The first thing that comes to my head whenever I think about Bill Cosby is Jello Pudding Pops. Yes, although Bill Cosby is a household name, a perennial favorite star of television, stand-up comedy, recorded media, movies, and was the original Fat Albert, it is Pudding Pops that I think of first. Perhaps this is because whenever I do my lame imitation of Cosby (which always drove my ex-wife Carolyn insane), I always mention Pudding Pops.
But my interest in Bill Cosby goes way back to earliest childhood in the 1970’s when I would root through my Grandma and Grandpa Murphy’s record collection, pull out the Bill Cosby comedy records, and usually go right for the Chicken Heart track on his LP Wonderfulness. Saturday mornings in the 1970’s would also see Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, and I vaguely remember his first major series The Bill Cosby Show.
In the early 1980’s, our family recorded the stand-up concert Bill Cosby: Himself off of HBO and it seemed that my entire family, both immediate and extended, knew every line of that film. “Thank you toilet bowl”, “Dad is great, he give us the chocolate cake,” and virtually every other quote from his routines became staples of our family get-togethers.
But of course when The Cosby Show came out in 1984, it not only re-defined the black family situation comedy for America, but served up another helping of great TV memories for me and my family. Today I own that series on DVD, a batch of Fat Albert episodes, and of course Bill Cosby: Himself. And the Chicken Heart can now be found on my iPod along with the rest of the album.
I had written to Bill Cosby for an autographed picture in September of 1985, and on October 1, one day before my birthday, I received a sign photo. I was very happy with the autograph, but later came to suspect that it was in fact a secretarial. I’m not sure why I attempted this again in the fall of 1997, but this time I had success with a legitimate autograph applied to the photo I had sent to him. I know this not only from camparisons to other legitimate signatures, but because it came with a note on Cosby’s stationary dated September 30, 1997 which read “The enclosed has been autographed by Mr. Cosby. Enjoy. Sondra W. Pugh, Assistant to Mr. Cosby.”
Not sure what I had written, but it must have been as great as…well, in my best Bill Cosby voice…Jello Pudding Pops!
Autographs of 1997 will continue…
“I brought you into this world and I can take you out”
and “Jeffery, Jeffery, Jeffery!” were two of my favorite lines.
Bev
January 25th, 2009