DETROIT – For Black youth and youths rising up within the mid-Nineteen Eighties, “The Cosby Present” supplied one thing not often seen on tv up till that point — a sitcom that positioned characters who regarded like them in a constructive gentle.
And Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s “Theo Huxtable” was the character Technology X most associated to. Followers took shortly to social media on Monday as information of Warner’s accidental drowning in Costa Rica unfold.
“It is like shedding one in every of us,” mentioned Harriet Cammock, a 58-year-old Detroit creator and speaker. “That is the factor with tv. Once you’re watching individuals each week on tv, you assume them and also you’re associated to them.”
Warner was swimming Sunday afternoon at Playa Cocles in Costa Rica’s Limon province when a present pulled him deeper into the Caribbean, in response to that nation’s Judicial Investigation Division.
First responders discovered him with out important indicators.
“The Cosby Present” was groundbreaking and a scores large, drawing in viewers throughout racial, cultural and financial backgrounds. The present ran for 197 episodes from 1984 to 1992. In 1986, Warner earned an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy.
The present starring Invoice Cosby as Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad as his spouse Clair and “made the broader society conscious that there are Black individuals who dwell like white individuals do,” mentioned Cammock, who’s Black. “The notion that we do not dwell like they do was hurtful.”
Lynn Reasonover, 62, of Oak Garden, Illinois, started receiving messages Monday afternoon about Warner’s loss of life. Her preliminary ideas have been “Nope, did not occur.”
“Then, I saved seeing the information flashes and buddies began sending texts,” Reasonover mentioned. “So, it’s sinking in. Makes you understand how a lot some celebrities assist form our reminiscences. His work had such a huge effect. I’m feeling a private loss as a result of we grew up with him. It’s like shedding part of our childhood.”
Reasonover noticed a lot of her household within the Huxtables the place each dad and mom have been professionals who valued schooling and dealt with household points with understanding and love.
“They’d related issues to what we skilled rising up,” she mentioned. “We might relate and that is why we laughed.”
Rasheda Williams, 46, of Detroit was about the identical age as Rudy, the youngest character on “The Cosby Present” and Theo’s little sister. Williams mentioned she and others are mourning Warner’s passing due to what they noticed within the character he performed.
“He is like the perfect cousin you would like you had,” Williams mentioned. “Listening to the information has actually affected a few of us. It was surprising. He wasn’t sick. That makes it much more tragic.”
“He wasn’t simply an actor,” she mentioned. “He was additionally an activist, a constructive position mannequin, not only for younger Black males, however for younger Black girls as properly.”
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