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The Cosby Show, on NBC
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Well, I'd like to say I loved this show, but I dunno. Maybe there was a time, when it was originally airing, that I would have said that. I'm not sure. Certainly in retrospect, I have little enough interest in watching it. Still, while it was a fairly simple premise, it was very comfortable, always reasonably amusing and often heartwarming, and... well, a modern classic.

Of course, it starred Bill Cosby as obstetrician Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable. His wife, Claire was a lawyer. So, they were a fairly affluent family, and it was nice to see an African-American family portrayed this way... I don't really remember race ever being an issue on the show, but it was nice to see a family that anyone could relate to (except for their having more money than most people of any color), without it even seeming like they were... you know, "acting white," or anything. Which I could imagine some people thinking. But whatever, I note all this in passing, because on some level it's important, but on another level, it's rather irrelevant.

Cliff and Claire had several kids. The oldest was Sondra. And then there was Denise, and Theo, Vanessa, and the youngest was Rudy. Sondra eventually married a guy named Elvin Thibideaux, Denise eventually married a guy named Martin Kendall (who had a cute little daughter named Olivia, from a previous marriage; she was played by Raven-Symone, who later went on to do stuff on Disney Channel). In the last season or two, there was a cousin named Pam Tucker staying with the family. The show ran eight years, of course, and over the years there were any number of recurring characters. The kids grew up, things changed, whatever. But ultimately, it was always the same.

It was about family, however large that family might be. And sometimes there were episodes where the family did unusual things, or episodes with fantasy sequences. That was always fun. But mostly it was just very normal... I could almost say boring, it was so normal, except that it was also funny and, as I mentioned before, comfortable. And, naturally, there were sometimes lessons to be learned, for the kids, or whatever. I dunno. And I just can't think what else to say.... Oh yeah, over the years the opening theme changed often, there were different musical styles, though I think it was still always basically the same tune, even if it was sometimes hard to tell. Or maybe it wasn't always the same. But anyway, it was always kinda cool.

It produced a spin-off called A Different World, when Denise went to college. However, she left the show after the first season, and it went on without her.


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