Premiere of The Cosby Show

Date: September 20, 1984 • Location: Washington, United States

The Cosby Show, which became one of three U.S. television shows to have the highest ratings five years in a row, premiered with its pilot episode.

The Cosby Show is an American television sitcom created by and starring Bill Cosby that originally aired on NBC from September 20, 1984, to April 30, 1992, with a total of 201 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons, including an outtakes special. The show focuses on the Huxtables, an upper middle-class Black American family living in Brooklyn, New York; the series was based on routines in Cosby's stand-up comedy act, which in turn were based on his family life. The series spawned a spin-off, titled A Different World, which ran from September 24, 1987, to July 9, 1993, with a total of six seasons consisting of 144 episodes.