Two rules prevented Bill Cosby from receiving cheers
When NBC premiered “The Cosby Show” on September 20, 1984, the network effectively claimed ownership of Thursday night primetime television for several decades. This was the unofficial beginning of Must-See TV (the moniker wasn’t coined until 1993), and the series’ ratings highlights throughout the mid-to-late 1980s anchored NBC’s lineup, allowing them to switch sitcoms at 8.30 and 9.30 if needed (the 10 p.m. soap slot is owned by “Hill Street Blues” and, starting in 1986, “L.A. Law”) .
The other Thursday half-hour slot considered untouchable by the network is the 9 p.m. posts are dominated by “Congratulations.” Created by James Burrows, Glen Charles and Les Charles, the show is built around a Boston neighborhood bar where everyone knows your name popped up everywhere for the first two seasons before being permanently canceled. vandalism until 9 p.m. for the remainder of the 11 seasons. It’s a gentle contrast to the family-friendly antics of “The Cosby Show,” and it’s never had a bad season.
These two series changed television history forever, but there is an alternate timeline in which only one of them exists.
Bill Cosby as Sam Malone?
The creators of “Cheers” spoke to The Hollywood Reporter on the series’ 25th anniversary in 2018 and revealed that the star of NBC’s highest-rated show for most of the 1980s was almost Their main bartender. According to Les Charles:
“In the early stages, Bill Cosby had a deal with NBC and was not involved in a project. So he was invited to be our bartender. But we had two rules. Name unknown and no [character] name as the title of the show.”
Thank God for those rules, but what if NBC made a fallback on the series order featuring Cosby? The comedian is one of the most popular comedians in America, but his film career stalled after the box office disappointment of “The Devil and Max Devlin.” As for television, he is a familiar face on Saturday morning television through “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids” and appeared on Nickelodeon’s “Pinwheel” with his “Picture Pages” segment, but Primetime success has eluded him since “I” was canceled. Spy” in 1968.
People love Cosby, so it’s just a matter of finding the right project to tap into his effective personality. But Sam Malone? A retired and recovering baseball player is rapidly pursuing one of his maids? At the time, he was wrong about the role in terms of acting style, but years later we found out that he had chosen the role disastrously for truly cruel reasons.
Bill Cosby belongs behind bars, not bars
Starting in 2014, countless women came forward to accuse Bill Cosby of sexual assault. By the time Cosby went on trial in 2017, his accusers numbered more than 60. He was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but was released after three years when his conviction was overturned on a horrible technicality that had nothing to do with him. due to the merits of the allegations. There’s no doubt about it: Cosby is not cleared.
So the “what if” game we are playing here seems downright impersonal. But since one of Cosby’s favorite methods of seduction was drugging women’s drinks with “Spanish flies” (something he joked about in his act as far back as 1969), casting him Being a bartender would be an abomination. Once convicted, this means that “Cheers” will be completely eliminated.
“The Cosby Show” is still carried by Amazon Prime Video and Philo, but TV One is the only cable channel still showing syndicated reruns of the series. I loved the show when it was on the air and I considered him one of the greatest comedians to ever swing a microphone. Now that we know his self-proclaimed role as “Father of America” was a miserable lie, I’m done with this man. That he didn’t ruin one of the greatest sitcoms of all time is cold comfort.