ridiculous. 1980s, the decade of excess, the television was big giant dramas. you are out of this operation, tubbs, as of now there is no operation without me, crockett we have bill cosby now we get tubbs on miami vice smooth, swaggering, fashion sense that, you know, eclipsed alex scott on i spy the characters were 20 years apart but speaking to one another. i remember it has a fashion show more and more than anything else. you know, the pastels, the collars, he was the black guy that white dads were worried their daughters would bring home. that was coolness and it went with making different types of
pilot but they say can you get rid of the black guy? they did not feel cosbee would work. sydney refused. he stuck with cosby on that. this time, no element of surprise, no car crashes. he won an emmy for that. the series won a golden globe in 1967. certainly i think it say landmark moment but then you think how much time passed from the time he had that role and a notion of equal billing between the two, you know, it took forever to get back to that again. also, white america had to acknowledge that something had changed. not just on television but in america. immediately after i spy 1966 was called the year of the negro on television.
and i think it was important racially and socially in america that tyson did that. - you want company? - if you want to. - [donald] and then, the real shift does come with i spy. - the character that bill cosby played on i spy, alexander scott, was sharp, suave. took these missions outside of the u.s, and was very much an equal to his white counterpart. - and i spy does deal with these two spies who are working really for truth, justice, and the american way. - and i suggest we use ec in dealing with these men? - extreme caution. - certainly. - it is reflecting now that america s becoming more integrated, and becoming more integrated in different areas. the executives at nbc liked the pilot, but they said,
can you get rid of the black guy? (chuckles) they didn t feel cosby would work. sydney sheldon refused. he really stuck with cosby on that. and it proved to be right. - this time, there s no element of surprise, no car crashes. - [hannah] cosby won an emmy for that portrayal. and the series went on to receive a golden globe in 1967. - certainly, i think it was a landmark moment. what s frustrating, is then you think about how much time passed from the time that he had that role, before there was the notion of equal billing, right? between the two, it took forever to get back to that again. - also, white america had to acknowledge that something had changed, not just on television, but in america. and immediately after i spy, 1966 was called the year of the negro on television. you had shows like star trek, and you had uhura, this black woman on this mission
well, first, i want to talk about roots for a second. it s roots the saga of an american family. for the first time, the african american experience in this country was explained to people in painful detail. and also, you got a chance to see that people were living in africa as family units. it wasn t a bunch of savages out in the bush who you saved them by kidnapping and enslaving them. but that was the first real shock for folks. but i want to take you all the way back to bill cosby in i spy before his legal troubles. we have to remember that bill cosby was groundbreaking on what he was doing on i spy and won three grammy awards. let s talk about diane carol and her amazing experience for julia. a black woman is not a housekeeper but a nurse, who made the ultimate sacrifice. her husband lost his life in vietnam and now she was raising her son as a single mother.