TLIAD - Scrambling for the Score - A Cosby Show without Cosby

Or, an attempt to salvage some peoples' childhoods after the findings and stories of what had been going on since the '70s.

the date was early, 1984. Bill Cosby had just pitched a show idea to NBC, and they liked it. But now...

The accusations were horrific. It was one person's slip-up that caused a major news source to start looking into it - some whispered it was a racist one - in the South, but when the truth began to come out, Bill Cosby was being accused of heinous things involving several women.

Suddenly, an American icon was in shambles, and the black community was struggling to show that there were still great black entertainers. A group of them were joined by several white ones to do a repeat of the USA for Africa tour. hank Aaron and other black baseball players did special charity things that Cosby had had to cancel.

And, at NBC, a network desperate for hits, a seemingly great idea was about to go down the drain.

The network already had all the other actors and actresses in place, but who was going to play the dad. they couldn't just have "another black family with no father" in their show, they wanted it to represent a middle class family. ANd, when they talked of not producing it, black leaders were up in arms - now, more than ever, they cried, they *needed* this show.

Then, someone had the idea of Jimmie Walker. he was a fair amount younger than Cosby, but a year older than the woman slated to play his wife. He would have to be reeled in, some felt - he'd not gotten along with Esther Rolle on Good Times - but perhaps having the family center around him and having him be a true leader would be a good thing.

It had better be, they told themselves.

Walker seemed a little too confident, which made some of the producers edgy. Then, a nervous quip comparing him to Satchel Paige occurred, and Cliff Huxtable, the wise man who had seen Satchel Paige pitch and gotten his autograph as a boy, then used that confidence to push himself to be a successful doctor who delievered countless babies, was born.

he wouldn't say "Dy-no-mite" on the show, but he himself was, turning Cliff into a competent man who still loved to play jokes. he would later tell an interviewer, "J.J. was more playful becasue he grew up in poverty, it was his way of coping. Cliff, I had to learn to play him straighter, but I always had an element of playfulness in him that I think resonated with people - it taught there's a time for fun and a time to be serious."

And, who can ever forget scenes like when he wound up bidding against his wife for something, and then as he told the story afterward, he almsot seemed to be making himself laugh harder and harder. or the look on his face as Theo is sitting in the kitchen in the middle of a big mess Rudy made turning on the blender without a top - eating a sandwich. Walker's ad libbed line, "If that's how you make a sandwich, I'd hate to see you make dinner!" was kept, and it became one of his most famous.

"Walker stole the show a bit more than Cosby would hve," one of the Huxtable kids later would say, "but while he wasn't as subtle, we got used to it, and it sort of helped us to grow closer together. It probably kept Denise ont he show, though she did go away to college for a spinoff." The reference, of course, is the actress who might well have left butting heads with someone who insisted on much more strict decorum.

however, Walker still believed in making sure that things remained civil, and wound up becoming a good father figure and role model - not what he'd envisioned for himself, but he actually remade some of Cosby's records and there was talk of his even starting a New Fat Albert later.

(Okay, closer to time to leave than I'd thought, but it's mostly done. Have fun expanding ont he idea if you want. I hope I've entertained and given some insight into how the show could have been saved and at least kept pretty similar. Unless someone has a better actor/performer to do it.)
 
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jahenders

Banned
If Cosby's career collapses before the show is made, I think the show dies with him. His proven track record and popularity were a big part of it being supported and catching on.

They could try with Walker or someone else, but the chemistry isn't likely to be nearly as good, nor the reception. At best, you'd likely have a show on par with "Black-ish." Given when it came out, it's doubtful it would do nearly as well.
 
Good points - however, as stated, I think at a certain point they'd feel they had to try, under pressure from others, as it would help to present a middle-class (and, really, upper middle class) black family. Although I'll grant that it may start off in an 8;30 time slot at first, the way back then of starting any show that was new, as they hoped to draw in viewers who had started at 8.

Then, there's the whole problem of NBC not having many hits and needing the help.

Anyway, I have more time now so I turned this into a TLIAD but will only add two more posts.
 
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"The Huxtables" premiered at 8:30 on Thursday in 1984, right after the sitcom "Family ties," which had been growing in popularity - it was a rather easy shift, as they'd considered putting Family Ties after Cosby.

"It worked well, but it was rather serendipitous," one executive said later. "We got a number of regular people who were embracing the more conservative values who kept watching at 8:30 and thought, "Hey, these Huxtables pretty much have our values. The late night comedians liked to joke that 'Jimmie Walker is a proven broad-ranging actor now, he can play a liberal fromt he ghetto and a conservative upper class doctor, and things like that helped, too."

Walker tried to be the focal point, but that didn't last long. Once, early in in the first season, the others on set just decided they were just going to sit and do nothing. "Walker got the hint, and turned it into a joke," the same executive pointed out. "In fact, it gave him the idea for an episode - Denise is rebelling, but instead of laying down the law, Cliff and Claire not only don't do chores they normally do, they tell the other kids not to do theirs and not to listen to her and then go on a date and leave Denise at home to babysit."

The episode became one of the funniest and most memorable of the first season, but Walker realized that, in order to keep his spot, he needed to play along well with the others and let them led. In fact, it led to a very famous debate between him nd Charles Barkley a few years later.

