In his high school and college years, he was an athlete who did wrestling, played American football, and ran track and field.
[7] Cliff is very eccentric and silly to most people around him, especially his family, however he is very kind-hearted and an extremely dedicated father with a strong sense of humor.
Although he and his wife fostered a tight-knit, loving family, a running gag throughout the series is his thwarted attempts to get the grown children to leave the house.
[8] Very playful, Cliff enjoys competition, often making bets with Clair over various things, such as the date a certain jazz song was released, or having a "Smooth Contest" to see which of them looked more elegant for a night on the town, as judged by the children.
In the pilot episode, Cosby's character's full name is Clifford, as shown on a sign on the exterior of the house.
Clair Olivia Huxtable (née Hanks) is the elegantly tough, eloquent, and engaging wife of Cliff, who is known for her relaxed confidence and striking emphasis as shown.
She is also highly skilled in areas of recall about facts and dates, which she uses during discussions and debates: in one episode she is shown quoting a passage and even the page number of a book during an appearance at a television roundtable.
As an attorney she helps her family with legal issues, and she successfully represents her eldest daughter, Sondra, in a case over dishonest car repairs.
She was the chief disciplinarian of the children, as shown in an episode where Vanessa and her friends sneak off to Baltimore to see a rock concert and Clair delivers a scathing diatribe to her.
Sondra Tibideaux (née Huxtable), the eldest daughter of Cliff and Clair, did not appear on screen until mid-way through season one.
Though she had her moments of bizarre thinking (e.g. dropping out of law school to open up a wilderness store with Elvin), she'd usually snap out of them relatively quickly.
Because of her intelligence level and overachieving nature, she is looked upon by her parents proudly, but also is held to a higher standard than the rest of the children.
Sondra was created when Bill Cosby wanted the show to express the accomplishment of successfully raising a child (e.g. a college graduate).
A two-year stint at Hillman College ends with Denise wishing to see what she can accomplish on her own, which leads her to Africa as a photographer's assistant.
The Cosby Show's producers created a spin-off series, entitled A Different World, which initially dealt with the life of Denise at college.
In the season six premiere, she returned home, shocking her parents with the news of her surprise marriage to a divorced single father.
Also in the early seasons, he was somewhat of a troublemaker, as illustrated through incidents both alluded to and explicitly portrayed in the series, such as letting his best friend's younger sister pierce his ear, resulting in an infected earlobe, but his behavior had improved by the time he left high school.
A running theme of the early seasons revolved around Theo's academic struggles, especially in his sophomore-year geometry class, taught by Mrs. Westlake (Sonia Braga).
As the seasons progressed, Theo gradually evolved from being an under-achiever to a successful high school—and college—student (in interviews, Cosby noted a similar change in his real-life son, Ennis).
While Theo was a student at New York University, it was revealed that he suffered from dyslexia, a learning disability that inspired him to work harder, and as a result overcame it.
By the final season, Theo had become a volunteer student teacher, helping other children with dyslexia at a local community center.
He was offered a job in San Francisco, but turned it down in favor of attending graduate school and continuing his volunteer work.
Theo has a long-running, but on-and-off relationship with a girl named Justine, who is mentioned many times throughout the series, but appears in only nine episodes.
As Vanessa grows up, she faces typical teenage problems and heartbreaks, such as wearing make-up before her 15th birthday in violation of her parents' rules and spending a lot of time talking on the phone with her friends.
Unlike her older brother, she is an excellent student and seems to enjoy school; at the beginning of season seven, she went off to college one year early.
In the early seasons, Vanessa is usually considered to be nosy, as she usually—sneakily—tries to find out what goes on in the Huxtable house, especially when it involves someone (usually Theo) in trouble with their parents.
At one point, their fighting caused damage to both their bedrooms and the kitchen ceiling, driving Cliff to declare their rooms off limits because of "World War Five" and exile them to the basement until repairs were finished.
Among the best known are the taciturn Peter Chiara who repeatedly runs out the Huxtables' front door when frightened; and the chauvinist, blues-loving Kenny, whom she nicknames "Bud", and who always gets advice from his unseen older brother about most things.
Keshia Knight Pulliam was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her performance in season two, becoming the youngest nominee ever.
This does not go over smoothly at first, as Clair and Cliff are uneasy with the whirlwind marriage of Martin, however in due time they become accustomed to this blended family.