But baseball? Not so much while growing up at the Richard Allen projects in Philadelphia.

See Also: Father Says It Was ‘A Mistake’ To Use 9-year-old As Chauffeur

“No, no, no. I wasn’t any good,” the comedian told The Associated Press recently. “But I was fast. I think I held the record for the highest batting average – maybe .300 or something – for someone who never hit the ball out of the infield.”

There was the time he stole, too. A high school classmate’s glove, that is.

“I got caught,” he said. “I learned I wasn’t a very good lookout for myself and better find something else to do.”

Those stories aren’t in his book that came out last month, “I Didn’t Ask to Be Born (But I’m Glad I Was).” There is a delightful tale, though, of the day his pal Peanut Armhouse got called home by his mom while playing softball and dared to ignore her. While the other boys stood petrified by her shouts, ol’ Peanut picked up the ball, hit a weak grounder and did his own play-by-play while rounding the bases.

Just the way By Saam would’ve called it, Cosby wrote, referencing the famed Phillies announcer for four decades.

Back in the 1940s, schoolyards and sandlots in his neighborhood were full of kids playing baseball and softball. Or step-ball, with players tossing a bouncy ball off the angled steps of Philly’s row houses. Or even hose-ball, a game he recalled that used a cutup, four-inch piece of garden hose as the ball.

At 74, Cosby doesn’t see crowded inner-city fields anymore.

“Look at how desperate we were to play. We’d be out there trying to catch a rock, in the dark,” he said. “But schools cut out gym classes. Schools cut off recess. We’ve got a lot of chubby kids now.”

Some of those kids, he observed, prefer to play baseball on a computer screen rather than with real bats and balls.

“What they’re building are remedial gyms,” Cosby said.

Cosby is concerned many would-be ballplayers are being priced out.

“Those gloves don’t cost 12 cents,” he said. “What do they cost now, $400? And it costs $600 or something to join some of these leagues.”

“And remember, there are places now where you can’t just go running around, the bullets are flying,” he said.

Quite a difference from when he’d show up to play in the Police Athletic League. There, at the 69th PAL, bats and gloves and uniforms were provided. Everything except the shoes.

“Mine were cardboard and leather,” Cosby said.

No matter, he was a pretty slick-fielding second baseman in those days. That’s his story, anyway.

“I could turn the double play. I’d come across, put my foot against the back left corner of the bag and sidearm that throw,” Cosby said. “That I could do.”

Cosby neatly ticked off the names of the Phillies from his youth – Richie Ashburn, Robin Roberts, Granny Hamner and Puddin’ Head Jones, stars on the 1950 Whiz Kids.

They also were the favorites of his grandfather, a devout Phillies fan who kept two radios cranked up at home so he could listen to games from every room. When Cosby began to succeed in show business, he bought him a special present: season tickets on the third base side at Connie Mack Stadium.

Sometime that season, Cosby called from the road and asked an uncle how the seats were working out.

“He told me granddad went to one game, didn’t like how people were yelling at the players and said in the fourth inning that he wanted to go home,” Cosby said. “And that was the end of the season tickets for the Phillies.”

See Also: ‘Tunnel Of Love’ Couple Busted Having Sex On Water Slide

See Also:  Legless Father Pursue’s Son’s Killer

There are plenty of familiar Black faces in the public eye who took time out of their lives to serve their country in the United States armed forces. In honor of Veterans Day, here’s a gallery of some former servicemen you knew about, and maybe a few you didn’t.

RELATED STORIES

Obama Visits Veterans, Honors a King

The program is not designed for beginning-level writers, though a degree in cinematic writing or filmmaking is not required. Applicants are required to have taken a few workshops or classes in the past.

Applications can be submitted until September 15th 2011.

An application includes a statement expressing interest in the program; a completed script for a feature film, sitcom or one hour drama; a treatment or outline for a new unscripted feature or television script for a show that is currently on air, a resume and a description of coursework taken in studying writing.

Read more about the program at CosbyProgram.com

RELATED:

Bill Cosby: “Twitter Death Rumors Of Me Weren’t Funny”

Top 9 Episodes of the Cosby Show

RELATED: 5-Year-Old Girl Can Speak 7 Languages, Play 6 Instruments

He was the first African American to own a NASCAR team; he was the first African American hired in a managerial position for Sears; he created his own advertising agency; he was appointed director of sports marketing for Miller Brewing Co., and he went on to be the chief diversity officer for Roush Fenway Racing.

Now, the Concord [,NC] resident is expanding his roles and tackling a new first as he accepts the chairman of the board position for the nonprofit organization Ten80 Student Racing Challenge: NASCAR STEM Initiative.

“All of those assignments, all of those opportunities for my career were firsts from an African-American perspective,” Belnavis said. “I look at Ten80 as another first in my career.”

Ten80 is a group of engineers, scientists, teachers and parents who aid students and teachers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and careers.

Belnavis left his mark on racing when he co-owned a team with Bill Cosby, and the pair raced the first African American driver, Willy T. Ribbs. The racer went on to become the first African American to race in the Indianapolis 500.

From the 500 to NASCAR, Belnavis then took the role of general manager and team owner of BelCar racing, where he introduced the National Guard to the sport and raced with Todd Bodine as his driver.

As the chairman of the board for the NASCAR STEM Initiative, Sam Belnavis will guide the organization as it exposes students grades six through twelve to careers in the science professions. As a well-known sports franchise, NASCAR uses the phrase “practice league” to describe the hands-on process of helping young people learn the math and technology skills necessary to enter the competitive fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Using NASCAR-related situations and models, these practice leagues help kids make the productive education choices that can lead to lucrative careers.

While the NASCAR STEM Initiative is not geared towards minority students specifically, it is certain that with a seasoned black leader like Sam Belnavis, the program will appeal to more African-American students than ever before. Historically, black Americans have missed out on STEM jobs, which are some of the most highly-paid, stable professions in the United States. If we are to reverse this trend, and develop a solution for the double-digit employment that continues to plague our community, promoting STEM careers among our youth is an important goal.

Sam Belnavis is taking the helm of the NASCAR STEM Initiative at the exactly right time for all our youth. Parents, teachers and students need to look into local chapters of this national organization, and get involved. This accomplished African-American man who defied all odds to achieve will inspire students of all colors to do their best.

