Talk:Bill Cosby

Its the kids say the darnest things yeah they do. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.183.40.5 (talk) 01:10, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Parents? Siblings?

I find it odd that his parents are not listed, or any siblings. Could someone find out who they were? -Scouto2 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.0.252.223 (talk) 00:47, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Doubt it, cuz I looked on IMDB and they didn't have it either. BTW, don't forget to sign your posts with four tildes (~~~~). Thanks! RC-0722 ^communicator/_kills 00:53, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

bill's brothers are russell, robert, and james. Also his parents are anne and william h. cosby —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.93.28.197 (talk) 06:57, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Aren't Bill Cosby's parents dead? I mean, he's pretty old himself. --Mark Lessig (talk) 18:25, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Fix Cosby's birthdate please

Bill Cosby was actually born July 12, 1937 (not 1917/September 12, 1915) as the article states. According to the article he was over 40 years old when he recieved a track and field scholarship to Temple.

Reference: (click 30's in timeline to view birthdate) http://entertainer.billcosby.com/biography

Bill Cosby's brothers names are russlle, robert, and james —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.93.28.197 (talk) 06:50, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Protect?

There have been several vandalisms recently, should this be protected? Allyourbasearebelongtousomg 02:03, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Were the Huxtables middle class?

He was an OB/GYN and she was a partner at a law firm. They owned a Brownstone in an excellent area of Brooklyn. I think a good argument can be made that the Huxtables were upper-class. Why not just leave the family's social standing out? --Ted 21:49, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

I think their financial situation is relevent. Whereas I do agree that calling them middle-class puts into question "What defines it?" it was a very obtuse direction in comparison to previous Black family sitcoms such as Sanford & Son, Good Times, & even the Jeffersons (the Jeffersons were rich, not because of hard work but because they won the lottery). From What's Happening to Different Strokes there was never a sitcom based on Blacks that were more than poor through any effort on their part. --Duemellon 22:01, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

As I recall, the Jeffersons did win the lottery in an episode of "All In the Family," but George was depicted as having worked hard to build up his chain of dry-cleaning stores. He was portrayed as a racist, posturing blowhard, but never as lacking in ambition.Carlaclaws 15:13, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Brooklyn?? I remember the Cosby's residence being in Philadelphia for the entire run of the series. Am I mistaken about this or is Ted in his above post? CanadianMist 16:49, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Nope, it was Brooklyn.Americaninseoul 06:10, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

It was actually, Brooklyn Heights where they lived in the series and they were upper middle class.76.112.180.49 (talk) 19:21, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

What intrigued me most about The Cosby Show was that unlike most sitcoms about blacks, they never, ever mentioned the fact that they were black. Compare this to Whoopi Goldberg's unlamented sitcom, or the Jeffersons, where they could not go more than a sentence or two without bringing up race. What the Cosby Show DID do was spotlight music by black artists, or inobtrusively hang a painting by Jacob Lawrence on the wall, or have the grandparents talk about participating in civil rights marches in the 1960's. Great stuff! 68.116.40.228 20:42, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Military Brat (Navy Brat)

On the "Military Brats" Wikipedia page, Cosby is listed as a famous 'military brat' (child of a military family, which is not considered a derogatory term by most who grew up in military families) and more specifically, he is listed as a Navy brat. A military childhood has many significant challenges and strengths associated with it, and the military aspect of Cosby's own childhood should be included here in the "Early Life" section.

Sean7phil 19:47, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Also, Cosby's parents are not mentioned in the article. That is customary for wiki and also would allow us to research and document the history of military service in his family.

71.208.226.116 18:59, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Background

Can we get a link to the text of his speech to support "In the same speech he had scathing remarks for Christians and the police, as well as praise for the efforts of the Black Muslim organization and it's effectiveness, however, these statements were not reported in the articles in the mainstream media."

