--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: The Cosby Show image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt194c746c2f47ab5f/69869f13810bbbb1e3c92f51/t100_tv_cosby-show1.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 11, 2014 # _The Cosby Show_ by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable, with daughter Rudy (Keshia Knight Pulliam), on "The Cosby Show" Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable, with daughter Rudy (Keshia Knight Pulliam), on "The Cosby Show"Everett Since _Seinfeld_, “hugging and learning” have come to stand for a certain kind of namby-pamby network comedy. But while there was hugging on _The Cosby Show_, doctor Cliff Huxtable’s love for his kids was filtered through the wry, no-guff sensibility that Bill Cosby developed on his comedy records. And the learning was literal, as the throughline of the series was son Theo Huxtable’s struggles with dyslexia. (The plot became poignant with the 1997 murder of Cosby’s son Ennis, on whom Theo was based.) It’s a sign of how quickly Cosby changed TV that in just a few years it would be the standard that _The Simpsons_ rebelled against. But by introducing TV to upper-middle-class African Americans, the show gave us a realistic sitcom family that America actually could learn from. [Get This TV Series](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007ZSHR6/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101507/the-cosby-show/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101507/the-cosby-show/"},"headline":"The Cosby Show","datePublished":"2014-08-11T20:37:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:01:09.595Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101507/the-cosby-show/","keywords":["Comedy","Family","Sitcom","Bill Cosby topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt194c746c2f47ab5f/69869f13810bbbb1e3c92f51/t100_tv_cosby-show1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt194c746c2f47ab5f/69869f13810bbbb1e3c92f51/t100_tv_cosby-show1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101507/the-cosby-show/","name":"The Cosby Show"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Cosby Show","description":"By introducing TV to upper-middle-class African Americans, the show gave us a realistic sitcom family that America actually could learn from.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ncVWWB1O/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2007-09-04T17:42:02.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ncVWWB1O.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101507/the-cosby-show/","duration":"PT31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101507/the-cosby-show/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```