Carl “Cockroach” Anthony Payne II reveals the origin of his ‘Cosby Show’ nickname and what Bill Cosby said during the ambush shooting

Carl Anthony Payne II has some interesting memories about unanswered questions on his time on “The Cosby Show.” First, his character, Walter Bradley, became lovingly often known as Cockroach, the best friend of Malcolm Jamal Warner’s Theo Huxtable.

The New Jersey native joined an all-star solid that also included series creator Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad, Tempestt Bledsoe, Keishia Knight Pulliam and Lisa Bonet, who played his wife and three of his 4 daughters in the 1986 second season.

Payne made his debut in episode 15, titled “Theo and Cockroach,” and during an interview on the My Expert Opinion podcast, he explained that his character was loosely based on a friend of Bill’s real-life son, Ennis Cosby.

“My understanding is that all these characters were based on his real family, real family friends and so on. And his son had a friend at the time with a really interesting or funny nickname, a really unique nickname,” he began. “So obviously you may’t use the same name, so quite a bit of people thought cockroaches were something bad… but he said, let me turn it around, turn it into something good, because cockroaches are the strongest thing to take care of this, right? They survived.

Like its nature, the pest can find itself in precarious situations but still thrive, but there may be more to its name. Payne continued: “It’s also, he said, a reputation people will remember. It will work, you’ll do it – it’s going to stick. Who does that? What kind of name is that? And then you definitely’ll need to know what this kid is like, you understand?

But when the conversation turned to the “Martin” alum’s departure from the show in 1987 after appearing in 12 episodes over three seasons, he cleared up rumors of a rift between him and Cosby once and for all.

For years, speculation about Payne’s refusal to chop his hair was regarded as the reason he never returned to the show after Season 4’s tenth episode, “Dance Mania.” According to him, just one part of this story is true.

The comedy star explained: “The episode where we had to shave our heads (season 3, episode 23, “Bald and beautiful“), hairdresser, right, I hot-combed my hair so that it would hang under the cap… They stripped it and straightened it. Now you have to wash it off because you have to go back to what you did before. But that never happened; instead, Payne had hair of a different texture. “He had to pour a mild sedative into my joint,” he added.

The slapstick comedian began saying that he already has “good hair quality,” but his braids don’t match scenes filmed before he went bald, leaving the production to grapple with continuity issues. Bill allegedly raised the matter personally with the then-teenager, who was roughly 15-16 years old, which ultimately contributed to Cockroach’s departure from the show.

“I believe there have been quite a bit of other aspects that I came upon about after the fact, but you understand, he was like, ‘I told you about your hair.’ You know, this, that and this… not like he told me about my hair before, but in keeping with the principle: “We only do natural hair here.”(…) He talked to me as if I used to be an adult man. … It was about what he said, how he said it, how he addressed me, what language he used. When he attacked me, I felt like I used to be in an ambush,” revealed the “Young Dylan” star.

Payne claimed he never had the opportunity to elucidate to his now disgraced TV dad that the misfortune was brought on by the production’s hair and makeup team. He said that for years he has been coping with fans who harass him on the Internet about gossip. “I just let it go; I just let it live. … I went through stuff like that as a child back then, it was probation and all this crazy stuff, and then they never called me back.

“The Cosby Show” aired more episodes, eventually ending its successful run with eight seasons in 1992. The series was pulled from syndication in 2018 as a consequence of Cosby’s sexual assault conviction. While Payne avoided denigrating the artist and his time on the series, each he and Warner were open about their off-screen chemistry being a stark contrast to the best buds they portrayed.

Payne initially auditioned for the role of Theo, which Warner believed his peers resented. However, each men moved on from the minor teenage dispute.