If you’re discussing the best dads in television history, should Bill Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable from The Cosby Show be a part of that conversation? For many fans of the sitcom, it’s inaccurate to leave him out of it, arguing that the character should be separated from the actor. It’s a debate that recently was sparked on Twitter in response to a post from @MadScientistFF ranking the “Top 10 Greatest TV Dads of All Time.” The tweet also asks others to name which “TV Dad is missing,” and that prompted a lot of replies bringing up Cliff Huxtable.

“Cliff Huxtable should be #1,” one fan of The Cosby Show stated. “He changed the way many Black people moved in the world because we saw what was possible. I’m not debating Cosby. But to say he wasn’t the only TV dad that transformed a culture would be disingenuous and make any list like this dishonest.”
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“Dr Cliff Huxtable is the number 1 best TV dad…. I’m not talking about Bill Cosby, Not talking about the actor but the character,” another tweet reads.

Echoing many others, another Twitter user wrote, “I know that nobody will say this. But Cliff Huxtable is number 1. I’m not talking about the man who played Cliff. I’m talking about the TV character.”

And as someone else explains, “Cliff Huxtable was one of the greatest TV dads of all time. Bill Cosby is a sexual deviant who got away with rape because of a technicality. We can say one without compromising the other.”

Related: Malcolm-Jamal Warner Says He’s ‘Still Proud of the Legacy’ of The Cosby Show

Is Cliff Huxtable One of Television History’s Greatest Dads?

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The Cosby Show ran from 1984 to 1992. It followed the lives of the Huxtable family, with Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable as the patriarch. The character was an obstetrician who was married to attorney Clair Huxtable (Phylicia Rashad). The cast of characters also included Lisa Bonet as Denise, Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theodore, Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa, Keshia Knight Pulliam as Rudy, and Sabrina Le Beauf as Sondra. During its run, the show drew widespread acclaim and won several Emmy Awards, Golden Globes, and People’s Choice Awards. It also earned a Peabody Award in 1986.

The sitcom has come under much more scrutiny in recent years due to the sexual assault allegations that had been made against Cosby. The accusations came from dozens of women and spanned back decades, and this has led to widespread condemnation of the actor and comedian. Cosby was convicted of aggravated indecent assault in 2018, though he was freed in 2021 when the conviction was later overturned when it was ruled that his rights had been violated. Cosby has insisted his innocence throughout, though the majority of the public is clearly not on his side. In any case, Cosby has been planning a comeback, intending to return to the stage in the future.

You can see some more of the fan tweets declaring Cliff Huxtable to be a great TV dad below.