NBC said Wednesday that it’s doing away with a planned project involving Bill Cosby amid growing fallout over renewed rape allegations against the comedian.
Although the project was still in its infancy, NBC had green lit a sitcom starring Cosby as the patriarch of a family. According to The Hollywood Reporter, NBC “never received the final script for the project, which also didn’t have a production commitment.”
For Cosby, it would have represented a return to the network on which he starred as Cliff Huxtable for eight seasons on “The Cosby Show.”
Several of Cosby’s accusers have resurfaced their accounts lately. One of those accusers, Joan Tarshis, told Philadelphia Magazine she hoped NBC would cancel the series.
During an interview with Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday, another accuser, the supermodel Janice Dickinson, came forward with claims that Cosby raped her in 1982.
NBC’s announcement follows Netflix’s postponement of a comedy special with Cosby that was scheduled to premiere on Thanksgiving.
Cosby’s planned appearance on “The Late Show with David Letterman” was canceled last week.
When he was asked about the allegations during an interview with NPR over the weekend, Cosby went silent.
Cosby has never been charged with a crime, and his lawyer said in a statement that the comedian “does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment.”
Looks like Dr. Cosby has a problem with his pants…
I guess it didn’t help that the sitcom was about a genial retired doctor who lives with his lawyer wife in Brooklyn and rapes white women.
I tipped off TPM yesterday, and maybe they will still do a piece, but leave it to Fox News and its “media critic” Howie Kurtz who is trying to make this a right-left issue. Kurtz is claiming that the liberal media is smearing Cosby because he has been critical of black youth. These people are weirdos.
Kurtz’s Facebook posting on this (and check out some of the the comments from his groupies):
I heard that they were in talks to remake a Ray Bradbury classic, “Something Rapey This Way Comes.”
I have to say that NBC offering this sitcom is a bit like Matlock; only the people who watch TV and remember Bill Cosby will watch it and that is “dying” everyday.