Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (often referred to simply as Fat Albert) is an American 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 Fat Albert himself. Filmation was the production company for the series. The show premiered in 1972[1] and aired until 1985 (with new episodes being produced sporadically during that time frame). The show, based on Cosby's remembrances of his childhood gang, focused on Fat Albert (known for his catchphrase "Hey hey hey!"), and his friends.[2]
"Fat Albert" redirects here. For other uses, see Fat Albert (disambiguation).Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
- Fat Albert
- The New Fat Albert Show
- The Adventures of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
Bill Cosby
- Bill Cosby
- Lou Scheimer
- Jan Crawford
- Gerald Edwards
- Eric Suter
- Jay Scheimer
- Erika Scheimer
- Lane Scheimer
- Keith Sutherland
- Eric Greene
- Ty Henderson
- Kim Hamilton
- Frank Welker
- Linda Gary
- Greg Morris
- Ricky Sheldon
- Edward Fournier
"Gonna Have A Good Time (Fat Albert Theme)" (Performed by Michael Gray)
United States
English
8
110 + 5 specials (list of episodes)
Bill Cosby
- Lou Scheimer
- Norm Prescott (1972–84)
United States
- CBS (1972–84)
- First-Run Syndication (1984–85)
September 9, 1972 –
August 10, 1985
The show features an educational lesson in each episode, emphasized by Cosby's live-action segments. In addition, at the end of the early episodes, the gang typically joins in their North Philadelphia junkyard to play a song on their cobbled-together instruments, summarizing the show's lesson.[2]
The New York Times noted that the show "enjoyed enormous success" throughout its run.[3] The show's success led Cosby to create a second animated series, Little Bill, in the late 1990s.[4] Little Bill was intentionally designed to be visually different from Fat Albert, while retaining similar educational lessons and roots in Cosby's childhood experiences.[4]
Origins and history[edit]
The character Fat Albert first appeared in Bill Cosby's stand-up comedy routine "Buck Buck," as recorded on his 1967 album Revenge.[5] The stories were based upon Cosby's tales about growing up in inner city North Philadelphia.[6] In 1969, Cosby and veteran animator Ken Mundie brought Fat Albert to animation in a 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 was written and performed by jazz pianist/keyboardist Herbie Hancock in 1969[7] and was released on the Warner Bros. album Fat Albert Rotunda. For the animated portion of the special, it was necessary to develop the actual appearance of each of the Fat Albert Gang's characters. For this, Ken Mundie relied on animator Amby Paliwoda, a former Disney artist. Paliwoda not only created all the Gang's characters, but painted a "group portrait" which was eventually shown on the front page of TV Guide magazine shortly before the showing of the special.
The producers wanted NBC to bring Fat Albert to Saturday mornings, but the network programming managers rejected this because the series was too educational.[8] Bill Cosby and a new production company, Filmation Associates, then took the property to CBS. 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.[9]
Retitled Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, the series premiered on September 9, 1972, on CBS. Production lasted for 12 years, though production of the series was not continuous. It also spent another season in first-run syndication (1984–85). Three prime-time holiday specials (Halloween, Christmas, and Easter) featuring the characters were also produced.[10] Like most Saturday morning cartoons of the era, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids contained an adult laugh track, which was eliminated during the final season. The series was rerun on NBC Saturday mornings and on the USA Network in 1989.
In the late 1990s, Bill Cosby developed a second animated series, Little Bill, which was intentionally designed to look different from Fat Albert.[4] The executive producer of Little Bill, Janice Burgess, stated that the Fat Albert character was "more broadly comic" and exaggeratedly cartoonish than Little Bill.[4] However, the two shows shared similar educational messages.
Revamps and renames[edit]
In 1979, the show was re-titled The New Fat Albert Show and featured a new segment titled "The Brown Hornet" detailing the adventures of a black crime fighter in outer space whose design resembled a caricature of Bill Cosby, who also performed vocal talents on the character. His shows always contained an object lesson for the viewers. The gang would watch the program at the beginning of each episode, and then they would invariably face a situation that forced them to apply the object lesson.
In 1984, the show was syndicated and renamed The Adventures of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. The lack of network restrictions allowed the producer to delve into more mature subject matter. A notable episode ("Busted") featured the kids having an inadvertent brush with the law and given a Scared Straight!-style tour of an occupied maximum security prison; it even contained utterances (by the jail's inmates) of the words "damn" and "bastard" (Cosby had appeared in the beginning of the episode advising viewers that those words would be used as part of the story's dialogue to realistically depict jail life). Another notable episode, "Gang Wars", featured a child being shot and killed. Another segment was added: "Legal Eagle", a crime-fighting eagle with a pair of bumbling police deputy squirrels. Production of new episodes ceased in 1985.
Theme song[edit]
The theme song, "Gonna Have a Good Time", was composed by Ricky Sheldon and Edward Fournier,[12] and performed by Michael Gray (vocals), Kim Carnes (background vocals) and Edward Fournier (background vocals).[11][13]
A cover of the show's theme song, performed by Dig, is included on the 1995 tribute album Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits, produced by Ralph Sall and released on MCA Records. The song's chorus ("Na-na-na, gonna have a good time!") was also sampled in Fatboy Slim's 1998 hit single "Praise You".
