(US Weekly) — Malcolm-Jamal Warner thinks the continued effect of Bill Cosby’s massive scandal will change the impact of The Cosby Show on pop culture.
“My biggest concern is when it comes to images of people of color on television and film, no matter what … negative stereotypes of people of color, we’ve always had The Cosby Show to hold up against that,” the actor told the Associated Press on Thursday, Oct. 8. “And the fact that we no longer have that, that’s the thing that saddens me the most because in a few generations the Huxtables will have been just a fairy tale.”
Warner, 45, who played Cosby’s son, Theo Huxtable, on the classic, groundbreaking sitcom from 1984 to 1992 revealed that he has spoken with Cosby, 78, since the scandal first came to light last year. But he would not reveal what the conversations with his costar entailed.
“I think the things that we discussed really have to stay private between us,” he said. “But it’s just a bad situation all around — for him, for his family, the women, their families, the legacy of the show.”
Since comedian Hannibal Buress called Cosby a “rapist” in an October 2014 stand-up routine, more than 40 different women have come forward, accusing the two-time Golden Globe winner of sexual assault, in some cases involving the actor drugging them, over the past 40-plus years.
