TV SERIES · 1984– · USA
The Cosby Show
69 archived facts 8 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (69)
- #001
Sondra, the Huxtables' eldest daughter, was added to the pilot as an afterthought. When Clair Huxtable mentions the couple's four children, they decide to add one more child to represent the results of good parenting. The cast included 26-year-old Sabrina Le Beauf and 21-year-old Whitney Houston. LeBeauf was considered too old for the role; she was only ten years younger than Phylicia Rashad. Houston, however, refused to sign a contract that would have put her in the series because she wanted to continue her singing career. This forced the producer's hand, and LeBeauf was given the role of Sondra.
- #002
Peter Costa, who played the Huxtables' neighbor and Rudy's playmate Peter, suffered from stage fright and often forgot his lines. As a result, his character communicated through distinctive facial expressions and always ran out of the house at the first sign of trouble.
- #003
Rudy was originally going to be a son. When no suitable boy was found, girls were allowed to audition.
- #004
Phylicia Rashad had few scenes in the third season because she was pregnant. While on screen, she had to hide her pregnancy, such as by sitting at a table.
- #005
Inspired by I Love Lucy (1951), Cosby intended Clair to be Dominican and to launch into Spanish tirades when angry. Phylicia Rashad, who spoke fluent Spanish from living in Mexico as a child, won the part by showing off her language skills. Although the idea never came to fruition, Clair speaks Spanish in a few episodes.
- #006
Bill Cosby insisted that the series be shot in New York.
- #007
Malcolm-Jamal Warner failed his first audition while reading a scene with Bill Cosby; Cosby felt Warner spoke disrespectfully. Cosby then asked Warner whether he spoke that way to his own father, and Warner answered "no," which earned him a second chance at the audition.
- #008
The black button Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable wears in some of the later seasons reads "SD Jr," said to be a reference to Sammy Davis Jr., Bill Cosby's close friend who died during the series' run.
- #009
Theo has dyslexia, like Bill Cosby's son Ennis Cosby.
- #010
No one gave the series a chance at success, partly because it aired on Thursday nights against Magnum, P.I. (1980). The sitcom eventually became the number one program on the air. In one episode, Cliff wears a Magnum baseball cap. When Magnum P.I. was canceled, the only other program competing with and overtaking it for the number one spot was The Golden Girls.
- #011
Bill Cosby is the only actor to appear in every episode.
- #012
Clair's maiden name is Hanks, the maiden name of Bill Cosby's wife, Camille O. Cosby.
- #013
Although the series is set in Brooklyn, the exterior of the Huxtables' house is located at 10 St. Luke's Place in Manhattan.
- #014
After the 2008 election, Republican strategist Karl Rove praised The Cosby Show (1984) for paving the way for America to elect an African-American president, because, in Rove's words, "we had an African-American first family for many years in different forms. When The Cosby Show was on, that was America's family. It wasn't a black family. It was America's family."
- #015
In the first season, Cliff was the more authoritarian parent. In the second season and the rest of the series, Clair took on all the punishments while Cliff would downplay them.
- #016
Joseph C. Phillips, who played Denise's husband, had previously appeared in an earlier episode as one of Sondra's boyfriends.
- #017
Phylicia Rashad is ten years older than Sabrina Le Beauf.
- #018
Michelle Thomas, who played Theo's girlfriend Justine, had been in a relationship with Malcolm-Jamal Warner for some time.
- #019
Bill Cosby regularly improvised much of his dialogue on the show. He also improvised many of the scenes in which Cliff was alone.
- #020
Sondra and Elvin's twins, Winnie and Nelson Tibideaux, are named after South Africa's first Black president, Nelson Mandela, and his then-wife Winnie Mandela.
- #021
ABC rejected the series.
- #022
In early episodes, Theo desperately wants to buy an expensive shirt from "designer" Gordon Gartrell. Gordon Gartrelle worked in various capacities on the series and had been a producer on the show for its final few seasons.
- #023
Marcy Carsey, one half of Carsey Werner, which produced and created the series, commented on the scandals surrounding Bill Cosby: "The man we worked with, the man we knew or thought we knew, was a wonderful collaborator, a wonderful man, very kind-hearted. He was there when someone got sick or suffered a loss. So it was shocking. It's terrible to hear these statements after all these years, but it happens."
