My favorite thing to do as a kid was to sit in front of my mom’s box TV and soak up whatever was playing on the screen like a sponge. Most of the time, it was cartoons, music video countdown shows and the occasional reruns of classic shows she grew up watching. One of them was “The Cosby Show.”
Before a slew of allegations against Bill Cosby tarnished the warm memories associated with his groundbreaking sitcom, I got to know the Huxtable family quite well. I would sometimes imagine them as my own, since I wasn’t blessed to have siblings or live in a two-parent household throughout my adolescent life. Sondra, Denise, Vanessa and Rudy were the sisters who reminded me of my cousins, and Theo was the brother I never had.
To me, he was cool, goofy, charming, endearing and, oddly enough, really familiar. Much of that I credit to the natural charisma of Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who portrayed Theo not as a character (who was inspired by Cosby’s only son, the late Ennis Cosby), but as the curious teenager he was, also finding his way in the world. He gave a piece of himself to Theo that has lived in my heart ever since, which is why it felt as if the actor and that character would somehow both live forever. I really wish that were true.
