Search - The Bill Cosby Show - Season One on DVD

A Real Classic with Some Unforgettable Episodes

R. Schultz | Chicago | 01/24/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a 4-disc set of Season I of the first Bill Cosby Show, the 1969 series - not to be confused with "The Cosby Show," the more recent Show. No, this was the original Cosby. Here he plays a bachelor high school coach. Cosby's loose ad lib style is already brilliant and fully developed in this series, and you might find you actually prefer it to his long-running turn as a family man. These episodes have more a slice-of-life feel than a staged sitcom feel. And the young people featured in this earlier series have unpredictable personalities that run the spectrum from shy to self-assured. They aren't uniformly smart-alecky and precocious, as almost all the children in modern sitcoms tend to be.



The adults aren't stereotyped either. They aren't boxed into being humorous by way of being self-absorbed. This isn't a series of one-liners, of zingers-and-retorts delivered like shoot-outs. People still have conversations here. This is something really different, something with heart.



A number of big-name stars show up occasionally. You'll see Henry Fonda, Elsa Lancaster, Cicely Tyson, and others. But you might not notice them, because they too blend in with the warmth of everyday neighborhood life.



One of the series' funniest episodes, perhaps one of the funniest episodes of all time, is entitled "Goodbye Cruel World" and features Wally Cox. Cox plays a lovelorn cafeteria server at Coach Kincaid's high school. When all of Kincaid's advice to Cox about how to ask that special woman for a date fails - Cox decides he's going to commit suicide. This might not sound as if it would make likely material for a comedy, but believe me, it turns out to be hilarious.



Kincaid (Cosby) is again unpredictable. He doesn't feverishly try to dissuade Cox, as one might expect. Instead he takes a low-key approach. He settles down to have a cup of coffee in Wally's kitchen, while casually advising Wally about the practicalities involved in every suicide method that Wally contemplates. Jump out the window? "Well no, you're only on the second floor, so you'd probably only break a leg or something." Stab yourself with the kitchen knife? "Too messy. And your knife is too dull. Do have a sharpener? No? Well then, that's no good."



Finally, Kincaid agrees with Wally that hanging might be the best way to go. But Wally has no rope, so the two set out together for the hardware store. There Wally espies a can of ant poison first and veers toward that. The two argue back and forth - rope - poison - rope - poison - making the hardware store clerk the picture of puzzlement as he tries to fathom what household malfunction could possibly be addressed by two such divergent alternatives. When Wally finally agrees to the rope, all the hardware store clerk has to offer is a 50-foot length of marine halyard that can't be cut. So Wally ends up straggling weighted out of the store, with 50-feet of impossible hemp cordage over his shoulder. But of course, that's not the end of it.



Possibly the most memorable episode in this First Season is called "A Girl Named Punkin." You'll probably carry this episode with you to the end, and pass it along to your children. Here Cosby shows his talent for approaching children as a mentor, as an educator who is more friend than teacher. A little girl at the community center where he volunteers has refused to speak a word for a long time. No one has been able to get through to her. By way of trying to get her to come out of her shell, he tells her a story. Kincaid virtually morphs into real-life Cosby here. Cosby tells one of his inimitable stories. It's about an egg that refuses to hatch. The little creature inside the egg won't come out - and won't come out. Everyone tries to lure her out with laughing and joking and promises of all the presents and goodies and fun and entertainment that await her - if she'll only come out. But the little egg still won't hatch. Ages pass. Finally, finally, someone comes up to the egg and says the thing the little creature inside has been waiting all this time to hear. It's the thing we all wait to hear.



I won't tell you what it is. Perhaps you can guess. But anyway, you'll have to get this DVD set to know the truth of it.



Some of the episodes mentioned by other reviewers aren't on this First Season set. I hope the other Seasons become available soon. I can hardly wait to re-visit this unique series in its entirety."