The Gettosburg Address's full text is the link that needs to be moved to WikiSource has the full text for review (those statements appear at the middle and end of the speech). I'm not sure how to have that done so I would appreciate anyone who does that &/r explains how to do it. --Duemellon 14:27, 19 August 2005 (UTC) (p.s. plz sign your comments)

"There wasn't any proof that these last two alleged allegations took place and Cosby was acquitted." This is very poor. No details are offored of any trials, just that allegations were made. Can we have at least a mention of whether a trial took place, adn poreerably whoch court, links to transcripts if anyone can find them. Rich Farmbrough 22:57, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

The background section needs MAJOR work. It is completely unsourced and frequently POV. With the intense scrutiny Wikipedia receives regarding entries on real people, a section such as this would seem to fail to meet the necessary standards of Wiki for biographical entries. But for the loss of a great deal of information, I would be inclined to delete the entire section. Hopefully someone can find the time for the badly-needed rewrite. SINsApple 06:31, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Opinion/Vandalism in Personal Life

The wikipedia entry should include that Autumn Jackson was eventually acknowledged as Bill Cosby's biological daughter. A fact he knew(but denied publically for years) since she was a child and would visit her and her mother, and would have them visit his tv 'set'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.154.181.49 (talk) 04:03, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

Can you provide a source for claim that he has acknowledged her as his daughter? All I see are articles from late 90s saying Jackson declined to take a DNA test.

I'm not sure it is academically profitable for an article to indicate that Cosby had an "ugly" wife, nor to comment on her academic standing unless the author would like to cite a credible source for the proposition. Second,66.157.144.28 15:50, 28 December 2006 (UTC) I don't think it is necessary to repeat the stories of his possible indiscretions, once in the article is likely enough to bring it to the reader's attention.

I'm going to revert this. If I'm wrong, sorry. --Jnelson09 20:17, 9 January 2007 (UTC) --Hails21 16:43, 22 February 2007 (UTC)[[Media: == Bill Cosby is not dead ==]]

63.215.29.3 (talk) 17:06, 4 July 2008 (UTC) Ummm. Is anyone remotely aware of the fact that this entire page is... gone? Who is Domo?

Awards

{{{editprotected}}} Honarary Degree - The Ohio State University - June 8th, 2001 [1] --Jbnovotny 05:18, 7 March 2007 (UTC)jbnovotny

I always heard that Bill Cosby did not accept awards, yet there are several instances here that mention him being honored with awards and also "accepting" awards. Is this hypnocrisy in later life or does Cosby only accept certain kinds of award (i.e. he won't accept an emmy but he will accept an humanitarian award)? In any event, should there be a paragraph on Cosby's history with accepting and not accepting awards?--Dr who1975 01:44, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Cosby and jazz

I removed the section about Cosby being a jazz fan because it was way too short, and sounded off-topic. --YoungOcelot 12:35, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

I moved it to trivia, where it BELONGS! --YoungOcelot 17:27, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

I disagree. A section on Jazz would be quite appropriate. Although most know him as a comedian, he is also an accomplished Jazz musician, composer and promoter, has produced albums throughout his career. As mentioned elsewhere, his involvement in music has earned him an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Berklee College of Music. Suffice to say music is a significant part of his life and career, and worthy of a section. --Jahandar 23:30, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Death

Is he dead? Floaterfluss ^{(talk) (contribs)} 13:15, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

No. --Fang Aili ^talk 13:24, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Stop believing everything you see on 4chan, also gtfo

Whoa. He's got one real doctorate and six honorary doctorates. This guy's a genius!(Myscrnnm (talk) 08:30, 17 January 2008 (UTC))

Mike Tyson also has an honorary doctorate. Think about that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.162.70.191 (talk) 02:30, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Influences

Groucho Marx is one of his biggest influences, have we forgotten?? He even re-did 'you bet your life.' The cigar thing? come on people!

Trip to Cuba

According to Tavis Smiley on the Friday, 22 Jun 2007 broadcast of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Bill Cosby and his wife accompanied Tavis, Danny Glover (and I'm not sure who else) on a trip to Cuba where Tavis interviewed Fidel Castro. Tavis referred to them as "the Cosbys", so I assume it was also his wife. Is this worthy of being added to the page? I think it could add some insight to his personal politics if he's willing to take a trip to Cuba to see Castro, let alone the fact that he accompanied Danny Glover, who is pretty much lambasted for his own politics.

School Apperences

Should we include a listing of schools he has appeared at? I know for a fact he has appeared at Mott Community College here in Flint, Michigan. Just a thought.

Meme

how is Bill Cosby an internet meme? ~~ There is this picture of Cosby with a movable mouth that keeps showing up in flash cartoons on the internet.

