Bill Cosby's Career and Downfall to Be Chronicled in New Showtime Show

Bill Cosby may have been freed from prison after three and a half years for sexual assault this year but that doesn't mean the general public have forgiven his sins. The Cosby Show creator and his fall from grace will be the subject of a four-part series set to air soon. The Showtime series titled We Need to Talk About Bill Cosby will examine whether or not it's possible to separate Cosby the artist from Cosby the man.

The series is directed by W. Kamau Bell and will air in four-part series. It was one of the most high-profile non-fiction titles announced for the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The docuseries also offers an in-depth look at Cosby's history-making career and personal life outside of the scandal, chronicling his life and work as well as "weighing his actions against his indisputable global influence." The series will feature several interviews with fellow comedians, cultural commentators, journalists, and women who share their most personal, harrowing encounters with Cosby.

Cosby has been accused of sexual assault by more than 60 women. In 2018, he was sent to jail for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in 2004, a Temple University employee. His conviction was overturned in June this year due to a technicality. 

A synopsis for the forthcoming four-part series reads: "Can you separate the art from the artist? Should you even try? While there are many people about whom we could ask those questions, none pose a tougher challenge than Bill Cosby."

Executive producers on the series are Bell, Andrew Fried, Katie A. King, Dane Lillegard, Jordan Wynn, and Sarina Roma. King is also showrunner.

Bell, who grew up a major Cosby fan, admits to feeling the pain of accusations about Cosby coming to light. "As a child of Bill Cosby, I was a huge fan of all his shows and wanted to be a comedian because of him," he said, as reported by NME. "I never thought I'd ever wrestle with who we all thought Cosby was and who we now understand him to be. I'm not sure he would want me to do this work, but Cliff Huxtable definitely would."