Original subtitles

Uh, so it's gonna be this one,

and you just hit the blue play button.

Right.

[producer] Just push play when you're ready.

Yeah, there you go.

-And then, uh... -All right, thank you.

-[laughter] -[Clair] Well, now,

it certainly is nice to see them

work things out for themselves.

They haven't worked anything out for themselves.

It's my barbecue sauce.

-[Clair] Your barbecue sauce? -[Cliff] My barbecue sauce.

Haven't you ever noticed after people

have some of my barbecue sauce,

after a while when it kicks in,

they get all huggy-buggy?

Wow, this is suddenly creepy. Oh!

After one of my barbecues and they have the sauce,

people want to get right home?

He's got this look on his face.

It's-it's very creepy.

I got a cup of it

up on the night table in our bedroom.

I got a cup of it, I said.

[Clair laughs]

[Cliff] Left it up there breathing.

Why don't you give the chicken to these people?

Let's go on up and have some sauce.

So here's the rest of the chicken, you guys.

Dr. Huxtable, I love this chicken.

You know, Rudy, you look real nice today.

[laughs]

[video stops]

I don't need to watch any more of that.

Wow.

That's just not okay. It-it's...

it's actually kind of stunning, um,

how that slipped by so many of us.

Yeah, it's--in hindsight, it's incredibly dark.

I don't-I don't--you know, I don't know.

The-the thing with the barbecue sauce

had been a running gag for several seasons.

You know.

Let's not become too puritanical, shall we?

It very much feels like Bill Cosby is giving us

a blueprint to what he's doing

when he's not playing America's dad.

That made my armpits sweat.

That's the first time I've been like, "Ew."

percussive jazz music

[Webster] My mommy and daddy, they died.

Now I live with George and Katherine.

Let's roll!

[person] Ooh!

Three, roast him!

[Kamau] The 1980s came in hot.

[laughs maniacally]

[Kamau] It was an unprecedented

cultural explosion in America,

and we shipped it around the world:

music, movies...

I am your father.

[Kamau] ...TV...

What you talkin' about, Willis?

[Kamau] ...technology.

And for the first time in this country's history,

Black folks were right there in the center of it.

upbeat music

And the key year was 1984.

We went from being Black stars to worldwide icons.

Hell, we even thought we might get

our first Black president.

Not yet.

But at the same time

the media was turning Black celebrities

into worldwide phenomenons, it was doing this...

to the rest of us.

This is Newark, New Jersey, one of America's inner cities.

"Inner city" is a polite name for ghetto,

as in Black ghetto.

Most Black children are now growing up

without their fathers.

In the 1980s, mainstream media

has now presented the view,

"Oh, this is the Black family:

destructive,

strung out on crack,

sons and fathers in prison."

The 1980s, it was this almost apocalyptic sense

of what was happening in Black America.

People were worried

that the hard-fought advances

from the 1960s and 1970s were being eroded,

if not reversed.

[Kamau] There was a tension

between images of Black folks like this

and images of Black folks like this.

[applause]

And there was an opportunity for something or someone

to resolve that tension.

[announcer] Bill Cosby's back...

Who's in trouble now?

[announcer] ...as a loving family man.

I heard about The Cosby Show coming out on TV Guide.

Oh, there's another Black family. Oh, shit.

But they're not from the ghetto.

[announcer] This season, he introduces us to

a wife who's a thumbs-up lawyer

and a passel of loving children.

His dignity remains unflappable.

[Kamau] And for my people, these weren't just ads

about a TV show.

Nah, this was a calling.

Everybody knew this show was happening,

this show called The Cosby Show.

It was a huge deal.

It wasn't just gonna be a Black person appearing.

This was gonna be a whole show with just Black people on it.

Yo, a Black man has a television show

about a Black family on NBC.

[Marc] It was the first show that my mom and my dad

and my aunt and my neighbors, everybody said,

"Yo, I-I'll talk to you later. I got Bill Cosby coming on."

[Jemele] There was just this understood directive

in the Black community

that we were going to support Bill Cosby.

We were gonna watch The Cosby Show.

It was supposed to be in our DNA.

When I knew there was gonna be The Cosby Show,

I was anticipating it.

I'll never forget waiting that night for the pilot to air.

-[Cliff] Hey. -[Theo] Hey, Dad.

-[Vanessa] Hi, Daddy. -[Rudy] Hi, Daddy.

Listen, let's put on some music round here.

-[radio tuning] -[jazz music playing]

Something about this show instantly felt different.

What people have always referred to in the pilot

was the moment with Theo.

You're a doctor, and Mom's a lawyer.

And you're both successful and everything,

and that's great.

But maybe I was born to be a regular person.

And so...

...instead of acting disappointed

because I'm not like you...

...maybe you can just accept who I am and love me anyway...

...because I'm your son.

[applause]

And, of course, the audience that was conditioned

to react this way went, "Aww."

And then Bill, three beats, look at him, going...

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life.

Just in that moment, Bill pulled the rug

on sitcoms and kind of flipped them on their head.

upbeat music

And it's a hit instantly.

[Marc] They got something on their hands

that they couldn't have anticipated.

Advertisers didn't anticipate it.

No--execs didn't anticipate it.

I mean, there was just no way to know

how much America would fall in love with this family

and, really, this man.

[Kamau] In 1984, I was 11.

I was there week after week,

keeping up with the Huxtables.

And it didn't miss.

There was always something...

[Cliff] Lamont was a good fish,

happy and brave.

[Kamau] ...classic moments, catchphrases.

