The Cosby Show is an American television sitcom co-created by and starring Bill Cosby. The series aired from September 20, 1984, to April 30, 1992, on NBC. It focuses on the Huxtables, an upper-middle-class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York; the series was based on comedy routines in Cosby’s stand-up comedy act, which in turn were based on his family life. The series was followed by a spin-off, titled A Different World, broadcast from 1987 to 1993 for 144 episodes in six seasons.
TV Guide listed the series as “TV’s biggest hit in the 1980s”, adding it “almost single-handedly revived the sitcom genre and NBC’s rating fortunes”, while also ranking it 28th on their list of 50 Greatest Shows; with this list, Cliff Huxtable was named as the “Greatest Television Dad” in 2014. In May 1992, Entertainment Weekly stated that The Cosby Show helped to make possible a larger variety of shows with a predominantly black cast, from In Living Color to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
The Cosby Show spent five consecutive seasons as the number-one rated show on television and, along with All in the Family, is the only sitcom in the history of the Nielsen ratings as the number-one show for five seasons, having spent the series in the top 20 ratings. Two hundred-one episodes were produced.
The show focuses on the Huxtable family, an African-American upper-class family, living in a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights, New York, at 10 Stigwood Avenue. The father is Cliff Huxtable, an obstetrician, and son of a prominent jazz trombonist. The mother is his wife, lawyer Clair Huxtable. They have four daughters and one son: Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa, and Rudy. Despite its comedic tone, the show sometimes involves serious subjects
TV Guide listed the series as “TV’s biggest hit in the 1980s”, adding it “almost single-handedly revived the sitcom genre and NBC’s rating fortunes”, while also ranking it 28th on their list of 50 Greatest Shows; with this list, Cliff Huxtable was named as the “Greatest Television Dad” in 2014. In May 1992, Entertainment Weekly stated that The Cosby Show helped to make possible a larger variety of shows with a predominantly black cast, from In Living Color to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
The Cosby Show spent five consecutive seasons as the number-one rated show on television and, along with All in the Family, is the only sitcom in the history of the Nielsen ratings as the number-one show for five seasons, having spent the series in the top 20 ratings. Two hundred-one episodes were produced.
The series was followed by a spin-off, titled A Different World starring Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable away at Hillman College.