOGUE!
Poor Theo, he was the only semi-cool person in this series. But having that bitch of a mom and those airhead sisters, I'm surprised he didn't go postal on the whole family. Also, that Elvin/Alvin guy was without a doubt the biggest ***** in the history of television. I think he went on to play one of the Teletubbies...nah, even they're too manly for him!
This show had potential when it first hit the airwaves. It gave me a few chuckles, but success quickly ruined what could've been a decent show. Instead, this so-called comedy turned into highly rated dreck. Let's review: In every episode we had the same set up. Cosby mugged for the cameras while extolling the virtues of education and jazz music. His wife stood there, grinning like an idiot, while playing the perfect wife/mother. Please, this bitch needed acting lessons. Not only was she WAY to young to realistically play his wife, she wasn't at all convincing as a career-mom/attorney. Here's a tip: Just because you carry around a briefcase and spout "LET THE RECORD SHOW" ad nauseum in your living room doesn't make you a believable lawyer. Then there was the robotic supposedly intellectual Sondra, who if truth be told acted like a major space case who's was smoking reefer, and her idiot husband Elvin, the most emasculated man ever to appear on TV. His only existence on the show can only be because Cos didn't want to shock the audience by having his perfect daughter dump her loser boyfriend/husband. But what did a supposedly smart, educated woman see in a pig like that- he WASN'T even attractive!! Then, there was that idiot-savant, Theo, who was probably dropped on his head as a child (thus explaining his inability to speak CORRECTLY) because he nearly flunks out of high school and then guess what- years later he's really dyslexic so he's not as stupid as we all thought and graduates college WITH HONORS!! Please! That was the most lame-ass self-serving B.S. this show tried to pass off as "realism." Not to mention Airhead Vanessa, whose helmet hair got WAY out of control at the beginning of the 5th season. No wonder the writers shipped her off to college (Before she even graduated high school!) And poor little Rudy. Cuteness doesn't mean your a great actress. Face it, that Emmy nom was a fluke! Unfortunately for you, the older you got, the cuteness wore off, which was evident when they replaced you with that no-talent Olivia. The way you spouted off "BUUUUUUDDD" as if were high comedy, I truly felt sorry for you. Let's not forget Grandpa Huxtable, a pretentious bore, who supposedly graduated Hillman and preached education but was a professional trumpet player (HUH)? Which brings us to Denise- the only likable character in the bunch. She alone made the show. She had her own fashion sense and seemed like a real person- until the character assassination began. The Cos apparently threw a hissy fit when she did a racy movie (Angel Heart) and married a struggling musician (Lenny Kravitz) and thus the downward spiral of Denise began. First off, it's none of his DAMN business what this adult did when she was not on the set of the show. But ever the high and mighty, Cos decided to ruin her character- thinking perhaps the audience might turn on her and like his character better. FAT CHANCE! It all started pre-"A Different World," when Denise home from Hillman confessed she was struggling in college. Okay, that's natural- most kids who got good grades in college have difficulty their freshman year. But it got worse: Denise then appeared on "A Different World" as (GASP) a big flake. She couldn't balance her checkbook, keep up with her studies and her dates and her room was a pig sty. A year later, when Lisa Bonet, who WAS legally married by the way, became pregnant, COS threw her off "A Different World" and "The Cosby Show" altogether by having her drop out of school (this from the man who had his own illicit affairs and illegitimate children). Poor Denise was now a joke of a student who couldn't handle the pressures of college (HUH!!- the same smart, hip confident girl from the show's inception) and become a bigger flake going from one flunky job to another. Finally, in a saving grace, he shipped her off to Africa. HUH? Why not just send Denise to study abroad for a semester? Or transfer schools altogether? She never really wanted to go to Hillman in the first place and was pressured into going by that idiot grandfather and father just to please them. That's when the first shark jump occurred (although the show was already crap by then). However, things got even worse when Denise returned a year later with a secret husband and stepdaughter (NOW that's what I call comedy- NOT!) Denise was made to look even worse (Lisa, Honey, you should NEVER have came back!!) She married the squarest man alive, I'm not even sure he had a pulse, but of course Dad liked him because they were both Navy men. Not only that but Denise is now saddled with an annoying brat who spouted off lines full of innuendos and hip lingo that a real 3 year old would NEVER say, let alone understand. But the Denise downward spiral continued. Denise, the airhead, forgets to call to confirm some Navy housing and gets berated by her husband AND her mother. OH NO, no self-respecting woman would stand for that!! First, I'd tell that BITCH of a mother to mind her own F***ing business, then I'd tell that dumb-ass hubby that while i forgot to call for housing, I sure didn't forget to call my divorce lawyer. Apparently MR. Cos had enough of Bonet and didn't invite her back the final season (I think she was fired half-way thru season 7). But by then, who cares? Denise was ruined and the show was already KA-PUT!! Too bad, somebody forgot to inform Mr. COSBY.
I could handle Olivia...she was cute. I could handle that absolutely horrible afro hairdo on Vanessa because she was my favorite. I was relieved when she grew it out and had the big hair around season 6...but then she chopped it off again! But anyway, the real shark jumping came with Cousin Pam...what a waste. She sucked and so did her annoying friends.
It never jumped! You all are so stupid for saying that Rudy couldn't act and all that crap! Sure, she wasn't as cute as the series went on, but is anyone really as cute when they're 12 as they were when they were 5? I mean come on! And there was no one named Alvin ever on the show. His name was Elvin! And Joseph C. Phillips only played one character, Martin. The Cosby Show was the best show of all time!
Yes his name was E-L-V-I-N. That was annoying me also. And hate to break it to you guy, but Martin did indeed play a different character as a boyfriend to Sondra in about the second or third season. Look it up on Nick at Nite. I remember because that was the first case of "Same Actor, Different Character" I had ever encountered when Martin showed up as Denise's husband. I was only 9 years old at the time and it really freaked me out.
Back when the show first started, critics complained that the show wasn't representative of African American families. Ridiculous! How many of the other sitcoms were representative of white families? In every 80's sitcom, families had perfect parents and a living room that's bigger than most Americans' whole house! (It wasn't until Roseanne that tv had families that were more representative of the viewing public.) And aside from the sitcoms, it was the evening soaps like Dynasty that ruled 80s tv. How many white/black viewers could say that their family lived like that? I wasn't so annoyed by Olivia; I thought she was an adorable kid. Sondra and Elvin (for the longest time I thought his name was Eldin) having twins was far worse. Especially when the son had the same rat-tail that Elvin did. When I was a kid I was annoyed immensely by the episodes where characters just sat around and did nothing but talked (and Seinfeld thought he had corned the market on shows about nothing?). But now that I'm older, these shows don't bother me so much anymore. Come back and watch again in a few years.
This show died the moment Denise left the show, then came back, then left. Bad call, Bill Cosby, since she added major sex-appeal to the otherwise ugly Huxtable family. Plus she was the only Huxtable kid who had real problems, who wasn't perfect like the other kids, and she was rebellious (much like Bonet on the Cosby set). To make things worse, they brought Denise back but they made her a mother with a boring SOB of a husband. Guess old Cos couldn't stop meddling in Lisa Bonet's life (watch E! True Hollywood Stories on the The Cosby Show to see what I'm saying) so he had to ruin her character on the show. Which shows us that Cosby himself is nothing but a judgmental loser, along with the equally bitchy Phylisha Rashad. Recently in the news he has bashed "The Osbournes", calling them sad and immoral people and are as pathetic as Tiny Tim. What a jealous hypocrite! Guess old Cos forgot that he cheated on his darling Camille years ago (supposedly there are some illegitimate children) and he was a truant kid back in the day. Take your puritanical views Bill and shove them where the sun don't shine! At least shows like "The Osbournes" and "Roseanne" represent American families far better than your show ever did with your 900 grandpas who were famous jazz musicians and uber-mom, Claire Huxtable!
I take JTS very seriously and I have to say I'd be lying to think Cosby ever jumped. It is a classic show. I can say that time was bad to the show thow. The episodes toward the end of the run started to get a little too preachy in areas. Also, even though there was a pretty large cast to work with in a 1/2 hour, you'd think they could fit each person in. Yet we were subjected over and over again to the opening credits displaying up to 10 people. Then the show would only have 4 people on all night, some of which were not even regulars!!! They quit JUST in the nick of being ahead....had they gone on any further......
When every episode became devoted to Cliff's "the importance of higher education" sermons. Was he getting paid by colleges to push this stuff? Cliff and Claire acted as if you will be a total failure in life with no prospects whatsoever if you don't have at least a bachelor's and preferably a post-grad degree. Also, I got tired of the male-bashing and the constant putdown on traditional attitudes. They took Elvin and Kenny, put them at an extreme, and then used it to mock people who believed in more traditional male/female roles. Also, TOO MANY JAZZ MUSICIANS!!!
The thing that ruined this show was the constant references to Hillman, the fictional all-black college attended not only by Cliff and Clair, but also grandpa Huxtable AND Denise. Give me a break! I just saw the episode last night on "Nick at Nite" where the entire family attends a graduation ceremony at Hillman. What was the point of that? It was boring as Hell and served no other purpose than to spin-off the show into "A Different World," (which by the way SUCKED big time). Cliff, one of the thousands of graduates, is personally chosen to be the Master of Ceremonies by the university pres (sure that makes sense, especially when they reveal he was not the best student at school). Is that the best the school could come up with, an unknown obstetrician who cracks a few lame jokes in a graduation speech? Not only that but his wife, not the greatest singer in the world, sings a solo backed by the entire choir of the school. Then there was boring speeches going on and on about Hillman. The new president says she chose to be president "because it's HILLMAN!" as if that means anything to us. The old pres goes on and on encouraging alumni to show favoritism to Hillman grads when hiring. Talk about nepotism! Then, poor Sandra, a straight "A" student at Princeton, one of the country's most prestigious schools, is made to feel like a traitor time and again because she didn't choose Hillman. The constant references to Hillman is what killed this show. Okay, Bill, we get it, you encourage higher education, but did you have to hit us over the heads with constant talk of Hillman?? Now every time I watch an old re-run and someone even mentions Hillman I head for the remote.
Dring the original Bob Newhart Show (the Psychologist one), someone started a drinking game, in which you had to down a shot every time someone on the show said "Bob". I used to hate the Cosby Show until I began applying the same drinking game every time someone said "Hillman" on Cosby. I was usually on the floor before the first commercial break, and it became waaaay more palatable to sit through Bill & Co.
Did you ever notice that Cosby put on airs when his buddies came over? They never played Poker - they played Pinochle. They never went bowling - they played Bocce. And he would introduce his friends as "Joe Bloe, Harvard M.B.A, Nobel Peace Prize," and "John Doe, doctor AND and a lawyer." Really annoying.
There was an episode where Rudy has a classmate over and he tells (rather than asks) her to get some juice. Okay, I can understand the Huxtable kids not being allowed to have soda pop, but every in kid Brooklyn? Come on! Speaking of Brooklyn, why wasn't this set in Cosby's hometown of Philadelphia? And why was Cliff's occupation changed from plumber to doctor in pre-production? I guess Cosby went along with the elitist media crap that allows for patronizing portrayals of working class people or live outisde of New York or Los Angeles. Then there's the wilderness store incident. What's wrong with starting a small business? Sure the risks are great (most small businesses fail within a year), but so are the rewards (Wal-mart started with one store. Cliff and Claire should have supported their duaghter's efforts to chart her own path. Then again, I'm not sure if I'd want Dr. Huxtable taking care of my wife and unborn child or his wife defending me in court.
Hey, some of you people seriously need to take a chill pill, like yesterday! A lot of these comments I've been reading are just plain NUTS! They're insane and SICK! "The Cosby Show" is one of the most classy shows in the history of television, a show that promotes family love and unity, in addition to pride in the African-American lifestyle and heritage. As for them "putting down white people," now that's just TOO sick! They always had white people hanging around, that weren't losers. They were not superior or inferior to Caucasian people. Looks like a lot of you just can't handle that fact. As for it being "overrated," another lie. It has earned the recognition it continues to receive. It's a show that stands out due to its style, sophistication, fine cast, and good, solid writing. "The Cosby Show" continues to be one of my favorite shows of all-time, and one of the best shows ever, despite the avalanche of ridiculous, insane comments over here... GROW UP!
I just read the above comment about the wilderness store incident and I have to agree 100% The problem with this show is that it was all about $$$. Cliff and Clair always brought things down to the bottom line- starting from the first episode where Theo tells Cliff he just wants to be "regular people" and then Cliff pulls out some play Monopoly money to demonstrate how poor a schlub he would really be if he doesn't go to college. That's it- that was the underlying message in EVERY freakin' episode from there. When Denise wanted to buy a car WITH HER OWN MONEY- Clair gets snippy, then Cliff tells her SHE OWES THEM something $400, 000 for raising her. WHAT?? If you didn't want to PAY for the costs of raising 5 kids, COS, then you and your grinning wife should have used protection. The same thing happened in the wilderness episode. Sondra announces she's not going to law school and Clair demands she pay back every cent they spent on her at Princeton. WHAT THE HELL?? Sondra graduated college and wants to open her own business- a college education could certainly give her an edge, it's not like her pricey education will have gone to waste. And another thing, in that same episode, Cliff and Clair are so proud that Elvin and Sondra are going to follow in their footsteps- then are devastated to learn they're not. CONTINUITY ERROR!! Obviously, this was just a set-up for this episode because if you look back at previous episode Elvin was an ART MAJOR in the episode where Clair wants to buy an expensive painting at an art auction (Again with the $$). And Sondra- she was a psychology and NEVER once talked about going to law school (Despite Clair's claims that it was all she talked about). Then, there was an episode where they threw Theo out the house and charged him $$ to move back in to show him how "the real world" lives. Money, money, money... that's all COS and his wife cared about. SCREW THE KIDS- Clair gets bent out of shape when Rudy borrows some chump change to buy a cheap sweater, Clair's so cheap she won't let Rudy buy a Mega-Woman doll and makes her work like a slave just to earn enough money to buy it. Then, COS was always bitching and moaning that the kids will never leave the house- well buy a freakin' bigger house you cheap skate! The Bottom Line: THE COSBY Show was really all about $$$ and that's the sad truth!
I have a few problems with Olivia. Why did she always dress like a midget clown? Why did she have a birthday party episode just like pre-mustashioed Rudy? Why did her parents leave her? Here are the answers: She dressed like a midget clown because she just had to be the center of attention...it made me want to punt her. She got a birthday party episode like Rudy because the the Cosby show had run its course, the writers were all brain dead by this point. Finally, her parents left her because she deserved it. I hate Oliver...I mean Olivia.
Wow! People are brutal! What's so wrong with Olivia?! I love her! if you don't like that they brought her on the show, that's not her fault! I think she was great!
I love this show! I even made my own website of it, BUT I have to say it jumped during seasons 7-8. Olivia did try to fill the "cuteness" void left by maturing Rudy BUT with Olivia it seemed kind of forced but with Rudy it was more natural. the writing also weakened and Denise and Theo were totally different. the first 5 seasons were great though. I liked Theo and Denise the best. To those people who say Married With Children is more realistic WTF?!? MWC is pure satire and people mistake that for realism. If you have a life like the Bundys, although it is entertaining, I feel very very sorry for you. Its too bad Denise couldn't stay around longer with all the fights her and Cosby had.
When this show first aired, it was refreshing to see African-Americans portrayed in a different light. The first season was pretty good. Then the second season started and I could already see things that were beginning to bother me: Claire's constant smirking, the wardrobe (at times, the show resembled a fashion show more than a sitcom), Vanessa's constantly changing hair style, etc. As stated in other posts, an elitist attitude started creeping in, and this show just started going downhill at record speed. Has there been any other show that has jumped the shark more often? Realistic? I don't think so. It didn't have to be, it's a sitcom after all, but it was so ridiculous at times that it was to hard to take. The grandparents looked the same age as Cliff, and everybody got along. The house was never a mess and Cliff and Claire were home all the time despite their professions. And the parade of guest stars and musicians -- terrible. I don't know much about the characters the other posts have brought up (Pam, the little girl that was "adopted", and other things because I stopped watching long before that), but from what I've read I didn't miss much. What really pisses me off about this show was that it had so much potential, but it denigrated into a snobbish, lecturing type of show due to Cosby's egomania. I've always felt this show was better suited for Saturday morning instead of Thursday night.
The above poster is right on the money. It WAS great seeing African Americans who can finally pay their bills for change, not living off of oatmeal everyday or getting evicted. The first season was OK, but it became apparent that the show was getting stale. As for the kids, none were my favorite. As far as being that "cool" kid of the family, Denise gets my vote. What were so special about the others? Theo? Was he funny, cool? Vanessa? Rudy? cute and that's it. Sandra? lame. Don't even mention that husband of hers.
I think The Cosby Show jumped around the seventh and eighth season. You never saw the original cast members anymore it was all Pam and her friends and Olivia! Plus my favorite character Denise wasn't in the last season so i dont even watch the eighth season because of dumb Cosby!! I couldn't stand to watch any of the other characters they were just so lame and boring!
The show jumped the shark when Cliff wore that DAMN SD button in the 7th season. I never really noticed it before, as I had pretty much stopped watching the show at the time and started watching "The Simpsons"- a MUCH, MUCH funnier show by the way. But now, watching the reruns on "Nick at Nite," I realize how far he took it. He wore that DAMN thing on everything- even his pajamas when he went to bed AND his hospital scrubs when he was going to deliver a baby. Please, we get the point!! COS wanted to honor a man he admired who guest starred ONCE and ONLY ONCE on his show. But there are more subtle ways to do it. On "Cheers," the Coach died and to honor him, the show had a picture of an Indian behind the bar (I think it was from the dressing room of the actor who played Coach). On "Dallas," Jock died and the show hung a portrait of him in the family living room. But in both of those cases, it wasn't so OBVIOUSLY FORCED down the viewers throats. No offense to the late Sammy Davis, Jr., but what WAS THE F***ING point, COS, if only to annoy the audience?!
I can't believe no one has mentioned this before. But this was just typical of just how annoying The Cosby Show could get. The episode where there was some world famous tap dancer that Cliff just happened to know. And they sat there in the Huxtable living room challenging each other to a tap dancing contest. OK, now that was only sort of annoying. But it was how the guest star kept yelling "Chall-ANGE" after he was done. What the hell was that? Who talks like that? Nobody. Well, except just about everybody on that show.
When Cliff started making "get a job" a catch phrase. To tell this to s 7 year old is funny once. but enough already..this was his solution to everything. True, getting a job is good, but how often is the retort funny?
How I wish I could say this program never jumped, but it did big time with the addition of Pam. It wasn't necessarily the character that bothered me as much as the fact that the last season seem to mostly evolve around her, she even had her own group of friends. She even had scenes with these friends at school as they dealt with issues. Just how many times over the years did any of the Cosby Kids be shown at school with their friends, at home, yes but I seldom saw any of them at school hanging out with their friends, at least not for long periods of time and not dominating the entire episode. The sad thing is I hardly knew Pam before they started centering the whole program on her and I sure didn't know her friends, and before long I could of cared less about any of them. I have read many a post about how Raven Simone ruined the program, and I disagree, Simone's character added to the dynamic of the program and it was kind of funny to see Rudy get a taste of her own medicine. Over the years she would get away with murder because she was the youngest, now there was someone younger then her in the house who was tormenting her. Also it was kind of interesting to see irresponsible Denise have to learn grow up and be a responsible parent. In short the addition of the Olivia character kept the program moving and evolving. Although I don't think the character should of been kept after Denise and her husband were off the program, come on they were her parents she belonged with them. But I could forgive this, but I couldn't forgive the whole Pam takes over the show fiasco.
Some episodes of Cosby were just BORING BORING BORING. That stupid graduation commencement thing---UGH! Rudy's mustache was horrid. But I don't think it entirely jumped until stupid cousin Pam came on. Her story lines were dumb and she just couldn't save the show's demise. They were much better off without her.
The Huxtables were never the same after Denise left the house for A Different World. Then again, neither was Lisa Bonet.
You know what??? I think the reason why the show went down the hill wasn't because of character additions or subtractions. It was Bill himself. In the beginning he seemed more driven to make the show work and make it funny. After about season 3 or 4 it seemed as if he got too comfortable since the show was so high rated. And it was almost like he had nothing left to prove, so he could be lazy and have boring episodes and now worry about it. Which basically he didn't have to because the show stayed #1 even after it had became unfunny. The middle years of this show were so bad (Particularly seasons 3, 4, and 7) Season 8 was a definite improvement, though the show had hit rock bottom in quality by then and there was almost no saving it. I mean seriously watch the pilot episode of this show, and then watch an episode in season 7 and you'll see the difference. Yes we all know that Cosby's humor is supposed to be dry, but nothing TOO dry survives. Oh and one more thing..... Bill Cosby was sooooooo worried about Lisa Bonet's off screen life, but let Tempestt Bledsoe go ON CAMERA with those awful hairdos??? I mean it looked like she was a spokesperson for the worst perm care kit on the market.
It is true that when the kids got older the show got weak but what got me hooked on the show was the episode where Denise is babysitting sondra's kids and B-O-B comes along. it was hilarious. i was laughing until i was crying, and i dont laugh easy in shows like this. Also the character that i really like is Kenny. i love that kid
The title says it all...when the men gave birth to sandwiches, the advertisers should have asked for a refund. One of the worst 30 minutes of TV EVER! Olivia and Pam rank right up there though.
I can't believe no one else has mentioned this, but I really feel this needs to be mentioned. The thing that ruined this show was simple- it stopped being FUNNY!! And for a sitcom (situation COMEDY), humor is essential. Look back on the pilot and the early seasons (1-2) and you'll see what I mean. Sure, there was a charmingness to the show that carried through the whole run, but the scripts and situations were actually funny that they would make you laugh. As the series progressed, I don't what happened or when it happened exactly, but the show actually stopped making me laugh and I realized it just wasn't FUNNY anymore. In addition to getting on his high horse and becoming preachy, Cos lost his sense of humor. Or actually what HE thought was funny, just wasn't, simply CORNY. The amazing thing is the show was still the #1 rated show and it wasn't funny. I remember watching several episodes (Hillman graduation, Rudy's fairy tale, Cliff babysits the twin, just to name a few), scratching my head wondering where the humor was. Then I listened to the laugh track of the studio audience and thought, wow THAT was supposed to be FUNNY?! By the time, "The Simpsons" came along and aired opposed "The Cosby Show," I gave on the Huxtables altogether. I mean, "The Simpsons" dared to be funny (and continues to do so) while Cosby just settled for being preachy, charming and comfortable. But isn't the whole point of a sitcom to make people laugh?
The show jumped when they brought on 'Pam, the cousin' If she was there to boost ratings, they failed miserably. I loved the show up until she showed up. I was even able to sit through Rudy's 'old age', Vanessa's (and Denise's) grotesque hair styles, Denise's 'garage sale' clothes, and Eldin's poor acting. I quit watching the show after Pam showed up.
I personally love the Cosby Show. I think it is one of the best, and funniest, shows of all time. I'm twenty years old now, and I was only 2 when the show premiered in 1984, so although I may have seen the earliest episodes when they first premiered, I only remember seeing them in reruns. I think it was around the third or fourth season that I was conscious of watching the show. From that point on I watched the show every Thursday to the very end (I was 10 when it ended). Still, it wasn't until a couple of months ago that I noticed one of the biggest inconsistent storylines I have ever seen. I think it starts at the beginning of season 7. Rudy is starting sixth grade, and is all upset because she hasn't started developing breasts yet. Remember the scene where she opens the door and her friend walks in with the breasts she developed over the summer, and Rudy runs upstairs? Anyway, I think this is the season premiere. About halfway through the season, there is the episode where Rudy gets her period. Unlike some people, I don't have a problem with that episode. But, in my experience, it was a long time after I started to develop breasts (about 3 years, I think), before I got my period. Now, I know that it's different for different people, but puberty, in and of itself, is a process that takes a couple of years. So, my question is this: How could Rudy go from not having started to develop to getting her period, ALL IN THE COURSE OF A FEW MONTHS???!!!
Whoever posted about Denise's future husband being the same actor as the guy she had the mixed-up blind date with, I noticed this too during a rerun a couple of months ago. Very astute observation, I'm like 99 percent sure it's the same actor. I think this show went through several milestone shark-jumps, probably a grand total of about 20 fatal mistakes, all of which have already been mentioned here, so I won't bore anyone by commenting further.
Actually, the last few years of the show were not nearly as good as the early years. It got too preachy as the kids grew up. "Winnie" and "Nelson"???? Come on. I assume Winnie has had a name change since.
I'm glad someone else noticed what I'm about to point out. I didn't notice until this past summer, on the "Camp Nick at Nite" thing, when they were showing lots of episodes in one night, several times a week. Remember how Cliff's office was a room in the basement, and how there were stairs and a door that could be used to enter from the outside? Whenever they do a close-up of this part of the house (from the outside), you see the brass plate with Cliff's name, and it reads "Heathcliff Huxtable, M.D." I noticed, in one of the earliest episodes from the first season, that when they did a close-up of that part of the house, the brass plate said "CLIFFORD Huxtable, M.D.!" It may have happened more than once, but that was the only time I noticed. Perhaps it was an oversight that they forgot to correct when the show went into production.
Definitely when Olivia joined the cast. Is she the love child of Cousin Oliver from "The Brady Bunch" and Dee from "What's Happening!"? By the way, why did Cosby use so many light-skinned half white/half black kids on the show? Sort of devalues all of us black kids watching the show. J-J-J-Jammin' on the one! R-R-Rob-Robert! I don't know what to say! La-La-La-La! Who told Phylesha that she could sing? Mmm-MMM-MMM!
This show jumped the shark when Raven Simone showed up. They needed a cute litle girl because Rudy had a darker mustache than Theo (Malcolm Jamal Warner) had.
Someone said they couldn't believe this show was once #1, being that it doesn't hold up in reruns. And for the most part, they're right. The most I can take away from it watching it now, is that the '80s were only slightly better than the '70s for fashion. You need sunglasses to tone down all the loud clashing colors of the clothes the Cosbys wore, and I won't get started on the shoulder pads that could be used in the NFL, or the hair. But watching it today, what stands out most was the utter pretentiousness of this show. Granted it was still a novelty on TV in the '80s to have a well-to-do Black family in a sitcom. Unfortunate, but true. So with that in mind I guess ol' Cos felt it was his duty to drive home the point that such families do exist, via constant references to a fictional Black college and annoying scenes where the whole family (including grandparents!) sits around in the living room and discuss the Civil Rights movement of the '60s. Like that happens-- anywhere. I don't watch a sitcom to be educated-- hate to burst your bubble Cos! And speaking of annoying, that sing-songy delivery of Phylicia Rashad had me tearing my hair out at the roots. Maybe that works on a 3-year old, but not when you're talking to your husband or grown children. I *hate* people who talk like that, because you never know whether they're putting you on or being serious. And how emasculating is it when a man can't have a hoagie in his own home? A good half of the shows are built around Cliff just trying to sneak a bite out of a sandwich or a damn piece of pie. I have to say the comic value of such scenes is negligible. Clair, he's not SMOKING CRACK. Ease up on him! Maybe it's because of you that your daughters chose such limp-wristed wimps to marry. That's right, it's not just Elvin. Check out Martin's mincing little dance in the opening sequence (the one with the swingin' sax music). Work it, girl! Sondra and Denise are just carrying on an apparently long family tradition of ball bustin' women. These things are fascinating to watch in 20-year retrospect, as I didn't catch them the first time around, but more for the camp value than humor.
