Cosby

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Cosby
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Bill Cosby
Developed by	Bill Cosby John Markus
Starring	Bill Cosby T'Keyah Keymáh Doug E. Doug Phylicia Rashad Madeline Kahn (1996-1999) Jurnee Smollett (1998-2000) Darien Sills Evans (1999-2000)
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	95
Production
Executive producer(s)	Bill Cosby
Running time	30 minutes (with commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	1996-09-16 – 2000-04-28
Chronology
Preceded by	I Spy (1965-1969) The Bill Cosby Show (1969-1971) Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972-1984) The Cosby Show (1984-1992) The Cosby Mysteries (1993-1995)
Followed by	Kids Say the Darndest Things
Related shows	Frasier Night Court Whoopi Law & Order Will and Grace
External links
TV.com summary

Cosby is an Emmy and PCA–winning situation comedy television series broadcast on CBS from September 16, 1996 to April 28, 2000.

The television program starred Emmy Award winner Bill Cosby, Golden Globe winner Phylicia Rashād, who previously worked with Cosby in the 1984 television program, The Cosby Show and Emmy-Award winning late Madeline Kahn portrayed their neighbor, Pauline until her death in 1999, the following year, the cast hosted a retrospective centering on her and her character.

Cosby played grumpy Hilton Lucas, a man forced into early (and unwanted) retirement. His wife, Ruth, was played by Phylicia Rashād. Initially, Telma Hopkins was cast as Ruth Lucas; however, due to lack of chemistry between her and Cosby, the producers hired Rashād instead. Doug E. Doug, who played Griffin Vesey, a friend of the Lucas family who tried occasionally to win Erica's affections, but they decided just to remain friends when in the fourth and final season, Darien Sills-Evans portrayed Darien Evans, Erica's fiancé/husband.

The show was based on the concept from the BBC series One Foot in the Grave, starring Richard Wilson and Annette Crosbie. David Renwick, the creator and writer of One Foot in the Grave, was listed as an executive producer of Cosby. One Foot in the Grave was noted as containing very dark humor for a mainstream sitcom, and was therefore a surprising choice for adaptation to American TV. Predictably, the tone was significantly lightened, although certain controversial scenes, such as a scene in which the lead character incinerates a live tortoise, were recreated (albeit with a turtle in this case).

Cosby premiered to huge ratings (more than 24 million viewers), but averaged significantly less during the course of the season (16 million). As the series progressed, ratings shrank and CBS, fresh with new hit comedies in Everybody Loves Raymond and The King of Queens, decided to move the series to Fridays from Mondays. This led to a steep drop in ratings and eventual cancellation. The last episode, "The Song Remains the Same," aired on April 28, 2000, and was the 95th episode to be produced and broadcast, drawing just over 7 million viewers.

In the final two seasons of the series, Jurnee Smollett joined the cast as 11-year-old Jurnee, who Hilton adored, and Darien Sills-Evans portrayed "Darien" as Erica's fiancée, who later became her husband in the final season.