Friday, February 4, 2011

The Cosby Show

Kate says Cosby makes The Cosby Show work.

I grew up on Cosby, Cosby before The Cosby Show--the stand-up comedy he did about growing up in Philadelphia, etc. My life has never been anything like either Cosby's real life (before or after he became famous) or his fictional life, but I can still totally relate to his childhood reminiscences: go-cart races, fear of scary movies, weird childhood games.

This use of universal experiences (tapping into universal emotions) is, of course, Cosby's strength, and The Cosby Show exhibits that strength: basic experiences that every family goes through.

And the show is pretty strong right out of the box. The three youngest children are fairly good comedic actors; Phylicia Rashad is way up there with Julie Andrews as a true lady (with a yen for sly, understated comedy). And Cosby is excellent, of course.

The weird thing is, I have almost no desire to watch the show. I mean, if it is on somewhere, I watch it and enjoy it. But I haven't made any effort to request more than the first season through my library, and I could request all the seasons if I wanted. I have almost no idea WHY I'm not more interested. I enjoyed The Cosby Show when it was on, and he is probably the best stand-up comedian out of all the actors we have watched for this particular list.

I think it may be that I have to be in the mood to watch COSBY--and I actually enjoy listening to him more. (I have three Cosby CDs in my Media Player library, and "Chicken Heart" can send me to the floor every time.) I don't really need the show itself.

To elaborate--to get Alex P. Keaton, you have to watch Family Ties, no matter how lame an individual episode may be. But to get Cosby, you can watch The Cosby Show or watch his stand-up comedy or listen to his stand-up comedy. (I also like "Shop Class" although "Buck Buck" followed by "9th Street Bridge" is a classic--"I told you that story to tell you this one.") But you don't NEED the show. Rudy is cute; Theo is the best of the younger actors; Vanessa has good timing; Clair, again, is fantastically lovely and poised and elegant. But you don't really need them to get COSBY.

Still, The Cosby Show did deserve its success. Although COSBY is the engine as well as the purpose, the family is skillfully used to make his comedy possible. And the lack of outrageous sentiment is refreshing.

If I had cable, I would probably watch it more often . . . okay, honestly, this is one reason I don't have cable; there would be way too many excuses to come home from work and just watch television!


Mike says I LOVE the Cosby Show. Despite not really being in the demographic. Bill, of course, is the main high point of the show, but the cast works so well as an ensemble, it's impossible not to think of them as a true family.

I'm an odd duck, if you haven't figured that out already. In order for me to find a character funny, I have to like them. As most comedies and sitcoms these days focus on mean-spirited characters, I don't watch a lot of comedy. Cosby, however, I can watch over and over.

I think what I enjoy is the family dynamic. The Huxtables are good parents--but also REAL parents. You don't have any of that touchy-feely reconciliation you saw on Full House or Family Ties. You saw real parents, occasionally telling their kids that they're gonna die, or that they're stupid, while at the same time communicating that they care.

One of my favorite episodes (I've even used it for work) is when the family decides to give Theo a weekend in the real world. The entire episode is a life lesson about expense, responsibility, and decision making. I Sometimes wonder if the "Love and Logic system" was based on Bill Cosby.

Probably the biggest difference from pilot to series (aside from the house redesign) is Clair. In the first episode she is very much a house wife. But she is soon moved into the position of a working and successful mother. To have her be a lawyer was a brilliant move. Instead of shows like Roseanne that showed parents with no ambition or drive, Cosby Show set a strong example of people achieving the goals set for themselves. VERY cool.

But aside from all that, Cosby in honestly a riot. I can laugh my butt off every time.

5 comments:

Kate Woodbury said...

Mike: I totally agree about mean-spirited protagonists! This is one reason I could never watch Everybody Loves Raymond. It seemed like EVERYONE hated and was out to get everyone else, including the husbands and wives!

On a side-note, I think American mean-spiritedness is worse than British mean-spiritedness, sitcom-wise. It seems like when people make fun of a goofy character on American sitcoms, it is always totally sophomoric: "You're stupid, so we get to laugh at you. Ha ha ha ha."

But in British sitcoms, the doofus this week might be the smart-aleck next week. And if you are too mean to the doofus, you might just end up being the doofus.

But maybe it's just that I don't watch mean British TV.

Or it could be that American sitcoms tend to completely separate their sentimental and mean-spirited comedy while the Brits tend to put their sentimental/mean-spirited/punny/sarcastic/slapstick/scatalogical/inside jokes into one big punch bowl and stir.

Joe said...

Kate, the problem is that you are seeing filtered British TV--the worse dreck has been filtered out. Overall, British TV is pretty bad.

As for mean-spiritedness; I've seen enough British mean-spiritedness to mostly disagree. American TV may seem this way, but it's mostly because of volume, not capacity to make crap. (And if you want bizarre humiliation comedy, the Japanese outdo just about everyone.)

The interesting thing about Everybody Loves Raymond is that it started much more calm and focused. I only know this because by chance I saw several shows from early in the first season and was quite surprised. I think the writers got lazy, as they always do, and went the mean route. On the other hand, the Cosby writers got lazy and went the cute/sentimental route, which I thoroughly detest.

The British comedy Modern Family went the mean/stupid route and became, for me, unbearable.

As Mike said some time ago, the fact that British TV has shorter seasons keeps the shows from spinning too far out of control. Purely episode count wise, I think British shows fall into the same problems as American shows, but few last that long.

Kate Woodbury said...

Yeah, I probably got bamboozled by that British image (the one that actually gets transported to America).

Your comment about Japanese television, Joe, reminded me of a Japanese candid-camera show I saw once where the host and his crew would wake up people in their homes. I remember the host going into fits of laughter over someone farting.

At first, I was shocked--not by the fart joke but because it seemed so . . . un-Japanese or at least so not that image of the reserved, button-down Japanese person that populates American television (less now than it used to--this was about 10 years ago).

After I got over being shocked, though, I was rather touched. It's nice to know that all cultures produce 10-year-old-boy potty humor.

I suppose it is also comforting to know that every culture/time period produces a plethora of blah.

Joe said...

I've wondered if there's a lost portfolio of "Shakespeare's Utter Crap" somewhere. Probably next to Mozart's "stuff I wish I didn't write."

Eugene said...

In regards to Japanese popular culture, I like the pressure cooker analogy. The more structured a society, the more forgiving it is of the goofy ways people find to let off steam--as long as it's let off in the right venues.

It has long been accepted in Japanese business culture, for example, that if you go out drinking with your boss and get sloshed and end up saying something inappropriate, it won't be held against you.

Though as Peter Payne points out, what we know about Japanese television is highly filtered, the same way that watching TV Japan (or PBS) will leave you with the impression that television in Japan (or Great Britain) is all high brow.

Of course, he then observes that stereotypes usually have a firm basis in reality.