"The Huxtable Effect" - Cosby on Meet The Press

Bill Cosby was asked to comment on the suggestion that his landmark television show "The Cosby Show" set the stage for an Obama presidency. Cosby dismisses any connection, however I believe the show has played some part in bringing forth an acceptability factor for the next President.

I was sent a video that links the Obama's move to the White House to the opening theme of "The Jeffersons." You know "We're Movin' On Up... to the East Side to a DEE-luxe apartment in the sky." It really doesn't work when you move from the Hyde Park section of Chicago to the White House. Comedians are going to have to work a lot harder instead of using racial stereotypes with Barack Obama and his family. It simple doesn't work. Maybe it's The Huxtable Effect.

"The Huxtable Effect" question is at the 7:00 mark.

The article "Before Obama, There Was Bill Cosby" explores the effect of "The Cosby Show" on popular culture.

...But one idea seems to be gaining traction, and improbably it has Bill Cosby and Karl Rove in agreement: “The Cosby Show,” which began on NBC in 1984 and depicted the Huxtables, an upwardly mobile black family — a departure from the dysfunction and bickering that had characterized some previous shows about black families — had succeeded in changing racial attitudes enough to make an Obama candidacy possible. More in the NYTimes article>>