The Cosby Show/YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation: There are times when Clair can really be something between a control freak or outright tyrant. While it's most often Played for Laughs in her not allowing Cliff to do some things he wants and in other cases, but it really isn't appropriate for her to call ahead to a store where Cliff is a regular customer and telling the owner not to sell him anything; it hurts the guy's business and she has no right to make that kind of demand as it's not her property. The punchline of this every time it comes up is the fact that Clair is a lawyer and she'd find some way to get back at them.
- One episode in season 3 supports this as we learn just who Rudy got her incredibly bossy attitude from.
And the Fandom Rejoiced: The original DVD release of Season 1 contained the syndicated (ie: cut) episodes as the distributors couldn't obtain the rights to the original music in the uncut episodes. Cue the release of the Complete Collection with the uncut Season 1 a few years later.
Award Snub: Bill Cosby himself stated that Phylicia Rashad deserved an Emmy for her performance on the show numerous times, but was never even nominated.
- In the "Lookback Special," Cosby again mentioned this, but then said (paraphrasing), "When you look at the kinds of things she'd be up against today, she doesn't need it."
Contractual Purity: Lisa Bonet after her controversial appearance in the movie Angel Heart, in which she appeared nude and had a squicky sex scene.
Crosses the Line Twice: So a taxi carrying a pregnant lady crashes into Dr. Huxtable's car and he has to deliver her baby right there. Despite the adrenaline rush of an emergency situation for the characters, it's made hilarious for the audience.
Harsher in Hindsight: The fact that Theo was based on Cosby's Real Life only son Ennis who was tragically murdered by a carjacker in 1997.
It Got Worse: Vanessa and Clair's relationship over the course of the whole series fits this, especially in season 6 when Clair calls her a wench (though not to her face) and, later on after the Baltimore incident, outright tells her that she cannot be trusted. Vanessa doesn't appear often enough in the final two seasons for this to be pursued further.
- This may also be a good argument for why Vanessa would have graduated from high school early by attending summer school between seasons 6 and 7: to get away from Clair!
Jumping the Shark: The series really hit its stride in the second, third and most of the fourth season. It began to turn downhill a little bit in the fifth and sixth seasons, but was still on top of the game. The seventh season began on a high note, but then came Pam.
- The ratings also support this as well. The show was #1 on TV from seasons 2-6.
- Bill Cosby himself said this happened as early as the third season when, after Phylicia Rashad had her Hide Your Pregnancy time, Cliff and Clair's onscreen romance moments become much less frequent.
Large Ham: Jade, girlfriend of Theo's friend Dennis and a drama student: "If truth shall be my companion in the FUHLAAMES...so be it!"
- Just don't call her a ham to her face.

"ME? A HAM?! I cannot BELIEVE it! I'm so distraught, I MUST have a cappucino!"

Retroactive Recognition: Adam Sandler plays Smitty, one of Theo's high school buddies. Iman and Angela Bassett can be spotted as patients of Cliff. Raven-Symone plays Olivia.
- Apparently in one of Jadzia Dax's former lives she was blonde and dating a friend of Cliff and Claire's.
The Scrappy: Olivia, possibly bordering on Creator's Pet.
- Pam Tucker. Heavily evidenced by the fact that her character isn't even mentioned in the "Lookback Special" released as part of the Season 1 DVD collection.
  - Taken even further in the Complete Collection's special features as Pam is only shown in a single photo, completely alone, in the gallery. People viewing it for the first time may not even know who it is.
Seinfeld Is Unfunny: The many, many imitators that have come since make even the best of Cosby episodes seem stale and dated.

Back to The Cosby Show