Film/Television Show Review

Brittany Carney

Film/TV Show Review: The Cosby Show

The Cosby Show, starring Bill Cosby, immediately came to mind as a television program that effectively refutes African American stereotypes in American media. The show surrounds the Huxtables, a happy, comfortable, upper-middle class African American family living in New York. Bill Cosby plays “Cliff” Huxtable, an obstetrician, and his wife, Claire, is an attorney. Their children, Theo, Denise, Rudy, Vanessa, and Sondra, each find their own unique educational success.

With its 1984 premier, Cosby brought on a welcome change in how African Americans are portrayed and facilitated as characters in television. After decades of African Americans posed as subjects to caricature, stereotype, and pawns in racial discrimination lessons, Cosby instead illuminates issues regarding family, school, work, and relationships that are commonly shared by all American families. By avoiding the topics of race and class, the show positively affected the acceptance of African Americans in media.

The first episode that I watched is titled “Theo’s Holiday”. It begins as Theo’s younger sisters confront him about money—five dollars for Denise and a quarter for Rudy—that he has borrowed and now owes each. Claire and Cliff gently warn their son that he is developing poor finance management habits, as he is now “backed up until the age of 50”. Theo announces to his family that he plans to get by after high school earning money by modeling; Cliff decides that his son needs to be taught a lesson in the ways of the “real world”. Theo goes off to a sleepover, and when he returns the next morning, each member of his family has assumed a different societal role—a landlord, a restaurant owner, a banker, a furniture store owner, a waiter, etc. All of the furniture from his bedroom has been removed, to simulate an unfurnished apartment that he must collect finances and references to acquire. The family has set up an elaborate simulation in which Theo is passed from establishment to establishment, having to track down a job, furniture, food, a loan. Theo is cooperative and plays along, gradually becoming more aware of the realities of life beyond high school. In the end, as his parents come to join him in his empty bedroom to bring Theo dinner. Theo admits to have learned his lesson, and jokingly

Overall, the episode illustrates the promotion of positive lifestyle values on behalf of family. Though Claire’s restaurant owner character, “Millie”, could be seen as alluding to the image of a Southern woman jovially cooking her grits on the stove, and Cliff’s landlord persona “Harley” speaks a bit gruffly and holds himself with some swagger, I still get the sense that neither persona necessarily meets a specific African American stereotype. The youngest daughter, Rudy, acts as a finicky but powerful business owner. This reinforces the notion that the characters within the Cosby Show are not to be seen as merely African Americans, but Americans who maintain a healthy, happy family lifestyle. Theo’s parents are very loving and caring, so much so that they teach him lessons in order to promote responsibility.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AURLcZ2t5H4&feature=related

The second episode that I watched is titled “Call of the Wild”. In this episode, eldest daughter Sondra has returned from her honeymoon with husband Elvin. Both have recently graduated from Princeton University. Cliff and Claire await their daughter and son-in-law enthusiastically, proud of their decisions to attend Law and Medical school (Sondra; law, Elvin; medical). Cliff has even purchased an expensive new stethoscope customized with an engraved “To Elvin—straight from my heart”—for the future doctor. To the shock of the proud Huxtable parents Sondra and Elvin announce a change of mind, describing their dream of owning and managing a “wilderness store” together. At first, both parents express verbally their disapproval and surprise, ultimately concerned for their economic security. Sondra and Elvin invited Claire and Cliff to their new apartment for dinner. At one point, when Sondra realizes that she is out of basil, she and her mother step out to buy some from a nearby store. As they close the door, the two Princeton diplomas hanging on the wall fall down from the impact. Cliff remarks; “Those are your Princeton diplomas. They’ve fallen down. A bit symbolic, isn’t it?” The parent’s skepticism does fade completely by the end of the episode, but they come to realize that Elvin and Sondra are now married adults who have the right to make their own life decisions.

This episode challenges African American stereotype in the sense that, as opposed to emphasizing two young African American’s glorified journey to make it into university, the message instead surrounds them making individual career decisions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mj5meG2_Hg&feature=related

The third and final episode that I watched, called “Independence Day”, begins as Theo enters the house after spending the weekend at his best friend Cockroach’s house. He is wearing a knit ski cap to cover up his latest form of liberation—a pierced ear lobe. Denise notices it and thinks it is infected. She tells her parents, and Cliff goes upstairs to Cleo’s room to confront him about the ear piercing. After some resistance, Theo finally admits that he had Cockroach’s little sister pierce his ear for 99 cents in his garage—in order to impress a girl of his interest. Cliff cleans up the infection, and suggests that Theo’s punishment will involve his grandfather’s observance of the piercing, and gleefully displays Theo in front of his own father. Instead of reprimanding Theo, Grandfather Huxtable goes on to tell the story of how Cliff, when he was 15, wanted to impress a girl by having straightened hair. Since hair straightening solutions were expensive, and Cliff could not afford it, him and his friend created a mixture of potato skins, corn syrup, and nitroglycerin, which immediately burned off his hair. Theo and his grandfather tried to give Cliff a hard time about this, but the grandmother describes how her husband once got at tattoo of her name on his chest—misspelled. The episode ends well naturedly, as the three Huxtable men—“Scarface, Skinhead, and Hole-in-the-Lobe”, bond over the humor in the girl-impressive actions.

Each episode illustrates a positive, nurturing environment for family members and those in romantic relationships. Americans of all backgrounds are able to find some way by which they can relate to the Huxtables. The Huxtables are not posed as subject to racial or discrimination issues or stereotype, but a happy yet realistic model of an American family.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3ys5j7tv4&feature=related