I'd say what bugged me most about this show was how Claire would nag the hell out of Cliff about eating Junk food. Lighten up you witch! He's just trying to enjoy himself! She had to be the most whiny and irritating wife on any t.v. show. In reality Cliff would have either ran out on her or started cheating on her.
Okay, the show was called The COSBY show, so let's pin the blame where it belongs. The show jumped the shark because of MR. COSBY HIMSELF!! He was actually funny the first few seasons, but his act got OLD, real quick. His constant mugging, contorting his face and rolling his eyes, in front of the camera, that was TOO much. Plus, his slow delivery of lines emphasizing EVERY other word. The sad truth is COS, a once great comedian, was NOT the best actor in the world and as the show went on, he SUCKED big time!! Plus, whoever said that Cosby and children were funny were DEAD WRONG!! The early seasons there were episodes so blatantly set up for Cosby to mug with children it was sickening- one particular bad example that sticks out is when COS takes Rudy and her grade school friends to a fancy restaurant and bitches and complains when they don't like the food or can't sit still. What the F***? Who would really do that in real life?? A similar episode was when COS took Rudy and friends to a lame-ass corny vaudeville show, then he bitches again when they don't find it funny. Well, it WASN'T, damn it!! Then, as Rudy got older, they shove her to the backburner and bring in Olivia, who DOMINATED the show. In every episode there had to be at least one scene with COS and Olivia that had nothing to do with the main plot but was thrown in for cuteness, but it was so damn sickening it wasn't even funny. Olivia was cute but couldn't act (hey, it wasn't her fault, she was only 3), but COS thought she was the ultimate. One particular bad episode was when COS explained to Olivia how babies are born and she disagrees with him giving her own theory. This must of been the precursor to that other lame ass COSBY show, Kids Say the DARNDEST thing, because it was so f**cking annoying and so blatantly obvious COS was setting her up to exploit her ignorance for comedy. So, to wrap up, pin the blame on COS, it was his show and he killed it with his never-ending lame-ass shtick, constant mugging, bad acting, slllooooww delivery of lines and interactions with cute little kids.
Cousin Pam, the Fresh Princess of Brooklyn. Just *why* was she there anyway? I don't remember the exact reason except it had something to do with her mother and was incredibly lame. The mother was still alive. Why would she palm off her adult daughter on rich relatives? That made no sense. Anyway, Pam was the ultimate shark jump on a show that had many smaller jumps over the course of its run. Do not watch the last season unless you want to be nauseated by Pam and her jive-talking boyfriend (who had me spitting nails every time he opened his mouth: "Well ya see, Mr. Huxtable, I'm gon' check out dis college just to see if it meet my high standards"), Pam and her caricature girlfriend who sounded like Minnie Mouse on helium, Olivia and Cos in painful scenes that seemed to go on forever, and later, Winnie and Nelson in the same type scenes with Cos, who had (and still has) the mistaken notion that he's entertaining with small children and people can't get enough of his rubber-faced shtick. Kids do say the darndest things, especially when they've been coached. But that's another story, and another show. Or maybe not. Much of the last season of TCS is indistinguishable from KSTDT. As TCS got more popular, you could see the progression of Cosby's ego in his acting. And once he got that Ed.D, which according to several reliable accounts he virtually phoned in-- he became Moses atop the mount on every talk show, dispensing his words of wisdom on everything from how to raise children to how other comics should perform. I'm sure the latter was great advice. Just ask Sinbad, who must be raking in big bucks on the Black college circuit. Right? The '80s were a very disturbing time for sitcoms, as Cosby pretty much dominated the genre and spawned a lot of copycat efforts that were doomed right out of the box (Anyone remember Gladys Knight's show? Didn't think so). As Richard Pryor once advised him, "Have a Coke and a smile and shut the f*** up"!
My goodness, responses are so scathing here! I lost interest in TCS after about two seasons, which was about when Denise left the first time (I may be wrong on that). I would watch it occasionally after that, but never liked it quite as much and eventually stopped watching altogether. I found the early episodes charming and funny, and to me the jibes from the parents to the kids re school, money, etc. were lighthearted and not to be taken seriously (very much like early Roseanne episodes, jokes like "alligators have the right idea, they eat their young.") Then something happened and TCS's preachiness became insufferable (much like later Roseanne episodes, where the kids' incessant whining and sassing were appalling, the so-called adults mean-spirited, everything nasty and totally unrealistic). At the time, I chalked up some of the prevailing attitude of TCS to the general ultra-capitalistic and conservative attitude that had the country by the throat in the godawful 80s (hmm, kinda like now). I also used to give Cos some slack because, in those days, regardless of the ratings, it seemed that he couldn't win with the show's critics: some groups complained because it wasn't realistic enough; other groups had previously complained because blacks were always shown as poor and struggling. (It's nice to see some folks on this site who share my opinion that Good Times was colossally unfunny drek!) Then I recently saw some of the later eppies of TCS that I hadn't seen before; zoiks! I guess the Huxtables should've added one more song to their all-too-vast repertoire of lip-synch: "Money Makes the World Go Round" from Cabaret. How could such a light and charming little show morph into something so dark and creepy? This is more than my own personal vendetta against the 80s in general (hideous decade for fashion, music, social consciousness and attitudes). And yes, the male-bashing, EWWW. Dreadful. Being a female baby-boomer, I've never understood what good could possibly come of turning around and doing exactly what we so dislike having done to us. This is no way to preach understanding between the sexes to the unconverted!! (Or was this merely someone's way of getting back at the producers of I Love Lucy??) TCS may be a first ... it's still jumping the shark in rerun-land!! Cosby, Cosby, what were you thinking? BTW, for those of you who have posted and used this term, I respectfully offer this correction: it's spelled AD NAUSEAM, not AD NAUSEUM. Not that I'm trying to be elitist or anything :-)
The show where we were subjected to 30 minutes of idiocy, as Rudy had miserable dreams of Olivia's charm ruining her life. All this because the Cosby Show writers were running out of ideas. Soon after, Pam joined the series, and it was all South from there.
When they started reusing the same actors to play different characters. Also, when Theo became intellectual he became boring! Vanessa was funny when she was young...a really funny comment by her was something like "Denise locked Rudy out of the bathroom and she didn't wash the shampoo out of her hair and now Rudy might go blind! If she does can we get a dog?"
The actress who played Sondra was far to pretty for the part. They should have used a dorkier person with thick glasses or something.
All the kids left, and then Olivia came on, just to add the missing "cuteness factor". The premise was ridiculous.
This show jumped the shark with the addition of Olivia. It was not Raven Symone's fault, just a sign that Rudy (always the cutest Cosby kid) was hitting puberty. Yes, this show may have been overrated, but take it for what it is. An innocent sometimes funny family show. A lot of shows don't hold up as well over time and you have to consider the time period of when it aired. When this came onto the air the sitcom genre was practically dead. This made Cosby seem like absolute Shakespeare when it debuted. Plus, Cosby will be remembered foremost for its historical contribution to TV. Besides depicting the family lives of the first affleunt African American family, The Cosby Show also revived the dying sitcom genre and practically single handedly saved a dying network (NBC). The Cosby Show at the time had a block on the network tv ratings too...ratings that such shows as Seinfeld and Friends can only dream about today.
The Cosby show jumped the shark when, the Cos decided that the show would be politically correct pablum, and hired a Harvard psychiatrist to approve the scrips and we got **** like 'no witches for the halloween episodes, because they foster negative female images'. What kind of **** is that?!?
There are so many shark jumping incidents for this show. The oldest daughter Sondra comes out of nowhere. Where was she anyway? Chillin with Amy Osborne I guess. She served absolutely no purpose other than to make the show mirror Cosby's real life by having five kids. And where was this girl from? Melissa Gilbert had more soul than she did. Then there's the Cockroach buildup. We're led to believe that Cockroach is this bad ass, then he show's up and he's more square than the Huxtable kids. There's Claire and Denise's hairstyle changing EVERY FRIGGIN EPISODE!!! And Vanessa's gravity defying afro during the Alvin Ailey season. Claire finds a joint in Theo's school book and Theo says it's not his and they believe him. Yeah, right! And what's with Cliff offering to pay just about every person he comes in contact with college educations. He offers to pay for Sondra's Law school AND Elvin's med school education, when they decide to 'throw away their Princeton degrees' to go into business for themselves. And he talks about paying his wife's 4th cousin twice removed Pam's way through college. Yet when one of his kids asks for 50 cents, he's friggin Pa Walton! Apparently his budget only allowed for expensive funky ass sweaters and sending everyone and their mother to college and grad school. Rudy gets hit with an ugly stick (but as someone pointed out, Kiesha Knight Pulliam is SLAMMIN now! Awkward stage I guess), Theo goes from being an carefree slacker, to a responsible, pontificating genius in one season, and Denise goes from being a bright, focused, free spirit, to an incompetent airhead. And all of a sudden, after six seasons, Cos decides that the show needs 'real' black kids, so he give's us cousin Pam and her crew. I smell buzzard meat!
Raven-Symone as Olivia really ruined this show, as well as them bringing back Lisa Bonet, after they had finally gotten rid of her. Denise was always free-spirited, 'flower child' sort of girl. That she would've married a military man was totally unbelievable. But, that little Raven-Symone was the final straw. Yes, she was cute. But, the show turned into "The Olivia Show" & became totally unwatchable. I held on though, until Vanessa brought home that boring Dabnis. DABNIS? What kind of name is that? It's Sinbad, spelled backwards. Ridiculous.
The annual, 'we can't come up with any material so let's have the family do a lame lipsync act for grandma and grandpa'. It really burned my ass when grandpa (who seemed as light in the loafers as Elvin) asked Cliff if they were going to do "something from old blue eyes". Sinatra?!? Yeah like that would happen! An obvious case of pandering to the show's 'mainstream' audience. Hey Bill! Sync your lips on THIS!!!
Jumped the shark when John Ritter was a guest star. This had to be the worst special guest star episode in the history of television. Ritter was doing the Jack Tripper scthick that made him famous. It was funny when he was in his twenties, but pushing fifty? I don't think so. And he and Cosby had absolutely NO comic chemistry.
The Cosby Show had its moments, but does anyone remember that revolting blue flared pantsuit with bright red shoes that Denise wore in one episode circa 1990? Even by the standards of the 70s fashion revival of the time that outfit was truly hideous! Speaking of clothes, how about Bill Cosby's sweaters that looked like they were designed by a patient in a psychiatric institution? Cosby's long, drawn-out dialogue didn't help much either, the guy was worse than Sally Jessy Raphael! Also the dance routines during the opening credits, Bill Cosby jerking and writhing awkwardly and looking like he's about to throw up...I guess the major qualifier for casting on this show was to have the most unusual names in the world.(Tempestt?)
The episode where the family attends the ceremonies honoring the new president of Hillman was one of the WORST episodes of Cosby ever. What was the point? Where was the humor? More importantly, where was the comedy? If I WANT to be preached to, "inspired" or "motivated", I'll watch one of those kinds of shows... but when I watch The Cosby Show it's because I want to be ENTERTAINED.
I watch The Cosby Show every night before I go to bed, because I want to see something light and funny and happy at the end of the day... Although I will admit the show did probably jump the shark when cousin Pam came. It just kind of lost a lot of the humor. To the poster who mentioned the Hillman episode, I completely agree, and that's the other issue I had with this show- the just threw their morals and beliefs right in your face, and I have an issue with that. I mean, they could make it more subtle... they still say what they want to say, but it's a lot better for those of us who don't like to be preached to...
This show is still one of my favorites, based on its first four seasons, but from season 5 on, it was definitely moving up the ramp. Sure, the annoying "Hillman Commencement" show had already aired a couple of years earlier, but at least in season 4, Lisa Bonet wasn't around much, since "A Different World" kept her, er, "busy." Then, in season 5, Denise dropped out of college(AKA, Bonet got fired from her show), and she just takes up space, until she goes "on safari." BTW, it was in season 5 that Tempestt Bledsoe had the first of many weird haircuts, and Rudy was still acting like a little kid, even if she no longer looked like one. Oh, and the season 5 title sequence was just too weird and pretentious; the elaborate staged ballet number, with symphonic accompaniment just didn't work. By season 6, the show was really rolling downhill, with the "grown-up" kids, and all the new characters. And trying to turn it into the "Cousin Pam" show didn't help either. Cliff and Clair still had some damn goof scenes, when they would bother to use them instead of the "newbies." Season 8 is just about unwatchable; "Winnie and Nelson" had to go through the "sitcom aging process" so that they could be old enough to talk and have supposedly-funny dialogue, and all the various marriage/relationship storylines never went anywhere. And that season's "rap" title sequence was the absolute worst!
This show jumped when Stevie Wonder was a special guest. It was hilarious, though not obviously in the way the writers intended. I guess I must have been about 10 years old when I this episode aired, and even then I couldn't believe what I was seeing. "Oh my God, you won't believe whose limousine we hit! Stevie Wonder!" I'm sure Denise must have been really impressed: "It's the guy who sings that crap song that's on the radio all the time! You know, the one that makes me want to puke!?" Then he invites them to the studio. It was utterly classic. I keep waiting for Nick at Nite to show this episode just so I can hear Cliff say "Baby, baby", Rudy make some dumb giraffe noise, Vanessa say "Robert", Clair pretend she can sing, and, of course, "J-J-Jammin on the one." Oh, that first comment about "Raven Symone" being dressed like a tiny circus performer was hysterical. What was that about?
Okay, I have many bones to pick with this show. One: Claire and Cliff act like they are struggling to make ends meet constantly, and that they can't afford to help their kids financially, yet he's a doctor and she's a lawyer. Those are two of the most lucrative jobs today....what gives? Two: they are so condescending to anyone who doesn't want to have a similar job. When Denise mentioned that she may just forget school and be a stay at home mother to Olivia, they acted as if it was a stupid idea and that she wasn't "allowed" because they were highly educated. And then they acted holier-than-thou to any adult that didn't have a prestigious college education. Remember Denise's husband and Vanessa's fiance?
You can tell how bad A Cosby Show episode will be by how annoying the opening segment is. It got worse with each new season. And if you ever come across the opening where they all dressed in beach clothing, and are doing some Indian style dance, and you can't find your remote control, throw something solid at your TV. Better to have to buy a new TV than to be subjected to 2 seconds of that crap.
The Cosby Show totally sucked. The mother sucked the Dad sucked and the kids were REALLY suckie. Vanessa, Theo and Olivia were worst then the rest of the kids. What made the show jump was for the simple fact that it was BOOOORING! What the hell was suppose to be so damn funny?
This show NEVER jumped. You don't see reruns of WKRP in Cinncinati. You see reruns of the COSBY Show, and not just on one network or cable station. The Cosby Show was awesome. Some of the episodes were cheesy, like all sitcoms. Although, they were so close to the lifestyle that many middle-class black families experience and live in. You had Claire, your stern mother-all she had to do was give that devilish smile and you knew you were in for it. You had all the old black men, reminiscing on old times, talking your ear off, and always in the house teaching someone a lesson. You had Rudy, cute when young and not so cute as a pre-teen. THIS IS SO REALISTIC. Who the heck looks like Tyra Banks at 12??? Keisha Knight Pulliam is beautiful now. You had the annoying, and prudish sister Vanessa. And Theo, who never stayed the same. The rebellious sister and the grown up sisters. I thought Olivia was adorable. She reminds me of one of my terrible two cousins. This show is such a classic and it the only show so far about intelligent black people and their daily lives that mainstream America has taken any real interest in.
The Cosby Show jumped anytime some old coach, professor or mentor would visit Cliff. Yeah, right. Like anyone's coach would still keep in contact with an average and forgettable player of decades ago. And yet almost every season, they would repeat this plot of trotting out some old geezer from Cliff's glory days to stroll down memory lane. The most ridiculous example of this is when the Huxtable's are at Hillman and this philosophy professor not only remembers both Cliff and Claire which is unlikely in itself, but also this guy remembers where they sat in the classroom and what grades they got!!! Not to mention the additional fact that any mentor or teacher of Cliff's would either be retired or dead!! Maybe if Cliff had just graduated that year it would have an ounce of credibility, but we're talking again like several decades ago. Another unbelievable aspect is Vanessa's never-ending popularity among boys. She almost always had a boyfriend. They tried to make her like Denise, but Vanessa was much too uglier to realistically have such consistent opposite sex action.
Olivia. Even the name is appropriate: Olivia. Oliver. Olivia. Oliver.... See? It fits the profile. The show never really worked after the introduction of the "new cute kid."
This is to all the posters who have commented on how much bull**** they have been fed watching Theo magically turn into an intellectual after being diagnosed with dyslexia, which wasn't noticed in the first 18 years of his life. For those of you who don't know, "The Cosby Show" was based very much on Bill Cosby's family life: he had four daughters and one son, the late Ennis Cosby, murdered in 1997 in a roadside robbery attempt. Anyway, Ennis struggled all through high school, and even after he got to Morehouse College, he was still struggling. He wasn't dumb, but he just wasn't doing well on tests. Well, one day, his mother, Bill's wife Camille, suggested he take a dyslexia test, and he did, and he was subsequently diagnosed with dyslexia. You probably remember Theo, Cliff, and Clair celebrating when Theo's test results came back; similarly, Ennis said that finding out he was dyslexic was the happiest day of his life. Ennis picked up the learning skills he needed, and even made the honor roll at Morehouse. He went on to Columbia University's Teachers' College for graduate school. He wanted to teach children with learning disabilities, and worked as a student-teacher as part of his curriculum, much like Theo worked at the community center while getting his Psychology degree, and in the process helped a kid who had undetected dyslexia, just like he had. He was murdered at age 27, before he completed his degree. So shut the f**k up about how "unrealistic" Theo's transformation is! Theo basically WAS Ennis Cosby. It really tears me up just thinking about Ennis Cosby being murdered for some dumbf**k robbery...I don't know him, and at the same time I do. Just imagine Theo being murdered. Really, more than anything else, "The Cosby Show" was about the character based on Ennis, Theo Huxtable. After all, the pilot dealt with Theo's struggles as a high school freshman and the final episode has Theo graduating from college. Imagine instead the final episode where Theo gets murdered. It's pitiful. Ennis's memory is carried on, though, in the kids' show "Little Bill"; "Hello, friend" was how Ennis would greet people. Anyway, I've been rambling enough (must sound like the Cos!), and as for when the show Jumped the Shark: the show got wholly unentertaining once Cockroach left. Theo's new friends were cornballs, and soon after we have things like Cousin Pam, Olivia, the twins, and the constant male bashing. Carl Anthony Payne II aka "Walter Bradley" aka "Scrap Iron" aka "Cockroach" is the best recurring character in sitcom history, in my opinion. I've read that Carl Payne was reportedly fired by Cos after refusing to cut his hair. NOT cool!
The show had been teasing the shark for a long time, but it took the great leap when Denise brought home her new husband Martin. That episode epitomizes Cosby's obsession with money and prestige. It had already been established that Denise was not college material, yet Cliff and Claire were planning her life for her while she was in Africa, getting her back into Hillman. Many have brought up how Cliff and Claire were towards Vanessa's beau Dabnis (who worked in maintenance) when she announced they were engaged. Cliff to Dabnis: We don't like you! Contrast that with the way Martin ( a naval officer) was treated. They practically gave him the deed to the house. And Denise had gotten MARRIED, not engaged, to a man with a child, without bothering to tell her parents. Talk about a bad presentation! Regarding Cliff being in the Navy, he did mention that a few times before Martin joined the family.
Without a doubt, it JTS when Olivia came on board. When you bring younger kids to replace the "cuteness factor" lost by another child, it's rev up the motor time. I haven't seen this mentioned by previous posts, but does anyone remember the friend of Vanessa's that talked really fast? She used to drive me up the wall!!! I swore that girl must be on crack!! Also on the dislike list: the male-bashing (evident on the episode when Claire's sister is planning her marriage), that goddamn SD button (I realize Sammy Davis Jr. was your friend Cos, but jeez), Cos's constant mugging (every frigging episode starter ended with his smirky smile). The episodes I liked was during season 2 when Denise had short hair & a sassy attitude.
This show easily jumped the shark with the addition of little Olivia since that gave Cosby the ability to recycle old plotlines. Two examples-one was when Olivia had a birthday party and for whatever reason Cliff is in charge of about a dozen little crazy tykes-Oh the chaos that ensues. This episode was better when it was originally done when Rudy and a bunch of her little friends had a sleepover. Another episode was where the Huxtables were having a anniversary celebration for the grandparents. Now, I enjoyed the earlier episodes where the family would all lip-synch a song (who could forget little Rudy doing the snake and yelling BABY!). But, this episode had Olivia lyp-synching with Rudy and Cliff playing guitar and drums. Claire didn't even participate, and other than Pam I don't know they even had any other Cosby kids present (Not that I would consider Pam a real Cosby kid, but you know what I'm saying). There was even a couple there they passed off as good friends. The show had gotten so bad that no one wanted to show up! Cosby didn't know when to quit while he was ahead.
This show jumped the shark MAJORLY with the pregnant men episode. That was the worst 30 minutes of any kind of show, sit-com or not, EVER in the history of cable television. I didn't catch the whole thing, just when they all started to go into labor. I hate it on shows and movies when there is more than one pregnant lady (man, in this case) and they both start having contractions right at the same time. Right. I don't think so. And that guy who plays Sondra's husband is the ****tiest actor I have ever seen in my entire life, on any kind of show, ever. And all the ****tiness of this episode was when Cliff gave birth to a like 20 foot hoagie and orange soda (that is just NASTY), Denise's husband gave birth to a sailboat (WHAT???, and Theo, accompanied by his GRANDPARENTS, gave birth to a car. This episode is a television travesty.
Two words: goldfish funeral. How the hell did anyone think that this was going to be funny?
When Martin and Cliff spend the day together, when the chicks at Cafe DeBalzac flirt with them, is the episode when Martin told Cliff when they were married Denise was a virgin. That was definitely a shark right there. Also, to the person who asked about where was cockroach, bill cosby fired him because he refused to cut his hair in 1989, because he wanted a high top fro. bill cosby said all the men would have "gentleman" cuts and be respectable, cockroach got his tentacles and left.
Claire Huxtable: The most perfect, infallible, omnipotent and righteous woman to ever grace God's green earth. This point is addressed ad nauseum throughout the entire history of The Cosby Show. She's even crowned with a tiara in the last season when she is given her own office in the house. All men fawn over how perfect she is like in the episode where Claire is defending Sondra and Cliff and some audience observer gush incessantly over her. Or in the episode where Claire is a panelist on a local debate TV program and after knowing the exact reference (even down to having the page number memorized!!) of some obscure book, Cliff again talks to some stagehand who refers to Claire as "LA MUJER PERFECTA!". Ugh! And on and on and on with countless other Claire perfection references. We get it. Claire is so perfect in every way and she apparently needs constant reinforcement of this fact that she is essentially beyond reproach.
How about the episode where Rudy took the $2.30 that Claire had left on the counter, and Claire proceeded to tear the house apart looking for it? Come on, she's a lawyer for Christ sake, married to a doctor, living in a million dollar brownstone in Brooklyn Heights, and she's really gonna be that upset about losing $2.30? Rudy could have found that money between the couch cushions!
I will admit the show did JTS when Olivia showed up. I was never fond of the child. I'm still not to crazy about her to this day. Rudy was your typical cute kid on TV when the show first started. When you saw Rudy on TV you can tell that the actress was not affected by the glam of the TV world. The little girl who played Olivia apparently was already affected and it showed which made her character not likable. I know that's stupid, but that's how I saw it. I think when they brought in cousin Pam and her friends from the wrong side of the tracks that's when the sharks came a chomping. It was then when I couldn't take the show any longer and quit watching all together.
I wouldn't say it actually "Jumped", but it did have its irritations. After reading these posts, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who couldn't stand Claire Huxtable! Good lord! She was Ms. Perfect. As far as the elitist, "you're nothing unless you have a college degree" attitude goes, that is very realistic among anyone in the teaching profession. Every teacher I know has been and IS that way. I think because they are "teaching", they begin to suffer from egomania, which in turn, causes them to believe they know what's best for each and every creature they come into contact with. Or possibly, it's a psychological defense mechanism to cover their deep insecurities about their pathetic salaries; what, not much above minimum wage, right? Secretaries with little or no college education make more money than teachers. This is a known fact.
I want to know why, if Clair is a lawyer and Cliff is a doctor, they can't afford to get their homely children some clothes that match and a decent hairstylist. No one will ever forget Theo's "soup can" hairdo, Vanessa's extremely disturbing 'fro, Denise's 10 ft dread locks, or Sondra's gigantic ball of fluff. As for Rudy- well, any ten year old girl with a mustache darker than her father's speaks for herself, bad hair or not.
The Cosby Show jumped when mustache sporting 12 year old Rudy had Kenny and Stanley fighting over her. It also jumped whenever Cosby tried to treat a serious subject. Notice how these subjects never happened directly to any of the Huxtables; it was always somebody else: Cousin Pam, Theo's friend having cancer, Denise's friend getting pregnant out of wedlock, Cliff's friend's daughter doing drugs, etc. If anything, these occasional episodes, obviously designed for some sort of contrived realism, underscore how totally and painfully unrealistic the Huxtables were for their time. They never had any **REAL** problems.
This show never JTS. However, to the poster above...you are clearly upset that Claire Huxtable was a proponent of obtaining a college degree. You decide that this is elitist and it makes me wonder if you have a college degree? Obviously, you don't because you cannot realize the importance of having a college degree is getting a job. Also you state that the reason teachers state that "you are nothing without a college degree" is because they are ashamed of their small salaries. Actually, teachers are upset over their small salaries because it is true that in some cases there are secretaries that make more than teachers and this is an absolute outrage. Teaching is the most demanding profession in the world and probably the most underpaid. It is unfortunate that because of your failure as a student and your ignorance as a human being that you must attack the teaching profession to make up for your own inadequacies. You should probably less time on the internet, spouting out meaningless tripe about the shortcomings of teachers and actually get a degree to find out what exactly Claire was talking about. Oh, I realize that there are some big words in this posting, perhaps you can get a teacher to read them for you.
The second Raven Symone joined the cast. She is the shark incarnate. The only facial expression she knows is that silicon-fake smile, which she turns on and off like a flaky Christmas light. She violated the Cosby Show, and then defiled with her presence this (previously) wonderful show. I am one of those suburban liberals who actively opposes the death penalty, but if they ever catch the spawned-of-Satan casting agent who picked her, I might be willing to bend my beliefs...
After the focus of the show moved from the a house full of kids, it was closed to the end. But the show really jumped the shark when cousin Pam moved into the Huxtable residence. She kept addressing her hosts as Cousin Claire and Cousin Cliff. It got really annoying.
This show jumped the shark as soon as Pam, the cousin, arrived. That is all there is to it. The show should have been stopped right then and there. You really hate to see a classic show like that go, but they kept it going until they moved and they took management of a Flower Shop for goodness sake! It is still a nice family show to watch, but enough is enough! When Pam arrived it really went downhill from there, nothing was ever as funny and there was more parental lectures than funny Heathcliff Huxtible moments!
I concur with others that Rudy's upper lip hair growth marked the beginning of the end of the program.
The Cosby Show has got to be one of my favorite sitcoms of all time! Almost every episode cracked me up! However, I thought the show really jumped the sharks in the later episodes (1990-1992). The storylines just weren't as good anymore. Like when Vanessa wanted to marry that old Dabnus dude and when Sondra gave birth to Winnie and Nelson and that whole Denise/Martin/Olivia thing just wasn't very good. The show just sort of died and it didn't make the audience laugh as hard. Overall, The Cosby Show was superb...one of the best sitcoms ever!
