I'm at home with my sick son and I just watched an episode of the Cosby Show on the CW. Its still a great show. I hope to be half the father Heathcliff Huxtable was.

the first few seasons of the cosby show are some of my favorite television ever.

i still think the best episode was that first pilot. "theo, that's the dumbest thing that i've ever heard. no wonder you get D's!"

The Cosby Show is a classic. From the Gordon Gartrell episode to Vanessa's Halloween party to the various musical numbers the family performed the show is funny and still good to this day. Even in the latter years when it lost some of it's shine it was still better than a lot of the junk that passes for comedy these days.

wow, this is the most interesting thread ever. Please speak more of this formulaic 80s sit-com so you losers will have a further excuse not to leave the house and have any oportunities to actually *gasp* talk to a girl.

First three seasons are immortal. After Lisa Bonet left b/c the Cos couldn't handle deviations from his moral code, it starts falling apart. By the time they bring in Rayven to shore up the loss of cute kids, it succumbs to the usual sitcom tropes and suddenly is impossible to pretend it's anything other than Leave It to Beaver with better music.

Still, that episode where the family lip synchs Ray Charles' "The Night Time" is TV gold.

There are so many classic episodes and moments from those first few seasons.

-Denise gets into a car accident and the family meets Stevie Wonder
-The family sets up the house in order to show Theo what living in the "real world" is like.
-The smooth contest
-Denise's boyfriend comes over for dinner and he doesn't want to go to college because he wants to "find himself"
-The kids first day of school

Also the ones I mentioned before Gordon Gartrell and Vanessa's Halloween party.

Hey... Fuck you.

And by the wife, I just got of the phone with my wife. Meaning I *gasp* talked to a girl. And in the OP I talked about my son, meaning I *gasp* did more than just talk with said girl.

I have to admit that 'The Cosby Show' always struck me as total pablum. The episode with Stevie Wonder was as excruciating as it gets.

How many accounts have you had on this "Sound Opinions" message board at this point?

What's the over/under.. like 10? I got over.

Quality series, but doesn't come near the greatness of his first TV show ("The Bill Cosby Show").

I haven't seen this show in ages but I do recall that it has one of the best theme somgs in TV history.

America needs more sitcoms that are taped before a live studio audience. I'm tired on this one-camera, vérité business.

The multiple-camera sitcom's making a comeback. Unfortunately, that comeback is spearheaded by Chuck Lorre, whose Two & a Half Men and Big Bang Theory are exercises in the vapid and trite.

I have an affinity for triteness, but I'm not so fond of vapidity.

My favorite episode--those last 5 minutes are money.

Night Court - now there was a show.

I think Bill Cosby deserves some credit and praise for introducing a lot of people in the mainstream to music and artists that otherwise weren't shown on TV at the time. Consider the people that passed through the show and maybe sang a song or two: Nancy Wilson, Betty Carter, Miriam Makeba, BB King and many others. Not to mention the songs that were played on the show. A few years back a boss of mine asked me for the name of the song Claire lip synced to Cliff at the end of the Stevie Wonder episode (Candy) because he wanted to go online and download it. I'm sure he's not the only one that bought songs or looked into certain artists because they were on the Cosby Show a few times.

Absolutely. Thought about making this point myself. Cosby brought so much of the African American culture he loved to middle America. Just seeing Miles Davis's face on that classic Tutu cover poster in Theo's room was big for me. The episode where he geeks out over the rare recording of "Night in Tunisia" was my intro to the world of jazz.

Thanks to this post, I now have that soprano sax with wood block breaking theme song stuck in my head.

HA! It's a shame that TV shows nowadays don't care about theme songs the way they used to. I mean you may have hated a show and their theme but I bet you know all of the words to the theme from Family Ties or Cheers or Who's The Boss.

Kiss The Floor, The Cosby Show introduced a lot of folks to new genres. I'm no jazz geek by any means but one of my favorite songs is "Moody's Mood For Love" and it all started with it being sung on The Cosby Show.

They don't want to pay royalties and they don't want to take time away from the ads.

It was a great show, no doubt. (ANd yes, I remember his original show where he was a teacher on CBS)

Yes, Chet Kincaid. He was the PE teacher, but he also subbed for the other faculty, usually with humorous results in typical 60s sitcom fashion.



The writing was top-tier Sheldon Leonard sitcom machine, and Cosby really shined in his '60s bachelor hipster role. And yes, the Quincy Jones theme song is perfection.

