''The Bill Cosby Show'' is an American

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

television series, that aired for two seasons on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

's Sunday night schedule from 1969 until 1971, under the sponsorship of

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...

. There were 52 episodes made in the series. It marked

Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric ...

's first solo foray in television, after his co-starring role with

Robert Culp Robert Martin Culp (August 16, 1930 – March 24, 2010) was an American actor widely known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on ''I Spy'' (1965–1968), the espionage television se ...

in ''

I Spy I spy is a guessing game where one player (the ''spy'' or ''it'') chooses an object within sight and announces to the other players that "I spy with my little eye something beginning with...", naming the first letter of the object. Other players a ...

''. The series also marked the first time an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

starred in their own

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

ous comedy series.

Synopsis

Bill Cosby Rupert Crosse Beah Richards Bill Cosby Show 1970

Cosby played the role of Chet Kincaid, a

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

teacher at a Los Angeles

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, a bachelor, and an average cool guy trying to earn a living and help people out along the way. The show ran for two seasons, 52 episodes in all. While only a modest critical success, the series was nominated for two

Primetime Emmys The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

. ''The Bill Cosby Show'' was a ratings hit, finishing eleventh in its first season. With the high school as the setting of most episodes, storylines comprise: life lessons, students and fellow teachers, family drama, a coach's purview, and a few challenging forays, such as a substitute teacher of

algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary a ...

or English. Cosby was lauded for using some infrequently seen classic African American performers, such as

Lillian Randolph Lillian Randolph (December 14, 1898 – September 12, 1980) was an American actress and singer, a veteran of radio, film, and television. She worked in entertainment from the 1930s until shortly before her death. She appeared in hundreds of radi ...

(as Kincaid's mother) and Rex Ingram. Well-known stars who rarely did television appeared as well, including

Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor. He had a career that spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. He cultivated an everyman screen image in several films considered to be classics. Born and rai ...

and veteran comedians

Mantan Moreland Mantan Moreland (September 3, 1902 – September 28, 1973) was an American actor and comedian most popular in the 1930s and 1940s. He starred in numerous films. His daughter Marcella Moreland appeared as a child actress in several films. E ...

and

Moms Mabley Loretta Mary Aiken (March 19, 1894 – May 23, 1975), known by her stage name Jackie "Moms" Mabley, was an American stand-up comedian and actress. Mabley began her career on the theater stage in the 1920s and became a veteran entertainer of the ...

as Kincaid's feuding uncle and aunt. The show's brass-heavy,

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

y theme song, "

Hikky Burr "Hikky Burr" was the Grammy-nominated theme song for ''The Bill Cosby Show'', and was also released as a well-known single in 1969. It was written and performed by Quincy Jones and Bill Cosby. It is known for its nonsense lyrics. It is on the album ...

" was written by Cosby and

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

, with Cosby providing the vocals. A new version of the theme was recorded for the second season. The show did not use a

laugh track A laugh track (or laughter track) is a separate soundtrack for a recorded comedy show containing the sound of audience laughter. In some productions, the laughter is a live audience response instead; in the United States, where it is most common ...

; in that regard it was unique among half-hour situation comedies at the time. Cosby and NBC were at odds over his refusal to include a laugh track in the show. Cosby felt that viewers were intelligent enough to find the humor themselves, without being prompted. While a few

comedy drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple co ...

s already aired without laugh tracks, few sitcoms went without, and those that did had studio audiences. The handful of non-drama sitcoms without a laugh track or studio audience prior to this included ''

The Trouble with Father ''The Stu Erwin Show'' (also known as ''Trouble with Father'') is an American sitcom which aired on ABC from 1950 to 1955. Only four of the series’ five seasons on the network included new episodes; the 1953–54 season consisted entirely of re ...

'' and ''

The Beulah Show ''Beulah'' is an American situation-comedy series that ran on CBS Radio from 1945 to 1954, and on ABC Television from 1950 to 1953. The show is notable for being the first sitcom to star an African American actress, for being ABC TV's first hi ...

''.

Episodes

Season 1 (1969–70)

Season 2 (1970–71)

Syndication

In September 1984, Cosby returned to NBC, with a similarly named sitcom titled ''

The Cosby Show ''The Cosby Show'' is an American television sitcom co-created by and starring Bill Cosby, which aired Thursday nights for eight seasons on NBC between September 20, 1984, until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on an upper middle-class African- ...

''. The popularity of that sitcom led to reruns of this one being picked up on the

CBN Cable Network The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its hi ...

. In 2013, reruns of this series began being broadcast on the ASPIRE Television Network and

Soul of the South Network Soul of the South Television (sometimes referred to as SSN TV) is an African-American-focused regional broadcast network owned by SSN Media Group, LP. It primarily broadcasts in the Southern United States and secondarily in other high African-Ame ...

. In July 2015, both networks ceased airing the series following allegations of

sexual assaults Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

made against Cosby.

Home media

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

has released both seasons of ''The Bill Cosby Show'' on DVD in Region 1. Mill Creek Entertainment released a ten episode best of set entitled ''The Bill Cosby Show – The Best of Season 1'' on March 22, 2011.

References

External links

Official Bill Cosby Site
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bill Cosby Show, The Bill Cosby 1960s American black sitcoms 1970s American black sitcoms 1960s American high school television series 1970s American high school television series 1960s American workplace comedy television series 1970s American workplace comedy television series 1969 American television series debuts 1971 American television series endings English-language television shows NBC original programming Television series about educators Television shows set in Los Angeles Television series created by Bill Cosby Television series created by Ed. Weinberger