All grown up! Bill Cosby and TV daughter Tempestt Bledsoe reunite with a celebratory dance 20 years after The Cosby Show
It’s been two decades, but they haven’t missed a beat.
After working together for eight seasons on the popular 80’s and 90’s family sitcom The Cosby Show, Tempestt Bledsoe and Bill Cosby revived their father-daughter relationship on the Late Show with Jimmy Fallon on Friday.
The twosome were both booked to be on the show to talk about separate projects, but of course Jimmy turned the entire event into an impromptu reunion.
Bill had his own chat with Fallon about his new book, I Didn’t Ask To Be Born, while Tempestt was on to promote her new NBC sitcom, Guys With Kids.
When Tempestt came out for her segment, the pair quickly launched into memories as the characters of Dr. Heathcliff ‘Cliff’ Huxtable and daughter Vanessa.
The laughs began shortly after the now 39-year-old Tempestt, dressed in a black top with red leather pants and matching sky-high heels, was introduced by a clip from her new show, which is produced by Fallon.
‘This is truly surreal for me to have a clip that introduces me telling my husband I’m not going to have sex with him and then come and sit down next to my dad,’ she laughed.
Cosby, 75, rebuked with his normally dead pan humour, shaking his head in disapproval and declaring, ‘Where is that boy?’
Bill and Jimmy both praised her mature looks, saying that it’s a pleasure working with her as one of her producers.
‘I’m lucky enough to have the great Tempestt, and you are just fantastic, and thank you so much for just being awesome,’ he said.
Bill then launched into a memory about when he and Tempestt began working together nearly three decades ago, retelling how easy it was for the then 11-year-old actress to get laughs from the audience.
Jimmy then asked Bill if he feels proud to see his television daughter grow up.
‘No,’ he flatly replied.
But he quickly explained the reason for his displeasure.
‘No, because if you’re a father, you don’t want… a daughter that nobody wants, so be careful what you wish for. So when she turns out to be stunning, then you have problems.’
He then bowed out of the interview, but in typical Cosby style, continued to steal the show, laying down to take a nap on the couch beside them.
Tempestt also expressed her thanks to Dr. Cosby for helping her pursue her education.
She described a day on set when Bill overheard her speaking about attending college classes and that he helped shift the production schedule to work around her course load.
‘When I got my first set of grades, he posted them on his dressing room door,’ she recounted.
