3937 replies to this topic

[mbridgii]

They even brought in a street urchin, to bring the "ghetto element" to this straight-laced family. That show was terrible, even for a message program.

The family shows I still watch today are those that didn't specifically try to teach me something. I really dislike the condescending tone Cliff and Clair had toward their kids. As stupid as I still think they were (Sondra and Elvin had degrees from Princeton and all they could think of was a wilderness store and waitressing? BS.)

I liked Martin, but wasn't a fan of his introduction into the show because he was so "white bread" (by which, I mean dull as dishwater). You just know Denise has left him and Olivia by now to hook up with some pot smoking, dreadlocked, granola eater (who would end up cheating on her - hee)

The girl from "Family Matters" apparently had a stint in adult films. "Did I do that?"

[SorchaRei]

It also causes me to bite my tongue when I am watching Everybody Loves Raymond and thinking, "Why do these two dark haired people have three blonde children?" 

My mother had (before she went grey) dark brown hair, as does my brother. Both of them were blond(e) as children. It runs in her family and even has a name -- kids who have very light hair that darkens as they get older are called "towheads".

My brother had nearly white hair as a small child. In junior high, it was honey blond. In high school, it was dark blond. By the time he was 25, it was dark brown.

Pictures of my mom's family show six blond(e)s and a redhead. By the time I knew them, it was six brunet(te)s and a redhead.

[jenmarie]

I grew up with this show, I still watch it sometimes on Nick at Nite. I'm so happy I found a thread for it!

Rudy is sporting a moustache and unfortunate hair

Heh. That's from a few pages back, but I had to quote it. I hated tween Rudy. Hated Stanley more, but I still loved Kenny, even as a tween. Kenny's first episode where Rudy is bossing him around, and he's missing his front teeth is still a favorite of mine.

Someone else posted their hatred for the Clair loses weight episode. I agree with that. One reason I hated it so much is because I thought Cliff was unnecessarily cruel to Clair in attempting to thwart her effort to lose weight. I did love the scene where Clair is alone in the kitchen and she takes a stick of butter puts it in the pan and pours the beans over. The look on her face when she tasted the beans cracked me up for some reason.

[Rudy: "Vanessa got shampoo in her eyes. If she goes blind, can we get a dog?"].

Actually, TudorQueen, it was Vanessa who said that. She was always the one talking about wanting a dog, especially if it meant replacing Rudy.

I hated Denise with a passion, can't pinpoint why. I just hated her so much, especially after she went to college and came back. The episode where she came back and ignored her family to be with her friends made me hate her even more. Although I did love the Gordon Gartrelle episode, that was more because of Theo's reaction to the shirt. "It's tucked into my shoes!"

I hated Olivia with the same passion, but I actually liked Martin. I like Joseph C.Phillips a lot, he's a good actor and was on General Hospital for awhile after he left the Cosby Show. I also kind of liked Pam and Charmaine, I thought some their scenes were kind of funny. But I agree that the episodes during the years were really sucked.

Favorite episode after all these years is still the pilot, because it had the great Theo/Cliff scene, Vanessa's "Who it is!" line and her asking her dad if Rudy is blind can they get a dog, but especially because it had my very favorite Cliff quote ever. It's after Cliff is done with Theo and he comes down stairs and just before he sees Denise's new boyfriend he asks Claire "How ugly is he?"

It also always bothered me that they didn't keep Cockroach around after Theo got out of highschool. I loved Cockroach, he was a riot.

[boomersmommy]

One more little thing on the addressing him as Mr. Cosby thing. I would do it initially because of the way I was raised, but I would resent him if he "demanded" it of everyone. It makes him sound like he's being an ass, even if he's not.

Show: Back to Olivia, Martin and Elvin call Cliff and Clair "Mom" and "Dad" so we're back to "My daddy calls this guy Dad but I have to call him Dr. Huxtable?" I don't really even like the character of Olivia, but I feel so bad for her when I think about, if it was real, what an uncomfortable situation that child was placed in.

