Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (often referred to simply as Fat Albert) is an American educational 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 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.

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.

The New York Times noted that the show "enjoyed enormous success" throughout its run. The show's success led Cosby to create a second animated series, Little Bill, in the late 1990s. Little Bill was intentionally designed to be visually different from Fat Albert, while retaining similar educational lessons and roots in Cosby's childhood experiences

Origins and history: The character Fat Albert first appeared in Bill 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 inner city North Philadelphia. 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.
• The producers wanted NBC to bring Fat Albert to Saturday mornings, but the network programming managers rejected this 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. Following these changes, two new characters, James "Mushmouth" Mush and Bucky Miller, are added to replace Nolan and Weasel from the 1969 pilot while six other main cast members would return. Filmation provided the animation for the show while the opening sequence and the unaired 1971 pilot were outsourced and animated to Japanese production company Toei Animation.
• 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. 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 titled Little Bill, which was intentionally designed to look different from Fat Albert. The executive producer of Little Bill, Janice Burgess, stated that the Fat Albert character was "more broadly comic" and exaggeratedly cartoonish than Little Bill. However, the two shows shared similar educational messages.

Reception: Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was named the 82nd best animated series by IGN

• 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.
• In 2002, Fat Albert was placed at number 12 on TV Guide's list of the 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time.
• 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".
• In the late 1990s, Bill Cosby developed a second animated series, Little Bill, which was intentionally designed to look different from Fat Albert. The executive producer of Little Bill, Janice Burgess, stated that the Fat Albert character was "more broadly comic" and exaggeratedly cartoonish than Little Bill. However, the two shows shared similar educational messages.

Revamps and renames: However, it suffers from revamps and renames, in 1979, the series was renamed 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 series was syndicated and renamed The Adventures of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. The lack of network restrictions allowed the producers to explore more mature themes. For instance, one episode ("Busted") featured the Junkyard Gang touring a maximum security prison; this episode included prisoners uttering expletives which is very inappropriate for an animated kids show, with Cosby preemptively informing viewers that such language would be used to authentically portray prison life. Another episode, "Gang Wars", depicted 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.

Movie adaptation: On Saturday December 25, 2004, 20th Century Fox released a movie adaptation of the series titled Fat Albert, a live-action animated hybrid comedy movie. It stars Kenan Thompson as Fat Albert, Kyla Pratt, and Dania Ramirez. The film acts as a continuation of the classic animated TV show where Fat Albert and the gang journey into the real world after jumping out of a TV in order to help a lonely girl named Doris 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 soon, they will turn into celluloid dust. Unlike the animated TV show, the movie version received generally negative reviews upon release and was considered a financial failure/box office misfire, only grossing $48 million on a budget of $45 million. It remains the most recent piece of Fat Albert media to date. Besides that, a lot of Fat Albert fans hated the movie version.

Other media: Gold Key Comics released a comic book adaptation of Fat Albert, which ran for 29 issues from 1974-79.

• In 2012, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids appeared in MetLife's "Everyone" commercial during Super Bowl XLVI.

Syndication: 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.

• 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 allegations for Bill Cosby, 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.
• As of 2025, there are seldom attempts to re-air this program in reruns at this time as further details are undisclosed.

Fat Albert fans were disappointing that they want to reboot the animated TV show without Bill Cosby's involvement simply titled Fat Albert also known as The New Fat Albert or Fat Albert: The New Animated Series. American animation studio 6 Point Harness is teaming up with Atomic Cartoons, a Canadian-based animation studio, are working on rebooted animated series with no involvement from Bill Cosby.

• The animated TV show reboot of Fat Albert will be a United States-Canada co-production between 6 Point Harness and Atomic Cartoons.

Kenan Thompson, the same actor who voiced and played Fat Albert in the 2004 movie of the same name, will be reprise his voice of Fat Albert Robertson, the main character in the reboot, he is usually the conscience of the Junkyard Gang. Aside from Thompson, it will also have Rickey D'Shon Collins, Ogie Banks, Wayne Brady, Phil Lamarr, Bumper Robinson, Khary Payton, and Tawny Newsome, as well celebrity actors and actresses voicing new characters that aren't in the original animated TV show but rather the animated reboot, both main, supporting and recurring characters alike, such as Brandon Mychal Smith, Kyla Pratt (the same actress from the 2004 movie), Ashley Tisdale, Zachary Gibson, Bella Thorne, Terry Crews, Alanna Ubach, Jedidiah Goodacre, Omar Benson Miller, Maria Bamford, Al Roker, Lucy Liu, Keith David, Gary Anthony Williams, Pamela Adlon, Dove Cameron, Lewis Black, Alan Tudyk, Zendaya, Ariel Winter, Martellus Bennett, Diamond White, amongst others.

• Guest appearances in every episode like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Snoop Dogg and more.
• Other voice actors like Frank Welker, Grey Griffin, Tom Kenny, Jeff Bennett, Fred Tatasciore, Daran Norris, Jess Harnell, Tara Strong, Stephen Stanton, Bill Fagerbakke, John DiMaggio, Dee Bradley Baker, Jennifer Hale, Kevin Michael Richardson, Cree Summer, Richard Steven Horvitz and William Dwight Schultz will provide additional voices for their respective characters.

Rough Draft Studios (American animation studio) and Toon City (Filipino-based animation studio) will be provided the animation while voice actors will be recorded at Studiopolis, with Advantage Audio, a very popular post-production sound company handled the post-production sound effects.

The new animated TV show reboot of Fat Albert will be an animated comedy series rather than an educational animated TV show like Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, this show will be targeted at children ages six to twelve years old as well as legacy fans of the original animated TV show.

Kids and Fat Albert fans sign this petition and they want younger kids as well as older fans of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids want to bring back and reboot the Kenan Thompson-produced animated TV show without Cosby's involvement. #BringBackandRebootFatAlbert #BringBackFatAlbert #RebootFatAlbert #BringBackandRebootFatAlbertWithoutBillCosby'sInvolvement #HeyHeyHeyAgain!