Didn't you go down there to Baltimore

and have big fun, Vanessa? Tell me.

-If I say "big fun"... -Big fun.

And you don't say, "Baltimore"...

Baltimore.

...then I know you and I are not the same.

[Kamau] Everybody on that show was different,

fun, and unique.

What is this?

[Kamau] If you were watching,

there was somebody in that family

you could identify with.

We were the same age as one of his kids,

be it Theo, Vanessa, Denise.

Maybe some of us were Sondra.

Theo is so charming. Rudy is adorable.

You're never cuter than when you're missing

your front teeth.

Maybe this is when I knew I was,

like, very gay very early on

was looking at Lisa Bonet and being like,

"Huh, I feel things."

[Renée] There were so many times you'd watch that show

and you wanted your family to be the Huxtables.

Why don't we get along like that?

[all cheering]

I'd been on the show about a month,

and, uh, we were at a rehearsal,

and I had my notepad and pen.

And we were watching Theo and Rudy rehearse a scene.

And I feel this elbow in my ribs.

And I turn, and it's Bill Cosby.

He's got a cappuccino in one hand

and a cigar in the other.

And he leaned over, and he goes,

"Hey, man, if you were home right now,

wouldn't you want to be a part of that family?"

And when he said that, it was like...

[mimics explosion]

Okay. That is the key to television.

Underrated

[Kamau] If I had to pick one scene

to demonstrate how good this show was,

how much it meant to Black folks,

there's only one clip I would choose.

Some of you already know what I'm talking about.

[Ray Charles' "The Right Time" playing over speakers]

[lip-synching] You know the nighttime, darling

Night and day

Is the right time

Night and day

- To be - Night and day

With the one you love, now

I mean, this scene is just so good.

Like, it's just--

it captures what the spirit

of the show is so well.

Night and day

You know what I'm thinking of

Night and day

[Kamau] This isn't good because of what

they wrote down on the page.

This is good because of what the actors are doing

on the stage.

Even though Bill is a stand-up comic,

he's sharing the spotlight with everybody.

He's giving the best parts to Rudy.

- Baby - Night and day

- Baby - Night and day

- Baby - Night and day

[Doug] People don't understand what it takes

to get a kid to do this.

They have to be safe.

- Night and day - To be with the one...

[Kamau] There's also something subtle

going on here.

This scene is for Black folks.

You know how I know?

They ain't performing for the TV audience.

They're performing for them, the elders.

This was Black love on full display.

Oh, baby

[Kamau] We hadn't seen a lot of that on TV before.

I love how the older people are, like, just enjoying it.

Oh, keep me satisfied

Night and day

I know that nighttime

Night and day

Every day is the right time

Night and day

Hey, to be with the one you love, now

Night and day

- Well, you know - Night and day

All right, yeah, yeah

Wow.

[cheers and applause]

[Danielle] Well, one of the main things I think about

when I see that clip is just,

there are a million reasons we don't want

what we know to be true about Bill Cosby to be true.

And I think that clip highlights so many of them.

It's just such a kind of bright and warm scene.

I think many of us don't want to lose

the way that those kinds of scenes make us feel

and what they meant for us watching at the time.

Uh, but the reality is-- you know,

the reality is the reality.

[Matt] It was a Thursday, and I'm walking up the sidewalk.

And it's about ten minutes before the show starts.

And I hear this little girl pulling--"Daddy, hurry.

Come, come, the show's starting.

Cosby's on."

And she pulled him into a building.

She was probably six.

And I went,

"Okay, this has an impact that I wasn't even aware of."

She was white.

Yeah, she was a little white girl

on the Upper West Side.

The Cosby Show wasn't a Black show,

but there things that made you feel Black,

which was important.

I have some very important reading to do here.

[Godfrey] Like when Clair would say certain things,

like, when she would check people,

she was like, "Oh, let me tell you something."

You don't get it together

and drop these macho attitudes,

you are never gonna have anybody bringing you

anything anywhere anyplace anytime ever.

That's a Black woman checking you.

Cosby Show showed people, "Hey, look.

Black families have money.

Their kids are in school."

It's not like, "I'ma tell you, man, I'm working hard!

I'm trying to get out the ghetto, God damn it.

Ah!"

[Renée] When you go inside the Huxtables' town house,

it is, like the Huxtables themselves,

this monument to Black excellence.

It's artwork by Varnette P. Honeywood.

You see Ellis Wilson's The Funeral Procession.

And when you go into the kids' rooms,

there are posters of Miles Davis

and Wynton Marsalis.

It is such an affirmation of Blackness

without...

sort of beating people over the head with it.

They existed in this sort of Black utopia.

Not only did The Cosby Show tremendously elevate

the Black image on the set.

Kamau, on that set, I saw Black production assistants.

I saw Black stage managers, Black hair and makeup,

Black writers, Black directors.

I was like, "Wow."

Your mother and I are rich.

You have nothing.

[Kamau] And yes, many critics pointed out

that The Cosby Show was not representative

of the average Black family.

But who cares?

We had seen lots of images of the average Black family.

Does it always gotta be Good Times?

-[glass shatters] -Damn, damn, damn!

[Kamau] The Cosby Show wasn't really about money.

It was actually a show about Black people

not having to think about money.

-[all] Party till you drop. -[camera shutter clicks]

-All right. -[doorbell rings]

[Kamau] Black people just being allowed

to live and thrive.

My baby has been admitted at NYU, my baby!

[Kamau] That's what we aspired to.

That's the feeling we tuned in for.

[singers] NBC, let's all...

