Bill Cosby and his childhood chums from North Philadelphia star in Bill's first animated TV Special.
An autobiographical animated special featuring comedian Bill Cosby's childhood reminiscences about friendship, football, monster movies, and girls. Serving as an imaginative proxy for the humorist is "Fat" Albert, a gargantuan playground fixture known for his throaty salutation "Hey, hey, hey!"
The Tackle Championship of the Entire World is at stake as Captain Cosby's Eagles prepare to meet the fearsome Green Street Terrors. With Fat Albert on their team, the Eagles are confident they can forgo practice for a matinee (featuring Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolfman).
But without Fat Albert the Eagles are nothing. And at game time, Fat Albert is what the're without. Hurt by his teammates' wisecracks about his size, Big A says he'll sit this one out. Maybe even leave the neighborhood.
Music by Herbie Hancock.
Bill Cosby … Cast, Voice, Fat Albert, Mushmouth, Mudfoot, Dumb Donald
Steven Cheatham … Cast, Voice, Russell
Ernestine Wade … Cast, Voice, Bill's Mother
Solomon Young … Cast, Voice, Weird Harold
Alvin Hillard … Cast, Voice, Weasel
Gary Moore … Cast, Voice, Nolan
Ben Anderson … Cast, Voice, Rudy
Pat Ross … Cast, Voice, Rosemary
Angela Miller … Cast, Voice, Naomi
Dana Marshall … Cast, Voice, 1st Green Street Terror
Roosevelt Blow … Cast, Voice, 2nd Green Street Terror
NOTE:
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 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.