The Cosby Show jumped when I could no longer figure out who was living in the Huxtable house anymore. There were only 3 people that lived there consistently throughout the series: Cliff, Claire and Rudy. The last 3 seasons portrayed the Huxtable house as a literal revolving door with Martin, Denise, Olivia, Theo, Vanessa, Cousin Pam, Sondra, Elvin, Winnie and Nelson (am I forgetting anybody?) all coming and going incessantly. How many bedrooms was this house supposed to have anyway??? No wonder Rudy seemed so pissed all the time!! If I had to share my bedroom with Olivia for any length of time, I'd hang myself!
Not my favourite show, but it's all right once in a while. The first three seasons were the best, the others not as good. Malcolm Jamal-Warner was hot :) I saw the poster who complained that Bill would bring in jazz musicians and pass them off as relatives. Did you ever see that parody on the Simpsons? "Meet your new Grandpa. He's a great Jazz musician!" "But we have three Grampas already!" :)
I argue that The Cosby Show never jumped. Sure there were bad episodes. Bad episodes were even more prevalent when Pam arrived, etc. However, the good always outweighed the bad. The best shows may have been the early ones, but there were priceless moments throughout the series. Without out a doubt The Cosby Show is the finest non-animated sit-com ever. 201 episodes, eight seasons, and it never got unwatchable. Bill Cosby and the rest of the cast are sealed into the memory of the United States culture for the foreseeable future.
It jumped the shark when Olivia joined the cast....but I think it really jumped before she came along. Remember Denise? She left the show to do a series, "A Different World", and the Cosby Show wasn't nearly as good as it used to be. This was one of my favorite 1980s show as a teenager during that decade....I still remember the family's dance and song sequence for Cliff's parents (their anniversary) and Cliff made these funny faces...I enjoyed that one! :)
I’ve had lots of fun commenting about some of my favorite shows on this site & usually avoid doing so on ones that have TONS of other entries already I feel I couldn’t possibly contribute more to. This show was always a fave, though so here goes: it seems lots of people want to confuse the Actors’ personal lives playing the roles (Bill Cosby, Lisa Bonet) and have lost sight of “was it a good comedy program or not”? It was, absolutely! Did it take risks? Yes! Did they always pan out? No, when you look at “Cousin Pam/Olivia”, and some other things. But I’d much rather see a show like this that had intelligent, well-rounded humor lots of people can enjoy instead of this so-called “edgy” crap the WB keeps spewing out like “Hughleys”! I won’t bother with this “hostile for no reason” show due alone to the ads for it with the “…white people this…white people that…” garbage for some reason someone thinks is funny and not just insulting. Or shows like “Moesha” with characters that say some inane thing then look right out at the audience like they’re asking them “did I just say the latest dumb buzz-phrase we can run in to the ground yet?” Bill Cosby CHOSE TO pull the plug on this show, if you remember and that took some class. True, he probably should’ve done so a year or so earlier before things got so bad, but those are more risks in a long-running series (like Roseanne’s awful last season that was just all her “writings”). I thought Cosby/the writers also made some really hackneyed plots more funny like the kids moving in & out and how he kept griping to Claire about them “never going to have the house totally to themselves”. Or when Olivia showed up that funny dream show Rudy had with the Doo-Wah girls and how it was ruining her life! The funniest intro I thought was the “Jamaican musical” one. It always makes me laugh and it used the whole cast, so no one could gripe…he/she was on 2 seconds longer than me…!” Now about the characters/actors playing the kids- Sabrina Lebeauf (Sondra) may have had a dull role plunked in the middle sloppily, but what I liked about her was that she had the most clear, beautiful speaking voice that hopefully got her further in voice-over, narrative roles later on. “Vanessa” in my book was the most ANNOYING whiny girl in league with the screechy one in the “Thriller” video that you wouldn’t mind see getting Ko’ed just to shut her up! Denise…well, I don’t get her ever-changing skin tones throughout – from latte tones to bluish! Was Lisa Bonet sickly? For all of the Rudy-bashing when she got older and “awkward” – so did Eve Plumb’s “Jan Brady” for years until the last season when she turned “teen-va-va-VOOM” and grew in to a pretty young woman. Keisha K-P is, I agree with another person a lovely young woman now – she was just at the beginning of her changes, that’s all. Lastly, I notice for some “chauvinistic” reason no one ever seems to comment on the changed appearance of guys on shows like this and others…namely how Malcom-Jamal really chubbed up in last couple of seasons – no it wasn’t muscle! Much like how both “Matts” on “Friends” have on-cam gone up & down over the years…!
Top two signs the show was about to jump: 1) Addition of Raven Symone and Erika Alexander and all other newcomers to this ever expanding household. 2) Fox realizing the show was beginning its decline and scheduling The Simpsons opposite it on Thursdays. But the actual, absitively posulutely, official moment of jumpage was a strange synthesis of both. Cliff, aghast to discover Olivia wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt, reacts by looking into the camera with an expression of comedic exasperation at what he must endure (thereby letting viewers know he's in on the joke, too). I can't recount a moment prior to this on The Cosby Show when characters had to break the fourth wall in order to elicit a laugh. While Bill Cosby was clearly always the funniest member of the Huxtable family, the show's brightest comedic moments always came from within the family dynamic (i.e. how the characters remained consistent and interacted with one another). And yes, a lot of the time when Cliff would make funny faces or voices, it was obviously directed more to the viewing audience than those around him - but with one crucial difference - none of those instances involved characters winking at the audience. Alright, alright, I know, it's just a TV show. But seriously, once the show's writers decided that in order to make a situation funny, they had to have Cliff engage the audience directly (as Bill Cosby began doing on the second season of the much less humorous Cosby), it was clear that a lot of the show's original magic had disappeared.
This show jumped the shark when Cosby got mad at Lisa Bonet and made her character very flaky and irresponsible around the third season. When she left for A Different World the show wasn't as good. The other characters were just not as interesting or funny. Also when Denise came back with her step- daughter Olivia, that definitely jumped the shark. Olivia was soo annoying! and why did they dress her up like a clown? I don't get it. And another thing why did Bill Cosby fire the actor who played Cockroach just because he wouldn't cut his hair and not fire Tempesst for not cutting her ridiculous slanted afro!! why didn't he fight her to cut her hair? That would of made more sense. Not to mention she can't even act, I mean have you ever heard her laugh, it sounds like nails on a blackboard. Every time I see her on the screen I have to change the channel. I liked Rudy's character in the first 2 seasons and the last season, but in between that she was just annoying and was obvious that she couldn't act either. By the 8th season though her acting improved. And what was up with Clair Huxtable always laughing and grinning all the time? Every time Cosby said something funny she would crack up. You didn't see the rest of the cast laughing all the time. It obviously didn't take much to make Phylicia laugh.
When Denise dropped out of college it destroyed the image of the Cosby Kids. Denise was probably the best character to capitalize off of Cosbymania. But Lisa Bonet had a poor work ethic without Bill Cosby so she came back. Also no show can last longer then 6 seasons with out it going down the crapper so that didn't help. But if Denise would have stayed at college it would have worked.
I think by far the most disturbing episode of the Cosbys EVER was the men giving birth - it seemed to be a total mockery of all things natural. However, to the person up there that said you don't see reruns of WKRP in Cincinnati, you DO. EVERY DAY. That show was awesome. Obviously you're not paying attention.
I hated Kenny. He was an awful addition to the cast and his interactions with her were supposed to be funny(?) I only wish this Kenny had moved to South Park where he could have been killed off on a weekly basis.
So Theo has dyslexia midway through his college career and suddenly he turns into a genius the next season? Give me a break! Yet before the dyslexia storyline, Theo was just an under-achieving high school screw up who didn't care about college. So how the hell did this moron get into a prestigious school like New York University (NYU)? And while we're on the subject, before Denise's character assassination by humor-free Cosby she got accepted into Princeton. Yet she turned it down for some lame school named Hillman out of guilt for her family? If this is Cosby's portrayal of a real family, I'd hate to see what his bizarro portrayal of one is.
I have two major complaints about this show. Number one: Cliff was a doctor and Clair was a lawyer. If one of the kids asked for so much as ten cents, Cliff would go on and on about how they needed to get a job and spent all of his hard earned money. It's cool that they didn't spoil their kids, but jeez! Number two: What were they thinking hiring the two actresses that played Sondra and Denise. It looks like Clair had a little cream in her coffee.
used to love this show back in the beginning but it really started to blow when every other episode became about black history. I know they were a black family but im sure half or more of their audience wasnt. I was just waiting for Nelson Mandela to guest star as cliff's high school track coach. Hell, who knows, maybe he did and i missed it.
To the above poster who mentioned that Cliff was always telling the kids to get jobs - Why in hell didn't those spoiled Huxtable brats ever get jobs? None of them ever worked even a part-time pizza place job like most high school kids do. Cliff and Claire should have stopped handing over cars, free room and board (for the adult kids), and college tuition checks on silver platters and make them actually work for something. None of them were apparently bright enough to get scholarships. Cliff and Claire's actions certainly didn't jive with their words. Hell, they even gave idiotic Elvin all the cash he needed to get through medical school. They even agreed to pay for Elvin's sorry ass after he changed his mind about the wilderness store and went back to med school! (Like any reputable med school would take this pathetic flake back after changing his mind.) I also want to know how in hell Elvin and Sondra could afford a house if both are in med/law school and no income coming in? Where are they getting this cash? Don't tell me! Cliff and Claire are forking over the $$$ for that, too???? And they even agree to pay for Cousin Pam's college!!! I guess in the Huxtable family, mediocrity and laziness reaps rewards. It makes me ill thinking about those spoiled, bratty Huxtable kids and their spouses receiving all this free education $$ for these prestigious universities. Absolutely none of them were portrayed as brilliant students (except for Theo in the last 2 seasons only!!).
This show definitely jumped the shark with too many "Very Special" episodes, especially during the last few seasons. The show became too damn preachy and not at all funny. It's no wonder the ratings dropped significantly in the last few years. Those very special episodes included entire episodes based on Pam contemplating losing her virginity, Theo and the kids at the community center, Theo and the joint, Cliff counseling a bunch of male teens on their career plans, Pam and friends helping some oldsters boycott their local supermarket because of high prices, the Huxtable clan forming an intervention to get their elderly neighbor to take her meds, etc., etc. Damn, what was funny about that. One particular bad episode was the one where one of the kids at Theo's community center found a wad of cash and then Theo had the kids debate whether or not he should return it. YAWN, not only has that plot device been used to death (from Brady Bunch to Saved by the Bell), but it was not the least bit entertaining and served no other purpose than to push Cosby's so-called moral agenda. (YEAH, right, the same man who cheated on his wife and had illegitimate kids). Half the episodes felt like after school specials rather than a family sitcom. And on a side note, Cosby supposedly earned a doctorate in education, which he prominently displayed in the opening and closing credits. However, it seemed as those he had no clue about what goes on in a real classroom setting because all those school based scenes were totally unrealistic. I hear that Cos wrote his Ph.D. thesis about "Fat Albert," well, that might explain it. For example, an entire episode revolved around Rudy and her classmates spending an entire week learning about "etiquette." HUH? Another episode revolved around Rudy being forced to take tap dance to participate in a class presentation. What happened to good old fashion reading, writing and arithmetic? Similarly, in the one episode where Cliff mentors the male teens, they too say he spent the previous Saturday educating them on "etiquette." And do you ever notice that Theo always talked about his college courses that had nothing to do with his major- i.e., Mythology, Asian Studies, etc. Sure, this is the same kid who couldn't understand Shakespeare in high school. Yeah, I know about his so-called "dyslexia" (another Very Special episode) but please, get real, Theo was the ultimate slacker and not only did his IQ go up about 50 points after his dyslexia diagnosis, but so did his attitude and moral convictions. And Denise attended two years of school at Hillman, however, when she tries to re-enroll in another school later, she is only given credit for one class- archery. How realistic was that? All those education episodes were really boring, totally unrealistic and not at all funny. And another thing, I agree 100% with the above poster who commented on how Clair could do no wrong, another example, of how this "reality" based sitcom was anything but. Let's review, Clair not only graduates magna cum laude at fictitious "HILLMAN", she's also the former homecoming queen, majorette, singer, then gives birth to Sondra while attending law school. Clair the so-called brilliant lawyer single-handedly wins every court case assigned to her yet is able to be in the house every night just in time to make dinner for her family. In one particularly slanted episode, Clair represents a neighborhood park PRO BONO while her lawyer friend represents the MEAN, GREEDY corporation that wants to tear it down. Guess who wins that one? Additionally, Clair beats Cliff at the pinochle tournament (although she doesn't seem especially skilled at the game), volunteers her legal services at neighborhood community services on weekends, wins the "smooth contest" over Cliff, outbids everyone at an expensive art auction (where her ancestor was the paint no less) and comes in second in a squash growing contest. Plus, she speaks Spanish to a tee, is ALWAYS right and never EVER makes a mistake. And to hammer that point home, she always flashes that patronizing smile while speaking in that condescending voice of hers. Give us a break, Clair Huxtable was more of a cartoon (a.k.a. "Fat Albert) than she was a real person, which was symptomatic of the problems of the show in general. While this sitcom tried to portrayal "reality," it did so in some bizarro world where every day was a "A Very Special Episode" in which yet another boring lecture and lesson was forced down viewers' throats. But where's the fun in that??
I have to say it was Pam that grated me more than Olivia. Though Olivia hogged the show case, Pam has the distinction of being the only character in any TV show to simultaneously make my want to throw out my TV and confuse me. She confused me because I don't get her and her friend Charmain (or however the hell that's spelled): in one episode Pam has good grades and her friends are getting on her case about it, yet in another episode it's Charmain who has her pick of top colleges and Pam is barely making it. So which is it: is Pam smart and subjected to teasing because of it, or is Pam dumb but willing to work harder? The longer I think about it the more my head hurts and Pam isn't worth that, so let's move along. I'd have to say the episode that makes me want to throw my TV out the window is the episode when South African singing sensation Miriam Makeba guest stars. Now, how they got the wonderful Ms. Makeba to agree to be in this role we'll never know, especially since the entire episode seemed to be just making fun of her and her culture! First, it's one of the many Olivia-centered episodes. Martin is being shipped off and Olivia is being all pissy about it, so she hides in a closet. The whole family tears off to look for her, leaving Ms. Makeba alone. My first question is if they were so damn worried why didn't they look in the living room first?! That's where they all were so it was as good a place as any to start! And then Ms. Makeba finds Olivia and starts to tell her what names are in her language. Olivia just clicks her tongue (making fun of the sound of Ms. Makeba's real name) and then just looks at her blankly and says "right", like she couldn't care less. Bet Ms. Makeba felt wonderful after that one. And when Pam is introduced in this episode she begins to spout off so many buzzwords that I wanted to vomit repeatedly. And she was dressed in a very poor representation of the South African formal wear. I don't know about Ms. Makeba, but I have friends who dislike it a lot when people who don't know anything about their cultures start trying to duplicate it based on stereotypes. (I have a friend, for example, whose parents are Japanese and absolutely hates it when people bow while introducing themselves to him while he has his hand extened ready to shake hands.) And finally Ms. Makeba starts talking about how she sees South Africa (after Theo rather rudely asks her how she can love it so much now that it's going to hell, more or less), causing everyone to watch with rapt attention. Then she starts singing one of her beautiful African songs. Not to be upstaged, the whole Huxtable family (including the twins) all join in and start singing, even though they don't know the words, thus ruining this beautiful song! Not only did all of this grate me all around, but the episode seemed to prove just how stuck-up the Huxtable family had become. Love it how Rudy says "I'll go. I always go", but more because it's the kind of drama teenagers actually use than because I liked how she said it (making it the only realistic moment in the show).
This show jumped the shark when I noticed the 8th season's opening credits dance. Olivia's smile looks suspiciously forced, flase, stretched, and put on. Pam's smile looked too bright and looked as if it were pasted on.
A lot of people bash Olivia, but I think they are missing something crucial: the show already had two cute kids it could have banked on. Instead they brought in Olivia and where were the twins half the time? You didn't know. Sondra and Elvin got a lot more screentime than the twins did, and it was generally believed that (in later seasons) the twins were off somewhere else just being kids, I guess. I personally found the scenes with Winnie and Nelson adorable, their bad names aside. They should have been in it a lot more. Hell, they should have forgotten Olivia and given them more screentime. (But then everyone would have been complaining that the later seasons took the focus off Rudy and paid more attention to the twins.) When they were shown, it was usually Bill Cosby just trying to get them to go away or be quiet. I think if these kids grow up with a complex, it won't be because of their horrible names; it'll be abandonment issues, neglect, and possibly some sort of weird incestuous connection from having only each other as company throughout their formative years.
'The Cosby Show' JTS from Day One! Actually, its not so much the scripts. What I hate is Cosby's stupid mugging in front of the the camera. He acts like a stereotypical black character on a 1930's movie! And many critics felt Cosby's portrayal was 'dignified?' I can certainly understand Cosby's preference for creating a sitcom about an affluent African-American family amidst the TV world of lily-white Seaver or Brady families, but I do think he TOTALLY screwed up his own program! At least the father on 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' acted normal.
Every time Clair talks about Cliff to one of the kids or to another person - she calls him Dr. Huxtable. Yes Clair, we get it. You are married to a successful Black man. Even Olivia calls him that - and he would be her step grand parent. Ridiculous. My husband is an officer in the USMC and if I ever referred to him as The General or General ***** - I'd be the laughingstock of the base.
That episode where they are having a block party or something with all the neighbors out in the street and Mrs. Cosby launches into some Porgy & Bess musical thing. OH MY GOD! That was one of the most ridiculous scenes in the history of television. Even the extras had that "What the hell is this?" look on their face. That was in the last season, a night when the shark must have been getting the blood lust going real strong.
That stupid episode that was centered around Claire stubbing her toe on the bed frame was definitely a shark moment if there ever was one. Some of those sweaters Bill used to wear looked like some varmit puked on it. Overall, a great show. I always had the hots for Lisa Bonet. She was a cool lookin' semi punk chick. Elvin was just a big ***** who was scared of everybody. Why is it that sitcoms always seem to portray men as cowering to their wives?? Elvin was a double-dip because he was scared of his inlaws too. I thought the Martin Luther King episode when they were all watching it on TV was great because they were all having this petty argument and the King speech put everything in perspective for them.
It jumped the shark because Jessica Vaughn(or Winnie) should have been the replacement for Rudy, not Olivia. Jessica Vaughn was way cuter than Olivia, and so much prettier and more innocent. Had Jess been older, she would have been the replacement for Rudy. It makes me sad when they chose Olivia, a person who is not very cute or innocent in the first place. Rudy should have been replaced with someone like Jessica.
Ohhh...that know-it-all-Claire could really get my goat with her condescending tone and preaching. Most of the time, I could shrug it off because she was a looker. However, there was one time she really got on my nerves and I wouldn't blame Cliff if he clocked her one. It was the last season, and everybody was living in the Huxtable household and sponging off of Cliff. It was tax time and Cliff was upset that, despite running a free hotel, he could only write off Rudy as a dependent. He cleverly buys a tax book and after studying it for hours comes up with dozens of things he can write off. This is what any normal person would do. I understand that taxes need to be paid, but I'll be darned if I give the IRS or the state a penny more than they are entitled. Anyway, Cliff tells Claire of all the deductions, but in her smugness, she happily shots down everyone one of Cliff's deductions. She actually acts as if Cliff is being greedy, petty, and selfish for trying not to overpay taxes on their hard earned money. It's almost as if she's happy about having to pay more taxes! For example, despite that Vanessa and Theo are both over eighteen, Cliff can still claim them as dependents because they are full-time students. Claire says that Vanessa and Theo are adults and should enjoy being able to claim themselves on their taxes, despite that Cliff is footing all the bills, paying for their tuition and the two spoiled brats don't even have a job. Cliff finds out that he can claim Olivia and Pam if he has the okay of their parents (which he does). After all, he is supporting them. Claire is infuriated by this suggestion and tells Cliff that he's a cheapskate because by claiming Oliva and Pam, their parents would no longer be able to take that deduction themselves. If I had dumped my kids on a relative to take care off, I would INSIST that they claim them as dependants. No way would I say, "Hey, Cliff, can my daughter Pam live with you so she can go to school in a better neighborhood. Oh, by the way, can you foot all the bills as I have no means to pay you back? But I still want to claim her on my taxes despite the fact that you're practically raising her." Why doesn't Claire just tell her employer to send her entire paycheck to the IRS? Forget being a lawyer. If you are so hard and unmerciful on your own husband, you'd be the poster girl for recruiting tax auditors.
This show jumped the shark BIG TIME when Olivia came on board for season 6 ('89-90). Seriously, watch the best early episodes and you'll realize something: the Huxtable kids do something crazy that normal kids do or dream of something that normal kids dream of, and ol' Cos will bring 'em back down to earth with a mix of creativity and harshness. Theo gets his ear pierced ("Your ears still boppin' to what's left of your brain?") or wants to move out on his own? ('Harley Weewax', one of the great one-shot characters ever!) Vanessa plays the alphabet game with her friends and some Jack Daniels? ("You're in an 'L' of a jam now!") Rudy's juicer episode? ("This is MINE, MINE, MINE!") One of the kids leaves Rudy alone at the mall? ("Wait UNDER the car!") And don't forget the Monopoly scene in the pilot. Great stuff all. But once Olivia came on board, it was just her saying cute lines (Doctor Crusher, the doctor / middle linebacker? PLEASE!) and Cos reacting, a la "Kids say the Darndest Things". He really didn't have anything to do anymore. Everyone I knew was oohing and aahing about how this was the cutest thing they ever saw, which didn't help. Give me the first five seasons, pre-Jaws, any day. And remember, "That is the DUMBEST thing I have ever heard in my life! I brought you into this world, and I'll take you out!"
I grew up on Bill Cosby--we had his records and I loved the show prior to this when he was the gym coach. I saw Phylicia Rashad (then Ayers-Allen) in a play in NY a few years before Cosby and fell in love--believe it or not, she CAN act! I was thrilled when this show came on. I come from a stable, two-parent Black family -and tho we werent nearly as rich as the Huxtables, I knew many families like this. But the Cosby Show...like 'All In the Family' and 'MASH' is a classic example of a damn good show-groundbreaking even, that sunk and sunk and sunk. I tried to read ALL the posts, so I would hopefully ADD something. I can only amplify what's been said- -where the HELL did Sandra come from (and WHY?); Rudy was ADORABLE till she got older (love the first season episode where Bill literally turns her upside down in the snowsuit); Clare was absolutely more 'complex' and gritty in the early years and sexy as hell in her Tina Turner costume--this fine actress was WASTED in the last few years; Cockroach was SUPERFLUOUS; Ravensimone should NEVER be allowed in front of a camera ever again; Pam was SUPERFLUOUS and her whiny ghetto girlfriend was UNWATCHABLE; Cliff & Clare DID become snobby--which is NOT the same as having high standards; I detested Cliff's Mom (met her in NY and she is a real BITCH), I never liked Vanessa (ok, she reminded me of my OWN little sister), ELDIN and SANDRA were INDEED the two most boring Black folks ever on TV; "because it's Hillman" (yikes!); The I have a dream episode--what a MISSED opportunity--why not show the family going out and DOING something in the community, if its nothing but dropping off food to the soup kitchen, Eldin's sexism - and Clare giving him his comeuppance COULD have been funny, IF ONLY it was WRITTEN BETTER and the guy playing him COULD ACT; the revolving door of kids, step-grandkids, grandkids, relatives-who-added-nothing-to-the-story--bless you, poster who pointed out the WASTE of Stevie Wonder (and WHY WASNT BILL ONSTAGE WITH HIM?) not enough room for both egos?, the WASTE of Lena Horne: "look at this beautiful family" Well, with all due respect, Ms. Horne, we can SEE that--why are you there?, the second lip-synching, and finally, as someone said more articulately than I: why the heavy-handed political messages? A show with a strong, involved pair of Black parents (who are ALSO professionals), who unapologetically embrace their culture yet aren't cultural chauvinists, are graduates of HBCs, etc. IS A POLITICAL STATEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A 'truth' is no less true when whispered as opposed to shouted. I think the 'matter of factness' of the presentation of this Black family WAS its strength--when it became a "Black" after school special, well........cue the Jazz version of the Jaws music!!!!!!!!!!
I think there are two major points at which this show really jumped the shark. (1) The introduction of Raven Simone's character (a classic sitcom floatation device when all of the other children in the family grow up). Cosby interacts best with young children. More than half of his original standup routines were based on his interactions as a child and as an adult with children, so he needed to have a young child around to play off of. Unfortunately, Raven Simone is affected by what I like to call the "trained monkey" disease. Unlike, Rudy, whose interactions with Bill Cosby were natural and unaffected, Olivia needed to "act" cute, since it is clear that she was encouraged to be adult and precocious by her stage mother. Just watch the way she walks in a room in the episodes-she definitely has the walk of a child who had been in modeling or in beauty pageants. The second point is when, about three or four seasons in, Claire's character takes every opportunity on the show to not only belittle her husband, but to preach about the strength and equality of women. Not that there is anything wrong with the concept of equality, but its a sitcom for God's sake. Not every venture in the kitchen or meeting with her daughter's husbands needs to end with Claire providing some kind of speech about how to treat women. (See also: sassiness posting above.)
I didn't vote day 1 because I thought it was the worst horrible show of all time. I voted day 1 because the episode was the greatest pilot episode of all time. The show in some ways ignored the pilot. All the characters were different except Cosby and even the house was different and there was no Saundra, Sandra was a good addition in my opinion though. Anyways almost all the characters, except Rudy were different. Clare was a lawyer/mother who looked like was ready to get a shot gun and kill everyone. That was the only episode were Denise was somewhat a tough punk. She was dating a prisoner. Theo looked like a dumb troublemaker. Vanessa was a person who thought about herself, by the way puberty was a nice to her as Politicians are to each other. She aged 5 years in season 2. Anyways if you notice, the house is different too. Cos was the man in the first episode. Who could forget the line when he was pissed at Theo, " I brought you in this world and I can take you out". That episode was one of the greatest episodes of all time. By episode 2 and then on everything changed. The house changed and the characters changed. Bill mellowed down. Clare became perfect like the Fonz. Vanessa would complain. Denise was still a rebel but her bark was starting to be worse then her bite and every episde Theo was becoming the perfect son. I Bill was trying to show that a Black family could be warming and loving on TV and he left his roots from the first episode. The characters on the first episode had a few problems with each other but I could relate to those characters from the pilot Bill. If Cos stuck with it the Cosby show could have been on the "never jumped" list but after episode 1 it jumped the shark. After season one it went shark hunting to kick the sharks A#@ and Oliva and Cousin Pam pissed of the shark and the shark at Cos and his sweaters. Why did you turn on the pilot Bill. The Pilot had a robust 48 rating meaning about half the country watched it. All you Cos fans need to watch the pilot episode and you will see that the show never lived up to the greatest pilot episode and one of the greatest episodes of all time
I'll have to almost agree with the above poster saying it jumped with the pilot. As a kid in the 80's I was always under the impression this was a funny show. Having seen it in reruns though, I stand corrected. The first season was relatively funny-the rest was absolute crap. They toned this down to appeal to middle America, a group of people I could frankly do without. Phylicia Rashad SUCKED plain and simple. More gripes: Cosby was quite the egomaniac with his constant pro college B.S. It seemed like every show we had to hear about Hillman and how Cliff was some campus big man. Get over yourself Bill. Cliff's parents sucked one too. Nothing said boring like them or other old timers reminiscing about the past every other show. My last complaint is how embarrassing the final seasons were. The theme for the last year is so dated with the Cross Colors fashion and the Cos yuking it up as some hip hop guy. Not buying it. You ever notice good TV has a sort of timeless quality to it. Cheers was from the 80's but it doesn't scream it. The first season of Cosby was from '84 or so but it sort of felt like it could have been happening at any time. The end in the early 90's was just a desperate attempt by Co$by to draw in viewers. Bottom line: Someone should recheck this one- maybe a lot of people watched it but a lot watch Leno too and outside of cheap laughs that simple-minded, vanilla people think are great it doesn't pass the test for me. The King of the Funny Faces had one good year at best.
