July 21, 2025 • 27 mins
Our hearts are breaking with the shocking news of Malcom-Jamal Warner’s drowning death. The 54 year old actor who won us all over as Theo Huxtable, the only son of the Cosby family, died while vacationing with his family in Costa Rica. Amy and T.J. reflect fondly on Warner’s impact on so many of us with his big smile and even bigger heart.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, there are folks. Its July twenty first, and we
have just lost theo Huxtable. Welcome to this shocking, surprising,
sad episode of Amy and TJ Robes. We, like everybody else,
just getting word of this a short time ago that yes,
(00:22):
Malcolm joel On Warner, who played theo Huxtable, has died
at the age of fifty four.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
It's shocking doesn't even begin to describe it. I think
so many of us who are around the same age
group just grew up watching Loving maybe had little crushes
on theo Huxtable and fifty four.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
It's just way.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Too soon to be gone, and it's just so sad
how it all happened. It was an accident, It was
on vacation.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So can I ask you that first? When you first
heard fifty four, my first thought was, wow, did I
miss Had he been sick?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Right?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, you think cancer, you think heart attack. You know,
at this point, when you're in your fifties, it's too
young to go.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
By natural causes.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
But you're thinking, yeah, there must have been some disease
we didn't know about. There must have been some sudden
medical emergency that must have happened.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
No, in you immediately.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Start googling, you start trying to look. I would never
have anticipated or thought that he would have drowned. And
that is the word we are getting that he was
on vacation with his family in Costa Rica and he
got caught in a rip current. And you know, as journalists,
especially morning television journalists, we talked about rip currents. I
feel like at least twice a year every year we
(01:41):
had reporters out there showing folks to swim parallel to
the coast and not try to fight it. But when
you're stuck out there in the ocean. We were just
in the ocean a week ago, and I always think
about it, what would happen if And I always tried
to tell my kids, fight the urge, to fight the current.
You gotta let it take where it's going to take
you and then you can get out of it.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
So it's so sad. It just seems so.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Unnecessary, as all accidents are, and as most tragedies are,
but this one just hits you in the gut, and.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
It's not People pass every day, people lose people that
are close to them, And we are being impacted because
of our relationship with him from a show. So people
pass and one death isn't more tragic than another. But
for some reason, with him at fifty four and this,
there's some part of you that say, not like this,
(02:32):
like this is not like this. We lost theel like this,
And again we have an emotional connection to him, both
of us still as children, yes, were fans of this guy.
And to think now at fifty four he's gone, it
was something about it that just didn't seem and it's
just life didn't seem right, didn't seem fair. All he's done,
(02:53):
all he's contributed, that it has to end in some
almost freakish accident with his family on vacation.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I think, look, as you point out, all deaths are tragic,
no one.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
More than the other.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
However, this does hit home because I think, you know,
when you get to a certain age, when you start
seeing your peers pass away or folks who you thought
were you know, that were a part of your lives.
I mean theo Huxtable and the Cosby Show that was
appointment television Thursday nights, growing up all through the prime
of my middle school and high school years. And he
(03:31):
had such a life force behind him, that smile, that energy,
that laughter, he just he embodied.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
He really was just a joyful person.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
His energy came through I didn't know him personally, but
his energy came through the television set, and I felt
like I did, and I think that's what it is.
So many people in our age group felt like they
knew him. You actually had the honor of meeting him.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
And what you describe what the greatest compliment If somebody
you see on TV, you meet them in they're the
same person. Where it really was he had that same
radiance and energy. I got to meet him because of
work I did with BT back in twenty twelve, and
we ended up on the same red carpet and at
a premiere. So we are he and I are about
(04:14):
when he's seven, eight years older than.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
I am two years older than me, So yeah, twn
eight years.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
But I think I have this right. He is. His
birthday is the day before mine.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
It is August eighteenth.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I saw it, so I always remember that. But I'm
looking at this guy and we're standing there talking on
a record like we're contemporaries, like we're like some kind
of equal. He has no idea. I am holding it
all in because this is theo hostable like, what this
guy meant to my upbringing to see like I see
my family middle class, right, But I lived on a
(04:44):
certain side of the tracks in West Memphis, Arkansas, and
the majority of my black friends lived on the other
side of the tracks. So I am looking at this
family on TV that's living a life that, quite frankly,
is the life I'm living. I'm a teacher and a principal,
not the same as a lawyer. And but to the
point I'm saying, I didn't see people on TV that.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Looked like me, a professional, middle upper middle class black
family who had all the same issues, the ups and
the downs as every other family, regardless of color. That's it.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
As a kid, I didn't That didn't make sense to
me at the time. I didn't figure that out. But
that's what I was seeing, and I loved and embraced
because that was me and that was my life. That
was my family. We're sitting here as we we have
old episodes of Cosby show playing in the background right now,
and I said, to you, what the actual hell that
this show is forty years old? The episode we're watching,
(05:34):
and it is funnier than anything we see on TV today.
I know it still Lands.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And I think about myself watching this show as a
white girl in Middle America. I was living in Saint Louis, Missouri,
in a very lily white community. Didn't know, I don't
think I knew really any black people. I didn't have
that experience. But I watched The Cosby Show and didn't
think of the Cosby's or THEO or all of Rudy.
I loved Rudy, but I didn't think of it as
(06:01):
separate from me. It felt like a part of my
life and my culture, and it didn't. It didn't resonate
or even speak to me in any way as it
being a cultural awakening or some sort of connection. I
just was in love with the show, in love with
the family, and it felt relatable to me.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
That was what was so cool and special about the show.
And THEO.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
THEO was the He was that silly, goofy teenage kid
who didn't get it. But that just made so much
sense because wasn't that what all teenage boys were like
growing up?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
So it was just we saw grow up.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
He was awkward trying to be cool. Yeah, everybody related
to what we saw on screen, and it didn't. This
was not a black show about black stuff. It was
not it wasn't and it was a special show in
that way. He's played such an important role in it.
