"The Cosby Show" producer breaks silence amid Bill Cosby scandal
Bill Cosby's longtime producer Tom Werner has broken his silence surrounding the legacy of Bill Cosby the actor amid the many rape allegations made against the star over the past last year.
The Hollywood Reporter says that after promoting his new Starz series "Survivor's Remorse" at the Television Critics Association press tour on Friday, Werner opened up about the importance of "The Cosby Show" that he worked so hard on.
"I don't really want to comment on it," Werner told THR, when asked about Cosby. "The legacy of the show is obviously very important to me because the show was a groundbreaking show and it portrayed a middle-class African-American family in a very positive way. It had a lot of stories that resonated with families because people watched it together. Obviously it's a challenging time for Bill Cosby and a challenging time for the show, but I'm hoping that people will still be able to watch the show and identify with the Huxtables."
Along with partner Marcy Carsey, Werner worked with Cosby on both "The Cosby Show" and later on the independent spinoff "Cosby," under their production company Carsey-Werner. The partners have been tight-lipped about the scandal for the most part, but they did release a statement last November that said, "The Bill we know was a brilliant and wonderful collaborator on a show that changed the landscape of television. These recent news reports are beyond our knowledge or comprehension."
However, the legacy of the show is currently on very shaky ground, as TV Land and BET Centric both pulled repeats as a result of the scandal surrounding the star.