The Cosby Show premiered in 1984 on NBC and ran for eight seasons.  During five of those eight seasons it was the most watched sitcom on television.  The show focused around the Huxtables, an upper-middleclass African-American family living in New York.  Bill Cosby, who was a pioneer in African-American mainstreem standup comedy, portraied Heathcliff Huxtable, a local physician.  He would come home tired from work, and try to relax while his wife and five children interrupt him.  Not that he minds of course, the family interraction in the home was the focus of nearly every episode.  So of course Dr. Huxtable put on a smile and entertained the children, from Olivia, Rudy, Theo, Vanessa, and even Sandra.  The show was designed to portray what it is like to raise children of all ages, and thus five children ranging in age from five to twenty, and to this end it was very successful.  The Huxtables never ostracised or physically punished their children, of course, but there was still their own style of ‘tough’ love:  the comedic style. 

Not only was the show the top rated sitcom for five consecutive seasons, but the show also won three Emmys and three Golden Globe awards.  The success of The Cosby Show in the early eighties made it a household name, and this success has allowed it to remain on cable as an endless cycle of reruns twenty years later.  While the show is no longer a staple of network television, it is still on everyone’s list of greatest television shows/moments of all time.  It also launched the careers of a few aspiring actors.  Raven Symone has her own show today, the Disney channel’s That’s So Raven.  Malcolm-Jamal Warner moved on to the silver screen for a handfull of roles, but, ultimately, he found his greatest success on television:  starring in the spinoff of The Cosby Show, A Different World, as well as made for TV movies, and making many cameo appearances. 

As this icon of television began when I was four years old, and stopped airing on network television when I was twelve

Television fiction

Reno 911! has been a staple of Comedy Central programing for the past four seasons.  I have seen every episode that has aired (as well as the movie, but that’s for another time).  The TV comedy parodies the reality TV show COPS.  On Reno 911!, however, eight actors play incompetent police officers in “The biggest little city in the world” and every week the officers  respond to crazy little old ladies in their underwear, drunk knights at the renaissance fair, homosexual prostitute roller skaters, and crazy white-trash methamphetamine addicts.  Each officer, of course, has his or her own story line.  First, their fearless leader Lt. Jim Dangle.  This obvious closet homosexual officer is the only member of the “force” that wears officially approved sheriff’s department short-shorts while on duty every episode.  Then there is the object of Jim’s obsession — Officer Jones.  This large African-American male officer is always chasing after the ladies (especially Clemy, but we’ll get to her later) except for the other African American cast member, Officer Raenesha Williams.  She is the stereotypical African-American woman:  inarticulate and full of attitude (not to mention the long nails and big booty).  Next we come to Officer Clementine Johnson.  This character is a self-absorbed white woman who thinks that all men want to have sex with her, and she, in fact, wants to have sex with them.  She adds her own twist to the uniform by wearing the sheriff’s department shirt unbuttoned to show off the effort of her push-up bra.  Next, is Officer Trudy Wygle.  This woman has issues; from talking to her dead mother’s tombstone, to dating a serial killer, to marrying the serial killer just before his execution, to fawning over Lt. Dangle, to attempting suicide on accident this character is just plain insane.  Officer Travis Junior is the typical macho white male cop.  He also has an interesting uniform adjustment; he always wears a bulletproof vest, always, and he always has his aviator sunglasses on.  He speaks with an obvious southern drawl, and is often the butt of the slapstick humor that includes things like “testing” the bulletproof vest, and being rolled over by the department’s H2 Hummer.  Deputy James Garcia is the only Latin American officer on the team.  He is the oldest member of the force, and the other members of the force generally treat him like dirt.  Finally, Deputy Cheresa Kimball, the newest member of the Reno sheriff’s department.  This character seems to be the only member of the department who honestly wishes to enforce the law, but the other deputies all think she is a lesbian and she does not help the situation by admitting that she has “had fantasies, even dreams about being with a whoman.”  Overall, Reno 911! is a childish and immature parody off COPS, but it is one of Comedy Central’s most followed original series.  To me, it is a hilarious look at middle-American Sheriff’s departments who seem to have little-t0-nothing to do with their time, and when something does actually happen, they all show up for the action.s