He was such a part of our lives. And to
think now fifty four years old, and I said to you,
(06:51):
and I've said this too many times on podcasts robes
how many times somebody has passed and I go, wow,
I meant to reach out. It's huxtable Malcolm jamal War
just happened to be somebody within the past three months.
I said, you know what, I should touch base. See
how he's doing. This is somebody just over the years.
I met him but twelve years ago. But we just
(07:15):
connect every once in a while.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
You've exchanged numbers, you just checked in on each other.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I picked up my phone and I said, what was
the last thing I said to him? Lost it all
because I got a new phone and all those messages
went away.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
You're not a big guy, cloud guy, not a big guy.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
But it's one of those things. I hate it. And
I keep doing this and I keep saying and I'm
gonna keep saying out loud, folks, if somebody crosses your mind,
please reach out today because they might not be there tomorrow.
There's no way we would ever think Malcolm Jamal Warner,
or your cousin or a friend or a past coworker,
somebody that crossed your mind won't be available tomorrow to
(07:51):
reach out to. Well, that's the case today for a
lot of folks who were thinking, wow, I should have
reached out to him. I'm meant to talk to him,
or I meant to do this thing.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, you told me this just pretty quickly after we
found out that he had passed, and you said, you're
never gonna believe this. But I broke my own rule
because you have been talking about it. You've talked about
this forever, but certainly on the podcast. When someone crosses
your mind, don't say I'll get to it tomorrow or
remind me to text that person later today. No, stop
what you're doing. If someone crosses your mind, put whatever
(08:24):
you're doing down, pick up the phone, and just say
thinking of you, hope all as well. You'll never regret
that ever ever if you do.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
All hear back. I told you I sent a message
to another actor. He's probably thinks I'm crazy. I said, hey, man,
thought about you a month ago, and I'm just following
up because of the Malcolm Jamal wannershit and I'm just man,
I'm sorry it seems crazy, but you were on my mind.
I just don't want to hesitate another day to say hello,
hope you. Well, that wasn't but we do that too often.
(08:53):
There's somebody I can right now. If I give you
twenty seconds, you could come up with somebody like damn,
I meant to reach out to her, reach out to him,
and I haven't, And why not?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I know it could because we get busy. Life is short,
you know.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I was walking back over here, I had to go
walk the dog come back, and I thought I hadn't
called my mom in a while, and so I had
a ten minute walk back over here to you and
I said, Mom, I only have ten minutes, but I
just wanted to check in.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I was like, life is crazy, but that's not an.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Excuse not to give you a call. And so I
had a ten minute phone call with my mom today.
And actually hearing this news, it actually makes me feel
emotional because you just don't know. And when some of
my mom crossed my mind, I hadn't checked in on her.
She was she's possibly getting hip surgery, and I was like,
I need to find out what the doctor told her.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I need to call her right now.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Why does it take a death for us to get
on board? Why does it take losing somebody?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
It's a reminder.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Well, yes, we're all guilty of it, absolutely, but it
does it takes that sometimes. But Malcolm Jamal again to
explain it fully, I don't know if we have what happened.
He was on vacation with his family and Costa Rica,
wife and well daughter.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
They just had a chot he was at.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Actually it's pretty interesting, very very private in the last
like his early look, this happened so often with people
in the public eye. He had several relationships that were
plastered everywhere. You get photographed, you get followed, and so yes,
at this point in his life and he was still
a working actor very successfully. So had a podcast, he
was on what was the show on Fox?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
He did? He had a recurring role on nine one
one on Fox and then The Resident had several seasons
where he played a very prominent role in that show.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
He was a physician in that role.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yeah, but he has shown has been a working actor.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Since And by the way, looked great like you and
I are bo saying like Wow.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
You know, boy, he looked good.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
He looked amazing, took care of himself, had his life together.
He never didn't have his life together, but yes, we
know we had a wife and a child. But there
they showed some pictures and maybe his One of his
last pictures from vacation showed a sweet, cute little girl,
like half of her face behind him as he was smiling.
So I'm gonna say it was his daughter. It certainly
looked as though that was the case.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
But incredibly sad.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Imagine you're on vacation with your family and Costa Rica,
you go out for a swim. I mean, you just
never would think that something like this could happen. But
folks were on the beach, apparently the reports were getting
They saw he was in distress. They raced to him.
He was pulled out of the water, but it was
too late, and I believe they said the Red Cross
(11:19):
actually was involved and pronounced him dead on the scene.
But just unbelievably tragic and sudden. It just shows you
how quickly, how quickly things can can turn south.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Fifty four years old. I just turned fifty five.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Yeah, you know his birthday.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
I it's so funny you mentioned that because I saw
August eighteenth, nineteen seventy, so yeah, about three years older
than me and seven years older than you.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
And yeah, almost to the day, seven years older than you.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
It just sucks, sucks, sucks here, this is where we are.
But this is an act of It's tough. I think
they said he's he'd been acting since it was ninety nine.
So he came up as a kid act there, but
he's from New Jersey. But he was hand selected by
Bill Cosby. Yeah, he was hand selected. I think the
story goes that it was the last day of auditions,
(12:09):
is that.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Right, Yes, yes, and his mother, I mean his mother
had talked so proudly of him, but that she had
made sure because he knew he wanted to act. That
she said, Okay, if you want to go to acting school,
if you want to take these classes and these lessons,
your dishes need to be done, your grades need to
be in and she said he always rose to the
level he challenged, accepted, he did everything right, and he
(12:29):
proved to her that he could be responsible and pursue
his love of acting. And yeah, it was the final
day of auditions and on the spot there Bill Cosby said,
you know, you're THEO Huxtable.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
And well, so, nineteen eighty four to nineteen ninety two
the show had its run. He was essentially a part
of almost every single one of those two hundred episodes,
almost of the run of that show. Do I have
it right? That show did not go out bow out
because it was losing ratings. It ended its run on top.