RELATED: 15-Year-Old Whiz Kid Graduates From Baltimore University

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Comedian Bill Cosby encouraged graduates of Birmingham’s Miles College to help rebuild the tornado-ravaged communities in Alabama.

Cosby told the graduates Saturday to look for ways to help the survivors of the April 27 storms that killed more than 200 people across the state. He said the graduates need to “work it, rebuild it.”

He told the 207-member graduating class: “This is Alabama. This is you.”

Cosby spent Friday touring the damage with college president George French and other officials. He also received an honorary doctorate from the historically black college.

RELATED:

Russell Simmons: “Bill Cosby Told Me To “Get The F Out” His Face

by Stacey Samuel

The man best known for using his humor to sell Jello Pudding Pops is fast becoming known for his publicly baffling comments — and last night’s appearance at Rev. Al Sharpton’s 2011 National Action Network convention was no exception.

In recent years, Dr. Bill Cosby has made a number of controversial, cringe-inducing remarks about bad parenting in the Black community – yet he’s still beloved by so many.

His heart is in the right place. His words and thoughts are often not. For nearly 45 minutes last night, his historical references meandered into unfocused stream of consciousness diatribes.

RELATED: Top Five Things To Watch For At Sharpton’s NAN Convention

Keep us bookmarked for continuous coverage of Sharpton’s 2011 NAN Convention!

MORE: Hello Beautiful’s 25 Black Women To Know!

“There’s something about us missing pictures,” Cosby said. “Something about us misinterpreting things. I understand the picture of slavery, let us not forget that it was some Black people who pointed out where we were hiding…” — a line that got dutiful laughs.

“You know, I just get tired of people saying we were kings and queens. Yes. And, we were people who squealed on where we were hiding. So they could stay back there and eat well. And, it hasn’t changed.”

I admire Dr. Cosby’s courage to say something about the deterioration of the Black family and personal responsibility. Few among those who have to watch their poll numbers could go there. I just wish Dr. Cosby would prepare some notes rather than going off-the-cuff. Had he stopped somewhere shortly after “I’m 73 years old, …I never thought I’d see the day when I’d have to have my people taught how to parent,” peppered with the few salient points about spending as much time on homework as on the basketball court, Dr. Cosby would remain more in this reporter’s mind the sage, compassionate Dr. Huxtable and less my crazy uncle.

Instead, Cosby says things like: “I want my grandchildren to be able to skip rope and walk down the street and go over to Muslim neighborhood and learn some Muslim philosophy. Things like ‘Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel. Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel’.”

I say, just take the microphone away.

RELATED: Top Five Things To Watch For At Sharpton’s NAN Convention

Keep us bookmarked for continuous coverage of Sharpton’s 2011 NAN Convention!

MORE: Hello Beautiful’s 25 Black Women To Know!

It’s a watershed year for Obama as he begins his 2012 reelection bid, and for Sharpton as his convention assumes an ever more prominent role on the national political stage.

It’s Sharpton’s moment. Here are the top five things to look for at this week’s convention:

Click Here For Rev. Al Sharpton’s 20th Annual NAN Convention Schedule

5) Michael Bloomberg —  Thursday —The New York mayor and possible future presidential candidate talks education reform at Sharpton’s panel, “Do Our Children Matter?”

4) Bill Cosby, Rave or Rant? — Wednesday — America’s favorite curmudgeonly comedian takes the stage at the Obama dinner on Wednesday night for a keynote speech. Will Cosby play it light or will he go in for another round of the culture wars?

3) The Bell Family — Friday — The family of Sean Bell, who died in a fusillade of police bullets in 2006, will make what may be an emotional appearance at Terrie Williams panel on urban violence.

2) Sharpton vs. Hannity, The Great Debate or Debacle? - Thursday – Al Sharpton invited buddy Bill O’Reilly to last year’s convention. This year he’s debating Hannity in front of an audience. Is this conversation with the arguably pro-racist Hannity merely spectacle or will there be a some meeting of the minds? (We’re not betting on the latter.)

1) Appearance by President Barack Obama – Wednesday night – Obama is, for all intents and purposes, kicking off his reelection bid in Sharpton’s house; metaphorically asking for Black support first before his long campaign for the American middle. With a government shutdown looming, will Obama simply give soundbites on current events for major media, or will he seriously address the concerns of the Black electorate that his first term has benefitted bankers more than it has Black Americans.

Keep us bookmarked for continuous coverage of Sharpton’s 2011 NAN Convention!

RELATED: President Obama To Speak At Sharpton Convention Today

Cosby’s previous books include “Fatherhood” and “Time Flies.”

There have been many 70s cartoons, 80s cartoons, 90s cartoons and present day cartoons with African American cartoon characters. But very few have had the main character(s) be African American. Here are the best Black cartoons from the 70s,80s, and 90s and today.

10. Kid And Play

This cartoon brought the energy of the “House Party” movies and Kid And Play music for a short lived TV show.

9. The Harlem Globetrotters

Besides being flamboyant trick-heavy basketball players, the Globetrotters also saved the world from evil villains too. Who knew?

8. Mr. T

Besides being a wrestler and an actor Mr. T was also a gymnastics coach who used his students to stop villains and their evil plots.

7. The PJ’s

Eddie Murphy made this cartoon (claymation really) one of the funniest and most underrated Black cartoons despite the stereotypes.

6. Blokhedz

Blokhedz is a dope cartoon by the Madtwinz. Originally a comic book, the show never aired on TV but garnered a large following online and through its comic books and action figures. The show combined hip hop, science fiction, and comic books to create a dope cartoon.

5. Static Shock

Static was a young brother with electric powers and the same social issues that most of us dealt with, going to high school.

4. The Proud Family

The Proud Family had excellent voice acting and was funny for all ages.

3. The Jackson 5 Cartoon

Great music, funny likeable cartoons made for a great Saturday morning cartoon show.

2. The Boondocks

Not exactly a kids’ cartoon, but had excellent animation, voice work and satire making it one of the best Black cartoons ever.

1. Fat Albert

With Bill Cosby’s great voices, funny characters and good, positive storylines, Fat Albert is the best Black cartoon of all time.

