All about Bill Cosby

William Henry Cosby, Jr. (born July 12, 1937) is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a vanguard role in the 1960s action show I Spy. He later starred in his own series, The Bill Cosby Show, in the late 1960s. He was one of the major characters on the children’s television show The Electric Company for its first two seasons, and created the humorous educational cartoon series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, about a group of young friends growing up in the city. Cosby also acted in numerous films.

During the 1980s, Cosby produced and starred in what is considered one of the decade’s defining sitcoms, The Cosby Show, which lasted eight seasons from 1984 to 1992, and is still in syndication. The sitcom highlighted the experiences and growth of an upper middle-class African-American family.

In the 1990s, Cosby starred in Cosby, which first aired in 1996; hosted Kids Say the Darndest Things, which began in 1998; and appeared in a number of movies. He has also appeared on the stand-up circuit.

His good-natured, fatherly image has made him a popular personality and garnered him the nickname of “America’s Dad”. He has also been a sought-after spokesman and over the years has plugged numerous products including Jell-O Pudding, Kodak Film, Ford, Texas Instruments and Coca-Cola (as well as New Coke).

Cosby’s greatest television success came in 1984 with the debut of The Cosby Show. For Cosby the new situation comedy was a response to the increasingly violent fare the networks usually offered. He insisted on and received total creative control of the series, and he was involved in every aspect of the series. Not surprisingly, the show had parallels to Cosby’s actual family life: like the characters Cliff and Claire Huxtable, Cosby and his wife Camille were college educated, financially successful, and had five children. Essentially a throwback to the wholesome family situation comedy, The Cosby Show was unprecedented in its portrayal of an intelligent, affluent, nonstereotypical African-American family.

Much of the material from the pilot and first season of The Cosby Show was taken from his then popular video Bill Cosby: Himself, released in 1983. The series was an immediate success, debuting near the top of the ratings and staying there for most of its long run. The familiar question of relevance came up again but was more or less drowned out by praise for the series. People magazine called the show “revolutionary”, and Newsday concurred that it was a “real breakthrough.”

In May 2004 after receiving an award at the celebration of the 50th Anniversary commemoration of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that outlawed school segregation, Cosby made public remarks critical of African Americans who put higher priorities on sports, fashion, and “acting hard” than on education, self-respect, and self-improvement. He has made a plea for African American families to educate their children on the many different aspects of American culture (Baker). According to the Washington Times, he has had a long history of endeavors to advance African Americans (DeBose, Brian).

Our African-American Family in despair

Bill Cosby has always been criticized because of his views, ideas and straight to your face talk about the African-American family, but if you carefully listen and understand what he says and not just agree with others, you may discover truth in what he stands for.

Cosby talk to his audience about the rates of juvenile delinquency, its parenting, the coarse language of its youth. You can do better, he exhorts his audiences. Don’t let yourself be victims, and especially don’t let the poorest in the community let themselves be victims.

“This is about little children … and people not giving them better choices,” he told Paula Zahn in an interview for CNN’s “Paula Zahn Now.” “Talking. Talking. Parenting. Correctly parenting. That’s what it’s about. And you can’t blame other things. You got to — you got to straighten up your house. Straighten up your apartment. Straighten up your child.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of these young men and women idolizing these rappers and sports figure that stand for nothing whatsoever. We need to step up and make sure that we’re our kids hero and not some overpaid, no talking, can’t spell basketball or football player.

When are these young men and women going to realize that the clothes and shoes that they are paying and arm and a leg for only make the athlete or rapper even richer?

When are they going to realize that speaking properly is not speaking white? It’s just speaking correctly.

When are they going to realize that going to school is not a fashion show, but a way of life?

When are we as parents going to stop the trend of always saying yes to our kids?

 When are we going to teach our kids values, self worth and responsibilities.

Did we forget Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court decision that struck down school segregation? Did we forget people marched and were hit in the face with rocks and sprayed with water to get an education? Now that we have free education, parents are not doing what they should to make sure their kids are preparing for the future.

There will be no future if we don’t step in now.