From what I remember, Sondra does go to law school. I recall at least one talk with Claire about the struggles of balancing school and toddlers. Denise decides to go back to school (locally, not at Hillman) after becoming a class mom at Olivia’s innovative preschool. She decides she’d love to teach in an environment like that, and everyone she consults says it isn’t possible without her Bachelor’s. There were at least a few scenes of her studying during the rest of that season.
Cosby is just not the type to let his fictional family be fuck-ups forever, no matter the comedic potential. His sense of obligation to be a standard bearer for African-Americans (rightly or wrongly) is too strong for that.
And by the way, though I posted before, I didn’t actually say that I liked the show myself. I did, with the exception of a few preachy episodes. In fact The Cosby Show holds a rare honor in my universe–it is only one of three shows that have a scene that made me laugh hysterically, to the point where I had trouble stopping. It was the show in which Sondra was very sick, and Claire and Elvin’s mother take the babies without her permission. When Sondra burst in the door wearing a hospital mask, looking like a demented Wild West villain, demanding the return of her children, I lost it. (The other two scenes were from Taxi, and* Frasier*. I won’t go into those here.)
I also like* Seinfeld*, and consider it to be a classic TV show, even though the final season was lackluster.
I never liked Claire that much…I didn’t think about it in terms of her humiliating the kids, just that she always seemed…cold. Now that you mention it, I don’t remember her ever seeming all that happy in general. Except for when it came for discipline.
Lots of people are talking about Claire’s temper. I seem to recall seeing a screen test for Rashad, auditioning for the part. It’s an impromptu monologue, where she starts to go off and berate an unseen person. In the midst of it, she starts speaking Spanish, combining her very evident toughness with a string of staccato, incomprehensible (for me, at least) words.
I always liked the show, but I agree that it went on too long (and when they added Olivia, it became a sad parody of itself). My favorite moments are the times when they would perform choreagraphed musical numbers, and my favorite episode was the one where they turned the house into a real world for Theo.
One of my favorite lines came from the first, or maybe the pilot, episode. Claire was picking up toys and general kid mess and she and Cliff were talking about things the kids had done that got on their nerves.
Cliff: Why did we have four kids?
Claire: Because we didn’t want five!
It was funny in itself, and I recognized it as a parent, but it also amused me when I saw it because it was in a rerun, and by that time I had watched several years of the show where they actually did have five.
That’s why I think it might have been the pilot. They were also in a different house.
Here’s my favorite scene, that makes me always look fondly on the Cosby Show:
It’s Valentine’s Day and Cliff, Eldon, and Denise’s husband (whose name will come to me eventually) have decided to compete to see which of them comes up with the most romantic present. The two sons-in-law insist that there be a price limit, since Cliff’s funds are limitless.
Cliff spends a lot of time on the phone, trying to track down something from his and Clair’s childhood.
The day of the Valentine’s Day dinner Clare, Sondra, and Denise have just found out that they are being competed over, and for whatever reason decide to give their husbands a hard time.
Denise’s husband made a little time capsule of souvenirs he saved from his life with Denise. Denise forgets her resolution to give him a hard time and melts into a romantic puddle, instead.
Similar results for Eldon and Sondra. Eldon bought Sondra a single pearl, and tells a little story of how he’s going to add a pearl every year of their life together. Sondra melts.
Clare, though, is made of bitchier stuff. She’s not going to fall for it. She’ll teach Cliff not to wager on her.
Cliff gives her a small, wrapped box. Starts telling the story of young Cliff and Clare, and how teenaged Clare once really wanted a wooden barrette from the drugstore.
As he’s telling the romantic story of how he tracked down this wooden barrette, Clare is unwrapping the present, saying, “Very romantic, Cliff, but it was Eunice (somebody) who wanted the wooden barrette. I wanted a green, plastic bracelet.”
And she has just finished unwrapping the present and she’s holding a green, plastic bracelet in her hand.
A lot of shows start out edgy so they’ll survive in the ratings. Once established, they start playing it safe and the quality slides. Early episodes had that “Roseanne” feel to them, putting the smackdown on the kids. I remember Claire saying to one of the kids: “I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it.”
I liked the episode where Theo decides he wants to buy his girlfriend a “diamonoid” ring. The episodes that focused on the foibles of childhood were the best, much better than Cos mugging for the camera and showing how clever/cool/cute he is.
I think you have to keep in mind the time frame of when it was aired. I thought it was funny back in the 80’s but i couldn’t watch it now. Its like Laverne and Shirley or happy days…hilarious back when they were on TV, but “meh” if I watched them now.
Though I agree with you about Seinfeld. never made me laugh. Occassionally i found it slightly amusing but nowhere near as funny as people said. My wife like to watch “Friends” on DVD…and that show never made me laugh. Wince, but not laugh.
I love Clair Huxtable. She’s my favorite TV mom. I see a lot of criticism towards her for being a bitch or generally ill-tempered, but she could also be very loving and warm. In the ep where Rudy breaks Cliff’s juicer, Clair confronts Rudy about it but never yells or goes off. She simply hugs her and empathizes that the juicer must have been really tempting since it’s shiny and has lots of buttons. “That’s the reason your father likes it.”
Practically every other episode ended with Clair and Cliff cuddling on the couch like teenagers or dancing up the stairs to some jazz ballad. Kind of icky but even to my 8-year-old self in the 80s, it was clear they had a very loving marriage. That sort of relationship is sorely lacking from today’s sitcoms where all husbands and wives do is annoy each other.
Nitpick: That was Cliff. It follows close on the heels of the “Theo, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life” line described above, from the pilot. As I recall, it’s followed by something like: “now, you’re afraid to try because you’re afraid that your head is going to explode, and your brain is going to ooze out your ears. But you’re going to try because I said so. I am your father. I brought you in this world; I’ll take you out.”
Likely the whole reason Cliff was a OB/GYN was to draw material from the “Lamaze” segment of Cosby’s Himself comedy album, which also contained material he would adapt for early episodes about dealing with the kids (“brain damage”, “come here, come here, come here!”, “she may be blinded for life!” and the aforementioned “Why do we have four/five children?”)
I don’t know how many people realize this, but all of the characters were supposed to be like this. It was the anti-sitcom: None of the characters were likable. The whole premise was based on schadenfreude because these self-absorbed morons did it to themselves time after time. But then, I thought the last episode made sense and was true to the series. (No Exit for the prime time crowd.)
