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Children run in and out of the frame at a sprightly clip, but the center of attention is always Dad: no bit of action goes by without a quip, double take or comic harangue. It upsets the show's balance and throws off its rhythm. Significantly, Cosby's jokes are often followed by a reaction shot of a family member laughing. Smart comic that he is, Cosby has brought his audience onstage.
Compared with such classic TV family comedies as Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best, The Cosby Show has amazingly little feel for--or even much interest in--the concerns of children. In the rare instances when the series deals with a serious issue facing youngsters, it falls back on sentimental contrivances that betray a tin ear for the way real children talk and act. On one episode, the Huxtables find a marijuana cigarette in their son Theo's school book. He claims the joint is not his; his parents believe him and consider the case closed. But Theo is not satisfied at this magnanimous vote of confidence. He finds the fellow who planted the joint (a hulking bully nicknamed "the Enforcer") and brings him home to confess to his parents. The tough guy inexplicably complies. Indeed, he is so impressed with the trusting Huxtable clan that he winds up playing football with Theo's pals. On The Cosby Show, it is not merely unthinkable that a "good" boy might smoke marijuana; delinquents who do are redeemed by a single visit to the Happy House of Cosby.
A breakthrough series? Perhaps. But The Cosby Show pales beside such landmark sitcoms of the 1970s as All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Those programs forged new territory for TV comedy, in both style and subject matter. The Cosby Show, with its genial wholesomeness, harks back to old times. If any ground is being broken, it may just be TV comedy putting its head back into the sand.