Pilot (The Cosby Show)
List of The Cosby Show episodes
"Pilot" (also known as "Theo's Economic Lesson") is the pilot and the first episode of the first season of the American sitcom The Cosby Show. "Pilot" originally aired in the United States on NBC on Thursday September 20, 1984, at 8:00 PM Eastern time. This episode debuted the week before the official start of the 1984–85 United States network television season. The confrontation with Theo in this episode is seen again in a flashback in the series finale "And So We Commence". The episode was directed by Jay Sandrich and written by Ed. Weinberger and Michael J. Leeson. The episode was a critical and commercial success, achieving both high ratings and positive critical feedback.
Theo's (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) report card contained four Ds, which upset his mother, Clair (Phylicia Ayers-Allen). Theo attempts to pacify his father, Cliff (Bill Cosby), by letting him know that since he did not intend to go to college, his low grades did not matter to him. His reasoning was that it is his destiny to be a "regular person." In an attempt to guide his son by analogy, Cliff gives fatherly advice using Monopoly money as a teaching tool about the blue-collar economic facts of life for the everyday American. Although the lessons seem harsh, Cliff makes it clear that his instruction is an attempt to convince him that it is important to try his best. Cliff is troubled upon meeting Denise's (Lisa Bonet) latest admirer (Todd Hollowell) who is a former merchant marine and Turkish prisoner.
Read more about Pilot (The Cosby Show): Plot, Cast, Production
Famous quotes containing the words pilot and/or cosby:
“The river knows the way to the sea;
Without a pilot it runs and falls,
Blessing all lands with its charity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A father ... knows exactly what those boys at the mall have in their depraved little minds because he once owned such a depraved little mind himself. In fact, if he thinks enough about the plans that he used to have for young girls, the father not only will support his wife in keeping their daughter home but he might even run over to the mall and have a few of those boys arrested.”
—Bill Cosby (20th century)