Clair Olivia Hanks Huxtable is a fictional character from the American sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1992). Portrayed by actress Phylicia Rashad, Clair, the wife of Cliff Huxtable and mother of their five children, is the matriarch of the show's central Huxtable family. Working as a lawyer, Clair values the importance of maintaining a successful career and strong household simultaneously. The character debuted alongside most of her family in the pilot episode, "Theo's Economic Lesson", which premiered on September 20, 1984.
Created by comedian Bill Cosby, Clair is based on Cosby's own wife, Camille. Cosby intended for the character to be a plumber, but the producers and Camille ultimately convinced him to rewrite her into a lawyer to reflect a family that closer resembled their own. At one point, Clair had also been envisioned as a Dominican housewife who speaks Spanish when frustrated, inspired by Ricky Ricardo from the sitcom I Love Lucy, but this idea was also abandoned. Rashad, credited as Phylicia Ayers-Allen, won the role by exhibiting a subtlety in her audition that other candidates lacked. After marrying husband Ahmad Rashad and adopting his surname, Rashad became pregnant with their child during the show's third season, thus requiring her to conceal her pregnancy during episode tapings.
Typically playing straight woman to Cosby's humorous Cliff, Rashad's character began to adopt more comedic material during the show's second season, although she maintains her disciplinarian status within her own household. Since The Cosby Shows inception, Cosby had always intended for Clair to reflect the ways in which women's roles have evolved in both the home and workplace. Clair is depicted as a hardworking career woman with strong feminist principles, most evident in the character's early confrontations with chauvinistic son-in-law Elvin. One particularly memorable interaction, dubbed Clair's "feminist rant" by the media, has become so popular that the scene continues to be heavily circulated on the Internet and social media, 30 years after its initial appearance.
Both Clair's role and Rashad's performance have garnered significant acclaim; Clair was the series' only main character who avoided criticisms that regularly plagued other aspects of The Cosby Show. Rashad was nominated for two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Despite the actress' continued success, Clair remains the role for which Rashad is best known, credited with establishing her as a television icon. Clair is revered as one of television's most beloved mothers; as one of television's first working mothers, the character's profound influence on African-American women and female lawyers in television has been dubbed the "Clair Huxtable effect".
Role and family Born Clair Olivia Hanks, Clair is a graduate of the fictional Hillman College located in Virginia, the same school attended by her eventual husband Dr. Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable. Clair is the matriarch of the upper middle class Huxtable family. A lawyer, Clair is the mother of five children, Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy, whom she raises alongside husband Cliff, an obstetrician, in a brownstone in Brooklyn, New York. Clair's home address is 10 Stigwood Avenue, Brooklyn Heights, New York. Episodes typically revolve around Clair and Cliff dealing with everyday situations and problems as they pertain to a standard household during the 1980s. Although both Clair and Cliff counsel, admonish and oftentimes outwit their children together, dividing their parental responsibilities equally, Clair tends to serve as primary disciplinarian to her children – and occasionally to Cliff as well. Of the couple, Clair is typically the parent who offers advice and guidance to her children, in addition to administering suitable punishments for misbehavior.
Clair's family eventually expands to include Sondra's and Denise's love interests, husbands Elvin Tibideaux and Martin Kendall, respectively. Sondra and Elvin eventually have children of their own, twins Winnie and Nelson, named after South African activists Winnie and Nelson Mandela, making Clair a grandmother for the first time. Meanwhile, Martin brings with him Olivia, a young daughter from his previous marriage. Denise's stepdaughter, Olivia ultimately becomes Clair's step-granddaughter. Clair's teenage cousin Pam eventually moves in with her family in the show's seventh season. Also, Clair's in-laws, Russel and Anna Huxtable, make regular appearances throughout the series, as do her own parents Al and Carrie Hanks, albeit to a lesser extent.
Professionally, Clair works as an attorney at the Bradly, Greentree & Dexter law firm in New York City, and eventually makes partner. She mostly works in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, some corporate litigation, as well as a Legal Aid attorney. She occasionally represents her own children in legal disputes, for example helping Theo successfully obtain a refund for several unwearable T-shirts purchased from an untrustworthy salesman. Similarly, Clair defends Sondra when a dishonest mechanic attempts to scam her.
