Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids (1 Viewer)

Mick Tees · May 16, 2004

How many of you would buy Season sets of "The Adventures of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" on DVD?
I have the 10 dvd set that Time Life put out a year or two ago. I read that there is a Fat Albert movie coming out soon and you know how that goes (Starsky & Hutch). With renewed interest in this series, who knows, perhaps these will be released in season sets instead of a best of or collection library like Time Life put out.
Would you buy them if they were available on dvd as season sets?
I think I read somewhere that Bill Cosby owns the rights.
Count me in if these are coming out as season sets. This was one of my favorites growing up in the 1970s on a Saturday morning.

StacyV · May 16, 2004

That's exactly how I was thinking. I also have the 10 volume TimeLife set plus the Christmas/Halloween episodes disc, and I'm trying to get an early feel for takers of my set, assuming that there'll be a more attractive package available around the same time as the feature film. It's a show I grew up watching and I've been enjoying as much as an adult as I did back then.

David Lambert · May 16, 2004

Since WEA, the Warner-owned company that distributes Rhino product and others, is now distributing Time/Life releases to retail (witness this week's Hee-Haw DVD), then I suspect that the "Remake Movie/Original Series" DVD tie-in will be a retail release of the same DVDs that Michael, Stacy and I already own.

Season sets would be sweet, though. We can hope! Vote at TVShowsOnDVD and let them know how you feel.

Mick Tees · May 16, 2004

I have voted for this show on tvshowsondvd.com... I too will be looking to sell the 10 dvd set I bought from TimeLife as soon as I hear that season sets on dvd are coming. I probably will go via Ebay to sell the sets.

How many years did this show run? It seemed like it was on for a long time.

The only shows I didn't get were the Halloween/Christmas episodes on dvd. When I heard about the Fat Albert movie coming out I thought I would wait it out to see if the season sets would come out.

"Hey, hey, hey!"

Carlos Garcia · May 16, 2004

I just checked the TV Tome site, and according to them, there were 36 episodes of the show total, so I would guess the Time-Life DVD set is complete.

Paul Miller · May 16, 2004

This was a great show, but unless they lower the price on this series dramatically, there is no way I'm going to buy it.

Paul

Dane Marvin · May 17, 2004

I seem to remember looking at the episode guide at TV Tome and at the Time/Life releases and I think there were a couple episodes that weren't included for one reason or another.

StacyV · May 17, 2004

Just checked my TimeLife collection against the episode listings at tvtome. The tome lists 7 titles not included on any of the 10 volume set:
The Runt
Fish Out Of Water
The Hospital
Mom Or Pop
How Was the West Was Lost
Sign Off
What Say? (not sure if this title's correct, in another instance the tome mistakenly lists "What Does Dad Do?" as "What Does That Do?")
There is however an episode titled "In My Merry Busmobile" included on Volume 7 not listed among the titles at tvtome. I guess we can safely assume that the TimeLife set is incomplete, but the tvtome listing may be inaccurate as well.

David Lambert · May 17, 2004

"In My Merry Busmobile" comes from the 1979 series The New Fat Albert Show.

Joshua Lane · Sep 16, 2004

Well, a Fat Albert set is coming to traditional retail outlets via Urbanworks Entertainment (distribution by Ventura)...
http://www.animatedbliss.com/news.asp?TID=1703
Fat Albert’s Greatest Hits - The Ultimate Collection (4-Disc)
Street Date: December 14, 2004
SRP: $49.99
Rating: Not Rated
TRT: 720 min.
Label: UrbanWorks/Entertainment Rights
Fat Albert and the Cosby kids aired from 1972 to 1984 and enjoyed one of the longest and most successful runs in Saturday morning cartoon history. Live action bumpers featuring Bill Cosby were set around animated episodes of Fat Albert and the Cosby kids, a series about a group of urban adolescents growing up in a Philadelphia neighborhood. The show was based on Cosby's 60's stand up comedy monologues about his childhood. The episodes revolved around the daily life lessons learned by Fat Albert and his friends. Topics ranged from social issues to personal introspection and were blended with humor and music. Among the many great characters that inhabited Fat Albert's world were Rudy, Mushmouth, Donald, Bill, Weird Harold and Russell.
A special collection of these historic episodes were compiled into one box set…The Ultimate Fat Albert 4 Disc Set. This unique piece of memorabilia is a collector’s item in which many generations will enjoy.
The product description calls the set both "Ultimate" and "Greatest Hits", so I'm not sure which to believe. The runtime of 720 minutes works nicely for a complete 36-episode (20min per ep) collection though. Whether the eps are in order or not, who knows.