(12:58):
They made a decision that they want to move on
and it ended. So this thing, it left when we
still wanted more.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Of it one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
So it's not like he ever, THEO Huxtable and the
rest of that cast became people we still were clamoring for.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I have chills when you talk about it, like, that's
how big of a part of our lives this show was.
And anyone who was of that certain age, if you
were from elementary school to high school, there was a
kid in the Huxtable family who you.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Related to yours, well, THEO was and oh my god,
Lisa bin A what was her? What was her? Characters
named Denise? I was obsessed with her. I wanted to
be her. I tried to wear my outfits like her
and where my hair. Of course I get that. I
understood that, and that's why one of the reasons why
I wanted to be her. She was so beautiful and
(13:49):
so cool.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
And then THEO was just so joyful and funny and
goofy you couldn't help but like him, he didn't.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
He didn't have like that character.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
And I want to assign it to Malcolm Jamal Warner
because he seems like he was that character but didn't
appear to have a mean bone in his body, you know,
like so many people have a chip on their shoulder.
He had a bright spie, a bright spot emanating from
his his his eyes, his mind. He just was smiling
all the time.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Everybody who right now we talk about and you mentioned
his smile. Everybody right now, you have to close your eyes.
You can you can see big smile right now.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
You're smiling just as big thinking about him.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
But he gave us, and he gave me so much joy.
And yes, if anything got tense or awkward, he was
always the funny dufest kid who just said the silly
thing that just brought it home with love and just heart.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
He had a lot of heart.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
You're describing that, and you're describing exactly again, Folks, we
heard about his death a little bit ago before this recording,
we just went to the streaming service and started watching
Cosby episodes, and the first one we watched, he delivered
in exactly the way you said the comic relief or
(15:06):
the heart or whatever is because his younger sister, Vanessa
eighteen years old, comes home from college and she's engaged
to the maintenance man at the school who's almost thirty
years old, and THEO comes in. He's hilarious.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I mean, it's yes.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
And I felt like he stole the scene every time
he walked in, and he was kind of like wait what,
oh like just laughing at his sister the way brothers do,
knowing she's gonna be in trouble, knowing his parents are pissed,
and just all he had to do was snicker, and
you laughed right along with them.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
But he did. He stole the scene.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
He always stole the scene. And I bet everybody listening
to us right now you can remember, because we certainly
can our favorite theo Huxtable moment. Yeah, folks, we got
(16:02):
the Cosby show on the background. Rogues and I are
sitting here reminiscing about our favorite theo Huxtable moments. From
The Cosby Show were today that Malcolm Jamal Warner, the
beloved actor who played Theo Huxtable in that show, has
passed away. Died at the age of fifty four after
an accidental drowning on vacation with his family in Costa Rica.
(16:25):
The Order of the Kid, it seems weird. It's okay,
it's not offensive to anybody but your favorite. You talked
about Denise, but I think Rudy at such a place
in our hearts.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
She was just so cute.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
We all love. I think THEO was the middle child,
right that we loved, and then Denise was the second
oldest because Sondra.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Right, yeah, Sandra was the older one, so and.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Then Vanessa was fourth in live. So I think probably
it's probably fair to say, let's all be honest here.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
THEO.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
We all adored, Denise, we just were in all of yes,
and then Rudy was adorable, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I feel like, uh well, sorry, I always.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Forget the name Sondra Vanessa, which one?
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Vanessa Vanessa?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I felt like had the if you anyone anyone loved
bretty bunch out there, she was like the jan like
she was like even though she I guess she was
a middle child too, but she kind of she was
always funny and kind of sarcastic and a little like
had a good dry edge to her humor. But I
feel like she was always the jan the one in
the middle, and then the older one Sondra. I didn't
relate as much to her because she was too old
(17:27):
and just sophisticated and married, so I didn't relate as
much to her.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
She was proper and always very much put together. The
rest of the kids always had a problem.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy. Those are like the ones
that were just just delicious.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Do you remember I have mine? You were trying to
think of yours and I you know what we were saying.
Our favorite Theo moments are probably if you asked everybody,
this will be in the top two of five episodes
that went down in the history of the Cosby Show.
My moment was when THEO was in trouble and Doctor
(18:03):
Huxtable Bill Cosby comes up and he's scolding him in
his room, and he gave that classic line, I brought
you into this world. I'll take you out that classic line.
But THEO had to send there. I can't remember what
he was even in trouble for. But it was a
whole I can see the room and the posters on
the wall and how it was set up, and they
had to sit down on the bed having this conversation,
(18:23):
and that was one that I frankly related to of
being in the position of that kid, having your black
father sit there and tell you almost threaten you physically
with death.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yes, but I could honestly, it's funny. I could actually
see that happening between your dad and you.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Oh yeah, some of the stories you told me. I
bet that was like absolutely art imitating life for you.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
They had some Yeah it was triggering, but isn't it amazing?
Speaker 3 (18:51):
No, but didn't you feel seen and heard by that?
Like It's not just me. I'm not the only one
who's going through this.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I mean, that's part of the charm and the relatability
of the show is that they tapped in to something
that almost every kid knew exactly what that felt like.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
See, I don't know how to take it when, like
if I have plenty of entertainment on and probably of
white families on television, there was nothing about that moment
that was necessarily uniquely black or specific to the black community.
But seeing it and seeing somebody that looked like me
experiencing it still hit different for me.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah, oh that makes total sense.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
And it's weird to me now looking back, seeing obviously
how culturally significant it was to make it not just
some uniquely different Black story, but one that everyone from
every culture could relate to. I didn't realize the magic
of that at the time. I just knew I loved
the show. I just knew I related to the show.
I just knew. I thought it was funny as hell,
and I couldn't wait to watch it every Thursday.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
But it's so cool that you.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Couldn't You could make a kid or anyone not even
recognize the significance of it because you weren't force feeding
someone into saying, see, black families are just like you too.
No one was trying to prove anything or push anything.
