The Cosby Show: Season 01 (1984)

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In the first episode of the long-running sitcom The Cosby Show, Brooklyn obstetrician Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby) is asked by his attorney wife, Clair (Phylicia Ayers-Allen), "Why do we have four children?" Though no answer is forthcoming, the fact seems to remain that there are indeed four kids living in the Huxtable's fashionable brownstone: daughters Denise (Lisa Bonet), Vanessa (Tempestt Bledsoe), and Rudy (Keshia Knight Pulliam), and son Theo (Malcolm-Jamal Warner). And yet, sprinkled throughout the early episodes of season one are several references to a fifth child -- who finally shows up in the person of Princeton University student Sondra (Sabrina Le Beauf), who makes her first appearance in the tenth telecast episode, appropriately titled "Bon Jour Sondra." (Reportedly, Bill Cosby expanded the original four children alotted to the Huxtables to five so that his TV household would mirror his own: four daughters, one son.) Also making their initial Cosby Show appearances during its first season are Earle Hyman as Cliff's father, Russell Huxtable; Clarice Taylor as Cliff's mom, Anna; and Peter Costa as Rudy's close-mouthed friend, Peter Chiara. And as an added bonus, season one boasts memorable guest appearances by Dizzy Gillespie and Lena Horne. The Cosby Show closed out its first season as the second most popular series in the U.S. Clearly, despite the prognostications of the pundits of the period, the "warm family sitcom" format was not dead -- not on NBC, anyway. As icing on the cake, the program won an Emmy award for Outstanding Comedy Series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi