Talk:Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

Criticism
A discussion of criticism of the portrayal of Fat Albert and the Gang, representing major racial stereotypes of African-American's, would add to the dimension of this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.109.248.114 (talk • contribs)

Cut phrase (indicated by strikeout):


 * 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.

What does 'mocked for its style' mean? I've never heard of anything being mocked "for its style".

More importantly, who would mock an educational series for moral unambiguity? One would expect criticism on the grounds that an issue was brought up, but treated in an ambiguous way (thus confusing the kids or leaving them unsatisfied). Or is this a way of introducing a POV that "Education for children SHOULD be morally ambiguous"? --Uncle Ed 16:02, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I would like to see the statement "Bill Cosby is gay" cited. I have found no information supporting this statement.

On the Fat Albert Page, More Vandalism?
In the Character section, is the description for Legal Eagle true? "Legal Eagle - A show about nature and how animals are raped." I didn't watch the show but this sounds incredible. Klendathue, 7/21/2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Klendathue (talk • contribs) 16:56, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Episode guide ?
Will there a section for a episode guide. I do want to made one, but i'm only know about the 80's episodes, and few of the 70's episodes (mich (talk) 15:52, 11 February 2009 (UTC))

Is this right ?
Margene — A white classmate and good friend of Fat Albert's. In one episode she and Albert ran for co-president of the Student Council and beat out two other candidates, both of whom were running on platforms of racism (one was black, the other Caucasian). A straight-A student, Margene occasionally got in with the wrong people but always managed to rebound; in another episode she got hooked on drugs, and yet another she got innocently involved in a violent white supremacy cult. I'm not sure if the this had happen(mich (talk) 19:13, 10 March 2009 (UTC))

Rudy's Instrument in the Band
"His (Rudy's) family is implied to be financially better-off than the others as he is the only Junkyard Band member with a real musical instrument, an electric guitar."

A good point that I never considered. When shown playing alone, Rudy is strumming an electric guitar. But in scenes showing everyone, he's playing a different instrument; it appears to be a makeshift banjo. It's hard for me to tell from what images I can find, but it looks like the banjo consists of a round object, attached to a broomstick handle. There's a sewing-thread spool at the top of the handle to hold the string(s?). Just1thing (talk) 18:46, 8 January 2011 (UTC)
 * The supposed implication is original research and I've removed it as such. Maybe it was a gift from a beloved teacher, maybe he found it and fixed it up, maybe he saved every penny he had for several years, who knows? - SummerPhD (talk) 00:02, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

Although the implication of Rudy's family being rich is original research, I thought we should still have the information about what instrument(s) he plays. If someone can write a better description about that homemade banjo, please do. Just1thing (talk) 19:37, 9 January 2011 (UTC)
 * I've heard people call the character "Rich Rudy," but never on the show. He might have been better off than the other kids, but when someone smashed his bike, his parents weren't able to replace it, and he was advised by a police woman to take the guy who wrecked his bike to small claims court, where he thought he had no chance, because the other kid had a lawyer for a father.  It would still be original research to suggest his family was in a higher income bracket than that of the others.--Scottandrewhutchins (talk) 17:11, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

In the first season episode, "Creativity", Rudy is showing off his guitar (and giant-size speakers/amplifiers) to the gang. After he leaves, one of the kids says that Rudy's father is rich and bought him "that fancy guitar." Which is at odds with the above mentioned episode, where his parents couldn't afford to replace Rudy's smashed bike. Don't know how much continuity there was concerning Rudy's folks between episodes. The "rich" characterization was probably just a one-time mention. It's interesting, but it's probably best left out of the article.Just1thing (talk) 01:42, 9 July 2017 (UTC)

What About Devery?
wasn't there a character named Devery - tall guy that played basketball? I believe he was fashioned after my uncle Ed Devery, who played basketball with Bill Cosby at Temple University. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dlnalls (talk • contribs) 01:06, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Theme Song
I quote the guidelines here:

"YouTube: YouTube and other video-sharing sites are not reliable sources because anyone can create or manipulate a video clip and upload without editorial oversight, just as with a self-published website. In some cases, video clips published on YouTube may be acceptable as primary sources if their authenticity can be confirmed, or as a secondary source if they can be traced to a reliable publisher, but even then should be used with caution. They may also be used as a convenience link for material originally published elsewhere. Be careful not to link to material that is a copyright violation."

In regards to the info on the song being parodied in SHED.MOV, this does not apply. The video isn't claiming to be fact. It is, in itself, fact for existing. Therefor, the YouTube link as it's source is completely valid.

As for the notability guidelines, which out of the five it must meet at least one, meets the significant coverage guideline. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.213.69.91 (talk) 19:51, 20 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure what guideline you are using for "notability guidelines" here, but this is trivial information. Yes, someone produced a parody. However, this material is not significant to Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. If a notable artist produces a song about George Washington, we do not include that fact in George Washington, as it is not a significant enough fact about George Washington that someone looking for information about Washington would hope to find that information in the article. If the song is notable, we may very well include a statement that the song is about Washington, if we have a source for that fact. If there is significant coverage about the artist that also substantially discusses the song, some mention of that material may be appropriate for the artist's article.
 * In the present case, the artist is not notable and the song is not notable. We do not have independent coverage of the parody in a reliable source. As such, what we have is a non-notable person or group saying something about a notable subject in a self-published source (youtube, in this case). In many ways, this is similar to some random person commenting on something in a blog. Unless that person or that blog receives significant coverage in independent reliable sources, there is no place in Wikipedia for this material.
 * As two different editors have now removed this material for substantially identical reasons, I would strongly suggest that you seek consensus here on the talk page before restoring the material again. Thanks. - Sum mer PhD  (talk) 23:16, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

Miss Wucher
I thought Miss Wucher was Erika Scheimer, but it's possible mother and daughter sound a lot alike. --Scottandrewhutchins (talk) 17:13, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Un sourced
I removed the following: 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. The producers wanted NBC to bring Fat Albert to Saturday mornings, but the network programming managers refused because the series was too educational. 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. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ihazchessburger (talk • contribs) 04:12, 13 February 2016 (UTC)
 * And I restored it, because as can clearly be seen here at least part of what you removed was indeed sourced. The remainder is not controversial and the addition of one or more  tags should be sufficient.  General Ization   Talk   04:15, 13 February 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 1 one external link on Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090119005124/http://tv.ign.com:80/top-100-animated-tv-series/82.html to http://tv.ign.com/top-100-animated-tv-series/82.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 03:03, 30 December 2016 (UTC)

Brown Hornet cartoon
Would it be worth mentioning that while the Brown Hornet's name and appearance was based on the Green Hornet his power set seemed varied wildly from on par with Space Ghost's to that of Mr Mxyzptlk (he'd snap his finger and poof what need to happen happened). Also every episode begins with the Brown Hornet and his sidekick Stinger in some kind of trap and he escapes using his superpower (he snaps his fingers and presto he's out of the trap) and even every episode had him in yet another death trap and the kids going "How's the Brown Hornet going to get out of this one?" Uh the way he gets out of every death trap. This made the kids look stupid and in the main show they weren't stupid. Naive at times yes, stupid no.--174.99.238.22 (talk) 18:05, 8 March 2020 (UTC)