Editing Bill Cosby (section)

== Career and further education ==

=== 1960s: ''I Spy'' ===
In 1965, Cosby was cast alongside Robert Culp in the ''I Spy'' espionage adventure series on NBC. ''I Spy'' became the first weekly dramatic television series to feature an African-American in a starring role. At first, Cosby and NBC executives were concerned that some affiliates might be unwilling to carry the series. At the beginning of the 1965 season, four stations declined the show; they were in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. Viewers were taken with the show's exotic locales and the authentic chemistry between the stars. It became one of the ratings hits of the season. ''I Spy'' finished among the twenty most-watched shows that year, and Cosby was honored with three consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. When accepting his third Emmy for the show, Cosby told the audience: "Let the message be known to bigots and racists that they don't count!"

During the series' run, Cosby continued to do stand-up comedy performances and recorded half a dozen record albums for Warner Bros. Records. He also began to dabble in singing, recording ''Silver Throat: Bill Cosby Sings'' in 1967. In June 1968, ''Billboard'' magazine reported that Cosby had turned down a five-year, $3.5 million contract renewal offer and would leave the label in August that year to record for his own record label.

In July 1968, Cosby narrated ''Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed'', a CBS documentary addressing the representation of black people in popular culture. Andy Rooney wrote the Emmy-awarded script for Cosby to read. Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson said it was one of "the rare exceptions when Cosby took off the gloves and blinders, to discuss race in public with candor and discernment". Due to its popularity and controversial nature, it was rebroadcast less than a month later.

Tetragrammaton Records, a division of the Campbell, Silver, Cosby (CSC) Corporation—the Los Angeles–based production company founded by Cosby, his manager Roy Silver, and filmmaker Bruce Post Campbell—produced films as well as records, including Cosby's television specials, the ''Fat Albert'' cartoon special and series, and several motion pictures. CSC hired Artie Mogull as President of the label. Tetragrammaton was fairly active during 1968–69 (its most successful signing was British rock band Deep Purple) but it quickly went into the red and ceased trading during the 1970s.

=== 1970s: ''Fat Albert'' ===
Cosby pursued a variety of additional television projects and appeared as a regular guest host on ''The Tonight Show'' and as the star of an annual special for NBC. In 1969, he returned with another series, ''The Bill Cosby Show'', a situation comedy that ran for two seasons. Cosby played a physical education teacher at a Los Angeles high school. While only a modest critical success, the show was a ratings hit, finishing eleventh in its first season. Cosby was lauded for using African-American performers such as Lillian Randolph, Moms Mabley, and Rex Ingram as characters. According to commentary on the Season 1 DVDs for the show, Cosby was at odds with NBC over his refusal to include a laugh track in the show, as he felt viewers had the ability to find humor for themselves when watching a TV show.<sup>[''citation needed'']</sup>

After ''The Bill Cosby Show'' left the air, Cosby resumed his formal education. He began graduate work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. For the PBS series ''The Electric Company'', Cosby recorded several segments teaching reading skills to young children.

In 1972, he received a Master of Arts (M.A.) from UMass Amherst and was also back in prime time with a variety series, ''The New Bill Cosby Show''. However, this show lasted only a season. More successful was a Saturday-morning cartoon, ''Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids'', hosted by Cosby and based on his own childhood. That series ran from 1972 to 1979, then ran as ''The New Fat Albert Show'' in 1979, and finally ran as ''The Adventures of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids''. In 1976, Cosby earned a Doctor of Education (EdD) from UMass; his dissertation was titled "An Integration of the Visual Media Via 'Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids' into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning". Subsequently, Temple University granted him his bachelor's degree on the basis of what it referred to as life experience.

During the 1970s, Cosby and other African-American actors, including Sidney Poitier, joined forces to make successful comedy films to counter the violent "blaxploitation" films of the era, such as ''Uptown Saturday Night'' in 1974; ''Let's Do It Again'' in 1975; and in 1976, ''Mother, Jugs & Speed'', co-starring Raquel Welch and Harvey Keitel.

In 1976, Cosby starred in ''A Piece of the Action'' with Poitier; and ''California Suite'', a compilation of four Neil Simon plays. He also hosted ''Cos'' in 1976. In addition, he produced an hour-long variety show featuring puppets, sketches, and musical numbers. It was during this season that ABC decided to take advantage of this phase of Cosby's career, by joining with Filmation producers of ''Fat Albert'' to create live-action segments starring Cosby, for the 1972 animated film ''Journey Back to Oz''; it subsequently aired in syndication. Cosby was also a regular on children's public television programs starting in the 1970s, hosting the "Picture Pages" segments that lasted into the early 1980s.