It just was true that authenticity rang true for everyone
watching it.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
And you're making me think of Black Panther now the
impact Black Panther had, and some people are having a
difficult time understanding how significant it was. And I was
an adult when it came out, but I was all
the kids who were seeing Black Panther and seeing a
hero that looked like them for a change. I loved Superman.
I steal a door, Christopher Ree, Oh my god, he
(20:27):
is still Superman to me. I'm pretty sure I was
Superman one year for Halloween with that plastic mass from
Walgreen strap and all. I'm sure I did. But still
Superman was never as relatable or something I could see
myself as, or anything I would ever look up to
as much as I looked up to a teenage Theo
(20:48):
Huckster's period.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
All fictional characters, yep.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
But there's just he was a bigger hero as a
sixteen year old black boy in that house to me.
And it's just I don't it's difficult. What was the
quote you said the other day? We use it on
Morning Run. It was from someone who was talking about
the mistake we make is forget. It was from Walt
Disney about the mistake we're making is that we grow up,
(21:13):
we forget about our twelve year old self.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Exactly. That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
I can sit here and admit that doing or covering
Black Panther when that movie came out, I get it,
and I get it, but I didn't put myself in
that twelve year old self. I'm sitting here now understanding
all of that better because I can see my little
self watching the Ol Huxtable.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
And looking up to him the role he plays, So.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Just because he looked like me made a difference to him.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Oh, I had so many, so many.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Cosby Show episodes that I loved, But it's not even
a contest what my favorite one was because I watched
it over and over and over it. I tried to
also learn all the words to the song. But I
think we all remember when the grandparents were celebrating their
wedding anniversary.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
They were giving they were so yes, I do so.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
They were celebrating the grandparents anniversary, and so the whole family,
as a gift to the grandparents, decides to perform the
song by Ray Charles nighttime is the Right Time.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
And they were on the stairs coming.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Down and they had a whole whole lip syncing performance
to this song.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
And so it was THEO, Rudy, and Doctor Huxtable all
performing it, and Rudy was like, Babe, remember that.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
But THEO also just hammed it up, coming down the stairs,
lip syncing the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I was in tears laughing. I just thought it was honestly.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Reminded me of my family. My family very theatrical. I
know that's shocking to people, but I come from a family.
My mom is one of nine, and we would put
on performances and show tunes and we'd lip sink.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And we we'd actually have like choreography.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
So when I saw this family, this Huxtable family doing
this as a gift to the grandparents, I just thought
that was something my family a hundred percent would do.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
I went to one of y'all's funerals not too long ago.
It was theatrical even correct.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
So yeah, so I felt so that was my I
watched that episode so many times, and I would like
I could watch it right now and still laugh and
cry and applaud what they did and the joy that
was just joy and talking about just sharing sharing passions
like that and like songs and music like that as
a family, and I just I so related to it,
(23:36):
and I just love what Malcolm Jamal Warner brought to
the show and brought into our lives. And it's you know,
it's incredibly sad, Like I could get choked up thinking
about how his life was cut so unfortunately short and
so unnecessarily so it's I have so much I have.
I just can't even imagine what it's like to be
(23:57):
his wife or his daughter and to have been there
in such a beautiful moment on vacation and to have
to leave without him, to leave, you know, not the
way you came.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
And that's just just so unimaginable.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
People don't go on vacation thinking about tragedy, thinking about
anything but having fun and enjoying one another. And it's
just so incredibly sad to think about how quickly and
unexpectedly things like this can happen.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
So keep that in mind, folks, as long as you can,
as much as you can, just this idea that you
somebody sitting next to you, or somebody you talked to yesterday,
or maybe somebody haven't talked to in a year. You
just assume they're going to be there tomorrow and they
might not be. But thank you, Malcolm Jamal Warner for
the time, for the attention, for the smiles, for the entertainment,
(24:45):
for the years. Really of what he contributed on a show,
Robes that has to go down. I mean, what numbers
do you want top twenty top fifteen, top ten, top five,
top whatever, ratings wise, but its impact, its influence. I
(25:06):
mean we're sitting here today, still forty whatever years later,
like crushed and crushed by the death of this man.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
And you know what's crazy.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I think it's so sad when you think about the
brilliance of that show and what it gave to us
into America, and so many of us I'll put myself
in this category haven't gone back and reflected or watched
it or watched reruns because of all of the controversy
and news about Bill Cosby. That it's almost as if
people don't want to revisit it because it's too hard
(25:36):
to watch. And I haven't watched it in years, probably
because of that. But to see it again and to
see how unbelievably good that show was and how so
many people who were part of that cast were just
brilliant at what they did and they changed so many
of our lives, and so to have it kind of
erased or forgotten seems incredibly sad. So I'm actually I
(25:57):
want to go back and watch that up thepisode with
the Grandparents.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
I want to watch it right now.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
You make a very good point and maybe this is
the thing unfortunately that gives us all and okay, a
past to go back and reflect and reflect positively because
we're thinking about Malcolm Jamal Warner and not looking at
the Cosby Show as something associated necessary with Bill Cosby. Yes,
look court and whatever all this happened. You can feel
(26:23):
the way you feel about him. That thing is a
legacy and it was brilliant and it is evident by
the numbers, and you just watch pick an episode, yeah,
just pick anyone randomly, and you'll see the brilliance of that.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
You'll be smiling, and you'll forget about all.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
You know.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
We talked about this.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
We've actually talked about doing podcasts about this because oftentimes
we just keep getting, unfortunately, more and more headlines about
can you separate the art from the artist? But this
was a This was a clear example of going back
and watching something that maybe we had avoided and going
back and watching it because of Malcolm Jamal Warner, and
then recognizing just how wonderful this show actually was and
(27:01):
still is and can be.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Despite all that we know.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
That that's a good Yet you nailed it. This gay
was the reason to watch it because of Malcolm Jamal
Warner and not in spite of Bill Cosby, we finally
got the okay to watch the show as well. So folks,
hulcome tight reach out to the folks you love, but
for now we appreciate you listening to us. I'm t J.
