of philadelphia to the heights of hollywood. >> you don't get larger or more successful than bill cosby unless you're barack obama. >> bob huber covers cosby for philadelphia magazine. >> he was the first leading black man on a network back in the mid-'60s. >> cosby's performance in "i spy" won him three consecutive emmys. but that was nothing compared to what came next. by 1985, he had become a television juggernaut with "the cosby show." >> what you need to do now is go to the next level if you want justine back. >> what's that? >> begging. >> for eight seasons on nbc, he started the loveable dr. cliff huxtable, patriarch of an upper middle class family that defied racial stereotypes, revived the