If you can, seek out the docuseries "we need to talk about Cosby". As someone born in the mid 80s I never got the appeal because the Simpsons were the replacement TV family to supersede that generation of sitcom. The docuseries does a great job of giving the viewer the full picture and the first episode is mostly around why he was so successful. Honestly I got it. They played some of his stand-up bits and I found myself laughing despite knowing where the story was going. When he got the Cosby show, it was a revolution at the time to have an all black upper middle class family on TV, hence where you get the America's dad (in its time). It's all the more impactful when you spend the following episodes digging into his depravity.