(27:27):
Holmes them, I have mine. Dear Annie Robot, y'all have
a going
Hey, there are folks. Its July twenty first, and we
have just lost theo Huxtable. Welcome to this shocking, surprising,
sad episode of Amy and TJ Robes. We, like everybody else,
just getting word of this a short time ago that yes,
(00:22):
Malcolm joel On Warner, who played theo Huxtable, has died
at the age of fifty four.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
It's shocking doesn't even begin to describe it. I think
so many of us who are around the same age
group just grew up watching Loving maybe had little crushes
on theo Huxtable and fifty four.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
It's just way.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Too soon to be gone, and it's just so sad
how it all happened. It was an accident, It was
on vacation.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So can I ask you that first? When you first
heard fifty four, my first thought was, wow, did I
miss Had he been sick?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Right?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, you think cancer, you think heart attack. You know,
at this point, when you're in your fifties, it's too
young to go.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
By natural causes.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
But you're thinking, yeah, there must have been some disease
we didn't know about. There must have been some sudden
medical emergency that must have happened.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
No, in you immediately.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Start googling, you start trying to look. I would never
have anticipated or thought that he would have drowned. And
that is the word we are getting that he was
on vacation with his family in Costa Rica and he
got caught in a rip current. And you know, as journalists,
especially morning television journalists, we talked about rip currents. I
feel like at least twice a year every year we
(01:41):
had reporters out there showing folks to swim parallel to
the coast and not try to fight it. But when
you're stuck out there in the ocean. We were just
in the ocean a week ago, and I always think
about it, what would happen if And I always tried
to tell my kids, fight the urge, to fight the current.
You gotta let it take where it's going to take
you and then you can get out of it.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
So it's so sad. It just seems so.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Unnecessary, as all accidents are, and as most tragedies are,
but this one just hits you in the gut, and.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
It's not People pass every day, people lose people that
are close to them, And we are being impacted because
of our relationship with him from a show. So people
pass and one death isn't more tragic than another. But
for some reason, with him at fifty four and this,
there's some part of you that say, not like this,
(02:32):
like this is not like this. We lost theel like this,
And again we have an emotional connection to him, both
of us still as children, yes, were fans of this guy.
And to think now at fifty four he's gone, it
was something about it that just didn't seem and it's
just life didn't seem right, didn't seem fair. All he's done,
(02:53):
all he's contributed, that it has to end in some
almost freakish accident with his family on vacation.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I think, look, as you point out, all deaths are tragic,
no one.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
More than the other.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
However, this does hit home because I think, you know,
when you get to a certain age, when you start
seeing your peers pass away or folks who you thought
were you know, that were a part of your lives.
I mean theo Huxtable and the Cosby Show that was
appointment television Thursday nights, growing up all through the prime
of my middle school and high school years. And he
(03:31):
had such a life force behind him, that smile, that energy,
that laughter, he just he embodied.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
He really was just a joyful person.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
His energy came through I didn't know him personally, but
his energy came through the television set, and I felt
like I did, and I think that's what it is.
So many people in our age group felt like they
knew him. You actually had the honor of meeting him.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
And what you describe what the greatest compliment If somebody
you see on TV, you meet them in they're the
same person. Where it really was he had that same
radiance and energy. I got to meet him because of
work I did with BT back in twenty twelve, and
we ended up on the same red carpet and at
a premiere. So we are he and I are about
(04:14):
when he's seven, eight years older than.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
I am two years older than me, So yeah, twn
eight years.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
But I think I have this right. He is. His
birthday is the day before mine.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
It is August eighteenth.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I saw it, so I always remember that. But I'm
looking at this guy and we're standing there talking on
a record like we're contemporaries, like we're like some kind
of equal. He has no idea. I am holding it
all in because this is theo hostable like, what this
guy meant to my upbringing to see like I see
my family middle class, right, But I lived on a
(04:44):
certain side of the tracks in West Memphis, Arkansas, and
the majority of my black friends lived on the other
side of the tracks. So I am looking at this
family on TV that's living a life that, quite frankly,
is the life I'm living. I'm a teacher and a principal,
not the same as a lawyer. And but to the
point I'm saying, I didn't see people on TV that.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Looked like me, a professional, middle upper middle class black
family who had all the same issues, the ups and
the downs as every other family, regardless of color. That's it.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
As a kid, I didn't That didn't make sense to
me at the time. I didn't figure that out. But
that's what I was seeing, and I loved and embraced
because that was me and that was my life. That
was my family. We're sitting here as we we have
old episodes of Cosby show playing in the background right now,
and I said, to you, what the actual hell that
this show is forty years old? The episode we're watching,
(05:34):
and it is funnier than anything we see on TV today.
I know it still Lands.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And I think about myself watching this show as a
white girl in Middle America. I was living in Saint Louis, Missouri,
in a very lily white community. Didn't know, I don't
think I knew really any black people. I didn't have
that experience. But I watched The Cosby Show and didn't
think of the Cosby's or THEO or all of Rudy.
I loved Rudy, but I didn't think of it as
(06:01):
separate from me. It felt like a part of my
life and my culture, and it didn't. It didn't resonate
or even speak to me in any way as it
being a cultural awakening or some sort of connection. I
just was in love with the show, in love with
the family, and it felt relatable to me.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
That was what was so cool and special about the show.
And THEO.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
THEO was the He was that silly, goofy teenage kid
who didn't get it. But that just made so much
sense because wasn't that what all teenage boys were like
growing up?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
So it was just we saw grow up.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
He was awkward trying to be cool. Yeah, everybody related
to what we saw on screen, and it didn't. This
was not a black show about black stuff. It was
not it wasn't and it was a special show in
that way. He's played such an important role in it.
He was such a part of our lives. And to
think now fifty four years old, and I said to you,
(06:51):
and I've said this too many times on podcasts robes
how many times somebody has passed and I go, wow,
I meant to reach out. It's huxtable Malcolm jamal War
just happened to be somebody within the past three months.
