Before his tragic death by drowning in Costa Rica at age 54 in July, The Cosby Show alum Malcolm-Jamal Warner shared some memories about working on the landmark NBC sitcom from 1984 to 1992.

The actor was interviewed for the two-part HBO documentary Seen & Heard, which premieres Sept. 9 and 10. Executive produced by Issa Rae, the documentary, which charts the past, present and future of Black talent and Black programming on television, airs over two nights, with the first episode, “Seen,” debuting on HBO Sept. 9 at 9 p.m. ET and the second episode, “Heard,” dropping the following day at the same time.

Assorted Black creatives, including Oprah Winfrey, Tracee Ellis Ross, Debbie Allen, Shonda Rhimes, Tyler Perry and Rae herself appear over the course of both episodes, as does Warner, in a segment focused on The Cosby Show. He talks about how a tense early interaction with Bill Cosby influenced his work on the show.

“When I auditioned for Cosby, I was 13,” recalls Warner, who played the only Huxtable son, Theo. “I’d been watching, you know, Diff’rent Strokes and watching these kids on television be smart alecks and what have you. That’s what my acting had been influenced by.”

The audition went well — or so he thought. “I mean, I killed in the room. I was getting the laughs, and I’m 13, I’m killing in the room. And I finished my audition, and everybody was smiling, except Mr. Cosby, and he looked at me, and he said, ‘Would you really talk to your father like that?’ And I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Well, I don’t want to see that on this show.’ “

Throughout the sitcom’s run, Warner recalls, Cosby fought with executives over the tone of the show as he fought for it to stay true to his vision. “Mr. Cosby made certain that everyone was acutely aware The Cosby Show was his brainchild,” Warner says. “But then you have these other creatives, you know, there’s a network producer, writers, you know, studio coming in, trying to tell him how to do his show, and every step of the way, Mr. Cosby had to stop them and remind them that’s not the show that we’re doing.”

It was a fight Cosby had to wage and win over and over. “I watched him do that from year one to year eight,” Warner adds. “That battle never, never stopped, until the show stopped.”

For Warner, the response from fans made the effort worthwhile. “I was getting tens of thousands of letters from people who were saying, ‘Thank you. Thank you for the show. We are the Huxtables,’ and you know, and the show obviously got criticized for not being Black enough, not being a real depiction of the black experience,” he says in the documentary.

Despite Cosby’s good intentions with his namesake sitcom, his own actions would ultimately destroy his reputation and tarnish the show’s legacy. After a number of women came forward and accused him of sexual assault over the span of decades, he faced charges of drugging and sexually assaulting one of his accusers, was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. He was released in 2021 after serving nearly three years because a previous district attorney had made a non-prosecution agreement with Cosby in exchange for his testimony in a civil case against him.

In 2023, Warner told PEOPLE that Cosby’s legal troubles and the 88 year old’s persona non grata status in Hollywood didn’t change the way he viewed the show that made him a child star.

“Regardless of how some people may feel about the show now,” he said, “I’m still proud of the legacy and having been a part of such an iconic show that had such a profound impact on — first and foremost, Black culture — but also American culture.”