Bill Cosby is returning to NBC with a new sitcom, years after the success of “The Cosby Show,” according to a network representative. He will play the patriarch of a multigenerational family.
The show brings Cosby, now a 76-year-old comedian, back to the same network where his 1980s sitcom had an eight-year run. “The Cosby Show” followed the life of an upper-middle-class African-American family. It is credited with reviving NBC’s fortunes and blazing a path for other shows featuring African-Americans. Cosby played Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, the patriarch of that TV family.
Cosby’s career is now in its fifth decade. It started as a stand-up comic in small clubs in Greenwich Village in New York. In the 1960s, he landed a pivotal role on the TV series “I Spy,” where he was the first-ever African-American lead in a weekly dramatic series.
He won three best actor Emmy Awards for the role of undercover CIA Agent Alexander Scott. He received Kennedy Center Honors in 1998 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002.
He recently received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which is awarded to performers who use comedy to influence American society.
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