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TV Shows - Cosby Show, The
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.
Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cosby_Show
eBay Link: View Cosby Show, The on eBay
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| # | Reason | Why? | Votes | Vote |
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| 1 |
The new kid... |
Olivia |
55 |
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| 2 |
Too Preachy |
Make us laugh, not think |
30 |
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| 3 |
Becomes Black History Show |
Really over the top with the BHM themes on show |
22 |
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| 4 |
New kid in town |
Cousin Pam |
19 |
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| 5 |
Never Boned |
Still rocks. |
15 |
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| 6 |
Lisa Bonet Leaves Show |
Damn she was HOT! |
11 |
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| 7 |
Theo becomes intelligent |
No longer the comic relief of the show |
10 |
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| 8 |
Pregnant men episode |
Did Cliff really have a sandwich??? |
8 |
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| 9 |
Cockroach is fired |
Wouldn't conform to Cosby's high hair standards |
7 |
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| 10 |
Jammin' on the One |
Show begans to focus more on black culture |
6 |
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| 11 |
Clare's too perfect |
Does she ever make a mistake? |
6 |
| 12 |
Theo's voice changes |
Show went downhill after that |
4 |
| 13 |
Puberty |
Rudy's no longer cute |
4 |
| 14 |
Day 1 |
Sucked from the start. |
4 |
| 15 |
Cliff turns smug |
Replacing cheap sweaters with expensive ones |
4 |
| 16 |
Birth |
Sondra's twins Nelson and Winnie |
2 |
| 17 |
Continunity |
They go from four kids to five |
1 |
| 18 |
SD pin |
Worn all season |
1 |
| 19 |
Exit... Stage Left |
Adam Sandler |
1 |
| 20 |
Tap-dance challenge |
Last really funny episode before the show ended |
1 |
| 21 |
Lisa Bonet returns |
show not the same after this |
1 |
| 22 |
New kid in town |
Peter |
1 |
| 23 |
They didn't do it |
Rudy and Bud! |
1 |
| (hide reasons) |
| (view all reasons) |
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| # | Comments |
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| 1 |
@ Stryker73, exactly...and there were times when Cliff would make a sandwich and sneak back into the living room only to have Claire pop up out of nowhere and snatch it out of his hands in mid bite. I know it's just a show but that used 2 piss me off. Lol. Let the man have a sandwich for God's sake. I could see if he was lighting a crack pipe in the middle of the family room or something but a sandwich? -- Submitted By: (Icemouth) on December 10, 2012, 12:15 pm - (2 votes)
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| 2 |
And God forbid you get caught with makeup on and you're not a teenager yet!! -- Submitted By: (stryker73) on December 6, 2012, 4:56 pm - (1 votes)
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| 3 |
Clair used to act like a sandwich or slice of cake was the equivalent of crack cocaine. If i have to sneak a sandwich in my own home then it's war. -- Submitted By: (Icemouth) on December 1, 2012, 1:58 pm - (3 votes)
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| 4 |
Oliver..Olivia..and i had a girlfriend named Olivia that turned out to be a real lemon.. what's up with that name?! -- Submitted By: (stryker73) on June 27, 2012, 6:22 pm - (0 votes)
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| 5 |
Thank God I'm not the only one who found Olivia unbearably annoying! -- Submitted By: (Oleander29) on June 26, 2012, 9:29 am - (0 votes)
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| 6 |
I hated when Olivia joined the show. Instead of focusing on the other characters, there were very long segments focusing on Olivia that were not necessary for the main plots of episodes. The episode where Vanessa goes out of town to see a concert only to get stranded is one such episode, IIRC; there's a long segment where Cliff and Olivia are doing a skit before the main action of the episode starts. I want to laugh at a sitcom, but I don't want it to show me pointless sketches I'm supposed to find "cute" because a child is in them. -- Submitted By: (marchosias) on June 13, 2012, 4:10 pm - (1 votes)
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| 7 |
Bill Cosby is a genius ...at stand up comedy. He should stick to that.
The producers rubbed our noses in the Huxtable's affluence til it was disgusting; and the kids were completely unbelievable, from the required sickeningly cute toddler to a teenager who looked like she dressed in the dark at a Goodwill store. -- Submitted By: (jgf) on October 8, 2010, 11:51 pm - (3 votes)
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| 8 |
There were just too many characters for a recurring weekly sitcom. You started out with the family unit which was fine, then came Sondra and Elven, Denise and her Navy beau, then the grandparents would show up for pinochle or whatever...and they jettisoned in kids every few months for the cute factor.
In the end, not a lot of chemistry was built up because of the revolving door of kids and celebrities (OMG I ran into Stevie Wonder's limo!!!111!). Theo and Cockroach had great chemistry and so did Cliff and Claire. It didn't help that Cliff went from a laid-back worker with a good position to having his veins bulge out and referring to Hillman and so on every chance.
It definitely had its funny episodes but it got too preachy and too populated before long.
-- Submitted By: (CrazyPierre) on July 3, 2010, 7:17 am - (5 votes)
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| 9 |
So, our argument boils down to: "Gee, I REALLY would prefer not to have black people on the show I watch about a black family. Can't they have at least the good grace to, you know, not MENTION that they're black?"
Some TV families and characters like to immerse themselves in their heritage - yet I don't hear complaints when, say, Tony Soprano obsesses over the finer details of Italian cuisine or an entire episode of Seinfeld is centered around going to a bris. When black families engage in culture-specific storylines (or even background wall art, apparently), though, it's an assault on the WASP privilege not to have to hear about, you know, *black stuff.* Perhaps "Winnie" and "Nelson" was overdoing it a tad (though, really, the pride in the apartheid struggle, particularly at that time, cannot be overstated) but the freaking *Apollo Theater* being too niche and alienating? *Really?* -- Submitted By: (Synonymous) on June 4, 2010, 7:07 pm - (-4 votes)
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| 10 |
kingbk: Thank you. But you know what? As a tribute, I can understand wearing that pin, even for an entire season. It's no different from professional athletes spending a season wearing the number of a deceased teammate. The show had other issues and there are plenty of grounds on which to criticize it, but I'd be inclined to give Cosby a pass on the SD pin. -- Submitted By: (Mythigator) on May 5, 2010, 7:12 am - (0 votes)
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| 11 |
Mythigator, it was a tribute to Sammy Davis Jr., who died during that season. Wearing it for one episode I'd understand, but for the whole season it just got kind of silly. -- Submitted By: (kingbk) on May 4, 2010, 6:45 pm - (0 votes)
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| 12 |
kingbk, what was with that SD pin anyway? I've noticed it but never figured out what its significance was supposed to be. Anyway ... there's an indie TV station here (Seattle area) which has been showing The Cosby Show in the early morning, airing two episodes a day. After seeing a couple of cycles through the show's run, my take is that while Cousin Pam was the nail in the coffin, the decline started with Lisa Bonet leaving the show and then (after she returned) treating it like her own personal revolving door. It got to the point where she needed THREE screen credits: One for herself, a second for her attitude, and a third for her hairdo-of-the-week. Fortunately, even after those seasons of mediocrity, the show managed to finish with a good finale. -- Submitted By: (Mythigator) on May 4, 2010, 7:23 am - (0 votes)
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| 13 |
I loved The Cosby Show right up until about 1990. Early on, it was one of the funniest shows on TV. The episodes like the gold fish, the track meet, Theo's shirt, Theo's earring and the grandparents anniversary were some of the funniest episodes of TV I've ever seen. Cosby in these episodes did a good job having lessons, but not being preachy. This was when the comedy and lessons were at their best balance. Towards the late 80s things started changing. The kids got older, Lisa Bonet left, then she came back, Cosby got more into the show being about black culture (moving Family Ties and putting A Different World in its place) which went against the original purpose, and Olivia and Cousin Pam joined the show. When the story lines moved away from the original kids, Clare and Cosby, it wasn't the same. Cosby and Clare became more smug with Cosby wearing that SD pin for a whole season and both acting holier than thou for the most part. The humor hasn't aged well. The personality of the show is very much 80s-early 90s and doesn't look fresh in reruns. The last episode that made me laugh to tears was the tap-dance challenge. After that, it slowly lost more and more people to the edgy and fresh (at that time) The Simpsons and never recovered. -- Submitted By: (kingbk) on May 3, 2010, 5:38 pm - (5 votes)
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| 14 |
Funny in it's first few years (despite the whole doctor-lawyer perfect household crap), but became obsessively preachy during the early 1990s (especially with posters about ending Apartheid in South Africa placed so prominently in the kitchen (who in real life would have such messages in their homes?!). That, and changing the theme every year was a huge distraction (as were Cosby's garish sweaters). -- Submitted By: (GregEichelberger) on July 14, 2009, 11:26 pm - (1 votes)
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| 15 |
I don't think it ever jumped myself. Pam and Olivia had their moments, but I agree they weren't as strong as the others. But I couldn't get enough of the comedic genius of Bill Cosby. -- Submitted By: (Johnny_T._Bird) on June 29, 2009, 2:16 pm - (0 votes)
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| 16 |
The Cosby Show jumped the shark when they brought Cousin Pam in town. She was the most irritating character I've met as well as Charmaine, Lance and Slide. It really brought the show down when these characters appears. Olivia really kept the show interesting and more family oriented with her cuteness up until Pam came to town. Pam really changed the show since it was no longer the innocent family oriented sitcom.