DETROIT (AP) — Bill Cosby and the Rev. Jesse Jackson are showing their support for the Detroit Public Schools.

The comedian and the activist were among a number of high-profile figures in downtown on Thursday for a back-to-school parade and Hart Plaza rally. They were joined by nationally syndicated radio host Rickey Smiley.

Hundreds of parents, teachers and students wearing blue “I’m In” student retention campaign T-shirts marched in the parade and participated in the rally.

It’s all part of a larger enrollment effort centered on new academic initiatives, including expanded time for reading and mathematics.

The district is hoping to meet a 77,314-student goal this year.

RELATED STORIES

Bill Cosby Receives Philly’s Marian Anderson Award

Sharpton And Jackson Downplay NAACP Tea Party Condemnation

Bill Cosby goes on TV and says he’s not dead.

Larry King Live may be the go-to destination for coverage of celebrity deaths, but last night, Bill Cosby called in to confirm that he is quite alive. This, in contradiction to the Trending Topics list on Twitter—the list of most-mentioned subjects on the social-networking service—which for much of the day was topped by the phrase “Bill Cosby Died.” While Cosby initially seemed to be taking the rumor in stride, he was clearly not entirely amused by the misinformation— as he indicated on Twitter itself. “It is no longer fun,” said the multiple victim of false-death rumors.

Cosby repeatedly addressed “the person” who spread the rumor online, though it’s not entirely clear to whom the rumor can be spread, or if it had a single source. The nature of Trending Topics, of course, is that by the time a subject tops it, it’s been tweeted about so often that it’s difficult to mine it for the first appearance of a particular hoax.

It’s a harmless enough story—in that no one actually died, anyway—but there’s a lesson in trusting Twitter as a news source. That lesson is not, “Don’t use Twitter as a news source,” though. I check my Twitter stream constantly for news and have first learned of a lot of breaking news stories from it over the last couple of years (some of those being, yes, celebrity deaths).

Read more at CNN:

Click here to view photos:

RELATED:

Gross Hoax Wrongly Claims Bill Cosby Is Dead

Bill Cosby & Jell-O Pair Up Again For Web Campaign

Earlier this afternoon, the internet was abuzz for the second time this year over reports of Bill Cosby passing away. It all began on Twitter with the trending topic “Bill Cosby died” and “Is Bill Cosby dead?” It then transferred over to online forums and had everyone wondering if it was really true.

This past February, the same hoax was all over the net and Bill Cosby’s rep shot it down. Today, his rep did the same by saying: “Mr. Cosby is alive and well.”

Click here to view photos:

RELATED:

Bill Cosby And Jell-O Pair Up Again For Web Campaign

Bill Cosby To Accept Award He Previously Rejected

NEW YORK — Kraft Foods is freshening up the image of its Jell-O brand by pairing up with an old friend.

Comedian Bill Cosby joins the gelatin and pudding brand again after a 10-year hiatus, but this time he’ll be behind the camera as part of the brand’s biggest marketing effort ever.

The comedian, whose work with Jell-O dates to 1974, will be an executive producer for the “Hello Jell-O” campaign, which starts with national advertisements on Monday. In return, Jell-O will be the presenting sponsor of Cosby’s new weekly Web series called “OBKB.” On the show he interviews children in the style of the classic show “Kids Say the Darndest Things.”

RELATED: VIDEO: Bill Cosby’s Rap Group Aims To Combat Violence

Click here to view photos:

“You watch TV, all these reality shows and profanity and things like that, we need to show the heart and the laughter that children have,” he said in an interview.

Cosby last appeared in a Jell-O ad in 1999, but still hears from people about the pairing and from adults who starred with him as children. He and Jell-O decided he would be behind the scenes in the new campaign.

Cosby will help kick off a 22-city tour next month in Los Angeles to find the country’s best giggle, which will be featured in a television ad. He’ll also do radio interviews to promote the tour, said Cindy Chen, director of Jell-O for Kraft.

The first of the 10-minute episodes of “OBKB” will air May 31 on Cosby’s Ustream channel, http://www.ustream.tv/billcosby. The title comes from how the friend he modeled the character “Mush Mouth” on says “okay.”

Jell-O’s multimillion-dollar campaign is its biggest ever. It’s also updating its logo with a smiling, new face that will appear on print, online and in TV ads that show people disrupting everyday activities such as work with cups of Jell-O.

RELATED: Bill Cosby Dishes About “Cosby Show” On 25th Anniversary

Kraft, based in Northfield, Ill., is trying to breathe new life into the gelatin and pudding market, which it dominates. Shoppers are switching from branded products to store brands and skimping on purchases to save money. Sales volume fell more than 6 percent each for Jell-O gelatin and pudding in the 52-week period ending in mid-April, excluding sales in Wal-Mart and club stores, according to SymphonyIRI Group, a Chicago market research firm.

From Philly.com:

NOT EVERYBODY knows what it’s like to be roasted by Bill Cosby, but Pamela Browner-White does.

The comedian went into a five-minute bit about her gown (by local designer Melani Von Alexandria) after the Marian Anderson Award chairwoman introduced Cosby to the crowd dining at the Kimmel Center before last night’s ceremony honoring Cosby for his humanitarian efforts.

Click here to view photos of Famous Black Comedians:

Cosby gave special thanks to Gavin White, longtime Temple University track and football coach whom he credits with giving him an athletic scholarship to Temple. “I got a 500. After they saw my 300, they loaned me 200,” joked Cosby, who wore a T-shirt from Central High, his alma mater, as he addressed the crowd. At Temple, “I was in remedial English, remedial math. Remedial swimming.”

Click here to read more.

RELATED:

VIDEO: Bill Cosby’s Rap Album Aims To Combat Violence

Bill Cosby Dishes About Cosby Show On Its 25th Anniversary

Russell Simmons’ critique of Bill Cosby has struck a nerve with rappers featured on the actor/comedian’s forthcoming Hip-Hop album, Bill Cosby Presents the Cosnarati: State of Emergency.

On Wednesday (Nov. 4), Simmons spoke out against Cosby’s criticism of Hip-Hop and the conduct of today’s youth in a blog about the entertainer on GlobalGrind.com

Despite expressing his admiration and respect for Cosby, Simmons feels Cosby’s attacks have undermined his “pure and good” intentions of motivating youth to realize their potential for success.

