Did Bad Boy Bart Make Bill Cosby Change His Show? ‘No Way Man!!!’

Bill Cosby was wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt with the radical dude saying “Yo, Bill!” when he was asked if upcoming changes in “The Cosby Show” are a response to competition from “The Simpsons.”

“All of the changes were made B.B.--Before Bart,” Cosby told Entertainment Weekly in an interview being published next week. The magazine cover features Cosby wearing the Bart shirt.

Fox TV’s runaway hit “The Simpsons” has moved from Sunday nights to Thursday, challenging NBC’s top-rated “The Cosby Show,” in a Bart vs. Bill match-up as TV’s top pop prepares to battle the smart-aleck Bart Simpson. Both air tonight at 8 p.m.

The shows will be programmed head to head for the first time tonight, although they are both reruns. “The Cosby Show” starts its new shows in September, a full month before Fox will have new offerings of “The Simpsons.”

Does Cosby feel pressured? In his own conversational style, he seems critical of Fox.

“TV should be moving in a direction from the Huxtables forward, not backward,” Cosby said. “The mean-spirited and cruel think this (the screwed-up Fox families like the bewildered Simpsons and the bitter Bundys of “Married . . . With Children”) is ‘the edge,’ and their excuse is, that’s the way people are today. But why should we be entertained by that?” he asks.

Cosby said he’s changing “The Cosby Show,” re-energizing it with nine new writers, as a matter of principle.

“I’m working harder and enjoying it more. And whether the audience is there in the numbers or not, I am proud of what we’ve done,” Cosby said.