Phylicia Rashad Doesn't Understand Why Some Won't Watch The Cosby Show Now
Phylicia Rashad Doesn’t Understand People Avoiding <em>Cosby Show</em> After Bill Cosby Convictions: “I Just Don’t Accept What Somebody Says Because They Say It”
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If you’re someone who struggles to enjoy The Cosby Show or won’t even attempt to watch it after Bill Cosby’s steep fall from grace thanks to his convictions for sexual assault, Phylicia Rashad has some thoughts on that.
The 72-year-old legend played Clair Huxtable on the iconic sitcom, and during a new interview with Bustle, she was asked about those who are no longer comfortable viewing the show as they once were.
“I don’t know why anybody would feel that way,” she said. “I just don’t accept what somebody says because they say it, and they say it in a loud voice. The internet has given a lot of anonymous people a very loud voice. And this, too, has happened before.”
Rashad brought up false allegations that were made against the late author Zora Neale Hurston, with her neighbor accusing the writer of having relations with their 10-year-old son. The case would eventually be thrown out as she was proven to be out of the country when she was alleged to have committed the crime. However, news of her indictment before her vindication spread, including to a Black newspaper, reportedly pushing Hurston to consider suicide. Rashad believed these claims caused irreparable damage to Hurston’s career, claiming, “her books were taken off the shelf.”
“And so I know what I know, and I just stay with what I know,” she added, while remarking on both the allegations against Hurston, and those that led to convictions of Cosby. “And it will happen in time, that this will come around another way, as it often does. And then people say, ‘Oh.'”
Rashad previously created some controversy in 2015 when she publicly stated that she believed the great number of claims about Cosby were attempts to ruin him. This happened after she said she was misquoted as commenting, “Forget these women.”
“That is a misquote, and that is not what I said. What I said is this is not about the women. This is about something else,” she told ABC News. “This is about the obliteration of legacy… I am a woman. I would never say such a thing.”
Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison in September 2018 and has been incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution – Phoenix in Pennsylvania since. As for The Cosby Show, syndication of the series has been pulled by most networks that were previously running the series, with the exception of TV One. It also currently is available on Amazon Prime.
Check out photos of Rashad playing queen Clair Huxtable by hitting the flip:
Source: NBC / Getty
THE COSBY SHOW — Season 1 — Pictured: Phylicia Rashad as Clair Hanks Huxtable — Photo by: NBCU Photo Bank
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Source: NBC / Getty
Dressed in the most chic of ’80s fashions (check out the jewelry), Phylicia Rashad posed for Cosby Show Season 3 promotional images in this NBC photo.
THE COSBY SHOW — Season 3 — Pictured: Phylicia Rashad as Clair Hanks Huxtable (Photo by Alan Singer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
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Source: NBC / Getty
THE COSBY SHOW — Season 1 — Pictured: (clockwise from top left) Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa Huxtable, Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theodore ‘Theo’ Huxtable, Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable, Phylicia Rashad as Clair Hanks Huxtable, Keshia Knight Pulliam as Rudy Huxtable, (center) Bill Cosby as Dr. Heathcliff ‘Cliff’ Huxtable — Photo by: Frank Carroll/NBCU Photo Bank
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Source: NBC / Getty
THE COSBY SHOW — Season 6 — Pictured: (l-r) (bottom) Bill Cosby as Doctor Heathcliff ‘Cliff’ Huxtable, (top row) (l-r) Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa Huxtable, Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable Kendall, Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theodore ‘Theo’ Huxtable, Phylicia Rashad as Clair Hanks Huxtable, Keshia Knight Pulliam as Rudy Huxtable, Sabrina Le Beauf as Sondra Huxtable Tibideaux — Photo by: NBCU Photo Bank
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Source: NBC / Getty
“We were [just] having fun,” Rashad said about the cultural impact of the series during a 2019 interview. “We were working and we were having fun.”
THE COSBY SHOW — “One More Time” Episode 7 — Air Date 11/01/1984 — Pictured: (l-r) Phylicia Rashad as Clair Hanks Huxtable, Bill Cosby as Doctor Heathcliff ‘Cliff’ Huxtable (Photo by R.M. Lewis Jr./NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
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Source: NBC / Getty
“What I observed with Clair Huxtable was how people appreciated that character,” Rashad said at the Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit earlier this year. “People appreciated seeing an intelligent woman who was celebrated by her husband.”
THE COSBY SHOW — “Hillman” Episode 25 — Air Date 05/07/1987 — Pictured: Phylicia Rashad as Clair Hanks Huxtable (Photo by NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
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Source: NBC / Getty
The ladies of The Cosby Show, minus Lisa Bonet, came together for this promotional image.
THE COSBY SHOW — Pictured: (l-r) Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa Huxtable, Phylicia Rashad as Clair Hanks Huxtable, Keshia Knight Pulliam as Rudy Huxtable, Sabrina Le Beauf as Sondra Huxtable Tibideaux (Photo by NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
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Source: NBC / Getty
Rashad had the opportunity to showcase the chemistry she has with sister Debbie Allen during the popular Season 5 episode.
THE COSBY SHOW — “If the Dress Fits, Wear It” Episode 10 — Air Date 12/08/1988 — Pictured: (l-r) Phylicia Rashad as Clair Hanks Huxtable, Debbie Allen as Exercise Class Woman (Photo by NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
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Source: NBC / Getty
Are we the only ones who loved this hair on her in Season 7?
THE COSBY SHOW — “Clair’s Liberation” Episode 12 — Aired 12/06/1990 — Pictured: (l-r) Phylicia Rashad as Clair Hanks Huxtable, Bill Cosby as Dr. Heathcliff ‘Cliff’ Huxtable (Photo by Al Levine/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
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Source: NBC / Getty
Rashad recently said that people often confused her character with who she was in real life, specifically as a parent.
“People say, ‘Oh, oh! You’re just the perfect mother!’ And I look at them and smile and say, ‘Thank you.’ But you know it’s easy when you’re scripted and the children are scripted too,” she said during a chat with The Breakfast Club. “In real life, there are no scripts and there’s no handbook. It’s really something, it’s really something as a parent to come to that place where you understand, ‘Yes I’m the parent but, hey, I don’t know everything,’ and, ‘Hey, that is a mind and a human being and a spirit and soul in development.'”
THE COSBY SHOW — Season 7 — Pictured: Phylicia Rashad as Clair Hanks Huxtable (Photo by Alan Singer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
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Source: NBC / Getty
THE COSBY SHOW — Season 7 — Pictured: (back, l-r) Sabrina Le Beauf as Sondra Huxtable Tibideaux, Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa Huxtable, Bill Cosby as Dr. Heathcliff ‘Cliff’ Huxtable, Phylicia Rashad as Clair Hanks Huxtable, Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theodore ‘Theo’ Huxtable, (front, l-r) Geoffrey Owens as Elvin Tibideaux, Erika Alexander as Pam Tucker, Keshia Knight Pulliam as Rudy Huxtable, Raven-SymonT Pearman as Olivia Kendall, Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable Kendall, Joseph C. Phillips as Lt. Martin Kendall (Photo by Alan Singer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
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