Tag: The Cosby Show

Bill Cosby’s Release is Both Wrong and Disgusting

Once upon a time (the 1980’s and early 1990’s to be specific), Bill Cosby and his family sitcom, The Cosby Show was everywhere. He was America’s TV dad, breaking boundaries and telling stories that we all could relate to, regardless of skin color.

Cut to nearly 40 years later; Cosby was a felon, found guilty of sexual assault. But as of yesterday, he was released from prison due to the accusation that his due process rights were violated.

Adding fuel to the fire, his TV wife, Phylicia Rashad initially supported him by the following tweet on Wednesday:

“FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!”

By Thursday, it had been retracted and replaced with another tweet.

Starts at 6:09

This is why the #Metoo movement exists. To make sure men like Cosby are given their day in court and then locked in jail for the rest of their natural lives. While I understand that Rashad and Cosby have been friends and colleagues for years, she should not be excusing his behavior. She should be calling him out on what he did and standing by the victims.

As a response to her initial tweet, Howard University, where Rashad is a Dean of the College of Fine arts, has received complaints from students, parents, and potential students. Honestly, I don’t blame them. By condoning him, she sends the message that these kinds of act are not just acceptable, but those found guilty will get just a slap on the wrist.

When it comes to rape and sexual assault, we have finally reached the place in which the victims are believed and the perpetrators get what is coming to them. Bill Cosby’s release is not just wrong and disgusting, it is a cold reminder why we still need #Metoo.

Advertisement

Bill Cosby Has Been Found Guilty

For multiple generations of television viewers, Bill Cosby is like an old friend. Whether you watched The Cosby Show, eat Jello because of him or adored the Fat Albert cartoon, there is no doubt that he is a giant of American culture.

As of today, he is now a convicted felon and will potentially spend the next three to ten years in jail after drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.

This is a victory not just for the women who were brave enough to speak up against Dr. Cosby. This is a victory for all women who have been raped, sexually assaulted or spoken to in an unwanted sexual manner by a male. If you do this, you will be punished in one form or another. No one is above the law and neither money or fame can hide the truth forever.

While the guilty verdict cannot take away what Dr. Cosby did to these women, at least they have peace of mind that he will never do this again.

Geoffrey Owens Has To Pay The Bills Like The Rest Of Us

The myth about Hollywood is that once an actor has a successful career, they are set for life.

The reality is much different.

The most recent kerfuffle going around the Internet is that actor Geoffrey Owens, best known for playing the Huxtable’s son-in-law on The Cosby Show was photographed while working at a Trader Joe’s in New Jersey.

I’m not an actor, nor do I have the want the desire to become an actor. However, I know enough to understand that most actors are not pulling in six or seven figures. The work, if they are lucky enough to get it, can be consistent, but sometimes it isn’t. There is nothing wrong with an honest day’s work, whether you are acting in front of a camera, or if you are sweeping floors.

Everyone has to be pay their bills and if Geoffrey Owens is paying his bills by working at a retail job, so be it.

Add Another One To The List X: Tom Brokaw And The Bill Cosby Trial

We are in the middle of an uprising. For an untold number of generations, women have been viewed as second class beings who are put on earth merely to fulfill the sexual pleasures of men. For too long, we have been silent. We are silent no more.

Over the weekend, actor and comedian Bill Cosby, best known for his 1980’s/early 1990’s sitcom The Cosby Show was found guilty of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand. He could spend the next thirty years in prison. Some have argued that race was a factor in deciding that Cosby was guilty. While I can understand where they are coming from, from my perspective, the guilty verdict has nothing to do with skin color. Bill Cosby had non-consensual sex with Constand. He drugged her before forcing himself on her. Regardless of skin color either the accused or the victim, that is a crime and should be prosecuted within the fullest extent of the law.

 

Another name added to the list of prominent men accused of sexual assault surprised many: respected news anchor Tom Brokaw. Three women have come forward, accusing Brokaw of assault and harassment in the workplace. While the information from Brokaw’s accusers are still being reviewed, he has received support from many well-known female journalists. Only time will tell if he is exonerated or is found guilty.

 

Either way, the message is clear. Sexual assault and sexual harassment is unacceptable. No means no, period. If it takes a lawsuit and the loss of jobs and/or reputations to make that crystal clear, so be it. It’s time that men learned that we are not here simply to be their sex slaves.

Flashback Friday-Polly: Comin’ Home! (1990)

Pollyanna is one of those books that many of us read when we were young.

Written by Eleanor H. Porter, it is the story of an optimistic orphan who is taken in by her wealthy and emotionally distant aunt.

