April 2012 ~ Blogs2Fun

Twenty years after the sereis broadcast, We catch up with the iconic show's stars

Bill Cosby: Then

Heathcliff was the jazz-loving, pinochle-playing and fix-things-until-they-were-broken-just-a-little-bit-more (remember that doorbell?) husband and father of the Huxtables. He was always giving his children some life lessons. But also, he was always, always showing so much love to his dear wife, Clair -- like when he teased her with cake on her 46th birthday.

Bill Cosby: Now

After The Cosby Show, the comedian and actor produced several TV shows including The Cosby Mysteries, Cosby and Little Bill. In 2009, he talked exclusively to The Root about the 25th anniversary of the show. Always keeping up with the times, he's even on Twitter. You can follow him here.

Phylicia Rashad: Then

Clair Huxtable is one of our all-time favorite television mothers in history. She was sharp, poised, beautiful and was always ready with that "motherly" look -- the "if you say one more thing or move a muscle" face that will whip any kid into shape. It's exactly why Cosby wanted her to play his wife.

Phylicia Rashad: Now

She's currently filming the all-black version of Steel Magnolias and will play Clairee (Olympia Dukakis' character in the original). She also just picked up a role in a new NBC drama pilot, Do No Harm. In 2010, she appeared in three films: Frankie & Alice, Just Wright and For Colored Girls.

Sabrina LeBeauf: Now

In recent years, she's appeared on stage at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in a production of Love's Labour's Lost. In 2004, she appeared in another Cosby television show, Fatherhood, opposite Blair Underwood, about the Bindlebeep family.

Sabrina LeBeauf: Then

Sondra Huxtable was the eldest child of the Huxtable clan. She was the smart, driven and, for the most part, rational child of the family. However, it was very hard for the Huxtables to understand why she was so in love with Elvin, why they'd decided to live in this dump of an apartment and then, later, why she would drop out of law school to open a wilderness store.

Lisa Bonet: Then

Denise Huxtable was the eccentric daughter whom every young Cosby fan either wanted to be like or be with. She was even a budding fashion designer! Well … she made one really terrible knockoff. After she went off to college -- and to a different world -- she was mostly off the series until she returned with her Navy man, Martin Kendall.

Lisa Bonet: Now

In 2008, she appeared in the TV series Life on Mars as Detective Maya Daniels. And in the early 2000s, she was in a few movies, including Enemy of the State and Biker Boyz. Her daughter with ex-husband Lenny Kravitz, Zoe Kravitz, has appeared in Californication and is a young starlet.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner: Now

Last year he starred opposite Tracee Ellis Ross in BET's Reed Between the Lines, a sitcom based on two professionals trying to raise a family. (Sound somewhat familiar?) He also has a recurring role on NBC's Community as Yvette Nicole Brown's husband.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner: Then

Theo, the only son of Cliff and Clair, struggled in school, struggled to keep his room clean, but swore he could make it on his own at a really early age. (Cliff set him straight in this episode.) And later in the first season, he got a real-life lesson in living, courtesy of the whole family.

Tempestt Bedsoe: Then

Vanessa was the fourth child of Cliff and Clair. She was an excellent student, but a terrible clarinet player. She was also always asking for a dog and bickering with Rudy and Denise. But even though Vanessa did well in school, don't forget when she got too drunk at a party playing the alphabet game.

Tempestt Bedsoe: Now

In 2009, she took the reality-show route and appeared with her beau, Darryl M. Bell, yes, Ron Johnson from A Different World, in Househusbands of Hollywood. A few years after The Cosby Show ended, she hosted her own talk show called The Tempestt Bledsoe Show. Right now, she's filming a TV movie called DILFs, a Jimmy Fallon project.

Keisha Knight Pulliam: Then

Little Rudy Huxtable was supposed to be played by a boy until Pulliam stole the hearts of Cosby and the casting agents. (She also stole the role from Jaleel White.) Rudy came of age on the show, and a couple of her most memorable moments were when she sang "Night Time Is the Right Time" and "I Got the Feeling."

Keisha Knight Pulliam: Now

After graduating from Spelman College in 2001, she appeared in several movies including Beauty Shop, The Gospel and Madea Goes to Jail. Since 2007, Pulliam has starred in Tyler Perry's House of Payne on TBS.

Raven-Symone: Then

Olivia entered the Huxtable house in 1989 as the cute, fresh-faced daughter of Martin Kendall. With Rudy in her early teens, Olivia provided all the "aww-ain't-she-cute" moments in the series' final seasons.

Raven-Symone: Now

Early this year, she made her Broadway debut as Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act. Last year, she acted in her own short-lived TV series, State of Georgia. From 2003 to 2007, she starred in Disney's That's So Raven. With her work on Disney alone, which also includes The Cheetah Girls, Raven-Symone has made her mark as an influential young actress in Hollywood.

Geoffrey Owens: Then

Elvin didn't make the best first impression to the Huxtables. He was clearly a male chauvinist in the early episodes and was always butting heads with Sondra. And how could you forget when Clair read him from head to toe in this scene?

Geoffrey Owens: Now

Since The Cosby Show, Owens has worked steadily -- including appearances on TV series such as That's So Raven, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and, recently, ABC's The Secret Life of the American Teenager.