I said, you know what, I should touch base. See
how he's doing. This is somebody just over the years.
I met him but twelve years ago. But we just
(07:15):
connect every once in a while.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
You've exchanged numbers, you just checked in on each other.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I picked up my phone and I said, what was
the last thing I said to him? Lost it all
because I got a new phone and all those messages
went away.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
You're not a big guy, cloud guy, not a big guy.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
But it's one of those things. I hate it. And
I keep doing this and I keep saying and I'm
gonna keep saying out loud, folks, if somebody crosses your mind,
please reach out today because they might not be there tomorrow.
There's no way we would ever think Malcolm Jamal Warner,
or your cousin or a friend or a past coworker,
somebody that crossed your mind won't be available tomorrow to
(07:51):
reach out to. Well, that's the case today for a
lot of folks who were thinking, wow, I should have
reached out to him. I'm meant to talk to him,
or I meant to do this thing.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, you told me this just pretty quickly after we
found out that he had passed, and you said, you're
never gonna believe this. But I broke my own rule
because you have been talking about it. You've talked about
this forever, but certainly on the podcast. When someone crosses
your mind, don't say I'll get to it tomorrow or
remind me to text that person later today. No, stop
what you're doing. If someone crosses your mind, put whatever
(08:24):
you're doing down, pick up the phone, and just say
thinking of you, hope all as well. You'll never regret
that ever ever if you do.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
All hear back. I told you I sent a message
to another actor. He's probably thinks I'm crazy. I said, hey, man,
thought about you a month ago, and I'm just following
up because of the Malcolm Jamal wannershit and I'm just man,
I'm sorry it seems crazy, but you were on my mind.
I just don't want to hesitate another day to say hello,
hope you. Well, that wasn't but we do that too often.
(08:53):
There's somebody I can right now. If I give you
twenty seconds, you could come up with somebody like damn,
I meant to reach out to her, reach out to him,
and I haven't, And why not?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I know it could because we get busy. Life is short,
you know.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I was walking back over here, I had to go
walk the dog come back, and I thought I hadn't
called my mom in a while, and so I had
a ten minute walk back over here to you and
I said, Mom, I only have ten minutes, but I
just wanted to check in.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I was like, life is crazy, but that's not an.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Excuse not to give you a call. And so I
had a ten minute phone call with my mom today.
And actually hearing this news, it actually makes me feel
emotional because you just don't know. And when some of
my mom crossed my mind, I hadn't checked in on her.
She was she's possibly getting hip surgery, and I was like,
I need to find out what the doctor told her.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I need to call her right now.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Why does it take a death for us to get
on board? Why does it take losing somebody?
Speaker 3 (09:42):
It's a reminder.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Well, yes, we're all guilty of it, absolutely, but it
does it takes that sometimes. But Malcolm Jamal again to
explain it fully, I don't know if we have what happened.
He was on vacation with his family and Costa Rica,
wife and well daughter.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
They just had a chot he was at.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Actually it's pretty interesting, very very private in the last
like his early look, this happened so often with people
in the public eye. He had several relationships that were
plastered everywhere. You get photographed, you get followed, and so yes,
at this point in his life and he was still
a working actor very successfully. So had a podcast, he
was on what was the show on Fox?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
He did? He had a recurring role on nine one
one on Fox and then The Resident had several seasons
where he played a very prominent role in that show.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
He was a physician in that role.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yeah, but he has shown has been a working actor.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Since And by the way, looked great like you and
I are bo saying like Wow.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
You know, boy, he looked good.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
He looked amazing, took care of himself, had his life together.
He never didn't have his life together, but yes, we
know we had a wife and a child. But there
they showed some pictures and maybe his One of his
last pictures from vacation showed a sweet, cute little girl,
like half of her face behind him as he was smiling.
So I'm gonna say it was his daughter. It certainly
looked as though that was the case.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
But incredibly sad.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Imagine you're on vacation with your family and Costa Rica,
you go out for a swim. I mean, you just
never would think that something like this could happen. But
folks were on the beach, apparently the reports were getting
They saw he was in distress. They raced to him.
He was pulled out of the water, but it was
too late, and I believe they said the Red Cross
(11:19):
actually was involved and pronounced him dead on the scene.
But just unbelievably tragic and sudden. It just shows you
how quickly, how quickly things can can turn south.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Fifty four years old. I just turned fifty five.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Yeah, you know his birthday.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
I it's so funny you mentioned that because I saw
August eighteenth, nineteen seventy, so yeah, about three years older
than me and seven years older than you.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
And yeah, almost to the day, seven years older than you.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
It just sucks, sucks, sucks here, this is where we are.
But this is an act of It's tough. I think
they said he's he'd been acting since it was ninety nine.
So he came up as a kid act there, but
he's from New Jersey. But he was hand selected by
Bill Cosby. Yeah, he was hand selected. I think the
story goes that it was the last day of auditions,
(12:09):
is that.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Right, Yes, yes, and his mother, I mean his mother
had talked so proudly of him, but that she had
made sure because he knew he wanted to act. That
she said, Okay, if you want to go to acting school,
if you want to take these classes and these lessons,
your dishes need to be done, your grades need to
be in and she said he always rose to the
level he challenged, accepted, he did everything right, and he
(12:29):
proved to her that he could be responsible and pursue
his love of acting. And yeah, it was the final
day of auditions and on the spot there Bill Cosby said,
you know, you're THEO Huxtable.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
And well, so, nineteen eighty four to nineteen ninety two
the show had its run. He was essentially a part
of almost every single one of those two hundred episodes,
almost of the run of that show. Do I have
it right? That show did not go out bow out
because it was losing ratings. It ended its run on top.
(12:58):
They made a decision that they want to move on
and it ended. So this thing, it left when we
still wanted more.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Of it one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
So it's not like he ever, THEO Huxtable and the
rest of that cast became people we still were clamoring for.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I have chills when you talk about it, like, that's
how big of a part of our lives this show was.
