Bill Cosby

Before Bill Cosby no other African-American comedian had such commercial success or universal acceptance. Black comics were relegated to the "chitlin circuit" of black nightclubs and theaters and their albums banned from white-owned record stores. Cosby broke comedy's color barrier, and he set the stage for the widespread success of everyone from Richard Pryor to Eddie Murphy.

After his 1964 album “I Started Out as a Child” was the first of six consecutive Grammy-winning releases (a record string) Cosby was contacted by television producer Sheldon Leonard to star with Robert Culp in the espionage series I Spy. With that show Cosby broke the color barrier on TV in the South. Starting in 1984 The Cosby Show, an NBC series inspired largely by his own family experiences, shot to number one slot in the Nielsen ratings, and remained there throughout the majority of its eight-season run.