What if Bill Cosby had died in 1987?

See, "The Cosby Show" was unrealistic. Everything was neat and simplified and resolved in 30 minutes. Nobody got pregnant, the drug episode was unreal, you name it.

How would they deal with the death of Heathcliff? Or would they just cancel the show because reality would conflict with its saccharine sweet approach?

Even "8 Simple Rules" (which I hope does not get cancelled) incorporated John Ritter's death into the show.

On edit, additional: Add in another TV show that's as too sugary to be real: "The Brady Bunch". Teen pregnancy was a problem in the early 70s and the Bradys had 3 girls... and how they dealt with the Greg smoking incident was dumb too. Even Robert Reed thought the show was stupid because it was so unreal.

huge herds of unhealthy Puddings wandering through the corn fields and dying on the highways, not to mention the ever present health hazards of Key Lime disease.

Some Black families don't have teen pregnancies or drug addicts in them. They really don't.

You're not saying that it is unrealistic to expect to find functional Black families are you?

Will you tell me how "The Brady Bunch" is just as realistic as "The Cosby Show"? (If that doesn't clear up this miscommunciation, nothing will.)

I'm also fascinated how you're trying to turn this into a "race" issue. Hmmm...

There are plenty of shows with "white" families in them. He picked the Cosby show, not me.

I wasn't trying to say "The Cosby Show" was unreal because there was a successful black family in it. You wanted to bring that up, not me. It's unreal because some of the plots tried to deal with serious issues but got all neatly wrapped up in 30 minutes, with everybody being reasonable and mature, including the drug user who slipped the joint into Theo's book.

Still, "The Cosby Show" is far better than "Silver Spoons", where little Ricky did all sorts of awful things (none of the Cosby kids played "Dine'n'ditch" for example) and never got more than a lame talking-to that would do nothing for anybody in real life. Ricky didn't even have to pay the restaurant owner back for anything. And Ricky Schroeder is a republican, too... get way to show off the family values there...

People have their own lives that don't wrap up in 30 mintues so I think they like to see something get completed and in a nice way.

Escapism.

"That's so Raven".

Cosby was the main attraction. Everyone worked off of him. On "8 simple..., I think their cast is strong enough to survive on its own. I really like that show. Even post Ritter, R.I.P.

;-)

Claire. Mmm Mmm Mmm. Damn.