‘Billion-Dollar Bill’ Bets on Groucho

When you’ve revolutionized TV, earned untold fortunes for countless people and become one of the world’s most popular stars, it might be difficult to decide what to do next.

But not for Bill Cosby.

With two historic TV series behind him--”I Spy,” in which he became the first black actor to star in a weekly drama, and “The Cosby Show,” a monumentally successful comedy--the 54-year-old entertainer is about to take the plunge again in a program that already has a legendary past.

When he ends “The Cosby Show” this season--”It’s in cement,” he says--he will move this fall directly into off-network syndication in a new, daily version of Groucho Marx’s old quiz show, “You Bet Your Life.”

Keeping a sharp eye on Cosby’s career moves, as always, is his close adviser for three decades, Norman Brokaw, chairman and chief executive officer of the William Morris agency. Their relationship has been one of the most productive and profitable in show business history. In addition, the new “You Bet Your Life” also bears the imprimatur of heavyweight producers Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner, whose hits include “The Cosby Show” and “Roseanne.”

With this powerful team tuning up, it is no surprise that the Cosby-era “You Bet Your Life” already has signed up at least 82 stations covering 67% of the nation as the big annual convention focusing on syndication sales, the National Assn. of Television Program Executives (NATPE), gets under way today in New Orleans.

In a slow-selling year for syndicated series because of the recession and Fox TV’s supplying of programs for many stations, the number of pre-NATPE buys of “You Bet Your Life” is considered exceptional and an expression of faith in Cosby’s wholesome style of comedy.

And those who have seen footage of “You Bet Your Life,” which remains basically comic banter between the host (Cosby) and his contestants, regard it as an ideal match of entertainer and program concept.

In an era of suggestive programs such as “Studs” and tabloid TV like “A Current Affair” and “Hard Copy,” Cosby’s penchant for ignoring show-business trendiness will be tested again, with the results watched closely.

“ ‘You Bet Your Life’ is a stand-up comedian’s dream,” says Cosby, who carried NBC from the ratings basement to the penthouse and whose syndication sales for his sitcom have already passed the $800-million mark.

“With all the stand-up comedians in the last few years,” adds Cosby, “the thing they all have in common is when you see them run out of material right before your very eyes. And just as singers used to go to ‘My Funny Valentine,’ comedians go to ‘So, where are you from?’ or ‘What kind of job do you have? Are you married? Do you have children?’ That’s when a comedian is probing for something funny to take off on”--which is exactly the stuff of “You Bet Your Life.”

With “The Cosby Show” winding up its eighth season this spring, Brokaw recalls how the matchup of his star and “You Bet Your Life” came about:

“Out of the blue, Tom Werner calls me and says, ‘How would you feel about Bill doing a show where he could interact with people?’ I said, ‘If the show has the feeling of a “You Bet Your Life” type of show that Groucho did or something that Buster Keaton did--because they’re two of Bill’s favorite comedians--then it’s something we could talk about.’

“I called Bill the minute I hung up the phone. I told him that if the show had the feel of a ‘You Bet Your Life,’ we could have an interest. And he said, ‘That’s right.’ So I said, ‘We’ll see what he comes up with.’

“I figured Tom would call in two, three months. Not four, five weeks go by when he called. He said, ‘I got a show in mind.’ I said, ‘Does it have the feel of “You Bet Your Life” ’? And his answer was, ‘You bet your life it does.’ I said, ‘What’s the show?’ He says, ‘You Bet Your Life.’ ”

When the idea of Groucho’s old show came up, says Cosby, “My thought was: piece of cake. Why? Because in my Las Vegas, nightclub, concert, college appearances, whatever, there are times when I pull people up on stage. Sometimes it’s children, married couples. I ask questions, people answer. Big laugh. OK, I’ve set the tone for my monologue. They get off and I go to work.”

