They need to be on a better platform than this..how they way they ask questions and the short time they give is an insult...The Cosby show was a blessing to millions of people and you say thanks for sticking around as if they are a bunch of teenagers helping you mow your lawn...please.....May God bless AMerica...love you all!
The interviewer is rude! He didn't even acknowledge Bill Cosby's speech when he was explaining about how the song came about! Don't know why they went on this program!!
I LOVE the "regular people" speech Theo gave. I always tear up a little during that scene, but I'm 100% sure that a significant reason the audience applauded is because they were blown away by Malcolm's performance. His Emmy nomination was well-deserved.
Actually, they recorded that show twice. The first time they had an audience of young kids, who were expecting one of those shows when the kids are smart and the parents are idiots. Cosby said it was the OPPOSITE of what he wanted from the audience. The second time they recorded with an audience of older people, parents, people with some maturity. That audience all applauded Cosby saying, 'That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.' They combined the reactions of the two audiences.
I feel lucky that I got to grow up with that show, being the same age as Keshia as she played Rudy. I came from a poor family, living on welfare, and I think in some ways, this show pushed my mother even more to do whatever she could to help my sister and I go to college, even going back to school at night after her two jobs so she could get a better job and ensure we'd have the tools to go to university. And they did teach parents language to use with their children. Thank you, Mr. Cosby.
that was incredibly smart of bill to bring on a physicist to help deal with scenes that dealt with the kids and how to handle there problems so that parents who watched the shows knew the right way to handed certain problems/issues with children. not many tv shows do that.
As a Social Worker who grew up watching The Cosby Show (I'm the same age as Keisha), this is an amazing clipl! Everything from working w/children on tv, to Theo's journey w/a Learning disability and how his parents coped w/it, to how African American families are portrayed on tv and the whole 'likeness' that Felicia spoke about. As well, I liked how they talked about Cliff as a role model Father w/his parenting skills. AMAZING SHOW! Wish this generation had a show like this, like Raven said
Phylicia Rashad is still so gorgeous!!! And I just Iove how the cast of this show, (Raven, Keisha, And Malcolm) all grew up and did positive things with their lives... The TV shows they are in today are written well, clean, and funny... Oh how wonderful! Also, I love Bill Cosby, he reminds me of my dad(mhsrip). One day I wish to Write, Direct and Produce such brilliance, in both my cinematography & the characters I create. :)
After their response to the Obama question, I don't know that the Cosby cast truly appreciates the immense impact they truly had regarding race relations in this country. I can say with certainty that I feel their contribution was far more profound than they think it was. My father was a horribly racist man... he wasn't a "BAD" person, he was a kind loving man, but he was also product of the racist teachings of his own father. He was a guy that repeated all the stereotypical bologna that he was "taught" to believe. A person isn't born a racist, they are relentlessly exposed to it during a time when their adolescent brains are like a sponge absorbing everything around them. I think many people have the idea that a bigot is an evil person that just enjoys senseless hate, and maybe in some cases that is true, but I think more often than not the bigot is a product of their environment and if you relentlessly expose that person to the obvious error of what they were taught, then maybe, just maybe you can start to see positive change. My mother (whom hated my fathers bigotry) would always TRY to point out the error of his thinking. Then came the Cosby show. My mother LOVED the show and would gather all of us up when it was coming on and we would sit and watch as a family. My dad could associate with the Dr. Huxtable character... a man going through all the woes of raising a family. I think that my father, for the first time in his life was looking at a black family as simply a "family" without the bigoted mindset. It took their positive portrayal of a black family to finally open my father's eyes to how wrong he had been. In time he simply stopped repeating all the stereotypical garbage he had been taught. It wasn't that he disliked black people, he disliked the idea of people whom he had been falsely taught to believe were all the ugly things a racist says that they are. Had that not happened perhaps I would have taken on the racist views of my father, not by choice but because that is what I had been taught to believe the same way as his father had done to him. That positive portrayal ended a long line of racism in our family and I have to assume that if it did that for HIM, then it did the same for others as well. My dad had never known a black person, all he knew was the garbage he had been taught so he simply never bothered to even try to get to know someone simply because of their color. I can sit here and see how tremendously silly that is, and so can you... but we have to look at the reality of his upbringing. If a child is told every day, day in and day out "stay away from the ugly monster" then eventually they learn to avoid the monster! I really think it is that simple. A child naturally trusts the people responsible for taking care of them, so when that person whom is supposed to love and nurture you tells you someone is a monster, then you begin to see that someone as a monster! The only way to not be afraid of this imaginary monster is for the monster to make you open your eyes and show you that they never really were a monster at all... it was all in your mind. Just like we have been taught that the "bigot" is a monster! Perhaps we have been falsely misled in the same way they have. Rather than seeing the bigot as a monster, we should all just help them to open their eyes. It may not save everyone who senselessly hates, but if it stops even a small number of people from hating for no reason wouldn't it have been worth it? Today I have friends whom I wouldn't have had if I had taken on those same idea's, thank goodness someone showed my father that the monster was always imaginary. Perhaps I am totally off base here and am completely wrong... but I don't think so.
