Throwback Friday: Bill Cosby's Picture Pages

: Feb 22, 2013; Written by Pat

Before he was Dr. Huxtable and wearing outlandish sweaters, Bill Cosby was teaching me and a million other kids about reading, counting, and connecting the dots. Each morning I would be up and ready with my Picture Pages books for the days lesson, while Cosby and "Mortimer Ichabod Marker" helped me out.

"Picture Pages" started on a local Pittsburgh children's show in 1974 with the "Picture Pages" puzzle booklets given away at a supermarket chain. It debuted as a national segment of the Captain Kangaroo show in 1978, in which Captain Kangaroo would do the lessons on his "magic drawing board". Later, the segments were taken over by Bill Cosby and the lessons were used with his marker, "MI", for short.

Rumor has it that since signing former Ohio State quarterback and tattoo enthusiast Terrell Pryor, the Oakland Raiders have purchased the rights to Mortimer so that they can teach him the playbook. Check it out: