Before There Were Reality Shows

The Cosby Show - One of the Most Loved Sitcoms

Before there were reality shows, America crowded around the television once a week to see what the Huxtables were doing in their Brownstone in Brooklyn Heights, New York. In my college dorm in the mid- eighties, you could smell popcorn being popped and hear folks making plans to watch The Cosby Show around 7:45 every Thursday night. Whose room would we watch it in, who was bringing what to eat... It was a weekly event all of America looked forward to, regardless of age, race or class. It was an all American past time that united America and made us blind to our differences. It was a past time that has a drastically different look now. There were no contestants, no voyeuristic cameras catching back biting conversations, no prize money to compete for... just good, clean family life.

Oh, sure it had its share of everyday struggles, but with a markedly different tone. And although it was not a reality show, it had its own magical way of making you feel like you were there with the upper- middle class family. Many times we could catch Cliff Huxtable, the father of the family and also an obstetrician, sneaking food he shouldn't be eating or trying to talk his way out of trouble he had gotten into with his wife, Claire Huxstable. Cliff''s guilty looks along with the writers made you feel like you were right there in the kitchen with him when Claire would swing open the door and catch him. You could see it coming a mile away, Cliff tiptoeing around, thinking no one else was in the house as he devoured some forbidden food he had promised not to eat. The excitement would build in a way that made you roll on the floor when she did catch him with that muffin in his mouth, denying its existance while the very crumbs fell on his shirt.