Nick at Nite is currently showing the final season episodes where Cliff and Claire are constantly making a huge deal over how they cosigned the loan for Elvina and Sondra's house and since Elvin and Sondra are both doctor and lawyer now, they will have no problem making the mortgage payments. Gee! I didn't know it only took a season or two to not only finish either school, but also have enough money to support twins and buy a house with no student debt to worry about (thanks to Cliff and Claire). What fantasy are the Huxtables living in anyway? The very notion that Elvin would be done with medical school after just starting a scant year or two earlier is preposterous. Then there is the equally ridiculous earlier episode of how Denise and Martin can't afford even a craphole of an apartment in Brooklyn. Isn't Martin an officer in the Navy? Can't Cliff and Claire cosign a loan for them, too? And what's the deal with Grandpa Huxtable showing up in just about every episode in the final season? His character is not nearly as interesting as Cosby thinks and works better as strictly an occasional visitor to the Huxtable home - much like his wife, Anna, who is rarely and inexplicably seen with her beloved Russell in these episodes.
The jazz shows are the all time WORST episodes. Whose idea was it to put all these together in one boooooring weekend? Yikes!
Like so many people who have posted here, I grew up watching TCS, and, as a kid, I found it to be funny. In reruns, though, several things bother me. 1) Cousin Pam, who we weren't even given a chance to know and like over the years TAKES OVER THE SHOW! 2) Olivia. I'm not going to hold it against Raven Symone, she was just a little kid, but geez! 3) I went to college for a time, got good grades, and then decided it wasn't for me. So I ended up going to (and completing) broadcasting school. Now, I am a housewife and mother who is an independent music artist. I'm only known locally, and my full-time (in the most literal sense of the word) job doesn't even pay. But I'm HAPPY, and I don't appreciate that Cosby & co. tried so hard to make people who didn't go through college feel small. That's why I liked Denise for most of her time on the show. She had her own way of doing things. 4) My husband is a lawyer, and he doesn't have the time to hang around the house all day. He works his butt off during the week, just so he can have a weekend with me and our 3 month old son. Of course, maybe that changes when you've been at it awhile. (He only graduated law school a few years ago) I doubt it, though.
Like many, I agree that this show jumped the shark with the addition of cousin Pam. BUT- I cannot believe some of the mean-spirited posts that have been written about this show. From the ones that I have read, it seems painfully clear, that the poster(s) are obviously uncomfortable with a program in which (1)African-Americans are portrayed intelligently (2) Are not poor and downtrodden (3)Are actually PROUD of their heritage and not whining about how their lives suck compared to whites or are fawning over them while singing the praises of Western culture. I find this particularly transparent with regard to the posters who decided to comment on the afro-centric hairstyles and who bemoaned the idea of the historically black colleges being represented on the program. For all of its minor faults, The Cosby Show is the ONLY show ever produced that even attempted to depict African-Americans in a positive light. It gave hope to kids like me who lived in the ghetto, and showed us that an authentic African-American life does not necessarily entail drugs, crime, moral depravity or any of the other things whites have ascribed to African-Americans. It will always be the number 1 show in America in my book. I am not surprised at how so many think that Friends or Seinfeld are the quintessence of Comedy with their all WHITE casts and scripts that are written with the idea that African-Americans do not exist to perturb their existence.
To the previous poster: The fact that the Huxtables were black and portrayed in a positive light really isn't an issue. The issue is that this show had a definite agenda and Cosby's lack of subtlety regarding this agenda is the true shark jumper. The heavy-handed, almost incessant messages and preach parties regarding education for starters. From the over-the-top, overkill Hillman commencement to the character sabotage of Denise for dropping out of Hillman among countless other examples already talked about here. Then there is the sanctimonious attitude and general aura of pretention that permeates from the Cosby Show. The we-are-better-than-you-because-we-have-advanced-college-degrees-and-make-lots-of-money attitude that seems to progressively worsen toward the later seasons. What is made even more abundantly clear is that the only two "acceptable" professions that don't rake in the big bucks are that of a teacher, military officer and, of course, jazz musician. If "positive light" means downright snobby, snooty, self-important, arrogant and pretentious characters then you can take the Cosby Show.
I have not read one good comment on Pam. She wasn't that bad. Everyone's comments about her were negative. I admit I was wondering and narrowing my eyes when I saw her and thought about her "Why is she here?" But that's it. She didn't make the show jump the shark. She was just a regular new character. She was pretty, bright, and intelligent. So what if she came from the ghetto? It's not her fault she's from the ghetto. She was a good character. She didn't take up too much space on the show.
Great show initially, even with that switch from 4 kids to 5. One thing that annoyed me, though, was Coz was so socially conscious that too many episodes focused on Cliff's eating habits and Claire's warnings about colesterol got to be preachy. Yeah, it was funny to see him get caught trying to put a slice of pie back, but that got old. And the episode where the men had the babies was one of the funniest things on TV at that time. But when all these new kids started showing up, I think the show lost its identity. Elvin and Saundra were okay, but did we have to have a second daughter - who didn't quite fit into her own spinoff series A Different World - come back with a husband, then a cousin moved in. It got to be too much. I still watch some of the reruns, but not faithfully.
The dieting crap. Cliff is a doctor and the husband/father of the family. If he wants a damn piece of pie or a burger once ina while, let him have it! And if he cannot, how much love is the family showing their father when they give him a bowl of limp salad (without dressing of course, oh no!), when they all sit down to a greasy, hot, fried chicken dinner at the same table. It really burned me that they man could not eat what he wanted, he paid for half the food didn';t he? But what made it worse was Claire eating everything, without taking Cliff into account.
The Cosby Show jumped the shark when the producers started focusing on new people, aka people we actually don't care about. (Think Sandra and her hubby Elvin, Claire's sister, that gawd-awful Pam, Denise and her husband and don't get me started on that dang Olivia. I'm leaving "Bud" off the list because at least he was good for a chuckle or two.
To all the above posters who are extremely critical of this show, you must realize one thing. It is just TV. There are going to be slight exaggerations going on. If the show was based on reality (for example my life or any other typical American) it would REALLY be boring. Overall the Cosby Show was one of the best TV shows of all time. I definitely think it was one of the best shows for African Americans. Prior to Cosby look what we as African Americans had to look at. The WHITE SAVIOR for poor Project kids, Diffrent Strokes. The GOOD TIMES, Project Dwellers. The JIVE talking Flip Wilson show as well as many other negative shows which made us look like buffoons. Give me a break! That was one thing I loved about Cosby. There wasn't any buffoonery. Being a product of a mother and father who both have Graduate Degrees I can totally relate to a lot of the subject matters presented here. I don't think that Cos or Claire were putting down anyone who didn't go to school, however I do think, as with most parents, that they expect a lot from their children. Most parents EXPECT their kids to do better than they did. WHAT IS WRONG WITH HAVING HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR YOUR CHILDREN. Enough Preaching, I thought this show jumped the Shark as soon as it became apparent to Cos that the kids were growing up and not leaving the house. For example, Elvin and Sandra moving back home with their kids. Pam and Olivia moving in. If this continues Cos and Claire will be taking care of children well into their geriatric years.
Someone slips a joint in Theo's book. That right there had be one of the dumbest episodes I've ever seen. And Bill's trying to tell the kid that HE has a problem. He's not the boy's father. That Stevie Wonder epsode is interesting. I haven't watched it in years. I can remember Stevie recording Bill's voice, but were they actually together during that part. I don't think they were. Didn't he drop them off at the studio or something? Help me out.
This was a great show. This is Cosby as a regular guy - not the arrogant, preachy jerk that he would later become on the terrible '80's "Cosby Show". The above posts pointed out some funny episodes so I won't repeat it here but on this show Cosby was funny as hell, and subtle - a trait he would lose later on. Other than "I Spy", this is the best he has done on television.
The show jumped the shark in the episode where Cliff, Martin, Elivin abd Theo got pregnant. How the heck it was possible. Puberty did not take a natrual in this stage of the game. And did anyone notice what they got out of their Stoamch? I did, and it was pretty unusual.
The Cosby Show never jumped the shark. I mean, sure they might've been overdoing it when they added more characters to the cast(example: Olivia, Pam, Elvin, Martin, etc) but this was a very funny show throughout its entire run. In fact, I thought Raven Symones introduction as Olivia was very cute. She brought a new vibe to the show. She was just like Rudy in her early years. Whatever funny thing she did in various episodes, I was laughing my head off. I remember one episode where she accidently put her crayon in the washing machine and Cliff later discovered it by trying to scare her out of her hiding place by pretending to be a ghost. Another funny moment from her run in the show was when Olivia was watching a kids show and she was making a phone call to a 900 number for a joke she was seeing on that show and Cliff discovered it and told her not to make any more calls that would raise up the phone bill. I was laughing my head off at that too. I'll flash back to before Olivia came into the picture and post a very confused but funny episode where Denise meets a guy she talks to on the phone and they set up a date together. However, she met a guy who was actually Cliffs hospital assistant and mistook her for her date. Shortly after Cliff and his assistant left, her real date showed up. That was such a funny episode. I still laugh at it up to this day.
I like the show but there are "shark-jumping" moments: 1) The Cosby Show "jumped the shark" when Cosby brought Theo's refrigerator over. It seemed like all the stories Cosby told afterward, that Theo was being that "classic screw up" from one of the comments I've heard from other people. I mean, since theo screwed up in high school, the last episode should be based on him dropping out of high school. AND ANYWAY, HOW ON EARTH THEO GOT TO COLLEGE WITH BAD GRADES TO START WITH? THIS SHOULD BE CARTOONIZED SINCE THIS IS NOT REALISTIC. 2) In a later episode Cliff tries to narrow Vanessa's social life by saying she should read, not go to the mall, searching for boys. It's like Cliff's real life was basically that, and he wanted to be an actor for this show because he read books that the series was based on. It could be possible, but rare. 3) When Vanessa lied to her parents just to go to Baltimore to see a forbidden concert. Clair gets so angry, especially when she hears that the house Vanessa stayed at was on fire, and nobody was in there, or getting hurt. Then she heard of some stolen car, which linked to the place the liar and her friends really were at. Vanessa apologizes, and says would not happen again. But the parents, especially Clair, declined to believe her. 4)I have nothing else to say about the show now, I really think this show RULZ. That "SD" pin is not really distracting. I do not believe I ever saw it except for maybe yesterday
Elvin was the first shark I seen.. Was he a punk or what? Now this is a show I really didnt want to shark but for reasons only I can comprehend I must. All was well and fine when they were young Theo after Bill Cosby was the star of that show and then surprisingly a Young Vanessa was quite funny too. Who didnt want to grow up in their household they always had plenty of food and money and they had friends over all the time. Shark sighting Rudy starts growing up and is just plain annoying. Once Theo went to college the luster was off the show. The whole thing with Theo was that he was such a below average student his trials and tribulations became a source of strength for the show.Last but not least in no particular order...Olivia,the twins Winnie & Nelson,Denise moving back home,Cousin Pam these odd characters took all the fun out of the show. Too many individuals that the tv viewer didn't care about.
Personally, I think that Olivia was a successful way of keeping the show afloat. It was that evil Pam who made the show jump the shark. If she was such a close relative, then why the heck haven't we seen her in the previous episodes? I'm sure that the writers could have thought of something better than HER. She was stupid, so she was taught by the "intellectual" Theo... sheesh...
Didn't Jump. This was a very good show. This is the Cosby of the 60's - not the arrogant, stuffy, know-it-all Cosby of "The Cosby Show". Cosby, in this particular vehicle, played one Mr. Chet Kincaid, a school teacher. I can't remember too many episodes, but there was one where Kincaid's birthday is coming up and he thinks his family and friends are going to give him a big surprise party. Kincaid thinks he's on to them and he spends the whole show going from one place to the next, trying to get people to confess and say they are in on this big surprise party. Of course, at the end of the show, Kincaid discovers there was no party, and one was never planned. His mother just gave him a gift and some cake. Excellent show. Too bad it wasn't on longer.
Oh come on! I can't believe I'm the first one to say this. Claire Huxtable was the most annoying t.v. character to EVER grace a program. She was always right about everything...even when she was wrong. This premise started out as cute when she and Bill got into disagreements, but quickly became annoying. She would just give him that "don't mess with me look" and it was all over. This wouldn't have been a problem, but she was this way until the series ended. Shallow acting should be a crime.
The episode when Cliff has the tap dancing challenge with the skinny old dude with Coke-bottle glasses is absolutely hilarious. Cosby's delievery is unbelievable in that scene. The old dude beat Cliff, but Cliff would have flexed on him on the Pa-tonk court.
This show sunk under the immense weight of Cosby's ego. This was still an excellent show, few shows were this funny while having completly clean humor. This show also meant so much to black viewers finally seeing a wealthy black family on TV. Cosby started to get all self important and stopped being as funny. All the Afro-centric stuff got tired since they started off as a very normal upper class black family. Preachy shows never make good television, but Cliff began to get overbearing in promoting education and being wealthy over just having a working class job. It was ok at the beginning, because we could see Bill Cosby was just playing a character, but when it became apparent that he wanted this to be a vessel for promoting education, the show got a bit hard to take at times. The show went stale when Raven came aboard. She was an adorable little girl, but terrible for the show, way too stiff and mannered. Family Guy's skit where Theo was trying to tell his dad that he got a girl pregnant while Cliff was mugging and making funny voices hit the nail right on the head. Best one was another episode where Stewie was on Kids Say The Darndest Things, and he said "this show should be called Old Black Comedians Who Never Shut the Hell Up."
When Cliff and Claire become self-important egomaniacs as supposed "pillars of the community" and act like they have all of the wisdom and advice to offer people on subjects completely unrelated to their respective professions. Meg Foster plays a colleague of Claire that is having marital problems so rather than seeking the advice of a professional marriage counselor, Meg invites her husband to have a group counseling session with all knowing lawyer Claire - and in Claire's office no less. Later, one of the Landers sisters plays the daughter of Jake of Jake's Appliance Store. Out of the blue, the Landers gal solicits Cliff for guidance with some ongoing family feud dispute. She then makes a special visit with her husband to Cliff's in-home doctor's office. Why would either situation be presented to Cliff or Claire to solve? It is painfully obvious that both "problems" were silly gratuitous contrivances that any half-brained "unprofessional" type could solve in 5 minutes (which, of course, they both do). Yes, we are so impressed with your intellect Cliff and Claire!!!
I loved the Cosby Show. But they could have had a nice easy out when they kids grew up. Rudy wasn't cute anymore.. and she had a mustashe. Vanessa was getting married to Daveness ( whatever his damn name was) Theo was had smarts, and who knows what Denis was doing and do we care.. NO. They had to many kids in the house.. a gaceful end would be to exclude the cousin Pam bit.
The moment this show JTS was the moment they put Raven-Symone on camera. It's extremely obvious that she was trained to act "cute"(as someone previously posted). I hated how she got so much air time on the show yet almost every time they showed her it had nothing to do with the storyline of the episode (I loved how someone pointed out how she dressed like a midget clown). They also gave a lot of air time to Cousin Pam (where in hell did she come from?) who's mere presence was aggravating an already bad situation. I mean seriously, they should have just renamed it the "Pam & Olivia Show" at that point. Also, I hated how the parent ALWAYS had to get into their grown kids business, Like when Denise came back from Africa married and with a stepdaughter (not the best move on the writers part). What the heck can the parents do? She is a grown adult! Or when Theo wanted to go on an archaeological dig in Egypt and he had to asked his parents for permission?!? I mean understand that he needs their financial backing but he doesn't need their permission, he's in college for God's Sake! Also, I read what was posted about how the men on the show were belittled constantly. This is 100% true. I am writing this as a young female and I find it disgusting. If it were the other way around (being that the women were being brought down) Cosby would have so many Women groups up his ass it wouldn't even be funny. It is becoming a sad double standard in this country, but I feel that neither gender should be brought down just for the sake of a joke that really isn't funny anyway. And is it me or are Cliff and Claire just down right mean to those kids sometimes? If they were my parents....well let me tell you the moment I moved out of that house I would tell both of them off. On a sidenote, I noticed that three of the children stars in this show have grown up and starred in other sitcoms, The first one, I'm sure you already know, that damn Raven is the star (ugh, I really can't stand her) of an original Disney channel series "That's So Raven." Next we have Kenny, who starred in "Sister, Sister" as Tamera's boyfriend Jordan. Lastly, we have little Nelson who stars as, guess who......Nelson! He plays Ren's I'm-allergic-to-everything-imagible childhood pal on the Disney channel series "Even Stevens."
I watched the final episode again recently. It was rather bittersweet knowing that the character of Theo was based on Cosby own son. I actually cried! I absolutely loved that "BBBBBuuuudddd's" quote from his brother was actually profound. I still hate Sondra - and aren't the writer's embarressed they named the kids Nelson and Winnie? That held up well.
The finale - Theo's graduation. Yes, graduating from college is a big deal especially for former moron and now Rhodes scholar material Theo. BUT ... it's not like Theo invented penicillin or anything. He is receving a liberal arts bachelor's degree. I hardly think the occasion is remarkable enough that 30+ people (particularly those that are not immediate family) would care that much to want to attend the commencement ceremony. And since when are tickets required for graduations? Not one that I've ever attended. This is a graduation, most of which are snoozers like the Hillman episode, not a Beetles concert! (Maybe in Cosby's fantasy world it is.)
i think the cosby show jts when olivia came on-she tried to take rudy's spot-i dont think it matters that rudy grew up-i mean everyone does-rudy was still the baby of the family-plus olivia was not funny-she was also very fresh and needed a spanking-sorry if i sound lyk a mom
Jumped with the miscasting of Claire and Russell "Grandpa" Huxtable. Phylica Rashad (born 1948) is eleven years younger than Cosby and Earle Hyman (born 1926)is 11 years older than Cosby. Phylicia was way too young to be playing Cosby's wife especially considering she had a baby during the show's run when Claire was supposed to be 46 around that same time and already had grown children. This is the reason for all of the disingenuous dialogue regarding Claire looking so good for her age - she wasn't that old!!! She could have been Sondra's older sister (Sabrina Lebeauf only 10 years younger than Phylicia!). Same with Russell who looks more like Cliff's older brother rather than his father. In the later seasons, it's very apparent that Cosby was starting to show his age and couldn't get away with it like they had before, so they started giving Phylicia these godawful hairdos to make her look the real age of Claire.
This totally LEAPED when Dr. "I am Never at Work and all of my patients are miraculously black ,Asian, or Hispanic: Huxtable started wearing all those stupid college T-shirts and sweatshirts. Take a memo Cliff: wearing the name of 1,000 different colleges across your chest doesn't make you any more intelligent-it just makes you annoying.
To the person(s) who said that the show jumped when Rudy got older and wasn't cute anymore, wouldn't people be creeped out if they saw a 12-year old acting like a six-year old? I think that they stopped Rudy being cute at the right time. Just in time.
The show never JTS. It kept introducing new charaters like Olivia and Pam. The Cosby Show would get real boring if the same characters did the same things over and over again. Sure, the first few episodes where the best, but that doesn't mean the later ones are worth critique. The Cosby Show was one of the greatest sitcoms ever made. It was the "I Love Lucy" of modern times. All the characters had chemistry. They all had distinctive characteristics and worked well with each other. Such characteristics are lacking in today's shows. The Cosby Show will live forever for future generations to enjoy.
I agree with so many of the comments previously posted, it would take forever to list them all. As a black man growing up in a middle class family, and my father was a HUGE fan of the show, The Cosby show was not just a TV show, it was an event. I must admit I looked forward to this show every Thursday night. But the how, IMO, jumped after the second season. The first season was classic and Cosby was on its way to being one of the truly great sitcoms in TV history. The second season, though not as good as the first, was still very good. By the third, I could see the show was headed downhill fast. By the middle of the third season I stopped watching regularly, by the start of the fourth I wasn't watching at all. I saw some of the eps after Lisa Bonet came back with the husband and stepchild, but the show just stopped being funny by then. Bill Cosby should be commended for presenting a TV show with a black cast without the usual stereo types associated with shows like Good Times, The Jeffersons, and others. But he forgot the key component in making a sitcom, IT SHOULD BE FUNNY. The show just became unwatchable some time around season 4. I put this show with Happy Days as a potentially classic sitcom, that slid faster and farther than any other show. Sorry Cos.
I don't think this show EVER jumped the shark. Sure, they had their week episodes, but for the most part, this show is great from start to finish. Admittedly, Pam was not that great a character, but she didn't ruin the show.
William Cosby, EdD.... Anyone who has ever worked in a classroom knows that a doctorate in education is the most worthless piece of paper ever created. An EdD means this: At one time, you were interested in being a teacher. Once you got to that level, you realized that you hated it and/or were no good at it. You then returned to college, where a bunch of professors who know nothing about teaching will teach you, and you will get your advanced degrees. Then, you can look down your nose at the hardworking teachers who actually give a s**t and stay in the classroom because now you are A DOCTOR OF EDUCATION!! Don't be fooled by titles, people! And Elvin was the biggest sissypants nancyboy POO-SAY to ever grace a TV screen.
I love this show. I watch it in reurns on Nick at Nite. I think it was a groundbreaking show, finally breaking the stereotypes of blacks and showing that they can be affluent in America. And for about the first 4 seasons it was really at its best. the show wasn't unrealistic as some skeptics always brand it. In fact, in the episodes of seasons 1 and 2, alot of them can be based in reality (not all of them, but a very good amount). Rudy was the adorable 4 year old, while Vanessa seemed to have sort of of Jan Brady-middle-child complex. Theo seemed to be an everyday Joe although he was a bit of a bad student. Denise was the rebellious free spirit of the house, and seemed to be the "Black Sheep" of the family (with her cool fashion and attitude), which gave a bit more intrigue than the rest of the family. Theo and Denise were always my favorite and were the realest kids on the show. The only one I never really liked was Sondra. They really added her on as a last minute decision, seeing that Cliff and Clair needed a child to represent what they were trying to enforce : education. This, the fact that she was the symbol of education, was a little annoying. She always came home just to spout out unneccesary psychological crap out at 80 mph ad nauseum, most of the time never having a clue of what she was talking about. If she's so smart, then why'd she move into that rundown apartment with Elvin? A Princeton girl should've known better. Anyway, around the time Denise left for college, the show had lost something. Denise added a sex appeal and colorful energy to the show, and at times it seemed as if it needed an adrenaline shot. Then in the 6th season, it happened. The show nearly took a 180/ For me, even though i can still watch the episodes from the last 3 seasons, the show clearly jumped the shark. Denise came back with a husband and Olivia, that was just needed to spit our precocious lines and be "cute" (in my opinion, Rudy was a cuter child and her lines came naturally, while Olivia's were a bit more forced), Theo became Mr. Intelligence, and the show's writing dimmed.it went from an innovative show to a show where men become pregnant and Muppets run lose, two of the epsidoes I find unbearable to watch to this day. About Pam, I don't think she neccesarily hurt the show, but she really didn't help it either. I think that if you want to see TCS at it's best, see seasons 1-3, and possibly season 4.
I haven't a racist bone in my body, and feel I have to preface my comment by saying that. However, later into the show, is it me or was everyone either paying tribute to a dead or near death jazz musician, wearing a turban and African jewelry, or otherwise highlighting something or someone as though every month were Black History Month? Granted, there is nothing wrong with a person expressing PC concepts or pride in their race, but I was more interested in the Cosbys and the comedy they provided the first couple of seasons, and not Bill's soap box. If I wanted that, I would have taken up reading about civil rights issues and afrocentricism.
OK let me get this straight. Cliff is a highly respected and venerated OBGYN in Brooklyn with umpteen years of experience examining countless pregnant women and delivering countless babies and yet he doesn't even suspect, let alone know just by looking at her, that Sondra is going to deliver more than one baby!
Never jumped. Yeah, it was PC. Yeah, Raven Simone is awful, and has only gotten worse with age (have you seen her new show? *shudder*). And I wasn't a big fan of Cousin Pam (where did she come from!?). But even with all that, the show remained sweet and funny until the end. It goes beyond that, though. A lot of people criticize Bill Cosby for showing a "white-washed" version of life as a black person, and to a certain extent that't true. But they're missing the point. As a white kid growing up in the 80s, Bill Cosby WAS my dad. That is, he was the prototypical image of a perfect father, much like Ward Cleaver was to my parents' generation. The fact that my Ward Cleaver was black may not be a civil rights milestone, but I think it DID have an impact. Whatever else Cosby may have done, at least he can be proud of that. Even if Raven Simone IS awful.
The Cosby Show jumped the shark twice. The first time back in `89 when they brought in Raven Symone to the show for the cute little kid factor. IT DID NOT WORK. Instead of being cute, she was sickening and made me stop watching. Now it's bad enough that she was on there and thay had those dumbass episodes like the men giving birth to sandwiches, and 2 liter sodas but they still had a couple of good episodes. The last good episode Cosby had was the episode where Vanessa and her friends snuck off to a concert in Baltimore and when Clair finds out and her and Cliff bring her home, Clair yells at her almost to the point of cursing her out. The second shark jump was when they bought in Pam in the next season. She was worse than Raven (how could that happen). But by that time, the Simpsons moved to the 8:00/7:00 time slot and took my attention away from Cosby. The show should have ended in `90 because they would have been much better off if they did.
This show jumped shark for a lot of reasons. I picked the departure of Denise as the main reason though. Denise was the only Huxtable kid that wasn't bland and boring. She really left a hole in the show when she left. Why did stupid Bill Cosby think anyone wanted to see perfect kids with perfect parents? In many ways, this show is worse than Leave It To Beaver in his unrealistic way they behave. Also, Claire and Cliff were bad parents. They tried to force their kids to be exactly like them and be perfect. It just proves how WRONG they were when almost all the kids ended up moving back home with them. Then when they did move back home, Cliff would constantly tell them to get out and stop eating their food. If one of my parents ever talked to me like that, I would be really hurt and when I did get back on my feet, I would have nothing to do with them for being so cruel. I also hated how this show would do a very special black history moment for no apparent reason. For example, how Martin Luther King was mentioned every 6th episode. He might have been a great man but I don't think mentioning him on a sitcom was needed. How many white shows mention white role models for no apparnet reason? That's right, they don't because that would be racist. The addition of Olivia was a bad mistake too and Pam was also stupid. I hated Pam's friends too.
Bill Cosby owes me money. I had to buy 100 different television sets to get the right color/hue/vertical/horozontal/tint to adjust my set to Bill's awful sweaters.
When Olivia was born. Vanessa brought home her unexpected fiance. Cliff got old. Rudy became an older girl.