Classix.

Here's what the Master has to say:

i knew neither that alan thicke wrote theme songs nor that bill cosby had a third eponymous sitcom

cosby show was one of the best family sitcoms (which are no longer made, essentially). it introduced us to adam sandler, let's not forget. and what's more important, adam sandler or african-american culture?

Alan Thicke and his wife Gloria Loring wrote a ton of theme songs back in the day. Including the Diff'rent Strokes theme.

Hard to believe that guy is the father of a current R&B star. LOL

I think the only show Bill Cosby was ever on that wasn't a play on his name was I Spy.

Many a future star got their start on the Cosby Show. Adam Sandler, Blair Underwood, Robin Givens, Naomi Campbell, and some others I'm sure I'm forgetting. Not to mention the already established folks that were on there. Christopher Plummer, Robert Culp, Rita Moreno, Sammy Davis Jr, etc, etc.

Adam Sandler (and Colin Quinn) got his start on a little network called MTV. the show was called Remote Control. Still cant' believe Ken Ober killed himself. At one time, it was the coolest game show, period.

Back to Cosby-- yeah, the Robert Culp episodes were a treat. Such good friends.

What?

I believe he means Ken Ober who died a few months ago. However, I don't think it was a suicide.

According to Wiki Kurt Loder is alive and well and living in NYC.

I will doublecheck on the suicide, but AOL had him in a big montage on dead celebs.

SORRRY-- it was Ken Ober, not Kurt loder (goddamn flu makes everything fuzzy)

He was the the MTV generation's Alex Trebek.

Ken Ober, host of the '80s game show "Remote Control" has died at 52, his representative confirmed to MTV News.

While the cause of his death was not available at press time, Lee Kernis of Brillstein Entertainment Partners, who represented Ober, said the cause was unknown.

According to the rep, friends said Ober was not feeling well over the weekend and had a headache and flu-like symptoms and didn't meet them as planned. An autopsy is planned.

"Remote Control" debuted in 1987 and Ober hosted for five seasons which, along with "Club MTV" and "The Week In Rock," was MTV's first foray into series television.

The show tested kids' knowledge of pop-culture on a set that bore a strong resemblance to any suburban basement. Ober would stand behind a lectern and next to a giant TV screen, would ask questions about celebrities, movies, TV shows and music videos.

"Remote Control" helped launch the careers of Adam Sandler, Denis Leary and Colin Quinn, who act out sketches doubling as quiz questions.

he debuted on both remote control and cosby in '87. i'm gonna guess more people saw him first on cosby

my sister took a community college course with the kid who played tubby little peter on the cosby show. said he looked the same

after being rejected by ABC, cosby show won comedy emmy in its first season. seasons 2 and 3 were nominated. rashad got lead actress noms in seasons 1 and 2. bonet, pulliam and warner each got a supporting nom in season 2

seasons 2-6 the show was atop the ratings, averaging over 30 million viewers per episode at its peak. ironically, season 6 ratings were matched by 'roseanne', a show based on lead actor's standup routine. seinfeld later went to #1 with the same concept

See what I'm saying? The show is awesome. (Though the seasons with cousin Kim were not my favorite).

I stand corrected.

those last couple seasons were pretty bad. kim + rudy as an adolescent, both getting plenty of storylines. yuck

when they started getting into "issues" as a substitute for story, that's when things got sucky.

Gordon Gartell is classic shit.

Lol even w/o clicking the vid.

How appropos

This week I started catching The Cosby Show on that channel MeTV early in the morning and they're at the beginning of the series. Yesterday was the dead goldfish episode. Gordon Gartrell should be coming on sometime this week. LOL

I totally forgot about that show. Til I was reminded of the theme when watching Family Guy. So good:

story checks out

Jesus, Sid! That is some serious Indian Jones archaeology there! Well done!

Speaking of great Cosby programs with great themes, how have we not discussed this:

I'm at home with my sick son again. You know what that means: its Cosby Show time!

Seriously, how long did it take you guys to figure out who "Bill" was? I had help, because my dad had the "my brother russell" routine on his record.

All hail mush-mouth!

Hmmm... I wonder if that show could be considered 'racist' (in its depiction of blacks) by today's pc standards?

yeah its a great show, its not indie comedy its broad humor and a cute show that i loved. and even when it wasnt funny it just made u feel all warm and fuzzy inside and if clare huxtable isnt the sexiest mama in tv history i dont know who is, i would smash dat way b4 denise huxtable.