Summary: The Cosby Show is an American television sitcom co-created by and starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984, until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on an upper middle-class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York. The Cosby Show spent five consecutive seasons as the number-one rated show on television. The Cosby Show and All in the Family are the only sitcoms in the history of the Nielsen ratings to be the number-one show for five seasons. It spent all eight of its seasons in the top 20.[1] According to TV Guide, the show "was TV's biggest hit in the 1980s, and almost single-handedly revived the sitcom genre and NBC's ratings fortunes."[2] TV Guide also ranked it 28th on their list of 50 Greatest Shows.[3] In addition, Cliff Huxtable was named as the "Greatest Television Dad".[4] In May 1992, Entertainment Weekly stated that The Cosby Show helped to make possible a larger variety of shows with a predominantly black cast, from In Living Color to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.[5] The Cosby Show was based on comedy routines in Cosby's stand-up comedy act, which in turn were based on his family life. The show led to the spinoff A Different World, which ran for six seasons from 1987 to 1993.
