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Huxtable Family
Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable
Played by: Bill Cosby
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parent: Cliff seems to intentionally be this most of the time when the children bring their dates or some other company to the house.
- Berserk Button: Don't say that Cliff would kick one of his children out of the house. When Denise tells him that she assumed he would kick her out if she dropped out of college, it's one of the only times in the show that we see him truly angry.
- Big Eater: Occasionally, especially when it comes to hoagies.
- Billed Above the Title: Bill Cosby in The Cosby Show.
- Bumbling Dad: He was created specifically as an antidote for this. Bill Cosby was tired of all the father figures on TV being essentially dominated by their kids, and created a competent, intelligent, but still funny father character for himself. It's still present in a downplayed form, as his family refuse to let him try to fix household appliances.
- Cloudcuckoolander: His monologues lead off to the wildest tangents.
- Competition Freak: Cliff enjoys competition, often making bets with Clair over various things.
- Cowardice Callout: He at one point calls Theo out for daring to say his father should accept his academic shortcomings as if getting poor grades are somehow the same thing as being non-heteronormative, telling Theo that he's afraid to try bettering himself and declaring that this won't stand.
- Dad the Veteran: Cliff served in the Navy.
- Deadpan Snarker: This is Bill Cosby, after all.
- Death Glare: A comical version that he dubs "The Huxtable Stare" to intimidate his rival at an auction. He has to describe how to do it to a proctor over the phone.
- Ditzy Genius: Cliff is a successful doctor, being the first obstetrician to win his hospital's surgeon of the year award. He gives excellent life advice and in his youth was a gifted athlete. His is also a Cloudcuckoolander, who can be quite goofy and eccentric.
- Doom It Yourself: Cliff's attempts at fixing things around the house without professional help always end in Epic Fail.
- Education Papa: He spares no expense in getting the best education possible for his kids. Lampshaded when asked to donate to The United Negro College Fund.Cliff (When asked to help raise money for the cause): I just wrote four college tuition checks. I am The United Negro College Fund!
- Formerly Fit: In college, Cliff was a skilled runner known as "Combustible Huxtable", but years of a stressful job as an OB/GYN- plus poor eating habits- have made him lose his svelte physique.
- Doubles as a case of Real Life Writes the Plot as Bill Cosby himself played football in college and, in one of his old routines, said, "At one point, I had a beautiful body."
- Happily Married: To Clair.
- Henpecked Husband: His wife often doesn't allow him to do the things he wants, going so far as to call ahead to a store where Cliff is a regular customer and tell the owner not to sell him anything.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Clair can sing beautifully. Cliff... can't.
- Lethal Chef: Played with but ultimately subverted. He's a very good cook, but it's his ingredient choices that often scare people away.
- Manly Tears: Confesses to Clair that he shed these after his last football game in college, knowing he'd never get to play again.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After finding out Clair was his rival at an auction and thinking she had ended up paying several thousand dollars for a record, his face and voice are filled with remorse. But he cheers up after Clair explains the final price was actually much lower as the man relaying Cliff's bids on the phone started placing unauthorized bids for Cliff due to getting too-far into the bid war.
- Never My Fault: When he asks Elvin what his kids say about him, one of the responses is that he never admits his own mistakes.
- Nice Guy: A devoted and kindhearted family man.
- One of the Kids: He may be a doctor, but often has childlike traits. Mostly he uses them only around children.
- Precision F-Strike: He's the only one who comes close to swearing on the show. After Theo's "colloquy" destroys the house, he tells him he's, "Dragging your 'you-know-what' to the Army recruitment center!"
- Rambling Old Man Monologue: He became increasingly-prone to these in the second half of the series. The kids turn it against him in a Season 7 episode when they call him out on most of his stories being completely made up.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Cliff has a lot of pink outfits in season 1.
- Red Baron: Known as "Combustible" Huxtable when running track and had the nickname of "The Grey Ghost" when he played football.
- Serious Business: The kids dread his use of Naval terminology whenever he's in charge of cleaning the house as he's quite strict about setting a high bar for cleanliness.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Cliff honestly believes that he is the most distinguished graduate to ever come out of Hillman College.