Have you ever been to YTMND? He's like the biggest fad there!

Yeah, I'm not sure that Cosby's fad status at YTMND is worth mentioning in this article though. I'll leave it up to the guys working on this page, but I'd axe that section. Cosby Bebop is hilarious, though. - Kris

Image

There is an image of bill cosby that it could be used http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:BillCosby.jpg — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.174.14.112 (talk • contribs) 10:49, September 2, 2007 (UTC)

Good call. The image was already in the article so I moved it up to the infobox. --ElKevbo 15:14, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

Should it be mentioned that in a recent interview with larry king he mentiond that he supported Kucinich? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.70.162.179 (talk) 19:38, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Yes I definitely think his support for Kucinich needs to be listed under Political Views. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.249.145.10 (talk) 04:32, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

In one photo accompanying the entry ("Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles 2007"), the quality of the photo is *extremely* poor in terms of using it as a photo of Bill Cosby (even in the largest, original version of it provided). He may have been on the stage in the photo; he may not have been -- you simply cannot tell. Paris Hilton or Pope Benedict XVI might have been on the stage with him (or might not, such is the photo's quality), but I would not use this photo to accompany an entry about them, Cosby or anyone else. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.191.159.143 (talk) 03:21, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Son's death

Why is this article thoroughly bereft of information on the murder of his son? ThuranX (talk) 21:44, 19 November 2007 (UTC) Because the article about it is also a stub -Scouto2 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Scouto2 (talk • contribs) 14:00, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Could someone fix his infobox ?

I noticed that there's some sort of coding error in Cosby's box. I took a look at the code in Lenny Bruce's box, but I don't see a difference. Someone code-savvy should probably take a look at that —Preceding unsigned comment added by Emperor Azure (talk • contribs) 22:05, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Nothing mentioned of son's murder

I find it extremely hard to believe that nothing is mentioned ANYWHERE in this article about the murder of his son Ennis. It was a shooting death I believe. I will add a section later when I pull together some references, and get the time(either tonight or tommorow).WacoJacko (talk) 03:29, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Unsourced Material

This article has amassed a shocking amount of unsourced material. Unless it is cited, I think it's fair game for removal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Xenosagian (talk • contribs) 02:11, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes, you're absolutely right about that. Since this is a biography of a living person, unsources material must be removed! 129.16.49.8 (talk) 12:36, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Vandalism to the "In the 1990s and 2000s" section

From the Article it say in the "In the 1990s and 2000s" that Phylicia Rashād replaced Chuck Norris. This needs to be replaced but I don't know who Phylicia Rashād replaced. I leave it to someone more knowledgeable on this subject.

Also in 1996, he started up a new show for CBS, Cosby, again co-starring Phylicia Rashād, his onscreen wife on The Cosby Show (early on she replaced Chuck Norris).

--Bonelifer (talk) 18:41, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

We should be diligent about making sure the 2000s section in particular is well guarded, considering some of the controversial statements he has made. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.171.19.76 (talk) 00:24, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Singing Career

[Silver_Throat:_Bill_Cosby_Sings] had Bill Cosby's only hit that added a monologue to Stevie Wonder's Everything's Alright: Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.57.92.31 (talk) 19:08, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Golden Raspberry award

I vaguely recall Cosby on a talk show back then talking about the Raspberry awards. After hearing he won it he demanded a trophy from the raspberry award people, who were surprised since no one had ever wanted one before. Finally they relented and had a nice one made just for him, which Cosby was showing off proudly on the talk show. 75.5.100.86 (talk) 23:01, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Needs cleanup

Personal life is a big list, and the pound cake speech is sourced wrong —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.220.247.136 (talk) 01:36, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Given/Legal Name

Isn't his given name "William Henry Cosby, Jr.?" He was also given creation/exec producer credits on The Cosby Show as "William H. Cosby, Jr., Ed. D." as if it matters. Cpk1971 (talk) 07:11, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Youtube comments

I've removed this from the pound cake speech section, because it looks like someone's simply plugging their Youtube videos. Feel free to put it back when/if it is properly cited.

"Bill Cosby Parodies Bill Cosby has been superimposed onto many images. One quote in particular has been remixed in songs such as the BIll Cosby Super Smash Bros. song, which is on youtube.com." 67.236.202.163 (talk) 03:12, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Nixon's Enemy List

Someone should add that Cosby was on the Master list of Nixon political opponents Not sure exactly how to word it or even the reasons behind his being put on the list, I assume he was somewhat involved in the civil rights movement. I thought it was interesting and noteworthy 97.91.190.78 (talk) 08:16, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

ESPN "2,5 and 6" Incident

I that what he did on ESPN should be mentioned somewhere in the article. 68.192.42.42 (talk) 20:42, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Midget

Shouldnt someone explain how he almost killed a miget! Isnt that something thats imporant. Geez people.130.113.128.11 (talk) 20:43, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

Nationality

African-American is not a nationality. Should split this into Ethnicity and Nationality if it's even worth mentioning. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.145.2.123 (talk) 05:04, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

US Navy

In the early life section "navy" should be capitalized. It's a proper noun. thanks. U.S. Navy is best though, but please Navy is proper. ps, why can I not edit this page? i thought anyone could edit wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.27.204.159 (talk) 05:14, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

The page is currently semi-protected due to excessive vandalism. (See the lock in the upper right corner.) Only registered users can edit semi-protected pages. RainbowOfLight ^Talk 05:16, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

thank you for the answer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.27.204.159 (talk) 05:31, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Cosby's dissertation

I tried to look up his dissertation for his doctorate. I was able to find the website UMI ProQuest and entered the pub.no. ATT 7706369 that is listed in the Reference section no. 12. It produced a 'no results found'. Is that the correct number of his dissertation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.238.92.223 (talk) 04:28, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Speaking style

Cosby's speaking style is definitely unique and should be mentioned here. Does anyone know where it comes from? 24.245.42.233 (talk) 08:04, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Lazarus Cosby

Um. Why does this article still make no mention of his son's murder? That seems fairly important, and should have been mentioned in the personal life section. 86.46.203.161 (talk) 00:24, 30 March 2009 (UTC) Nevermind, I missed it. My bad.86.46.203.161 (talk) 00:25, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

"Sex scandals" category

I noticed that this article has been in the "sex scandals" category since at least October 2008 (that's as far as I went back), but I can find nothing in the article or in the talk page or archives to support its presence. Any ideas? —bbatsell ¿? ✍ 18:57, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Clearly an overlooked piece of vandalism. Someone should remove it as soon as possible. That is, if the Wiki is to be taken seriously. --Zornfalke (talk) 15:05, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I concur. This category is pointless and ridiculous. --141.51.213.197 (talk) 13:04, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

I also visited this talk page to find the basis for the "sex scandal" inclusion, but would agree that this category listing is malicious. It should be removed without delay. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.75.183.227 (talk) 15:37, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Hasn't this joke gone far enough? Please, someone remove either the 'sex scandals' category or the protection from the page and I'll do it myself. Honestly, this ongoing counterfactual information doesn't make the English Wiki look too good. 88.69.59.103 (talk) 21:24, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

This is no joke! If you google "Bill Cosby Scandal" you will see why his name is in this category. What amazes me is why there is no mention of him allegedly drugging and fondling women in his article. He was accused of this by numerous women. Seems that someone had made sure that this info has been kept off of the page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.35.138.10 (talk) 17:20, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

missing in popular culture section

how can a character like that miss a "in popular culture" section and simpsons references? wikipedia fail! --85.146.181.187 (talk) 10:40, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

questionable statement

"Although ostensibly focused on Culp's character, the show had clearly become a vehicle for his co-star."

the episodes themselves don't support this, the shows in the final season, for example, having the same structure as those in the first, cosby's character having no more lines, culp's no fewer, etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.170.183.150 (talk) 09:31, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

Another questionable statement

Someone should fix this.... The line "At Glynn Academy, Cosby began acting in plays as well as continuing his devotion to playing sports." is not correct. As an alum of Glynn Academy, I'm pretty sure I'd know if he went there too! :-) It appears someone changed it [2] last September from Fitz Simmons Junior High, which is what the reference says too 69.140.255.239 (talk) 22:49, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

• never mind. It's now editable, so I fixed it myself. 69.140.255.239 (talk) 23:58, 7 September 2009 (UTC)