And anyone who was of that certain age, if you
were from elementary school to high school, there was a
kid in the Huxtable family who you.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Related to yours, well, THEO was and oh my god,
Lisa bin A what was her? What was her? Characters
named Denise? I was obsessed with her. I wanted to
be her. I tried to wear my outfits like her
and where my hair. Of course I get that. I
understood that, and that's why one of the reasons why
I wanted to be her. She was so beautiful and
(13:49):
so cool.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
And then THEO was just so joyful and funny and
goofy you couldn't help but like him, he didn't.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
He didn't have like that character.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
And I want to assign it to Malcolm Jamal Warner
because he seems like he was that character but didn't
appear to have a mean bone in his body, you know,
like so many people have a chip on their shoulder.
He had a bright spie, a bright spot emanating from
his his his eyes, his mind. He just was smiling
all the time.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Everybody who right now we talk about and you mentioned
his smile. Everybody right now, you have to close your eyes.
You can you can see big smile right now.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
You're smiling just as big thinking about him.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
But he gave us, and he gave me so much joy.
And yes, if anything got tense or awkward, he was
always the funny dufest kid who just said the silly
thing that just brought it home with love and just heart.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
He had a lot of heart.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
You're describing that, and you're describing exactly again, Folks, we
heard about his death a little bit ago before this recording,
we just went to the streaming service and started watching
Cosby episodes, and the first one we watched, he delivered
in exactly the way you said the comic relief or
(15:06):
the heart or whatever is because his younger sister, Vanessa
eighteen years old, comes home from college and she's engaged
to the maintenance man at the school who's almost thirty
years old, and THEO comes in. He's hilarious.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I mean, it's yes.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
And I felt like he stole the scene every time
he walked in, and he was kind of like wait what,
oh like just laughing at his sister the way brothers do,
knowing she's gonna be in trouble, knowing his parents are pissed,
and just all he had to do was snicker, and
you laughed right along with them.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
But he did. He stole the scene.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
He always stole the scene. And I bet everybody listening
to us right now you can remember, because we certainly
can our favorite theo Huxtable moment. Yeah, folks, we got
(16:02):
the Cosby show on the background. Rogues and I are
sitting here reminiscing about our favorite theo Huxtable moments. From
The Cosby Show were today that Malcolm Jamal Warner, the
beloved actor who played Theo Huxtable in that show, has
passed away. Died at the age of fifty four after
an accidental drowning on vacation with his family in Costa Rica.
(16:25):
The Order of the Kid, it seems weird. It's okay,
it's not offensive to anybody but your favorite. You talked
about Denise, but I think Rudy at such a place
in our hearts.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
She was just so cute.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
We all love. I think THEO was the middle child,
right that we loved, and then Denise was the second
oldest because Sondra.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Right, yeah, Sandra was the older one, so and.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Then Vanessa was fourth in live. So I think probably
it's probably fair to say, let's all be honest here.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
THEO.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
We all adored, Denise, we just were in all of yes,
and then Rudy was adorable, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I feel like, uh well, sorry, I always.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Forget the name Sondra Vanessa, which one?
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Vanessa Vanessa?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I felt like had the if you anyone anyone loved
bretty bunch out there, she was like the jan like
she was like even though she I guess she was
a middle child too, but she kind of she was
always funny and kind of sarcastic and a little like
had a good dry edge to her humor. But I
feel like she was always the jan the one in
the middle, and then the older one Sondra. I didn't
relate as much to her because she was too old
(17:27):
and just sophisticated and married, so I didn't relate as
much to her.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
She was proper and always very much put together. The
rest of the kids always had a problem.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy. Those are like the ones
that were just just delicious.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Do you remember I have mine? You were trying to
think of yours and I you know what we were saying.
Our favorite Theo moments are probably if you asked everybody,
this will be in the top two of five episodes
that went down in the history of the Cosby Show.
My moment was when THEO was in trouble and Doctor
(18:03):
Huxtable Bill Cosby comes up and he's scolding him in
his room, and he gave that classic line, I brought
you into this world. I'll take you out that classic line.
But THEO had to send there. I can't remember what
he was even in trouble for. But it was a
whole I can see the room and the posters on
the wall and how it was set up, and they
had to sit down on the bed having this conversation,
(18:23):
and that was one that I frankly related to of
being in the position of that kid, having your black
father sit there and tell you almost threaten you physically
with death.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yes, but I could honestly, it's funny. I could actually
see that happening between your dad and you.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Oh yeah, some of the stories you told me. I
bet that was like absolutely art imitating life for you.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
They had some Yeah it was triggering, but isn't it amazing?
Speaker 3 (18:51):
No, but didn't you feel seen and heard by that?
Like It's not just me. I'm not the only one
who's going through this.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I mean, that's part of the charm and the relatability
of the show is that they tapped in to something
that almost every kid knew exactly what that felt like.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
See, I don't know how to take it when, like
if I have plenty of entertainment on and probably of
white families on television, there was nothing about that moment
that was necessarily uniquely black or specific to the black community.
But seeing it and seeing somebody that looked like me
experiencing it still hit different for me.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah, oh that makes total sense.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
And it's weird to me now looking back, seeing obviously
how culturally significant it was to make it not just
some uniquely different Black story, but one that everyone from
every culture could relate to. I didn't realize the magic
of that at the time. I just knew I loved
the show. I just knew I related to the show.
I just knew. I thought it was funny as hell,
and I couldn't wait to watch it every Thursday.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
But it's so cool that you.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Couldn't You could make a kid or anyone not even
recognize the significance of it because you weren't force feeding
someone into saying, see, black families are just like you too.
No one was trying to prove anything or push anything.
It just was true that authenticity rang true for everyone
watching it.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
And you're making me think of Black Panther now the
impact Black Panther had, and some people are having a
difficult time understanding how significant it was. And I was
an adult when it came out, but I was all
the kids who were seeing Black Panther and seeing a
hero that looked like them for a change. I loved Superman.
