Docuseries: We Need to Talk About Cosby USAGM
Metadata
- Docuseries: We Need to Talk About Cosby USAGM
- February 21, 2022
- Language English
- Transcript/Script USAGM SHARE ((PLAYBOOK SLUG: Docuseries: We Need to Talk About Cosby HEADLINE: Kamau Bell Addresses Bill Cosby’s Complex Legacy in 'We Need to Talk About Cosby' TEASER: Documentary on the actor, comedian, raises tough questions PUBLISHED: 2/21/2022 at 8:40 BYLINE: Penelope Poulou DATELINE: Washington PRODUCER: Penelope Poulou SCRIPT EDITORS: Sharon Shahid, Jepsen VIDEO SOURCES: Zoom; Showtime, AP PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV X RADIO __ TRT: 3:41 VID APPROVED BY: pcd TYPE: TVPKG EDITOR NOTES: [[Penelope confirms she used Zoom properly.]] ((INTRO)) [[Kamau Bell’s four-part documentary “We Need to Talk About Cosby” addresses the rise and fall of African American comedian Bill Cosby from revered “America’s Dad” to an alleged sexual predator. Bell, a comedian himself and a show host, told VOA’s Penelope Poulou that countless people, especially African Americans, were shocked when Cosby, who promoted family values and education, was accused by dozens of women of sexually assaulting them.]] ((NARRATOR)) In 2018, actor and comedian Bill Cosby was convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was released last summer after Pennsylvania’s supreme court overturned his conviction on a procedural issue. Cosby has denied the allegations by dozens of women who say he drugged and raped them. ((NAT SOUND)) ((Kamau Bell)) “This was complicated. How do you talk about Bill Cosby…” Voice: “Ummm, Mmmmm” Voice: “It’s complex Kamau, you know.” ((Mandatory Courtesy: We Need to Talk About Cosby/Showtime)) Comedian Kamau Bell says it was a difficult decision to make the docuseries “We Need to Talk About Cosby.” ((Kamau Bell, Comedian)) “Like a lot of people, as I say in the series, like, I had a hard time reckoning with all this stuff.” ((Mandatory courtesy: We Need to Talk About Cosby/Showtime)) ((NARRATOR)) Bell describes himself as a “Cosby child,” one of many who grew up watching the entertainer’s programs. As a comedian, he says, he was inspired by Cosby. But after the revelations, he says he had a hard time admitting it. ((Kamau Bell, Comedian)) ((Mandatory cg: Zoom)) “And I'd be like, I can’t say Bill Cosby, but then I’m like, ‘If I don't say Bill Cosby as a Black man of my age, I'll look insane!’ Like how did I not reckon with Bill Cosby. And so, I started to say the artist formerly known as Bill Cosby as a way to indicate that I knew there was a lot going on there, and that generally satisfied people. But that sort of was the beginning of me trying to reckon with it publicly.” ((Courtesy: We Need to Talk About Cosby/Showtime)) ((NARRATOR)) Bell’s docuseries follows Cosby’s meteoric rise from a stand-up comic in 1960s San Francisco … ((Courtesy: We Need to Talk About Cosby/Showtime)) to the beloved father figure in the internationally famous “The Cosby Show.” ((Kamau Bell, Comedian)) ((Mandatory cg: Zoom)) “It was the No. 1 show in South Africa, or a hit show in South Africa, because the government of South Africa saw it as safe, because it was sort of like this anodized family sitcom, the white, the mostly white government of South Africa. But the Black people of South Africa saw it as revolutionary because he (Cosby) was putting up Nelson Mandela images. The grandkids were named Winnie and Nelson, and there was Free Apartheid stuff. And also, it showed Black people living in the full thrust of their Blackness proudly.” ((Courtesy: We Need to Talk About Cosby/Showtime)) ((NARRATOR)) All the while, Cosby’s accusers, who agreed to be interviewed for the series, describe how he drugged and raped them. ((NAT SOUND)) ((Courtesy: We Need to Talk About Cosby/Showtime)) ((Bill Cosby describes "Spanish Fly" at the Larry King Show)) "Spanish Fly. The girl would drink it and 'hello America!'" ((Courtesy: We Need to Talk About Cosby/Showtime)) Actress Eden Tirl is one of them. ((NAT SOUND)) ((Courtesy: We Need to Talk About Cosby/Showtime)) ((Eden Tirl, Actress)) “A lot of people knew, because you cannot do what he did unless you have other people supporting what you are doing.” ((Kamau Bell, Comedian)) ((Mandatory cg: Zoom)) “The people who are higher up are prioritizing a hit project over a safe and supportive and effective work environment.” ((NARRATOR)) According to RollingStone.com, after Bell’s docuseries was released, Cosby’s rep, Andrew Wyatt, called Bell a “PR hack” and said Cosby has been “the target of numerous media that have for too many years distorted and omitted truths …intentionally.” ((Courtesy: We Need to Talk About Cosby/Showtime)) ((NARRATOR)) Bell says he stands by the women who have come forward to tell their stories. ((Kamau Bell, Comedian)) ((Mandatory cg: Zoom))) “Nobody could deal with the gap between who they thought Bill Cosby was ((Mandatory Courtesy/ We Need to Talk About Cosby/Showtime)) ((Kamau Bell, Comedian)) ((Mandatory cg: Zoom))) and who he was revealing himself to be. ((Kamau Bell, Comedian)) ((Mandatory cg: Zoom)) We'd never dealt with a gap that large before because whatever you think about most of the men, if not all of the men, who fell during the MeToo movement, nobody — none of them — were international cultural icons, heroes. And also, specifically, none of them were anybody's childhood heroes the way Bill Cosby was.” ((We Need to Talk About Cosby/Showtime)) ((NARRATOR)) Bell says the docudrama does not offer easy answers, but it provides enough material to allow viewers to process how to deal with someone who meant so much to them. ((Penelope Poulou, VOA News, Washington))
- NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Network VOA
- Embargo Date February 21, 2022 08:45 EST
- Byline Penelope Poulou
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America - English