The Lost Media Mysteries/Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert

Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids is a animated TV series which aired from September 9, 1972 to August 10, 1985. It has 114 episodes counting specials.Before the series premiered, there was a primetime special called Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert, which was shown on November 12, 1969, and aired on NBC. It was rebroadcasted twice, but presumably never saw a home release. It follows The Cosby Kids performing stand-up sketches from Bill Cosby's routines, much like in the actual show.Mundie and six animators worked 18-hour days for six months to meet NBC's deadline. The animators drew directly onto cels with grease pencils, coloring each cel themselves. The cels were then photographed.Live footage from Philadelphia was inserted as background. Said Filmation's Lou Scheimer: "It did not work. It was a strange-looking thing. And it did not have any of the values that we wanted to do ultimately in the show." While the series became popular, the special has not been released since.The Paley Center for Media holds a copy of the special in their collection, and it is available for viewing at their locations in New York and Los Angeles.[1]