This volume chronicles the phenomenon of a television program that commanded first place for much of the time since its premiere in September 1984. Each week in the United States it has consistently drew a loyal audience of up to 60 million people, breaking records for ratings and shares. The show is credited with lifting a third-place network into commanding leadership, advancing the image of black families, being the object of the greatest syndication barter deal in history, and regenerating the sitcom genre.

Approached from a systems-theoretical perspective, this book considers The Cosby Show historically, economically, politically, legally, and socioculturally. The book provides detailed examination of the show's production, audience profiles, and international reviews and reactions to it. Fuller includes the results of a survey conducted by her (and translated into appropriate languages) for more than 800 responses from a dozen countries. Media scholars continue to call for future research on acculturation effects of television and for research on complete, contextual studies of specific television genres. The Cosby Show: Audiences, Impact and Implications attempts to fill those gaps.