- #024
Before the opening sequence of one episode, Olivia walked toward Cliff wearing a Bart Simpson mask, a nod to FOX's The Simpsons (1989) drawing away much of the show's audience. It was the only episode with a cold open.
- #025
Earle Hyman, who played Cliff's father, was 11 years older than Bill Cosby. Ethel Ayler, cast as Clair's mother, was 14 years older than Phylicia Rashad.
- #026
The character Cliff Huxtable ranked No. 1 on TV Guide's list of the 50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time (June 20, 2004 issue).
- #027
At the time, sitcoms were a dying genre. The success of this series, however, inspired the creation and release of many new sitcoms. The show helped revive the genre.
- #028
Lisa Bonet appeared only occasionally in the third season because Denise was away at college. In the fourth season, Bonet was placed in A Different World (1987), which followed Denise's life at the fictional Hillman College. Bonet left that series because of pregnancy, and it continued successfully without her. In the fifth season she returned to The Cosby Show occasionally, and in the seventh season she was fired over creative differences.
- #029
Bill Cosby wanted all of the young actors to address the main characters as "Dr. Huxtable" and "Mrs. Huxtable" as a sign of respect. Only adults were allowed to call them Cliff and Clair.
- #030
Joseph C. Phillips, who played Denise's husband on the series, is the only cast member who believes Bill Cosby is guilty of the sexual abuse allegations against him. He said he could sense even in the 1980s that something was wrong. Other cast members said they did not know, or believed the women were lying and that Cosby was innocent. Phillips said he knows someone who was a victim of Cosby's and never came forward.
- #031
Bill Cosby's own family was the basis for the Huxtables. Both families consisted of four daughters and one son, with the son the middle child.
- #032
In the Italian version, the family name was changed from "Huxtable" to the more pronounceable "Robinson." The title was changed to "I Robinson" ("The Robinsons").
- #033
The artworks hanging on the walls of the Huxtable home are by Synthia Saint James and the painter Varnette Honeywood.
- #034
Adam Sandler played Theo's classmate and friend in four episodes. Asked about his association with the series, Sandler said he had no idea of any sexual harassment on the set.
- #035
In the early 1980s, Bill Cosby was a regular guest host on The Tonight Show (1962), starring Johnny Carson. NBC programming executive Brandon Tartikoff was reportedly up late one night caring for his young daughter when he turned on an episode Cosby was hosting. Watching Cosby's monologue, which focused on observations about family life, inspired him to develop a family comedy starring Cosby.
- #036
At one point a poster of Whitney Houston hung behind the door of Rudy and Vanessa's room. Houston had originally been considered for the role of Sondra Huxtable, but she wanted to make her own music.
- #037
When Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Keshia Knight Pulliam were nominated at the 1986 Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, they were the youngest nominees ever in their categories.
- #038
Sheryl Lee Ralph was a finalist for the role of Clair.
- #039
Geoffrey Owens was often mistaken for Phillip Michael Thomas. Owens auditioned for the role of Tubbs on Miami Vice but was rejected because he was considered too young to be a seasoned street cop. A year later, Owens took on the role of Elvin Tibideaux.
- #040
The series theme was composed by Bill Cosby and Stu Gardner.
- #041
Guest actors Lili Bernard, Helen Gumpel, Eden Svendahl and stand-in Michelle Hurd accused Bill Cosby of sexual harassment on set. Cosby denied all the allegations made against him.
- #042
Several of the first episodes of the show's seventh season opened in front of the Mother Hale mural. However, a dispute arose over overpaying the children who made the original mural; the show returned to the previous season's Apollo Theater-themed opening, with a graphic added for Erika Alexander, a regular on the show. Some episodes began with Bill Cosby and Erika Alexander telling viewers it was not a rerun. The final season used a slightly modified version of the Mother Hale opening.
- #043
At the same time as season 3, Phylicia Rashad became pregnant; however, her pregnancy could not be written into the show in a way that would produce an extra Huxtable child, so they had to conceal it. As the season progressed, she was either going to a conference, confined to her bed, or hiding behind a teddy bear to keep her growing belly hidden. The teddy bear had nothing to do with the plot and was never explained, but it worked.
- #044
Cliff and Clair Huxtable are supposed to be roughly the same age. Bill Cosby was born in 1937, Phylicia Rashad in 1948.
- #045
In a 2014 TV Guide poll, Cliff Huxtable was voted the number one television father of all time, before the sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby and his eventual 2018 rape conviction.