[pomme de terre]

My sister told me that Keisha Knight Pulliam is going to be in a Chingy video. Please tell me this is not true. If Rudy is now a videho, I am going to curl up on the floor and cry. She was my hero when I was 5!

[AngelaLucas]

I always had a problem with the sons-in-law calling them "Mom" and "Dad." Maybe because in my family that is seen as disrespectful to your own parents. But maybe a lot of people do it? I don't know ...

Where can I join the Pam-haters club? Because I do. She added NOTHING to the show and her friends were just annoying.

[truffles17]

I always had a problem with the sons-in-law calling them "Mom" and "Dad." Maybe because in my family that is seen as disrespectful to your own parents. But maybe a lot of people do it? I don't know ...

This always bugged me too. One day you're calling them Cliff and Clair (or Dr. & Mrs. Huxtable), then after you're married it immediately becomes Mom and Dad. Plus, Clair always called Cliff's parents Russell and Anna, not Dad and Mom.

I've known Mr. Truffles17's parents for several years, and still cannot bring myself to call them anything other than their first names.

[morecowbell]

Anyone remember the birthday episode for Rudy and they go out to eat and get big burgers and I think salads with giant croutons but call them "krau-tins"? Me and my friends sometimes still call them that.

I never knew Bill fired Cockroach. Theo and him were awesome together. Remember the Shakespeare episode? I wish they would have hung onto Peter. I liked him better then Bud.

[Sean C]

I can't see croutons without thinking of Bud, either.

[javatimejava]

There is a scene in the movie The American President in which the Chief of Staff of the President, who has been a lifelong friend of the President and is playing pool with the President one night when they are discussing women (and who always addresses the President as "Mr. President"), is told by the President to call him by his first name. The Chief of Staff, in one of the more beautiful little vignettes in movie history, says, "Yessir, Mr. President." Hee. Chief was right, although I suspect not historically accurate.

Hee. Aaron Sorkin sure does like to recycle his dialogue. He uses this same exchange in a West Wing episode. Actually, several episodes. The scenes involve Charlie and POTUS and Leo and POTUS.

Okay, back to topic...

[Jer2002]

The fact that KK-P is on Celebrity Mole totally made me come here. I love this show, but tiz overplayed. One of my favorite epi's is where Vanessa takes Denise's sweater and they fight to the death and knock Cliff out. Denise sounded so valley girl in that one. Let goooo of miii hair Vanessa!

My favorite Claire quote is this:

Rudy throws Vanessa's book out the window. Vanessa tries to throw Rudy out the window. The cab driver threw all of us out of the cab.

Hee!

[YourDensity]

Vanessa was always good for a great scandal.The sweater fight. The great eppie where they became "The Lipsticks" and sang "The Locomotion" and wore outfits that were too sexy. The crossover when they went to Hillman and pretended to be French and Cara was hitting on Ron Johnson and Vanessa was hitting of Dwayne Wayne and Claire busted her.

And of course the wore makeup when Mom said no eppie, the girlfight because they were "too rich" and Cliff was all psyched Vanessa took on two girls.

And the classic Vanessa gets wasted episode and Claire, Cliff and Rudy decide to make Vanessa "chugalug" and play a drinking game. It ends up being tea "Drink 'er down..."

That's why Vanessa and Theo were my favorite kids. They had the best storylines.

[Sea]

Don't forget when Vanessa went to Baltimore to have big fun with the Wretched.

[Brn2bwild]

Speaking of Big Fun: Sometimes I got the feeling Claire just enjoyed ripping on Vanessa, regardless of the situation. I could see her being upset and really angry after the whole fiasco, but she carried it nearly to the point of sadism. There wasn't a drop of "Thank God, you're all right" in her behavior; she was just anger on wheels.

Edited by Brn2bwild, Jan 9, 2004 @ 2:46 PM.

