And So We Commence
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"And So We Commence" was the series finale of The Cosby Show. The hour long episode was shown on April 30, 1992.
[edit] Plot summary
Most of the episode centers around Theo Huxtable's graduation from college. Cliff pressures Theo into getting enough tickets for everyone in his family to come see his graduation. During the graduation ceremony, Cliff remembers how he had worried about whether or not Theo would even go to college, and a flashback scene from the pilot episode of him confronting Theo about his poor grades is shown.
Meanwhile, Denise Huxtable Kendall, who is in Singapore with her husband Martin, calls Clair and Cliff to reveal that she is pregnant. Olivia also leaves the Huxtable house to live with Denise and Martin. Cliff also spends a great deal of time trying to get the doorbell he recently fixed to work right, and several people get shocked by the doorbell. At the end of the episode, Cliff and Clair dance in the living room to the jazzy melody of Cliff's new doorbell, and the lights on the set of the show pop on and reveal the studio audience cheering and appaulding, and Cosby- after bowing to the audience, along with the rest of the cast- exits the studio for one last time
[edit] Trivia
- The fourth wall is broken at the end of And So We Commence as Cliff demonstates his new and improved doorbell. Cliff and Clair dance across the living room and out amongst the studio audience. They are shown walking through the studio doors at the end of the episode.
- Visible in the studio audience is New York City mayor David Dinkins.
- The popularity of The Cosby Show was seen as a symbol of hope and progress for African-Americans in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Ironically, at the same time that this final episode was airing, the city of Los Angeles was in the midst of a series of riots, in the aftermath of the controversial verdict in the Rodney King trial.
