The Morellis (Novel Series)

***The Morellis*** is an novel series in the Fairview, New Jersey series written by Maryam Wells. It focuses on an upper middle-class Italian-American family living in Fairview, New Jersey; the series was based on comedy routines in Cosby's stand-up comedy act, which in turn were based on his family life. The series was followed by a spin-off, titled *On Her Own*, broadcast from 1987 to 1993 for 144 episodes in six seasons.

## Premise

The show focuses on the Morelli family, an Italian-American upper middle class family. The father is Tony Morelli, an owner of Tony's Pizza. The mother is his wife, boutique owner Gina, an housewife.

They have four daughters and one son: Gia, Ariana, Tony Jr., Liliana, and Briella. Despite its comedic tone, the show sometimes involves serious subjects, like Tony Jr.'s experiences dealing with dyslexia, inspired by Cosby's dyslexic son, Ennis. The show also deals with teenage pregnancy when Ariana's friend Adriana Delvecchio becomes pregnant.

## Characters

* Tony Morelli
* Gina Morelli (nee Prestolani)
* Gia Morelli - *Gia Cortino (née Morelli)*, the eldest daughter of Tony and Gina, did not appear on screen until mid-way through season one. She did not exist in the pilot episode (*Clair:* "Why do we have four children?" *Cliff:* "Because we did not want five.") In her first appearance, she is a sophomore in college, and Tony notes her to be 20 years old (episode 10). She earned a degree from -- and had intentions of pursuing a career as a lawyer, like her mother. She married her boyfriend, Joey Cortino, in season four, and later gave birth to twins—a boy and a girl—named after Mario and Annette. More serious, earnest and responsible than the other children, Gia fits many of the characteristics of the first born from a large family. Though she had her moments of bizarre thinking (*e.g.* dropping out of law school to open up a wilderness store with Joey), she'd usually snap out of them relatively quickly. Because of her intelligence level and overachieving nature, she is looked upon by her parents proudly, but also is held to a higher standard than the rest of the children. Gia appeared sporadically in early seasons of the series due to the character being off at college at the time. Gia was created when Bill Cosby wanted the show to express the accomplishment of successfully raising a child (*e.g.* a college graduate). The character is loosely based upon Cosby's eldest daughter, Erika, who was approximately the same age as Gia.
* Ariana Morelli - *Ariana Tyler (née Morelli)* is the second daughter of Tony and Gina Morelli. At the beginning of the series, she is sixteen years old. She loves fashion and music, but did not want to attend school to pursue either interest. She is noted as being an individual who usually wishes to march to the beat of her own drum, and often learns lessons up front for herself rather than based on the experiences of others. She leave Fairview to attend fashion college in Los Angeles instead of going to a proper college. After graduation, she lands a job as an assistant to an executive at Bloomingdale's in New York. While there, she meets and marries Max Tyler, the son of Lauren Tyler, Ariana's boss who hired her as coordinator of junior department and also becomes stepmother to Max's three-year-old daughter Jessica, his child from a previous marriage. Ariana eventually leaves Fairview again when Max takes over his father's restaurant as the manager and Ariana gets a job as head buyer of Juliette's. It is revealed in the series finale that she is pregnant with a boy. During the first two seasons, Denise was portrayed as a very popular high-schooler, with many friends, who seemingly had a different boyfriend every episode. Along with her constantly fluctuating love life, were her various hairstyles and choices of clothing, which were occasionally made fun of by Cliff. In later seasons, however, she exhibited a more flighty nature, often expressing ideas that left Cliff and Clair greatly puzzled. In season three, Denise left home to attend Hillman College, a fictional, historically Black colleges and universities, of which her mother, father and grandfather were all alumni. *The Cosby Show*'s producers created a spin-off series, entitled *A Different World*, which initially dealt with the life of Denise at college. Denise was written out of the series following its inaugural season (which aired concurrently with season four of *The Cosby Show*), after actress Lisa Bonet became pregnant. Shortly after the start of season five, Denise traveled to Africa for a year, and there she fell in love with and married Martin. In the season six premiere, she returned home, shocking her parents with the news of her surprise marriage to a divorced single father. However, Cliff and Clair accepted the couple when they met Olivia, who immediately won their hearts and was welcomed into the family. She appears regularly during the first three seasons, and is in only four episodes each of seasons four and five (a picture of her can be seen in the opening credits of season four), she appears regularly in season six, but only appears in a handful of episodes during season seven. The character is loosely based upon Cosby's daughter, Erinn, who was approximately the same age as Denise. Additionally, Denise attended Hillman College, whereas Erinn attended Spelman College, the university that Hillman is believed to be modeled after.