Phylicia Rashad looking like a wide-eyed, grinning and toothy jack-o'-lantern 95% of the time. The actress that plays no-nonsense Charmain looking, sounding and acting like a teenage version of Florence on the early years of the Jeffersons. Grandpa Huxtable's Elizabethan accent mysteriously heard on the MacBeth record album of Theo and Cockroach. Need I say more??
Cosby JTS when I heard Vanessa's 'fro was being considered as the eighth wonder of the world.
The episode where they hauled that old-as-the-hills bat "Gram Tee" out of some ghastly, haunted sepulcher so Cosby could treat us with 20 minutes of torture as Gram Tee pours on that Civil War-era heavy handed (this is The Cosby Show after all) yet folksy charm informing us all of the virtues of education. Then we're all treated to sheer boredom for another 10 minutes while a Gladys Knight sound alike with a multi-ethnic gospel choir sing praises to now 500-year old Gram Tee in a church she clearly would not have even attended let alone know anyone besides the Huxtables since she didn't even live there!
When Denise went to college is when the show jumped the shark. Let's be real. After that the SEX appeal for the show was gone. However, the reason to keep watching was still intact. Bill Cosby was the only reason to watch NBC back in the 80's. The guy kicked ass in a way never seen before. He loved to fatass on sandwiches, which made his legend grow in the sandwich organizations across the county. My favorite show was when Clair was attemping to keep him from eating so damn much unhealthy food, anyway Bill had himself a GIANT SUB and topped it with some salty potato chips. - Talk about greatness, this guy could totally fatass with the best of 'em. Cosby ruled, rules, and shall rule.
The show jumped when Pam was broght into the house. What made it worse was the horrendous girl that played her best friend. The final season seemed to focus more on Pam and her friends then anyone else in the family. Oh yeah, Elvin was pretty much a ********* as well.
The show was pretty consistently good, but some of it was hard to watch. I stopped watching all together when cousin Pam and her group of ridiculous friends came on the scene. Damn, they should have just canceled that season.
What's with all of the incessant apple juice drinking on The Cosby Show? Did Cos own stock in Treetop or something? I find it hard to believe that Cliff and Claire are so wholesome as to not drink any alcohol EVER. Only Vanessa expermiments with the wild side of booze and quickly learns her lesson of this evil. Also, the Cosby kids are all goody two shoes (unbelievable for the time and context) and never seriously consider, let alone take up, premarital sex (except for Pam but she was a non-Huxtable ghetto girl), smoking or any other "vice" that most teenagers and young adults consider. I think Bill Cosby inadvertently reached a new TV threshold - The Huxtables were TV's first black Mormon family!
Bill Cosby himself said that a sitcom has maybe five good years of life and that's about it. Too bad he didn't follow his own advice and end the Cosby show on the fifth year. By season four the show was wearing thin, by season five it should have been given the boot. So what happened in season six? Denis returns from Africa with a husband and that little spoiler Olivia. Theo is dyslexic Cliff dreams he's pregnant Enter the bluesmen and the deathnail?....The Simpsons Cosby joked that the Simpsons was a big nothing to him. How long has the Simpsons been on the air? Humble pie...it's bitter and tough.
Probably the best argument for not building a sit-com around children. Saw it first run in the 80s, but stopped watching once I joined the Army. Didn't see it in reruns until my daughter decided to start watching it on Nick at Nite. Very hard to take, so I successfully weaned her off of this show. Maybe I'm too critical, but where exactly is the love in this show? As far as I'm concerned, there is more love in The Honeymooners, The Odd Couple, Bonanza, and any number of other truly classic TV shows. Think about it - is there ever a tender moment when the parents tell the kids how much they love them despite their failings? Do the kids ever tell each other how much they love each other? As for the laughs, they really seem forced twenty years after the fact. I suppose all shows deserve to be criticized in the context of the era in which they were produced, not the era in which they are seen in reruns. That said, there were some laughs in the first season. Cliff is listening to a recording of jazz pianist Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson and Theo asks him what is this junk? Cliff says Cleanhead Vinson - the man is a genius! At what? Theo asks Cliff. what?
Cliff and Claire getting all hot and heavy for each other at the conclusion of at least 1 out of every 3 episodes (no exaggeration if you watch consistently) after 25+ years of marriage and raising 5+ kids. PLEASE! It's amazing they didn't have 20 kids the way these 2 got on. Also, Cliff and Claire leisurely sitting around the house when they both are supposed to have very demanding careers. The earlier episodes did a better job occasionally showing Cliff and Claire realistically frazzled, but by the last season it's almost like the writers forgot that Cliff and Claire still had jobs!
The episode with Danny Kaye as the dentist was the funniest episode ever, with Danny and Bill mugging at each other to relax one of Bill's god-knows-how-many-daughters enough to sit still for her first check-up. Great show. Therefore everything after that had to be down hill.
I'm shocked that no one pointed out that Cockroach was fired off the Cosby show because he wanted to grow his hair out and refused a haircut. Because of this, he was immediately X'd out Cosby Show with no explanation; this also happened to Theo's other friends as well (THe Geek that looks like Raj for What's Happening also got a exit stage left when his high top fade grew past 5 inches. Adam Sandler and the Puerto Rican kid from 227 in the early years exited right before teh Alvin Ailey Years because of haircare. Other Cosby Kids friends got the boot as well (we all remember peter...before there was BUDDD there was Peter...his mommy refused to trim him up like the youngest son from Eight Is Enough as we never saw him after Cockroach left either). So yes Bill Cosby definetely was on some Ozzie Nelson bullcrap with being a clean cut all American boy on his show, and as you see, only clean shaven, short hair cut people stayed. ALSO NOTE: The season that Theo went to Africa he was rarely seen because he died his hair Red and grew the braid in the back of his hair (as were most people of that era) and Cosby only fetured him in 2 of that season's episodes. When we saw him again, he was clean shaven and back to his own hair color.
When Theo and Cockroach are yelled at for doing Shakespeare in the Living Room!
This show jumped when Claire absolutely ripped Vanessa apart for going to the concert without permission, and Cliff standing by and doing absolutely nothing. Not only was it the worst case of overacting I ever saw (Claire, that is), but also it was unrealistic and downright verbal abuse. I think after she's done yelling her and Cliff have a calm chat as if nothing happened. To this day, I lost all respect for Phylicia Rashad as a performer.
I've finally figured out The Cosby Show. It's not supposed to be real, but an ideal. It's no more a show of a typical African American family than the Brady Bunch was about two step families trying to be one family. The fact that it's about an African American family means nothing, it's as absurd trying to be real as any family of any nationality. Mom and Dad are lawyer and doctor. How is it that they are always home? With such a large family and two very good incomes, why don't they as least have a housekeeper a la the Brady's like Alice - and Carol Brady didn't even work except for the odd charity group on occasion. The show was actually quite good the first season or two. The first family "music" performance, Denise and boyfriend singing regae music with the TV, while Cliff is trying to find peace and quiet in the house, and Cosby's endearing interactions with Rudy and friends, to name a few. A personal problem I had was about the snacks. Everytime someone wanted a snack it was always juice in a pitcher (6 people in the house, yet someone always had time to put juice in the pitcher?) or fruit. It seems the only one who got to eat anything else was Cliff (when Clair allowed it). Another peeve is when Vanessa was dating Dabnis. Yes he was a maintenance man (but head of maintenance) and he had a house, savings, served in the army, churchgoing man, close to his family and was actually a good catch. To really make it interesting, he should have been a struggling maintenance man with little posessions and no ambition, then we'd see how much Cliff and Clair would have not approved - not simply because Vanessa was too young but you find out that they really are elitest snobs. All in all, the fact that I can still watch and enjoy it says something; sort of like the same sort of camp value that the Brady's had. In years to come, it will be interesting to see if there will be parodies of the show, like the "real Brady Bunch".
Slogging through the numerous season 2 and 3 episodes which focus on Denise deciding on, preparing for and eventually leaving for Hillman (in preparation for 'Different World') is irritating, painful and downright embarrassing considering we all know what a loser Denise ends up being at the end of the show. Even 10 years later on the Cosby reunion, Phylicia Rashad predicted that Denise would be living in a trailer park now. No wonder Lisa Bonet wanted nothing to do with it.
Cliff had the dream where all the men were pregnant and went into labor and Theo gave birth to a car and Martin gave birth to something else and then Cliff gave birth to a HUGE sub sandwich. He woke up and it was all just a dream. That was Grade A jump the shark material right there.
Look, I don't care what your views on women's liberation are. The topic of menstruating for the first time does not belong anywhere near a sitcom. It also doesn't belong anywhere near a drama, crime drama, adventure, documentary, infomercial or even a 15 second ad. It's gross, natural though it may be. So is afterbirth for that matter. Should we have a sitcom episode about afterbirth too? Now that this male chauvanist pig has had his say, menstruation, even if it wasn't gross and inappropriate for family sitcoms, simply isn't funny or entertaining. Most women I know dread it, and most men I know don't want to discuss it, so why force this crap on us? Christ Bill, you're a man! Act like it. That crap would never be in any sitcom my name was attached to. I realize this a "wonderful, natural time in a woman's reproductive life", but save it for a Tampax commercial. It's just not funny. It was the reason I never watched Roseanne, a decision I have never regretted, and the reason I stopped watching this, which is now totally unwatchable in reruns.
I used to think this show was hilarious. When it was on NBC I laughed and laughed. Then it went off the air. I was sad. But I moved on. However, then, well actually probably before it was off the air, the show went into syndication. Then it was on ALL THE TIME! Nick at nite seems to think people would like this show if it was on 15 times a night! Give me a break! The show has had so much overkill lately, I cant even watch it. Its too bad that the show has been ruined by all this overexposure.
I dont know what the hell is wrong with you people! The Cosby Show absolutely rocked. Yes there were bad parts after reading all your attacking, demeaning entries. Yes Elvin was rather sensitive. Yes Clair was bossing Cliff around about his eating habits and finances and decision makings. Yeah a wifes opinion should count just not shutting down the husband all the time. Elvin and Sondra were the sensitive type couple but hey they were cool. Yes Lisa Bonet and the Cos off-camera had a not so budding relationship. And we all know Theo went from dumbass to graduating successfully to Rudy growing up (Keshia Knight Pulliam sure as heck looks good now!) and Vanessa being that pestering kid in the shows beginning episodes. But over the 8 years of its run (part of which I wasnt alive for), it had something called DRAMA! There was a lot of drama. It has up and downs esp a show running long like that. As for those additional unimportant characters. Pam wasnt so bad but her gossipy, fast talking friend made me puke. The eps that involved she and her friends werent interesting. Olivia- yeah had somewhat of a bad mouth and was a pain. Speaking of fast talkers, yeah Vanessa's friend Cara annoyed me to no end. All in all, I sound I'm saying negatives but all these characters made the show hilarious. It was funny. Vanessa sneaking off to Baltimore, where you expect her to sneak off to: Madison Square Garden? Something like that make it interesting and funny. Kids today would do that. Theo screwing up in the beginning and graduating very well- its called improvement over the years. And most important, its just television. Its not reality. And plus it wasnt like how most of us live now in the present. You hafta consider how far it goes back. And the main man the show, the Cos- he did a hell of a job with that show. He brought the show back in a time where TV was going down the drain. He got a lot of viewers for that show to become interested. I wish that show couldve continued beyond '92. Sure a show fades after a while, but this one did not. Imagine if it went ten years? Awesome. What would make the show even more dramatic is if all the kids (incl those that are parents) at the same time came moving back into Cliff and Clairs. That would absolutely make the show dramatic with Cliffs attempts to get them all out. All five of his children, his in-laws, grandchildren, steps, cousins, etc. basically Cos was a funny guy who was bringing the entertainment value back into television.
The Cosby Show was hands down one of the most overrated and terminally irritating programs of the 1980s and definitely makes my top ten list of the worst and most overrated television shows of all time. Bill Cosby is not the least bit funny and the show serves as little more than a forum for his shameless, annoying facial mugging and dumb stories. Why anyone with half a brain would like this show is something I'm still trying to figure out. Every year on The (Brain Dead) People's Choice Awards (another program I loathe), the producers would employ Army Archerd in an endless series of stupid publicity stunts to give Cosby another trophy that the mental simpletons who love this show voted to give him. Personally I'd like to see someone whack him with a shovel and see what kind of facial expressions he comes up with then.
The Cosby show jumped the shark several times after the 1st season, but when Phylicia Rashaad decided that the only way black women reacted to anything was with a roll of the eyes and a twist of the neck or a **** eating grin, I just couldn't take it anymore. Suffice it to say that the whole show sucked ass as soon as there was any talk about the Civil Rights movement, where the granparents droned on and on. The "I Have a Dream" episode, or any other episode where there was a moral lesson to be learned - NOT FUNNY. The absolute WORST show was the one where Rudy wants to wear a summer dress to a winter party. She goes on to ask the older kids if they have to ask permission to wear certain outfits after Mom tells her that she can't wear it. Long story short, they spent like five ****ing minutes with Rudy up in her room, looking sad, pensive, and dare I say mildly retarted while daning with the ****ing dress. The whole time they played a song by Ray Charles. Then, Theo starts to talk with like a lisp or something. Is that a side effect of being diagnosed with dyslexia in your twenties? Also, if he was so bad in high school, how did he get into NYU? Although we were led to believe that there were originally four kids, adding the fifth didn't bother me until she started showing up with Elvin. And finally, Olivia lip synching. Their first time, funny (when it was the whole family) the second time just proved that the writers were lazy.
The Cosby show jumped the shark when Pam was added to the cast. When a show starts adding characters just to boost ratings it is definitely time to call it quits.
This show was one of the best sitcoms ever b/c of the fact that it showed a rich black family, which was a rarity in the 80's (on TV atleast). Sure, people can whine and complain about Cliff and Claire staying home a lot and all that. BIG DEAL!!! A lot of shows have been like that where a parent who is supposed to have a job stays home all the time. Also, LAY OFF RAVEN!!!!!! Cosby was tanking before she came. The only reason they added her was b/c Rudy was getting old, I'll give you that. But, the character Olivia actually jump-started a dying show. So, in other words, instead of bashing Ms. Raven and saying that she's a new Ted McGinley, you should be thanking her that she basically helped "The Cosby Show" chug along for those last couple of years. She must have been a pretty damn good actress if she worked alongside Eddie Murphy and other big names. She has her own show, "That's So Raven" that I didn't like at first b/c I thought that the premise was hella stupid. I still think that, but seeing a familiar face on TV for the first time in several years is rather refreshing, so I quickly warmed up to it. So, in short, Raven did NOT cause "Cosby" or "Hanging with Mr. Cooper" to JTS. I also wish her luck in later projects that she may work on, including her singing career.
The episode where the family and requisite old coot of a coach sit around for about 15 minutes looking at about 25 video clips of Cliff playing basketball. 2 or 3 clips, OK - but they made these nonstop clips the cornerstone of the plot. Painfully BORING!! Talk about lazy writing. Can anyone please tell me what exactly the point of that episode was? So with this episode, the only sport where we don't here about Cliff's athletic prowess and triumphs is baseball. What? Lou Rawls wasn't available to play Cliff's coach?
This show jumped the shark when Raven came on. Her character was the most annoying child characters in the history of television. They tried to make her TOO cute. Also when they dump poor Denise off to college. To me, Denise was one of the most real teenage girl character on television. Usually they made teenage girls whiny, stupid, and annoying. But Denise was REAL! Sondra was too pretentious (especially after she gave birth to the twins), Vanessa was a complete dumbass, and Pam's friend Lance was more interesting. At least I did enjoy the Rudy-Stanley-Kenny triangle. I think Kenny made the show
When Martin informs Cliff, whom he barely knows on the episode in question, that Denise was a virgin on their wedding night. Not only was this juicy bit of information none of Cliff's business and, let's face it, unbelievable considering Denise's partying ways at Hillman, but if I were sponging off and trying to impress my brand new in-laws I think I would keep my big, fat trap shut about stuff like that. If I were Denise and found out that Martin had told my father I would have thrown his sorry ass along with his brat baby Olivia out on the street!!
It never jumped. This show was a classic. Anyone remember the very first episode when Theo brought home his report card and Cosby started talking to him on how his grades are gonna affect his life...so he brings out this Monopoly Money, gives Theo $300 a week and starts taking the money away when he explains about the government taking some of his money, then how he had to pay his bills, then how he has to get an apartment, get a car (then Theo counters by saying he would ride a motorbike to New Jersey) and for clothes, etc. There's another classic part when Theo was like "$200. So...no problem" and Cosby was like "There is a problem YOU HAVEN'T EATEN YET!!" and Theo was saying "I could live by Baloney and Cereal". In the end, Cliff asked his son "You getting a girlfriend?" and Theo said "For sure" and Cliff takes the remaining $200 and starts saying "Regular People". Another one of those classics was when after Theo makes that speech about wanting his parents to accept him for who he is even if he wants to be a regular person, Cliff stated "Theo, that's the most dumbest thing I ever heard. No wonder you're getting D's yadda yadda yadda... and you are going to try hard because I said so. I'm your father...I brought you in this world, and I can take you out!" Ho yeah, a true classic moment all right!
Olivia. Perfectly well-adjusted, happy-go-lucky and not to mention unbelievably precocious despite the fact that her real mother unceremoniously left her followed by Martin marrying the first dumb girl he could find (Denise) to be mommy while he takes off in the Navy for months at a time and later is dumped again in the last season when both Martin and Denise take off for Singapore and is left behind with Cliff and Claire.
This is to the comment above me. It wasn't Olivia's fault that she kept getting left. She didn't ask to be born, and didn't ask to be dumped two times. Once by her mother, Paula, and the other time by Martin and Denise.
This show first debuted when I was in the 6th grade and I really loved it. It was almost instantly the number 1 show in the country. It made NBC the number 1 network. (I think CBS had the crown for like 10 years straight or so.) My family couldn't wait to watch it every Thursday night. We talked about it all the time in school. Everyone was excited the year that it started running in re-runs in '88 or something, but the one thing I kept hearing over and over again was that "it wasn't a realistic portrayal of black people. Black families didn't have both parents working, especially a dad that was a doctor and a mom that was a lawyer." I say, who cares? It was a television show. A sitcom. I know this phrase has probably been uttered a million times on this site regarding various shows, but it has to be repeated, IT'S A TELEVISION SHOW. IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE REALISTIC! People complained so much to the point that Cosby decided to make it "blacker." In the beginning, it was just a show about a family that just happened to be black. I don't know what's wrong with that, but I guess it wasn't good enough for people so they started wearing African-styled clothing. Every other episode was about black history. At least that's how it seemed. And they introduced all these characters that nobody really cared about. In one season, they introduced Pam, the street-wise cousin. Denise's new husband from the military, and the little girl. And we were supposed to care about all of them. I guess. Well, I know I didn't. Not only those characters, but they felt the need to introduce all of these reoccuring characters that seemed to dominate the show each week (whatever happened to cockroach?) Hell, by the end of the show, a lot of the main storylines involved characters that weren't even on the show when it first aired. Cosby and Clair weren't even home half the time. This show was guilty of what a lot of shows have always been guilty of: changing things on us. Audiences, especially sitcom audiences, do not respond well to change. It's been documented countless times in the past. Of course, this show didn't seem to change because of creative bankruptcy, it appeared to change for different reasons.
When Olivia showed up. We didn't need her. She was not cute. And close second is more Sondra and Elvin. I never liked them, and their kids were annoying. The Nelson and Winnie twin names sure didn't stand up in light of what happened to that couple.
The show jumped when that dude started crying because his daughter was addicted to cocaine. A bumbling grown man in tears has no place on a sitcom. My dad used to yell and threaten us with his belt if he caught us watching Cosby, but now I realize he was protecting us from that insipid drivel.
The final season is simply unwatchable. First you have pontificating Theo strutting around as a school counselor saying he doesn't care about money (yeah, well since Theo never had to get a real PAYING job I can see why!). Then there are episodes focused exclusively on Pam and her gangbanging pals. Then an Olivia centered episode is thrown in here and there. Toss in some Dabnis and Vanessa drama and Sondra and Elvin buying a house (with no jobs to pay the mortgage, by the way), Denise vanishing a second time, Cliff proudly exclaiming the dated 1991 reference, "HAMMER TIME!!", as if it was brilliant comedy, topping it off with a horrendous hip-hop version of the theme song and that pretty much sums up this godawful season.
The Cosby Show jumped the shark as soon as Malcolm Jamal "CHEEKS" Warner started getting older, rocking flat-tops and glasses and his cheeks began to get bigger. Oh yeah, also when that guy Dabnes was shacking up with Vanessa Huxtable. At that point, the show got boring and more unrealistic. It really started to suck also when they stopped showing the little fat kid, "Peter", always running out of the house like a fat, little beeotch. Once again, the show sucked when "CHEEKS" got older and COCKROACH left.
I grew up in the 80's and the Cosby Show was a staple in my house every Thursday night. I really liked it. Even now, as an adult, I sometimes catch the reruns on Nick at Nite. I've noticed now that the show's characters got more obnoxious and stuck up as the seasons progressed. I find it really irritating that whenever the phone rings, they answer it "Huxtable residence". Who the hell does that? Why couldn't Cliff eat a hoagie if he wanted to? What exactly is a "bacon-burger-dog"? God bless youth and innocence.
How is it that Earle Hyman, who played Grandpa Huxtable, never was featured as a regular on the opening credits? I never realized until watching this show in syndication just how many episodes he's on ... and he's on A LOT of them throughout the entire run. He's on FAR more than Sondra, Elvin and Martin, all of which are featured at some point on the opening credits. Not that I'm a huge fan of folksy, salt-of-the-earth Grandpa and his boring, longwinded stories, but if Cosby was going to feature him as much as he did he deserved to be on the opening credits.
The Cosby Show jumped when the kids all reached puberty. Much like my own children, when young they are cute; once they reach middle school age, however, they are terrors!
It's very hard to pinpoint when this show jumped. There are easy answers, yes. The presence of Olivia and Pam and the ridiculous character changes of Denise and Theo are very compelling jump-the-shark moments. But really, those complaints seem somewhat trite when you compare them to the very DANGEROUS underlying messages in the Cosby show. I am appalled at those who see the show as anti-male!! Don’t you see that the poor treatment of males on that show is really indicative of a more upsetting theme? The show (and probably Cosby himself) is vehemently anti-FEMALE! Think about how ALL the women on that show are portrayed. They’re either flighty airheads (Denise, Pam, Vanessa) or domineering, controlling bitches (Claire, Rudy, Sondra). And then Cliff schools the men on the show on how to “deal” with women?!?! It’s completely disgusting! And the Theo character change is extremely disturbing, particularly after seeing that misogynist, Bill Cosby being interviewed on the True Hollywood Story and proclaimed, “Malcolm [Jamal-Warner] was [his] favorite.” Theo (the only son) is suddenly the only child worth anything in the later seasons, complete with the do-gooder attitude toward school and the community and the “nice” girlfriend. Clearly Cosby was playing favorites…with the only son! But that isn’t even the worst part. By far, the most dangerous message that the Cosby Show broadcasts (loud and clear, by the way) is that people—African Americans in particular—are in complete control of their own destinies. It seems to say that if only these kids “had it together” enough to go to college, success is possible. This show completely ignores the possibility that racism is alive and well in the ‘80s (and beyond) and that certain structural issues endemic to American society can prevent all people, though mostly African Americans, from succeeding monetarily. Life is unfair and the Cosby Show sends the opposite message.
When every episode had to preach at the viewers how men are so rotten and stupid and how women are perfect in every way and do no wrong. Usually Claire would go on a feminist rant at somebody in the show and this got real annoying after a while! And as this show went on, the husbands just became bigger wimps and were whipped by the wives! And the wives still had to go on preaching about how rotten their husbands were no matter how much they did for the wives! This show jumped like M*A*S*H did when Alan Alda took over the show and started preaching his values at everybody! Quit telling me how I should live my life and how if I believe certain things then I'm a bad person! Just make me laugh and leave it at that!
I used to love "The Cosby Show" back in the late '80s, namely the first few seasons. Unfortunately the show totally jumped the shark not only once but twice with step-daughter Olivia and cousin Pam, the two most grating characters on the show.
Elvin, who changes his mind about med school in late '88 when the twins are born, thus would start med school sometime in '89 at the earliest and suddenly is a doctor by early '92 when he and Sondra buy a house? Sorry, not buying it. And the whole Elvin and Sondra patterning themselves exactly after Cliff and Claire as doctor and lawyer respectively. Equally uninspired and ridiculous.
The show jumped the shark when Claire started her supposedly well-placed preachings about how men never did anything right and women were completely perfect. Whenever a man even got close to revenge, he was foiled like he was evil and then preached to until his head exploded. It was sickening. Bill Cosby shouldn't have a) been as loose with writers or b)written such stupidity into his show. This is just pathetic, even for the late 80s.
To me, "The Cosby Show" jumped during the middle of its run when Claire Huxtable went from being average American wife and mother to Miss Perfection, who was beyond reproach. From the first episode it was established that Claire was a working mother (an attorney, at that) but she had her flaws- in the pilot she wanted Cliff "to kill" Theo because he got bad grades. Somewhere along the road however, Claire become flawless and became exasperated at the slightest imperfections in her children. Claire looks her nose down at Sondra, who forgoes law school to open a wilderness store with her husband. Claire frowns disapprovingly when Denise quits college to find herself. Claire throws Theo out of the house after discovering he was living with his girlfriend. Claire disapproves of Vanessa marrying a maintenance man. Claire nags Cliff to DEATH about his diet. And most annoyingly of all, Claire gets on her soapbox in each and every episode to espouse her views on why she is always right and never wrong. The world according to Claire- men are stupid, her children and husband stupider but Claire knows better then all of them. "Miss Perfection" (a.k.a.) Claire was the most condescending character ever to appear on television. When Claire stopped being "real" (or even bare any resemblance to reality), that's when "The Cosby Show" jumped the shark.
This show was great in the first 5 years. The kids were fun to watch, and at the time the show aired, it was a breath of fresh air to see parents disciplining their kids in TV Land once again! In 1989, however, The Cosby Show took a turn for the worst when Denise got married. She was only a little quirky when the show started, and apparently a really good student, but then suddenly she decided to go to Africa, where she "found love!" (I'm not kidding.) By no means do I have an elitist attitude, I just thought this was an assault on Denise's character. I also agree with those who said that Cliff and Clair became snobby, and that Theo's dyslexia wasn't consistent with his previous slacker-type behavior. I know that in real life, Ennis Cosby had dyslexia, but he really did try hard and had a hell of a time reading. Theo was portrayed as a slacker in the beginning of the show (which only made him more appealing), so Theo wasn't really like Ennis in that way. And why the hell did the girls suddenly get stupid, anyway?
When Olivia came. Her lack of funniness and predictibility ruined it, as did her obviously rehearsed lines.
Jumped the shark when cousin Pam came. I like that actress, but when she came, all of a sudden they could talk about issues like birth control and teen pregnancy, which they did only peripherally before. Remember the episode when Denise had a shower for her friend and later told her mother that the girl was getting married because she had to? And I seem to remember that Bill Cosby specifically said they would not deal with issues like that because it was a sitcom. This was early on when they started getting criticism about being unrealistic. Like middle to upper class blacks don't have to deal with those issues. I was really offended that they used her as an excuse to bring on these topics. I could handle Olivia and the new Denise, because sometimes they had funny episodes, but after Pam, I pretty much stopped watching.