=== 1980s: ''The Cosby Show'' ===
Main articles: The Cosby Show and Bill Cosby in advertising

Cosby's greatest television success came in September 1984 with the debut of ''The Cosby Show''. Cosby, an advocate for family-oriented humor, co-produced the series, held creative control and involved himself in every aspect of production. Plots were often based on ideas that Cosby suggested while in meetings with the writing staff. The show had parallels to Cosby's actual family life: like the characters Cliff and Clair Huxtable, Cosby and his wife Camille were college-educated and financially successful, and they had five children. On the show, Cosby played the role of an obstetrician. Much of the material from the pilot and first season of ''The Cosby Show'' was taken from his video ''Bill Cosby: Himself'',<sup>[''citation needed'']</sup> released in 1983. The series was an immediate success, debuting near the top of the ratings and staying there for most of its eight-season run.<sup>[''citation needed'']</sup>

In 1987, Cosby attempted to return to film with the spy spoof ''Leonard Part 6''. Although Cosby himself was the producer and wrote the story, he realized during production that the film was not going to be what he wanted and publicly denounced it, warning audiences to stay away. The film was however marked the first project for Columbia to be greenlighted by studio executive David Puttman. Later in the 1980s, Cosby served as an advisor to the Los Angeles Student Film Institute.

=== 1990s ===
Cosby, a production assistant, and Ginna Marston of Partnership for Drug-Free Kids review the script for a 1990 public service spot at Cosby's studio in Astoria, Queens
After ''The Cosby Show'' went off the air in 1992, Cosby embarked on a number of other projects, which included a revival of the classic Groucho Marx game show ''You Bet Your Life'' (1992–93), the TV-movie ''I Spy Returns'' (1994), and ''The Cosby Mysteries'' (1994). In the mid-1990s, he appeared as a detective in black-and-white film noir-themed commercials for Turner Classic Movies. During this time he reunited with Sidney Poitier starring in ''Ghost Dad'' (1990), and appeared in minor roles in Robert Townsend's superhero comedy ''The Meteor Man'' (1993), and Francis Ford Coppola's coming of age film ''Jack'' (1996). In addition, he was interviewed in Spike Lee's HBO project ''4 Little Girls'' (1997), a documentary about the 1963 racist bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama which injured 22 people, killing four girls.

Also in 1996, he started up a new show for CBS, ''Cosby'', again co-starring Phylicia Rashād, his onscreen wife on ''The Cosby Show''. Cosby co-produced the show for Carsey-Werner Productions. It centered on Cosby as Hilton Lucas, an iconoclastic senior citizen who tries to find a new job after being downsized and, in the meantime, gets on his wife's nerves. Madeline Kahn co-starred as Rashād's goofy business partner Pauline. Cosby was hired by CBS to be the official spokesman of its Detroit affiliate WWJ-TV during an advertising campaign from 1995 to 1998. Cosby also hosted a CBS special, ''Kids Say the Darndest Things'' on February 6, 1995, which was followed after as a full season show, with Cosby as host, from January 9, 1998, to June 23, 2000. After four seasons, ''Cosby'' was canceled. Its last episode aired April 28, 2000. ''Kids Say the Darndest Things'' was terminated the same year.

=== 2000s ===
A series for preschoolers, ''Little Bill'', created by Cosby as a semi-biographical representation of his childhood growing up in Philadelphia, made its debut on Nickelodeon in 1999. The network renewed the popular program in November 2000. In 2001, Cosby's agenda included the publication of a new book, as well as delivering the commencement addresses at Morris Brown College, Ohio State University, and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Also that year, he signed a deal with 20th Century Fox to develop a live-action feature film centering on the popular Fat Albert character from his 1970s cartoon series. ''Fat Albert'' was released in theaters in December 2004. In May 2007, Cosby spoke at the commencement of High Point University. In the summer of 2009, Cosby hosted a comedy gala at Montreal's ''Just for Laughs'', the largest comedy festival in the world.

During this time he also made an appearance in Mario Van Peebles film ''Baadasssss!'' in 2003. He also co wrote and executive produced the live action film ''Fat Albert'' starring Kenan Thompson. Cosby makes an appearance in the film as himself.

=== 2010s ===
A new NBC show scheduled for 2015, created by Mike O'Malley and Mike Sikowitz and to have been produced by ''The Cosby Show''<nowiki/>'s Tom Werner, was set to feature Cosby as Jonathan Franklin, the patriarch of a multi-generational family. On November 19, 2014, NBC scrapped Cosby's new show after accusations resurfaced that he sexually assaulted and raped women.

Reruns of ''The Cosby Show'' were pulled from television as a result of Cosby's sexual assault allegations. On November 19, 2014, NBC and TV Land both ended their relationships with Cosby: TV Land announced that it was pulling reruns from its schedule and also removing clips of the show from its website. In December 2014, the Magic Johnson-owned Aspire removed the series from its lineup. In July 2015, broadcast network Bounce TV pulled reruns, and BET's Centric (another Viacom unit) stopped airing reruns. In late 2014, Creative Artists Agency, Cosby's agency since 2012, dropped him as a client.