--- title: Bill Cosby: 'The Cosby Show,' 'The Dukes of Hazzard' and the Ethics of Reruns description: Whatever ugly memories they bring up, TV shows are still part of our cultural history. canonical: https://time.com/3949363/cosby-hazzard-reruns/ author: James Poniewozik article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-08T15:17:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T09:03:13.731Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'The Cosby Show,' 'The Dukes of Hazzard' and the Ethics of Reruns og:description: Whatever ugly memories they bring up, TV shows are still part of our cultural history. og:url: https://time.com/3949363/cosby-hazzard-reruns/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ccfa074d00e6ea3/69885a050a4a227fbc9c50f5/cosby-show.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Cosby Show og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'The Cosby Show,' 'The Dukes of Hazzard' and the Ethics of Reruns twitter:description: Whatever ugly memories they bring up, TV shows are still part of our cultural history. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ccfa074d00e6ea3/69885a050a4a227fbc9c50f5/cosby-show.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _The Cosby Show_, _The Dukes of Hazzard_ and the Ethics of Reruns > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [James Poniewozik](https://time.com/author/james-poniewozik/) ## James Poniewozik Jul 8, 2015 3:17 PM UTC  THE COSBY SHOW -- Pictured: (back row, l-r) Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable, Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theodore 'Theo' Huxtable, Phylicia Rashad as Clair Hanks Huxtable, Sabrina Le Beauf as Sondra Huxtable Tibideaux, (front row, l-r) Keshia Knight Pulliam as Rudy Huxtable, Bill Cosby as Dr. Heathcliff 'Cliff' Huxtable, Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa Huxtable (Photo by Alan Singer/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) THE COSBY SHOW -- Pictured: (back row, l-r) Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable, Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theodore 'Theo' Huxtable, Phylicia Rashad as Clair Hanks Huxtable, Sabrina Le Beauf as Sondra Huxtable Tibideaux, (front row, l-r) Keshia Knight Pulliam as Rudy Huxtable, Bill Cosby as Dr. Heathcliff 'Cliff' Huxtable, Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa Huxtable (Photo by Alan Singer/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)NBC/Getty Images by [James Poniewozik](https://time.com/author/james-poniewozik/) ## James Poniewozik Jul 8, 2015 3:17 PM UTC First the war is lost, then the icons come down. After the racist church massacre in Charleston, Confederate flags [were belatedly lowered](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/07/420825226/in-final-vote-south-carolina-senate-moves-to-take-down-confederate-flag). And after the release of a deposition in which Bill Cosby–whom dozens of women have accused of drugging and raping them–[admitted procuring Quaaludes](http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/06/us/bill-cosby-allegations-sedative/) to give “young women \[he\] wanted to have sex with,” Disney announced it would [remove his statue from a theme park](http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/07/08/bill-cosby-statue-orlando-disney-theme-park-sexual-assault-allegations/29853265/), like the Saddam Hussein statue being toppled in Firdos Square. Thus with _The Cosby Show_ and _The Dukes of Hazzard_ themselves. The rejection of Confederate iconography proved too great a leap for the General Lee to clear, and _Hazzard_ reruns were yanked from the air by TV Land. On July 7, Bounce and Centric, the last two cable channels rerunning _The Cosby Show_, pulled the show from their schedules. Cable channels are businesses, and these were business decisions. _Cosby_ and _Hazzard_ were both well into their syndicated lifespans, and nobody is making a fortune rerunning either show at this point. (As [Todd van der Werff pointed out](http://www.vox.com/2014/11/21/7257417/bill-cosby-show), most of the money in these deals is paid out up front.) So there’s a lot more to lose than gain from having your brand associated with nostalgia for a slave-holders’ rebellion or with a celebrity facing ever-growing evidence of sexual predation. As businesses, they made a sensible call. As a person, I have no tears for the General Lee or for Cosby. But as someone who believes TV, good and bad, is part of what we are, I hope the shows don’t disappear entirely. I’ll say why in a second, but–because racism and rape are more important than the fate of reruns–I should first say what I’m _not_ arguing. I don’t think the Confederate flag is an innocent symbol, or just about “pride.” I’m not arguing that Bill Cosby is innocent of rape: I’m not a judge or jury, but the chillingly similar testimony from around 40 women, over a span of years, is unignorable. I’m not saying you’re obligated to “separate the art from the artist,” or not; that’s a personal call, and as I wrote before, it’s [an especially tough one to make with Cosby](http://time.com/3599978/cosby-show-reruns-rape/), who so deliberately conflated his own persona with Cliff Huxtable’s even when he was making the show. I’m not arguing that you should watch the shows, or that you shouldn’t. (_Dukes_ was not exactly a TV great; _The Cosby Show_ was, but one that is honestly too awkward for me to enjoy now.) And I’m sure not saying that anyone should make a new show today with Cosby, or featuring a car emblazoned with the flag of Dixie. But if you believe that pop culture matters, then it matters even when it’s uncomfortable (and sometimes for the very reasons it’s uncomfortable). _The Cosby Show_ is a legitimate piece of American history. It advanced the representation of black families and culture on TV and–however ugly the irony now–showed a generation of kids an African American dad as a wise, successful father figure. _The Dukes of Hazzard_ is… um, not exactly the same artistic achievement, nor did it ever try to be. But even cheesy TV is a historical document: in this case, as I wrote earlier, [the show is a time capsule](http://time.com/3944668/dukes-of-hazzard-tv-land-confederate-flag/) of Carter-era pop culture and the pre-Reagan-era shift in conservative branding, to embrace the kind of counterculture, outsider language of “fightin’ the system” that the Tea Party still does today. Of course, most fans probably watch it for the car chases, just like people watch _Cosby_ for the one-liners. I can’t control the ideas other people take from TV, nor do I want to. Believing that TV matters for its ideas means making it accessible. And believing in the audience means that I don’t want the shows sealed off, as if they were the last remaining test tubes of smallpox virus, to be studied only by priestly critics like myself, lest they contaminate the masses. The worst tool for understanding history is the eraser. This might be one of those cases, though, where media’s technology will let us leapfrog its ethics. _The Cosby Show_ is still available to stream on Hulu, and _The Dukes of Hazzard_ on Amazon, and there doesn’t (yet) seem to be much of an outcry to delete them from either. Maybe the idea of people opting in to the shows, through a subscription or download fee, is less provocative than their being pushed to your cable box. Or maybe the more mainstream cord-cutting becomes, the more of a target streaming will become. But having TV shows accessible in our cultural library–treating them just as we would books or albums or movies–seems right. TV is part of history. 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