- #046
In the 11th episode of season 3, titled "War Stories," Theo tells his father he has asked out a girl named Condola Burns. Phylicia Rashad had given birth to her daughter named Condola the previous season, on 11 December 1986.
- #047
Cliff, Clair and Russell are all graduates of the fictional Hillman College in Virginia. Although Cliff never mentions the medical school by name, many clues point to Temple University School of Medicine. In general, a framed logo of the "T" Temple symbol hangs in his basement office. Bill Cosby earned his undergraduate degree from Temple in 1971.
- #048
The theme is titled "Kiss Me." Seven different versions were used over eight seasons. Only the sixth and seventh seasons had the same opening title sequence.
- #049
From season 2 onward, The Cosby Show opened with dancing.
- #050
Although Bill Cosby spoke poetically about the importance of education and doing well in school, he did not succeed in high school. At 15 he dropped out and joined the military like his father. This is another area where Cosby's image and reality stand in strong contrast.
- #051
Anna was the first name of both Heathcliff Huxtable's and Bill Cosby's mothers. Russell was the first name of Heathcliff Huxtable's father and of Bill Cosby's younger brother.
- #052
Keshia Knight Pulliam and Allen Payne appeared in House of Payne (2006).
- #053
The theme song "Kiss Me" was originally recorded by Bill Cosby with a vocal version on the album "At Last, Bill Cosby Really Sings."
- #054
Theo's middle name was Aloysius.
- #055
"Hillman" is a thinly veiled stand-in for Howard University, a highly respected HBCU in America. Hillman Medical Center is part of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and is not far from Temple University in Philadelphia, Cosby's alma mater. The name "Hillman" was probably taken from there as well.
- #056
The fifth season version of The Cosby Show was performed by the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, then led by African-American conductor James DePriest, who directed the orchestra from 1980 to 2000. He was the nephew of opera singer Marian Anderson and a high school friend of Bill Cosby, who asked DePriest to write a new arrangement of the theme.
- #057
The choreography for the fifth season's opening was done by Trinidad-born actor and dancer Geoffrey Holder.
- #058
When the exterior of the Huxtable house is shown, the plaque beneath the porch light to the left of the door reads "Clifford Huxtable, M. D."
- #059
After Lisa Bonet appeared in the 1987 supernatural horror film Angel Heart (1987), her working relationship with Bill Cosby grew tense, resulting in her departure from The Cosby Show (1984) during its seventh season.
- #060
B. B. King's guest character is named Riley Jackson. King's first name is "Riley."
- #061
Elvin called his new in-laws Anne and Dad instead of Cliff or Clair or Dr. and Mrs. Huxtable.
- #062
The undergraduate school Cliff and Clair graduated from is a fictional HBCU, Hillman College. In real life, Phylicia Rashad is also a graduate of an HBCU, Howard University.
- #063
At the start of the fourth season, each season premiere had at least one of Cliff and Clair's children throwing them into an emotional upheaval. In season 4, Sondra and her new husband Elvin decided not to go to graduate school and opened a wilderness store; in season 5, it was Denise leaving Hillman and Theo forgetting to arrange his college dorm room; season 6 has Denise surprising her family again, this time with the news that she is newly married to Martin and is Olivia's stepmother; season 7, perhaps the lightest and most normal emotional upheaval, has Rudy frustrated that she did not develop over the summer like one of her classmates; and in season 8, Vanessa surprises everyone with the news that she has been engaged to Dabnis for 6 months.
- #064
Cliff Huxtable's office extension number is 331.
- #065
Three of the five actors who played the Huxtable children were the same age as or close in age to their Cosby counterparts. Lisa Bonet is one year younger than Erinn Cosby, Malcolm-Jamal Warner was born one year before Ennis Cosby, and Tempestt Bledsoe was born the same year as Ensa Cosby.
- #066
In the first few seasons, a poster of the British pop group Five Star hangs behind the door of Theo's closet. Just like the Huxtable children, all five members are siblings.
- #067
A recurring theme in many episodes shows Cliff wearing sweatshirts from various colleges and universities. This was not a new concept; Henry Rush, played by Ted Knight, regularly wore different college T-shirts throughout much of Too Close for Comfort (1980), which premiered 4 years before The Cosby Show.
- #068
Denise's favorite flower is the tulip.
- #069
Singer Stacy Lattisaw was considered for the role of Denise Huxtable.
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work