- Standard '50s Father: A reconstruction of this trope for The '80s. Cosby explicitly crafted him as an idealized vision of what a father should be, as a reaction to the Darker and Edgier sitcoms and Blaxploitation films of The '70s.
- Tough Love: In one episode, Rudy asks him for some extra money for a birthday present for Clair, so he puts her to work doing extra chores around the house while being sworn to secrecy from Clair. When Clair sees what she's doing and gives her a little bonus plus helping her out a bit, Cliff confiscates the bonus and undoes the assistance (though he does give her back the bonus after she's done all the work to earn the full money).Cliff: What I'm about to do may seem cruel, but that's just life.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Cliff loves "hoagies" but can't eat them very often because Clair is always on his case to watch his weight.
- Twerp Sweating: When he stops being an Amazingly Embarrassing Parent and puts on his serious hat with a boyfriend, usually after said boyfriend has gone too far with one of his daughters.
- Troll: Cliff can be one when he wants, especially when it comes to teasing Clair. Notable examples are ribbing her on her 46th birthday and continually spoiling the plot of a novel that he's read and she hasn't.
Clair Olivia Hanks Huxtable
Played by: Phylicia Rashad
- The Ace:
- A smart, classy, successful career woman who rarely loses an argument. Even when hearing her name years later, a college professor she had recalls how great of a student she was.
- Denise decides to defy this in one episode where they take a pottery class and Clair's initial attempts are less than stellar. Denise playfully revels in finally being able to see her mom fail at something.
- Berserk Button:
- Never under any circumstances let Clair catch you in a web of lies: being an attorney she's also an expert at unraveling them and trying to further cover them up only makes things worse.
- Phylicia Rashād stated that Clair only truly got angry at one of the children when she feels they've squandered their potential. Sondra's not going to law school to open a wilderness store and Denise's getting married to a navy man who already has one kid are the crowning examples.
- Clair also had a low tolerance for her children deliberately going behind her back to do things she specifically told them not to. She really blew her stack after Vanessa and her friends sneaked out to go to a concert in Baltimore and had their tickets, money, and car stolen.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Clair will occasionally display her ability to speak Spanish, which is treated as a big deal.
- Happily Married: To Cliff.
- Hello, Attorney!: She is a lawyer and very elegant and attractive.
- Mama Bear: Denise mistakenly believed her mother-in-law couldn't stand her. Believing herself unable to please the woman left Denise a crying wreck. Luckily for everyone involved, her mother Clair was wise enough to verify Mrs. Kendall's actual opinion of Denise before unleashing a Mama Bear fury (turns out hubby Martin's mother couldn't stand Martin's frequent rushes to judgement in matrimonial situations). For not listening to his mother, Martin was...less lucky.
- Not So Above It All: She can be as silly as Cliff, but almost never shows it to her children. When she gets her own room in Season 8 and can finally be alone, she completely cuts loose. There's also the Season 2 episode where she chastises Denise and Theo for being overly excited about meeting Stevie Wonder, only to almost immediately begin shrieking and screaming the way they were as soon as they leave the room.
- Parenting the Husband: She often treats Cliff like a child.
- Sassy Black Woman: One of the more iconic forceful black moms on TV.
- Straight Man: To Cosby's humorous Cliff.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Clair loves Spanish and Caribbean food.
- Women Are Wiser: Downplayed. While Cliff has his moments of being a Bumbling Dad, and Clair is portrayed as more practical than Cliff, she was not necessarily morally superior to him. There were a few times Clair was shown as clearly being in the wrong.
Sondra Huxtable Tibideaux
Played by: Sabrina Le Beauf
- Cool Big Sis: More serious and responsible than her younger siblings.
- Deadpan Snarker: Inherited straight from her father.
- Happily Married: To Elvin starting in Season 4.
- Mama Bear: Sondra inherited this from her mother. "Day of the Locusts" is a more comedic example than most, but it proves that this runs in the family. She even intimidated Clair.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: She only shows up in a few episodes of the first season, but she is promoted to a regular character in the second season, although she is not often seen.