The lip synching on Grandma/Grandpa's anniversaries. The first one with Rudy "BABY!" was cute. The second one with Theo singing "I got the Feeling" wasn't quite as good if only because it was a knock-off of the first one. But wait! 4+ years later, Cosby decided to recycle this plot a THIRD time with Olivia vainly attempting to charm her pseudo great-grandparents. I can understand the family going all out for their 50th golden anniversary, but who in hell would throw a huge party, buy extravagant gifts and lip synch and choreograph a whole lame ass routine for their 49th and 55th year anniversaries?? And why would Olivia care about Russell/Anna - the fact that she calls Cliff "Dr. Huxtable" rather than "Grandpa" says it all.
Rudy started talking more, obviously when she hits puberty and has the whole scenario with 'JT Freeze' and the Kenny/other boy love triangle
Overall, Bill Cosby has been one of my favourite all-time entertainers. I saw all the episodes but my enjoyment certainly dimmed over the years. The Cosby Show at the time WAS... what it was and WHEN it was too. I have no urge to watch any episodes in reruns and the same goes for A Different World. I have to agree with most of the common criticisms and support the accolades too. It was refreshing to see Black characters in a positive light and not marginalised as the maid or a hooker etc. Even when 'Cliff became the ultra-PC "African-American" flagship, he still had my support. We deserved to have this on American TV even if it took until the 1980s. Sure it became way too preachy and stepped on nearly half the JTS landmines but I'm still proud of Cos for making that show.
The show NEVER jumped! However, this is a perspective you can only have in 2004. Name one African American sitcom that overall was funny as all hell, realistic (yes middle class black poeple do exist), positive (no we don't all talk like the Parkers), and enduring (8 seasons ain't half bad and I'm still cracking up at the reruns in syndication) all at the same time. Now yes, the last season wasn't as good as the first, but the last season was still better than most other programs on today. I recently watched on of the Raven Simone episodes and I must say she was a cute and very funny character, even Pam and her friends were hilarious. And unlike the original Cosby kids, those actors went on to bigger and better things, which is a testament to their talents. It is not like Cosby brought a bunch of slackers to the table. With the exception of myabe Friends, few other showa have gone to bat with other hit shows and remained intact to the end(e.g., Cosby v. Simpsons). While it is certainly just some's opinion that it was the best show ever, it certainly must be given the respect and credit it is due. Thanks for listening.
I think I'm the only one who loved Olivia. I liked Rudy too but loved watching Olivia. I wanted to say they jumped the shark when Rudy got her period or grew a mustache but I really think it was when Pam showed up. I have no clue who she is each time I see her on the show. It is kind of annoying that this show revolved around there being no less than 4 kids running the joint at all times.
This show jumped when I realized the guy who played Denise's husband played a totally different character in one of the earlier episodes. He played a medical student who dated Sondra.
I enjoyed watching the Cosby Show for many years and could not believe what my realization was when watching it in reruns. Just watch how many times Cosby mentions money, makes his kids feel guilty over wanting money or wanting to stay in the family home or even wanting to change rooms. He did not mean it (I hope), but it is always there. Hardly an episode when money does not figure in some conversation. In an odd way, the parents' love of money and their possessions was stronger than their love for their children. How often do truly loving parents bring up the fact that the relatively-young children owe their parents for their room and board and education? or that they should get out of the house? or that they are a burden financially and emotionally? or that they mooch on their very rich parents? It is often implied that the Huxtable parents would like to be left alone with their money and possessions. In an episode that was played recently, Cliff said to himself that his step-grandchild was the only one who would be welcome because she would have a paycheck to give him for her expenses. It just seems perverted and it is a very poor example for families. In the back of my mind, and although I realize it was fiction, I hope that M/M Huxtable are left alone and that the children and grandchildren never visit or call. It would serve them right! But just watch and count the times money is brought up. It is sickening.
The opening theme of the second season (the first theme when they all dance 1985-86) when Phylicia Rashad first comes on and waves her bony index finger around for a split second. This began Claire's decent into a woman who is perfect, but at the same time a complete bitch, which lasts the remainder of the series. Nobody here has mentioned that truly awful and excruciating episode of Claire's birthday when Placido Domingo sings "Beseme Mucho" to Claire, because he and every other man on the planet supposedly get a hard-on just looking at Claire, that lasts about 10 minutes, all the while Placido's wife is sitting there with a dumb look on her face while he not so subtly comes on to her. And Claire, the egomaniac bitch she is, just sits there, has that stupid grin on her face while he worships her and eats it up with a spoon as she always does in these situations - of which there are far too many to mention. Truly sickening.
The Cosby Show never jumped the shark. There are some episodes that I don't enjoy too much throughout the whole run, but in the end it was still good. The introduction of Pam and her friends, I must say, didn't do much for me. Up until that point, the show had been about the Huxtable kids growing up and Cliff trying to get them out of the house. Pam had no place in the house simply because she wasn't a Huxtable. Cliff couldn't try to kick her out of there, so what was the point of her being there in the first place? He couldn't even tell her what to do! Pam and her friends just hung around the house - no conflict, nothing. Anyway, even if there were some questionably unentertaining episodes, the show continued all the way until Cosby and Rashaad walked off of the set on the last episode. I must admit, though - the episode where Cliff throws a funeral for Rudy's goldfish may be the best episode that The Cosby Show ever produced.
As an alumnus of New York University (NYU), I am more than a little insulted that the character of Theo Huxtable is used to personify the typical NYU student. This is the same high school student who, perhaps because of his undiagnosed dyslexia, could not grasp Shakespeare's MacBeth and scored below average to average grades in Mrs. Westlake's geometry class, among other things. Claire even remarks in the series finale how she and Cliff were worried that Theo might have not graduated from high school. NYU does not accept C-average or B-average high school students. As bad as his grades and dyslexia are portrayed, there is no way in hell that Theo would have been accepted to NYU, even by 1988 standards, let alone survive NYU.
Having grown up in the 80s, the Cosby Show among others was a staple of life! It has always been a brilliant show, but I would have to say that by season 5, it did start to get on my nerves especially when Theo started at NYU and his friends Denny and Howard became recurring characters. They didn't have the same impact as the sorely missed Cockroach. Also I always thought that the season’s new opening credits was just a bit self-indulgent for Mr. Cosby (as EVERYONE must call him)...everyone just dancing around for him and then gathering around him like he was the self-proclaimed ‘god of education.’ Did I forget to mention Vanessa’s...was that an afro...hair? I could never tell what that was on her head! I personally didn’t mind little Raven-Symone (Olivia) in season 6 cause Rudy was never my favorite anyway. In fact I liked Raven better! I was happy to see Denise back for that time as well. So my vote is for season 5.
Elvin was a total bonehead and his worst moment occured, coincidentally, during the most cliched of all shark-jumping moments: the birth of twins. It wasn't enough that they decided to "surprise" the viewers by giving Elvin and Sandra twins (how original) but then Elvin decided that it was the perfect moment to announce that he was going back to medical school. The man has a low-paying job that barely pays enough to support his new babies. So, of course, he makes the wise decision that going through the huge expense of becoming a doctor is the best thing to do. How selfish and absent-minded is he? Well, that's not even the most selfish part of his decision. He does this, fully knowing that it's his in-laws who will be supporting him, his family and paying his tuition! What a loser.
This show started sucking in a major way when Rudy started going through puberty. There was an entire episode about other girls getting breast and ANOTHER episode about her period. Oh the humanity!! Too bad. The first 6 seasons contain some of the best sitcom writing ever and excellent family values.
Oh where to begin... This show, like "Friends", is one of those that made me just sit back and laugh hysterically - at the bandwagon-jumping American TV-viewing public who watched this "hilarious" show because they knew they were supposed to. I will say the ONE funny thing about this show was Lisa Bonet as the flaky and funky Denise - I was really disappointed when she was axed from "A Different World", a show I really thought was great! But back to horror of "Cosby"... Okay, why did everyone rave about how this show was so great for black role models - I mean, I'm not saying they should've been speaking in ebonics or anything, but come on... "Living Single", in my opinion, was by far a much more entertaining, positive and accurate depiction of black Americans. These people (the Huxtables) had no flava! The worst was the most annoying child actor ever, that god-awful Olivia! I remember being about 15 and watching an episode where Olivia was running around the Huxtable's ornate living room and performing "Pop Goes The Weasle" and Bill was making those idiotic "funny faces", bugging his eyes out and the studio audience was laughing uproariously - I mean, was the "Applause" sign attached to their seats with an electric-chair type device? And when those annoying grandparents started appearing in every other episode - puhlease! Old people are great on "The Golden Girls", but not in this drivel. I remember the Stevie Wonder episode, but not the "Jammin' on the One" part of it - I may have to try and catch it on "Nick and Nite" so I can make fun of it! A complaint against "The Cosby Show" would not be complete without an attack on that "master of comedy", Bill Cosby himself - I know from a producer who worked on the show he wanted his TV not dating ANY white people - oooh, reverse discrimination, great way to capture the audience's heart Bill! Then firing Lisa Bonet - none of your pathetic audience cared if she got kinky with Mickey Rourke in "Angel Heart" - oh wait, he was white, wasn't he - maybe the "no whites" rule applied to other roles outside of this show! Also, he is a damn cheating husband - that secret daughter of his he was paying off, plus if you read supermodel Janice Dickinson's autobiography, Cos tries to seduce her wrapped in a bath towel (yuck!) and doesn't go through his "talent development" plans for her when she turns him away in an act of extremely good taste. Although one thing he does get my utmost sympathy for was when that commie car jacker murdered his son Ennis - that was truly tragic.
This show never jumped the shark! The persons or people who are claiming don't have families or a strong and stable form of support from a group of people. I am currently 18 and only remember the last two seasons of this show but from what I have seen in reruns, I AM IMPRESSED! This show presented situations of a family, that's it A FAMILY!!!! They were a family first, the secondary things such as being black, successful, non-acting, bad-looking were just that secondary. I read an interview with Cosby and he says he is familiar with websites like this and says no matter when people thought he should have pulled the plug on his show, his show accomplished one thing----FAMILIES WATCHED IT!!! Just like families watched Step By Step, Family Matters, Thats So Raven, Just the Ten of Us, Bernie Mac, My Wife and My Kids, Everybody Loves Raymond---for the simple fact that they could know (*if even fictional) that they weren't the only ones going through it. And far as people who said that the show wasn't realistic, it was for me, we had creative punishments, college drop-outs, and who would want to stop their education at a bachelors or high school diploma, why not go for the Masters, Heathcliff and Clair weren't asking for much. The Cosbys was a great show that at one point made us feel special and warm, on one cold thursday night. And another thing for those who said Rudy was ugly during puberty (the latter seasons) e-mail me if you were hot and sexy during puberty. I Love the Cosby's and I miss it! The minute one of them dies everyone will fall in love with it again and laugh right along. And for those who say they weren't black, lets not even get started----WHY? BECAUSE THEY WEREN'T HAVING BASTARDS, GETTING HIGH, OR FIGHTING EACH OTHER OVER MONEY! In closing, next time you watch it Just think of that time when you had to be in before the street lights came on, you had balls at the end of your hair, and the only disagreements you had were who was going count the feet in the circle before a game of its or hide and go seek. THIS IS THE BEST ELEVATOR MUSIC I EVER HEARD!!!!!!!
To those questioning the realism of The Cosby Show, I think you have to draw a definite distinction between Cliff/Claire and the kids. All of the kids had their varying degrees of problems and flaws at various times, some more realistic than others. However, Cliff and Claire are the most sickening and disgustingly perfect couple on 1980s TV. These 2 never EVER had even a halfway serious quarrel ... and whenever they attempted to "fight" it was always over something so stupid and trivial (eg., Cliff's diet). But the vast majority of the time Cliff and Claire are all so cutesy-pie, kissy-face, and so damn agreeable with each other it is nauseating - and after 25(?) years of marriage to boot! The ultimate "functional" couple. Yeah, right!
I'm a fan of a lot of the episodes, and can even tolerate Claire and Cliff's money and education attitudes -- my parents act like them a lot of the time, and I tend to think that most people, no matter how wrong it seems, have an attitude similar to Cliare and Cliff -- you know, that you're nothing without college, you SHOULD go to college, you SHOULD do what your parents want to, and things like that; that being said, I would say that this show jumps the shark after that pregnant men episode. What does that have to do with anything? It's more annoying to watch than it would be considered funny. Most of the episodes after this one make me want to change the channel and wait for Roseanne or Cheers to come on.
This comedy has always been great. It truly defined a television show, it portrayed African Americans in the right of way as the media didn't. The Cosby show always had great comedy, no matter what it was when Theo got his earring. When Rudy and Vanessa could not just stop fighting and Bill Cosby made them live in the basement for a few hours. Even when the Huxtable residence was full of people, it always was funny. When Martin and Denise were introduced as a married couple, when Olivia went on her field trip, even when the twins and Elvin and Sandra had to live there. From the meekest moments in their children and families lives, Clair and Heathcliff or Clifford otherwise noted in early episodes of the show, have always shown that they were there, when someone needed a place to stay..they were there, when Pam wanted to go to college..they were there, and they were there even to see Theo graduate from college in the last two episodes of college and Bill Cosby had a flashback to when Theo was 14 and he had to go up stairs and talk to him about his grades (The first Episode.) This show pioneered the way of television in the 1980-early 1990s. This television show is the definition of situation comedy. Bill Cosby believes and still does believe that you dont need to have profanity to be funny. He displays this in this hilarious situation comedy. When times were good or bad, this show has always been a constant. We must never forget The Cosby show, nor how it has never jumped.
1. When Rudy grew up and became an ugly whining brat. 2. When Denise went to Africa and came back married with a stepdaughter. 3. The aforementioned stepdaughter, Olivia. Annoying! 4. That whole time period when Pam/Charmaine/Lance were on just about every single show. 5. The 2nd (and 3rd, and 4th, etc) time that they did the lip synching for the grandparent's anniversary or birthday or whatever. The first time was mad funny. I know this is probably hard to beleive after reading this, but I actually used to love the Cosby Show.
I'll agree with the previous posters that said the Cosby Show presented African Americans in a positive light, but this show and Family Ties, which ran alongside the Cosby Show for part of its run, produced perhaps the blandest hour of television entertainment in the last three decades. I found its wealth-means-success attitude at times unbearable. As far as it being the FIRST show to present black people in a good manner I have to disagree. Shows like "the Jeffersons" were based on the premise that a working-class person like George Jefferson could succeed through hard work and then reap the benefits of his success. Jefferson's struggles seemed to centred more around him being accepted in a world different from the one he grew up in while Cosby seemed to be telling everyone from high up on his pile of wealth that everyone should do the same as him and if they didn't, they were worth nothing. Even a show like "Good Times", which took place in the projects, portrayed a black family in which the father and mother were trying to instill in their children a sense for doing the right thing in spite of the conditions they had to endure. I'd rather watch James and Florida telling JJ, Thelma and Michael not to give up on their dreams than see Cosby chiding anyone around him who wanted to do anything other than be a doctor or a lawyer or a lecturer.
All the guest stars on the Cosby show taught us one thing: No matter how bad things may seem, just know that sooner or later a Jazz musician will drop by and fix everything.
Geez, cant they kick anyone out of that damn house? By the end of the series, I think the only one who they finally managed to kick out was Sondra and her family. I think Vanessa was also out too, but whatever. Its nearly impossible to have a house with that many people in it
As time goes on, "The Cosby Show" increasingly reeks from the same blandness and patness as "The Brady Bunch." Take race out of the equation and they are practically interchangeable.
The Cosby Show was one of the best comedies of the '80s and still holds up well today. That is until the later episodes, about the final two seasons, when suddenly Grandpa Huxtable is in every episode, that one daughter marries that unfunny guy in the Marines, Raven Symone replaces the "no-longer-adorable" Rudy and Theo gets all serious about his life. What a letdown. Shame on the writers for destroying this show.
You know, for parents who hold such high standards for their children, Cliff and Clair didn't do that good a job with their daughters. Cliff didn't like Elvin, but Sondra married him anyway. Then they dropped out of college for a while. Denise dropped out of college, then married Martin, a man Cliff & Clair had no knowledge of. Why did they let Denise get married? Most of the time, Martin was away. (Was this while he was Justus on General Hospital? I can't remember.) For a while, Vanessa was engaged to Dabnis, a man twice her age, that Cliff & Clair had no knowledge of. I guess Rudy was too young to get herself in any similar situations. (BTW, did you know that they changed Cliff's given name from "Clifford" to "Heathcliff?" On the earlier episodes, there's a sign next to the outside door to his office that reads "Clifford Huxtable.")
Olivia was SO annoying! Was there really a reason for putting her in there? I mean, Sondra & Elvin already had Winnie & Nelson. They'd grow up soon enough. But no...the producers of this show didn't want to wait a couple of years so they brought Olivia on. I especially wanted to wretch when she was trying to convince Cliff that she had grown a couple of inches since the day before."I KNOW my body!" Oh puhLEEEZZEE!!!
Jumped when Raven Symone was brought in to replace no longer cute Keshia Knight Pulliam, who TRIED to be cute waaaaaaay too long - I always cringe during the opening sequence of the fourth or fifth season (the one where Cliff is wearing a tux and the theme song is kind of jazzy-bluesy)watching 10 or 11 year old Rudy make that face like she's an oh so adorable 4 year old). Why not just let the youngest kid grow up, without replacing her? But as long as Olivia was in the household, did it bother anyone else that she had to call Cliff and Claire "Dr. and Mrs. Huxtable"? Nice message to send to stepchildren, Bill.
When Lisa Bonet returned with a husband and a step-child. "The Cosby Show" survived the traditional spin-off formula for disaster, forfeiting a character present at the beginning to a new show, while maintaining a five-year stranglehold on the Neilsen throne. "A Diff'rent World" was built around Lisa Bonet, but her pregnancy and complacent approach to rehearsal forced her out after only one season. Executive producer and mentor Bill Cosby was greatly disturbed by all of this. The last thing Cosby and his creative team wanted after successfully painting a positive picture of family life was to address single parenthood for a college student. Writers felt these issues would be better handled on "The Cosby Show" than on "A Different World". Bonet took the year off to have her baby. This provided enough time for writers to shape Denise's future. She returned married with a step-daughter, having side-stepped a pregnancy being written into the script. Martin Kendall was a fine character and Olivia was quite the little charmer. Their arrivals weren't the actual downward spiral. The Kendalls provided ideas for scripts, but not enough to last an entire season. As the sixth season neared an end, it was obvious writers were scraping the bottom of the barrel: dream sequences and pregnant men. Bummed for ideas is one thing, but that was just plain silly. It must be a rule for top-rated shows: the longer the stay, the louder the thud when it crashes!
The Cosby Show jumped the shark in the second season when the Cos, and kids started wearing designer outfits. Why did this cause a jump? Because the whole charming premise of the first season was that there was an upper-middle class who had money but had the same day-to-day minor hiccups as most families in America: their house was a mess (recall very first episode), appliances were breaking down, dealing with teenage angst, etc. The audience could relate to the Huxtables in Season 1. If you recall in the episode where Theo gets his "Gordon Gartrell" shirt, Cliff exclaims, "Even I don't own a $95 dollar shirt, and I have a job!" Yet the next season, not only did Cliff have $95 shirts, but $500 one of a kind sweaters to go with. In fact, the whole family were wearing designer outfits even when they are just lounging around the house! That focus on style over substance opened the door for the subsequent silly episodes: They meet celebrities almost every week, self-serving political messages, the "race card" and -- as other posters have mentioned -- an air of elitism. It was the mid-80's, and the "me" decade, and it was fashion that killed the video stars!
I'd say this show kind of started to approach the shark when the kids just got to old. It's not anybody's fault; that's just what happens. I liked Olivia; I don't know why everyone thinks she killed the show. I voted that the show jumped when Pam came into it. I still don't get what the point was of adding Pam, Lance, and Charmaine. What purpose did they serve? Also, there were too many changes. Earlier in the show, one part of the show that we all knew was that Theo was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. In the later years he was this really smart, mature, responsible, admirable man. Denise became an airhead. Vanessa quite as bad towards the end as she was in the middle. I was looking through the posts; does anybody remember (in the fifth season) when Rudy and Vanessa wouldn't stop fighting? Vanessa was acting like a seven-year-old! It was stupid. And the show never even addressed that little issue. I never had a problem with the fantasy episodes, like the one with the Muppets or the episode where there was some volcano eruption that poisoned the water and men who drank it could become pregnant. Then of course there is the fact that the show was totally realistic. A doctor and a lawyer (married) with five kids, who have a perfectly clean household (except in the first episode) and have done a wonderful job raising their kids, without the help of any type of maid or nanny? It couldn't happen! Doctors and lawyers are too busy in their jobs and to have five kids they would have had to have a maid or something. Oh yeah and Clair even spoke fluent Spanish. And does anybody remember the episode where Theo's teacher from Brazil came over and Clair started conversing with her in Portugese?!?!? PuhLEEZE! Anyway, though, the earlier part of the show it was good and a great comedy. In the later years it was just very boring and dull.
I don't think this show ever really jumped... maybe Cousin Pam, but it was still good even then. Olivia was adorable and played by a great child actress! I mean, Rudy grew up so they had to do SOMETHING. Also I think it's realistic that the children had a hard time becoming financially independent in an expensive city like NYC (although Cliff's constant complaining about crowdedness got a little tired). I liked Denise's husband Martin as a character, plus he was REALLY good-looking! Theo getting all serious never bothered me; we all have to grow up sometime. Vanessa and also Sondra's crew I could always take or leave, they were just OK. One thing, though... does anyone else have trouble believing that Sondra and Denise could possibly be the genetic offspring of Cliff and Clair? I think they must have had a white milkman in their early years of marriage!
A few of the later episodes aren't as good as the earlier ones, but even those are better than most sitcoms today The Cosby Show managed to be funny without any gutter humor. It is easy to make jokes when they are all about drugs and sex, but this show found the humor in everyday life.
Though I agree that this was the best family sitcom in television history, I will admit that it got a little strange toward the end. However, I must ask, have you people ever actually met real people?? Have you grown up in actual families? Have you ever actually watched any other sitcoms? If you answered yes to any of the previous questions you would know that no one is perfect and most people change. Theo matured...great...it happens. Rudy got less cute...great...that happened to you too. Vanessa was immature...if you don't have an immature sibling...then YOU are the immature sibling. Saundra was boring...Is it unrealisitc to believe that the daughter of two professionals would be quite tame? Lisa Bonet was the weird one...every family has a rebel... That is what you get when you have five kids...everyone is different and no one is perfect. I thought the show was quite realistic, but c'mon, if it were "REAL" it would be life and not entertainment. The acting on this show was as good as the acting on any other great sitcom. And as with any sitcom, this one explored different issues that many families have to face. Kids do elope. Cousins do have to move in. The house can stay clean. Corny couples name their kids cheesy names. But who am I to speak about what is realistic...I'm just your average black girl raised by a doctor mother and engineer Ph.D. father who spent plenty of time with their children...by the way...my parents, my siblings and I sang, danced, and spent plenty time with our gandparents and extended family.
I have to say the show jumped when Olivia became the center of attention of the show. I think a distinction has to be made in that I don't believe that the show jumped automatically when she joined the cast (AKA, the "New Kid in Town" jump). It was a fair addition to the cast, and they needed the cute kid now that Rudy was becoming a brooding adolescent. Rather, it was because they eventually changed the focus of the show from Cliff to Olivia. She was worked into so many scenes for no other reason than they wanted to milk her cuteness for all they could get out of it. I just recently realized how the show had changed, now that it's on Nick at Nite. I think the one scene that convinced me was where Olivia was telling Cliff about where babies came from. After that, I really got irked at how Olivia seemed to be on camera about half the time.
When the Cosby Show children grew up and the writers had to find another focus... so they bring in Denise's stepdaughter Olivia. Granted that Denise herself disappears not too long after, but Olivia remains. The shows focused less on Cliff's chiding of his children's hijinks and more on Olivia trying to be really cute and Cliff basically foreshadowing his role of host on "Kids Say the Darndest Things". I know the children grow up and mature, so making them the comic focus becomes more challenging, but they should have had more new focuses besides Olivia.
I have to admit, I love Bill Cosby and I think he's funny and very entertaining. I enjoyed his show but I realize a lot of things. Olivia was really downright annoying! She really did send Cosby Show into it's downfall. The male bashing- what kind of herbs are these men? It's sad that Elvin, who in his beginning was chauvinistic towards females, became a real herb after he married Sondra and his in-laws took control. Sondra would frequently complain about him being the way he was, next thing we know she owns him. When Martin came, I mean, he's a navy man! Outside of it, he's being ran by Denise?! I mean, did he not learn anything about discipline and control in the navy? Clair- so much to say! What a bitch! No matter the circumstance, she always found a way to think shes right. The football episode really showed it too. I mean, 3 people tackled Rudy, um....THATS THE RULES! THATS FOOTBALL! Then she fusses that 1 should only tackle and then feels someone should smack them. And people worshipped the woman. From Placido Domingo, to the man sitting the back room watching that lame TV show she did with those other attorneys, amongst others. Esp Cliff, when she would bitch about his eating habits. He pays for the food and mind you, your shelter, and gives you a lot of love, let the man eat what he wants! AND finally, as Cos portrays a doctor, who does Clair think she is trying to tell Cliff what to do when someone gets hurt, esp the episode where Rudy gets hurt playing circus with Theo? He's the doctor, what he says should go! You're a bitchy attorney who is nothing but a know-it-all! Clair was always spoiled as she always got her way. She never thought of anyone beyond herself, except for a few things. Now I loved Rudy. She did get old, considering she was that girl with the missing teeth, who aged and eventually was replaced by Olivia, but she really didn't get ugly. Back to my women point, when her friend Bud/Kenny would say something chauvinistic, the women took exception to it. Be it Clair, Rudy, etc. But it was okay to offend the men all they want right? Sondra was annoying. Especially when the grandmothers take the babies away while she was sick. Okay, it was a funny episode, but I mean, freaking out even when your relatives are taking care of your children?! Theo was fine. He never exactly dealt with Vanessa, Sondra or Denise's crap. He and Rudy mixed well. The only three likables are Cos, Rudy, and Theo. Vanessa was annoying! She was innocent in her beginnings, annoying and ridiculous here and there, but as her teen years passed, she became a rebel, doing things like drinking and sneaking off to Baltimore. Denise- Okay, Cos had no business butting into her outside life, but she was a rebel and said the most dumbest of things ever, esp during her 2nd run around. She would say things a 9th grader would say. Cos- Hilariously funny, loved seeing him get busted whenever that came. But how he dealt with his kids, no matter how severe the trouble, he was always calm and loving, especially while Clair would rant. Grandma and Grandpa Huxtable were alright, but once again, the grandma had control, but I loved the Grandpa. He came on more in the last few seasons, but he was good. That's how a grandpa oughta be. I won't go into Pam and her friends- the episodes on them were borefests and probably one of the biggest signs that signaled Cosby's end. Some repeated previous episodes, such as when Cliff entertained the little kids. First, circa 1985, he entertained for Rudy and her friends, then I think it was 1989, he did the same for Olivia, only it was with 4 year olds as to a 6 year old Rudy in 1985. Final thought- the dancing in the opening credits sucked, much as the music was cool. I liked the 5th season music (1988), but the dancing in Hawaiian clothes on a beach setting was rather lame.
