During his nearly 50 years in show business, Bill Cosby became one of the most recognizable Black celebrities in America. With a career that included an astronomical rise on television in the mid-1960s; work in children’s programming and education; legendary stand-up performances and albums; and an epoch-defining hit sitcom, The Cosby Show, Cosby was a model of Black excellence for millions of Americans. But now, thanks to the brave and painful testimonies of dozens of women, we know there was a sinister reality to the man once extolled as “America’s Dad.”
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After spending the early aughts perched on the high horse of respectability politics, Cosby falls down to Earth. Hannibal Buress tells a joke in Philadelphia, a chorus of survivors speak out, and a culture is ready to listen. There are two trials, a conviction, incarceration, appeal – and in 2021 – an overturned verdict. Now, we must debate what to do with the art we loved and the larger systemic problems Cosby’s story lays bare.
Cosby strikes gold with "The Cosby Show," a genre-defining family sitcom and monument to Black excellence. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he parlays our affection for his characters into even more affection for him and leverages his growing power inside the entertainment industry to allegedly commit and conceal a multitude of sins. As the beloved sitcom comes to an end, Cosby’s persona warps from America’s Dad into America’s Angry Grandpa.
“Hey, hey, hey” it’s the 1970s and Bill Cosby’s on a circuitous path to becoming an on-screen educator and moral authority – a man we thought we could trust. Whether he’s telling kids to say “no” to drugs or allegedly offering pills to young women, Cosby proves himself relentless, and his ambition propels him to new levels of acclaim with 1983’s stand-up special "Himself".
In the 1960s Cosby is collecting accolades for his comedy, breaking barriers for Black stunt performers and finding his own ways of participating in the nation’s sexual liberation and civil rights movement. All the while, he allegedly begins exploiting his power. How do we reconcile everything we knew and loved about Bill Cosby with what we now know?
During his nearly 50 years in show business, Bill Cosby became one of the most recognizable Black celebrities in America. With a career that included an astronomical rise on television in the mid-1960s; work in children’s programming and education; legendary stand-up performances and albums; and an epoch-defining hit sitcom, The Cosby Show, Cosby was a model of Black excellence for millions of Americans. But now, thanks to the brave and painful testimonies of dozens of women, we know there was a sinister reality to the man once extolled as “America’s Dad.”
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Hans Charles
Showtime Documentary Films , Boardwalk Pictures
as Self (archive footage)