“Bill Cosby is an example of someone from the older generation who has consistently blamed the poets and asked suffering community members to bare the full burden of guilt for the struggles that they endure,” the Hip-Hop mogul wrote on Globalgrind.com. “What they don’t understand is that the young people who they criticize did not create their own realities.”

Cosnarati, which features appearances from rappers Supa Nova Slom, Jace the Great, represents the comedy veteran’s efforts to bridge the generational gap and inspire social change with socially conscious rap songs.

According to Jace the Great, the television and movie star realizes the power of Hip-Hop culture as “a means to reach more youth not to condemn them.”

“It is clear to see Cosby has actually moved beyond just addressing or blaming the youth,” Jace the Great told AllHipHop.com.

Click here to read more.

RELATED STORIES

VIDEO: Bill Cosby’s Rap Album Aims To Combat Violenc

Bill Cosby To Detroit Parents: “Prison System Is Waiting For Your Child”

A NewsOne Exclusive

When Bill Cosby announced his plans to release a rap album, the widespread reaction was one of confusion. Best known for his role as lovable Dad Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” his iconic Jell-O Pudding commercials, and, most recently, impassioned speeches on how the Black community can solve its problems, Cosby seemed an unlikely hip-hop enthusiast. But, acting as the creative force behind the album, he brought together three rappers to create “Bill Cosby Presents The Cosnarati: State of Emergency.”

In this exclusive interview with NewsOne, Cosby and The Cosnarati reveal how “State of Emergency” will stack up against the rest of today’s hip-hop albums, the inspiration for the project, and why Cosby’s message isn’t always well-received among Black Americans.

The album hits stores November 24.

RELATED STORIES

Bill Cosby Drops A Rap Album

Bill Cosby To Accept Comedy Award He Previously Rejected

WASHINGTON – Someone had to hold Bill Cosby back to keep him from crawling over a balcony and joining fellow comedians on stage as the stars lined up to pay tribute to his life’s work.

When the lights went out for the start of the 12th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Cosby filled the dark silence Monday night. “Hellooo?” he called out at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. And again, he had his audience laughing.

Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld saluted their fellow funny man with the nation’s top comedy prize, along with two co-stars from “The Cosby Show,” Phylicia Rashad and Malcolm-Jamal Warner. They hailed Cosby’s work breaking down racial barriers and stereotypes and replayed his standup routines.

Cosby quipped that usually when a man sees his life flash before his eyes, it’s for a bad reason. “But this is all right,” he said.

First lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, Vice President Joe Biden’s wife, were among those in Washington watching clips from Cosby’s long career — from his classic standup routine of Noah’s chat with God about building an ark to dealing with the stresses of raising a family as a TV dad.

Seinfeld and Rock shared the stage and said that as children they followed Cosby’s comedy albums, which inspired their own careers. Then they got lost in banter about how they could never measure up, after seeing Cosby together more recently at New York’s Apollo Theater.

“What was he wearing?” Rock said.

“Something ridiculous,” Seinfeld quipped. “But he did two hours — all new material.”
“I’m not that funny,” Rock said.

“I’m definitely not that funny,” Seinfeld said.
Instead, Seinfeld and Rock tossed to a clip of Cosby’s classic impression of a visit to the dentist.

“The first thing he grabs is an iron hook,” Cosby says. “Then he starts to drill and you see and smell smoke coming out of your mouth!”

As the clip ended, Cosby turned to his wife, Camille, who smiled and clapped. Cosby later said comedians’ wives often want autopsies of their husbands’ brains to see what’s going on in there.

Watch The Video

Comedian Dick Gregory chimed in with jokes about his long friendship with Cosby.

“When the stock market crashed last September, they was going to repossess my Rolls-Royce,” Gregory said. “I said, ‘Bill, what do I do?’”

Cosby’s response, according to Gregory: “Don’t park in front of the house!”

Critics often point out that “The Cosby Show,” which aired in the 1980s, broke new ground because it was about a successful black family with a father who’s a doctor and a mother, a lawyer, raising five children.
Gregory said Cosby started breaking barriers even earlier with the “I Spy” TV series, which cast a black man and a white man as co-stars. After that, Gregory said, promoters never again referred to him as a “Negro comic.”

“A billion years from now, you will be respected for what you were able to do,” he said, looking up at Cosby who was seated in a balcony. “You painted words with your mouth, and they will always exist, and they will always last.”

Of all his accomplishments as a comedian, actor, author and television producer, Cosby said he is most proud of the “Cosby Show,” which he carefully crafted.

Rashad, who played Claire Huxtable on the series, flew from London, where she is in rehearsal for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” to be part of the show at Cosby’s request.

On stage, she recalled the chemistry she and Cosby shared as TV parents.

“We could complete each other’s sentences,” she said.

Warner, who played Theo on the show, said he has been in touch with his TV dad ever since. Now, he said he is far enough removed to watch himself in reruns and said the show is a testament to Cosby’s genius.

“He always said in 20 years he wanted the show to still be relevant, and here we are,” Warner said.

Cosby, 72, has won other major awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. Still, the Mark Twain Prize is special, he said, because Twain was the “quintessential American writer — because he held his language and his love for words in perfect American form.”

Cosby apologized to a bust of Twain during his acceptance speech for bumping him and stealing some of his words.

The tribute will air Nov. 4 nationwide on PBS. Cosby insisted the performances be free of profanity and the show reflect his emphasis on education.

“The show is very, very important to me,” Cosby said in an interview. “It makes me aware that as a monologist and a writer and a performer, I’ve done some wonderful work.”

WASHINGTON — Bill Cosby still thinks America is funny — like the name-calling over health care and the way we drink so much water from plastic bottles that could be toxic — even though he says the nation has some serious problems it needs to tackle.

The 72-year-old who has long drawn laughs for his wisecracks and deadpan observations will receive the nation’s foremost humor prize Monday at the Kennedy Center in Washington. Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Sinbad and other top entertainers will line up to honor him with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

RELATED: Bill Cosby Will Receive Prestigious Mark Twain Award For Humor

It’s a prize Cosby has turned down twice before because he said he was disgusted with profanity and N-words thrown around by performers honoring Richard Pryor, who was the first recipient in 1998.

