Trying to Separate Bill Cosby From Cliff Huxtable

[didymus]

NY Times:

Bill Cosby looked haggard and old as he stumbled on his way to the courthouse. And when his mug shot flashed across my screen, I felt a sharp stab of grief.
Not for Mr. Cosby, who was charged with sexual assault, and returns to court for a hearing this week. But for the genial father and devoted husband who once filled my television set, the funny man who felt like family. I’m talking about Cliff Huxtable, Mr. Cosby’s alter ego, the amiable obstetrician he played in “The Cosby Show,” the pioneering television hit of the 1980s and early ’90s.
Today, the black doctor once known as America’s Dad has almost completely vanished from the airwaves. You may wonder why that matters, why a sensible, professional in her 40s might weep for an imaginary character, who some people view as the sullied creation of a now infamous celebrity accused of preying on dozens of women.

So I want you to press the rewind button. Go back to a time when Viola Davis’s Emmy for her portrayal of a driven criminal defense lawyer was unimaginable, back before Shondaland, or “Empire,” or “black-ish.” Before a black president sat in the Oval Office in “24” or in Washington.
Go back to Sept. 20, 1984, when Dr. Huxtable walked into the kitchen of his Brooklyn brownstone and introduced white audiences to one of the first black middle-class families to appear on prime-time TV.

I was a high school senior then, watching the show on a Zenith television with my parents and two sisters in our house on Staten Island. Like many black families, we had grown accustomed to being mostly invisible on the small screen. There had been shows like “Sanford and Son,” “Good Times” and “The Jeffersons,” but the portrayals of African-Americans sometimes edged toward caricature. Watching Dr. Huxtable, who embodied so many of the fathers, grandfathers and uncles we knew, was electrifying.

I also have fond memories of the Cosby show and this brings up the question of how do you separate the art from the artist, the character from the creator.

I’ve never seen a Roman Polansky movie and I quit watching Woody Allen’s stuff decades ago. But what about great stars and directors from the '40s and '50s who were never exposed in their lifetime but are coming out now?

 

[Son_of_Niall]

I was never a big Bill Cosby fan to begin with. I did admire the ORIGINAL Bill Cosby show from the late sixties because of its innovation. No laugh track, no silly stories. Outside of that, no. The Cosby Show I found to be overdone, self-indulgent, with too much forced humor. It was also very unrealistic.
But to your question, I would have a hard time watching him. Yes, the behavior of actors does alter how I view their work.

 

[7_Sorrows]

I was never a big Bill Cosby fan to begin with. I did admire the ORIGINAL Bill Cosby show from the late sixties because of its innovation. No laugh track, no silly stories. Outside of that, no. The Cosby Show I found to be overdone, self-indulgent, with too much forced humor. It was also very unrealistic.
But to your question, I would have a hard time watching him. Yes, the behavior of actors does alter how I view their work.

I agree with your take on The Cosby Show and the Huxtables.
I was not a fan. I remember Bill Cosby more from I Spy and as a stand up comedian.
Very sad to see what is happening now.

 

[pianistclare]

I agree with your take on The Cosby Show and the Huxtables.
I was not a fan. I remember Bill Cosby more from I Spy and as a stand up comedian.
Very sad to see what is happening now.

Yes. And even sadder, what was happening THEN.
Power just does bad stuff to people.

 

[Son_of_Niall]

I agree with your take on The Cosby Show and the Huxtables.
I was not a fan. I remember Bill Cosby more from I Spy and as a stand up comedian.
Very sad to see what is happening now.

Never liked I Spy, but his stand-up act was tops. He used some of the routine in the early episodes of the Cosby Show, but it ran out of steam pretty fast.
He’s one of the many comedians whose behavior ruined his legacy. All to way back to the ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle scandal in the silent era.

