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
[hidden by author request]
Lori Lancaster | August 22, 2011
[hidden by author request]
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 »
No News is Good News
Yesterday I spent eight hours in a hospital waiting room in Tampa while my mother underwent surgery for a torn rotator cuff. She's recovering well, but the harm inflicted on me by eight hours of cable news has yet to wear off. It happened to be Fox News Channel, but that's irrelevant; all news is boring when you're in the hospital and are stuck watching it at length, because the newscasters only repeat over and over the breathless update that they have nothing more to report and here are the things they don't know yet. Go »Bad for Business
CNN Money published an interesting look at the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business in the year 2006. Go »Not to Be Confused with Denise Sawicki
It's been two months since I first mentioned my new love Denise on the site. She's overdue for a proper introduction, since I plan to continue mentioning her on a first-name basis around here. (I don't know why some men continue to tell me about their woman by calling her "my wife" or "my girlfriend" even though I've known her and socialized with her for years.) Go »Risky Games
Here's plugging two games that I've been enjoying lately: Dice Wars is a good little miniature online game for one person, playable in about 20 minutes and very satisfying for its size. The text below the game explains the rules, but suffice to say, it's basically Risk but built to be played rapidly thanks to some rule simplification and a very swift AI. (Thanks for suggesting it, Joandy!) Go »So Long, NCSA Primer
Someone asked me for help learning HTML today. I turned to my trusted traditional source, the good old primer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, but alas, it has finally been removed after all these years. This was one of the major how-to guides in the early years of the web, and it's the very guide that I used to teach myself HTML one weekend in 1996, from which this very site you're reading has since evolved. Go »
Jackie Mason | August 21, 2011
[hidden by author request]