And If You're Not Careful, You Might Learn Something
by Scott Hardie on August 20, 2011
Ten things I learned from watching the entire run of The Cosby Show over the last few months on Netflix streaming:
- Cliff wasn't the only one who wore wild sweaters.
- Seinfeld was celebrated as the "show about nothing," but this show had even less plot. Entire episodes just riffed for twenty minutes on Vanessa fretting over a test or Theo having a crush on a girl, nothing more. My favorite episode mostly just showed the main characters dancing. Who needs plot?
- Something I really appreciated about the writing was that, while the characters were usually nice people, every one of them had an ugly side that came up consistently: Cliff was dishonest and boastful, Clair was sanctimonious, Sondra was overbearing, Denise was fickle, Theo was a sexist pig, Vanessa was selfish, Rudy was bossy, et cetera. None of the characters got to be angels, even the minor recurring guests. It was a smart choice that made the family relatable and plausible, and something that the show's many imitators forgot to replicate.
- The show was blessed with the fortunate casting of little Keshia Knight Pulliam, cute as a button and pretty funny too. Later on in her adolescence, the writers didn't know what to do with her, using Rudy to set up a stupid macho rivalry between Kenny and Stanley (ugh), but that wasn't the actress's fault.
- Speaking of which, the quality of the show really dropped off in the final years, as the cast slowly disintegrated and the network demanded more ratings stunts. Seasons 1-5 were fantastic, but 6-8 slowly morphed into a pathetic attempt to keep the magic going. There's no single shark-jumping moment, but the feeling is palpable.
- A lot of the jokes were clearly improvised. You can spot when Bill Cosby makes his fellow actors crack up with a line that's not in the script. Sometimes they'd just put him on stage with kids and let him go to town.
- I remembered Lisa Bonet's reputation for being difficult to work with, and it showed in the weak episodes leading up to her (second) termination. But I had forgotten that she could actually be pretty funny when she was into the job.
- Watching 200 episodes of an eight-year sitcom, right after watching 120 episodes of the six-year Lost, was not a smart idea. Fatigue set in hard. (Sorry Denise; we tried Babylon 5 and just couldn't stick with it, but we will try again.) I need to find something short to watch before I begin another epic run.
- Child actors are rarely good at delivering lines naturally, but it doesn't matter that they sound scripted if they can still be funny anyway. Raven-Symoné is funny anyway.
- Age didn't stop Bill Cosby or his guest stars from doing lots of great physical comedy. I laughed so much watching this show.
Five Replies to And If You're Not Careful, You Might Learn Something
Tony Peters | August 21, 2011
my wife and I have thought about re-watching Buffy from the beginning.....
Steve West | August 21, 2011
Brenda is suffering through I, Claudius at my insistence. She says, "This isn't about gladiators like you promised."
Jackie Mason | August 22, 2011
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Lori Lancaster | August 22, 2011
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Logical Operator
The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »
Feeling Lucky
Yesterday was my 13th anniversary of dating Kelly. We've been through many ups and downs together, and those downs have to do with why we're not married yet, but I love her as much now as I ever have. Here are 13 things that have been a part my life for less time than we've been dating: - The Internet. Go »Flow Charts
Meet the marriage of rap music and Microsoft Office: (link) Why do I have the feeling Herbert Kornfeld made some of these? Thanks, Marlon. Go »The Ten Best Films of 2010 That I Saw
10) The Other Guys - An offbeat and frequently hilarious comedy seemingly performed by the seats of the actors' pants. Its randomness may turn off some, but the jokes clicked for me. How nice to have a movie so reminiscent of The Naked Gun in the year of Leslie Nielsen's passing. Go »Ten Things I Learned While Kelly's Parents Pat & Russ Spent a Week Visiting Us
• Florida reminds me of Dave Barry's quip that vacationing in Britain is great because you meet people from entirely different states. We stopped a woman to take our picture; she was visiting from New Jersey and her daughter beside her was from California. The only local we met warned us what bridge not to jump off for swimming because the water is shark-infested. Go »Eschew Obfuscation
For any FIN players wondering where in the hell the game is: I used my little free time over last weekend writing a mini-post – three whopping paragraphs – and at the end of the weekend I just couldn't bear to publish it so short. (The title of this post was the planned title of that post.) I have now rearranged my social so that weekends are more free, and one thing I plan to do with the time is resume writing FIN, starting this weekend by expanding my three paragraphs into more like three pages. Go »
Jackie Mason | August 21, 2011
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