Fat Albert voice artists

XERUS'S VOICE ARTIST FOCUS:

Today's V/A focus is the classic series, Fat Albert. Based off Bill Cosby's childhood days. Bill voiced a lot of characters in this series, including Fat Albert and Bill also plays himself in live action scenes. Also Filmation's producer, Lou Scheimer and his wife Jay and daughter Erika help out with voices too.

BILL COSBY: Fat Albert, Bill, Mushmouth, Mudfoot, Brown Hornet, Himself
LOU SCHEIMER: Dumb Donald, Stinger, Legal Eagle, Announcer
ERIC SUTER: Rudy
GERALD EDWARDS: Weird Harold
JAN CRAWFORD: Bucky, Russell
ERIKA SCHEIMER: Tweeterbell
JAY SCHEIMER: Mrs. Bryfogel, Miss Wucher

Funny how the main cast consists really of 5 actors (not counting the teachers and parents who appear every so often), and Bill and Lou seemed to do the most of them.

Lou and his wife did most of the adult voices. Lou was pretty much every character's father (Dumb Donald and Rudy at the very least) and Jay was every kid's mother. I remember that it started out as a cost saving type deal, since they didn't want to pay other actors to do small roles. So a lot of the voice actors did multiple roles. Even the three teens (Eric, Jan, and Gerald) had to pull double duty sometimes with characters that only appeared once.

But sometimes a small cast really helps fill out the over all series. A large cast with lots of actors doesn't quite seem as intimate. it's basically balance. Like with Jay Ward, who sometimes relyed on as little as 3 actors, who could pull off many roles at once.

Bill did a great job, as did Lou. But Lou was very modest about it.

I have three Fat Albert DVDs and yes it is interesting to learn about the voice actors. The show was on for many years and if you listen to various episodes from different seasons, you can actually hear when Russell and Bucky's voices changed (they were played by the same person)!

Yes, Lou never credited himself in any of the Filmation cartoon voice casts. Kind of like how Bill Scott never credited himself in the voice casts of Jay Ward cartoons. And how Jim Henson rarely ever credited himself in some of the Muppet casts.

Also Lou's daughter Erika provided the voices for a lot of one time characters who were either young girls or little boys.

And I too have noticed the change in Russell's voice when they started making more Fat Albert cartoons. And he seemed to sound even more sassier when talking to Rudy.

Xerus said:

Yes, Lou never credited himself in any of the Filmation cartoon voice casts. Kind of like how Bill Scott never credited himself in the voice casts of Jay Ward cartoons. And how Jim Henson rarely ever credited himself in some of the Muppet casts.

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Actually, a few times he is credited, and a couple times he isn't.

I also know Daws Butler wasn't Credited for the Bullwinkle show, where as he was for Rocky and his firends.

I like how in the 2002 Christmas special that aired on NBC, things were exactly the same and nothing had changed at all. It's just proof that you don't need to modern day-a-nize things in ordered for them to be relevant.

... that 2002 Christmas special as you put it was a random reairing of a sepcial that was either made in the 70's or early 80's. It wasn't new at all.



If it were, animation would've been better, believe you me!

It's true, the Christmas special was made during the original series run, but was defintely re aired in 2002 (I remember that happening). Still, I agree, you don't always need to over-modernize things to make them better. People are just afraid to leave these classics untouched.

Though to be fair, I don't object to cleaning up a film or animation so it looks sharper and new. But there's a difference between that and completely rehauling the whole spirit of the show.

The Christmas special is great btw, it really mirrors the religious Christmas story. How the kids let a down-on-their-luck family stay in their dilapidated little club house, and get to witness the birth of the mother's child. It's also reminiscent of The Christmas Carol, the way they help reform the grouchy old junkyard owner.

Interestingly, the Fat Albert Easter special was made in 1982 and the animation is noticeably better than the standard show (which ran until 1984). I guess they had more time and money to spend for a special. Has anyone seen that show? It's amazing, it really deals with the topics of life and death and new life.

Drtooth said:

... that 2002 Christmas special as you put it was a random rearing of a special that was either made in the W's or early W's. It wasn't new at all.



If it were, animation would've been better, believe you me!

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I didn't know that! it's still god that their re aired it though

herald said:

Interestingly, the Fat Albert Easter special was made in 1982 and the animation is noticeably better than the standard show (which ran until 1984). I guess they had more time and money to spend for a special. Has anyone seen that show? It's amazing, it really deals with the topics of life and death and new life.

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No, but I would really like as as the Christmas special was really well done.

heralde said:

It's true, the Christmas special was made during the original series run, but was defintely re aired in 2002 (I remember that happening). Still, I agree, you don't always need to over-modernize things to make them better. People are just afraid to leave these classics untouched.

Though to be fair, I don't object to cleaning up a film or animation so it looks sharper and new. But there's a difference between that and completely rehauling the whole spirit of the show.

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Yeah. I still think Fat Albert's messages still hold up. Too bad Entertainment rights doesn't think so (shakes fists angrilly at both volumes of the not real ghost busters) and discontunied the DVD sets. Now they're out of print.

The Christmas special is great btw, it really mirrors the religious Christmas story. How the kids let a down-on-their-luck family stay in their dilapidated little club house, and get to witness the birth of the mother's child. It's also reminiscent of The Christmas Carol, the way they help reform the grouchy old junkyard owner.

Interestingly, the Fat Albert Easter special was made in 1982 and the animation is noticeably better than the standard show (which ran until 1984). I guess they had more time and money to spend for a special. Has anyone seen that show? It's amazing, it really deals with the topics of life and death and new life.

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The Halloween special, I'll just say that Marc Brown and Stan and Jan Berenstain must have really liked. They pretty much BOTH ripped off the plot for both their Halloween books. It isn't the strongest one though. I love the Chirstmas one, myself, which actually uses the original religious story as a back drop (other than Peanuts, I've never seen a non-religious program get into it). But the Easter one was a master piece. Not only was it the only special to have a Brown Hornet cartoon, it really delves deep into Rudy's character. he feels guilty his practical joke almost kills Rudy. And Especially liked the touch how Mudfoot pretty much had no will to live in his hospital bed until Rudy appologizes, and stuff. Very touching special. Too bad Filmation's other programs weren;t this deep.