[jennifuh]

Re: Big Fun. I agree, Claire was way harsh. Sure, she should be super pissed, and I bet none of the other kids ever screwed up that badly. But a teensy bit of, "Look, you royally fucked up but we're happy you're home safe now" would have been nice. Claire scared the living crap out of me in that one!

[RainIsBeautiful]

I think Claire was always harder on Vanessa because it's fun to say, "Vuh-NESS-a" with a little head shake. Hee.

[Annakie]

Speaking of Vanessa, I saw Tempestt Bledsoe on Pet Star not too long ago, and then I felt sad. She's better than that.

[trippyhop]

I still hold that Vanessa's best episode (and one of the series' best episodes) is when she sneaks out of the house to go on a date with Jeremy and ends up getting locked up in her room while Cliff and Claire have a talk with him. Vanessa yelling "Jeremy!!! I'm so sorry!!" and Claire yelling back "Listen, young lady! The boy isn't dead... yet!" still gets me every time.

[javatimejava]

Okay, being bored at work this week, I've been reading entire threads about comedies on TWOP. Thank you all for making these hours fly by. And for the red, stinging eyes...anyone have some Visine?

Y'all have compelled me to stay up to watch TCS on N@N the last couple of nights. And, thanks to various opinions and insight found on these boards, I am giving some of the characters/actors (mainly Theo) a second try. I used to find Theo (and Vanessa) tiresome.

Alas, last night's epi wherein Theo sees Justine with the other guy and goes to to the vooooooodoooooo man--while I was mostly bored--it DID have a great ending with the Cliffman pouring the cooking goo all over Theo's palms...and then pushing Theo's sticky hands onto his cheeks with the towel over his head?! I was ROTB (okay, the show's on late and I'm in bed already). And then to have it end on the sweet note when Theo calls Justine to talk. Awwww.

[Delali]

My sister told me that Keisha Knight Pulliam is going to be in a Chingy video. Please tell me this is not true.

and

It's true. Sad, but true.

Okay, I don't know the girl, and she obviously doesn't know me, but I am so disappointed in her. And I'm sure Mr. C will be too.

[Albanyguy]

Hey, everybody's gotta pay the rent somehow. I remember that back when she was playing Rudy, she had the stereoytypical Hollywood father who was also her "manager", which means that she's probably still supporting her entire family (are you listening, Jessica Simpson?). Also, I'm not sure how true this may be, but I did read someplace that Bill Cosby was extremely stingy with the residual money for everybody but himself. So, none of the kids came out of the show financially secure.

[BewareThePhog]

I think Claire was always harder on Vanessa because it's fun to say, "Vuh-NESS-a" with a little head shake. Hee.

Now that's funny. And so true.

I liked the episode where Claire took the twins away from an ailing Sondra, who later came roaring over to the Huxtables' house to read Claire the riot act and reclaim them. I am generally in favor of the overall theme of showing the parents being clearly in charge of the house, but they tended to make Claire's character a little too perfect - they would show Cliff's foibles, but she was generally portrayed as PerfectSuperMom, so it was funny to see her taken aback by Sondra's tirade.

It also had a couple of funny lines - Elvin's sheepish "Keep me covered..." line when Sondra orders him upstairs to get the babies, and Cliff's "Do you feel lucky?" when Claire asks Elvin's mother whether she thinks it's safe to move yet after Sondra's exit.

[Brn2bwild]

Somehow, Claire was able to speak every language known to man.

[BewareThePhog]

Somehow, Claire was able to speak every language known to man.

Absolutely. If she spoke Spanish, I wouldn't have batted an eye. But Portuguese? That's a little too far out of the mainstream for it to have been anything but a contrivance to show how smart she was while talking with Mrs. Westlake.

Which brings up an interesting point - no doubt Bill wouldn't be thrilled with KKP's latest career moves - but casting Sonia Braga into the Cosby Show is a little odd, since her prior credits included some racy parts if I recall correctly.