jim colucci: family ties pumped a little bit of life into the family sitcom, but the sitcom in general had been pronounced dead. there were very few on the air. and then all of a sudden comes the cosby show in 84. theo: dad, can i have an advance on my allowance? cliff: son, you re already backed up to your 50th birthday. tim allen: the cosby show was a game changer to me. this is just a family i adored. present history has tainted that a little bit. it didn t stop the fact that that was a ground-breaking experience. jacqueline coley: they had this really sort of idyllic family. claire was a lawyer. he was a doctor. jaleel white: there was a very natural chemistry between cliff huxtable and clair and their children that wasn t cliché black poverty. cliff: son, your mother asked me to come up here and kill you. how do you expect to get into college with grades like this?
jim colucci: the cosby show had proven that the family sitcom was a viable genre again. [audience laughter] lynn: i m mr. belevedere! gerrad hall: by the late 80s family sitcoms were very popular among the big three networks. gerrad hall: there was this incredible resurgence. jesse: this is great, we should be mothers. joey: ah yeah! ethan alter: families tuned into these tv shows to see an aspirational version of what family life could be. urkel: did i do that? jennifer keishin armstrong: shows like silver spoons and growing pains and all that. it s constant hugging and learning, right? [audience clapping] ethan alter: with the family sitcom at the height of its popularity, fox started moving into the television arena. cedric: fox was new, building their network. they were one of the last majors to build a network. patrick gomez: they decided they were going to use the family sitcom to do that and compete against the big three. peggy: al, look at our little girl.
and they re tuning in because everybody wants to be a huxtable. jacqueline coley: the cosby show revitalized the sitcom. warren littlefield: alright, then let s put cosby at 8. let s put family ties at 8:30. michael gross: and then family ties went poom in a huge way. michael gross: that great thursday night lineup cosby, family ties, cheers, night court. jacqueline coley: nbc really created this idea of must see tv. you re talking about 20 and 30 and 40 million people tuning in. michael gross: people say you were one of america s most successful fathers. i said no, it was bill cosby. cosby was number one. jaleel white: with respect to what s happened of late. it s like, hugely disappointing to all of us, but he set the standard for what a family sitcom was. jim colui: the cosby show had proven that the family sitcom was a viable genre again. [audience laughter]
that s the value of ownership. sam: i m a bad mommy. max: no, you re a disaster mom. sam: you re a big f c - your sister s an a , and your other sister s great. (off camera): aww, thanks mom! pamela adlon: better things is about a single mom who is raising her three daughters on her own. max: you re my mom, i want you to know if i have sex or i want to get high. pamela adlon: it s dirty, it s funny. sam: no! hide things from me please! emily vanderwerff: better things is a fascinating example of the ways that the family sitcom has adapted to the 21st century. frankie: mom, where s the broom? sam: what are you being, a witch? frankie: no, i m going to be a useless housewife from the 50s. sam: i love that! dan levy: throughout the years, the boundaries have been pushed back and the walls have come down. if you look back to the 50s, there was a lot of confines on what family looked like and what was acceptable and what wasn t.
parenting to be difficult. bernie: uncle bernie, he s too old to play with dolls. can we play something else? [drumming] jacqueline coley: which was not something you saw on a show like the cosby show. rochelle: chris! get in the bathroom and wipe the pee off the toilet seat. disgusting. cedric: fox network had come on and did really well with black sitcoms, and so then the wb and upn uh, at the time were coming on and they start to diversify and grow that audience. aramide tinubu: they are able to snatch up this audience that the other networks were really ignoring up into that point. jacqueline coley: and so these shows kind of set the stage for the diversity in the family sitcom that can be seen on television today. man: welcome huangs, i m rick. nee hau. the length and depth of my bow expresses my deep appreciation. louis: um, i think that s more of a japanese thing.