Editing Bill Cosby (section)

=== 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.