Bill Cosby is getting back into TV. The sitcom veteran told Yahoo! that he’s teamed up with Cosby Show producer Tom Werner to work on a new family sitcom that he says, “would [satisfy] the people who have come to me in public places and said, ‘Can’t you put something on that I can watch?†Here’s Cosby discussing the project more:
“I want to be able to deliver a wonderful show to [a] network because there is a viewership out there that wants to see comedy and warmth and love and surprise and cleverness, without going into the party attitude.â€They would like to see a married couple that acts like they love each other, warts and all, children who respect the parenting, and the comedy of people who make mistakes. Warmth and forgiveness. So I hope to get that opportunity, and I will deliver the best of Cosby, and that will be a series, I assume, that we could get enough people week after week after week to tune in to, to come along with us …â€[The show] is a work in respect to the family, that the children sit with the parents and watch, but it’s not like little children sitting around. It’s like a 28-year-old with the mother, a 28-year-old son taking his father somewhere … I’m talking about how viewers would be able to sit and share and then, using your mouth†[instead of with phones or computers] “to talk to each other … Tom Werner and I will work it so that this thing has the Cosby feel and the respect for the audience.â€
Cosby, who’s set to air his first standup special in 30 years on Comedy Central later this month, is also working on an animated TV reboot of Fat Albert, having teamed up with writer/producer Tom Straw (Nurse Jackie, Craig Ferguson, Cosby). Cosby had this to say:
“It’s got to be animated, every bit of it. Maybe except for yours truly saying, ‘I told you this is going to be funny, and if you pay attention, you just might learn something. I want some network to say to us, ‘Alright, we’re going to give you the money to do one show,’ just to lay it out … I just want one shot, because I know that what I am envisioning … they’ve never seen anything like this on TV. The laughter, the stories.â€