The comedian's sexual assault conviction was overturned last year. Photo / AP
The comedian's sexual assault conviction was overturned last year. Photo / AP
A new documentary series about Bill Cosby is making headlines before its premiere in the US.
We Need To Talk About Cosby explores the comedian's descent from "America's Dad" to alleged sexual predator. The programme centres around the question of whether fans of The Cosby Show star can separate the art from the artist?
Director and comedian W Kamau Bell discussed the four-part docuseries on PeopleTV's entertainment news programme People, available to stream on Flash.
"I think Bill Cosby wanted us to get confused with Heathcliff Huxtable," the filmmaker told People.
"We don't say Cliff Huxtable was America's dad, we say Bill Cosby was America's dad.
"And I think Bill Cosby was leading that confusion of blurring that line, we think because somebody does good work, but they must be a good person and that's just proving more and more not to be true."
Bell pointed out how the TV character's occupation as an obstetrician and gynaecologist turned his stomach.
"That is something that I always reckoned with when you remind people and this happened several times," he said.
"There's so many things when you look at Bill Cosby's career that they're breadcrumbs where he was sort of telling us to pay attention or be careful of what we're seeing here.
"And that's one of those. That's a big bright room."
Bell talked to actors, academics as well as fellow comedians but he also sits down with numerous women who say they were sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby.
A spokesperson for Cosby released a statement about the feature.
"Mr Cosby continues to be the target of numerous media that have for too many years distorted and omitted truths intentionally," the statement reads.
The comedian's sexual assault conviction was overturned last year. Photo / AP
"Despite media's repetitive reports of allegations against Mr Cosby, none have ever been proven in any court of law.
"Mr Cosby vehemently denies all allegations waged against him. He wants our nation to be what it proclaims itself to be, a democracy."
In 2018, Cosby was convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault. He served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence.
Last year, his conviction was overturned after the state Supreme Court found that an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged for allegedly drugging and molesting Andrea Constand in 2004.
The first episode of We Need To Talk About Cosby premieres this week on the US cable network Showtime. An Australian release has not yet been announced.