Reception[edit]
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was named the 82nd best animated series by IGN.[14]
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids received an Emmy nomination in 1974. Production of the final season of the series overlapped with the start of production of Bill Cosby's live-action sitcom, The Cosby Show, which began airing on NBC in fall 1984.
In 1993, TV Guide magazine named Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids the best cartoon series of the 1970s in its issue celebrating 40 years of television.[15]
In 2002, Fat Albert was placed at number 12 on TV Guide's list of the 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time.[16]
In 2020, Joyce Slaton of Common Sense Media argued that the series is an "old-school cartoon...[with] strong positive messages." She noted that while the show's themes like kidnapping, racism, and child abuse may cause parents to be concerned, there is "fresh humor, funky music, and the strong positive messages".[17]
Availability[edit]
Syndication[edit]
As of 2013, Fat Albert was seen Saturday mornings on Retro Television Network (RTV), TheCoolTV, and weekdays and weekends on Bounce TV, both of which are digital networks. It was also seen weekdays on the now-defunct Sky Angel services Angel Two and Kids & Teens TV, as well as World Harvest Television. Fat Albert was also available streaming online from HallmarkSpiritClips.com.
As of July 2015, Fat Albert was no longer on Bounce TV's lineup. Bounce TV had previously pulled the comedy series Cosby from their lineup in the wake of the Bill Cosby sexual assault allegations,[18] but it is unclear if the cancellations of the Fat Albert episodes was related to these allegations. However, several months after returning reruns of The Cosby Show in December 2016, Bounce TV quietly re-added Fat Albert to its schedule in March 2017, until it was eventually removed from the schedule again in late April 2018.
Home media[edit]
During the mid-1980s, Thorn EMI Video released several volumes of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids on VHS as part of their "Children's Matinee" line of animated programs, with each cassette typically containing three episodes. Additional volumes were released later in the decade by Video Treasures, including the three holiday specials.
In 2002, Time Life distributed 11 volumes of the series on VHS and TV through mail-order. Each volume contained two episodes, with the DVD releases containing a bonus third episode, along with character profiles and a bonus Brown Hornet segment from the 1980-82 seasons. The episodes included were from the 1972-76 seasons, with only one coming from the New Fat Albert season in 1979. Some of the episodes were edited versions, either using 1979-82 Brown Hornet re-broadcasts in place of the closing song segments, 1984 re-broadcasts with the live-action Cosby segments re-filmed, or alternate prints of 1972 episodes with no laugh track. The 11th volume included the Christmas and Halloween specials. These were the only DVD releases to present the show in its original NTSC format, as future DVD releases use PAL prints.
In 2004, UrbanWorks Entertainment acquired the rights to the series, subsequently releasing several Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids DVDs including a two-volume collection featuring 24 episodes, as well as all specials to coincide with the theatrical release of the feature film adaptation. Volume 1 contains two DVDs with episodes 1–12 (airdates 9/9–11/25/1972), along with a CD containing the opening theme, the closing theme, and 12 songs from each of the 12 episodes shown in vol. 1 [19] Volume 2 contains two discs with episodes 13–24 (airdates 12/2/1972–9/13/1975), along with a CD containing the opening theme, the closing theme, and 12 songs from each of the 12 episodes shown in vol. 2.[20][21][22][23] In addition, UrbanWorks Entertainment released a Greatest Hits four-disc DVD box set, containing 20 uncut episodes in their original broadcast presentation and original airdate order, as well as a five-best episodes set via Ventura Distribution.[24][25]
In 2008, Classic Media acquired the rights to the series and stated at the time that they intended to release the entire series on DVD.[26] This never happened as they only re-released The Fat Albert Halloween Special and The Fat Albert Easter Special on DVD via distribution partner Genius Products.[27][28]
On April 6, 2012, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series (under license from Classic Media) and planned to release a complete series box set on DVD. The DVD set was released on June 25, 2013.[29]
On September 4, 2012, Classic Media re-released all three holiday specials together in one collection entitled The Hey Hey Hey Holiday Collection on DVD in Region 1.[30]
Other media[edit]
Gold Key Comics released a comic book adaptation of Fat Albert, which ran for 29 issues from 1974 to 1979.[31]
In 2012, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids appeared in MetLife's "Everyone" commercial during Super Bowl XLVI.
Film adaptation[edit]
In 2004, 20th Century Fox released a film adaptation of the series titled Fat Albert. The film stars Kenan Thompson as Fat Albert, Kyla Pratt, and Bill Cosby. The film acts as a sequel to the series where Fat Albert and the boys journey into the real world after jumping out of a television in order to help a lonely girl named Doris (Kyla Pratt) with her social anxiety. The boys enjoy being in the real world but after a meeting with their creator, Bill Cosby, Fat Albert is informed that if he and the others do not return to the television world immediately, they will turn into celluloid dust.