Development
Creation and writing
Clair was created for The Cosby Show by comedian Bill Cosby, one of the show's creators. Cosby had pitched a television series about a detective who solves crime using wit and humor; Clair's earliest incarnation resembled his character's girlfriend, who is depicted as "a strong woman with her own career". Networks were not interested in developing the program, prompting Cosby to pursue a more autobiographical idea. Cosby eventually based The Cosby Show on his stand-up comedy film Bill Cosby: Himself (1983), which heavily features jokes about his wife and children. Clair is based on Cosby's own wife, Camille. Although the role of the show's parents evolved dramatically from The Cosby Shows inception to production, the concept of a strong career woman was one of the few ideas retained from Cosby's detective series.
When Cosby first pitched The Cosby Show to NBC, it revolved around a blue-collar couple; Clair was described as a plumber and the character's husband Cliff, played by Cosby himself, was a limousine driver. Eventually, the idea of Clair working as a plumber was discarded and the character was briefly rewritten into a Dominican housewife. Inspired by Ricky Ricardo from the sitcom I Love Lucy, of which Cosby was a fan, much of the show's humor would have been derived from Clair's tendency to revert to her native language, Spanish, when upset or agitated. Describing the concept as "the reverse of [I Love] Lucy", Cosby explained that instead the husband "would be the person that didn’t understand when she spoke Spanish" as opposed to the wife.
Camille and executive producers Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner eventually convinced Cosby that the series should feature a family that resembled their own more closely, specifically headed by a pair of successful parents with white-collar professions. Thus, Cosby rewrote Clair and Cliff into a lawyer and doctor, respectively. Clair's Dominican heritage was abandoned before the pilot was filmed. However, the character still speaks some Spanish in the first episode and continues to speak the language periodically throughout the series, albeit not as frequently as Cosby had envisioned. Cosby borrowed several names from his real-life family for his fictional one; Clair's maiden name is Hanks, which she shares with Camille. The second season explores each character gaining more responsibility, none more-so than Clair, who is deliberately provided with more storylines and emotions to experience in terms of her relationship with her husband and children.
Casting and portrayal Clair is portrayed by American actress Phylicia Rashad. In addition to appearances on both television and Broadway, Rashad had a recurring role as Courtney Wright on the soap opera One Life to Live before Cosby personally selected her to play his character's wife. Several actresses auditioned for the role, the majority of whom tended to resort to angrily yelling and gesturing when scolding the child actors auditioning to play the character's children. However, Rashad's subtle interpretation differed from her competition; when the actress screen tested opposite actor Malcolm Jamal-Warner, who would ultimately portray son Theo, Rashad simply paused, stared silently and offered him "a look" instead of immediately scolding the character that, according to Cosby, meant "four or five things ... and none of them were good." At the end of Rashad's audition, Cosby announced to Carsey "[Rashad is] Clair". Additionally, because Clair was still intended to be of Dominican heritage at the time, Rashad's own bilingualism and fluency in Spanish benefited her successful casting. Cosby told Rashad she won the role because she acted "with a knowing look in [her] eye."
Observing similarities between the character and herself, Rashad described Clair as "a warm, loving mother"; the actress is also similar in appearance and personality to Camille. Rashad's acting had always been more straight-faced to counter Cosby's humor, typically playing straight woman to Cosby's antics. In preparation for the second season, Cosby decided to offer Rashad more comedic material upon learning the actress is "capable of handling comedy on her own–without Cliff." Jets Robert E. Johnson observed that Rashad portrays her character using "soft, sophisticated humor". The sixth season episode "Off to See the Wretched", in which Clair yells at Vanessa for traveling to Baltimore to see a rock concert against her parents' orders, features Rashad's most "uncontrolled" performance as the character. Speaking fondly of his co-star, Cosby said "There's nobody whom I can be more thankful about than Phylicia." In the aftermath of a highly publicized article published in TV Guide before the series premiered that labeled Cosby "one of the most arrogant celebrities", Rashad took over the majority of the show's promotional appearances herself. Rashad also defended Cosby against the accusations, calling him "one of the most intelligent people I have ever known." In addition to being a few years younger than Clair was intended to be, Rashad is only 10 years older than actress Sabrina LeBeauf, who portrays eldest child Sondra. Meanwhile, actress Ethel Ayler, who portrays Clair's mother Carrie, is only 14 years her senior. Actress Clarice Taylor auditioned for the role of Carrie, deliberately making herself over in attempt to look young enough to play Rashad's mother before Cosby ultimately cast her as his own character's.