I steal a door, Christopher Ree, Oh my god, he
(20:27):
is still Superman to me. I'm pretty sure I was
Superman one year for Halloween with that plastic mass from
Walgreen strap and all. I'm sure I did. But still
Superman was never as relatable or something I could see
myself as, or anything I would ever look up to
as much as I looked up to a teenage Theo
(20:48):
Huckster's period.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
All fictional characters, yep.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
But there's just he was a bigger hero as a
sixteen year old black boy in that house to me.
And it's just I don't it's difficult. What was the
quote you said the other day? We use it on
Morning Run. It was from someone who was talking about
the mistake we make is forget. It was from Walt
Disney about the mistake we're making is that we grow up,
(21:13):
we forget about our twelve year old self.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Exactly. That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
I can sit here and admit that doing or covering
Black Panther when that movie came out, I get it,
and I get it, but I didn't put myself in
that twelve year old self. I'm sitting here now understanding
all of that better because I can see my little
self watching the Ol Huxtable.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
And looking up to him the role he plays, So.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Just because he looked like me made a difference to him.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Oh, I had so many, so many.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Cosby Show episodes that I loved, But it's not even
a contest what my favorite one was because I watched
it over and over and over it. I tried to
also learn all the words to the song. But I
think we all remember when the grandparents were celebrating their
wedding anniversary.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
They were giving they were so yes, I do so.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
They were celebrating the grandparents anniversary, and so the whole family,
as a gift to the grandparents, decides to perform the
song by Ray Charles nighttime is the Right Time.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
And they were on the stairs coming.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Down and they had a whole whole lip syncing performance
to this song.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
And so it was THEO, Rudy, and Doctor Huxtable all
performing it, and Rudy was like, Babe, remember that.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
But THEO also just hammed it up, coming down the stairs,
lip syncing the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I was in tears laughing. I just thought it was honestly.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Reminded me of my family. My family very theatrical. I
know that's shocking to people, but I come from a family.
My mom is one of nine, and we would put
on performances and show tunes and we'd lip sink.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And we we'd actually have like choreography.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
So when I saw this family, this Huxtable family doing
this as a gift to the grandparents, I just thought
that was something my family a hundred percent would do.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
I went to one of y'all's funerals not too long ago.
It was theatrical even correct.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
So yeah, so I felt so that was my I
watched that episode so many times, and I would like
I could watch it right now and still laugh and
cry and applaud what they did and the joy that
was just joy and talking about just sharing sharing passions
like that and like songs and music like that as
a family, and I just I so related to it,
(23:36):
and I just love what Malcolm Jamal Warner brought to
the show and brought into our lives. And it's you know,
it's incredibly sad, Like I could get choked up thinking
about how his life was cut so unfortunately short and
so unnecessarily so it's I have so much I have.
I just can't even imagine what it's like to be
(23:57):
his wife or his daughter and to have been there
in such a beautiful moment on vacation and to have
to leave without him, to leave, you know, not the
way you came.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
And that's just just so unimaginable.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
People don't go on vacation thinking about tragedy, thinking about
anything but having fun and enjoying one another. And it's
just so incredibly sad to think about how quickly and
unexpectedly things like this can happen.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
So keep that in mind, folks, as long as you can,
as much as you can, just this idea that you
somebody sitting next to you, or somebody you talked to yesterday,
or maybe somebody haven't talked to in a year. You
just assume they're going to be there tomorrow and they
might not be. But thank you, Malcolm Jamal Warner for
the time, for the attention, for the smiles, for the entertainment,
(24:45):
for the years. Really of what he contributed on a show,
Robes that has to go down. I mean, what numbers
do you want top twenty top fifteen, top ten, top five,
top whatever, ratings wise, but its impact, its influence. I
(25:06):
mean we're sitting here today, still forty whatever years later,
like crushed and crushed by the death of this man.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
And you know what's crazy.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I think it's so sad when you think about the
brilliance of that show and what it gave to us
into America, and so many of us I'll put myself
in this category haven't gone back and reflected or watched
it or watched reruns because of all of the controversy
and news about Bill Cosby. That it's almost as if
people don't want to revisit it because it's too hard
(25:36):
to watch. And I haven't watched it in years, probably
because of that. But to see it again and to
see how unbelievably good that show was and how so
many people who were part of that cast were just
brilliant at what they did and they changed so many
of our lives, and so to have it kind of
erased or forgotten seems incredibly sad. So I'm actually I
(25:57):
want to go back and watch that up thepisode with
the Grandparents.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
I want to watch it right now.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
You make a very good point and maybe this is
the thing unfortunately that gives us all and okay, a
past to go back and reflect and reflect positively because
we're thinking about Malcolm Jamal Warner and not looking at
the Cosby Show as something associated necessary with Bill Cosby. Yes,
look court and whatever all this happened. You can feel
(26:23):
the way you feel about him. That thing is a
legacy and it was brilliant and it is evident by
the numbers, and you just watch pick an episode, yeah,
just pick anyone randomly, and you'll see the brilliance of that.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
You'll be smiling, and you'll forget about all.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
You know.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
We talked about this.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
We've actually talked about doing podcasts about this because oftentimes
we just keep getting, unfortunately, more and more headlines about
can you separate the art from the artist? But this
was a This was a clear example of going back
and watching something that maybe we had avoided and going
back and watching it because of Malcolm Jamal Warner, and
then recognizing just how wonderful this show actually was and
(27:01):
still is and can be.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Despite all that we know.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
That that's a good Yet you nailed it. This gay
was the reason to watch it because of Malcolm Jamal
Warner and not in spite of Bill Cosby, we finally
got the okay to watch the show as well. So folks,
hulcome tight reach out to the folks you love, but
for now we appreciate you listening to us. I'm t J.
(27:27):
Holmes them, I have mine. Dear Annie Robot, y'all have
a going
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