In 1990, it was remade in Polly: Comin’ Home. Set in the 1950’s, the television movie starred The Cosby Show actors Keshia Knight Pulliam as the titular orphan and Phylicia Rashad as her aunt.

As reboots go, this isn’t bad. It was also banking on the fact that the two lead actresses were on one of the most popular televisions back then.

Do I recommend it? Yea, why not?

RIP Florence Henderson

There is no one like Mom. She smells of home cooking, fresh laundry and reminds us of home.

Florence Henderson passed away yesterday. Best remembered for playing Carol Brady on The Brady Bunch (1969-1974), Florence was seen as America’s mother.

In 1969, America was changing. While The Brady Bunch was wholesome, unaffected and unabashedly simple at times, it was also charming and reminded us of the love and the chaos of family. Carol Brady is a widow with three little girls. Mike Brady is a widower with three little boys. The Brady Bunch lasted five years, but lives on in reruns. What makes The Brady Bunch interesting from a television perspective is that while it was not the domestic comedies of the early 1950’s, it was represented the changes in the world. There wouldn’t be a Cosby Show, Family Ties or Modern Family without The Brady Bunch. Inspired by the feminist movement, more women were entering the working world, marrying later, divorcing their husbands and were more educated than their mothers and grandmothers.

Betty Freidan, Carol Brady was not. But she was a single mother who saw the possibilities in her daughters. She was also a wife who was a very happily married woman with a very active sex life.

RIP Florence Henderson.

Flashback Friday-80’s Television Edition-The Cosby Show (1984-1992) & A Different World (1987-1993)

Television in the 1980’s, for the most part, was very, well, white. Then Bill Cosby came along.

The Cosby Show (1984-1992), revolutionized television. Whereas previous African-American shows had their characters in settings that many lived in at the time, The Cosby Show was different. The Huxtables were an upper middle class family in Brooklyn. Cliff (Bill Cosby) was a doctor, his wife Clair (Phylicia Rashad) was a lawyer. They had five children ranging in age from college to early elementary school.

While the show contained the usual emotional schmaltz and “special episodes”, this show was also funny and spoke to the audience, regardless of the labels they used. Unfortunately, the show’s legacy has been altered by the scandal revolving around it’s star.

In 1987, Lisa Bonet’s character, Denise, was spun off into a series of her own, A Different World. Airing until 1993, the show followed Denise as she attended a historically all black college. Due to what was understood at the time differences with the show’s producers, Lisa Bonet left, but the show lived on.

While there are certain elements in terms of fashion, music and lingo that are dated, the show lives on because of the human stories and human lives of the characters. And, to it’s credit, it encouraged and still encourages some kids to attend college who had not considered going.

Do I recommend them? Well yes, but I can’t watch The Cosby Show reruns without thinking of Bill Cosby in a different light.

Why The Hobby Lobby Supreme Court Ruling Is Wrong

During the middle of the classic 1980’s tv series, The Cosby show, an episode premiered in which the adult male characters of the show were pregnant.

The Supreme Court yesterday ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby. The ruling states any for profit company who provides their employees health coverage through the Affordable Care Act can claim religious exemption and not include FDA approved contraception under the provided health insurance.

I’ve come to the conclusion that until the day men get pregnant and have to deal with everything that comes with pregnancy, women will be fighting for the right to accessible and reasonably priced birth control. While the plot of The Cosby Show played for laughs, art does not imitate life.

Having a child is a blessing, but let’s face it, it’s not easy, nor it is cheap.

According to CNN last year, a middle class couple who had a child in 2013 will spend $241,080 from the time the child is born up to age 18. That does not include the sky rocketing cost of college and the exorbitant student loan debt that college graduates have to pay off.

Not every woman uses birth control to prevent pregnancies. Some use it to treat medical conditions.  Without the contraceptives covered until the employee health plan, that’s money  that could be going to something else and maybe time away from the office because they are too sick to work.

Salaries are not what they were. Prices are going up. What happens to the mother who cannot afford birth control because her employer does not believe in it? She goes to the government for assistance. Another child, another family dependent on tax dollars for financial support.

The fact that this ruling exists and is now law creates a dangerous precedence. If a employer can claim religious exemption when eliminating birth control from the employee health plan, what else can they deny their employees? The right to deny an employee the right to add personal touches to their work space because they don’t like what they see? The right to turn down an employee’s request to use a personal day for religious observance because the employer and employee do not see eye to eye on religion?

The Hobby Lobby ruling is wrong. No employer has the right to dictate an employee’s beliefs. Period.

%d bloggers like this: