''Cosby'' is an American television

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

that aired on CBS from September 16, 1996, to April 28, 2000. The program starred

Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric ...

(in his final series) and

Phylicia Rashad Phylicia Rashad ( ) (née Ayers-Allen; born June 19, 1948) is an American actress, singer and director who is dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University. She is best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom '' The Cosby ...

, who had previously worked together in the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

sitcom ''

The Cosby Show ''The Cosby Show'' is an American television sitcom co-created by and starring Bill Cosby, which aired Thursday nights for eight seasons on NBC between September 20, 1984, until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on an upper middle-class Africa ...

'' (1984–1992).

Madeline Kahn Madeline Gail Kahn (''née'' Wolfson; September 29, 1942 – December 3, 1999) was an American actress, comedian and singer, known for comedic roles in films directed by Peter Bogdanovich and Mel Brooks, including '' What's Up, Doc?'' (1972), ' ...

portrayed their neighborly friend, Pauline, until her death in 1999. The show was adapted from the British sitcom '' One Foot in the Grave''.

Premise

Set at the corner of 33rd Ave and 1539 Blake St. Astoria in Queens, Cosby portrayed grumpy Hilton Lucas, a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

man forced into early retirement from his job as an airline customer service agent. His wife Ruth was again played by

. Initially,

Telma Hopkins Telma Louise Hopkins (born October 28, 1948) is an American actress and singer. Hopkins rose to prominence as a member of the 1970s pop music group Tony Orlando and Dawn, which had several number-one songs. She also performed on the CBS variety ...

was cast as Ruth Lucas; however, she was recast after she reacted poorly to Cosby's tendency to

ad libitum In music and other performing arts, the phrase (; from Latin for 'at one's pleasure' or 'as you desire'), often shortened to "ad lib" (as an adjective or adverb) or "ad-lib" (as a verb or noun), refers to various forms of improvisation. The ...

. The couple had one daughter, Erica Lucas, initially portrayed by

Audra McDonald Audra Ann McDonald (born July 3, 1970) is an American actress and singer. Primarily known for her work on the Broadway stage, she has won six Tony Awards, more performance wins than any other actor, and is the only person to win in all four act ...

and later portrayed by

T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh (born Crystal Walker; October 13, 1962) is an American actress and singer. In addition to her status as an original cast member of the Fox sketch comedy series ''In Living Color'' (1990–1994), Keymáh is also known for ...

. Doug E. Doug played Griffin Vesey, a foster son the Lucas family took in when he was younger. Griffin occasionally tried to win Erica's affections, but they decided just to remain friends when in the fourth and final season, Darien Sills-Evans portrayed Darien Evans, Erica's fiancé/

husband A husband is a male in a marital relationship, who may also be referred to as a spouse. The rights and obligations of a husband regarding his spouse and others, and his status in the community and in law, vary between societies and cultures ...

Jurnee Smollett Jurnee Diana Smollett (born October 1, 1986) is an American actress. She began her career as a child actress appearing on television sitcoms, including '' On Our Own'' (1994–1995) and ''Full House'' (1992–1994). She gained greater recognition ...

also joined the cast as 11-year-old Jurnee, whom Hilton adored. The show was based on the concept from the BBC series '' One Foot in the Grave'', starring Richard Wilson and

Annette Crosbie Annette Crosbie (born 12 February 1934) is a Scottish actor.Annette Crosbie fil ...

David Renwick David Peter Renwick (; born 4 September 1951) is an English author, television writer, actor, director and executive producer, best known for creation of the sitcom ''One Foot in the Grave'' and the mystery series '' Jonathan Creek''. He was awa ...

, the creator and writer of ''One Foot in the Grave'', was listed as a consultant of ''Cosby''. ''One Foot in the Grave'' was notable for containing dark humor for a mainstream sitcom. The tone was significantly lightened for ''Cosby'', although certain controversial scenes, such as a scene in which the lead character incinerates a live

tortoise Tortoises () are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin: ''tortoise''). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like oth ...

, albeit by accident, were recreated (though, in this version, with a

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked t ...

