For Black youth and teens growing up in the mid-1980s, “The Cosby Show” offered something rarely seen on television up until that time — a sitcom that placed characters who looked like them in a positive light.
And Malcolm-Jamal Warner's “Theo Huxtable” was the character Generation X most related to. Fans took quickly to social media on Monday as news of Warner's accidental drowning in Costa Rica spread.
“It's like losing one of us,” said Harriet Cammock, a 58-year-old Detroit author and speaker. “This is the thing with television. When you're watching people every week on television, you think you know them and you're related to them.”
Warner was swimming Sunday afternoon at Playa Cocles in Costa Rica's Limon province when a current pulled him deeper into the Caribbean, according to that country's Judicial Investigation Department.
First responders found him without vital signs.
“The Cosby Show” was groundbreaking and a ratings giant, drawing in viewers across racial, cultural and economic backgrounds. The show ran for 197 episodes from 1984 to 1992. In 1986, Warner earned an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy.
The show starring Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad as his wife Clair and "made the wider society aware that there are Black people who live like white people do,” said Cammock, who is Black. “The perception that we don't live like they do was hurtful.”
Lynn Reasonover, 62, of Oak Lawn, Illinois, began receiving messages Monday afternoon about Warner's death. Her initial thoughts were “Nope, didn't happen.”
“Then, I kept seeing the news flashes and friends started sending texts,” Reasonover said. “So, it’s sinking in. Makes you realize how much some celebrities help shape our memories. His work had such a huge impact. I’m feeling a personal loss because we grew up with him. It’s like losing a part of our childhood.”
Reasonover saw much of her family in the Huxtables where both parents were professionals who valued education and handled family issues with understanding and love.
“They had similar problems to what we experienced growing up,” she said. “We could relate and that's why we laughed.”
Rasheda Williams, 46, of Detroit was about the same age as Rudy, the youngest character on “The Cosby Show” and Theo's little sister. Williams said she and others are mourning Warner's passing because of what they saw in the character he played.
“He's like the ideal cousin you wish you had,” Williams said. “Hearing the news has really affected some of us. It was unexpected. He wasn't sick. That makes it even more tragic.”
“He wasn't just an actor,” she said. “He was also an activist, a positive role model, not just for young Black men, but for young Black women as well.”