StacyV · Sep 16, 2004

Well, a Fat Albert set is coming to traditional retail outlets via Urbanworks Entertainment (distribution by Ventura)...

I knew this was going to happen. Time to find takers for my TimeLife set pronto.

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MarcoBiscotti · Sep 16, 2004

Great news Josh, I'm happy I never got around to picking up the Time-Life discs!! I just hope this is a complete collection, and at the very least, all the Time-Life featured episodes are included to make this the definitive DVD purchase.

Btw, were the Christmas & Halloween episodes part of the regular season or were they considered holiday 'specials'?

Joshua Lane · Sep 16, 2004

I'm pretty sure the specials were seperate from the episodes in the TV Series... just like Garfield.

MarcoBiscotti · Sep 16, 2004

Thanks, I hope they're also included...

AndyMcKinney · Sep 17, 2004

I think I read somewhere that Bill Cosby owns the rights.

No, the series is owned by Entertainment Rights, who picked up the series along with the bulk of the Filmation library earlier this year.

I read on E-R's website awhile back (can't find the news article anymore, though) that they have licenced the Fat Albert brand to a firm in the U.S., so that's probably where this "new" set is coming from.

I just hope it includes all of the CBS episodes. I don't care anything about the ones they made during the '80s for syndication.

Glad that I, too, took a pass on the Time Life edition!

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Dave Mack · Sep 18, 2004

HALLOWEEN better be included!

Jay Pennington · Sep 18, 2004

I wonder how they're going to look. The footage used in recent TV ads for a VHS release looks dull, grainy and dupey. Let's hope they went back to the original elements.

MarcoBiscotti · Sep 20, 2004

With a run time of 720 min, that would come to only 24 or so episodes.
Given that there were only 4 seasons of the original 'Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids Show' with a total of 36 episodes produced, that release context wouldn't bode very well for a follow-up "Volume Two" set.
:frowning:
Josh, out of curiosity where did you come up with the structure for the possibility of this being a "complete collection" boasting 20 min. per episode? I was under the impression that this was a thirty minute show - would that extra full 10 minutes account for commercials, etc?
Eitherway, I hope you're right... it wouldn't make much sense for a company to spend the money to produce a deluxe 4-disc box set and than decide to leave out a handfull of episodes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one!
I have a feeling we're gonna have to pick up those Halloween and Christmas Specials through Time-Life seperately though, unless this company decides to issue a follow-up disc. If that's the case, it would be nice to have the 1982 Easter special included also.
I wonder if we'll ever see the original 1969 NBC special, "Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert"? I remember reading somewhere that Bill Cosby didn't like this special at all and didn't think the portrayal would work. I don't think I've ever seen this to date but have heard that the character designs, background art and overall look and aesthetic of the special were very different from the TV show..

MarcoBiscotti · Sep 20, 2004

I unfortunately just realized something...
Considering the "best-of" disc has a running time of 150 min. and it has been announced that only 5 episodes would be featured, that would therefore mean that each episode presented would be in a 30 min. context.
30 (min) x 5 (eps) = 150 (min)
This would therefore establish my previous concern, that a 720 min. running time for the 4-disc box set, would equate to a total of only 24 episodes... out of 36 produced.

I guess you should all hang onto your Time-Life sets a little longer until we get confirmation on the exact specs for this upcoming set. At the very least, I am hoping that all the previously released episodes are featured and quality improved upon so that we could all retire our Time-Life discs for this one box set, rather than picking and chosing which to own and having episodes rehashed among the various releases.
I personally just don't understand why a company would devote a 4-disc set to a television series' release and not just go all the way in giving fans of the show what they would ultimately want? Would it have made such a difference to produce a fifth disc?
I know it's all speculation at this point, but given the calculations and logic displayed above based on what we already know about the single "best-of" release... things just don't bode well.

AndyMcKinney · Sep 20, 2004

I personally just don't understand why a company would devote a 4-disc set to a television series' release and not just go all the way in giving fans of the show what they would ultimately want? Would it have made such a difference to produce a fifth disc?

If you count the 1979 episodes, though (I think those are the ones with the Brown Hornet), that would make 43 episodes produced, not 36. If you add in the Christmas and Halloween specials, then one might logically think that the remaining half hours (and the specials) could be collected onto a "volume 2" that would have about the same runtime as the 24-episode set that we seem to be getting.

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