Conception and development In the early 1980s,
Marcy Carsey and
Tom Werner, two former executives at
ABC, left the network to start their own production company:
Carsey-Werner. At ABC, they had overseen sitcoms such as
Mork & Mindy, ''
Three's Company, and Welcome Back, Kotter. The two partners decided that to get a sitcom to sell for their fledgling company, they needed a big name behind it. Bill Cosby had performed stand-up comedy with award-winning albums and starred in several genres in TV and film in the 1960s and 70s, but his career had become more static by the early 1980s. According to a Chicago Tribune'' article from July 1985, despite Carsey and Werner's connection to the network, Lewis Erlicht, president of
ABC Entertainment, passed on the show, prompting a pitch to rival network,
NBC. Outside of his work on his cartoon series
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Cosby was doing little in film or television, but Carsey and Werner were fans of Cosby's stand-up comedy and thought it would be the perfect material for a family sitcom. Cosby originally proposed that the couple should both have
blue-collar jobs, with the father a
limousine driver, who owned his own car, and the mother an electrician. With advice from his wife
Camille Cosby, though, the concept was changed so that the family was well-off financially, with the mother a lawyer and the father a physician. Cosby wanted the program to be educational, reflecting his own background in education. He also insisted that the program be taped in
New York City instead of
Los Angeles, where most television programs were taped. The Huxtable home exterior was filmed at 10 St. Luke's Place near 7th Avenue in
Manhattan's
Greenwich Village (although in the show, the residence was the fictional "10 Stigwood Avenue").
Production notes used in
The Cosby Show Early episodes were videotaped at NBC's
Brooklyn studios (subsequently
JC Studios). The network later sold that building, and production moved to the
Kaufman Astoria Studios in
Queens. Even though the show was set to take place in Brooklyn, the exterior façade was actually of a brownstone townhouse located in Manhattan's Greenwich Village at 10 Leroy Street/10 St. Luke's Place. The pilot was filmed in May 1984, with season one's production commencing that July, and the first taping on August 1 (
Goodbye Mr. Goldfish). During its original NBC run, it was one of five successful sitcoms on the network that featured predominantly African-American casts. The others were
227 (1985–90),
Amen (1986–91),
Cosby Show spin-off
A Different World (1987–93) and
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Although the cast and characters were predominantly African-American, the program was unusual in that issues of race were rarely mentioned when compared to other situation comedies of the time with predominantly African-American casts, such as
The Jeffersons. However,
The Cosby Show had African-American themes, such as the
Civil rights movement, and it frequently promoted
African-American culture and
culture of Africa represented by artists and musicians such as
Jacob Lawrence,
Miles Davis,
James Brown,
B. B. King,
Stevie Wonder,
Sammy Davis Jr.,
Lena Horne,
Duke Ellington,
Dizzy Gillespie and
Miriam Makeba.
Chris Rock was considered for the role of Theo's best friend Cockroach, which eventually went to Payne. The spin-off,
A Different World, dealt with racial issues more often.
The Cosby Show's series finale, taped March 6, 1992, aired during the
1992 Los Angeles riots, with Cosby quoted in media at the time pleading for peace. During the third season, Rashad was pregnant with her daughter
Condola. Rather than write this pregnancy in, the producers simply greatly reduced Rashad's scenes or filmed in such a way that her pregnancy was not noticeable. Another main cast member pregnancy, that of Bonet, almost caused the actress to be fired, especially coming in the wake of appearing in the film
Angel Heart, which contained explicit sexual scenes with actor
Mickey Rourke. Cosby strongly disapproved of Bonet's role, but allowed her to continue on
World until returning to
Cosby after her pregnancy. Tensions remained, however, and Bonet was eventually fired in April 1991.
Theme song and opening sequence The show's theme music, "Kiss Me", was composed by
Stu Gardner and Bill Cosby. Seven versions of this theme were used during the run of the series, all variations of Cosby's 1974 song by the same name, from his album
At Last Bill Cosby Really Sings. For season four, the theme song music was performed by musician
Bobby McFerrin. Due to legal complications regarding the background mural, the opening for season seven (filmed on August 17, 1990 at
Kaufman Astoria Studios in
New York City,
New York), was replaced with the one from the previous season. The original season seven opening, with slight modifications, returned to use in the beginning of season eight. ==Cast and characters==