'The Cosby Show's' Phylicia Rashad Joins NBC Drama Pilot

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Phylicia Rashad

Phylicia Rashad, aka Clair Huxtable on NBC's long-running The Cosby Show, is plotting her return to the small screen.

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The Emmy-nominated and Tony-winning actress has joined NBC's drama pilot Do No Harm, a network spokesman confirms to The Hollywood Reporter.

Do No Harm is a updated take on the Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde drama that revolves around Jeffrey Kohl (Rescue Me's Steven Pasquale), a brilliant neurosurgeon who wrestles with his dangerous alter-ego that threatens to wreak havoc on his personal and processional life.

As first reported by TV Guide, Rashad will play Dr. Vanessa Young, the chief of surgery and Jeffrey's boss. She joins a cast that also includes Alana De La Garza, Mousa Kraish, Michael Esper and Ruta Gedmintas.

From Universal Television, David Schulner will write and executive produce the project alongside Peter Traugott and Rachel Kaplan. Michael Mayer is on board to co-exec produce and direct.

Should Do No Harm go to series, the drama would mark her first small-screen starring role since CBS' 1996-2000 comedy Cosby, in which Rashad also played wife to Bill Cosby. Beyond that, she voiced a role in another Cosby project, the animated Little Bill from 2000-2002.

More recently, Rashad has focused on the big screen, with roles in Tyler Perry's Good Deeds, For Colored Girls and the Queen Latifah starrer Just Wright. She became the first black actress to win a Tony award for lead actress in a play for her turn in A Raisin in the Sun.

Rashad joins a growing cadre of A-list stars heading to broadcast television this pilot season. She joins Kevin Bacon (Kevin Williamson's serial killer drama), Cuba Gooding Jr. (Fox's Guilty), Mira Sorvino (CBS' Trooper), Dennis Quaid (CBS' untitled Ralph Lamb Western) and Dane Cook (NBC's Next Caller Please) among others.

Her casting continues a trend this season of '80s stars returning to series leads including John Stamos (Fox's Little Brother), Kirstie Alley (ABC's The Manzinis), John Goodman (NBC's Downwardly Mobile) and Christopher Lloyd (ABC's Only Fools and Horses).

Rashad co-starred on Cosby Show from 1984-1992, picking up a pair of Emmy nominations for the role.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit