The Bill Cosby Show

Infobox television
show_name = The Bill Cosby Show


caption =
format = Sitcom
runtime = 30 mins.
creator =
starring = Bill Cosby
Fred Pinkard
Joyce Bulifant
Lee Weaver
Olga James
Sid McCoy
country = USA
network = NBC
first_aired = September 14, 1969
last_aired = March 21, 1971
num_seasons = 2
num_episodes = 52

"The Bill Cosby Show" is an American situation comedy that aired for two seasons on NBC from 1969 until 1971. There were 52 episodes made in the series. It marked Cosby's first solo foray in television, after his co-starring role in "I Spy". The series also marked the first time an African American starred in his or her own eponymous series.

ynopsis

In this light-hearted comedy, Bill Cosby played the role of Chet Kincaid, physical education teacher at a Los Angeles high school, bachelor, and average cool guy trying to earn a living, helping people out along the way. Many of the episodes involved Kincaid in various situations at the high school with his students and fellow teachers. In some episodes, Kincaid was asked to substitute, and fill in as an algebra or English teacher.

Cosby was not afraid to have Kincaid comically endure the results of some questionable decisions. In one episode, Kincaid was the Driver's Education instructor trying to teach a nervous student how to drive. Leaving the student at the wheel, he went to get safety cones from the car's trunk, to lay out a course for the lesson. The student accidentally backed up, dumping Kincaid into the trunk and driving around the parking lot backwards with Kincaid's legs dangling from the car.

In another episode, Kincaid is filming his football team's practice for the first time. Standing on the field, camera to his eye, he calls for his team to run a running 'sweep' play; the team questions the request, but Kincaid insists. The play he has called for sends the ball-carrier directly through where Kincaid is standing, and we see the result as the camera sees it—the players charging into view, a sudden tilt of the lens upward to view only sky, and then the helmeted heads of the concerned team circling around their trampled coach.

Other episodes involved younger children, and some episodes involved family and adult characters. Different guest stars also appeared in various episodes throughout the series. One memorable show featured veteran African-American comedians Mantan Moreland and Moms Mabley as Kincaid's married—and feuding—uncle and aunt.

The show's theme song, "Hikky Burr," was written by Cosby and Quincy Jones, with Cosby providing the vocals. A new version of the theme was recorded for later seasons.

The show did not use a laugh track, which at the time was unique for a half-hour situation comedy. (Other humorous shows had begun airing without laugh tracks, but these fell more under the emerging TV genre of comedy-drama than did this show.) "The Bill Cosby Show" was not the average, laugh-out-loud type of sitcom. The episodes were humorous, but the show emphasized intelligent character studies and plausible, real-life situations. The plot of many episodes centered on a lesson in life learned, which was explained in the classic Cosby style.

In 1984, Cosby returned to NBC with a similarly named sitcom entitled "The Cosby Show". The popularity of that sitcom led to reruns of this one being picked up on the CBN Cable Network (now known as ABC Family).

DVD Release

On August 22, 2006, Shout! Factory released Season 1 of "The Bill Cosby Show" on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. It is unknown if Season 2 will be released at some point.

External links

* [http://www.billcosby.com/ Official Bill Cosby Site]
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