Wednesday, September 20, 2006

On this day in 1984, the biggest hit sitcom of the decade, perhaps ever in terms of it's power and influence, The Cosby Show, began it's run on NBC.

Aside from being a strong family show with Bill Cosby doing his best Bill Cosby, along with great chemistry with Phylicia Rashad and the workhourse talents of the kids of the clan, the show was important for a number of reasons. It revitalized the sitcom, especially the family sitcom, as a viable genre. It created, before they even named it, NBC's "Must See TV." More than any of these, it was one of the last shows that, in the early days of mainstream basic cable, everybody watched. A fact so well known that even President Reagan was known to delay his remarks to the nation until 8:30pm, after The Cosby Show had ended, so as to avoid angering the millions of American's tuning in every week, at least half of whom hoped Cliff Huxtable would finally get to eat the giant sandwich he tried to sneak in the middle of the night.