Sep 5, 2007 4:16 PM
Durell
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This comment was taken from the good old jumpedtheshark.com website the old version. -- Submitted By: (jumpedthesharkcommenttaker) on May 2, 2009, 12:18 pm - (0 votes)
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| 17 |
That annoying friend you're thinking of was Charmaine...and actually, although I thought Pam are her dopey friends were complete bores, I kinda liked Charmaine. She was pretty funny. Not in a Cosby kind of funny I suppose, but she still made me laugh, just about the only thing I laughed at during the entire 8th season.
Sep 24, 2007 12:26 AM
Stevo
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This comment is taken from the old jumpedtheshark.com website. -- Submitted By: (jumpedthesharkcommenttaker) on May 2, 2009, 12:16 pm - (0 votes)
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| 18 |
I'm always stunned at the nasty references to Olivia by posters(even when discussing other shows, like some lame running joke) Talk about following trends with the "no talent and annoying" claims. I think people are right in declaring she was brought in to repair Rudy's vacating the Cute Factor, but this character was a self-possessed and pragmatic little person in her own right. I found that very appealing from the startand yes, I DID like Rudy very much) she was played with much aplomb by a particulary young actress: I THINK she was only 3 or 4. The show WAS just heading towards Suckville by then, but gave me seasons of enjoyment prior to that.
Oct 3, 2007 3:45 AM
phillip gray
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This is a comment taken from the old jumpedtheshark.com website -- Submitted By: (jumpedthesharkcommenttaker) on May 2, 2009, 12:14 pm - (0 votes)
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| 19 |
I have to say The Cosby Show suffered Cousin Oliver Syndrome not once but TWICE!
Olivia is the addition that I could understand; she was Denise's step-daughter. OK. She didn't annoy me as much as C.O.S. sufferer #2: Cousin Pam.
Pam struck me as a character that was thought of on a coffee break by somebody who didn't know a thing about television. The final season was DOMINATED by storylines about Pam and her friends Charmaine and Lance. It confused a lot of the die-hard fans of the show.
To rectify the error of Pam, create a spinoff of the show using the storylines of the final season that nobody else was in and have the family make guest appearances in selected shows. I know the show ended in 1992 and it is 2007 now but that is how i would prevent another Cousin Pam-like occurance on any other show.
Oct 24, 2007 5:41 PM
Chris Whitfield
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This is an old comment taken from the good old jumpedtheshark.com -- Submitted By: (jumpedthesharkcommenttaker) on May 2, 2009, 12:13 pm - (2 votes)
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| 20 |
While the show hit bottom with the addition of new kids, I agree that the point of boning was when it got too preachy and pretentious. Cosby originally set out to make a show about a family who just happened to be black. Prior to that, race was a major factor in sitcoms like Good Times, Diff'rent Strokes, The Jeffersons, etc. Cosby originally wasn't going to do that. Then, as the show maintained its popularity year after year, every month started to become Black History Month. Suddenly, we're hearing all about the civil rights marches and the Tuskeegee Airmen, and various black pioneers who, while they deserve recognition, just seemed clumsily crammed into this otherwise funny family sitcom. The "family fun" themed opening credits gave way to pretentious dance routines honouring the Apollo Theater and whatnot. They couldn't admire an artist without pointing out that he was a great black artist. The grandkids were named Nelson and Winnie for crying out loud. Cosby set out to make a show people of any colour could relate to, and then it started to lose that universality. Although they did try to keep it inclusive with things like kids' parties that were so meticulously multiracial you'd think the Huxtables had some kind of quota system for friends. -- Submitted By: (AndyC) on May 1, 2009, 12:22 pm - (4 votes)
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