"It was in 1988 that Barkley said athletes shouldn't be role models," Walker would later recall. "I insisted they did, and pointed out how I had to jump in when Cosby's career crashed and burned. Barkley was pointing out how people like him had flaws and shouldn't be looked up to, but someone had to pick up the pieces or this show wouldn't have happened at all, and I did. And, i pionted out that in some families, there is no father figure, and someone has to step in. Sure, the athlete can't come into the home and and help with homework or make sure the kids aren't hanging with the wrong crowd, but the way they behave in public and when nobody is looking will rub off on kids - even if they do have a father figure, in fact."

The interest in sports - baseball, in particular - would be used by Walker to try to boost ratings. The cmoparison to Satchel Paige and "coming in fromt he bullpen" led him to occasionally suggest how faous blck athletes might be included. Whereas Cosby might have worn a Temple sweatshirt, Walker decided the best bet was to have a Kansas City Monarchs sweatshirt designed for Cliff Huxtable.

"Cliff doesn't spend a lot on himself," Walker said of his character in1986. "They might go to a Mets game once in a while - but Claire likes the Metropolitan Opera." In fact, that led to a hilarious episode where the meaning of "Met tickets" led to all sorts of confusion and misunderstandings. "The main interest is the kids and seeing them grow up and be healthy, happy, productive people in society. But, everyone has a hobby, nd he uses that autograph from Paige and other stuff to have gotten a few contacts. In one episode, in fct, he winds up delivering the baby of a former Negro League player's granddaughter. that's how we got Ray Dandridge to come on, and he made a couple more appearances, too."

It was a far cry from the jazz performers that Cosby might have brought in, though a couple were mentioned at times. However, with baseball still quite popular in the mid-80s, it allowed for somethign tht would allow people of both races to identify with the Huxtables.

One writer said, "We pulled out all the stops a bit early to keep it afloat, and we actually did pretty well, we made it last several seasons, longer than it might have. We even wanted to do a dream sequence time travel one - Walker and the others all nixed that at first, but we eventually prevailed on him with the 40th anniversry of jackie Robinson's entry into the majors coming up. We set it for May of '87, a sweeps month one, and had a great look at Brooklyn of the 1940s. Walker wanted it to be mroe a story witht he adults, though, so it became the famous episode with Theo trying to keep the younger girls occupied with because Vanessa and Rudy host slumber parties and suddenly Theo has to babysit."

"I don't know how we made it work sometimes," Rashad said, "but somehow we pulled it off. I dont' just mean that episode, i mean the show in general.You wouldn't have thought it could work with Cosby gone so soon before we started, but Walker did end up playing a very good father and doctor. It wasn't the Cliff Huxtable cosby would have played, but it was a good one."
 
Season 2 saw The Huxtables move to 8:00, where they stayed for a few seasons. It wasn't quite strong enough to be an easy lead-in program, but it held its own well. And, Jimmie Walker grew into the role of father figure quite well.

"I figured a dad should have some key sayings," Walker said later of how he played Cliff Huxtable. "First few episodes, I was almost all 'Ol' Satch,' like when I told Theo he had to do well in school because, 'You better never look back, someone might be gaining on you.' Which, of course, led to his talking of moving out, and showing him how all those payments like rent, cars, and especially girls were the ones that would be 'gaining on him.'" he laughed for a moment and then continued more somberly. "It was rough suddenly getting asked to star only a short time before the first taping. But, by the second season, I felt like I had found my sweet spot. I'd still use baseball, but I had a much wider variety of people even within the game to choose from, and things outside as well."

Whereas one can imagine Cosby being the bulldog that guarded his daughters from boys, for instance, Walker iplayed Huxtable differently.

"Oh, yeah," he reminisced, "that one scene, I was supposed to describe how Cliff was with boyfriends coming over, and the idea of Bob Gibson on the mound came to mind. There was this one famous time when he ordered McCarvery, the catcher, to get off the mound and not to come back. And, I even called that glare Claire had - you know, the one a mom gives that says she means business - as the 'high, hard one' just like a brushback pitch."

As Walker grew into the role of Cliff Huxtable, he did well at encouraging the kids to succeed off the set, too. "W didn't want any problems like child stars had on other shows," he said. "And, we didn't - we were very fortunate."

Writers for "The Huxtables" had pondered having Theo shown to have dyslexia - because it seemed like the show always needed something new, they introduced that a little earlier than they might have otherwise.

The actor who played theo recalls. "It's like there was always something happening - when Theo didn't want to study and hadn't read MacBeth for English, Claire made him read it even after the assignment in school was over. So, that sparked something int he next episode where Theo complains to Cliff, and Cliff says, 'Okay, let's take you to get tested - maybe you have a learning disorder.' Theo balks and Cliff pulls out this record Theo had bought - 'I present to you Exhibit A,' Cilff declares, 'you could hve listened to the whole thin and not had to read a bit.' So, Cliff basically dares Theo to get tested to prove that he wasn't lazy. And, the punch line is that the joke is sort of on Theo - because he *could* have listened to the record and understood it."

The Huxtables wound up lasting 5 seasons. With quite a bit of interest still in it, they also have a reunion show in 2000.

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That's all I have. Anyone with other ideas on how this would work can add some.
 

jahenders

Banned
I guess it COULD potentially work, but it would definitely be a different show and would have a different response from both black and white America. I just think it would have middling success, at best, and (if it gets off the ground) might only last a couple seasons.
 
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