Back in October, Malcolm-Jamal Warner — who played Bill Cosby's son on eight seasons of The Cosby Show — spoke out for the first time on allegations by over 50 women that the comedian had drugged and/or sexually assaulted them, saying in part: “My biggest concern is when it comes to images of people of color on television and film, no matter what … negative stereotypes of people of color, we've always had 'The Cosby Show' to hold up against that. And the fact that we no longer have that, that's the thing that saddens me the most because in a few generations the Huxtables will have been just a fairy tale.”
Today, during an appearance on daytime talker The Real, Warner again held forth on the allegations, noting that while The Cosby Show has since been pulled from syndication, the films and TV shows of other prominent filmmakers and actors who have been accused (or flat-out convicted) of sexual crimes continue to be celebrated and/or air on television.
“You just look at just how the media is playing this whole thing out, and I can't help but think about Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, [Seventh Heaven star] Stephen Collins, who it's very clear, you know, the crime they've committed,” said Warner. “But there's no one that has been calling for Woody's movies to be pulled off the air. Roman Polanski is still celebrated. Stephen Collins' show still comes on. So it's just interesting how it's very unbalanced. They're trying to take Mr. Cosby's star off the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And I am in no position to defend him, because I can't, but nor will I throw him under the bus.”
To Warner's point about Cosby's Walk of Fame star, it should be noted that the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has previously refused calls to remove it, telling The Hollywood Reporter last summer: “Once a star has been added to the Walk, it is considered a part of the historic fabric of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Because of this, we have never removed a star from the Walk.”
As for Seventh Heaven — the family drama starring Collins that ran for 11 seasons — reruns of the series were indeed put back in rotation on the Up television network after being temporarily pulled when audio was leaked of Collins admitting, in a secretly-recorded therapy session with his ex-wife, to molesting three young girls.