Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

This article is about Fat Albert, the television series. For the 2004 film, see Fat Albert (film).

Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was an animated television series created, produced, and hosted (in live action bookends) by comedian Bill Cosby, who also lent his voice to a number of characters, including the titular one. Filmation was the production company for the series.

Origins

Fat Albert first appeared in Cosby's stand-up comedy routine "Buck Buck," as recorded on his 1967 album Revenge. The stories were based upon Cosby's tales about growing up in the inner city of Philadelphia. In 1969, Cosby and veteran animator Ken Mundie brought Fat Albert to animation in a one-shot prime-time special entitled Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert.

The special, which aired on NBC, was a hybrid of live-action and animation. The music for the special (and later the series) was written and performed by jazz pianist/keyboardist Herbie Hancock in 1969 and was released on the Warner Bros. album Fat Albert Rotunda.

The producers anticipated NBC to bring Fat Albert to Saturday mornings, but they refused because the series was too educational ^*. So, Bill Cosby and a new production company, Filmation Associates, took the property to CBS.

The series, now titled Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, premiered on September 9, 1972 on CBS for a 12-year run. It also spent a few more months in first-run syndication in 1984. Several prime-time holiday specials featuring the characters were also produced. Like most animated series at the time, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids contained a laugh track.

The Fat Albert Gang's character images were primarily created by the artist Randy Hollar with the assistance of one-time Disney animator Michelle McKinney, under the direction of Ken Brown.

Educational lessons and songs

Fat Albert was honored and noted for its educational content. During each episode, Fat Albert and his friends, collectively known as The Junkyard Gang, dealt with an issue or problem commonly faced by young children, ranging from stage fright, first loves ("puppy love"), medical operations, and skipping school to harder, more serious themes (toned down somewhat for young children) including smoking, stealing, racism, being scammed by con artists, child abuse, drug use, and gun violence.

At the end of each episode, the gang would sing a song about the theme of the day. This sequence, similar to those seen in other Filmation shows including The Archie Show, has often been parodied and mocked for its style and lack of moral ambiguity.

Despite the reputation of educational children television series for being unpopular on commercial television, the series enjoyed one of the longest runs in the history of the Saturday morning cartoon timeslot.

Revamps and renames

In 1979, the show was re-titled The New Fat Albert Show and featured a pair of new animated segments: "The Brown Hornet" (detailing the adventures of a larger-than-life African-American crime fighter in outer space whose design resembled a caricature of Bill Cosby, who also performed vocal talents on the character) and "Legal Eagle" (involving a crime-fighting eagle and a pair of bumbling police squirrels).

In 1984, the show was syndicated and renamed The Adventures of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. In those episodes, the lack of network restrictions allowed the producer to delve into previous forbidden subject matter such when the kids have a inadvertant brush with the law and are given a terrifying tour of an occupied maximum security prison. It ended the same year. In 1989, NBC aired reruns for a few months during that summer.

Cultural influences

In the mid-90s to early 2000s, Fat Albert and the Junkyard Gang were prominently displayed on clothing from urban clothier FUBU as well as other T-shirt producers.

Animaniacs featured a parody of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids in the episode "Back in Style", where they mocked Filmation's cheap animation techniques.

In 1998, a spoof of Fat Albert appeared on an episode of South Park where he was referred to as "Fat Abbott".

Saturday Night Live did a comedy sketch in 1999 entitled Fat Albert: Behind the Music. In the sketch Albert, played by former castmember Tracy Morgan, recalls the downfall of the junkyard gang.

In 2001, the junkyard gang (minus Fat Albert) made a brief cameo appearance in the Family Guy episode- " Husband, Father...Brother?". In the following scene, Peter Griffin says Fat Albert's catchphrase 'Hey Hey Hey!'. Instead of using the characteristically deep voice, however, he says it much higher, perhaps to reference how a black woman might say it.

A live action film based on the TV show, entitled Fat Albert was released on December 25, 2004. The series was released on DVD beginning in 2005.

A parody of Fat Albert made an appearance in 2006 on Comedy Central's Drawn Together as the master of ceremonies for the Fat Camp Reunion dance.

NewsRadio featured an episode ("Zoso") where Beth came up with a scheme to produce face-covering hats with eye-holes like the one Donald wore. Donald was continually confused with Mushmouth by the characters (done intentionally by the writers as a joke) in descriptions of the hat.

In 2005, Mad TV did a spoof of Fat Albert entitled "Morbidly Obese Albert".

One of the Blue Angels most prominent Navy aircrafts, C-130T Hercules, is nicknamed Fat Albert.

In the Fairly Oddparents movie Channel Chasers, a parody of Fat Albert appears and is named Heavy Hal.

Japanese character Koni, from the series Dotto Koni Chan, shows the influence of Fat Albert.

Characters

Fat Albert - Obese, kindly, somewhat naïve teenager. His catchphrase: "Hey Hey Hey"
Mushmouth - spoke in Ubbi Dubbi
Dumb Donald - Wore a pink stocking cap over part of his face. Prone to horrible judgement
Bill - based on Cosby himself
Mudfoot - Elderly proprietor of the junkyard where the group often hung out. He often conned the group out of their money.
Rudy - Flamboyantly dressed smooth talker.
Russell - Bill's laid back younger brother, always dressed for the winter. His catchphrase: "No class.", usually used to insult Rudy.
Weird Harold - Serves as Mushmouth's translator, a tall skinny kid who always wears a shirt and jacket, clumsy except on the basketball court
Bucky - A kid with buck teeth
The Brown Hornet - Show-within-a-show about an African American superhero (a parody of The Green Hornet) whose cartoons were watched by the group
Legal Eagle - Another show-within-a-show, involving a crime-fighting cartoon bird and two lazy squirrel underlings

Seasons and Specials

Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert — November 12, 1969
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids — 1972–1973 (22 episodes), 1975–1976 (14 episodes)
The Fat Albert Halloween Special — October 24, 1977
The Fat Albert Christmas Special — December 18, 1977
The New Fat Albert Show — 1979–1981 (23 episodes)
The Fat Albert Easter Special — April 3, 1982
The Adventures of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids — 1984–1985 (50 episodes)

Trivia

Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids received an Emmy nomination in 1974.
Gold Key Comics did a comic book adaptation of Fat Albert, which ran for 29 issues, from 1974-79.
In 2002, Fat Albert came in at number 12 on TV Guides list of the 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time.
Contrary to what the movie suggested, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids has never aired on TV Land, though many other shows produced by Bill Cosby, including The Cosby Show and Fatherhood, have.

==See also=

Little Bill

External links

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