The Cosby Show

The Cosby Show is an American television sitcom starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on the Huxtable family, an upper middle-class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York.

According to TV Guide, the show "was TV's biggest hit in the 1980s, and almost single-handedly revived the sitcom genre and NBC's ratings fortunes". In May 1992, Entertainment Weekly stated that The Cosby Show helped to make possible a larger variety of shows with a predominantly African-American cast, from In Living Color to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

The Cosby Show was based on comedy routines in Cosby's stand-up act, which in turn were based on his family life. The show spawned the spin-off A Different World, which ran for six seasons from 1987 to 1993. In many areas, reruns of the show have been discontinued as a result of the sexual assault allegations against Cosby.

Premise

The show focuses on the Huxtable family, an upper middle-class African-American family living in a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights, New York, at 10 Stigwood Avenue. The patriarch is Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable, an obstetrician, son of a prominent jazz trombonist. The matriarch is his wife, attorney Clair Huxtable née Hanks. They have five children, four daughters and one son: Sondra, Denise, Theodore (Theo for short), Vanessa and Rudy. Despite its comedic tone, the show sometimes involves serious subjects, such as Theo's experiences dealing with dyslexia, inspired by Cosby's son Ennis, who was also dyslexic. The show also deals with teenage pregnancy when Denise's friend, Veronica, played by Lela Rochon, becomes pregnant.

List of The Cosby Show episodes

The episodes for the NBC television sitcom The Cosby Show aired from September 20, 1984 to April 30, 1992. There were 202 episodes produced and aired, spanning eight seasons.

Series overview

Episodes

Season 1 (1984–85)

Season 2 (1985–86)