High Definition: Still Waiting for the Next Cosby

As I steered my family from Atlanta to Chicago to visit friends over the New Year’s holiday, I could hear the familiar voices of Dr. Huxtable, Clair, Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy coming from the DVD player. My wife had the brilliant idea of introducing our three children to The Cosby Show, and even without seeing the screen, I can tell you it’s aged just fine. As a kid, Thursdays were made better by the anticipation of great TV. But as I drove, I realized my kids having nothing like that.

I’m not usually one to wax nostalgic about TV. For adults, the golden age of television is happening right now. Dexter, Lost, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, True Blood, Weeds, Damages, Rescue Me, In Treatment—there’s too much good drama in production for me to even keep up with. And that’s before David Simon’s new show Tremé premieres this spring. But traditional family comedy, the kind of show that my kids might look forward to watching at 8 p.m. on a particular weeknight—nobody seems to be doing that well. (I’ve watched Bill Cosby, and you, George Lopez, are no Bill Cosby.)

For a while, the only sitcoms my kids cared about were the horrendous Disney channel productions like Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place. These have finally lost most of their luster with our nine- and 11-year-old girls, but I don’t really know of anything new to replace them. My wife and I have fallen in love with Modern Family, but I’m not sure we’re ready to share that discovery with our children.

Lately, must-see TV for them has meant a new episode of Cake Boss or the return of American Idol. And so, we’ve filled that void with old favorites like The Cosby Show and Gilligan’s Island (we’re still in the black-and-white years on that one). They’re fantastic. But with a hundred times the number of channels that I had as a kid there’s got to be something good for the whole family somewhere, right? It’s not all Cougar Town and Accidentally on Purpose, right? I’ve seen an episode of The Middle, and that at least seemed promising.

My kids and I have finally found common musical ground with Brandi Carlile and a handful of others. What’s on TV that we all might agree on besides Phineas and Ferb?

Until we find it, we’ve still got Dr. Huxtable. Even with just the audio, his knowing grin—as Theo explains another crazy plan—makes me laugh. But it’s the giggles from the backseat as my children hear, “I brought you into this world; I’ll take you out” for the very first time that make me realize that even without HBO and Showtime, my childhood was a golden age all its own.