The new cover of Ebony says it all. The glass of a framed portrait of one of the most famous fictional American families, the Huxtables, has been smashed. And not by accident. This was done deliberately by one whose heart has been broken. There is no picking up the pieces after this.

Ebony worshiped The Cosby Show. It exactly represented its idea of black middle-class prosperity. The Cosby family hit every mark: educated, cosmopolitan, articulate, and, of course, patriarchal. Bill Cosby could do no wrong.

Then the allegations of rape began and would not stop, and it became more and more difficult to believe there was no fire with all of this smoke. It must have been painful for the editors at Ebony to finally realize nothing could be salvaged of the show. It was dead. Yes, the ideal could continue, and it will continue, but never again in the form of the Huxtables. It is now impossible to watch an episode of The Cosby Show, or Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, for that matter.