 

[John_Lazarus]

Never liked I Spy, but his stand-up act was tops. He used some of the routine in the early episodes of the Cosby Show, but it ran out of steam pretty fast.
He’s one of the many comedians whose behavior ruined his legacy. All to way back to the ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle scandal in the silent era.

Fatty Arbuckle was acquitted of any involvement in the death of Virginia Rappe.

From Wikipedia:

After three manslaughter trials, Arbuckle was formally acquitted; his acquittal in the third trial was accompanied by an unprecedented statement of apology from the jury stating, in part, that “Acquittal is not enough for Roscoe Arbuckle. We feel that a great injustice has been done him… there was not the slightest proof adduced to connect him in any way with the commission of a crime.”[8]

I had read in other places that the Arbuckle scandal was largely the result of the media chasing a sensational story rather than the truth.

 

[7_Sorrows]

Never liked I Spy, but his stand-up act was tops. He used some of the routine in the early episodes of the Cosby Show, but it ran out of steam pretty fast.
He’s one of the many comedians whose behavior ruined his legacy. All to way back to the ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle scandal in the silent era.

well I guess he is still innocent until proven guilty although a deposition he gave was not promising.

 

[Son_of_Niall]

Fatty Arbuckle was acquitted of any involvement in the death of Virginia Rappe.

From Wikipedia:

I had read in other places that the Arbuckle scandal was largely the result of the media chasing a sensational story rather than the truth.

He was acquitted. But it still ruined his career.

 

[Son_of_Niall]

well I guess he is still innocent until proven guilty although a deposition he gave was not promising.

I go back and forth as to the truth of what happened. If you had told me Bill Cosby was a serial adulterer and slept with scores of women, I would grunt and keep sipping my coffee. It IS Hollywood after all. They fornicate with inanimate objects in Hollywood.
But raping comatose women? That’s a different story.

 

[7_Sorrows]

I go back and forth as to the truth of what happened. If you had told me Bill Cosby was a serial adulterer and slept with scores of women, I would grunt and keep sipping my coffee. It IS Hollywood after all. They fornicate with inanimate objects in Hollywood.
But raping comatose women? That’s a different story.

who knew what OJ Simpson was really like?

it just shows how celebrities have an onscreen appearance and how different their private life is. I always assumed he was a hard working family man.

 

[mikekle]

I think this is primarily a US problem, for some reason, many people here have trouble distinguishing between an actor or entertainer and the characters they play, some actors have this problem more than others, James Gandolfini was one of them, who played mobster Tony Soprano, there were actually people out there who thought he truly was involved with organized crime.

Miley Cirus is another example, she plays a certain role when the camera is on, but ALOT of fans think this is how she really is in real life. I can think of many other actors who have the same problem with characters they play.

I guess its tough for some people to realize what they see on TV is not real, its all scripted, and those actors/ entertainers are nothing like the roles they play for the camera.

 

[pianistclare]

I think this is primarily a US problem, for some reason, many people here have trouble distinguishing between an actor or entertainer and the characters they play, some actors have this problem more than others, James Gandolfini was one of them, who played mobster Tony Soprano, there were actually people out there who thought he truly was involved with organized crime.

Miley Cirus is another example, she plays a certain role when the camera is on, but ALOT of fans think this is how she really is in real life. I can think of many other actors who have the same problem with characters they play.

I guess its tough for some people to realize what they see on TV is not real, its all scripted, and those actors/ entertainers are nothing like the roles they play for the camera.

yup. People really believe that their on-screen character is who they really are.
It seldom is. Good and bad.

 

[Son_of_Niall]

yup. People really believe that their on-screen character is who they really are.
It seldom is. Good and bad.

No, I’ve never had that problem.
The thread is about Bill Cosby, or actors like him, whose off-screen antics or crimes tarnish whatever work they are in. I love the Naked Gun series, but I have to admit the presence of OJ Simpson brings it down to some extent. But since he’s not the star of the films, it makes it easier. When an actor commits murder, rape or child molestation (Stephen Collins) it has an effect on whether I want to see this actor again.

