The Cosby Show (TV Series)

Off to See the Wretched (1990)

Phylicia Rashad: Clair Huxtable

Quotes 

• Clair Hanks Huxtable : Did you really think that the four of you could go careening off into the night and not one single parent would find out about it? Did you really think that, Vanessa?

  Vanessa Huxtable : Mom...

  Clair Hanks Huxtable : SHUT UP! Because I know what was going on! You were off being wild and free with the Wretched and singing the Wretched song! Now, I know you told me about it in the car, Vanessa, but just for the record, one more time, how did it come to pass that you did not get into the concert with the Wretched, and the big fun?

  [Vanessa doesn't speak] 

  Clair Hanks Huxtable : YOU BETTER ANSWER ME WHEN I ASK YOU A QUESTION, GIRL!

• Clair Hanks Huxtable : You bring yourself into this house right now! And, if you think that 30-minute ride home was something, believe me, honey, we've only just begun! Here we think you're lying in the floor of some burning building dying of asphyxia and you're down in Baltimore, having BIG FUN! Weren't you, Vanessa? Isn't that where you were? Didn't you go down there to Baltimore to have big fun, Vanessa? Tell me, didn't you go for big fun?

  Vanessa Huxtable : Mom...

  Clair Hanks Huxtable : SHUT UP! Don't you DARE open your mouth when I'm asking you a question! RUDY, GO TO BED!

• Vanessa Huxtable : May I please just have my punishment now?

  Clair Hanks Huxtable : Vanessa, please. Your father and I have been through too much this evening to be sitting up here thinking of a punishment for you right now.

  Vanessa Huxtable : [pathetically]  But I'd like my punishment before I go to bed.

  Dr. Heathcliff 'Cliff' Huxtable : [Clair lunges towards Vanessa and he has to stop her]  Do yourself a favor and go to bed.

• Rudy Huxtable : Oh, look! There's Frankie X. on the T.V. right now! He's from the Wretched!

  News Reporter : In other entertainment news lead singer Frankie X said in a news conference that he wanted to thank the citizens of Baltimore for letting the Wretched play there in Baltimore tonight...

  Clair Hanks Huxtable : Did he just say that the Wretched are in Baltimore tonight?

  Dr. Heathcliff 'Cliff' Huxtable : That's what he said.

  Rudy Huxtable : Vanessa went all the way to Baltimore. WOW!

• Vanessa Huxtable : Mom, I said I was sorry. This is not going to happen again!

  Clair Hanks Huxtable : For all I know, you are lying right now. GO TO BED!

• Clair Hanks Huxtable : Cliff tell me, have you ever been to Wilmington for donuts?

  Dr. Heathcliff 'Cliff' Huxtable : Not on the weekend.

• [Vanessa, devastated, is ordered up to her room by a furious Clair in tears; Clair is unmoved by this, as the former was wrong for what she did] 

  Clair Huxtable : [to Cliff, still upset but a bit calm]  We're gonna have to do something about this child's honesty, Cliff. Now, how are we gonna get Vanessa to be honest about something she wants to do when she knows darn good well we do NOT want her to do it? And I say that tonight, before we put head to pillow to rest in this house, you and I are gonna figure this one out!

  Dr. Heathcliff 'Cliff' Huxtable : [acting a different character, but to Clair]  All right, Roy. You get the pad and the pencil and bring 'em on into the chuck wagon, and I'll fix some coffee and some beans and a side of pork and, uh, we'll see what we can do about catching all the desperadoes.