Russell Dean Huxtable and Anna Simmons Huxtable are Cliff's parents. They were originally from North Carolina, before moving to Philadelphia and, later, New Jersey. Russell was a touring musician in the "Jazz Caravan", playing the trombone, earning the nickname "Slide" Huxtable. Anna is presumed to have been a housewife and mother, as Russell was on the road for many months out of the year. They, as well as Cliff and Clair, and Clair's parents, attended the civil rights March on Washington in 1963.
In the second and third seasons of the series, Cliff and his family organized "entertainment" for his parents' anniversaries, in the form of lip-sync and dance routines to Ray Charles's "The Night Time (Is the Right Time)" in Season 2, and James Brown's "I Got the Feeling" in Season 3. These are among the best-known, and most popular, episodes of the series, especially the first one. As Cliff's parents, the characters are also shown to take an authoritive role over him at times during their visits, especially his father, much to the amusement of the Huxtable children.
Russell and Anna are named after Bill Cosby's brother and mother. The parts of Russell and Anna, Clifford's parents, are played by veteran actor Earle Hyman and actress Clarice Taylor.