Too much time on my hands; A Cosby Show Conundrum

Cafe Society
1

So, we were watching the Cosby show as we are wont to do. I can watch this show a million times (as is evident by the following post) and still like it. It’s simple, it’s fun, it’s feel good TV!

Here is the set up to my question:

The Cosbys had 5 children. It is my understanding, from countless hours of watching this show, that there were 4 bedrooms:

The Master Bedroom (bedroom 1): Cliff and Claire

Bedroom 2: Sondra and Denise’s room. By the time the show takes place, Sondra has moved away to college, leaving Denise with her own room.

Bedroom 3: Theo’s room

Bedroom 4: Vanessa and Rudy’s room.
Toward the very end of the show, the characters change:

The Master Bedroom (bedroom 1): Cliff and Claire

Bedroom 2: This becomes Sondra and Elvin’s room while they await for their new home. This room had previously been used by Denise and Martin.
It isn’t really stated, but it is assumed that their (Sondra and Elvin’s) twins share the room with them as their stay was intended as temporary.

Bedroom 3: Cousin Pam takes Theo’s room, we think. In one episode they show her room and either they had some serious remodeling done or perhaps the twins have this room and the attic (?) was finished out for her. Either way, bedroom three is taken.

Bedroom 4: Rudy shares it with Olivia.

When Sondra and Elvin finally move out, Rudy states with much happiness: AT LAST! I can have my own room now!

Ok, still with me?

Here’s the question:

If you were either Cliff or Claire (depending on which you would prefer to be), how would you have fairly divided up the living quarters? For the sake of arguement, let’s assume the following:

a) There is no attic.

and

b) All the final characters must remain. I say this because for the life of me, I fail to understand why it was that Olivia lived with the Cosbys. Why wasn’t she with her biological grandparents instead of her step-grandparents? Nevertheless, assume you can’t get rid of:

Cliff and Claire
Sondra and Elvin
The Twins, Winnie and Nelson (oh ho! How ironic their names are now!)
Cousin Pam
Rudy
Olivia
Here’s my set up:

Bedroom 1: Cliff and Claire

Bedroom 2: Rudy. Dammit, she’s the only one that rightfully lives in that house. She’s under 18 and is legally bound to live there. The others are not. They either moved out and moved back in or moved in as non-immediate family. Screw 'em, says me, the grouch.

Bedroom 3: Sondra, Elvin, and the twins: One family, one room. Move out if you don’t like it!

Bedroom 4: Pam and Olivia. Yes the ages are vast (17 years old and 5). I fail to see why Rudy must suffer for this. If Pam or Olivia’s parents don’t like it, see comment on bedroom 3. My real solution would be to have the obnoxious Olivia live in the basement, but that was not an option.
What do you think?

2

I think I’ll move this to Cafe Society.

3

First, Pam and her annoying friends need to be shot. I thought about this a lot, and I’ve decided, they just don’t deserve to live.

Second, Sondra and Elvin did move out. They found a nice apartment, and then a house. Cliff co-signed the mortgage and Elvin had a panic attack. I remember that in particular.

Third, Olivia lived with Cliff and Claire because her mom was unable to take her and her dad was stationed in the navy, and Denise really wanted to prove that she could handle raising a baby. She was tired of everybody thinking she was flakey and irresponsible. I don’t know why you think Denise wasn’t there, because she absolutely was. Maybe you didn’t see too much of her because she was going back to college or something. They were going to move to the Naval Base in one ep, but Denise forgot to send in the paperwork.

So, if Pam wasn’t shot, the breakdown would be.

Room 1: Cliff and Claire

Room 2: Rudy

Room 3: Pam

Room 4: Denise and Olivia (They did share a room, I remember Denise putting her to bed in one ep) and um…Martin?..when he’s not stationed overseas.

4

First of all, she lived with the Huxtables, not the Cosbys. :wink:

Second, she was there because Bill needed a cute little girl with who he can have ridiculous conversations. That was part of the appeal of the show. Rudy had gotten too old, so they brought in Olivia.

5

I thought she got fired for doing a racy movie with Mickey Rourke or something that Bill didn’t approve of.

6

Wait a second, I missed something here. What happened to Vanessa? I watched the show in it’s early days, but not when they made all those changes, so where did Vanessa go?

7

Vanessa went to college (I don’t remember which one), got engaged to a man in his thirties named Darby, refused to set a date, realized she was afraid of commitment, called off the engagement, and then um…just stayed at college.

All this happened around the time Sondra and Elvin got their own house because she announced they were breaking up at the housewarming party…

Huh, right, I forgot she got fired. Well at first she was raising Olivia…

8

Well, not originally. In the very first episode, Cliff said, “Do you know why we have four children? It’s because we didn’t want five.” Indeed, Sebrina LeBoef (Sondra) did not join the cast until the second season and was never referred to before that.

9

I’d just like to poke my head in here to note that I always found Sondra much hotter than Denise. So, if need be, I’m perfectly willing to share a bed(room) with Sondra.

10

PLG,

Toward the end of the show (the last season):

Sondra and Elvin lived with the Huxtables for a short bit, They had indeed purchased a house, but the signing went awry or something. The had to move back in until the house was ready for them. I seem to recall they said it would be 3 months for some odd, sit-com reason.

Denise and Martin did in fact live with the Huxtables, but not at the very end. Martin was shipped to Asia (Japan?) and Denise went with him. They were going to pick Olivia up when the tour was done. I know that Olivia’s mom was flakey or something, but it does not negate the fact that Olivia has two sets of biological grandparents (The mom’s parents and Martin’s parents). They showed Martin’s parents once and they seemed nice enough. Now I know that not all parents are like mine (obviously), but if I divorced and my daughter went to go live with my ex-husband’s new wife’s parents, there would be hell to pay.

Trust me. I don’t watch much TV. This is one of the few shows I watch. At the end of the seasons, the characters were as I listed them.
Lord Ashtar,

I know why Olivia the character was in the sitcom. She was needed to replace Rudy as the young child. Play along, will ya?

WVmom:

Vanessa went away to Pennsylvania for college. She was engaged to a guy named Dabnus Brickey (see? Did I not tell you I am a Cosby show geek?).
RealityChuck:
yeah, I recall that too. Bill Cosby said that he wanted to add a fifth child because he wanted to illustrate that Cliff and Claire had raised a child successfully (i,e, sending them off to school and such).

11

I just poked my head in to say…

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! LOOK AT HER HAIR!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Phew breathe…breathe…

Boy, the 80’s were something else, huh?

12

[hijack]

Has anybody seen Keshia Knight Pulliam (Rudy) lately? She has grown into a gorgeous young woman, sort of a latter-day Lena Horne. She was always a cute kid, though.

[/end hijack]

13

I also think it was due in part to the Cos having had 5 children himself (well, no, his wife had them, but you get my point). Two girls, the late Ennis, and then two more girls, just like the Huxtables.

And I thought Denise got her own show (A Different World) but then got kicked off after the first year for getting knocked up by Lenny Kravitz? I think the Mickey Rourke role was later.

14

She was on Celebrity Mole this year. Has she done anything else?

15

Denise did have her own show but I remember she just up and decided she didn’t want to act anymore and broke her contract.