[Kamau] But the NBC executives,

they loved The Cosby Show for a different reason.

Before The Cosby Show premiered,

NBC was the number three network.

They were in the toilet.

Nobody knew how NBC was going to survive.

The Cosby Show came along and saved NBC.

We're hot.

[Godfrey] Before Friends,

before Seinfeld

was Bill Cosby single-handedly

changing the face of NBC.

[Jamilah] The highest-rated episode

of The Cosby Show drew in 65 million viewers...

What's blowing up or on fire?

[Jamilah] ...which, at the time,

was a quarter of the U.S. population.

For comparison's sake, in 2019,

The Big Bang Theory,

which was the highest-rated show of its time,

brought in 25 million viewers.

Cosby became a cultural icon, hero

not only for Black people but for all people.

dramatic music

[Marc] When we turned on the TV,

it was almost impossible not to see Bill Cosby.

Open up an ice-cold Coke.

Coke adds life, so have a Coke and a smile.

Cosby became this figure that we could trust.

Mom, you know how the kids love Jell-O pudding.

[Marc] He's a pitchman for Kodak film,

Jell-O, Coke, um, everything.

The Ford Motor Company's sneaky squeak test.

All of these companies want to be associated

with the Bill Cosby brand:

wholesome, father, funny,

all of those different things.

And so dollars keep coming.

The really big bucks are in show business.

Bill Cosby's, the biggest,

an estimated $57 million this year.

It's clear that he is becoming America's father

just as much as the character.

[Lise-Lotte] He's this great dad.

He's like a second father

that's on television.

He was someone to believe in and someone to trust

and someone to follow his advice.

We all know Bill Cosby as America's dad.

[reporter] His new book is called,

very simply, Fatherhood.

[Jelani] At the same time, the cultural conversation

is around Black men as absentee fathers.

Bill Cosby is being called America's dad,

not Black America's dad.

He's being called America's dad.

And I don't think it's kind of overstating it.

Cosby really, almost single-handedly,

expands the vista of what people think

Black people can be in American society.

[crowd cheering]

-Who, Bill Cosby's? -Yeah.

Oh, uh, Cliff Huxtable,

uh, he was a pediatrician.

[gasps] That's right, he delivered babies.

Oh!

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Was it in the house? Was it in the town house?

Oh.

God.

Bill Cosby controlled every single aspect of that show.

So I have no doubt in my mind that he chose

what Dr. Huxtable's medical specialty would be.

You could have been a dentist, for crying out loud.

But you weren't.

You were an OBGYN.

His character bringing women to his home

where he's going to examine them.

It's-it's-it's outrageous.

-Get outta here. -Yeah, see, I made you laugh.

We've all seen an actor who plays a villain

who is so good at playing a villain

that you don't even like that actor anymore.

On the opposite side of it,

an actor who plays a hero, you think that they are

a really virtuous person

on the basis of what they've done on the screen.

Cosby does that all the time.

Probably to a greater extent than anyone

in entertainment in my lifetime,

Cosby had melded those two identities.

It seemed like...

Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable was Dr. Bill Cosby.

And Lord knows they wore the same sweaters.

[Danielle] We say, "Well, you know,

he wasn't really Cliff Huxtable.

Nobody's really Cliff Huxtable.

And how can we hold him to that standard?"

But that was the standard that he told us to hold him to.

[caller] Ever since my father passed away,

when I see you on TV, you remind me of him.

And I feel and admire for you

what I did for him.

And I just love you so much.

[Danielle] That was what he wanted us to believe.

He did that in...

in clear ways through the television show

by structuring it to look just like his family.

[interviewer] Do you pull from homelife

and bring it to the screen?

[Bill] I pull just about everything

from something I've seen,

lived, felt, heard, thought about.

[Renée] He parlayed our affection

for these characters into affection for him.

Being known as America's Dad can really disarm someone

from being tapped into and tuned into

what their intuition is telling them

because this brand is overriding.

We trust someone without really taking the time

that it requires to trust someone.

[announcer] And now welcome the star of the show.

We would tape the show on Thursdays,

once at four o'clock and then once again at seven.

You'd be standing on set.

I think there's about 200 people, maybe, in the stands.

You'd see all these faces

and, you know, all these people.

And everybody's dressed a little bit differently.

But then you'd get to this one pocket

where there's about 20, 25 women

dressed to the nines.

They're all models.

And they look it.

It's like, "Wow, what in the world is going on up there?"

What we learned later, a modeling agency

would bring these girls over, and they would

talk to Mr. C.

They would come and sit in the stands,

be a row.

And...

then there would be a parade of them,

go into his dressing room.

But there was always a long line of beautiful women,

all different shades.

I mean, the whole gamut, the whole rainbow

of the human race.

Yeah, they were lined up outside of his dressing room,

poor things, going in and out.

And I guess they would read, or I don't know what went on.

And then they would go out.

It was just kind of like the air, you know?

It was there. And everybody knew it.

His dressing room was always open.

Not then.

I-I don't know what kind of advice

you would probably have, to be offering mentorship

with a group of models.

But I mean, what do I know?

Not really.

It was-it was just write, sleep,

eat occasionally, write.

I guess there were attractive women around,

but it was a television studio,

and guests would drop in,

and Dizzy Gillespie would drop in.

And there was always kind of a party going on

in the dressing room, but the writers were upstairs

rewriting the script.

So I-I don't have any, uh, understanding

of what happened there.

Never.

Never. I never met her.

[chuckles] I never met Camille.

I never met any of his family.

I only saw her once.

I may have met Camille once in passing at the studio.

She was like a ghost.

