“Theo and Cockroach.” By Thad Mumford. Perf. Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and Carl Anthony Payne, II. Dir. Jay Sandrich. The Cosby Show. Season 2, episode 15. NBC. 30 January 1986. DVD. Urban Works, 2007.The Cosby Show, a smart and funny (and sometimes sophisticated) family comedy, integrates Shakespeare into its plots twice. In the second season, Theo and Cockroach try to listen to an LP of Macbeth instead of reading the play. In the fourth season, they perform a rap version of Mark Anthony's "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" speech—more on that anon.
The clip below shows the expressions on their faces as they try to make sense out of the lines as they hear them. I've see that expression! I've worn that expression, come to think of it! But hearing the plays aloud can be enormously helpful to understanding them.
Of course, here at Bardfilm, we generally advocate the integration of Shakespeare and film—not Shakespeare and the delightfully-retro LP format. That makes the following clip delightfully-meta-theatrical: the medium of film is being used to show a completely aural version of what is often staged—or turned into the medium of film itself.
Links: The Show at IMDB. Brief Previous Post on the Subject.
Links: The Show at IMDB. Brief Previous Post on the Subject.
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every available season of The Cosby Show
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(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).
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