I couldn't agree more with the above statement. I wanted to be a Huxtable more than anything. Growing up in a lower-middle-class white family it never occured to me that the show was ground breaking or new, i just knew they loved each other. They meant so much to me. I was a couple of years younger than Keshia (Rudy) but my mother would let me stay up 30 minutes past my bed time just so we could watch the show together as a family. This will be a show i will make sure my children watch.

"Growing up in a lower-middle-class white family..."



This was me as well. The only difference in us it seems, is that I usually watched it alone.

Thanks in part to Oprah, I've learned that that is okay.

Me too! I know they kept repeating on the show how it helped African American families, but I grew up in a typical middle class white family and loved that show. it had an impact on me as well and was ecstatic when i saw they were going to be on Oprah. I was disappointed though when Bill said no to a reunion show. I hope he was joking. I'd love to see that one.

Anyway, i didn't know they were making a difference and all that, I just knew they were a close knit family that loved each other, they were smart, the kids were cool yet had issues like me, and the parents were strict, but still "cool" parents. I wanted that too, black or white. I'm 29 and just now realizing that the whole African American theme was planted purposely throughout, I didn't pay it any attention, I just loved the show. Simple as that.

I always thought the Cosby show was about a loving family with parents who had worked hard to get where they were in life. I guess the race thing wasn't in your face obvious. Growing up in white middle class family I saw them as them as the people next door. They disciplined like my parents, they had the same values and goals for their children as my parents and in the episode where they bought a new couch it was the exact same couch my parents had bought two weeks earlier! The only difference was that the fabric on their couch was on our wing back chairs and our couch had the coordinating stripe. Cliff and Claire taught their children to think for themselves and made sure they learned from their mistakes and when we first saw that show it was as if someone had peeked in our windows and stolen the story lines. I had even made my brother a shirt once that he wasn't happy with the way it turned out. The kids weren't perfect, they tried and learned from mistakes and their parents always gave them enough freedom to learn and a short enough leash to keep them protected and most importantly the kids were held accountable for their actions every time. They were the most typical American family ever on television to me. I loved that no matter what happened, in the end the parents always loved their children whether or not they were disappointed with them.

I Tivo Oprah everyday & just got around to watching the Cosby Kids episode today. As they were discussing the impact it had on not only African-Americans, but people of all races, it really struck me how much it actually shaped my view of the world as well. I am 29 & I grew up in a lower-middle-class white family. We lived in an area with very, very little racial diversity. I can count the black people I knew growing up on my hands. Now first I have to give my mother credit for raising me to be color blind. I was always taught that we were ALL God's children. But the area in which we lived was not so color blind. Just miles from my hometown was a white supremicist community and I eventually learned that many, many people in the area were what I call "closet racists". They were very politically correct, but if their white daughter decided to date a black man... whoa! Their true feelings came out. The Cosby Show really helped drive my mother's lessons home and in a very subtle way. I hadn't even realized it until I watched this episode on Oprah. When I look back on watching that show as a child, I never thought that I was watching a "black family". I was just watching a show about "a family". I grew up thinking that people were people. That a black family had just as much right to love, happiness & success as a white family, an Asian family, a Native American family, an Indian family. It never occured to me to think any other way. I'm so grateful that I grew up in a time when so many of those racial boundaries were being tested & broken. I recognize that there is still a lot of injustice in the world and in this country, but I feel that we are closer than ever to being a color blind nation. So thank you to Mr. Cosby, Phylicia Rashad & the all of the Cosby Show kids. Your characters were an inspiration to me as human being. And I didn't even know it at the time.