She didn't exist.

I'm pretty sure I heard about Bill Cosby

being unfaithful first,

long before I heard about,

uh, any allegations of sexual assault.

There was this rumor

that Bill Cosby was not faithful to his wife,

which was stunning.

Even though, on The Cosby Show,

his wife was Clair Huxtable,

we imagined that he was projecting

what his real life was like.

So his marriage is really this good,

and it's attentive, and they really care about each other.

You know, the glowing magazine of photo spreads

of him and his beautiful Black wife, Camille,

beautiful pictures of the real-life Cosby family,

which is how they were often presented,

his actual children and his actual wife.

[Jemele] We had, for decades, accepted the fact

that Bill Cosby had the perfect marriage.

To hear that Bill Cosby was not faithful, um, to his wife,

that would be like us hearing now

that Barack cheated on Michelle.

Like, that's what it would be like.

We're talking about how lucky you are to have Camille,

'cause I think she's the perfect woman.

In terms of Camille, I am very, very lucky.

Therefore, I don't need any more luck in life

because Camille is my full share.

[applause]

[laughs]

Right.

Right, right.

Yeah, I heard-I heard, yes.

You know...[laughs] ...it's interesting you use

the term "notorious philanderer"

'cause it's like, that's exactly what I heard.

[laughs]

It's like, not only are people have the same information.

They have the same vernacular, like.

"He's a notorious philanderer."

I heard, though, that, yes.

And I think a lot of people heard that.

I only heard about him just fucking with other women.

I didn't put a judgment on him,

'cause I was doing that shit.

I ain't no loyal motherfucker. I was-I was like,

"What's wrong with getting some extra pussy? Shit.

You know, yeah, That's normal, motherfucker."

They're not.

Exactly.

Infidelity is between the partners.

Assault is-is a heinous crime.

And would you like me to play this, Kamau?

-Like, play this in front-- -[Kamau] Yes, please.

-Yes, please. -Okay.

[laughter]

Now, I'm telling you, you are going to try

as hard as you can.

And you're gonna do it because I said so.

I am your father.

I brought you in this world, and I'll take you out.

[laughter and applause]

I remember that episode.

And I find it to be--

He loved his kids so much. I--

One wants to have that.

And I haven't watched The Cosby Show, uh,

since everything happened.

somber music

I didn't have a lot of parental engagement

as a child.

My biological father died,

my stepfather, uh, stepped in at a young age,

but there was, uh, an emotional removal.

I love you.

-Yeah, Dad. -Huh?

-I know. -Yeah.

Bill was, like, it, it, it.

It didn't matter what color you were.

That's the dad you wanted.

And that's true today. Today.

If you want a dad, you want Dr. Huxtable.

And every--that's it.

I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

At that time, I was called mulatto a lot.

It's just a strange thing, being mixed or "biracial"

or "triracial."

Uh, you had-- you were on your own.

On your own.

Modeling saved me

because in the modeling world,

I was called exotic.

That's what they wanted on the runways

in the '80s and '90s.

dramatic music

This would have been 1989.

When I landed in New York,

I actually got a hybrid modeling and acting agent.

And one day, she called me up,

and she said, "I'm going out to The Cosby Show

to watch a taping."

And that's what we did.

And at the end of that taping,

she introduces us.

I say, "It was very nice to meet you, Bill.

Great show,"

uh, and I walked out.

It was just that simple.

But the following morning,

get a phone call from my agent.

"You just got a part in The Cosby Show.

He wants you next week on the show,

to play a cop."

Now, don't get me-- now, don't get me wrong.

Listen.

Women can play cops, but dress blues cops, you know,

walking the beat in New York,

at 22 and six feet tall, it just seemed a little odd.

Excuse me.

Yes?

Are you, uh, Jade Marsh?

Well, yes.

[Eden] This was my first television role.

I had three lines or something like that.

I have my own dressing room.

I didn't have a dressing room

on The Cosby Show.

When Jeff and I were on the show at the same time,

we normally shared.

One week, we come in.

I kid you not.

We are in a closet.

They put us in a storage closet.

Now, why would a girl that's playing a cop

have her own dressing room?

That, I-I knew enough to know that this is all--

now it's getting really strange.

And I'm uncomfortable right away.

I'm really uncomfortable right away.

Are you aware that that watch was reported stolen

two days ago?

[Eden] We're in the midst of rehearsal,

and all of a sudden, this man comes right onto the set.

This older man.

Looks like Burgess Meredith, uh, Rocky's, uh, trainer.

I come to find out is named, uh, Scotti.

Frank Scotti was one of those assistants

but probably the main one.

He came right up to me, and he said, uh,

"Bill would like you to have lunch in his dressing room."

He has my arm.

And it's not a strong hold. I don't mean that.

I just mean he's actually escorting me off.

If somebody came onto the set right now

and took me off set, you, Kamau, would say,

"Uh, I need her."

Nobody said, "We need her."

So I'm sitting down,

and I'm eating my Chinese chicken salad,

and Bill never comes in.

So that was the first day.

Preposterous, this was a gift from my boyfriend.

Well, could you take it off so we can check

the serial number?

Never.

[Eden] The second day, we're rehearsing,

and Scotti comes.

And this time, I say, um, I will not leave the set.

And I talked to two people.

And I said, "I don't want to leave the set."

And they said, "Just go.

This happens all the time. Just go."

Look, if we don't see the serial number,

we're gonna have to take you in

for possession of stolen property.

[Eden] On Thursday, I go into the dressing room,

and I'm sitting down, thinking that no Bill is gonna show up.