Thank you for sharing that, I agree...this show really was able to take people out of their captive thinking and show them the reality of life for families of every shade of color.
Hilda T I do too Hilda, I do too. I truly believe that most "people" in general aren't naturally "bad" people, it's all about what they have been taught. I'm sure that there are exceptions, but I feel that a large percentage of people who hate others for no reason are capable of changing, and pray that someday they will. I'm dog tired of the hate that spreads like a disease in this country and all over the world. Hate is such a waste of time and valuable energy. It gets you NOWHERE.
Your story is tremendously encouraging. However, sadly there are people when faced with the truth have a choice to make & don't choose to see the truth that not all Black people are what the stereotypes portray. In our own culture, many like myself despise the foolishness that is portrayed on television with shows such as Atlanta Housewives & the other reality shows that think their behaving badly is entertainment. All it does (regardless of how much money they're making & how badly scripted it is and very far from anything remotely real) is to add to the problem since there are many who actually believe that ALL Black people are ignorant, uneducated & foolish. For those who do not live in this manner, we still get judged by those standards since that's all many people know & choose to believe it. I'm glad the Cosby show changed that for your father. Mr. Cosby was right in his last comment because when the show aired in 1984 most people didn't believe Black people were accomplished. I liked that although they were very educated, had high profile careers & had money, they still had a real marriage and raised real children that do some of the same silly things all kids do with the same challenges.
12380smusic123 Sadly, I know that that is correct- that no matter WHAT you do some people are just going to choose hate regardless... BUT, some people won't. You have me in agreement about the reality fad, imagine what people think of American culture around the world, when those ridiculous shows are all we have to represent us as a people. The entertainment industry has really gone down hill to the point where I don't know that it is even salvageable. The damage is done.
When they did Night Time Is The Right Time by Ray Charles they had no idea the impact this man had on Pop Culture. He helped Smokey Robinson who was his opening act who still was a disaster. It was the Audition Song that Florence Ballard sang as one of The Primettes before they became The Supremes
Bill Cosby shows just how classy he truly is. Letting the other cast talk more than he did, realizing that it is the next generation that is going to make the difference.
I am a proud African American and I would like to see more shows like the cosby's because it was so uplifting and it made me feel good about living in this skin, not to say i ever had a problem with that. Its jus nice to look at the tv screen and see someone that looks like me not portray the typical black character. thats not who we are...jus like there are many shades of us there are many personalities as well.
Loved that show, and all I can say about Bill is he's still funny as hell in is 70s, and he sure is right on on why the cosoby Show stayed on as long as it did! Should've went 10 years though, only had 2 to go when they called it quits in 92!
@sangboi79 My family was more like the Cosbys than Roseann or Married With Children. My parents both got an education, and my mom cared enough about us to cook for us, and my dad happened to achieve an provide for his family. And I'm black with four other siblings. Sorry to break it to you, but extreme disfunction isn't everybody's reality. Which isn't to say my family was anywhere near perfect, we just weren't nearly that disfunctional, either. Your reality isn't necessarily THE reality.
