The Cosby Show (1984): 18 Shocking Facts You Totally Missed

The Cosby Show: 18 wild facts you never knew ABC rejected the pilot three times. Their stated reasons were that a wealthy Black family with two professional parents would feel unrealistic, stand-up comedians couldn't anchor scripted sitcoms, and the sitcom genre was dying. All three assumptions were wrong. NBC picked it up and the show became the foundation of their entire Thursday night empire. Whitney Houston auditioned for Sandra and chose not to commit because she had decided music was her main career. Her debut album dropped months later and became the best-selling debut by a solo artist in history at the time. The Huxtable brownstone was filmed in Greenwich Village, Manhattan for all eight seasons. The show spent eight years pretending to be in Brooklyn while filming miles away. Claire Huxtable was originally conceived as Dominican, with a running gag of furious Spanish outbursts. Felicia Rashad won the role partly because she spoke fluent Spanish. The gag was dropped before season one aired. A Harvard Medical School psychiatrist reviewed every script for all eight seasons. The theme song had seven different arrangements across eight seasons with new choreography each time. Cosby's contract gave him final approval over every script and the ability to kill any storyline he personally objected to. Lisa Bonet was fired twice from the Cosby universe. The finale aired April 30, 1992, during the LA riots. The mayor personally lobbied the local NBC affiliate not to preempt it. 44 million people watched. And the bonus: the show finished number one for five consecutive seasons. In the entire history of Nielsen ratings, only one other show has ever done that. All in the Family. ⏱ Timestamps in the chapters below 👇 Comment which fact blew your mind