Best option to replace Cosby in '70s and '80s

Who is bset to replace Cosby in American entertainment with pod of late 60s?

  • Flip Wilson for the wide variety of characters

    Votes: 7 43.8%
  • Nipsy Russell, Rule of Cool, rhymes make Fat Albert fun, he's remembered later

    Votes: 3 18.8%
  • Ivan Dixon - he'd have time between directing jobs, could have range for comedy

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Some other black performer

    Votes: 4 25.0%
  • Someone who died soon after the pod in otl

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • An athlete stepping up would make most sense

    Votes: 2 12.5%
  • A combination of people,one too young for'70s does sitcom

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    16
Bill Cosby, now marred by scandal, was an important performer in the 1970s and 1980s. He not only developed a good, wholesome family sitcom featuring a middle-class black family, he also had good educational programs in the 1970s.

I did a TLIAD where someone has to replace him at the last minute in 1984, too late to cancel the show so they had get another person, and I went with Jimmy Walker as someone who had at least starred in a sitcom and seemed able to play the dad and be the right age, but there were other options, including going with a respected black athlete and hoping they could act a little. (That would be an interesting one for someone else to do.)

However, going back over a decade, there's more leeway. Flip Wilson (who I only later realized was the right age and might have been better for my time line in a day) is only one of several possibilities. There's people like Nipsey Russell (who I considered for the TLIAD - imagine him breaking into impromptu rhyme as he delivers his lines) or a combo or even someone who died OTL. Their career track doing such things would start around 1970 along with whatever they did before. Even if it wasn't acting..

I can neither confirm or deny plans to mention this in the Selma Massacre thread. I actually think Nipsy Russel and his impromptu rhyming would fit well just to satisfy the Rule of Cool; more likely as Fat Albert. But, if lots have a better idea, especially for an '80s sitcom, that would be great, too.

Which reminds me, what did he star in, anyway? I just remember him being a game show panelist growing up, which is why he didn't get more consideration for my time line. But a pod years earlier makes a difference.
 
Oooh, I forgot about Hemsley. For obvious reasons I would prefer not to use OJ in the timeline but he might have been most realistic for my TLIAD - and the scandal would certainly define the TV trope "from bad to worse"
 
Oooh, I forgot about Hemsley. For obvious reasons I would prefer not to use OJ in the timeline but he might have been most realistic for my TLIAD - and the scandal would certainly define the TV trope "from bad to worse"

Do you think Hemsley could have made a good Cliff Huxtable, or could the Jeffersons come back to TV after a brief hiatus?
 
Wow, just looked up John Amos on Wikipedia! Given the character's age I'd thought he and nipsey Russell were reversed in age (surprised Russell was that old, too). Having been very young when "Good Times" aired, I might have also thought the actor died, too, though when I read the Wikipedia article, I did remember having read about the firing sometime years and years ago.

Although Hemsley is a great bet, too, becasue I don't know if "All in the Family," where Hemsley got his start as the neighbor who then got spun off, would be made in the "Selma Massacre" TL. Given all the violence, a character espousing things like Archie Bunker might be seen as stirring things up with his racism int he Soutrh.

Of course, John Amos getting encourged to go into writing and such by Hank Stram seems like a great way to lead into him being the one, too; hmmm, yes, this is giving me ideas now. I'll just mention some but others can go with it elsewhere.
 
How about Richard Pryor? I know it sounds odd, but he actually did have a children's show called Pryor's Place briefly on CBS in 1984.
 
Definitely Flip Wilson. He was one of Johnny Carson's protoge's and had frequently guest hosted the Tonight Show, as well as his own wildly popular show in the late 1970's (it was only canceled due to the general death of variety shows across the board). Him coming back in the mid-80's as the star of a network sitcom, especially on NBC (where he originally found fame) makes perfect sense.
 
6839b0cd72318806ce200bc89db22aaa.jpg
 
Pryor looks sooooo comfortable in that pic... XD

Cosby had been the crossover into the White world. Richard Pryor originally tried to go the Cosby route. But the problem was, he was restraining himself, whitewashing himself for the audience, and it felt like he was ripping off Bill Cosby. He actually got a job in Las Vegas, which was the comedians dream in the 1960s. And he said one night Dean Martin was in the audience, and looked at him with an expression as if to say he was being a fool. And that set Pryor off to burn it all down and reinvent himself as someone who told his personal truths.
 
Cosby had been the crossover into the White world. Richard Pryor originally tried to go the Cosby route. But the problem was, he was restraining himself, whitewashing himself for the audience, and it felt like he was ripping off Bill Cosby. He actually got a job in Las Vegas, which was the comedians dream in the 1960s. And he said one night Dean Martin was in the audience, and looked at him with an expression as if to say he was being a fool. And that set Pryor off to burn it all down and reinvent himself as someone who told his personal truths.

And the world was a better place as a result. :)
 
cleavon-little-fletchlives-3.jpg


I'd vote for Cleavon Little. Failing that, Robert Guillaume could have, and has filled in.

If you were looking for someone to do "The Chicken Heart that Ate New York City", well, good luck.
 
Top