The Bill Cosby Show

They show two episodes of this on RTV at 6pm and 6:30pm on Saturdays. The gruff school secretary and the gym teacher are the best... Wasn't Joyce Bulifant a teacher in this as well? I've always found Bill Cosby's low-energy rambles kind of amusing. It's definitely not one of those "Hi! I'm your next-door neighbor and I'm walking into your house without knocking" kind of sitcoms. (Who'd DO that in real life?) Plus, "chet" seems to not have a "steady", but unlike a lot of sitcoms, he's not continually agonizing over it. (It seems all "RoseMarie" did on the Dick van Dyke Show" is complain that "she was unable to snare a man".) Silly me, not having "enough lines" of text. I'm not writing a thesis for my PhD - silly me for wanting to keep things short and sweet.

Some people write about this show "failing" because it was only on for a couple of years. My cloudy recollection is that it was doing OK, between 15-20 in the Nielsens, when Cosby went into one of his funks and quit doing the show. Can anyone verify this? Regardless, it was very, very funny. Character-driven, not gag-every-10-seconds-oriented like so many lame-brained sit-coms. The story lines were often imaginative: e.g. Chet Kincaid spending the whole show trying to replace a needle valve for blowing up basketballs; dealing with a potty-mouthed student and his parents; trying to borrow a vehicle for a big date (ends up driving a garbage truck). It often taught good lessons, but with subtlety compared to his '80s show.

The last time I saw it on the air was on Pat Robertson's old Family Channel over a dozen years ago. !?!?! Why have these re-runs completely disappeared?

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.

As an African-American I really enjoyed "The Bill Cosby Show" primarily because of the image that "Chet Kincaid" portrayed which was a very positive one. The character was well respected in both the School as well as the Community he lived in. He was always giving some advice or helping some youngster with a school or social problem. He was also well respected by his co-workers on the Teaching Staff at the School. He & Joyce Bulifant always seemed to get along together in their exchanges of dialogue together. It was a good feeling for me to see an African-american Actor such as Mr. Cosby play a role that was not that same old "Run of the mill" Stereo-typical Black Man.

This show came at at a time when African-American Actors were trying to get more meaningful roles that would send a much more powerful & positive image to the viewers.

This show was able to accomplish that & for that reason, It should be commended.