<\/p>\n
Before his tragic death due to drowning while on vacation in Costa Rica this summer, \u201cCosby Show\u201d alum Malcolm-Jamal Warner<\/a> opened up about the iconic sitcom that ran from 1984 to 1992. <\/p>\n The late actor, who was 54 when he died, was interviewed for the two-part HBO documentary \u201cSeen & Heard<\/a>,\u201d which premiered Sept. 9 and 10. <\/p>\n The documentary, executive produced by Issa Rae, follows the past, present and future of Black talent and Black programming on television. <\/p>\n The first episode, \u201cSeen,\u201d debuted on the platform Sept. 9 at 9 p.m. ET, while the second episode, \u201cHeard,\u201d premieres today at the same time. <\/p>\n Per People<\/a>, in a segment focused on \u201cThe Cosby Show,\u201d Warner opened up about how a stark, early interaction with Bill Cosby influenced his acting on the show. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen I auditioned for \u2018Cosby,\u2019 I was 13,\u201d Warner recalled, who played the only Huxtable son, Theo. \u201cI\u2019d been watching, you know, \u2018Diff\u2019rent Strokes\u2019<\/i> and watching these kids on television be smart alecks and what have you. That\u2019s what my acting had been influenced by.”<\/p>\n When he auditioned for the part, he thought it went well \u2014 initially. <\/p>\n \u201cI mean, I killed in the room. I was getting the laughs, and I\u2019m 13, I\u2019m killing in the room. And I finished my audition, and everybody was smiling, except Mr. Cosby, and he looked at me, and he said, \u2018Would you really talk to your father like that?\u2019 And I said, \u2018No.\u2019 He said, \u2018Well, I don\u2019t want to see that on this show.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Warner also remembered how Cosby fought with executives over the tone of the show because he wanted the sitcom to remain authentic to his vision. <\/p>\n \u201cMr. Cosby made certain that everyone was acutely aware \u2018The Cosby Show\u2019<\/i> was his brainchild,” Warner explained. \u201cBut then you have these other creatives, you know, there\u2019s a network producer, writers, you know, studio coming in, trying to tell him how to do his show, and every step of the way, Mr. Cosby had to stop them and remind them that\u2019s not the show that we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n This was a fight Cosby constantly found himself ingratiated in but won every time. <\/p>\n \u201cI watched him do that from year one to year eight,\u201d he added. \u201cThat battle never, never stopped, until the show stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n But to Warner, the constant battle was well worth the warfare because the impact the show had on fans was indescribable. <\/p>\n \u201cI was getting tens of thousands of letters from people who were saying, \u2018Thank you. Thank you for the show. We are the Huxtables,\u2019 and you know, and the show obviously got criticized for not being Black enough, not being a real depiction of the black experience,\u201d he said in the documentary.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.pennlive.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before his tragic death due to drowning while on vacation in Costa Rica this summer, \u201cCosby Show\u201d alum Malcolm-Jamal Warner opened up about the iconic sitcom that ran from 1984 to 1992. The late actor, who was 54 when he died, was interviewed for the two-part HBO documentary \u201cSeen & Heard,\u201d which premiered Sept. 9 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[368242],"class_list":["post-2012280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-cast-comedian-entertainer-family-the-cosby-show"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2012280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2012280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2012280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2012280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}