- Remember the New Guy?: In the first handful of episodes of the show there were only four Huxtable children. Sondra was added to the cast about midway through the first season, because Bill Cosby thought the show needed an example of successful parenting, i.e. a child who'd made it through high school and into a good college, with prospects for a future career.
- Surpassed the Teacher: When talking about Sondra in her introductory episode, Cliff tells Clair, "One time she asked me the question, 'Daddy, where do the ducks go in the winter when the pond freezes over?' Right then I knew she was smarter than me."
Denise Huxtable Kendall
Played by: Lisa Bonet
- The Bus Came Back: After being Put on a Bus, she made a few appearances in Seasons 4 and 5 and returned as a regular character in Season 6.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Denise seems to have become more flighty after her return to the show.
- Dude Magnet: In early seasons she has a different boyfriend every episode.
- The Fashionista: She loves fashion, though her style is quite eccentric.
- Flanderization: Denise started out as a spunky, independent, intelligent young woman. Somewhere along the line, she turned into a flaky, clueless freeloader. Additionally, despite being willing to leave New York travel to Africa for a photojournalism assignment (the actress was written out for maternity leave), she somehow freaked out at the notion of leaving New York, for the wilds of... Rhode Island.
- Happily Married: To Martin in later seasons.
- Parental Substitute: To her stepdaughter Olivia.
- Put on a Bus: Three times in two different series. The first happened as fallout from Lisa Bonet's appearance in Angel Heart, and clashing with Bill Cosby. In order to get Bonet out of his hair, Denise was moved to spinoff A Different World, which premiered in 1987 (Season 4 of The Cosby Show). She left that series after one season (explained in-show as her decision to drop out of Hillman) and returned as a regular character in Season 6 of The Cosby Show. Shortly into Season 7, though, she left again to accompany Martin to his new posting in Singapore.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: She breaks down crying when Martin yells at her for neglecting an important task and claims it's their first fight. Martin doesn't fall for it because a fight is a clash between two opposing points of view and she didn't have one.
Theodore Aloysius "Theo" Huxtable
Played by: Malcolm-Jamal Warner
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Theo gets his 15 minutes of fame after accidentally fishing up the dead body of a gangster and lets it go to his head. Vanessa quickly calls him out on the fact that he didn't actually do anything other than get lucky.
- Big Brother Instinct: Having four sisters, Theo exhibits this fairly often, even though two of them are older than he is.
- Big Eater: He gets this from Cliff, and it becomes more pronounced once he starts college. At one point, he eats four jumbo burgers and the fries that came with them in under a minute.
- Book Dumb: A running theme in early seasons.
- Character Development: From a Book Dumb under-achiever to a successful high school - and college – student.
- Dead Guy Junior: Cliff tells him he's named after his great-great-grandfather, but he also shares his name with Cliff's late brother who died when they were kids.
- Dumbass Teenage Son: He starts off like this, with the first episode in particular demonstrating a lack of intelligence when it comes to school. Later on in the show's run, he's eventually diagnosed with dyslexia, and starts working to overcome it. By the end of the series, he's become a teacher.
- "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Revealed to be dyslexic in Season 6. When thinking one of his students in Season 7 has a dyslexic condition similar to his own, he talks about how the world appeared different to him and the effort he's had to put in to overcome it.
- Off to Boarding School: Cliff attempts to ship him off to the Army in season 5 for destroying the house, but averted in that the recruitment center was refusing to take enlistees who were using the Army as a punishment.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Theo loves his dad's recipe for "bacon burger dogs."
Vanessa Huxtable
Played by: Tempestt Bledsoe
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Vanessa went from a smart but mischievous child to a teenager constantly pushing the boundaries of what she's allowed to wear, who she can date, where she can go, etc. The season 3 intro drives this home; Cliff does a silly dance with each family member, but when it's Vanessa's turn, she just stands there rolling her eyes (she rejoins the fun in later seasons).
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Karma catches up with her and her friends numerous times when they try to go to a concert by The Wretched.