“I told them flat out no because I will not be used, nor will Mark Twain be used, in that way,” he told The Associated Press from his home in New York.

The profanity bugs Cosby. He always kept it clean with the family laughs on “The Cosby Show,” portraying a middle-class black family and everyday life, from 1984 to 1992. And he’s not impressed with today’s comedians who can’t help but curse.

It took a chat with Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser this year at Sen. Edward Kennedy’s birthday celebration for Cosby to accept the award this time.

“What I wanted was to associate my work with why I do what I do,” he said.

For a man with a master’s degree and doctorate in education, his life is about more than laughs.

So Cosby helped craft the tribute show — airing Nov. 4 nationwide on PBS — to capture his overarching emphasis on taking education seriously and telling stories that teach something in the process. He’s planned a special nod to his beloved Central High School in Philadelphia, with fellow alumnus James DePreist conducting their alma mater.

RELATED: Bill Cosby Drops A Rap Album

Producers of the show are worried it won’t be funny, Cosby said. But he said there will still be plenty of entertainment.

Cappy McGarr, one of the show’s executive producers, said they’re thrilled with the lineup, which also includes Carl Reiner, Wynton Marsalis, and “Cosby” co-stars Phylicia Rashad and Malcolm-Jamal Warner. The producers shape each show around the honoree and have had Cosby on their list for years. McGarr explained the tribute to Pryor aired for a different audience on Comedy Central and wasn’t meant to be offensive, but the show has aired on PBS ever since.

He said the producers were grateful Cosby finally accepted.

“He is a comic genius,” McGarr said. “He just has a wonderful reflection of funny … and is an absolute master at taking an ordinary human condition and giving his take on it.

“He makes us laugh with us, not at us.”

The comedian who kept NBC viewers laughing on Thursday nights after “Cosby” went to reruns will salute the man he says reinvigorated the sit-com.

Seinfeld said he started buying Cosby’s comedy albums when he was 11 years old. He was watching as Cosby made the jump from nightclubs to television with the “I Spy” series and as physical education teacher Chet Kincaid on “The Bill Cosby Show” in 1969.

“Watching him do those things showed me the right way for a standup comedian to play himself on television — how you kind of transform your standup persona into a character persona,” Seinfeld told the AP. “I think only comedians know and understand that this guy has reached like a virtuoso point of command over this form that most people, even the big star comedians, don’t get anywhere near.”

Beyond the comedy that he still performs on stage, Cosby has spoken bluntly about society over the years. He has spoken out about personal responsibility in the black community and talks often about education on his Web site, Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Of all things he’d wish for young people, better television is on the list. Cosby said he wishes kids had access to classic writers and their stories on TV, “so that our youth can find themselves being excited about things other than going straight for the genitalia.”

The longtime TV dad also has some observations on politics, though he says he’s not a “wheeler, dealer” when he visits Washington. Recently, the tea party protests against President Barack Obama have struck a chord.

“To see people marching down the street, talking about a tea party, they’ve got to be kidding … and the name-calling, these people are hilarious,” he said. “What’s not funny is how seriously so many of them have come together to speak like this.”

He was appalled by the refusal of some public schools last month to show students an Obama speech about education, and he agrees with some observers, such as former President Jimmy Carter, that some of the opposition is driven by racism.

“I just want this United States of America to be the United States of America, for which it’s supposed to stand,” Cosby said.

His family will join him for the award show in D.C. “I don’t know if the Suburban’s going to look like ‘Grapes of Wrath’ or what,” he said.

Join BILL COSBY in a Virtual Town Hall
Monday night, October 19th at 7pm EST / 4pm PST

Have you always had a question you’ve wanted to ask Mr. Cosby? Now’s your chance. He’ll be answering questions at our website LIVE throughout the 90 minute Town Hall.

Login to the Social Stream below with your Twitter account to ask questions in advance and live during the stream.

WATCH THE TOWN HALL HERE:

Live Broadcasting by Ustream

ASK QUESTIONS HERE:

From The Boombox

Back in January 2008, to the surprise and sheer confusion of the media, Bill Cosby announced plans to debut a hip-hop album. Now that the elapsed time has allowed the initial shock to wane, Cosby’s plan is finally coming to fruition. ‘Bill Cosby Presents the Cosnarati: State of Emergency,” is due November 24 and represents the iconic comedian’s effort to bring awareness and social consciousness to troubling issues in hip-hop culture.

With tracks like “Where’s the Parade,” an ode to black women, and “Dad Behind the Glass,” which addresses the issue of absentee fathers, Cosby felt the need to carefully explain the idea behind the album.

“I don’t like referring to the music as clean,” he said. “What I like is what you’re not going to do. You’re not going to curse. You’re not going to put women down. You’re not going to put the glory of the gun somewhere. And you’re not going to put a whole lot of violence up front like that’s the thing that will cleanse you and make you feel better.”

Read The Whole Story

Listen To Cosby’s Rap Album

For eight television seasons (NBC, 1984-92), the Emmy Award-winning The Cosby Show, written by and starring comedian Bill Cosby, beamed an unflinching, yet humorous black family portrait into living rooms across America. Cosby, as Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, presided over this historic foray into black upper-middle class life. The sitcom was a window into a certain, often enviable kind of black familial and romantic love, a showcase for amazing talent, and a place where the situations or “problems” of a black family were mostly just the same as any other family’s. The No. 1 hit celebrates its 25th anniversary this Sunday.

In this first installation of Cosby’s exclusive interview with The Root, the show’s star and creator shares never-before-told stories about the show and explores the political legacy of the Huxtables: Did Cliff and Clair Huxtable make Barack and Michelle Obama possible?

The Root: Why did you start The Cosby Show?

Bill Cosby: I didn’t like what was on TV in terms of sitcoms—it had nothing to do with the color of them—I just didn’t like any of them. I saw little kids, let’s say 6 or 7 years old, white kids, black kids. And the way they were addressing the father or the mother, the writers had turned things around, so the little children were smarter than the parent or the caregiver. They were just not funny to me. I felt that it was manipulative and the audience was looking at something that had no responsibility to the family.

