The Cosby Show is coming back to TV

Bounce TV, normally a quietly reliable purveyor of mid-morning A Different World reruns and late-night Denzel Washington movies, found itself at the center of some controversy over the weekend when it announced that it will be bringing back The Cosby Show “by popular demand” starting December 19:

Most Popular

• James Cameron calls Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer "a bit of a moral cop out"
• It's just another end of the world in 40 Acres
• On The Bear, Carmy says exactly what Syd’s been waiting to hear at exactly the wrong time

The Atlanta-based network pulled The Cosby Show from its lineup last year, at a time when sexual-assault allegations against series star Bill Cosby were dominating headlines. Well, now it’s 2016, a year where America apparently wants to turn back the clock in more ways than one.

But while it may be 1986 again as far as Bounce TV is concerned, it’s still 2016 in Massachusetts, where Cosby is being sued by several of the more than 50 women who have accused him of sexual assault, and in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where Cosby is expected to stand trial for aggravated indecent assault next year. If he’s found guilty, he could face up to 30 years in prison, an outcome that would further complicate the once-simple joy of spending a lazy Saturday afternoon with the Huxtable clan.

To that end, if Bounce is smart, it’ll lay off the sauce—that is, the episode where Cliff makes an aphrodisiac BBQ sauce, its PG-rated innuendo now permanently scarred by real-life events.