Fatherhood (book)

Fatherhood

Author	Ralph Schoenstein
Language	English
Subject	Parenting
Publisher	Doubleday & Company
Publication date	1986
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print
Pages	178
ISBN	0-385-23410-4
OCLC	13123074
Dewey Decimal	306.8/742 19
LC Class	HQ756.C67 1986

Fatherhood is a 1986 book attributed to Bill Cosby, and published by Doubleday & Company in 1986. The book was ghostwritten by humorist Ralph Schoenstein. The introduction and afterword were written by American psychiatrist Alvin F. Poussaint.

The Canadian National Institute for the Blind published an audio cassette edition of Fatherhood, with narration by Bob Askey. Another audiobook edition, published in 2008, is read by actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who appeared alongside Cosby in the sitcom The Cosby Show from 1984 to 1992.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Is Three a Crowd?
3. With Bouquets and Back Rubs
4. These Beggars Are Choosers
5. Are They Evolution's Missing Link?
6. A Guru Would Give Up, Too
7. She's Got the Whole World in Her Glands
8. The Fourth R Is Ridiculousness
9. Speak Loudly and Carry a Small Stick
10. Drowning in Old Spice
11. Your Crap or Mine?
12. Unsafe at Any Speed
13. The Attention Span of a Flea
14. Ivy-Covered Debt
15. Full-Time Job
16. Afterword

In other media

In The Simpsons episode "Saturdays of Thunder", which aired in November 1991, Homer Simpson tries to apply advice from Fatherhood to win the respect of his son, Bart. In the episode "Dog of Death", which aired in March 1992, the book can be seen burning in the Simpsons' fireplace.

Cosby's follow up book, Childhood, published in November 1992, emulated the style with which Schoenstein wrote Fatherhood. Comedian Paul Reiser's books Babyhood (1996) and Couplehood (1998), too, are pastiches of Fatherhood.

Bill Cosby, Charles Kipps, and the production company Smiley, Inc. adapted the book into an animated series. The series, which is also called Fatherhood, is about an African-American couple try to be model parents to their three children. It premiered in June 2004 on Nick at Nite, and aired for two seasons. It was officially cancelled by November 2005.