The Cosby Show

Who watched The Cosby Show?

I just have one thing to bring up currently about the Cosby Show. What does everybody here think about Claire? On the board I came from when joining this place, a lot of people think that Claire was an abusive mother...already I'm thinking what bubble do these people live in? And the stories they have to say about her. 'Vanessa HAD to lie to her parents to go to the concert, because none of their kids can ask for anything, because they're always told no, she had no other choice'. Well let's see, if my child already had a history of lying to us, sneaking into R rated movies, breaking curfew, lying about who she was with during that time, and getting drunk, it'd be a bloody miracle if she could even leave the house with the same friends she gets into all that trouble with, hell no she wouldn't be allowed to go to the next state to see a heavy metal concert with no adult supervision. Who's with me on that one?

And then they all say the same thing, that Claire is always yelling at her children. These people clearly have no idea what yelling is, they can't seem to understand the difference in YELLING and...speaking...firmly...and...calmly...like...she...does.

In my opinion, anybody who would call somebody like Claire Huxtable abusive has NO idea what abuse is and needs to shut up about the subject they don't know anything about. What's everybody else say?

Claire wasn't abusive....but she definitely wasn't the one the kids were going to play with. Cliff was the playful parent, but you also saw a firm side to him as well. The only I guess, negative, thing I will about the Cosby Show is that I thought Cliff and Claire were cheap as shit. Granted, I'm all for teaching your kids the value of a dollar, but damn....those kids had to jump through hurdles to get any money out of them. Another question: who was your favorite Cosby kid? Hands down, my favorite was Theo. Then Vanessa, then Denise, Sondra and if Olivia is considered a Cosby kid, then her and Rudy are tied for my least favorite. I actually liked Bud better than I liked Rudy. And Olivia was annoying as hell.

I can't believe that someone would call Clair abusive. She was stern, but she had to be because she had a lot of kids and a busy life. Anything less would have made for chaos.
Ny, they did have to go through a lot to get money a lot of time. But they all had the chance to go to good colleges without loans. That is pretty huge and way more important than that designer shirt that Theo once was so desperate for!
I liked Vanessa the best.

Hard to say, either Sondra or Rudy.

And as to Cliff and Claire being cheap...okay, Vanessa wants $15 for a CD, and to get this $15, she figures all she should have to do is dust Cliff's office. Is she nuts? $15 when I was growing up, which was well after her time, $15 was 1 1/2 weeks' allowance, ta loca $15 for dusting the office. Like Claire said, she got an allowance, she should've learned how to save from out of that.

Knowing Cliff and Claire, they prob. only gave her $5 a week. Dusting an office for a measly $15 is cheap. Cliff was being an ass with that one. Damn, can't even buy your kid a CD? If she was asking for CDs all the time, then you'd have a point but asking for $15 for one lousy CD one time is cheap. I remember Rudy having to damn near do everything short of repainting the house or refurbishing the basement to get like $7 for a Mega woman doll. Those kids didn't ask for much and there was never the impression that they were just out and out greedy. For them to be as fucking cheap as the were, that was crazy.

You must have rich parents who love handing out money because mine sure as hell would've never given me $15 for a CD either. $15 for dusting an office is cheap, in what world? If you're a professional working cleaning lady doing that stuff 5 days a week as your career maybe, as a spoiled 15 year old that can't save her allowance, hell naw.

An entire room, the poor baby, what's next? Are they going to insist she wash EVERY dish used for dinner?

Maybe where you come from, one room is the size of a 2 car garage, but in my house dusting one room would get you a 'nice job, looks good, thanks'. $15 would take either mowing the lawn twice, or doing the dishes, laundry, dusting and vacuuming for a week and a half.

Well, in my house, do so-called 'extra chores' around the house wasn't a bargaining tool. Cause I was going to do them anyway. I was raised to clean up something if you see it dirty.....not do it because I had to be asked. If I saw that the floor needed to be mopped, I broke out the Mop and Glow and mopped it. Finished taking a bath or a shower....clean the tub/shower back out. See that the toilet needs to be scrubbed, went ahead and scrubbed it. See that the floor needs to be vacummed, I vacummed it. See that the coffee table looks a little dusty, I wiped it down. See that there are dishes in the sink, I washed them. So no.......I didn't have to do back breaking labor to get a lousy CD or $15. I could ask for it with no problem.

To everybody here who has ever seen the Cosby show, would you say that Cliff and Clair are what can be called 'abusive'? Apparently some mamby pambys from Sweden say that's not how they raise their kids, they don't yell at their kids (apparently they can't tell the difference between YELLING and when Clair is...calmly...but firmly...talking...), and they don't leave their kids with absolutely no choice BUT to lie to them if they want to do anything (it would seem in Sweden letting your irresponsible 16 year old run away to the next state...or wherever, to a banned heavy metal concert with no adult supervision is the right thing to do if you're a good parent), and punishing them for things they did (Vanessa sneaking into an R rated movie when she was 11 and drinking when she was what, 16?) even though they're already being punished by having nightmares (which in turn keep the whole family up for a week) or being hungover (if it were me, I'd milk her hangover for every little noise that made her head boom, like George Lopez when Carmen got drunk).

Then you got the people who say 'they were too cheap, they should've given Theo that $95 shirt or Vanessa the $15 for a CD even though she already got an allowance and just didn't save any of it'. Cliff and Clair didn't have people giving them money for every little material thing they wanted, that's how they learned to work hard and that's how they became well off and you do not stay well off by handing out money every time your kid says 'I want'. Let's face it, they weren't exactly flowers in the attic locked in one room for several years with no food or clothes or whatever...they had fully stocked rooms filled with all kinds of nice crap, toys, books, clothes, stereos, Theo had two beds, they got put in expensive colleges, they always ate, it's not like they had to scrape every cent they found for food.

In my opinion, anybody who could call the Huxtables abusive has NO idea what abuse is and needs to shut up about things they don't understand. Who agrees?

Absolutely not. Generally, The Huxtables had their children under such cognitive control that, aside from a sterner tone from time to time, they never so much as raised their voices at them.

Nah. Quasi-strict, but definitely not abusive.

No. But they WERE cheap!

Oh yeah? Did Theo put himself through NYU? Did Denise pay for her own braces? Who got Vanessa that strapless dance dress Cliff wanted to see if anything popped out of? And all the times Cliff took Rudy and Olivia and all of their friends out to expensive restaurants and magic shows...who footed the bill for those?

So let me get this straight, somebody who spends thousands of dollars putting each and every one of their children through college, and buying them clothes and food and toys and books and all that crap Theo tried once or twice like sports and music, and taking all the kids out to places for pizza and burgers, that's cheap?

Don't let these people watch Good Times.

Indeeeeeeed, the Huxtables abusive, ta loca the Huxtables abusive.

AtownPeep wrote:Don't let these people watch Good Times.

Seriously. If they thought Cliff and Clair were on a power trip, James would make them unplug their TV.

AtownPeep wrote:Don't let these people watch Good Times.