Trivia / Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

• Acting for Two: Bill Cosby plays several characters, including but not limited to: Fat Albert, himself, an animated younger version of himself, Mushmouth, Mudfoot, and the Brown Hornet. At one point, the animated Bill Cosby is on screen at the same time as live-action Bill Cosby, with the two counterparts talking to each other.
• Banned Episode: Following the conviction against Cosby, the show was pulled from reruns and Universal, which acquired the rights through DreamWorks Animation's ownership of Classic Media, has not uploaded any episodes on their YouTube channel, Retro Cartoons, nor have they reissued any DVDs when obtaining the distribution rights from Fox. While not the only missing series, its absence is rather conspicuous.
• The Danza: One of the characters Bill Cosby voices is named "Bill". It helps that Bill is also an Author Avatar.
• Descended Creator: This was the first of many shows that Filmation co-founder Lou Scheimer would do voice work in, voicing Dumb Donald, Albert's dad, Stinger (in the Brown Hornet segments) Legal Eagle and numerous background and one-off voices.
• Development Hell: Bill Cosby announced plans to revive the series in 2013. With his rape allegations and eventual conviction, it's a pretty safe bet it'll stay there.
• Digital Destruction: The UrbanWorks Entertainment DVD releases, as well as the Complete Series DVD set by Shout! Factory present the episodes in PAL format.
• Inconsistent Dub: For the French version, except for Dumb Donald, the voices that Francis Lax uses for some of the other kids (Rudy, Russell, and Mushmouth) are very inconsistent. On a few occasions, the characters are even voiced by different actors depending on the episode.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The Busted episode that has the actual profanity heard in the original broadcast is nowhere to be seen. It has never been released to DVD or online streaming except in its censored version (apart from on Netflix, which somehow had the uncensored version but has since removed the series). Presently, the only way it will show up is if someone recorded it on VCR back in 1984. As of June 10th, 2022 though, it turns out someone has.
  • The 1969 NBC pilot, which only aired three times, has not surfaced online and can only be viewed in its entirety at the Paley Center for Media. However, someone found and uploaded an audio recording from the 1971 broadcast on February 20th, 2024.
• Late Export for You:
  • The series wasn’t broadcast or dubbed for Germany until 2001 and aired for a short time during the 2000s.
  • In Portugal, the series finally started airing on TV with a dub in 2012, complete with a theme song that uses different instruments.
• No Export for You: A few countries, like Italy and France, only dubbed the 1984-85 season. (Yes, even the infamous “Gang Wars” episode.)
  • For some reason, the episode “Kiss and Tell” wasn’t dubbed into German. The holiday specials weren’t dubbed either.
• Non-Singing Voice: While Fat Albert is voiced by Bill Cosby, his singing voice is provided by Michael Gray. Neither voice sounds anything alike.
• Referenced by...: Now has its own page.
• Write Who You Know: Aside from Bill, all of the main characters are based on figures from Bill Cosby's teenage years. Russell is based on Cosby's real-life brother, also named Russell.

---