And right after, I don't know, two, three bites,

Bill finally comes in.

He comes in the door

and closes the door, which has always stayed open

those-those three days.

And he locks it.

Is this it?

Like, is this when somebody's actually gonna try

to fuck with you?

And he just said, really pointedly,

"Eden...

...you know that you...

...could have anything you wanted, right?

You do understand who I am?"

And I said, "Bill...

...you are

Fat Albert

and the Cosby Kids.

And you're Jell-O Pudding Pops to me."

Bill Cosby, the one that you, Kamau, and I know,

went from someone that I knew

to someone that I had never, ever seen before.

And he said, "Don't say that to me.

They all say that to me."

Then at this point, he says, "Stand up."

And he tells me to turn around.

He came up right to me,

and he said, "Put your arms out."

I put my arms out, and he put his hands on my hands.

And we did what is this classic,

you know, exercise that happens in acting classes

where we--you mirror somebody.

But he's behind me.

And it's very oppressive.

And it feels...

...it feels sexual.

We do an exercise.

It feels like it goes on for ten minutes; it doesn't.

I imagine it goes on for less than a minute.

And he wraps me in his arms, and he pulls me in.

He said, "See?

This is all we were gonna do.

Make love. This is making love."

And then finally he releases me,

and, um...

and he says, "You can go now."

I don't believe that's the first time that happened.

I don't believe that the people on that set

didn't know what was happening.

And I will say that right here.

And please,

please do not edit this.

A lot of people knew.

Because you can't do what he did

unless you have other people supporting what you're doing.

[Steve] I would love to ask some people

that I used to work with there,

like, "What in the world did you think was going on?

You did wonder. You had to."

Frank Scotti had all the answers.

Frank is the one that took care of Bill.

Frank enabled something terrible

for a long time.

So why do bystanders like Scotti not speak out?

Because there's a power dynamic.

People have jobs.

They need to eat.

They need to pay their bills.

I mean, it's been 30 years

since The Cosby Show has been on TV,

but Bill Cosby was, like, the number one

most powerful man

in the entertainment industry back then.

He had, like, $400 million under his belt.

He had power. He wielded power.

And so you're gonna speak against him?

And who's gonna believe you?

Bill Cosby is not even as famous

as he was back then, and look at the--

look at the scrutiny.

Look at the blaming and shaming

that we're having to endure.

[Kamau] Lili's right.

Bill Cosby was a powerful man

in the entertainment industry.

And even more complicated, he was a powerful Black man

in the entertainment industry.

And he used the power and the money that came with it

to directly make the lives of Black people better.

You give it away.

You give it away in big, big numbers.

[Jelani] Cosby donated $20 million

to Spelman College,

the largest single award

of philanthropy

that any historically Black institution had ever received.

[Marc] When Bill Cosby drops money

at a place like Spelman,

he's not just putting his name on a building.

He's helping to advance a tradition.

Bill Cosby did as much for HBCUs

in the '90s

as maybe any person in American history

through his donations,

through his advocacy,

and through the representation on A Different World.

I'm going to Hillman.

[all exclaiming]

twangy guitar music

[Aretha] It's a different world

[Kamau] In its first season,

A Different World was about Denise Huxtable

as she adjusted to life at the fictional HBCU

Hillman College.

There is a God.

[Kamau] But thanks to showrunner Debbie Allen,

this show became much more

than just a Cosby Show spin-off.

The Cosby Show was a show with Black people on it.

A Different World was a Black show.

They were attempting to resonate with youth.

They were attempting to resonate with pop culture.

And they were deeply, deeply centered in Black culture.

I'm a voice in this world, and I deserve to be heard.

[all] I'm a voice in this world,

and I deserve to be heard.

From the mountaintops!

I-I think A Different World is the best show

for-for Black people ever.

Even more than The Cosby Show.

It made getting an education seem cool.

Seventeen to two...

People look at Cosby as these two figures,

um, one of whom is this humanitarian

and the other of whom is this predator.

But I'm not sure that we can distinguish them

in that way.

[Marc] He would dangle the promise

of money to many institutions,

places like Temple in particular.

So every year,

they'd be hoping to get $10 million or $20 million

from Bill Cosby.

And that's why he's the board of trustees.

And that's why many of his misdeeds

were covered up or ignored.

[Jelani] He gave millions of dollars to a college--

not just any college, a college for Black women.

Maybe this is just coincidental,

but I doubt it.

So people have tended to see it as kind of

Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde.

And I think that you can make a compelling argument

that it's all Mr. Hyde.

jazzy piano music

[Matt] We would shoot The Cosby Show Thursday.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,

Bill went off and did his stand-up.

He'd go to Tahoe or Vegas.

[Lise-Lotte] So we're talking about Las Vegas, '88.

I was 23 years old.

Lot of people I would run into

or different situations said, "Oh, are you a model?"

I went down to a modeling agency,

you know, got some photos done.

And before you know it, I was modeling.

It was supplementing my income for education.

Ultimately, everything that I did

was so that I could go to school.

How I met him is getting the call from my agent,

saying, "Hey, Bill Cosby wants to see you.

He's at the Elvis Suite at the Hilton."

A lot of people don't realize, you know, back then,

everybody comes to Vegas, they stay in a hotel,

and you cast from your hotel room.

Your legitimate agency

is sending you on a call.

One of the first things I remember

when I first walked through the door

was a big round table.

And on the table were all these headshots

of models that worked in Las Vegas.

I was like, "Oh, okay."

And I thought, "Wow, he's serious.

He's really looking for somebody."