TR: You and your TV wife, Phylicia Rashad, raised five children on that show who were pretty well-behaved. What accounts for that?

“Raised” is right … Episode One might very well be one of the strongest episodes of any sitcom. Because it is the beginning of the boy, Theo, announcing that he does not want to become a person who has to study, to get a career, that he wants no particular responsibility toward studying or school. He sees somebody with a job, and he calls them ‘regular people.’

What I didn’t plan for was that the audience started to applaud … The applause floored me because it really made me feel that these people are saying, ‘Well, he’s right! He should be allowed to be a regular person.’ And I thought to myself, Hey, man, I’m in trouble.

But I knew and believed that what Cliff was about to say was the right thing … So I said, “I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.” Then the people started clapping for what I said. So now I said to myself: Are they back on track? How can they applaud for him and then applaud for what I’m saying? Is the audience split on what is going on?

Click here to read more.

[SOURCE: The Root]

Blending commentary with comedy and criticism, Bill Cosby challenged Detroit parents to be more active in their children’s education and back an effort to improve the troubled public schools.

The activist and entertainer said Tuesday that he supports the district’s emergency financial manager, Robert Bobb, and a campaign to retain the schools’ shrinking enrollment. Bobb and Cosby were scheduled to go door-to-door late Tuesday afternoon, to persuade parents to keep their children in, or return them to, the district.

“This has a chance,” Cosby told reporters at a news conference. “And we’re going to knock on these doors because they weren’t open. And we’re going to talk to people to get them to understand the seriousness of a child left without a reason to understand math, without a reason to study and be able to understand English.”

Bobb is pushing the district’s $500,000 student retention campaign called “I’m In.” It features 172 blue doors meant to welcome parents and students to the 172 district schools.

Enrollment dropped below 100,000 last year, and Bobb has budgeted for 83,777 students this fall. Classes begin next Tuesday.

Cosby said he became interested in working with Detroit Public Schools after learning of Bobb’s effort to clean up the district’s finances while improving education.

Since Bobb was appointed in March by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, he has launched a number of audits, uncovering waste and fraud that has cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars. He has closed 29 schools and laid off more than 1,000 teachers while cutting into a $259 million budget deficit.

Restoring confidence in the district, which is among the worst in the nation in graduation and dropout rates, also is part of Bobb’s mission.

Last month, he began visiting city neighborhoods, meeting with parents who had pulled their children from the district in favor of either private and charter schools or schools outside Detroit.

But Cosby said parents can do a better job of ensuring their children get to school each day.

“We’ve got to really speak to parents — in a way they can understand — that the prison system is smiling, waiting on your child,” he said.

Cosby later entranced several dozen students during a round-table discussion.

He listened to a flood of concerns that included family problems and truancy, then tried to motivate through sometimes blunt advice.

Life and school promise opportunities and time to make decisions, Cosby said.

“Not everybody in this room wants to be a doctor or a lawyer,” he said. “Have you ever thought about being a physical therapist? … Have you ever thought about an electrician? Just a plain, old, raggedy $75-an-hour electrician? How much is eight times $75?

“You don’t know what you’re going to fall in love with until you’re exposed to it.”

Cosby will attend a districtwide rally Tuesday evening at Henry Ford High School.

The comedian who kept NBC viewers entertained on Thursday nights well after “The Cosby Show” was gone will salute Bill Cosby when he receives the nation’s top humor prize.

Jerry Seinfeld will honor Cosby on Oct. 26 with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

The center announced the lineup Thursday and says the event will be broadcast nationally Nov. 4 on PBS.

Seinfeld will be joined by Chris Rock, “Cosby” co-stars Phylicia Rashad and Malcolm-Jamal Warner and others.

The 72-year-old Cosby already received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998 and a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002.

Comedian Bill Cosby finds nothing funny about cutting school funding.

Public education can make the difference between success and failure in life for many children, and cutting school funding makes the task more difficult, Cosby said Wednesday at a packed rally in the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg.

“No more cuts!” Cosby declared at the beginning and end of a short speech that was part of a celebration marking the steady improvements in Pennsylvania students’ test scores in math and reading.

The Philadelphia native, a well-known education advocate, joined Gov. Ed Rendell and educators at the event designed to put pressure on the state Senate’s Republican majority to support more money for public schools.

Cosby, who has homes in Massachusetts, New York and California, acknowledged he has not kept up with Pennsylvania’s clash over state spending between the Democratic governor and the Senate GOP. But he said similar disputes are common nationally and public schools are too often caught in the crossfire.

“Ladies and gentlemen, is it that we don’t like children? I mean, what did these people ever do to you that you want to cut? They’re moving on a course that is very, very favorable,” said Cosby, decked out in a yellow T-shirt, red baseball cap, sunglasses and sandals. “Why would you want to take money from the success story and pull back on it so that they will start to enter prison?”

He said taxpayers get their money’s worth from their investment in public schools. He said it costs less than $5,000 a year to educate a young person but $33,000 a year to incarcerate someone.

School funding in Pennsylvania is among the many spending items still up in the air seven weeks after the July 1 deadline for a new budget. The state faces a multibillion-dollar revenue shortfall and is operating under a bare-bones budget pending a compromise between Rendell, who wants to raise taxes, and GOP lawmakers, who don’t.

The Senate GOP wants to roll back the state share of school subsidies and use federal economic stimulus money to keep the subsidy level at last year’s $5 billion — freeing up nearly $730 million for other programs.

Rendell advocates maintaining last year’s subsidy level entirely with state money and tapping the federal funds to provide local districts with an additional $300 million or more this year and next year.

Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, said additional federal stimulus money will ensure that local districts see higher subsidies under either plan, although Rendell’s is more generous.

“I have nothing but respect for Mr. Cosby, but our members are much more interested in what their constituents have to say than in what Mr. Cosby believes,” he said.

From The Christian Science Monitor

Actor/comedian Bill Cosby told a Boston TV station this morning that people who weren’t at the scene of the arrest should use caution in coming to conclusions about what happened.

“People who have not been there, people who don’t know are beginning to have their own personal feelings, but they weren’t there,” Cosby said.

“Does this include the president,” asked the FOX25 reporter?

