Bill Cosby returns to television on Monday, bent on re-creating the success of "The Cosby Show" without re-creating the show.
His character in the new "Cosby," Hilton Lucas, is not Cliff Huxtable. He's older, he's more cantankerous, he's less successful. Basically, he's not particularly happy with either the fact that he was forced into retirement or with the state of the world in general.But in both "The Cosby Show" and "Cosby," Cosby's character is married to a woman played by Phylicia Rashad.
It's a bit jarring at first - sort of familiar, comfortable and yet oddly uncomfortable at the same time. But Cosby insists it will all work out.
"Yes, there are similarities," he said. "Yes, they're in bed together, they're talking about what they do. And many of the moods and the ideas are the same. But . . . the situations that he will get into are quite different."
And the relationship between Hilton and his wife, Ruth, is less placid and more volatile than the relationship between Cliff and Claire Huxtable.
"You've never heard Cliff talk to her like that. And you've never seen her come up the way she came up," Cosby said. "When she's talking about him, he's in the way."
Originally, Telma Hopkins had been cast in the role of Ruth Lucas. But, at almost at the last minute, Hopkins was dropped and Rashad came aboard. The change came because of Cosby's desire for a "comfort zone."
"Phylicia can catch," Cosby said. "Telma was brand new to me. I was brand-new to her. And there are times when I want to go. And if I'm unfair to any actor or actresses, it is when I decide to go, to ad-lib.
"Phylicia can catch. And so, when she came, the comfort zone . . . was much, much better. But I'm also sure that Telma, although it was very disappointing, she would rather have had more time to prepare for me and for the pressure of what was going."
The Rashad-for-Hopkins switch was just one of many changes that "Cosby" has gone through even before the show makes it on the air. Cosby has changed producers, changed writers, changed casting on his character's daughter and her boyfriend and added an additional cast member.
After failures with a syndicated version of "You Bet Your Life" and "The Cosby Mysteries," Cosby readily admits that he's hungry for a hit. And willing to do what it takes to create one.
Not only that, but there's the added pressure of being on CBS - a network that needs a hit badly.
"All I know is, I am Dan Marino, and I want to make a touchdown and put my team ahead," Cosby said. "Now, if it means that I've got to chew out a guard who didn't pull and block, then I'm going to do it. I want to win. I want to win for me."
And he also wants to win for the man who hired him, CBS Entertainment President Les Moonves.
"And then if Les gets and credit, good," Cosby said. "But that's why he hired me. He hired me to become a winner."
Cosby's deal with Moonves contains an all-but-unheard-of commitment for 44 episodes of "Cosby" over two seasons.
"I need to assure (viewers) that we will be back," Cosby said. "Because if they have a feeling (that) `There's no sense in my falling in love with these people for seven weeks and then it's gone" - therefore, I asked for 44."
But he vows that he won't let that commitment become a millstone around CBS's neck.
"If this show is not good according to the way I feel, and talking to other people that I trust, if it is low in the ratings then I don't want to cost CBS any more money. . . . Rest assured, I do not mean 44 (episodes) to drag CBS down any lower or hurt them in the time slot," Cosby said.
That really shouldn't be a problem, however. "Cosby" is good, and it's probably going to get better.
It's unlikely that "Cosby" can become the giant hit that "The Cosby Show" was, but it will be a hit nonetheless.
TUBE NOTES: Greg Kinnear has said "later" to "Later." Just two months after signing a new contract, Kinnear has quit as host of the NBC late-night show to do movies.
NBC will run "original shows hosted by Kinnear interspersed with guest-hosts until a permanent replacement is named." Whatever that means.
- It's Carol and Carroll on "Mad About You." Carol Burnett and Carroll O'Conner will play the parents of Jamie (Helen Hunt) in an upcoming episode.