He just spent probably, you know,

just a short period of time just talking to me

and asking me about myself

and what I do and what I was interested,

what my long-term goals were.

As much as I don't want to, you know,

say that it was a nice meeting,

it-it was a great meeting.

And I left thinking, "Wow, you know,

he's interested in my career.

He's interested in me going to school.

I get to be mentored by Bill Cosby.

How great is that, you know?"

[singer scatting]

[Lili] I actually first met him in 1988.

I played a waitress, no lines,

in an episode about the jazz singer Betty Carter.

To hold him close

Is heaven

Being on that set was just magnificent

and exciting and electric, and I wanted to be

back in that working environment

where so many Black people were collaborating

to make this really great work.

And two years later, there was an open call

in Backstage magazine, which is a trade paper for actors,

and it was for stand-ins.

So I answered the call, and, um, Bill Cosby was there.

I said, you know, "Thank you for the opportunity

to audition, but I don't want to be a stand-in.

I want to be a principal character on your TV show."

And he called me really quickly,

it might have been that same night,

and then he began mentoring me.

He had always made it very clear from the very beginning

that I was gonna be written into the show

when he introduced me to the producers

and the directors, and the crew was like,

"Oh, Lili Bernard's gonna be on the show.

We're gonna write her in."

[Lise-Lotte] Get a call from the agency

that he wants to meet again.

We meet, and he's like, "We're gonna do some improv work.

And I'll just kind of prompt you."

And I get nervous

because I'm like, "I'm not an actress,

and you're Bill Cosby.

You know, what do you expect me to do?

You know, I don't even have lines or anything.

I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

And that's when he walks over to the bar,

pours a shot,

and then he walks back with it:

"Take this. It'll loosen you up."

And the first thing out of my mouth is,

"Well, I don't drink."

And he's like, "Yeah, it's not that much.

It'll just relax you, and then the lines will easily flow."

Well, it is just a shot, and I think, "It's Bill Cosby,

and he knows best,

and, you know, he has my best interests at heart."

So I take the shot.

Takes the glass, walks back to the bar,

and he pours a second shot.

And he's like, "This--it--trust me,"

kind of thing, so I go with it and take the second shot.

So then he starts kind of talking about improv.

And he's talking about, you know,

uh, techniques, I guess, for acting.

I start realizing that it feels almost like

the room is closing in.

It's like his words are turning into,

you know, Charlie Brown,

"Wah wa wah, wah wa wah."

And the room is just kind of, like, almost darkening.

He tells me to come and sit down.

And-and I'm feeling almost a little unsteady

but still trying to hold on to the words.

And as I'm sitting there, he's stroking my head back

like this, like, with my hair.

He's stroking it back.

And I'm just trying to understand, like,

what does this have to do with improv?

And then I remember walking

in the hallway of the Elvis Suite.

And it felt like I was just moving down the hallway,

almost floating.

Like, I didn't feel my feet.

And that's kind of the last memory that I have

of being at that Elvis Suite.

I'm not interested in reliving the trauma.

As you know, this is really difficult shit to talk about.

And so when you talk about a time line, like...

...you know, it's, like, really specific.

I may just talk about what it was like here or there, but...

...I'm not gonna sit here and analyze

what happened to me like a time line.

You know what I'm saying?

So...

After Bill Cosby drugged and raped me,

told people about both of them, my agents and friends.

And a few weeks later, you know,

The Cosby Show calls my agent,

saying that my role is written, come on in.

So that's just, like, literally, like,

right after, you know, the last incident.

I think that he was probably hurrying up

and giving me the role

that he had promised me to kind of, like,

try to shut me up or something, maybe?

Yoo-hoo! Hello!

What-what time is Mrs. Minifield's appointment?

Eleven o'clock.

It's 8:30.

You're right on time.

[Lili] Because, like, some people have criticized me,

"Well, why would you do the role?"

Because I'm an actor, and it was work.

And it was work that I worked hard for

and I studied for it, and I prepared for it.

Bill Cosby is a very intelligent,

malignant narcissist.

And so he calculates, you know,

how to Hoover you in.

When I remember again, I'm at home.

The rest of it I didn't-don't remember.

I didn't know 'cause of the drugs, you know,

the side effects of the drugs.

I have no memory of it.

So what I remember is drinking the alcohol,

the shots that he gave me,

and feeling like I had passed out

or gotten drunk

and-and don't recall.

And then I thought, "Oh, my gosh,

did I make a fool of myself?"

Well, surprisingly, Cosby calls me back.

He wants to meet again.

We go to his show.

I bring my mother, my sister, and her husband at the time.

Now Cosby's calling our house.

He invited my mother and I out to UNLV.

He even referred to me as his daughter Lise.

"Oh, I'm out here with my daughter Lise."

So he invited my dad to the-to the set.

My dad came to the set.

My brothers and my cousins came to the set.

They met Bill Cosby.

And so he brings the family

into this whole process of mentoring.

So then when the-- when the motherfucker finally,

you know, gains your trust and drugs you and rape you,

now you gotta tell all these people

who got to know and love Bill Cosby too,

"Uh, Mom, Dad, uh, cousin, sister, uh, boyfriend,

uh, he actually raped me."

And they're like, "What? No."

That is just

his MO, right?

He tried several times for us to get together.

And every time,

I always seemed to have somebody with me.

I didn't understand it, didn't really know.

I just knew that if he called and he wanted to see me,

I took somebody with me.

Yoo-hoo! Hello!

It was the most difficult job

that I had ever had in my life.

It was very combative for me.

