The Bill Cosby Show

In 1965,comedian talent Bill Cosby scored a huge success as being the first black American to star in a non-stereotypical role,playing tennis coach/secret government agent Alexander Scott on the action-adventure espionage series "I Spy",which was produced by Sheldon Leonard which was very successful,filmed on location in various parts of the world and was in full color for the three seasons that it ran on NBC-TV from September 15,1965 until September 2,1968,producing 86 episodes. The show was so brilliant and clever it won Bill Cosby the Emmy in 1966 for Best Supporting Actor in a Dramatic Role.

In 1969,Bill Cosby returned to series television. Only this time it would be a situation comedy series,which was also successful in its own right. Created by Bill Cosby,along with Michael Zagor and Ed. Weinberger(who would go on to produced "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "Taxi",and "Amen"),"The Bill Cosby Show",ran for more than two seasons for NBC-TV from September 14,1969 until August 31,1971,producing 51 episodes. Not only this show was brilliant in its own right,but it was Nominated for 4 Prime-Time Emmys in 1970,including one for Cosby,who was nominated for Best Actor in Comedic Role,along with Quincy Jones who was nominated for Best Original Score for a Television Series(who wrote and composed the theme score). "The Bill Cosby Show" starred Cosby as high school physical education teacher and coach Chet Kincaid. The setting was a school in a lower-middle class neighborhood of suburban Los Angeles. His relationships with family,students,and fellow teachers were emphasized,giving free reign to Cosby's gentle sense of humor and philosophy,which made this series stand-out from other comedies that premiered in the late 1960's and throughout the early 1970's.

His family life with his mother Rose(season one by Lillian Randolph,and second two by Beah Richards),his brother Brian(Lee Weaver)and his sister-in-law Verna(Olga James),were part of the program as his professional with the school principal Mr. Langford(Sid McCoy);the guidance counselor,Mrs.Peterson(Joyce Bulifant),and the suppose of a lot of kids,which came to him for guidance and some wisdom. This show also had a lot of special guest stars who were on board this series: One episode I do recall featured Cosby's co-star from "I Spy" Robert Culp. The others featured British actress Elsa Lanchester,and Henry Fonda. This series hasn't been seen since it was originally broadcast. During the mid-1980's and early 1990's,CBN Cable Network(Christian Broadcasting Network)reaired this series it its entirely. Most recently,the show has been resurrected on DVD.

Bill Cosby's work has always has always been distinguished by a keen intelligence, in every medium to which he turns his talents. 'The Bill Cosby Show' is one of Coz's less distinguished credits, but it deserves to be better known: this series is a brave attempt at doing something different.

Even the theme tune of this series was unusual and distinctive, featuring a vocal track by Cosby himself making weird scat-like sounds ... of the sort now associated with Michael Winslow in the 'Police Academy' movies.

Although nominally a comedy, 'The Bill Cosby Show' was not a conventional sitcom, and there was only secondary emphasis on humour. (In other words, the show wasn't very funny ... but it wasn't trying to be.) Cosby was more interested in depicting believable characters in plausible situations, addressing genuine issues of the time.

Cosby played Chet Kincaid, the gym teacher at an urban high school. In one episode of this series, Chet had to contend with a teenager on his basketball team who played brilliantly but had a penchant for foul language. Unfortunately, American TV in the late '60s couldn't handle this theme sensibly. Whenever the teenager spoke, the soundtrack made a weird electronic bleeping noise ... leaving the audience to **figure out** that the boy had uttered a cuss word. In another episode, Cosby coached a Little League baseball team that only played on Sundays. His star pitcher was a young Hasidic Jew. When a game was rescheduled for the Saturday, Cosby had to deal with the fact that his pitcher's religious beliefs conflicted with his obligations to his teammates.

