Lt. Martin Kendall

Martin Kendall arrives in the Huxtable orbit as a Navy lieutenant with sharp creases and sharper manners, courting Denise with an earnestness that borders on formal. He's polite to a fault around her parents, clearly smitten, and a little out of step with the household's chaotic warmth — a straight arrow wading into a family of characters.

Phillips plays Martin's stiffness as sincere rather than stuffy, which lets the character be a gentle joke without ever becoming one. His buttoned-up decency gives Denise's spontaneity something to bounce off, and the show gets easy comedy from watching square, dutiful Martin try to keep pace with a family that never quite behaves the way he expects.