My boyfriend at the time came with me to the set

as, like, sort of "protection."

And so the two of us had to have lunch with him

in his dressing room during the whole week.

He was, like, tormenting me.

For example, when I had to say "milk,"

"milk," he'd tell me, "No, say milk!"

Our baby has half my husband's genes.

And I'm making up for what he lacks

by eating lots of calcium, cheese, milk.

"No, Mrs. Minifield says milk."

Cheese, milk.

And I'd say "milk."

And he'd, like, cut the cameras.

He'd go into this little rage.

"I said, say 'milk!' Not 'milk.'"

And he'd get really, really angry.

The Wednesday night before taping,

it was late at night,

something like around nine o'clock.

And we had a whole day of dress rehearsal on Wednesday.

And we were sitting at Dr. Huxtable's desk.

And Mr. C calls it a wrap, and I start leaving,

and he said, "No"-- he used to call me Bernard.

So he said, "No, Bernard, you're not done.

'Cause you're not hitting those notes.

I want you to hit 'milk!'"

And he says, "You're coming with me."

I said, "I'm not going to your house, Mr. C,

'cause you know what happened

the last time I went to your house.

I'm not going to your house again."

It started getting really tense.

The production crew started-- their faces started

to get red and kind of, like-- they start to kind of scatter

like cockroaches as he started to get rageful.

He says, "If you don't go to my house, Bernard,

I'm gonna fire you. I'm gonna fire you.

That's it, you're over. It's through."

And I said, "Well, fine, fire me."

So he slammed down his, um, pa--his script, and he said,

"This isn't about me trying to fuck your ass anymore,

Bernard, we're through."

I thought I was fired.

You know, and, like, six o'clock in the morning,

this car shows up at my house.

Oh, I guess I'm not fired, right?

We filmed twice in front of a live audience,

so there's hundreds of people there.

And there's a comic warming up the crowd.

There's music.

It's just a really-- a festive time.

And I'm sweating and perspiring,

and my legs are shaking.

I'm like, "How am I gonna--

how am I gonna deliver these lines?"

Cheese, milk.

[Lili] And as the audience is applauding,

he looked at me, and he said,

"Fooled 'em again."

[Kierna] We thought we knew Cosby.

We never knew Cosby.

Heathcliff was the perfect body

to embody for him

because his crimes were getting worse.

[Kamau] When you look at the number of stories

of women who've come forward

saying Bill Cosby assaulted or raped them

during this time

and then you look at the number of accolades he got,

you see they skyrocketed together.

Around the same time

he released his book Fatherhood

and Hollywood was crowning him with yet another Emmy

and two Golden Globes...

-Bill Cosby. -The Cosby Show.

[Kamau] He was guest-hosting The Tonight Show...

My next guest is a very talented actor.

[Kamau] ...and, according to many,

abusing his power behind the scenes.

[Stacey] I was raped,

and I was afraid for my life, thinking he could do more.

I informed a lawyer.

I informed a police officer.

But at the same time, I thought...

"Will anybody believe me against him? No.

Will I have the money to fight this,

such power and wealth? No."

dramatic music

[interviewer] You were invited to his dressing room.

He was wearing a loosely tied robe.

What was his reaction when you wouldn't take the drink?

[Helen] You know, physically, he got angry. He withdrew.

He kept pressing the drink towards me.

And I did refuse it, thank God.

Just maybe a few weeks before, I had been working with him

on set.

I did not take the drink. I was not drugged.

And I wasn't raped. My career was a victim.

[Barbara] He was my acting coach.

He was my guardian. He was my father figure.

He got my mother to trust him so that when I was doing

acting exercises, he was drugging me, uh,

and the--I didn't know what was happening

at the beginning.

It wasn't until later on, I came out of it

a lot sooner than he thought I would,

and I was able to fight him off.

His last words to me were, "I'd better never, ever

see your face ever again."

The Cosby Show ended

on April 30, 1992.

[announcer] It was the show

you planned your Thursdays around.

Now, after eight years of magical moments,

it's time to come back for the biggest one of all.

Join us one last time to say farewell

to an American tradition,

the final Cosby Show.

[Renée] There were sort of two views of America

at that moment.

It was the Huxtable family

attending Theo's graduation...

Oh, boy, oh, boy.

...and there were the riots after the officers

who beat Rodney King were acquitted.

[reporter 1] There is thick black smoke everywhere

from the hundreds of fires that have been set.

[reporter 2] Eighteen confirmed deaths.

[reporter 3] Schools are closed; UCLA is closed.

Today Mayor Tom Bradley urged everyone in Los Angeles

to remain home, to stay off the streets.

He also suggested they might want to watch The Cosby Show.

It-it felt kind of perfect...

...that as this utopia ends...

[indistinct chatter]

...reality came crashing in.

And it felt, to me, like

when you're in a movie theater all day

and it's air-conditioned and cool and great

and you walk outside and there's that gust of hot air.

Maybe a time to remember what Thursday nights were like

before all this madness began in Los Angeles.

We hope you use this hour to say goodbye and thanks

to a good friend.

Bill Cosby, here we go.

[cheers and applause]

[Kamau] But Bill Cosby did not walk off into the sunset.

He was still one of the most powerful men in showbiz.

He wanted more.

-[announcer] Bill Cosby. -Welcome...

[Kamau] Over the next six years,

he had five shows.

But nothing hits like The Cosby Show.

And even his CBS sitcom, Cosby,

that was on for four years is little-remembered.

[helicopter rotors whirring]

The thing that people remember most

about that time is this.

