ABSTRACT
Now that we have seen the final April 30, 1992, episode the television series The Cosby Show, “And So We Commence” we can examine the social and historical impact on its audiences. Commentators in the mass media have asserted that one of the show’s greatest consequences was its help in improving race relations by projecting universal values that both Whites and Blacks could identify with, using the tried-and-true situation comedy format (Ehrenstein 1988; Gray 1989; Johnson 1986; Norment 1985; Stevens 1987). Believing that television mirrors society and articulates its values, proponents of this perspective point to the overwhelming popularity of the show among White viewers as well as its almost entirely positive assessment by White analysts and the White media. For many seasons, the show was highly rated and has been credited, among other consequences, with reviving the genre of the sitcom and saving the ailing NBC network (Curry 1986; Frank and Zweig 1988; Poussaint 1988; Taylor 1989).
