Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

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Fat Albert and the Cosby kids.

Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids is an American animated TV series premiered in 1972 until 1985, created, produced, and hosted by Boll Cosby on CBS. He also voiced a number of characters, including Fat Albert and himself. Spanned over 8 seasons with 110 episodes and 3 specials. The show focuses on educational lesson in each episode. The gang typically joins in their North Philadelphia Junkyard to play a song on their instruments, summarizing the show's lesson[1]. The series was rerun on NBC Saturday morning and on the USA Network in 1989.

Plot

The series follows the educational adventures of a group of Afro-American inner city kids[2]. Based on Cosby's childhood gang, focusing on Fat Albert and his friends Bill, Russell, Bucky, Dumb Donald, Rudy, Weird Harold, and Mushmouth[3].

Empowerment

Before the 1960's, Black characters in cartoons were uniformly reduced to racist caricatures, to put it simply, an animated minstrel show[4]. The show is listed in "Funky Turns 40: Black Character Revolution", an online showcase which represent 24 animated production celebrating black culture of the 1970s. The Fat Albert's characters was not attached into any racial bias, their behavior falls into personality type. Their personalities are independent of their race, and are commonly found in people of all races(Smith, 2004).[5]. The image of Fat Albert is aimed to break the stereotypical fat person, because the idea of portraying obese character was further out of the box at the time. The show pointed that the value of portraying obesity in popular culture positively, in strong and successful characters is crucial. It works in the interest of combating shaming and stereotyping in the process, to find humor, empowerment, support, and education in depictions of the realities of the American population that don't exclude, shame, or endorse obesity[6].

Controversy

Reruns of shows featuring Cosby have been pulled from syndication by many organizations. And some have severed ties with Cosby in the wake of the highly publicized accusation of rape, drug-facilitated sexual assault, sexual battery, child sexual abuse, and sexual misconduct. The alleged incidents span from 1965 to 2008[7].

References