Charlie & Co.

I had to watch at least the first episode after seeing Flip Wilson promote the show.

Think about that point in tv history - Cosby was seriously big time. Rumor was Cos was going to buy NBC. Flip Wilson appeared on the Tonight Show promoting his new show, Charlie & Co. ("on another network.") Thet spent about four minutes on generic catching up conversation, then Flip introduced his new show and the obligatory fillm clip. Following the clip Johnny Carson gently fielded the idea of the inevitable comparisons to The Cosby Show.

Flip responded the comparisons wouldn't be a problem..."Our show is about a Black family." I thought Johnny would hurt himself cringing and laughing at the same time.

Too bad the funniest line from C&Co was delivered on the Carson show.

This show wasn't so bad, as the previous reviewer would let you believe, but come on, it was going up against The Cosby Show. I liked it because it focused on more than just the kids in the show and some of the episodes were pretty darn funny.

And this should have been Jaleel White's main show, not that weird "Family Matters." A show about a fam with a strong father figure. When you want a comedy that showed black people living the way black people wanted to see themselves live (high, wealthy, educated), this show was groundbreaking just like "The Cosby Show."

The mom is a teacher and the father is a construction worker. What I loved about this show was it was rougher and working-class. "Cosby" gets boring after a while for that reason. As a working-class kid, this show is closer to my life. Too bad that this aired on CBS, however. This should have been on ABC, Fox, or NBC.

I remember when CBS and ABC had to have their answer to the huge success of the Cosby Show. CBS brought Flip Wilson and Gladys Knight as a middle class African American show living in an apartment with children played by Jaleel White who became better known as super nerd, Urkel on Family Matters and Kristoff St. John who is on Young and the Restless as Neil Winters. The show also included the wonderful Della Reese. The cast was first rate but the writing was forgettable at best. I don't recall much except that the network was trying to cash in on Cosby's success. Either way, the first rate cast moved on to better themselves.

I cannot believe that anyone has anything good to say about this show. It was BEYOND bad. Just seeing Gladys Knight trying to act is painful enough (I can't understand why anyone who can sing with such feeling can be such a horrific actor but...) I remember when this show debuted. it was clear that CBS was trying to make it's own Cosby Show clone and even the COs himself mentioned how he felt hurt by his old friend Flip Wilson doing this to him. The writing was pitiful, the acting was from bad to worse and there is nothing memorable (in a good way) about this misfire. Be glad it isn't on any video format and pray it stays that way.