ranking the cosby show intros

silly? yes. unneccessary? yes. fun? you bet.

i was cruising youtube the other night and somehow came across one of the cosby show intros. it wasn't the one i remembered, so after searching a bit more i remembered there were several. so now for no reason at all, here is a ranking of all the cosby intros. jello pudding pops not included.

also, youtube embedding seems to be disabled, so you'll have to click the links to see the videos. not ideal, i know, but this is my first night of blogging, so GET OFF MY BACK!

season 4
class, pure and simple. the formal wear was a fantastic addition, and bobby mcferrin's quirky vocals make this one my favorite. plus, theo's aloof expression and dance take the cake. A+

in my research, i found this parody to the 4th season intro i thought i'd share. freaking hillarious!


season 1
a classic. completely different from subsequent years. no dancing, just a family spending a day out at the park together. it was here that i remembered just how prevalent hyphenated names were in the 80s: phylicia ayers-allen, keisha knight-pulliam, heck even malcolm jamal-warner got in on the act. B+

seasons 6 and 7
love the wardrobe. love the minimalist set. love the apollo signage in the background. all-around win-win. B

season 2
great music, fun dancing. most important aspect introduced here? the cultural icon known as "the cosby sweater". B

season 3
the cosby sweater perserveres in this entry. and while i love mixing things up, i don't know if the tito puente-inspired latin mix was the right sound here. B-

season 5
pastels. ew. and while i admire thinking outside the box, this entry left me missing the intros with bill danced alone or with one other member of the family. definitely not the worst of the group, though. C+

season 8
this intro is still kinda fun because it's changes the previous pace of dancing on a stage. granted, it feels like it's gotten away from the simple earlier intors by overwhelming the viewer with bright colors and objects drawn on cityscapes. plus, if the late 80's pastels were bad in season 5, the colors in this wardrobe were simply hideous. C

final season
following the season 8 theme of showing previous dances, this just rehashes the earlier, better intros. so it's a rehash of a rehash. not to mention, the wardrobe colors made me nauseous. and the addition of erika alexander was completely unneccessary. she's a fine actress, but the show had clearly jumped the shark by this point. C-

still, the cosby show was one of the greatest entries in american pop culture. honest to goodness family entertainment without ever working blue. i have the best dad EVER, but bill cosby will always be america's dad to me. class act all-around. also, cliff and claire had some downright HOTTTTTTT daughters! i think the beautiful phylicia rashad gets the lion's share of the credit there. so, good work on that.