The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show, a situation comedy that ran for eight seasons on NBC Television, was one of the most intensely and immediately popular shows ever broadcast in America. The show, which began in the fall of 1984, featured comedian Bill Cosby in the role of obstetrician-father Cliff Huxtable and his family: attorney-wife Claire, daughters Sondra (18), Denise (15), Vanessa (11), Rudy (5), and son Theo (13). According to the December 5, 1985 issue of USA Today, the program premiered at the number one spot on the Nielson ratings, reached that spot ten times during the first season, and was number one in every age group. An estimated 62 million people tuned in every Thursday night during the early years of the show's run. More significantly, The Cosby Show was the first American television show to feature the daily adventures of a prosperous, intact upper-middle class family of African descent.
The source of the show's popularity and significance in television history stemmed not from Bill Cosby's own intentional presentation of the ideology of African-American upward mobility and the restoration of traditional family values to popular culture, but in the sheer pleasure of the nearly plotless structure of the show.
This page contains 201 words.
The Cosby Show article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 1,764 words
(approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page).
Order our The Cosby Show Article
