Bill Cosby wasn't yet 50 when he performed in his last televised standup comedy special, "Bill Cosby: Himself." Thirty years later, the 76-year-old Emmy and Golden Globe winner has even more personal stories to share in "Far From Finished," the new Comedy Central special that marks his first TV special in three decades. When the funnyman chatted with Yahoo TV earlier this month, he shared the exciting news that he's planning a return to TV land (and maybe TV Land?) with a fresh family comedy. In part two of our chat, he shares the reason he chose the seemingly unlikely home of Comedy Central for his new performance, whether or not we can expect a "Cosby Show" reunion for the series' 30th anniversary next year, and the very funny reason his special is called "Far From Finished." You touch on it in "Far From Finished," but why Comedy Central for this special?
When we started ("The Cosby Show"), the idea for me was, I just hope I can get enough people to keep the idea - the show - on the air so that I can put these ideas that I believe in across. And now with this Comedy Central special, at the age of 76, it's once again sort of a competitive situation. Because my work, and the work of most of the majority of the younger set ... they do what I call "party" monologue. And with the party monologue comes the use of certain words ... and they fall into the category of profanity or bad words.
But I see it as party, because I've watched audiences listening to men and women who will use that language. And I've seen people laugh, and I think to myself, "This is a party." So for me to be allowed to have a special on Comedy Central ... my work is "party" also, but my work is with a performance of characters and - I'm not saying the other people don't use their observations - but I write these things so that I can do the characters. And draw them, and play them as large as I want to, or as small as I want to.
[Related: Bill Cosby's First TV Concert in 30 Years: Does He Still Have It?]
The people at Comedy Central like to use those cutaways, and I asked them not to, and [director] Robert Townsend was right there with me. No cutaway to the audience please, because I don't want cameras going in on audience [members], to intimidate them, so they have to then act. And I think it's an invasion. I will perform, you laugh, we hear it. That's the way I shot ["Bill Cosby: Himself"]. Mrs. Cosby also gives notes on the editing. The lighting is fantastic, and gave this piece that you will see on Comedy Central a very special, special feel. Was Comedy Central the first network that you went to about the special?
Yes. And Comedy Central went against its own image. They've broken a lot of rules. I'm 76-years-old, rule No. 1. All these young men and young women coming up ... No. 2, party language. Broken the rule. No. 3, how long do you talk before you come to the end of a story to make them laugh? How long do they have to wait and listen, so that the build-up is worth the laugh? So in many ways, Comedy Central broke the rules [with this special], and I'm very thankful, because they were never anything but supportive. Why the title "Far From Finished"?
Because you don't want the title, "Not Dead Yet." That's [from] Mrs. Cosby. She doesn't want this man that she loves, that she's married to, for anybody to think that this man is not thinking. And she wants this man out there, and up there, because the imagery of numbers, [age] ... she just doesn't want the prejudice that goes with it, and the best way to do it is to show people, and she made up the title.
[Related: 25 Things You Didn't Know About 'Roseanne'] In addition to the lack of "party" language, the special is also different from a lot of comedy specials because it isn't a lineup of jokes. These are stories you're sharing ...
Yes, and here too, it takes a special kind of taste to acquire. Because there are some people who don't really want to get that involved. You know, they want to cut through and go right to [the joke]. I'm not putting it down, I'm just saying that I realized that what I'm doing, and what I'm serving, I really feel that it's what I wanted when I started out. I started to think, people come and see comedians, and many times I've heard people say, to me, about an evening that they came to see me, they say, "I saw you 25 years ago at the Las Vegas Hilton. I laughed so hard I wet myself. My face hurt." And while the person is saying that, I'm saying, "Hmm, 25 years ago." And I say to the person, "And when was the next time you saw me?" They say, "Tonight." So I say, 25 years ago, and I was that funny, but the person has just decided 25 years later ... I mean, my tickets are not that high in price that you've got to save up 25 years. I started to think, "Bye Bye Birdie," a musical, "Oklahoma," a musical ... they would go see a play that comes to their town, and they've already seen it a hundred times. What makes them come back? And I kept thinking, okay, I'm going to go deeper into performance. I'm going to go in, and I'm going to do things [like] the dueling with the husband and wife. Our favorite part of the show is the chocolate chip cookie story, the great duel between you and Mrs. Cosby.
That's what I mean. You get to the dueling, and the whole thing writes itself. People understand, "Hey, wait a minute, this is a husband talking about his wife," but in the end, and all through the thing, it's balanced between these two. And you can see this man struggling, but he doesn't have sense enough to say, "I give." There are so many places in the performance where audiences actually start to groan when they're supposed to, and they actually begin to say to the character I'm playing, "Nah, don't dude!" So I'm there in my performance, in my work, and I'm loving it.
[Related: 25 Things You Didn't Know About 'Murphy Brown'] Speaking of Mrs. Cosby, is it true that you are about to celebrate your 50th wedding anniversary?
Yes! In January. And then her 70th birthday follows on March 20. So there's some serious jewelry store shopping in your future?
The beauty of Mrs. Cosby is she doesn't care about the jewelry, although she did scare me when she was around 34-years-old, and I brought her a present for her birthday. I said, "You know, you already have emeralds and diamonds," and she cut me off. She said, "I can never have enough of them." And that scared me. But she loves history, she loves education ... there's an old bookstore that sells antique books, and I'll put in a bid for them to try and find a certain author or something special for her. Or I may design a beach robe for her. I took all of my old pajamas to this fellow Koos van der Akker, who also did some Cosby sweaters, and I said to him, "Here I have seven pair of pajamas. I've gained too much weight, and they've split. Take the material, because the material is fantastic, and I want you to make for [Mrs. Cosby] two pairs of pajamas. And he cut the swatches, and did it in an artistic way, and she loved it. What is one secret to staying happily married for 50 years?
Well, you have to be married to Camille. Another big anniversary, next year, is the 30th anniversary of the debut of "The Cosby Show." Are there any reunion specials planned?
No. Because we all talk anyway. And I don't want to do that. I really don't want to do that.
[Related: NBC Develops Sitcom With 'Saturday Night Live's' Kenan Thompson] Would you ever do a reunion episode or a movie?
I can't say never, but I'll tell you why I don't want to ... I'm trying to inquire with the people in my brain if there's another way to say it, [but] "When it's over, it's over." We did one a long time ago [2002's "The Cosby Show: A Look Back"], directed by a wonderful woman, Nancy Stern, and I gave Phylicia some roses at the end, and we talked about the series. But that's it.
Here's what I'm saying also: I like to watch "Gunsmoke." It was on for 20 years. Now, I'm telling you, there are moments when I watch that show, and some of the writing, and James Arness and his acting - I can understand why the public loved them. And Miss Kitty was so far ahead of her time. I'm enjoying what they made, I'm enjoying black and white re-runs of that show, and I just think that's the way it ought to be. See Billy Cosby serving up a delicious Thanksgiving Story in "A Very Cosby Thanksgiving": "Bill Cosby: Far From Finished" premieres Saturday, Nov. 23 at 8 p.m. on Comedy Central.
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