In the first episode of The Cosby ShowCliff Huxtable (played by Bill Cosby) enters the disorderly room of his only son with a mission: paying attention to improving his right bulletin. But the teenager is difficult to face.
After his father made a big demonstration to give him monopoly money, then to withdraw the whole bill by the bill for hypothetical expenses, Theo (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) holds firm need imitate his parents to be happy. “If you were not a doctor,” he said to his father, “I would love you no less, because you are my father.” Can the same thing not be true upside down? For a while, it seems that Theo succeeded. But instead, Cliff is leaving, reprimanding his son to “afraid of trying, because you are afraid that your brain will explode, and it will sweat with your ears.”
The genius of the scene is that the two characters are right. Theo East Fear of trying, but he also recognizes one of the limits of his father: Cliff has a very specific idea of what success looks like, which can hang his children when they try to be up to it. It is a testimony of Warner’s competence as a interpreter that even when Theo does not gain an argument with his father, he manifests a complex vulnerability.
Warner, who died last week, at the age of 54, found a delicate balance by playing Theo: he is argument but not enough, without any idea but not Buffon. Looking for these nuances was the key. Although today the name of Cosby is inextricable of his tarnished heritage, The Cosby Show However, has been revolutionary in its representation of a well -educated black family and the middle class – and the history of Theo tightens the series, starting with the monopoly lesson and ending with its diploma from the university. Cliff uses a hard love to teach his son that hard work could be huge to prosper in life. But Warner played Theo as a house buffoon, balancing the dramatic tension of the uncertain future of his character with his impeccable ability to deliver a single liner. In the end, Theo’s development is not a simple “success” or “failure”. His bow concentrates when he finds his sense of objective – in part by contesting the judgments and hypotheses of his parents.
As the first year in high school at the start of the series, Theo is not much to study. Instead, he hopes to skate only on charisma alone – which rarely works – and aspires to win a variety of improbable dream jobs, such as pro tennis, pilot and model. Theo’s apathy serves as a counterpoint to the moralization of Cliff on the importance of education and family values for its social mobility, which echoes Cosby. Retrospectively, Cliff’s fears about the future of his son prefused the public excoriations of the black youth actor, which drew national attention in the early 2000s – mainly, his charge which they “went nowhere”. The hardness that sometimes emerges in the approach of cliff of parenting landed with a more punitive deaf noise in this context. And with Theo, we finally see that the more slapty character than his father projected on him is not the complete image.
Theo’s apparent lack of motivation sometimes leads his father to theatrical extremes. In an episode, Cliff enlists the whole family to simulate the “real world” of his son; The exercise guides TheO by obtaining a job, praising an apartment and surviving the unpleasant realities of life for a day. Like the previous Gambit Monopoly, it doesn’t really work. When her mother, clear (Phylicia Rashad), later suggested that he learned an important lesson, Theo clarifies for her. “I learned that when I go to the real world,” he says, “I don’t want to do business with anyone in my family.”
The punch line of the episode reflects a common parent -child dynamic: rather than trying to find common ground, the two sides put a wall – in the case of the houstables, through humor. The Cosby Show Give this again and again, while Theo’s parents invent dramatic means to educate their son; They even go so far as to stage a simulated trial to catch Théo in a lie. Their son, on the other hand, generally increases all this with a joke. The first years of the show often played the abyss between Theo’s excessive confidence and the results of his actions for laughter too. For example, take a scene in which he tries to impress the boyfriend of the study of his older sister Denise (Lisa Bonet): Theo adopted a baritone voice, then Denise the mistreated.
As with many teenagers, Theo’s bravado is a mask for its identity always in development. The relatability of his “fake it” attitude until you do “makes him endearing, even when he is the butt of a joke. However, Theo’s autothyology suggests a latent sadness, perhaps arising from a suspicion that he could live his adult life as an ordinary person, rather than the professional educated that his parents expect what he becomes.
But also often as the show underlines the weaknesses of the adolescent, Warner never lets viewers reject Théo. For a while, he animates the puppy behavior of his character with perfectly timed cracks in voice and clumsy body language. However, the actor recalibbs slowly as he and Theo age, moving the stammering fanfaron towards a sort of more mature assurance. Some of the most enriching scenes of the show arrive when Theo, as older adolescents, wins the respect of his father by presenting himself as his full self. On two distinct occasions, Theo and his best friend, who goes through the nickname “Cafard” (Carl Anthony Payne II), write a rap for a class assignment. The two iterations include catchy words which demonstrate an understanding of the material; Teenagers like Theo and Cockroach can do a great job, suggests the show, when they have room to be creative.
It therefore seems appropriate that Theo’s emotional turning point comes from a diagnosis that upsets his parents’ skepticism about him. After registering in college, Theo learns that he is dyslexic, which refreshes his academic challenges, his flying aspirations and his self -doubts. (The sidewalk of a clear path is difficult when you believe that you are not intelligent enough to move forward.) Revelation releases Théo from the story of “failure” that adults in his life have pinned him; It begins to work better academically. Most importantly, he invests his time of arrest in a significant and altruistic prosecution.
As a volunteer at the local community center, Theo lights up while mentoring pre -adolescents who have difficulties similar to his, and not only because he is good in this area. Working with a young generation gives Théo a platform to rely on his life experiences and learn as you go, affirming his new feeling of accomplishment. When one of his advisers tells him that he is well but is not yet “there”, Theo agrees – a moment underlines Warner, smiling while he whispers, “but I grow.” The pleasure that Warner brings to the exchange reflects how much his character has transformed from a teenager aimlessly afraid to fail in an adult who recognizes that tests and errors are part of life.
The Cosby Show ends with the entire family gathering. Although Cliff reflects on the long and hard road that his son was confronted to arrive here, the real triumph of Theo is different and more significant. He no longer pretended to be confidence or does not fight to understand why things that come easily to others are so difficult for him. He will not become a doctor or a lawyer. After years of effort, he defined what personal success means for him. A sense of orientation is what his parents wanted for him from the start. And now he has found it for himself.
