The Cosby Show...

Okay, so I just finished watching two episodes of The Cosby Show, which I have never really seen before aside from brief clips here and there, and I have to say that I thought the show was fantastic. I ended up watching two episodes from season two because I had trouble finding full episodes from other seasons. It would have been interesting to compare episodes from different years, but both episodes were very entertaining anyhow.

The second episode I chose was called "The Dentist" and one of the things that caught my attention in the episode was the character of Dr. Burns. I thought this particular character was interesting because he kind of turned the tables on one of the stereotypes suggested in Color Adjustment. In last weeks documentary, one of the racial stereotypes mentioned was the portrayal of African American men as really wacky personality types, which I discussed in my last blog entry as well. However, in this particular episode of The Cosby Show, it was the character of Dr. Burns, a white man, who was portrayed as the goofy character that seemed to be meant for easily pulling laughter from the audience. I thought that, as it relates to this particular stereotype, the role reversal was interesting to see. A few weeks ago, I probably wouldn't have even thought twice about this character and I could be completely wrong about this, but having seen the documentary and the explanation of such stereotypes, I thought it might be something worth mentioning.