Bill Cosby returns to NBC in new sitcom

Bill Cosby returns to NBC in new sitcom

Bill Cosby will return to NBC with a new sitcom, a representative for the network told CNN on Wednesday night.

The comedian will play the patriarch of a multi-generational family.
The show brings the 76-year-old comedian back to the same network where his breakout 1980s sitcom “The Cosby Show” had an eight-year run.

“The Cosby Show” portrayed an upper-middle-class African-American family and was credited with helping revive NBC’s fortunes and paving the way for other shows featuring African-Americans.

Cosby plays Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, the patriarch of that television family. Phylicia Rashad plays his wife, Clair. She would play his wife for the second time on the 1990s CBS sitcom, simply called “Cosby.” Cosby’s career is in its fifth decade. He began performing stand-up comedy in small clubs in New York’s Greenwich Village. He eventually landed a major starring role in the 1960s television series “I Spy,” where he was the first African-American lead in a weekly dramatic series.
He won three Emmy Awards for best actor for his role as secret CIA agent Alexander Scott.

Cosby received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1998 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. Most recently, he received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, given to Artists use comedy to influence American society.