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.)