“It includes everybody,” Cosby said. “[But] I would have to take into consideration that he lived in Cambridge for some time so he may know more than he’s saying about situations of that sort,” Cosby said.

Cosby also advised that the arresting police officer and professor Gates spend some time together to solve the issue. “This, racially need not take off and look and feel the way it’s beginning to look and feel,” he said.

Several stars came out to the Apollo Theater 75th Anniversary Gala. Here’s a video of some of them paying tribute to the legendary Apollo Theater.

Apollo Theatre Celebrates 75th Anniversary

Watch The Video

The Cos doesn’t mince words when it comes to the nation’s high school dropout crisis.

Actor and comedian Bill Cosby told staffers from Boys & Girls Clubs of America gathered for a conference in Atlanta on Thursday that it’s everyone’s responsibility to reach out to struggling kids. Cosby, himself a high school dropout, attributed his rise above his inner-city Philadelphia roots , and his return to school to get his GED and, eventually, his doctorate in education , to adults in his life pushing him to do better.

“I was the kind of kid who needed people to sit on me and be there all the time, people to say ‘This is not acceptable,’” said Cosby, wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

Cosby appeared with Harvard University psychiatry professor Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint. The duo co-authored the 2007 best-selling “Come on, People,” a book on the state of black families in the United States.

The two urged the 2,000 volunteers and workers for Boys & Girls Clubs from across the country to dig deeper than the anger that many community center workers see on the faces of poor children. Cosby said it’s up to teachers, school counselors, coaches and mentors to find out what’s happening in the child’s home, whether it be as serious as domestic violence or sexual abuse in their homes or as simple as a lack of parental involvement.

“What we’re talking about is what’s in here with these children,” Cosby said, pointing to his chest. “We’ve got to understand these things.”

Cosby is best known as the star and producer of the popular 1980s sitcom “The Cosby Show.” His face is synonymous with Jell-O snack commercials.

More recently, he has drawn criticism for his blunt remarks on personal responsibility in the black community and made headlines in 2004 for chiding some poor black people for their grammar.

Bill Cosby will receive the nation’s top humor prize from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for a prolific career that often focused on race relations and breaking down stereotypes, the center announced Wednesday.

Some of the biggest names in comedy will salute Cosby on Oct. 26 when the 71-year-old comedian, actor, television producer and author is honored with the 12th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Cosby said in a statement accepting the award that his mother read Twain’s famous stories to him as a child, including “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

“I would like to apologize to Mr. Twain for falling asleep hundreds of times, but he should understand that I was only four,” Cosby said.

Still, he said several of Twain’s stories inspired his work, including “How to Tell a Story” and “The Mysterious Stranger.”

The award honors people who have had an impact on society in ways similar to Twain, a satirist, commentator and storyteller.

“Over the course of his extensive career as a standup comedian, writer, actor, and social activist, Bill Cosby has earned countless accolades for his groundbreaking brand of humor,” said Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen Schwarzman.

Perhaps best known as the star and producer of the popular sitcom “The Cosby Show” during the 1980s, the Philadelphia native started his career as a standup comedian in nightclubs. He caught the eye of TV producers and landed a role in the “I Spy” series in the 1960s, which broke new ground by casting a black man and a white man as equals.

“The Cosby Show,” portraying an upper middle-class black family and everyday life, ran from 1984 to 1992 as a Thursday night hit for its NBC network. Cosby also produced a second hit sitcom, “A Different World,” from 1987 to 1993. He brought “Cosby” back as a sitcom for CBS from 1996 to 2000.

Cosby dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Navy. He earned his diploma while in the service and later enrolled at Temple University with the goal of becoming a physical education teacher. Cosby went on to earn master’s and doctorate degrees in education and has been a leading voice on race.

He’s proven to be one of the nation’s most popular and enduring entertainers. Nine of Cosby’s comedy albums have been certified gold, and six went platinum on recording industry charts. He has authored several books, including “Fatherhood” and “Time Flies,” that became best sellers.

“Of course we really like that he’s a real author of words on paper,” which rounds out his profile in the Twain tradition, said Peter Kaminsky, co-executive producer of the Twain prize.

“You don’t need to have been a boy who grew up in a small town on the Mississippi to understand Mark Twain. That’s the particular genius of Bill and the African-American experience,” Kaminsky said. “He universalized the African-American experience. Anybody could understand the themes of family, loyalty and obligation – and the human comedy.”

In 1998, Cosby was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors. He was recognized in 2002 with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Cosby has homes in Massachusetts, New York and Los Angeles. He married his wife, Camille, in 1964, and they raised four daughters and a son, Ennis, who was murdered on a Los Angeles freeway in 1997. The Cosbys have three grandchildren.

The same year his son died, Cosby acknowledged having a brief affair with the mother of Autumn Jackson, a young woman later convicted of extorting him.

The wisecracking TV dad whose face became synonymous with Jell-O snack commercials also has delivered some serious criticism ofsociety over the years. He provoked debate with blunt remarks on personal responsibility in the black community and made headlines in 2004 for castigating some poor black people for their grammar.

“I can’t even talk the way these people talk, ‘Why you ain’t,’ ‘Where you is’ … and I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk,” Cosby said at the time. “And then I heard the father talk. … Everybody knows it’s important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.”

When Cosby entered the polling booth in his Los Angeles neighborhood last year to vote for the first black president, he carried with him photographs of his late parents and Jimmy, his brother who died in childhood. Some have argued that Cosby helped pave the way for President Barack Obama by breaking down stereotypes – a credit that Cosby rebuffs.

The Kennedy Center board chooses the prize winner with recommendations from a committee that includes former Twain honorees, the show’s producers and others.

Last year the Kennedy Center honored the late George Carlin with the Mark Twain prize. Past honorees have also included Billy Crystal, Steve Martin and Whoopi Goldberg. The first honoree was Richard Pryor in 1998.

When Bill Cosby entered the polling booth in his neighborhood last week, he carried with him photographs of his late parents and Jimmy, the kid brother who died in childhood.

“I pulled out the pictures, pulled the curtain shut. And I said, `You guys are gonna vote.’ And they did, on one piece of paper,” Cosby said.