). A notable later episode was the fourth-season premiere, "My Spy", which showed Hilton watching an episode of ''

I Spy I spy is a guessing game where one player (the ''spy'' or ''it'') chooses an object within sight and announces to the other players that "I spy with my little eye something beginning with...", naming the first letter of the object. Other players a ...

'' (the 1960s series in which Cosby co-starred) and then dreaming an adventure with Robert Culp's character from that series; the episode ends with a brief dream sequence in which Rashad dreams she is playing her previous character from ''

''. The same season also presented an episode entitled "Loving Madeline" which featured the standard opening credits for the series but was in fact a tribute to Kahn featuring the cast members out of character discussing the recently deceased actress, punctuated by clips from past episodes. ''Cosby'' premiered to an audience of more than 24.7 million viewers, but averaged 16 million viewers during the course of the season. As the series progressed, ratings shrank and CBS, fresh with new hit comedies in ''

Everybody Loves Raymond ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' is an American sitcom television series created by Philip Rosenthal that aired on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005, with a total of 210 episodes spanning nine seasons. It was produced by Where's Lunch an ...

'' and ''

The King of Queens ''The King of Queens'' is an American television sitcom that ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007, a total of nine seasons and 207 episodes. The series was created by Michael J. Weithorn and David Litt, who also served as the show ...

'', decided to move the series from Monday to Wednesday, then to the

Friday night death slot The "Friday night death slot" or "Friday evening death slot" is a perceived graveyard slot in American television. It implies a television program in the United States scheduled on Friday evenings (typically, between 8:00 and 11:00 p.m. ET) ...

. The moves led to a drop in ratings. At the end of the fourth season, having accumulated 96 episodes, Cosby and CBS executive Les Moonves mutually decided to end the series. The last episode, "The Song Remains the Same", aired on April 28, 2000, and was the 96th episode to be produced and broadcast, drawing just over 7 million viewers.

Episodes

Cast

Main

— Hilton Lucas *

— Ruth Lucas *

— Erica Lucas * Doug E. Doug — Griffin Vesey *

— Pauline Fox *

— Jurnee (season 3; recurring season 2) * Darien Sills-Evans — Darien Hall (seasons 3–4)

Recurring

*Angelo Massagli — Angelo (season 2) * Sinbad — Daniel (season 3)

Reruns/syndication

The series was distributed by Carsey-Werner Distribution for broadcast syndication for the 2000–2001 television season, where it ran until the fall of 2004; after that point it was offered in low-cost barter arrangements. TBS shortly thereafter ran reruns of the series for about two years. In March 2010,

Up TV UP TV (stylized as UPtv; formerly GMC TV and originally Gospel Music Channel) is an American basic cable television network that was founded to have a focus on gospel music. It has expanded into family-friendly original movies, series, and special ...

(the current UP Network) began airing the show, but as a family network with religious ownership, removed some episodes and edited some content in episodes to meet the network's mores. It began to air on

Bounce TV Bounce TV is an American digital multicast television network owned by Katz Broadcasting, a subsidiary of E. W. Scripps Company. Promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multicast broadcast network created to target African Americans", the channel fe ...

in January 2015, but was removed from air on July 7, 2015, when records were made public regarding Bill Cosby's sexual assault cases. Two seasons are available through Hoopla. All 4 seasons are listed for streaming on Amazon Prime but not currently available for actual streaming.

Nielsen ratings

''Cosby'' was considered to be a ratings success for CBS, winning its time slot of Monday, 8:00 PM in households and viewers for the first three seasons.

References

External links

''Cosby'' @ CBS' Official WebsiteCarsey-Werner ''Cosby''
* * {{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Cosby'' , list = {{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Comedy Series {{People's Choice Award for Favorite New TV Comedy Bill Cosby 1990s American black sitcoms 1990s American sitcoms 2000s American sitcoms 1996 American television series debuts 2000s American black sitcoms 2000 American television series endings American television series based on British television series CBS original programming English-language television shows Television series about families Television series by Carsey-Werner Productions Television series created by Bill Cosby Television shows filmed in New York City Television shows set in New York City