\n<\/p>\n
In the first episode of The Cosby Show, Cliff Huxtable (played by Bill Cosby) walks into his only son\u2019s messy room with a mission: getting him to care about improving his straight-D report card. But the teenager proves difficult to rattle.<\/p>\n
After his father makes a big show of giving him Monopoly money and then taking it all away bill by bill for hypothetical expenses, Theo (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) holds firm in his assertion that he doesn\u2019t need to emulate his parents in order to be happy. \u201cIf you weren\u2019t a doctor,\u201d he tells his father, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t love you less, because you\u2019re my dad.\u201d Can\u2019t the same be true in reverse? For a moment, it seems as if Theo has gotten through. But instead, Cliff goes off, scolding his son for being \u201cafraid to try, because you\u2019re afraid that your brain is going to explode, and it\u2019s gonna ooze out of your ears.\u201d<\/p>\n
The genius of the scene is that both characters are right. Theo is afraid to try, but he also recognizes one of his father\u2019s limitations: Cliff has a very specific idea of what success looks like, which can burden his children as they try to live up to it. It\u2019s a testament to Warner\u2019s skill as a performer that even when Theo isn\u2019t winning an argument with his dad, he evinces a complex vulnerability.<\/p>\n
Warner, who died last week, at the age of 54, struck a delicate balance while playing Theo: He\u2019s hubristic but not smug, clueless but not buffoonish. Nailing these nuances was key. Although today Cosby\u2019s name is inextricable from his tarnished legacy, The Cosby Show was nonetheless groundbreaking in its portrayal of a well-educated, middle-class Black family\u2014and Theo\u2019s story bookends the series, starting with the Monopoly lesson and ending with his graduation from college. Cliff uses tough love to teach his son that hard work is instrumental to prospering in life. But Warner played Theo as the house jester, balancing the dramatic tension of his character\u2019s uncertain future with his impeccable ability to deliver a one-liner. Ultimately, Theo\u2019s development does not amount to simple \u201csuccess\u201d or \u201cfailure.\u201d His arc comes into focus when he finds his sense of purpose\u2014in part by challenging his parents\u2019 judgments and assumptions.<\/p>\n
As a high-school freshman at the start of the series, Theo isn\u2019t much for studying. Instead, he hopes to skate by on charisma alone\u2014which rarely works\u2014and aspires to land a variety of improbable dream jobs, such as tennis pro, pilot, and model. Theo\u2019s apathy serves as a counterpoint to Cliff\u2019s moralizing about the importance of education and family values to one\u2019s social mobility, which echoed Cosby\u2019s own. In retrospect, Cliff\u2019s fears about his son\u2019s future foreshadowed the comedian\u2019s public excoriations of Black youth, which drew national attention in the early 2000s\u2014mainly, his charge that they were \u201cgoing nowhere.\u201d The harshness that sometimes emerges in Cliff\u2019s approach to parenting lands with a more punitive thud in that context. And with Theo, we eventually see that the slacker persona his father has projected onto him is not the full picture.<\/p>\n
Theo\u2019s apparent lack of motivation occasionally drives his father to theatrical extremes. In one episode, Cliff enlists the entire family to simulate the \u201creal world\u201d for his son; the exercise walks Theo through getting a job, renting an apartment, and surviving life\u2019s unpleasant realities for a day. Like the earlier Monopoly gambit, it doesn\u2019t really work. When his mother, Clair (Phylicia Rashad), suggests afterward that he\u2019s learned an important lesson, Theo clarifies for her. \u201cI learned that when I go into the real world,\u201d he says, \u201cI don\u2019t want to do business with anyone in my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
The episode\u2019s punch line reflects a common parent-child dynamic: Rather than attempting to find common ground, both sides put up a wall\u2014in the Huxtables\u2019 case, through humor. The Cosby Show indulges in this again and again, as Theo\u2019s parents invent dramatic ways to school their son; they even go so far as to stage a mock trial to catch Theo in a lie. Their son, meanwhile, typically shrugs it all off with a joke. The show\u2019s early years often played the chasm between Theo\u2019s overconfidence and the outcomes of his actions for laughs too. For example, take a scene in which he tries to impress his older sister Denise\u2019s (Lisa Bonet) study buddy: Theo adopts a baritone voice, and then Denise manhandles him out the door.<\/p>\n
As with many adolescent boys, Theo\u2019s bravado is a mask for his still-developing identity. The relatability of his \u201cfake it \u2019til you make it\u201d attitude renders him endearing, even when he\u2019s the butt of a joke. Still, Theo\u2019s self-mythology suggests a latent sadness, perhaps stemming from a suspicion that he might live out his adult life as a regular person, rather than the educated professional his parents expect him to become.<\/p>\n
But for as often as the show points out the teen\u2019s foibles, Warner never lets viewers dismiss Theo outright. For a while, he animates his character\u2019s puppyish demeanor with perfectly timed voice cracks and awkward body language. Yet the actor slowly recalibrates as both he and Theo age, shifting the fumbling swagger toward a more mature kind of self-assurance. Some of the show\u2019s most rewarding scenes arrive when Theo, as an older teen, earns his father\u2019s respect by showing up as his full self. On two separate occasions, Theo and his best friend, who goes by the nickname \u201cCockroach\u201d (Carl Anthony Payne II), write a rap for a class assignment. Both iterations include catchy lyrics that demonstrate an understanding of the material; teens like Theo and Cockroach can do great work, the show suggests, when they have room to be creative.<\/p>\n
It feels fitting, then, that Theo\u2019s emotional turning point comes from a diagnosis that upends his parents\u2019 skepticism about him. After he enrolls in college, Theo learns that he\u2019s dyslexic, which reframes his academic challenges, flighty aspirations, and self-doubts. (Charting a clear path forward is hard when you believe that you aren\u2019t smart enough to advance.) The revelation frees Theo from the \u201cfailure\u201d narrative that the adults in his life have pinned on him; he begins performing better academically as a result. More important, he invests his downtime in a meaningful, altruistic pursuit.<\/p>\n
As a volunteer at the local community center, Theo lights up while mentoring tweens who have struggles similar to his own, and not just because he\u2019s good at it. Working with a younger generation gives Theo a platform to draw upon his life experiences and learn as he goes, affirming his newfound sense of accomplishment. When one of his advisers tells him he\u2019s doing well but isn\u2019t \u201cthere\u201d yet, Theo agrees\u2014a moment Warner underscores by smiling to himself as he murmurs, \u201cBut I\u2019m growing.\u201d The pleasure Warner brings to the exchange reflects just how much his character has transformed from an aimless teen afraid to fail into an adult who recognizes that trial and error are part of life.<\/p>\n
The Cosby Show closes with the whole family gathering. Although Cliff reflects on the long, hard road his son faced to get here, Theo\u2019s real triumph is different, and more significant. He\u2019s no longer feigning confidence or struggling to understand why the things that come easily to others are so difficult for him. He won\u2019t become a doctor or a lawyer. After years of effort, he\u2019s defined what personal success means to him. A sense of direction is what his parents have wanted for him all along. And now he\u2019s found it for himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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