ALWAYS WILL LOVE THIS SHOW...... MY FAVORITE SHOW BK IN THE 80'S I GREW UP WITH THIS SHOW... PHYLICIA WAS MY FAVORITE than rudy.... ALWAYS FOR BILL! i BOUGHT ALL THE SEASONS... WITH BONUS... I ALWAYS WATCH IT... Mr. Bill did excellent on trying to make his show , reality... and in a lot of episodes.. he did......i can relate to several episodes, with my parents!!!!!!! GOD bless him! i will tell ya this... he said, roseanne, bart, married with children.... WELL TO ME IT WAS MORE, A LOT MORE OF THE COSBY SHOW THAN ANYTHING!
It shouldn't be/ The show has nothing to do with the man's actual life. Don't join fools and play lawyer, judge and executioner. God has the final say not man. I don't hate anyone for the wrong they do or are accused of.
I can't believe some of these comments. But to stay positve and grateful..Ill focus on Cosby's genius. The pride and diversity he displayed in presenting Our stories, the strength and beauty he cultivated and surrounded himself with in the personage of his cast.
Raven is so well spoken, I could see a political career in her future. Growing up military I knew many black families, so this show wasn't a "shock" to me-as much as a sort of meshing of all I had experienced up until 1984, and the success and wealth of the 80's. I loved how none of the Huxtable kids followed the same path, but knew Theo would reap the greatest of successes out of his character's challenges. Great man-Bill Cosby.
I always loved to watch that show! I didn't know a lot of black people back then. Black people were rare at that time here in Luxembourg, most of the Africans have imigrated here maybe in the last 10 years. But anyway, I knew that Afro-Americans had to go through a tremendous amount of pain in American history. The Cosby Show made me think that there must have been a lot of (upper) middle-class black families in the US. This made me happy for black Americans. Unfortunately in reality, it doesn't seem as if black Americans are yet on the same level socially as their white counterparts, by far. At least the Cosby Show can give hope that even the racially discriminated Afro-Americans can make it. Finally a word about Barack Obama: OK, he might be the first black president of the US, which shows us that the USA have improved racially. Many people although forget the fact he's half Irish and half Kenyan. He isn't a descendant of the slaves who were forced to leave their home continent and lose their freedom. I would have prefered a black person with ancestors who were slaves. Such a person would have really represented those who were and still are oppressed all these centuries. But as I tried to point out before, Obama as president is a path in the right direction.
Great esteem!!!! These awesome Huxtables showed the world what family can be in the best sense, no dead people, no horror, but full life! God bless them! The seating arragment in this show is somehow strange, like in an English family coach.? :)
@RHMETAL i thought roseanne was pretty real and looking at the lower middle class WHITE america, that was roseanne's aim and I think she did a great job and it was something you didnt see a lot of on tv; and cosby was unlike any black family you saw on tv too so both had that in common and that is why they are both the most successful sitcoms and the fact that both were hilarious
the first 4 seasons of Cosby was the most realistic imho. It was always a very entertaining show, but the first 4 seasons is what made the Cosby Show one of the Greatest of all time shows. Raven Symone statement on this clip is extremely real and we need to go back to this type of tv. Film has gone to shit as well. No substance on TV anymore.
i wonder what does Bill COSBY have to say about Tyler Perry. THis was interesting at the end because although yeah u did feel like rosanne and married with Children were real family, but the cosby show gave you fantasy of wow this is what family could be like but I also do remember feeling like man i wish my family was like that. I will forever wish my family was like the cosby show lol but its okay that's it wasn't to.
As for the Roseanne thing, yes, it was good to have a "real family" not a family of doctors and lawyers and parents who sit back so bemused by their children...real families don't carry on like that. But I see Bill's point: he was trying to educate parents on better ways to parent. He was raising the bar.