[reporter] A reminder today that any family

can be touched by violent crime.

No one is immune.

The son of American entertainment icon Bill Cosby

was murdered today in Los Angeles.

...that Ennis had died?

Um...

well, I was asked to go home.

I know something awful happened.

And on my way out, someone told me.

Um, on my way out of the studio,

uh, Kaufman Astoria Studios,

someone said, you know, this happened.

Okay.

I was walking to the studio,

and they were like, "Well, Dr. Cosby's not here.

He's taking care of something. You know, it's an emergency."

I said, "Oh, okay."

I remember this day.

I walk back to my apartment,

and I turn on the TV, and I said, "Oh, shit."

It was just the report of his son being murdered

and the whole nine.

[reporter] What have they told you, sir?

Anything at all?

He was my hero.

Eleven days after Ennis Cosby

was gunned down in Los Angeles,

his father says it is time to heal,

to laugh again.

For Bill Cosby, that means plunging back into work.

[Doug] The day that we, you know, came back, uh,

to work on Cosby,

he, uh, assembled us in the stands,

walked in, almost as if it was like,

"Ladies and gentlemen, Bill Cosby,"

which was not unusual,

because he always entered the room that way.

The next week, Cosby came back

and did a whole stand-up set on his son's burial.

He had people crying and laughing at the same time.

"They were struggling with,

'What should we bury him with?'

No, don't put that in there. What's wrong"--

He killed it.

Now, most people would think,

"Man, too soon, too soon, bruh."

But he was explaining to us that as a comedian,

his job is to turn faces around

from this to happy.

And the only way to do that

is to go back to work.

[Patricia] When his son, Ennis, was murdered,

I felt great compassion for him

and for his wife.

And I remember thinking,

"No matter what you thought about this person

up until now, this is a horrible, tragic thing

to go through.

And surely this would be the kind of life event

that would make someone take stock

of what they were doing in their lives."

[Jelani] In 2004, the NAACP holds a dinner

to commemorate the Brown v. Board of Education decision,

the decision that outlaws

the legal segregation of schools.

The keynote speaker is Bill Cosby.

Bill Cosby does something nobody anticipates.

He gets up and delivers a harangue

against Black poor people.

And he says specifically

that they're not holding up their end of the bargain.

Telling us about where we went wrong,

what we need to do better, why we ain't shit.

Like, he just went through all of it, A to Z,

a read by Bill Cosby.

[Kamau] The Pound Cake speech.

Whew, this was intense.

[laughs]

He sounds like every other older Black gentleman

that I have encountered in my lifetime.

And the shock of it just seemed overblown to me.

The first time I heard about the Pound Cake speech,

I think was from my mother.

She didn't like the way

he was saying the message either.

But...

she was like, "Are you-are you listening?"

You know what I mean? Like, "This is...

this is how they think of you."

How do you go from being America's dad

to sounding like any white conservative politician,

you know, blaming Black people for everything

and not looking at all at any of the underlying

situations that have existed for decades and centuries?

After the speech that you did

and it was, uh, labeled controversial,

did you regret having done the speech?

No, no.

The only thing I regretted was,

I thought that I was talking to just my people.

-[laughs] -[Oprah] Yeah.

[Kamau] For the first time in his career,

Bill Cosby divided the Black community.

It's on us.

[Kamau] To be fair, some Black folks loved it.

But many of us hated it and felt betrayed.

And it hurt even more when he wrote a book about it

and took this new act on the road.

What's the problem here?

Why are we worried about dirty laundry?

[Kamau] And also, looking back, just feels like

he was working through his own problems.

I'm talking about dead young males.

Believe a child when she says somebody's fondling her.

[Kamau] Bill Cosby turned this one speech

into the next phase of his career.

And a lot of the people who loved what he was saying

did not have the best interests

of Black people at heart.

[moderator] What are you gonna do about the war

in the inner city?

[Mitt] Well, one, about the war in in inner city,

number one is to get more moms and dads.

That's number one.

And thank heavens Bill Cosby said it like it was.

That's where the root of crime starts.

By then, Bill Cosby's audience is not us.

Bill Cosby's audience is not just white

but white and elite.

He is making these arguments

in some of the most hostile spaces,

uh, to Black community and Black progress

and Black advancement.

And it felt like a violation of the community

that had helped legitimize him as America's dad.

There is a time, ladies and gentlemen,

when we have to turn the mirror around.

Meanwhile, in 2004,

the same year that he gives the Pound Cake speech

is the same year

that he is accused of having raped Andrea Constand.

[person] The allegation was that he

drugged and sexually assaulted Andrea Constand

in his home.

For 25 years, I thought I was the only one

until Andrea Constand came forward.

[reporter 1] Bill Cosby is the focus

of a police investigation near Philadelphia.

[reporter 2] A Tampa University employee

-accused Cosby... -[reporter 3] ...Accused Cosby

of drugging and molesting her.

[Kamau] In 2004, there were two stories about Bill Cosby.

One was about him shifting from being America's dad

to Black America's angry grandpa.

You gotta straighten up your house.

[Kamau] And the other is about him being accused

of sexual assault.

Bill Cosby does not have to go to court

over charges of sexual misconduct.

[Kamau] And it stayed that way for a while,

these two sort of separate stories.

And it wasn't until ten years later

that somebody put those two stories together

in a way that we, the public, could finally

start to deal with.

[reporter] More trouble for Bill Cosby...

[Kamau] And it wasn't a journalist.

Ironically, it was a Black stand-up comic

in Philadelphia,

Cosby's hometown.

dramatic percussive music