The Cosby Show

Bill Cosby originally wanted Vanessa Williams to play Sondra, but pageant officials would not permit her to take the role while she was reigning as the first Black Miss America.

Whitney Houston was considered for the role of Denise Huxtable but was unable to commit to the full-time television schedule since she intended to become a full-time music recording artist.

Chris Rock was considered for the role of Theo's best friend Cockroach, but the part eventually went to Carl Anthony Payne II.

Bill Cosby originally proposed that Cliff and Clair should have blue-collar jobs, with the father as a limousine driver and the mother as an electrician, but on advice from his wife Camille Cosby the concept was changed to a physician father and lawyer mother.

Cosby insisted the program be taped in New York City instead of Los Angeles, where most television shows were produced at the time.

The Huxtable home exterior was filmed at a brownstone at 10 St. Luke's Place/10 Leroy Street in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, even though the show was set in Brooklyn at the fictional '10 Stigwood Avenue'.

In the pilot episode, the Huxtables had only four children; the eldest daughter Sondra was added later, first mentioned in episode four and appearing in episode 11, to show the accomplishment of raising a child who had graduated from college.

Cosby's character was originally named 'Clifford' in early season one episodes before being changed to 'Heathcliff'.

During season three, Phylicia Rashad was pregnant with her daughter Condola; rather than write the pregnancy into the show, producers reduced her scenes or filmed her in ways that concealed it.

Lisa Bonet's pregnancy, combined with her controversial role in the sexually explicit film Angel Heart with Mickey Rourke, nearly got her fired from the show; Cosby strongly disapproved, and tensions eventually led to her firing in April 1991.

The show's theme song 'Kiss Me' was composed by Stu Gardner and Bill Cosby, based on Cosby's 1974 song of the same name; seven different versions were used throughout the series, including one performed by Bobby McFerrin for season four.

Due to legal complications regarding the background mural, season seven's opening title sequence was replaced with the previous season's, before a modified version of the original returned for season eight.

The character of Dr. Hibbert on The Simpsons was created as a parody of Cliff Huxtable after Fox moved The Simpsons to air opposite The Cosby Show on Thursday nights.

Cliff Huxtable's brightly colored, asymmetrical knit sweaters were erroneously believed to be designed by the Australian brand Coogi, but were actually created by Dutch designer Koos Van Den Akker; they became known as 'Cosby sweaters'.

Phylicia Rashad said that Nelson Mandela told her he was eternally grateful for the show's influence during Apartheid, noting that inmates watched it while in prison.

The Italian adaptation of the show renamed the family Robinson instead of Huxtable, airing as 'I Robinson' on Canale 5 from 1986 to 1993.