The Cosby Show

CTL-E-5442 · Work · other · 1984–1992

PROVISIONAL evidence grade of this record

The Cosby Show, created by Bill Cosby with Ed. Weinberger and Michael J. Leeson, aired on NBC from September 20, 1984, to April 30, 1992 — eight seasons and 201 episodes built around Cliff and Clair Huxtable, a physician and a lawyer raising five children in a Brooklyn Heights brownstone. Its ratings were a phenomenon: the No. 1 show on American television for five consecutive seasons, a Nielsen feat among sitcoms it shares only with All in the Family, and a top-20 finisher in every season of its run. It is cited as the only scripted series with a predominantly Black cast to top the Nielsen ratings, and to do so more than once. TV Guide called it the biggest hit of the 1980s and credited it with reviving the situation comedy as a network form; Entertainment Weekly credited its success with opening the door to a wider range of Black-cast series. For this graph it is the anchor of the television shelf: the proof, delivered weekly for eight years, that a Black family at the center of American television was not a niche proposition but the mainstream itself.

Notes

Statistics: NBC, 1984–1992; 201 episodes; No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for five consecutive seasons (Wikipedia). Creator Bill Cosby holds no graph Person record — flagged as a future candidate, not minted in this Works wave. Filed as Work/other: schema v0.2.6 carries no television subtype, and none was invented inside this merge (schema changes are a separate, reviewed step). · Curator's Judgment: DRAFT — for founder review: The Huxtables were a ratings argument before they were a family: five straight years at No. 1 settled, for a generation of network executives, a question that should never have needed settling. The record keeps the count, because the count is the citation. · Photo slot: HELD — poster/key art and production stills for this title are copyrighted studio material and were NOT pulled (per CTL-PHOTO-001 and the wave brief: never force non-free key art); no cleared Commons image was verified for this title in this run. Slot honestly HELD pending a cleared visual.

Sources

• Wikipedia, 'The Cosby Show' — supports: creators, NBC run (September 20, 1984 – April 30, 1992), 8 seasons / 201 episodes, the five consecutive No. 1 seasons, and the TV Guide / Entertainment Weekly assessments — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cosby_Show

Record CTL-E-5442 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: PROVISIONAL · 1 source · CTL research: MEDIA-001.
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