A four-part docuseries about Bill Cosby is coming to Showtime in January.
Directed and executive produced by “United Shades of America” host W. Kamau Bell, “We Need to Talk About Cosby” will examine the comedian’s early influence as a pop culture figure and his later fall from grace following scores of accusations and allegations of sexual assault by women.
“I am a child of Bill Cosby,” Bell says in the first look trailer of the docuseries. “You know what I mean: I am a Black man, stand-up comic, born in the ‘70s. Bill Cosby had been one of my heroes.”
“But this? This was f—d up,” the stand-up comedian continues, referencing the accusations against Cosby and his subsequent arrest. “What do we do about everything we knew about Bill Cosby, and what we know now?”
Cosby, who created and starred in the sitcom “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992, was convicted of sexual assault in 2018, but was released from prison this past June after his conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
“Kamau has bravely ventured into a very complicated and nuanced area of the Bill Cosby story, which has yet to be explored in this depth,” Showtime’s executive vice president of nonfiction programming Vinnie Malhotra said in a statement. “It’s an important and under-reported perspective on the legacy of one of history’s most iconic African American entertainers.”
“I never thought I’d ever wrestle with who we all thought Cosby was and who we now understand him to be. I’m not sure he would want me to do this work, but Cliff Huxtable definitely would.”
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