* Tony Morelli Jr. - *Anthony Lorenzo Tony Morelli Jr.* is the middle child and only son of Tony and Gina Morelli, and is athletic and obsessed with impressing girls, and obtaining a sports car or motorcycle. He is fourteen years old when the series begins. In the pilot episode, he is lectured by his father for not applying himself at school ("I brought you in this world, and I'll take you out"). Also in the early seasons, he was somewhat of a troublemaker, as illustrated through incidents both alluded to and explicitly portrayed in the series, such as letting his best friend's younger sister pierce his ear, resulting in an infected earlobe, but his behavior had improved by the time he left high school. A running theme of the early seasons revolved around Theo's academic struggles, especially in his sophomore-year geometry class, taught by Mrs. Westlake (Sonia Braga). As the seasons progressed, Theo gradually evolved from being an under-achiever to a successful high school—and college—student (in interviews, Cosby noted a similar change in his real-life son, Ennis). While Theo was a student at New York University, it was revealed that he suffered from dyslexia, a learning disability that inspired him to work harder, and as a result overcame it. By the final season, Theo was a student teacher, helping other children with dyslexia at a local education center. In the show's final episode, he graduated from New York University with a degree in psychology. In the pilot, and once more in season one (the episode "Bad Dreams"), he is referred to by Vanessa as "Teddy", instead of "Theo." Theo has a long-running, but on-and-off relationship with a girl named Justine, who is mentioned many times throughout the series, but appears in only nine episodes. During his high school years, Theo's best friend was Walter Bradley (Carl Anthony Payne II), better known as "Cockroach", who was more of a scholastic underachiever than Theo, although when an argument Theo and his parents culminated into a mock trial, Cockroach was the one who presented convincing facts which closed the "case". The two of them would occasionally compose rap songs for various school assignments. When Theo got tickets to "*Dance Mania*" (a "Soul Train"-like television dance show), and only one of them was allowed into the studio, Theo let Cockroach have the spot, but did not feel good about it when he saw Cockroach on TV, and as the center of their friends' attention the next day at school. This episode marked the final appearance of the character, and Cockroach was rarely mentioned in subsequent episodes. Theo appears in the series the most out of the Huxtable children. The character is loosely based upon Cosby's only son Ennis, who was approximately the same age as Theo (and was also dyslexic). Theo also appears in two episodes of *A Different World*: "My Dinner With Theo" (with Rudy) and "Risky Business" (with Clair and Vanessa).
* Liliana Morelli - *Liliana Morelli* is the fourth child and third daughter of Tony and Gina. In season one, she is eleven years old. As Vanessa grows up, she faces typical teenage problems and heartbreaks, such as wearing make-up before her 15th birthday in violation of her parents' rules and spending a lot of time talking on the phone with her friends. Unlike her older brother, she is an excellent student and seems to enjoy school; at the beginning of season seven, she went off to college one year early. She became engaged in the final season to Dabnis Brickey, a man in his late twenties. Dabnis is the head of maintenance at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where Vanessa enrolls. However, Vanessa realizes that she is not ready to get married, and they break off the engagement. They maintain they are "just friends" by the end of the season. In the early seasons, Vanessa is usually considered to be nosy, as she usually—sneakily—tries to find out what goes on in the Huxtable house, especially when it involves someone (usually Theo) in trouble with their parents. But, in a later episode, the tables are turned, as Theo catches Vanessa's friends smoking cigarettes in her room, although Vanessa herself did not take part, and even tried to dissuade her friends from doing so. She often fights with her younger sister, Rudy, over typical childish issues. At one point, their fighting caused damage to both their bedrooms and the kitchen ceiling, driving Cliff to declare their rooms off limits because of "World War Five" and exile them to the basement until repairs were finished. But, on one occasion, Vanessa gets into a physical tussle with Denise over a sweater that Vanessa stole from Denise's closet after Denise did not allow her to borrow it. One of Vanessa's best friends in high school is a girl named Kara (played by Elizabeth Narvaez), who rambles on about nothing in particular at high speed. Whenever Cliff—who once referred to Kara as "Turbo Tongue"—is on the receiving end of her babbling, he usually replys with a bewildered "Thank you." Vanessa appeared sporadically in the final two seasons of the series due to the character being away at college. The character is loosely based upon Cosby's daughter, Ensa, who was approximately the same age as Vanessa. Vanessa also appears in the *A Different World* episode "Risky Business" (with Clair and Theo).
* Briella Morelli - *Briella Mirabella Morelli* is the youngest of the Huxtable children. She is only five years old at the beginning of the series. She comes of age during the course of the show. A number of Rudy's friends appear in episodes as the series progresses. Among the best known are the taciturn Peter Chiara who repeatedly runs out the Huxtables' front door when frightened; and the chauvinist, blues-loving Kenny, whom she nicknames "Bud", and who always gets advice from his unseen older brother about most things. This gives him the wrong conception about certain things and gets him in trouble, although he seems to grow out of it as the series reaches its end. Keshia Knight Pulliam was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her performance in season two, becoming the youngest nominee ever. One of her fellow nominees that year was Lisa Bonet. Neither won, as they lost to Rhea Perlman from *Cheers*. The Huxtable family was originally going to be two boys and two girls. The youngest child, Rudy, was initially supposed to be a boy, but the character was re-written for a girl (Keshia Knight Pulliam) when there was a lack of boys auditioning. Jaleel White, later known for his role as Steve Urkel on *Family Matters*, revealed in a 2011 interview with *Vanity Fair* that he had auditioned for the role of Rudy. The character is loosely based upon Cosby's youngest daughter, Evin, who was approximately the same age as Rudy. Rudy also appears in three episodes of *A Different World*: the pilot (with Cliff), "Rudy and the Snow Queen" (also with Cliff) and "My Dinner with Theo" (with Theo).