- Go-Getter Girl: She works very hard at school and gets excellent grades.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Vanessa is by far the most boy-crazed of the Huxtable girls.
- It's All About Me: Vanessa is the biggest offender throughout the entire series as she's constantly called out for her selfishness. The best example comes in season 6 when Clair is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and Vanessa constantly pesters her for money for a new CD, considering it life-threatening if she doesn't get it and not even considering what she's doing to Clair.
- Love Makes You Dumb: A lot of the incidents where Vanessa gets in trouble are due to her being boy crazy. It begins in season 2 and never really stops.
- Rebellious Spirit: Vanessa becomes the most rebellious of the children. So much so that it feels like she starts getting cold feet about her engagement after her family starts to approve of it.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Vanessa has a moment when she thinks the tryouts for drum major were redone because people saw how good she was and protested.
- What Were You Thinking?: Throughout the show, she got hit with a ton of these.
- In one episode, Clair finds makeup in Vanessa's purse despite the rules of having none until one is fifteen. Afterwards, she is given a firm speech to never do it again. Later on in the episode, Vanessa is caught by Clair and tries to lie about it. Needless to say, she did get punished afterwards.
- Then came the episode when her boyfriend Jeremy comes into the picture. In order for Vanessa to see him, she tells Cliff and Clair an onslaught of lies, and even tries to convince Rudy to lie for her. Clair ends up questioning Rudy who has no choice but to confess. Later, when Vanessa comes home, she attempts to lie again, but this time Clair shuts her down before she can tell another lie, and she gets grounded once again.
- Another episode, she proudly goes on a drinking spree with her friends only to wake up hung over (not to mention she is not even 18 years old yet). Fortunately for her, she wasn't given a severe punishment (other than dealing with the hangover and being made to go to school in that condition).
- The crowning moment however, was when Vanessa and her friends lie to see The Wretched concert. She tells her mom that she and her friends are staying at her friend Susan's house when in reality, they are driving to the concert's real location in Baltimore, which is already not starting off so well. They take Janet's brother's car which ends up being stolen during a rest stop in Wilmington, Delaware. Instead of reporting the car stolen and finding a way to get home, she and her friends ask cashier at the donut shop about how they can get a ride to Baltimore. By the time they get to the concert, they get scammed out of their tickets and have the remainder of their money stolen, and were fortunate enough that a friend of Janet's brother gave them bus fare. What was the result? An unhappy night, with Clair reaming into Vanessa over her lies and the danger she could have potentially put herself in. Cliff bluntly asks this of her when Clair is finished.
Rudith Lillian "Rudy" Huxtable
Played by: Keshia Knight Pulliam
- A-Cup Angst: In a later episode Rudy enters puberty but she's upset that she hasn't...developed as some other girls in her grade.
- The Ace: The family learns in Season 2 that she has a talent for Football and immediately becomes the team's star player despite only playing in two games before the season ends Rudy decides to move on.
- Adorably Precocious Child: In early seasons.
- The Baby of the Bunch: The "baby" of the family in early seasons before she grows up and is replaced by Olivia.
- Catchphrase: Rudy always tends to say, "Awww, man." when she's told to do something she doesn't want to do.
- Daddy's Girl: To Cliff. She gets more attention from her parents for being the youngest.
- Legacy Character: In-Universe, Cliff wants to give her his Football title of "The Grey Ghost," during her time in pee-wee football, but gets vetoed when the rest of the family dubs her "Sweet Feet" instead.
- Little Miss Snarker: She has quite a few sassy one-liners.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: She invokes this privilege when a friend is over because it's "her" house. Said friend immediately tells her she's just a Sore Loser.
- Sibling Rivalry: With Vanessa, especially in seasons 3-5.
- Sore Loser:
- Starting in Season 3, she tends to get uppity when things don't go her way. This is the focus of one episode's B-plot when she doesn't get the instrument she wanted to play in music class.
- One of her friends calls her out on this in Season 5 when she complains Rudy will change the rules of the game on the fly to ensure she wins.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Seasons 7 and 8 put more emphasis on her social circles.
