‘The Cosby Show’: 76 hours of memories

“The Cosby Show” kept America entertained — and its minds open — for eight seasons on NBC. Who’s to say if Barack Obama could have been elected president without the gentle social revolution that Cosby and his family of players carried into the nation’s living rooms each week.

“For all those people who said they didn’t know any black people like the Huxtables, all I can say is, ‘Will you watch the show now?’ ” Bill Cosby joked as the Obama family prepared to move into the White House.

In its earliest and best seasons, “The Cosby Show” was the best thing on television. We watched this batch of Cosby kids grow up to become fine young adults over the years, even if father didn’t always know best.

Now, fans can relive it all with First Look’s “The Cosby Show: 25th Anniversary Commemorative Edition,” a box set that corrects and surpasses the various videos of the series out there. The collection stretches from the first season’s wobbly classics to the classy finale, “And So We Commence.”

The box set, which comes in a thick black case reminiscent of that era’s VHS boxes, packs in 76 hours of content on 26 discs. The distributor promises “every episode — original, uncut broadcast versions …” a reference to the shortened shows (from syndication) previously released on DVD.

Video and audio are good enough. The box that holds all those memories is nicely done, if a bit dark.

Here are the key extras on the “Cosby Show” box set:

• A new interview with Cosby, running in two parts and adding up to an hour.
• “The Cosby Show: A Look Back,” the network special from 2002.
• Various bloopers
• “Cliff’s Parenting Tips” (a quickie with clips)
• A booklet with the pilot’s script and a small black cover that has a brief “letter from Cosby” to you, and a Hirschfeld drawing of the comic.

Perfect gift for: 1980s nostalgists, Generation X softies, TV-on-DVD collectors

Buy “The Cosby Show: 25th Anniversary Commemorative Edition” from Amazon.