There’s been quite a bit of talk about Bill Cosby since the start of “We Need to Talk About Cosby.”
W. Kamau Bell’s docuseries, which details how Cosby’s charisma, family-friendly persona and status as a cultural icon hid his dark side — including his alleged sexual predation on dozens of women — has earned praise from critics and viewers since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last month.
The latest chapter of the project, now airing on Showtime, examines “The Cosby Show,” the blockbuster comedy that ran from 1984 to 1992 and cemented Cosby’s reputation as “America’s Dad.”
The episode weaves together two strands: the sitcom’s key place in pop culture history, particularly Black history, and interviews with two guest actors from the show who have accused Cosby of sexual assault. One, Eden Tirl, alleges that Cosby pressured her to have sex and touched her inappropriately in a dressing room; the other, Lili Bernard, claims that Cosby drugged and raped her and afterward berated her during rehearsal when she refused to be alone with him. The episode also details elements of “The Cosby Show” that induce cringes in light of the allegations, such as the fact that Cosby’s Dr. Cliff Huxtable was an OB-GYN whose office was in the basement of his home.