Michelle Taylor of Wilmington remembers watching 'The Cosby Show' and thinking, 'Here's how I could run my household.'
Back then, Taylor was a matriarch in her early 20s and she related more to the teenagers on the show than to their parents.
The Cosbys might have been the first black middle-class family on prime-time television in 1984, but the situations they confronted were universal: Kids arguing over music at the breakfast table, dad confronting his son over a lousy report card, the passing of a beloved pet goldfish.
Celebrating its 30th anniversary Saturday, the intelligent, funny Emmy-winning series helped revive the family sitcom and NBC's sagging ratings. With an obstetrician father and a lawyer mother who were intimately involved in their five children's upbringing, the show shattered racial stereotypes of the 'black family experience' depicted in 'What's Happening' or 'Good Times.' For five straight seasons, Cosby was the most popular TV show in America.
To honor that legacy, Wilmington's Woodlawn Library will host a free 'Cosby Show' marathon Saturday from 10:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m in the library meeting room. Guests are encouraged to bring their own snacks and wear a Cosby sweater.
'We all started tuning in and it wasn't because of their color,' says library specialist Kim Tull. 'They were just like everybody else.'
Earlier this week, Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, organized a roundtable discussion on the program's influence on American culture.
Media historians date the first sitcom featuring a fully realized black character to the 1960s series 'Julia.' Then came 'The Jeffersons,' '227,' 'Family Matters,' 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,' 'Martin,' 'My Wife & Kids,' 'The Steve Harvey Show' and more.
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On Wednesday, ABC will premiere 'black-ish,' a 30-minute series that centers on a black family living in an upper-class, mostly white suburb.
The father, ad executive Andre 'Dre' Johnson, played by Anthony Anderson, laments that his kids are losing touch with their cultural identity. The mother, Dr. Rainbow Johnson, is a racially mixed woman played by Tracee Ellis Ross, daughter of Diana Ross. Laurence Fishburne, one of the show's executive producers, plays the wisecracking grandfather in a departure from his stoic 'Matrix' roles.
Created by Kenya Barris, who also helped launch the reality series 'America's Next Top Model,' 'black-ish' is semi-autobiographical. Barris' wife is a doctor of mixed race and the family live in a predominantly white neighborhood.
It remains to be seen whether the series will become the modern-day 'Cosby' or simply recycle tired jokes about race. In one episode, Johnson throws his son a hip-hop bar mitzvah.
The show joins 'Cristela' and 'Fresh off the Boat' in ABC's fall lineup reflecting diverse families.
In recent interviews, Cosby has criticized the scarcity of ethnic families on the small screen. Cosby and Phylicia Rashad, who played Clair Huxtable on 'The Cosby Show,' returned to TV comedy in 1996 with CBS's 'Cosby.' The series lasted four years.
Recently, Cosby reportedly struck a deal with NBC to appear as the 77-year-old patriarch in a multi-generational sitcom. The comedian has previously appeared at The Grand in downtown Wilmington.
While attending seminary, the Rev. Chris Bullock remembers alternating between 'Cosby' and 'Sanford and Son,' which revolved around a junk dealer in South Central Los Angeles.
' 'The Cosby Show' sent a strong message to black America that we don't have to call our women hos, we don't have to visit our kids behind prison bars. We can visit them in our own living rooms and kitchens,' says the founder of Canaan Baptist Church in New Castle. 'You can have children in the sacred arena of marriage.'
'Wherever you were on the economic ladder, you could relate to something in it,' he continues.
Cosby insisted on authenticity. He hired Harvard psychiatrist Alvin Poussaint to provide insights into child psychology. He incorporated elements of African jazz and art. Stevie Wonder stopped by the Huxtables' Brooklyn brownstone.
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Still, the Huxtable children didn't appear spoiled. In one episode, Denise tried unsuccessfully to sew a knock-off designer shirt. In another, Rudy performs household chores to earn enough money to buy a doll named Mega Woman.
The show launched before the re-election of President Ronald Reagan and ended just before President Bill Clinton took office. Over the years, Cosby was criticized for being 'too white' or for not addressing hot-button political issues like income inequality.
The show's spin-off, 'A Different World,' tackled themes of domestic violence, HIV/AIDS and the 1992 Los Angeles riots, as it followed Denise Huxtable, played by Lisa Bonet, attending a historically black college.
Marcia Taylor (no relation to Michelle Taylor) was attending another HBCU, Delaware State University at the time of 'A Different World.'
'He was the dad many of us would've liked to have had,' she says of Cosby's Heathcliff Huxtable. 'They had recurring roles for the grandparents, which was true with most African-American families.'
Now an assistant professor of mass communications at DSU, Marcia Taylor thinks her students aren't necessarily searching for 'another Cosby.' Half of them come from two-parent households, she says.
She admits to having a huge crush on Fishburne, so she will watch 'black-ish.'
So will Michelle Taylor, who grew up working-class in Wilmington and is now president and CEO of the United Way of Delaware. Her children, however, are more interested in reality TV shows like 'The Real Housewives.'
'I'm hoping for the best but I'm conservatively optimistic,' she says of 'black-ish,' adding that it might not attract the same crossover audience as 'Cosby.' 'I thought the title wasn't very embracing.'
On a slow Saturday, Michelle Taylor can be found watching episodes from her complete DVD set of 'Cosby.' Her favorite: When Cosby's eldest, Sondra, a Princeton University graduate, returns from her honeymoon with husband, Elvin, and proclaims that she's abandoning law school to open a up a wilderness store.
Contact Margie Fishman at (302) 324-2882 or mfishman@delawareonline.com. IF YOU GO
'Our kids go off and make decisions we don't always agree with,' she says. 'Eventually they find themselves.'
'My kids are all in their 20s now,' she continues. 'Now I can be the Clair Huxtable.'
WHAT: 'The Cosby Show' marathon
WHEN: Saturday, 10:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
WHERE: Woodlawn Library, 2020 W. Ninth St., Wilmington. Marathon will be in meeting room. Guests can bring snacks. Marathon will show select episodes from all seasons.
INFO: (302) 571-7425 or http://lib.de.us.
'black-ish' premieres Sept. 24 at 9:30 p.m. on ABC.
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