80's America

For this blog I chose a TV show that changed American television, The Cosby Show.

The Cosby Show featured an African American family, Cliff Huxtable a doctor and his wife Clair Huxtable a lawyer, with their 5 children lived in New York City. By the spring of 1985, "Cosby" was American television's top-rated series, the show ran for 8 seasons from 1984 to 1992 with 201 episodes. The Cosby Show represented a different side of African American sitcom traditions as its main focus was on family life and the fact that there's two parents with good careers raising their children and dealing with parenting, if their children misbehaved then they Cliff and Clair weren't afraid to punish them.

There was debate questioning if the Huxtable's were credible to the African-American family, some argue that black middle and upper-class families were benefiting in the 1980's because of the show but that it was less understanding to inner city African Americans.
The last episode of The Cosby show aired in 1992 the same night the riots broke out in LA because of four white police officers being acquitted for the beating of Rodney King. Bill Cosby taped a plea for the end of the program, asking viewers to "pray for a better tomorrow, which starts today." But The Cosby Show didn't end there because of reruns on American networks and networks around the world it remained a popular family comedy show.