House of Cosbys

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House of Cosbys
Genre Science fiction
Voices of Jeff Davis
Justin Roiland
Theme music composer Nick Haas, Matias Drago, Amy Metcalf, Justin Roiland
Composer(s) Glenn Morrissette
Country of origin  United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 5
Broadcast
Original channel Channel 101
Original run January 30, 2005 – June 26, 2005
External links
Website

House of Cosbys was an animated cartoon about a Bill Cosby fan, who creates a cloning machine to clone a series of Cosbys, each with a different personality.

There were four episodes made by Justin Roiland, each about five minutes. An unofficial fifth episode was also made.

It was first aired on the internet television channel Channel 101, and was the first of Channel 101's programs to spend three consecutive months at the number one spot.

Title music

The theme song is performed in a mostly yelling tone, the words are "He was a Cosby fan at heart it's clear. He searched and found a Cosby hair; He spent 10 long years and built a cloning machine! And now he's accomplished his wonderful dream: to make a house of Cosbys. It's a House of Cosbys...."

Plot

You see, Theo, each Cosby is getting worse than the last, you see.

Cosby 1

The cartoon features main character Mitchell Reynolds (voiced by Jeff Davis) who invents a cloning machine in order to create his own personal Bill Cosby to entertain him. He then begins cloning several more Cosbys to help him around the house, much like in the plot of the 1996 film Multiplicity. However, the quality of the clones seems to deteriorate as the process is repeated, and he decides to stop using the machine; but when one of the clones subversively activates it, he discovers that every tenth Cosby he clones has super powers. At the suggestion of Data Analysis Cosby (the first super-powered Cosby) they decide to continue cloning Cosbys so that their super powers can be used to help the world.

At the end of every episode scenes from the next episode are shown. However, these scenes are never actually shown in the next episode.

Clones

The following is a list of the Cosby clones. It is uncertain whether more than 100 clones were created.

Number Name Voiced by Powers/Notable Traits
1 Entertainment Cosby Rob Schrab Was the first Cosby clone. Closest to the real Bill Cosby in personality and physical attributes.
2 House Keeping Cosby Steve Agee An excellent duster.
3 Moral Support Cosby Rob Schrab Treats Mitchell as his son.
4 Tattle Tale Cosby Scott Chernoff Tattles on others.
5 Dancing Cosby Bennet Webber Dances all the time.
6 Bath Tub Cosby Scott Chernoff This Cosby never leaves the bath tub.
7 Useless Cosby Chester Tam Does nothing but stand around, though he eventually speaks to Bath Tub Cosby.
8 Curiosity Cosby Justin Roiland This extremely curious clone likes to explore and find things, which causes trouble on multiple occasions.
9 Butt Naked Cosby Abed Gheith He plays with fire.
10 Data Analysis Cosby Justin Roiland Super-intelligence and data analysis.
20 Carpentry Cosby none The ability to create amazing feats of carpentry, as he built the additional barracks and probably most of the buildings in the training facility.
30 Weapons Cosby none His super power would appear to be the production and use of weapons, particularly guns.
40 Country Music Cosby none His super power is being a good country music player.
47 Mood Swing Cosby Tim Heidecker This Cosby has extreme emotional highs and lows. Presumed dead, as he accidentally hangs himself after being convinced not to commit suicide.
50 BC-D2 Abed Gheith A parody of R2-D2, he is a small, apparently cyborg Cosby who follows Data Analysis Cosby around and communicates by a series of "blips" and "bloo"s.
60 Cosbyette Stephanie Bilberry Her most obvious super power is the fact that she is female (with a well proportioned body) but she has also exhibited psychic powers (sensing trouble in the compound).
61 Preacher Cosby Justin Roiland Provides spiritual comfort, for example talking one out of suicide.
70 Toothpaste Cosby Andy Samberg One of the members of Cosby Team Triosby, he has the power to turn into Toothpaste and seep through small gaps, or make things trip.
80 Frequency Cosby Jorma Taccone One of the members of Cosby Team Triosby, he can absorb TV and Radio waves and turn them into harmful electric blasts.
85 April Fool's Cosby Bennett Webber The desire to play April Fools jokes.
90 Humming Bird Cosby Akiva Schaffer One of the members of Cosby Team Triosby, he can fly and hover like a humming bird, and also create small explosives in his stomach which he can then defecate on land-based targets.
100 Evil Cosby Abed Gheith His super powers are unknown, although being "evil" would appear to be one of them.
Number Name Voiced by Super Powers

Cease and desist

House of Cosbys was cancelled when series creator Justin Roiland and Channel 101's site administrator Dan Harmon received a cease and desist letter from Bill Cosby's attorney[1] in June 2005:

Dear sirs,

we are lawyers for Mr. William H Cosby, Jr. We have just learned that you offer a deeply offensive animated film that you created, entitled "House of Cosbys". [...] As you are certainly aware, none of you are licensed or in any way authorized to use Mr. Cosby's voice, name, or likeness. [...] Therefore, we demand that you immediately cease and desist from any use of our client's name, voice, and likeness, including the development and distribution of the "House of Cosbys" series.

Very truly yours,
John P. Schmitt [2]

One of the issues under contention is whether House of Cosbys is covered under the fair use, as parody. Supporters point out that many TV shows like Family Guy and The Simpsons have used Cosby's likeness, and have not been sued. However, there also is the factor that House of Cosbys used risqué subject matter not in keeping with Cosby's character and comedy.

As a result of the cease and desist letter, the fifth episode was created by a different contributor and functioned primarily as an attack on Bill Cosby and his attorney.

References

  1. ↑ New York Times article about the cease and desist letter (note: requires login)
  2. ↑ Episode 5

External links

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