I liked The Cosby Show until the episode when Heathcliff's father played with his old jazz combo in a nightclub, and when he did his solo the only people standing in the audience were the Huxtable clan, jumping up and down, excited, and blocking the view of the people sitting behind them. I thought to myself, these people are arrogant, and they think they're special. It was like the success of the show made the whole cast smug and overly proud of themselves. In the Hillman college episode, at the graduation ceremony Heathcliff gets asked, for some reason to moderate the ceremony and Claire gives a solo in the choir. Why them? Why are the Huxtables so special that they dominated the ceremony? What really finished me with the show was Sondra's husband Eldon. Boy was that character lame, weak and chauvanistic, and Claire and Heathcliff treated him with such judgemental contempt that I couldn't keep watching the show. I feel toward Eldon like I felt for Darlene's weak-lame boyfriend-husband who ruined her life on Roseanne. There should be a category for this that causes good shows to jump the shark--lame boyfriends who become sons in law.
Bill Cosby is one of the greatest standup comics of all time. His albums from the 60's are classics. I liked his BILL COSBY SHOW with Bill as Chet Kincaid, the basketball coach. Oh yeah, I sort of liked I SPY also. However, everything else he has done aince has come up short IMHO. I think THE COSBY SHOW was okay but could have been better. It was too bland. I watched it like everybody else in the country. Down through the years I've probably seen every episode. I liked the way the show ended with Theo graduating. After all, the show began with Bill threatening to take Theo out of the world if he didn't start trying in school. Olivia was brought in to give Bill someone to talk to- after all, he's always better with smaller kids. The big kids all thought he was losing his mind on the show. I think THE COSBY SHOW is fine family entertainment, nothing wrong with that, just not edgy enough for me.
This showed jumped quite a bit. 1) When it focused too much on the grandparents - who were B-O-R-I-N-G and lifeless 2) When Claire became "perfect" and above it all, and Cliff was basically a schlubby guy. (This also became a plot for many a tv sitcom and commercial to come - perfect, beautiful, smug wife and goofy (fat, whipped husband.) 3) When I realized that Phylicia Rashad was less than ten years older than the actress playing her oldest daughter - it's true - go to imdb.com. She's closer to her age than she is to Bill. 4) When Olivia came around. Am so surprised that actress has not ended like Dana Plato. She always struck me as some spoiled, sheltered little doll whose life would peak at eight years old. 5) When Pam came on the scene. Didn't think she was so bad, but you just know that kind of thing is shark bait to a show. This show had it's moments the first year, but just when downhill when they started making everyone so sterile. I understood that was in reaction to the sometimes exploitative black themed shows of the past, like Good Times and The Jeffersons. The writers created an atmosphere that was very positive, hell, when I was kid, I wanted to live in that house. But it avoided a lot of reality at times that even lesser shows would touch upon. Maybe that was the point!
Good Lord. When *didn't* this show jump the shark? It featured more grandparents than a half-price deal at Denny's. Eventually, I couldn't keep track of who was supposed to have sired whom. And what was up with that mystery grandparent who showed up at Hillman? Grammy Tee, or something? Who the hell was she supposed to be related to? They never saw fit to mention her character before, but nonetheless, everyone treated her like she was the Second Coming or something. And apropos of nothing, what was the deal with the voice/accent of Cliff's dad? Great googlymoogly, he sounded like someone who failed to nail the audition for Scooby Doo villain, for being wayyyy too over the top. This is certainly not politically correct to say, but come on, was I the only one who grew just a wee bit tired of all the Africa stuff? I'm not putting down the continent, as I've never been there, but geez...at one point everyone in the cast seemed to be sporting traditional African tribal garments, quoting African poets, telling stories about African places, customs, languages, leaders and what have you. The show seemed to turn into one big, undending Black History Month PSA. That would have been okay once in a while, but every week? Frankly, I was nauseated by having to watch whatever was left of the Cosby clan hanging off the edge of their seats, to hear the pearls of wisdom offered by all the obscure 'special guest stars' who turned the sitcom into a soapbox, week after week. I almost expected them to say 'and that's one to grow on!' at the end of their rants. And oh dear God, the 'family effort' singing and dancing numbers. Aaaaaaaaaaaaack. I'm not sure anything I type here will convey how offensive and contrived I found that. Actually, this type of musical nonsense ruins just about any show, in my opinion--including 'The Simpsons'. Maybe I should add an entry over there. Yes, Rudy's 'stache. Geez, couldn't someone have slipped that poor girl a bottle of Nair or something? The close-ups on that 'facial hair malfunction' were cringeworthy. The lame--and thankfully rare--attempts to weave Cliff's patients into a plot never worked, and positively reeked of spin-off hopes gone wrong. That episode where Cliff tried to show the 'clumsy white dude' how to toss a basketball was just embarrassing. I mean, come on! Does your OBGYN invite you back to his place to shoot hoops 'cause you're uncoordinated? I don't think so. Yes, the 'SD' pin was quite irritating. I Googled it a while back it to figure out what the heck it was supposed to mean, and I seem to remember it had something to do with Ray Charles' death, or something. But come on, Cosby...how was anyone supposed to piece that together? And even if they were able to, did you have to make the thing the size of a pie plate? And wear it over everything from pajamas to your bath towel? Cripes! I'm probably leaving a lot out, but I guess the number one thing that bothered me about the Cosby Show was all the MUGGING. No, not as in robberies. As in facial contortions. Whether it was Cliff's stupid smirk on the opening credits (I wanted to punch him--especially in the one where he does the finger waving over the eyes bit), Claire's one-of-only-three possible expressions (smug, mad or fakely serene), or the cutesy kids attempting to tug at the heartstrings of the audience, the mugging drove me mental. And hey, add another vote from someone who thought Pam was 'not so bad'. I'm not sure why she was loathed so much. In my opinion, she was a better character--and actress--than many who appeared on the show over the years.
To the poster one above: Cousin Pam wasn't "bad". I think the problem people have with Pam is that she just did not fit in with the context of the by-then well established show. The stories revolving around Pam and her "afterschool special" problems and issues simply did not mesh well when juxtaposed against the squeaky clean Huxtables. Especially the first few episodes with Pam and that godawful 2 part story about Pam wanting birth control pills. First of all, who IS Pam? The show never explains HOW she is related to the Huxtables. Whose cousin is she - Cliff's, Clair's, the kids'? Second, why is the audience supposed to suddenly care about somebody never mentioned or shown before to the point of devoting episodes almost exclusive to her? The character of Pam would have been much better suited as a separate, spin-off show. Of course, the implication of this is that life is supposedly a breeze for educated, upwardly mobile middle to upper class families - i.e., the Huxtables. This notion is underscored by Cosby's treatment of Denise and how it is beaten over the heads of the audience that one is doomed as an utter failure in life if higher education is not pursued to its fullest. Back to Pam: One will notice during the two Cousin Pam seasons is that Cosby gradually deemphasized Pam and her "problems" and made her pretty much blend in with the rest of the family by series end.
OLIVIA! What a brat! I don't know what possessed the producers of The Cosby Show to put her in. OK...granted Rudy had gotten out of the "overly cute" stage. But there was still Sondra & Elvin's twins Winnie & Nelson. And those poor kids weren't even given half a chance
For me, the show JTS both times Lisa Bonet's Denise leaves the show. The first time when she left for 'A Different World' and the second time when she was fired from the show in the middle of season 7. I related so much to the character of Denise. Not wanting pressure, struggling in college, not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, enjoying summer vacation. I remember a particular scene in season 7. It was the episode where Vanessa wrecks the car. The parents confront the kids on all the things they say and do that annoy them. The kids fight back by telling Cliff & Clair about the things THEY do that annoys the kids. It was the first time in a LONG time that the six original cast members shared a scene together. No Olivia, no Sondra, no Elvin, no cousin Pam. Just Cliff, Clair, Denise, Theo, Vanessa, and Rudy. These were the characters we loved and the characters that made the show great. This would be the last time that the six originals would all be in a scene together because Lisa Bonet was fired shortly afterwards. Seasons 1,2,6, & first half of seasons 5 & 7 were definitely my favorites.
THE COSBY SHOW began as a smart and relatively entertaining sitcom about an upper middle class black family living in Brooklyn. The father was a doctor and the mother was a lawyer (yeah, there are just millions of black doctors out there married to black lawyers, but I digree)and they had four, oops, five kids. Remember in the pilot when Clair asked Cliff, "Why do we have four children?" and he replies "Because we didn't want five." A few episodes later, Sondra, the forgotten Huxtable daughter returns from Princeton to announce she wants to run off to Paris for the summer. Again, I digress. THE COSBY SHOW jumped when, similar to the Alan Alda/M*A*S*H syndrome, Mr Cosby just got full of himself and decided he could pass off just about anything as a half-hour of entertainment. Remember when they went back to Hillman because the president was retiring and Clair sang with the choir? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Or when Cliff ran in those races? What made Mr. Cosby think we would find it entertaining to watch him running around a track in too-tight shorts for twenty minutes. Or when his father had a reunion with the jazz band he played with five hundred years ago? Don't get me wrong, there were some gems along the way: the lip-synching episodes were fabulous. I still laugh when I picture Rudy lip-synching to James Brown: "Baby, baby, baby...". I also loved when Cliff and Clair decided to introduce Theo to the "real world" and took all the stuff out of his bedroom and Cliff became his landlord, Harley Wewax. I loved when Cliff and Clair were both aggravated by Denise's boyfriend David, played by Kristoff St. John, who mocked both of their careers. But around the 3rd or 4th season, Mr. Cosby just got full of himself and thought he could do no wrong. I learned from E TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY that he fired Carl Payne, who played Theo's buddy, Cockroach, because he wouldn't get a haircut. I would also agree with the consensus of posters that the entrance of Raven Symone, the most annoying child actor since Robbie Rist, was the final nail on the coffin for this show. THE COSBY SHOW was a great idea in theory that just went horribly wrong due to the overinflated ego of its star.
Several shark-jumps, almost simultaneously: Cousin Pam (okay, what family-regardless of color-calls their cousin "Cousin ______ [Oliver, Pam, etc...]); ANNOYING little snit Olivia (what was with those stupid onesie/jumpsuit-type outfits they used to put on her, anyway??); Rudy hitting puberty (thus, the mustache!!); Cliff's sudden "jump" to haute couture..."Chess King" caled-they want their sweaters back!! (to his credit, though, they were definitely very representative of the '80's!!)
Well, I feel this show never jumped the shark, but there are things that get on your nerves in it. First of all, most of the people I've read about are right, Clair in the Coby Show has to much power, I'm like what is this, I just got done watching the episode, "Theogate", and Clair always gets her way and is always right, she makes me sick. Also, how can she tell Cliff what to do, he is the man of the house and also a doctor, I know they are one united since they're married, but if he wants a sndwhich, he can have one. Also, with Denise, the worse actor in the show and in the WORLD!!!, because 1. look at her hair, it is a disgrace, whoever said she was the best character, you don't know what a good character is. But anyway, she wearsthe worst things and takes things to serious, the only episode I did like Denise is the episode called "Hillman". But on Denise's military husband... what on earth? He's such a suck up and always gives Denise her way, it's ridiculous and doesn't make any sense at all. As for Sondra, Elvin, and the kids, they are a disgrace to the show... when Clair and Cliff said, "Why did we have 4 kids", they should have kept it that way. Sondra and the gang are the worst people in the whole show....EVER!!!!! Sondra, is like Denise so serious and doesn't take things to consideration, and Elvin's dumb*** sucks up to her b****y authority. The men in this show need to take charge and claim what's theirs. If Elvin couldn't handle a fine girl like Sondra, then why on Earth did he get married and have kids with her? To let "HER" boss him around, no they both should have a fair say. As far as their dumb kids, they were now cute or anything near that at all, they were annoying, and on the episode, "Cliff Babysits", he can't even control them. I swear I would have beat the crap out of those kids, mine or not. And who names their kids Winnie and Nelson? Not smart. But overall, the Cosby Show is a great show, but at first I didn't like it. Though I wasn't around from 1984-1990, I have to watch the re-runs. I wish I could have seen it as a kid. But to the directors and Bill Cosby, the show isn't realistic, no regular family does the silly things they do, though it is television and some of it is funny, if someone were to do this in real life, I wouldn't be suprised if they got killed pulling crap like that, also to Bill Cosby, why the heck did you kick Cockroach off the show, just because he refused to cut his HAIR?, hair com'on now. If your dumb enough to kick Cockroach off for that, Denise should have never been on the dog'on show, she looked worse than Cockroach with or without his hair wild. And if anyone is dumb enough to marry and none the less get pregnat by Lenny Kravitz, get the heck off any show. Denise is a phyco. The only people worth talking about on the show, is sometimes Bill Cosby, Theo, Rudy when she was little, Cockroach, and Olivia. She might be grown for her age, but she was cute, and still looks good now. She might have destroyed that generation, but in this one she good. And for some person, you'er right, the Cosby Show would never stand a chance in this age in time, all of them would get killed or something bad would happed to them. Though I critisized a lot I love this show and will remain watching it unless I keep reading the stuff you people put out on this site, but most of you guys are right. But yall make me pissed at the character
The only time the Cosby Show came close to jumping the shark was when they started becoming issue oriented, and you can tell THE COS was not comfortable doing shows like that. Cosby kept me in stitches laughing as a kid when I listened to his records. (NOAH!!!!!) and also, as an adult watching his shows, it was comedy we could all relate to, both as adults and as children. I’ve used some of THE COS’s lines on my own kids. Otherwise, this show was virtually sharkproof. I also liked the fact that they didn’t shove their “blackness” down your throat, because it was a show we could all relate to. One of my favorite episodes is when Vanessa came home drunk after playing some stupid game with her college/high school friends. I wish I could remember all of it, but in the end, her mother and father found out about it and gathered the whole family around to play the same game. MAN, THAT WAS HILARIOUS. Especially at the end when you found out they were drinking tea instead of whiskey. It got its point across without banging you over the head with it. The point being that doing stupid things leads to dire consequences, not only to yourself but those around you. That episode was priceless.
The fact is, white people needed to see another side of black people. As a black person, I recognize that some elements (namely the anniversary performances) were Hollywood. Not only that, but when Cosby realized that he had a show that people were paying attention, he decided to give back to his community by promoting HBC's (for those who don't get it: Historically Black Colleges) which provide tremendous opportunities to students of color. Many people would stick to their local state universities and not research and find out about these schools without hearing about them from Cosby. Also, even though their family was upper-middle class and proper, that doesn't mean that all of the aunts and cousins were. I have several "Cousin Pam"s in my family and they have stayed with my family every now and again. As for the kids, people change. I know that I went through a period of time where I was trying to act "more black" during high school because I grew up in the suburbs so this element of Rudy, Theo, and Vanessa's change is completely realistic. Also, as for Cliff being so self-righteous, when black people work to get something done and et a better life for their kids, they expect their children to do the same. My parents are the same and black kids that I went to school with- and most of my white friends- have parents and families for whom anything less than a degree is shocking and is a disownable offense (my sister was cut out of the will when she dropped out of school and wasn't put back in until she got a technical degree). Basically my rant is saying: This show is very realistic to people who know 1: how to distinguish Hollywood touches and necessary cultural critique from what the show was about and 2: people who know and understand black people an what needed to be shown on television.
The Cosby Show is okay to a certain extent. I vote for all the obvious jumps such as the all the episodes that involve guest stars, Olivia at the start of season six, and another thing that was on my mind. I can't stand the music that is played between 1984 and 1986. Why did the music director of this rely on using a Fender Rhodes electric piano and the boring sax work of Grover Washington Jr for this show's music? I use to be a die hard fan of his music until I became single recently. By the way, Grover Washington did the soundtrack for the first few years of this show.
When Olivia came. I know most sitcoms add-a-baby when the others get older, but they could have just let everyone grow up and adapted the storylines. Also, Vanessa's puke-a-licious hairstyle (rhomboid-shaped afro with a tail in the middle. WHAT?????) Also, oversaturation with jazz musicians.
When Cousin Pam moved in. I don't know if the show was "too white" or what, but Pam and her gang ruined the tone and class of the show.
PAM! What a horrible character. I thought Olivia was a great addition. They wrote her to be smart and didn't cute her up -- any cuteness that came through was all Raven Simone and not forced by the writers. Raven was a great actor, too, amazing timing for a 4 year old!
The show jumped when Denise left but then came back with a new husband and stepchild and moved back in with the Huxtables. Bill Cosby said the reason Lisa Bonet initially left the show was because her character didn't develope maturely enough. The writers could've developed her if they wanted to. They didn't have to make her quit college but thats what they wrote for her character. (Our maybe she "quit" college because Jasmine Guy was stealing too many scenes from her in "A Different World"...I dunno) Her character was being WRITTEN as an underachiever. Raven Simone did not hurt the show nor was it Pam(Erika Alexander). It jumped when the writters and Cosby wrote Denise back into the household for a disappointing reason. It felt as if we were just going in circles with her character and because of that you just didn't care for Denise anymore. The fact that she came back to square one just felt tedious to me and it had an overall effect on the show. I still watched the show but not as fanatically as earlier seasons.
The Cosby Show was really good TV during the time of declining quality in TV programming. One of the best things about Cosby Show, in my opinion, was the fact that it did not have to be cute and saccharine-sweet to get its point across - at least in the early years. Rudy was cute without having to become another Michelle Tanner (Full House) or Ruthie Camden (7th Heaven). And the people who watched TCS knew that Rudy was cute without having to hear infinitely-annoying "awww"s from the studio audience! Unlike other reviewers, who claim that the Huxtables were unrealistic, I think that TCS did present a realistic family situation. People have said that Dr. Huxtable, being a doctor, would not have had so much free time to hang around the house. Well, maybe so, but then the character of Dr. Huxtable would have made less of an appearance. It's willing suspension of disbelief. As for Hillman, I don't see anything wrong with introducing a fictional college; sitcoms feature fictional venues and such all the time. I do have to admit, however, that the episode that featured Dr. Huxtable speaking at the Hillman graduation was pretty meaningless. When I first saw it on Nick @ Nite, I remember thinking "what's the point of this episode?" I don't agree that "jammin' on the one" was the first sight of the shark fin for this show. The phrase probably will go down in history as an unexplained phenomenon of science. But I think it's premature to say that the first bad episode of TCS represents the turning point in the show's history. I think that TCS didn't start its decline until the arrival of Olivia. Before that time, TCS had managed to present a compelling story without resorting to cliche or saccharine cuteness. It's pretty obvious that when Rudy grew up, a "cute" vacuum formed that was filled by Olivia, who's main purpose in the show seemed to be "cute relief". In fact, Olivia became so saccharine that I didn't want to watch Cosby anymore. That's when the show jumped the shark for me.
Peter, the fat white kid was the glue that held the show together. When he got old or disappeared from the show it was never the same. Then they decided to give Rudy a new black friend BUD... When they got older the sexual tension never developed there...Same as when Roger, the kid with the afro-mullet got uncool and replaced... The fringe characters get no love from the producers. I'll bet that Peter's character could have gotten a spin-off and it would have been ten times more sucessful than a different world.
I don't think The Cosby Show ever jumped the Shark, despite some jarring decisions by the writers. Overall, it was a lovely show. I still watch the reruns and usually laugh out loud and/or grin a lot, which is rare for me with a TV show. I think it really was a great run all the way through and it meant a lot to me growing up - It hurts me to see all the negative comments here but I accept that everyone has different ways of reacting to things. Interestingly though, if I had to choose a really bad moment in the run, it would be the "men get pregnant" episode. I found that episode to be totally unwatchable and it repels me from the TV set when I see it re-airing. For a long-time, dedicated fan of the show, that is saying something. yick. The comment women often make where "if only men could experience pregnancy" or some such was better left to the imagination, thanks.
Cliff always telling his stories from when he and Claire dated and it would end up being about some skank named Eunice or some such crap. Anytime Claire and her female friends would be together, all the men were idiots in their eyes. None of the husbands could do anything. It is amazing that these men have successful businesses or practices. I certainly would not want a man whose wife thinks he is that dumb to even consider delivering my baby. She never let the man do anything he wanted. When Rudy got her period and Claire wanted to have "Woman's Day"...please not every female thinks of getting her period as a wonderful thing. Theo seemed to have trouble even pronouncing his own name. It always sounded like he was saing "Theordore". And the way he sucked in his cheeks like he thought he was some kind of sexy stud. That just made him look a little too homosexual. Denise was just flaky. Sondra was always trying to analyze every little situation and ended with Cliff always doing his "oh Lord" eye roll. Vanessa...what was up with the hair on that chick that one season? Rudy was just a nasty, unattractive girl. Elvin - everytime he showed up you just knew that he was going to say something to piss off Claire and Sondra. If he is such an idiot and chauvanistic pig, why the hell are you still with him? Olivia was just too damned whiny and know-it-all. All of the dream episodes were just awful. The writers must have written those after a weekend of some seriously hard partying and drugs. Those eps should have had a disclaimer before they aired that if you had drugs, take them before you watch.
However, the Cosby Show is still one of my favorite shows. It took me from elementary school to college. I still remember freshman year in the dorms and EVERYBODY watching the Cosby Show and a Different World and laughing at the same time. If you went to visit someone at a dorm, you would not be signed in until 8:26--between shows. I still get a little teary-eyed whenever I see the last episode. And for those of who think the parents were stuck-up for wanting their children to reach their potentials (or at least try) you clearly don't understand what being a parent is. Theo wasn't dumb, just lazy (remember the 89 on the math test when he actually studied?). The only reason they added that learning disorder later was because Cosby's son, Ennis, had a learning disorder. He brought musicians like BB King, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miriam Mkeba on to expose people to different types of music. And yes, Vanessa was whiny, Denise was weird, Sandra was overly analytical, but isn't that what a family is? A bunch of people who, despite getting on each other's nerves, still love each other? And if you can laugh at something, that's even better. I know all of my friends remember Rudy singing "Baby..." the Ray Charles song. And every time I see the episode with the Gordon Gartrell shirt, I laugh until I cry...
The unnecessary additions of Olivia and Cousin Pam ,both of which occurred in the same season,were the shark-jumps.The episodes in the last two seasons became cutesy,sugary,unfunny and often preachy(like the post-Hal Roach "Little Rascals")-sometimes,there were moments of the old humor(when Vanessa brings home her 29-year old fiance Dabnis Brickey the Maintenance man-played by William"Son of Buckwheat"Thomas III-it was funny...until Cliff decides to accept him because he owns his own house and therefore won't further crowd the Huxtable residence.Back to preachy.)Pam was ostensibly brought in to show the audience that yes,the ghetto exists even in Cosbyland-but she was BORING!! Olivia had her moments,but she was frequently annoying-especially when she showed off her off-key singing(not as funny as Vanessa's clarinet or Rudy's violin.)Well,at least Olivia fits in with the Huxtables in that respect-they're all at their best musically (except Clair,who CAN sing.)when they lip-synch to recordings!!
When that damn Raven-Symone (Olivia) came through there like a tornado. She just wrecked everything! THe issues that were revolved around her were already dealt with with the others! There was no purpose for her to come! She was supposed to bring up ratings, but she became the reason for its downfall! Oh, and when a Different World came out...Man, they almost killed the Cosby Show! It was #2 in the ratings-if more people tuned in to it, it would've been #1!
The only episode I truly despised was the one where Cliff is dreaming, and these disturbing Muppets start lecturing him about his diet, then one large muppet starts operating on him with a chainsaw(!). Then after the dream he looks into the refrigerator and THE FOOD STARTS TALKING! Ugh, it was not funny. Just creepy.
I HATED RUDY. She was so smart alecky & tried so hard to be sweet. I just wanted someone to smack her!
This show so obviously jumped the shark when it got political -- when Sondra and Elvin had twins and named them Nelson and Winnie (after the Mandelas). I never watched it again.
I really don't feel that the cosby show jumped the shark although a few characters could have been left out. I feel like Bill Cosby and all the wisdom that he has, tried to create a stable loving family in which african american viewers could look up to, Not that all things are perfect in a household but a family that has a close bond will last longer than one without it. I grew up watching the Cosby show and although my parents weren't doctors or lawyers it has inspired me to further my education. I enjoyed watching Claire with her natural beauty and down to reality responses to her children's wrong doings. I can't speak for any white household nor can I speak for every african -american household but I will say that in reality momma stands firm and for Claire to have displayed that she really stayed on the mark. She was loving and kind but left a thought in your head that education was important and without it there was no way to make it in this world. Education doesn't always come from a college. Listening to those that have been and following their lead can also make you successful. You can be educated by many people and through many sources and things. comments: No African American should be out to degrade the Cosby show and its efforts to (as the Bible says)call those things that are not as though they were. It taught us more lessons than any John Wayne movie about shooting and fighting could have ever taught us. Education as ooposed to War is always better. I don't care how you put it. I actually wished that Cliff and Claire could have been my parents groing up because I longed for parents that were stern instead of ones that would allow and accept any and every error with ease and grace. To the Cosby Show I love you all for life.
When all the new family members came...and I'll just start with one....Elvin. I couldn't STAND Elvin nor his lines. Whenever he was on, I would go in another room. Something about Elvin made me want to just holler "STOP BILL, STOP!!!" HOW COULD YOU PUT A CHARACTER LIKE THIS IN YOUR SHOW TO SHOW AFFLUENT BLACK PEOPLE???" UGH!!!!! bill must have been desparate to keep pleasing everyone, because Elvin never should have come to anyone's mind when looking for a new character.
When Olivia came aboard, it was like nails on a blackboard. None of the other kids on the show were as annoying as Olivia (Raven-Symone) during the entire run of the series. Sure, she was cute, but her personality was one of those "I'm 5 going on 40" things. In real life, a kid as obnoxious as Olivia would have been smacked across the mouth for some of her behavior. I know I'm in the minority, but I happen to think Rudy actually got cuter as she got older.
Ok, I have to give this show some credit as a solid 80's program, by when they did the funky fairy tale episode it was a feeding frenzy for the shark. In this episode, which still makes me feel like I am going to puke, Olivia reads her story and the whole cast is sucked into some fantasy land. Picture "The Cosby Show" meets "The land of Make Believe." The basic story was that Olivia, the Huxtable grandparents, and Theo live in this sickingly happy kingdom where all they do is dance and piss of viewers. On the other side of the river, Cliff and the the fat white kid Peter rule an evil domain. Needless to say, the evil side comes over and enslaves all the annoying happy people. The episode should have ended right there. But no, the happy dorks revolt and take back their land. Then for some reason, the vanquished evil guys are suddenly happy. Go figure! To this day I want to shoot a hole in the TV every time this piece of crap comes on.
People have made the comment about the reruns being on all the time. Please remember that when this show was sold into syndication it had the highest per-episode price ever which individual stations had to pay for broadcast rights. Boy were these stations surprised when the reruns tanked -- that's why 15 years later you're still seeing four episodes a night on Nick @ Nite trying to recoup that money.
I lost interest in the show after Cockroach left. I missed him and his catchphrase where he'd screw up his face and say "Whatchu talkin' 'bout Theo?!?!?"