Cosby--who is regarded by many as “Billion-Dollar Bill” not only because of his own success but also because his lead-in power helped make hits of such shows as “Family Ties,” “Cheers” and “A Different World”--is also going his own way by doing “You Bet Your Life” in Philadelphia, his home town.

“Philadelphia is supposed to be broke,” says Cosby, “and I think I can bring some money into the downtown area. I can put the word about Philadelphia out to the rest of the nation and Canada. It would give me great pleasure to do that. I have a home there. My high school, my college (Temple) is there, people I grew up with.”

Brokaw, who wears a gold watch from the comedian that he received a decade ago and which says “To Coach Brokaw From Coach Cosby--20 Years of Success,” regards “I Spy” as the venture that “really began moving” the star into the show-business stratosphere.

“At that time (1965),” recalls the agent, “people had concern. They said, ‘Can you have a black person co-starring with someone white (Robert Culp)?’ ”

“I Spy” was a lighthearted adventure show that paired Cosby and Culp as American agents. Cosby went on to win three Emmys in the series as best actor in a drama.

“The Cosby Show” came about, says Brokaw, when the comedian, then without a prime-time series, called him late one night and said he’d like to do another weekly program. Carsey and Werner, says the agent, had expressed interest in Cosby over the years, even when they were ABC executives.

“I had read they had a deal for pilots and things,” says Brokaw, “and they had a deal with Viacom (an entertainment and communications firm) that would put up a big advance for syndication, for getting distribution rights. So I put two and two together. I could get what I could get from the network plus that money, and it would add up to where Bill Cosby could afford to do a series.”

But final negotiations with NBC hit a snag, says Brokaw: “We had a conversation with ABC about buying the show, and we were told, ‘We have no interest.’ Meanwhile, we talked to NBC and told them that they could lose the show. And Grant Tinker and Brandon Tartikoff and John Agoglia worked it out so that the program could go on.

“And that made them the No. 1 network.”

“The Cosby Show” debuted in 1984. The comedian says that at one point later on he contemplated doing a variety series, one of the looking-ahead professional explorations that eventually led to “You Bet Your Life.”

“Norman and I had thought it might be nice to go over to the old Ed Sullivan Theater (in New York), bring in the variety acts, the magic, the juggling, the comedians, the fresh things from Broadway, the latest rock groups, etc. Ed Sullivan time.

“Well, Norman and I sat down, and it was clearly Norman’s idea that because of cable, there is no longer any kind of make-a-star (vehicle). Those people are no longer the big catch. You got all these talk shows, and when it’s time to promote a movie, the stars go out. Many performers don’t perform and don’t want to perform. They can send out a tape, so why bother to show up and take a chance live?”

Along with his continuing involvement with Carsey-Werner, Cosby is planning his own productions. One, targeted for NBC this fall, is an as-yet-untitled sitcom project starring Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who plays his son, Theo, on “The Cosby Show” but would portray a wholly new character in the potential series. NBC says the show is in development, and Warner adds:

“It looks like I’d play a grad school student, a child psychology major working in the community, counseling young kids and teen-agers.”

As for himself, Cosby knows exactly where he’s trying to head with “You Bet Your Life” and how it fits into his personal and professional style:

“Lemme tell ya. I’ve got 63 channels to go through. And I don’t want to turn on something with young actors who are cursing every sentence. I’m not interested in a remake of ‘El Cid’ with 1,700 less chariots. And I turn on the news and there’s a fire, there’s a black man raped a white girl, there’s seven white youths who beat up a black kid, a Hispanic kid who beat up a Korean, neighbors are marching on the street, nobody likes the mayor that they have, the economy is going down--and there’s nothing there that speaks to the people in terms of their being human beings.

“Nobody is touching anybody. Everything is so far off and it’s almost ‘1984.’ There’s nothing there that says there are human beings who exist out there who are nice people, who don’t have an ax to grind. We’re going to mention good things that people do, and, oddly enough, that becomes a better fantasy and one that you can digest.”