- Tomboyish Name: Actually a Tomboyish Nickname; her full first name is Rudith.
Other Characters
Extended Family Members
Russel Huxtable (Earle Hyman)
Cliff's father and the trombonist of the Jazz Caravan.- Cool Old Guy: Its clear that Cliff got his sense of humor from his Father.
- Dad the Veteran: Served in Europe during World War II.
- Determinator: According to one of his war stories, he waited so long for the enemy to come out of a pillbox during the War that, by the time they finally came out, the war was over.
- Happily Married: To Anna.
- Heroic BSoD: He loses his confidence in his musical abilities for a while after stepping out of retirement to prepare for a performance to honor a late friend.
- Hidden Depths: He is very familiar with the works of Shakespeare and can quote several plays and sonnets from memory in a manner to rival two English professors. When Cliff asked about how he knew so much about them, Russel explained he had a lot of time to read on the bus while on tour with the Jazz Caravan.
- Instant Expert: In one episode where he's babysitting Olivia and her friend, he gets hooked on their video game and, by the time the day is over, has surpassed both of them at it.
Anna Huxtable (Clarice Thomas)
Cliff's mother.- Happily Married: To Russel.
- Sassy Black Woman: Of the "cool grandma" variety. She adores her grandchildren, but when she has to set anyone in line, she will put her foot down.
Elvin Tibideaux (Geoffrey Owens)
- Beware the Nice Ones: In one early episode, Elvin says he never gets angry, but there are two instances in the show when he finally does. The first is during Cliff's dream where the men get pregnant and Elvin ends up shouting at Martin repeatedly to "Shut up!" and even smacks him. The second is when Cliff goes a little too far with the teasing about not co-signing Elvin's home loan and he delivers an epic, "Sign it!"
- Character Development: Illustrated in one season five episode where he dedicates himself to taking on the full responsibilities of the house and twins- things he previously considered "women's work-" just to let Sondra have a peaceful night to herself.
- "Eureka!" Moment: He describes having one when witnessing the births of his and Sondra's twins and the epiphany from it inspired him to return to medical school.
- Happily Married: To Sondra.
- Henpecked Husband: Most notably in the episode where he innocently goes to dinner with two girls that he once knew—at Sondra's insistence and over his own insistence that he NOT go out without Sondra. When he gets home, Sondra won't speak to him when he comes home one hour late and tells her that he paid the cheque. Elvin ends up completely bewildered as to why Sondra's so angry with him.
- Hidden Depths: He competed in wrestling through high school and his first year at Princeton, but a hip injury forced him to quit. He still remembers enough to teach Theo a few moves.
- Innocent Bigot: His sexism is more the result of ignorance and old-fashioned views rather than malice. He also makes an effort to change.
- Lethal Chef: He once tried to impress Clair by making a chocolate chocolate chip cake that was "extra-dense". It took Cliff a full minute to cut a piece, it weighed down the plate he put it on and he immediately got up and spit the one bite he took into a big wad of paper towels.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: In his early appearances, he was very prone to this courtesy of his Straw Misogynist views and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: A recurring character in seasons 2&3, and added to the opening in season 4.
- Straw Misogynist: This causes tension between him and Sondra, as well as the rest of the family, especially Clair.
Martin Kendall (Joseph C. Phillips)
Denise's husband whom she met and married during her volunteer work in Africa. A lieutenant in the Navy.- Amicably Divorced: His first wife, Paula, married him and had his child more so because of the wishes of her parents than out of love. They parted on friendly terms after she decided she had to start her life over.
- Dad the Veteran: A Navy officer.
- Happily Married: To Denise.
- Taking the Bullet: After yelling at Denise for not making the necessary phone call to get them on-base housing after months of waiting, he claims to be the one who messed up when explaining the situation to Cliff and Clair.
Olivia Kendall (Raven-Symoné)
- Adorably Precocious Child: All the precocity of Rudy, introduced around the time that Rudy starts going through puberty.
