The groundbreaking and still-celebrated sitcom, The Cosby Show, has its 30th anniversary this month, honoring almost a decade of Bill Cosby’s television genius. It is perhaps not a coincidence that ABC on Wednesday night premiered its new sitcom Black-ish, starring Anthony Anderson and Laurence Fishburne, a show whose way was at least somewhat paved by Cosby.
Wishing the Huxtables “Happy Anniversary!” before the month is out, and before Bill Cosby trades sitcoms for streaming when solo comedy special airs on Netflix later this fall, Brief presents some Cosby promotions from over the years:
1985:
NBC promotes the lineup of Punky Brewster, The Cosby Show and Family Ties in the mid-‘80s, when kids still aspired to Punky Power and Michael J. Fox was still best known for his role as Alex P. Keaton.
1987:
NBC took advantage of sporting events during the 1987-88 season to market the upcoming “American classics,” adding The Cosby Show to the mix. “In the next 12 months, NBC will bring you four television classics: The Summer Olympics, The World Series, The Super Bowl, and The Cosby Show.”
1988:
Malcolm Jamal-Warner and Tempestt Bledsoe, as Theo and Vanessa, hyped their own show by talking about their on-air family: “lovable, laughable and irresistible,” according to Theo.
1992:
For the series finale, NBC marketed The Cosby Show as “the show you planned your Thursdays around.” The campaign set an emotional tone to the Huxtable family promos, saying “farewell to an American tradition.”
And, of course, one of the most memorable scenes from The Cosby Show is its opening credits. Luckily for fans, the treasure trove that is the Internet has taken the liberty of combining the main titles from the show’s eight seasons into one video:
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