He couldn’t resist delivering a punch line for fellow voters in Shelburne Falls, Mass. _ “I yelled out, `How do you spell plumber?’” _ even as he exulted in casting his ballot for the first African-American president.

There’s an argument circulating that “The Cosby Show” laid the groundwork for President-elect Barack Obama by presenting an appealing black family, the Huxtables, to young TV viewers who grew up equipped to thwart stereotypes and barriers.

Writer Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez called her theory “the Huxtable effect,” a counter to the so-called Bradley effect (named for failed black California gubernatorial hopeful Tom Bradley) of possible hidden racism among white voters.

Ask Cosby, 71, his view of the part his 1984-92 NBC sitcom played as political groundbreaker, and the man who looms large as both a comedian and blunt commentator on black America first offers a measured appraisal.

“I was amazed when the young woman’s theory came through,” said Cosby. It sounds plausible, he mused, recalling the show’s immense popularity and the many times that fans said Cliff Huxtable reminded them of their dad _ their white dad.

But he chafes at what he calls the “Karl Rovian” interpretation, referring to the Republican strategist’s Election Night comment on Fox News that viewers embraced the Huxtables as “America’s family” and not a black one.

“The reason why he’s in the White House is Cosby? No, no, no,” Cosby said.

He suggests looking beyond the influence of a TV family to that of a real one: the household in which the future president was raised.

He cites Obama’s account of being woken early to do his homework and his mother’s refusal to brook any complaints. Cosby bows as well to Michelle Obama and her father, who refused special treatment despite multiple sclerosis.

“This is what Michelle and Barack are made of, the things they see” in their parents, he said.

It was Cosby’s firm belief in parental responsibility _ and aggravation over ’80s programs _ that shaped the creation of “The Cosby Show,” out this week in a boxed DVD set of the complete series.

“I was not happy with what we used to call family TV in those days. … They had all these shows where you just dropped to one knee and fired, then a car blew up or a plant blew up _ all this dopamine-raising violence,” he said.

At a time when the sitcom genre appeared near death, the few family comedies that aired were especially dismaying.

“The situation comedies were failing because they had children seemingly who had taken over the house. In a sense, TV comedy writers and producers had decided they would no longer have a family where grown people were making corrections and kids were going through … `Leave It to Beaver’ type things,” he said.

The idea for a show where “the parents weren’t losing to the kids” was rejected by other networks before NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff bought a revamped version of it, with the original blue-collar family now morphed into affluent professionals.

“The Cosby Show” starred the comedian as a mellow physician who, with his lawyer-wife Clair (Phylicia Rashad), kept a loving, firm hand on their five children.

Tartikoff knew that Cosby, a recording, movie and TV star (with shows including the 1960s “I Spy,” in which he was the first black star of a drama series), was funny and likable.

“And Tartikoff also said, `What I like about this show is dignity. The family has dignity,’” Cosby recalled. “And what’s odd about it is it was just natural for me. Because what I wanted, the only thing I wanted, was to stop these children on TV from running the house.”

Wasn’t he also intent on shattering racial stereotypes?

“Look, I’m already black,” Cosby said, so pressing the race issue “gets to be stupid after all.”

But, he adds, “What I did have in mind was that the images that you see on television are not the behaviors of Americans who are black. Racism is so stupid, but it is and it does exist. Period.”

The show was a hit from the start, and from the start it encountered criticism that it failed to portray the difficult lives of many blacks and ignored middle-class issues like assimilation. Defenders said it showed what African-Americans could, and had, achieved.

Its many fans had no reservations about embracing the story of a modern family with bedrock traditions, always infused with Cosby’s droll humor and indelibly puckish grin. “The Cosby Show” was the nation’s top-rated prime-time program for five years.

And then there’s the tantalizing suggestion that the echoes of a sitcom long in reruns changed presidential history _ an idea that Cosby can’t resist playing with.

“I’m just waiting to see what Bart Simpson’s people are going to do at the next election,” he said.

The time was 1984, a new TV show debuted with comedian Bill Cosby playing a doctor father and Phylicia Rashad playing his lawyer wife. They had four adorable daughters and a funny son. The show would go on to be the most popular show of the 80’s, bringing the first image of a successful middle class black family to households all over America, black and white alike.

White people saw images of African Americans as successful, articulate, educated hardworking, family oriented people for the first time. Cliff seemed the humor filled doctor who despite his hard hours at the job, always found time for the kids. Clair was educated, funny and dedicated too, every part his equal. She, despite her hard work, always found time to make sure the kids did well and school and were respectful of themselves and others. The Huxtables were TV’s first family.
25 years later America has a new black first family, the Obamas. Like the Huxtables, both parents are educated, successful people. Like Clair, both Michelle and Barack have law degrees from a prestigious universities and are equals in their careers and relationship. They are both very hardworking, but always have time to spend with their adorable daughters.

Are the Obamas the news Huxtables? It seemed so last night at Obams victory speech and when he voted with his dughters. When Obama was talking with his adorable daughter Sasha, it couldn’t help but remind me of Cliff and Rudy Huxtable.

The people who grew up watching the Cosby Show, which ran from 1984 to 1992 are now way past voting age. The millions of other people who watched it in re-runs are past it or approaching it. These people have come to know and love a black family like it was their own. They came to know a black family that could have competent, successful, funny charming parents and adorable children.  If we could trust Cliff to give birth to our babies who we love, maybe we could trust Barack to take care of our country.

Just like Jackie Robinson, Bill Cosby has paved the way for America to accept an African American in their household, and even the White House. The Huxtables not only humanized African American families and showcased professional African Americans, but it allowed Americans of all backgrounds to admire a black family.

The Huxtable factor may have been one of the primary effects that countered the Bradley effect. In 1982 when Bradley ran for governor, the images of African Americans in the media were mostly criminals, raunchy comedians, and blacksploitation movie stars. TV shows like Good Times and the Jeffersons showed Africans Americans as hard working and funny but without any professional polish.
The Huxtables may not have totally changed Americans perceptions of African Americans, but it gave them an idea of what African Americans could be if they worked hard and kept values, the qualities that led to the Obamas being the first family.

Watch Obama Interact With His Daughters at the DNC

Watch the Cosby Show

Watch the Obamas on Access Hollywood

Watch the Obama Family on Access Hollywood