It has been a long time since I saw this on Jump the Shark. Everything on this is true.

It has been a long time since I saw this on Jump the Shark. Everything on this is true.

I wonder if anybody else agrees w/ the notion that by around 1990, The Cosby Show entered a so-called "point of no return" (http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?648888-Shows-That-Overstayed-Their-Welcome&p=5882237&viewfull=1#post5882237):confused::
People likely stayed with Cosby out of habit for a while. By 1990, however, Cos was mailing it in, the formerly 'cute' kids were way too old for their roles, the new young 'cute' kid, Olivia, didn't have anywhere near the charm of young Rudy (or even Vanessa), Lisa Bonet was either there or not there, and wasn't really relevant either way, and Erika Alexander as 'cousin Pam' seemed like a desperate move to make the show a little 'edgier'.

Interesting.

I have never seen the last few seasons in fact I don't think TV Land has ever aired them, about the last episode I only have vague memories of Theo graduating and the final scene being of Bill and the rest breaking the fourth wall to wave goodbye to the audience.

I have never seen the last few seasons in fact I don't think TV Land has ever aired them, about the last episode I only have vague memories of Theo graduating and the final scene being of Bill and the rest breaking the fourth wall to wave goodbye to the audience.


They should be airing them in September

When Olivia usurped Rudy's role as the cute little kid and they brought in all those extra people.

Anyone else hated how they replaced Rudy with Raven on the Cosby Show? (http://www.lipstickalley.com/showthread.php?t=776402)

Olivia got annoying.

http://catholicskywalker.blogspot.com/2014/10/sunday-best-sitcoms-of-all-time-7-cosby.html

JUMP THE SHARK
Period of Adjustment (7x04)

The Cosby Show took flack for adding a younger child in Raven Symone to bring back the funny bits that Cliff used to have with Rudy. But little Olivia was a welcome addition to the cast and served the dynamic well. But in the 7th season they added cousin Pam (Erika Alexander), who had a harder edge than the other Cosby kids. This was an attempt to bring a little more sharpness to the series just when shows with more aggressive humor like The Simpsons started to become popular.

However, Pam never really clicked. It felt a little like pandering and it began to feel like the show was running out of ideas.

after all those women cosby raped went public

http://catholicskywalker.blogspot.com/2014/10/sunday-best-sitcoms-of-all-time-7-cosby.html

I was just thinking about the addition of "Cousin Pam" and how it seemed like a desperate attempt to make the show a little bit "edgier". It's as if Bill Cosby saw NBC's brand new show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (about a streetwise kid moving into an upper middle class black family's home) and thought that he could "one up them".

I was just thinking about the addition of "Cousin Pam" and how it seemed like a desperate attempt to make the show a little bit "edgier". It's as if Bill Cosby saw NBC's brand new show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (about a streetwise kid moving into an upper middle class black family's home) and thought that he could "one up them".


And those hip hop opening theme credits in season 7 and 8

Will Smith did it better. He was natural.

Olivia got annoying.

Plus, it never really made sense for Olivia to live with the Huxtables when her biological grandparents also lived in NYC.

Plus, it never really made sense for Olivia to live with the Huxtables when her biological grandparents also lived in NYC.


I only watch seasons 2 to 5 and a little bit of season 6


1...NO 7 and 8......HELL NO:lol:

I was just thinking about the addition of "Cousin Pam" and how it seemed like a desperate attempt to make the show a little bit "edgier". It's as if Bill Cosby saw NBC's brand new show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (about a streetwise kid moving into an upper middle class black family's home) and thought that he could "one up them".

Personally, I always thought that the attempts to make the show hipper and edgier were actually done in order to win back white viewers who were by then defecting to The Simpsons on FOX.

I sort of lost interest in the show when Denise left for college. Then I watched her on Different World until she left that show. I never really returned to The Cosby Show as a regular viewer after her first departure, although I have seen plenty of episodes in syndication.

Personally, she was the reason I watched. I thought Denise Huxtable was adorable. She was cool, dressed cool and crazy, and wore her hair cool and crazy. She had a nice voice, and was really a cutie. I guess you can tell that I had a little crush on her.

This was a good show though. I thought it was funny as heck for the first few years when I watched it every Thursday night. It was at its best when it centered on the six most important people; Cos, Claire, Denise, Theo, Venessa, and Rudy. I understand you need to expand the cast for the sake of story, but I was exclusively interested in the immediate family...especially Denise.