- The Baby of the Bunch: When Rudy got too old to be the Cute Little Kid, a step-granddaughter was written into the cast to fill the role.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: She calls her step-mom Denise and her step-grandparents Dr. and Mrs. Huxtable.
- Cousin Oliver: Denise gets married off-screen and comes back with a stepdaughter named Olivia.
- Missing Mom: Subverted. Her birth mother remains a big part of her life and they meet up as much as possible.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Part of the reason the Cliff/Olivia comedy dynamic worked so well was that she was tiny, making the slightly-taller-than-average height Cliff look huge.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: To the point where the series lampshaded it. She and Cliff started having so many scenes together that it was almost like she was his child instead of his step-granddaughter.
Pam Tucker (Erika Alexander)
Clair's second cousin who moves in with the family after her mother places her in their care to move to California to take care of Pam's ailing grandmother.- Cousin Oliver: Pam is much older than most of the examples, but she essentially served the same purpose for when the older kids were gradually moving out.
- Expy: A streetwise teenager coming to live with wealthy relatives? Sounds an awful lot like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which premiered on NBC the same year that Pam debuted.Will: (reading the TV Guide) "Check it out! Cosby is bringing on a streetwise niece! Man, that sounds dope!"
- Establishing Character Moment: When watching a romantic movie with Rudy, Rudy tells the heroine to follow the path of "true love" while Pam says she should marry the man who actually has a job.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Seasons 7 and 8 put more emphasis on Pam and Rudy's social circles.
Friends and Neighbors
Kenny, aka "Bud" (Deon Richmond)
Rudy's longtime friend.
- Childhood Friends: With Rudy. In later seasons, he starts being jealous of Rudy's relationship with Stanley.
- In-Series Nickname: He was nicknamed Bud. As they grew up, Rudy started calling him by his real name, Kenny.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is a good friend to Rudy. He's also very sleazy and fairly sexist. These two facts are mutually exclusive. He'd almost count as a Toxic Friend Influence if Rudy wasn't too sharp to listen to the things he says, usually at least.
- Only One Name: We never learn his last name.
- Straw Misogynist: He initually expresses a lot of sexist views, most of which come from his older brother.
Peter Chiara (Peter Costa)
One of Rudy's friends who lives across the street from the Huxtables.- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He went poof after the first episode of season 6 and was never mentioned again. He did appear once in a season 8 episode, but had no dialogue and wasn't referred to by name.
- Establishing Character Moment: When Cliff asks how Peter ended up joining the group that had come over for Rudy's slumber party, Rudy explains that he was playing nearby when Cliff told everyone outside to line up and come inside.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: For a small part of the series, if he got involved in some kind of trouble, his first instinct was to make a mad dash out of the Huxtable house. It quickly became a Running Gag.
- The Silent Bob: He rarely spoke more than 2-3 words per episode.
Walter "Cockroach" Bradley (Carl Anthony Payne II)
Theo's best friend through high school.- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After his actor was fired from the show, Cockroach abruptly stopped appearing without explanation. He was only mentioned once more in a throwaway line in Season 7.
- Heroic BSoD: A particularly brutal math test leaves him sitting at his desk in a daze, unable to leave, muttering, "I couldn't get past number three..."
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Cockroach is obviously not his real name.
- School Is for Losers: He had this attitude, and it sometimes rubs off on to Theo. In one episode, he says he doesn't need to study because he's got a cushy job waiting for him running the family junkyard.
Jeffrey Engels (Wallace Shawn)
The Huxtables' next-door neighbor, a successful novelist, and one of Cliff's good friends.- Be Yourself: One episode has him realize this after he makes a lot of money and starts trying to flaunt it (also a potential case of compensating for his recent divorce). After he meets and falls for a friend of Clair's, who becomes interested in him for his work rather than his new wealth, he returns all of the expensive things he bought.
- Cloudcuckoolander: When accompanying his daughter to the natural history museum for a school field trip, he's decked out in full safari gear.
- Made of Iron: According to him, he fell out of his treehouse when he was 9 years old and the treehouse then collapsed and fell on top of him, but it was still far less pain than giving birth in an All Just a Dream episode.
