Goodbye Mr. Fish

"Goodbye Mr. Fish"
The Cosby Show episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 2
Directed byJay Sandrich
Written byEarl Pomerantz
Production code0102
Original air dateSeptember 27, 1984 (1984-09-27)
Episode chronology
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"Bad Dreams"
List of episodes

"Goodbye Mr. Fish" is the 2nd episode of The Cosby Show. It was first broadcast on NBC on September 27, 1984. It was written by Earl Pomerantz. Jay Sandrich is the director of the episode. In the episode, Rudy Huxtable's pet goldfish dies. Her parents try to tell her why it is dead.

Story

The father Cliff tries to nap after working for a long time. Vanessa (his third daughter) tells him that Rudy's (the youngest daughter) goldfish has died, and Rudy does not know. Cliff and Vanessa try to help Rudy understand why her goldfish died. Rudy learns and starts feeling depressed. Later in the day, Cliff's older children Denise and Theo make jokes about the dead goldfish. Theo says that they should have a funeral for it. Cliff makes everyone in the family wear black clothing for the fish's funeral in their bathroom. Rudy is not interested in the funeral and goes away to watch television.

Production

This was the first episode made for The Cosby Show. It was finished being made on August 1, 1984. The episode before it ("Pilot") was made three months earlier.[1][2] The show was recorded on an NBC studio in Brooklyn. It had six sets: a living room, a master bedroom, a kitchen, a child's bedroom, a hallway, and a bathroom.[2]

Reception

The episode got a Nielsen rating of 22.5. This means that about 19.1 million people watched the episode when it was first broadcast.[3] TV Guide put the episode as number 15 in their list of 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time. Earl Pomerantz got a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for writing the episode.[4]

David Hinckley from the Daily News said that Rudy is "impossibly cute" in the episode.[5] Marcy Carsey uses this episode to show how The Cosby Show makes stories of how people act to small events.[6] Lisa Schwarzbaum from The Entertainmeny Weekly said that many people think that it is the most memorable episode of The Cosby Show.[7] Allison Samuels from Newsweek remembers Bill Cosby (who was the role of Cliff Huxtable) for the fish's funeral.[8] William Raspberry from The Washington Post and Graham Jefferson from USA Today talked about the episode when they talked about good moments of The Cosby Show.[9][10] Cosby talked about it in Ebony when making a list of good episodes.[11] The season 4 episode "Looking Back" makes a flashback to this episode.[12][13]

References

  1. ↑ Mark Whitaker (September 16, 2014). Cosby: His Life and Times. Simon & Schuster. pp. 293–. ISBN 978-1-4516-9799-5.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Bennetts, Leslie (August 6, 1984). "Bill Cosby Begins Taping NBC Series". The New York Times. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  3. ↑ "The Nielsens". Observer-Reporter. October 4, 1984. p. C-2. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  4. ↑ "Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series - 1985". Television Academy. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  5. ↑ Hinckley, David (March 24, 2002). "From 'The Cosby Show' . . . The Huxtables Chapter 23". Daily News. p. 41. How could anyone stay mad at the impossibly cute little Ruby when her goldfish dies and she's so heartbroken [Cliff Huxtable] decides to hold a memorial service, only he's barely started the eulogy when she tugs on his shirt and tells him she wants to watch TV?
  6. ↑ Lavin, Cheryl (March 2, 1986). "Q & A Marcy Carsey". Chicago Tribune. Instead, the show will continue to explore the reactions to small-scale events--the first day of school, the death of a pet goldfish--by the Huxtable family.
  7. ↑ Schwarzbaum, Lisa (May 1, 1992). "Thanks for the Cosby Memories". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on April 21, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  8. ↑ Samuels, Allison (November 3, 2003). "Cosby in winter". Newsweek. Vol. 142, no. 18. pp. 62–64.
  9. ↑ Raspberry, William (April 17, 1992). "Thanks, Coz". The Washington Post. p. A23. Every cute or crazy thing Theo or Rudy or Denise did reminded them of something their own family members had done, whether it was spending too much money for a "hot" item of clothing, getting caught in a lie about why they were too late getting home or having a funeral for a dead goldfish.
  10. ↑ Jefferson, Graham (April 28, 1992). "A family album of kids from 'Cosby'". USA Today. p. 3D.
  11. ↑ "Backstage at the Last Cosby Show". Ebony. Vol. 47, no. 7. Johnson Publishing Company. May 1992. p. 126. ISSN 0012-9011. Retrieved April 28, 2021. the 208 episodes -- the changing of the guard at Hillman College, Rudy singing "The Night Time Is The Right Time," Cliff and Clair gettin' down with Big Maybelle's "Candy," the burial of the family goldfish, the final, triumphant graduation of Theo
  12. ↑ Roush, Matt (November 12, 1987). "A collage of 'Cosby' classics". USA Today. p. 3D. It's "thanks for the memories" time tonight for the Huxtables, the USA's favorite family. It's a scrapbook of snapshots worth framing, or taping. There's the famous funeral for Rudy's goldfish, and the time that Theo got his ear pierced. And who could forget the rollicking lip sync the entire family performed at the grandparents' anniversary?
  13. ↑ Rauser, Chris (November 12, 1987). "TV highlights". Chicago Tribune.

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