If you look at the network schedules of today, you won’t find nearly as many sitcoms as you could several years ago. The CW network doesn’t even have any and has actually declared that they’re out of the half-hour comedy business. Some critics will tell you that the sitcom genre is dying though history shows us that TV trends run in cycles.
Exactly 25 years ago, many people were also declaring the sitcom dead. That all changed when a little show called The Cosby Show debuted on September 20, 1984. The series, starring Phylicia Rashasd, Lisa Bonet, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Tempestt Beldsoe, and Keshia Knight-Pulliam, became an immediate smash hit for NBC. It helped to save the network and began their ratings dominance of Thursday nights that lasted for many, many years.