 

[pianistclare]

No, I’ve never had that problem.
The thread is about Bill Cosby, or actors like him, whose off-screen antics or crimes tarnish whatever work they are in. I love the Naked Gun series, but I have to admit the presence of OJ Simpson brings it down to some extent. But since he’s not the star of the films, it makes it easier. When an actor commits murder, rape or child molestation (Stephen Collins) it has an effect on whether I want to see this actor again.

Yeah, I wasn’t taking about you.

 

[Bill_Dodds]

It’s easy for the public, including us, to equate talent with virtue. One doesn’t guarantee the other.

 

[bluerose]

What’s sad is that in this day and age, when it’s hard to find family friendly TV shows for young people. I’ve resorted to buying DVD sets of some sitcoms from the '70s and '80s and one of the best ones from that era is now one that I find repulsive because of the star’s real-life acts.

Yeah, maybe the show was corny in a “Leave it to Beaver” type way, but I rarely had to worry about the content of the show whenever my young teens watched it.

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

What’s sad is that in this day and age, when it’s hard to find family friendly TV shows for young people. I’ve resorted to buying DVD sets of some sitcoms from the '70s and '80s and one of the best ones from that era is now one that I find repulsive because of the star’s real-life acts.

Yeah, maybe the show was corny in a “Leave it to Beaver” type way, but I rarely had to worry about the content of the show whenever my young teens watched it.

I feel similarly. My oldest was getting around to watching it, and now it’s not available anymore.

I did like it when it was on. That was a show we would all watch together.

My disappointment with Bill Cosby goes beyond the Cosby show.

I remember him when I was very small, on Sesame Street and on Fat Albert. On Fat Albert he’d usually give a little moral lesson at the end of the episode. I enjoyed his comedy show where he talks about fatherhood and marriage. He really seemed genuinely good with kids.

He was successful at giving us an image of a decent father and family man. For what ever reason he was successful at maintaining that image for decades.

 

[Kithrus]

I have a lot of what can only be descried as disgust for Bill Cosby. Here we have a man who understood that statues of limitations for his crimes and totally played them to his advantage generating media for himself and his past works. He used this entire ordeal to create just a bit more revenue for himself before he died.

We as Catholics have boycotted for much much less. Why are were trying to justify to others and ourselves some sense of innocents in partaking in Bills work?

There are many people who are immoral who create great works I’ll go enjoy solely for the fact that such good works should be encouraged but do not inherently condone that persons lifestyle.

Bill Cosby has crossed a massive line in not only moral realms but in legal realms for his own personal gain outside of just the standard paycheck he gets.

I wont support it.

 

[mikekle]

I feel similarly. My oldest was getting around to watching it, and now it’s not available anymore.

I did like it when it was on. That was a show we would all watch together.

My disappointment with Bill Cosby goes beyond the Cosby show.

I remember him when I was very small, on Sesame Street and on Fat Albert. On Fat Albert he’d usually give a little moral lesson at the end of the episode. I enjoyed his comedy show where he talks about fatherhood and marriage. He really seemed genuinely good with kids.

He was successful at giving us an image of a decent father and family man. For what ever reason he was successful at maintaining that image for decades.

Well, theres still really nothing wrong with the show itself, whether it be the cosby show or fat albert, his little messages about morality and ethics in life are still good and respectable, Im sure it helped quite a few people over the years.

When this came out about Cosbys personal life, that has nothing to do with the characters he played, they are the same and all the things they tried to teach the audience are as good and decent as they were back then.

I think far too many people today cannot separate the actor from the characters they play, everyone was so shocked when Cosby was accused of this, but mostly because of the integrity of the character he played, if his career had gone the opposite path and he played the bad guy in all his roles, I doubt there would be much media coverage of it…point is, they are 2 separate people, one is real and one is scripted.

 

[Maxirad]

Check this out, people.