Bill Cosby is rightly praised for being one of the few African-American comedians who doesn't do racial material, and the skin colour of the character he played in 'The Bill Cosby Show' was almost totally irrelevant. Almost, but not entirely. In one episode, Chet went for a morning jog but immediately got arrested by a couple of white police officers who claimed that Chet fit the description of a man who had just committed a crime. Race was never mentioned, but it's hard not to think of all the occasions when white police officers have randomly arrested **any** black man who happens to be near a crime scene. I thought that this episode would be going in that direction, but I was surprised: at the end of the episode, when the cops nabbed the real culprit, he looked very similar to Cosby. (This reminded me of Hitchcock's movie 'The Wrong Man', starring Henry Fonda, in which the real criminal looked a lot like Fonda.)

Speaking of Henry Fonda, the best episode of 'The Bill Cosby Show' is a real tour de force, a three-hander starring Cosby, Henry Fonda and Elsa Lanchester, and taking place almost entirely in an elevator. Fonda and Lanchester portrayed, respectively, the maths teacher and the Polish charwoman who get trapped in the school's lift with gym teacher Cosby. They spend most of the episode in the elevator, waiting for help. The fact that Lanchester's character speaks no English makes the situation even more frustrating. In a desperate attempt to pass the time, Cosby teaches Fonda how to play Twenty Questions ... with very funny results.

In another episode, veteran character actor Mantan Moreland guest-stars as Chet's uncle. Moreland was a very talented performer who had to spend much of his career doing stereotypical Negro roles ("Feets, do yo' stuff!") but he's very good here as the uncle of Cosby's character. I'll rate 'The Bill Cosby Show' 7 points out of 10 for its honesty, its intelligence, and its bravery in offering audiences something different. But audiences are more interested in brainless laugh-fests than in intelligent character studies... which is why this series flopped.

As a child, I remember watching this show when the reruns aired on CBN (Now the ABC Family Channel) and really enjoying it. So when I saw the First Season DVD on eBay for a low price, I could not resist buying it.

The show centered around Chet Kincaid who was a gym teacher, football and basketball coach, and valuable member of the community. His willingness to help other people always seemed to get him into unenviable situations as well as hurting his love life. For instance, there was one episode where he agreed to do his sick nephew's paper route for one day and he ended up spending all morning trying to get the papers to the right houses. Much of the plot was clean, light-hearted fare. There were no episodes that focused on serious topics like racism. The good thing about the show was that it did not follow the same formula as most other sitcoms at the time. There was no laugh track which was almost unheard of at the time. The episodes focused more on character and situational development instead of laugh-out-loud comedy. Much of the dialog by Bill Cosby seemed like it was ad libbed which gave the show kind of a natural quality. It was also one of the first series to have an African American in a leading role and Cosby served as a great role model.

I vividly remember watching this show as a young kid and thought it was just great. First, I loved the opening theme music. The plots were very memorable. I too remember the one about the foul mouthed basketball player. Another one that sticks out in my mind was when he had to visit his parents and they were always arguing like a typical old couple. It was a text book lesson in comedic timing between two people as they hurled insults at each other. I liked the fact that there was no laugh track so I used my own judgment as to what I thought was funny versus not funny. This show was pure genius for the reasons mentioned that only somebody of Cosby's caliber could pull off. It was a one season wonder. i am going to rent the DVDs and start reliving them now.

This was his BEST show! The heck with the Huxtables and whatever else Cosby did. This was his BEST show! 2 of my favorite episodes was when he subbed for a driver's ed class and when he invited his buddies over to watch a very important football game on his brand new TV. Well, his buddies saw the game but Chet didn't! All the other episode were good also. I wonder if any actors from the series became famous. What a great series with a great theme song and this show along with Room 222 made TV worth watching. I was a 13 when this series came out and decided then that I would NOT marry and tailor my bachelor life just like Chet Kincaid. He was the Bachelors' Bachelor! Hickey Burr! Hickey Burr Hickey Burr!!!! Hickey Burr!! And I don't understand why some previous comments have to mention race. ADDED ON October 2006- You can save the theme song on your computer- http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MQRE7761