My Favorite Black TV Characters
#20 - February 9th - Malcolm-Jamal Warner as "Theo Huxtable" - "The Cosby Show"
#20 - February 9th - Malcolm-Jamal Warner as "Theo Huxtable" - "The Cosby Show"
Could you imagine being a young boy and having four sisters and no brothers? Factor in being a middle child, and it's amazing Theo survived childhood at all. It's a good thing for me that he did, because there was zero question that Malcolm-Jamal Warner would make an appearance on this list.I grew up with The Cosby Show. Well technically I grew up with The Cosby Show re-runs, but that's neither here nor there. The fact is, it has always been one of my favorite television shows. It makes perfect sense that I would relate to Theo, Heatchliff's (Bill Cosby) only son on the show.
Theo was the perfect compliment to Bill. You got the sense that they had a strong Father-Son bond, similarly to Sanford and Son. Whenever Theo got in trouble, which happened from time to time, Heathcliff would be right there to set him straight. Theo was outgoing, loved sports, and always had girls on his mind. As a young kid watching, this made quite the impression on me. It became quite common for me to try and mimic his personality.
A big part of Malcolm-Jamal Warner's character was his best friend, Cockroach. Those two were joined at the hip and were always up to something. Whether it be going out on double-dates, trying to pass a test without reading the required material, or even shaving their heads in order to make it on a music video, they did it together. And who doesn't love a best friend named Cockroach?
(Unfortunately, YouTube would not allow me to embed the Theo clips I wanted to use, so instead, I simply linked them ... my apologies)
But, Theo wasn't all fun and games either. He had some serious problems along the course of the show, the biggest being his poor performance in school. Eventually, we found out that Theo was diagnosed with dyslexia, which he would overcome. It was quite the accomplishment when Theo graduated from college. One of my favorite Theo scenes, which unfortunately I could not find, was after Theo was diagnosed, Vanessa came in and pointed out that all the times Theo was punished for bad grades, and how it was not his fault. Brilliant.
My all-time favorite Theo scene however took place in season one. Theo was trying to impress a girl and had picked out an expensive shirt at the mall to show-off. But, when Heathcliff deemed the shirt too expensive, Theo's sister Denise stepped up and offered to make a similar shirt for an extremely low price. I laugh every single time I watch it. DENISE!!
Okay, enough from me. Hope everyone is checking out Barnes' blog (located over on my sidebar) to read his reaction to my list and to get a Black History Month quote of the day. So far, according to him, I'm doing a pretty good job. It's my gift to him.
Hint for #19: This guy is a dumb-ass. His words, not mine.
Until tomorrow, "read it, roll it, hole it."
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