Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert

Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert is an animated primetime television special which originally aired on November 12, 1969 on NBC in the United States.[1] While NBC did re-air the special twice following its initial airing, it has rarely been seen since. The film is in the collection of the Paley Center for Media, which has only held a very small number of screenings of the feature. It was created by Bill Cosby and animator Ken Mundie (best known for the opening credit sequences of Rawhide and The Wild Wild West). It was based on Cosby's stand-up routines, which were based on his childhood. It would later inspire the long-running 1972 animated series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. A second special, Weird Harold, aired on May 4, 1973.[2]

The special has a very different style from the later series. Due to time and a tight budget, the animators had to draw directly onto cels with grease pencils and actual images of Philadelphia were used for backgrounds.[3] The music was provided by Herbie Hancock, who later used some of the music he composed on his album Fat Albert Rotunda. Unlike the later Cosby Kids series and specials, it has not been released on DVD.