The Fat Albert Christmas Special

Review Date 6/24/2019

I have Reviewed OVER 500 "Christmas Films and Specials". Please BEWARE Of films and specials with just one review! For instance When "It's a POSITIVE" chances are that the reviewer was involved with the production. "If its Negative" then they may have a grudge against the film for whatever reason. I am fare about these films.

Fat Albert and the gang are going to lose the clubhouse however while they are preparing the clubhouse production of "The Nativity Story" they soon become part of a modern day "Nativity Situation".

Okay story but it is family safe.

An odd artifact of the seventies was that Martin Luther King exposed racial attitudes that shocked us all. Coca Cola led one approach to homogenization where America at least was one world unified by the simple humanity of us all. (They did this because consultants advised that their advertising budgets would be better spent on large, universal campaigns rather than targeting discrete demographics.) Following that, we were eager for a humane black man.

Into the need stepped Bill Cosby, a good man, well spoken. A man whose humor was based on simple values, a black Peanuts drawn from a world that was inherently human. As his fame grew, we invested more and more in his good intentions and every time he delivered.

Peanuts made a Christmas special that was enormously popular. So naturally one expected Cosby to follow as soon as he could. But where Peanuts managed (at least for a while) to remain in the abstract world of what we imagined as childishness, Cosby decided his mission in life was to preach.

So he does here. There's a story and we have the characters from Cosby's early bits. But they are there only in order to cram in as many "good messages" as possible.

In its time, we needed all this. We needed reminding that men like Cosby simply existed. If you still grasp at this now, it will be out of racial immaturity. let's hope we don't need to be so reminded today.

Ted's Evaluation - 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Fat Albert and those struttin' Cosby Kids get together for what is basically a re-imagining of the birth of Christ combined with 'A Christmas Carol'.

The gang is rehearsing a Christmas performance at the junkyard clubhouse when a destitute family, Father Ray (who looks like Eriq La Salle with sideburns and a porno mustache), load-baring Mother Marge and little Marshall, come a knockin' on the door, looking for somewhere to have themselves a baby.

It looks like the clubhouse is it but doom looms on the horizon thanks to cantankerous old junkyard owner, Tyrone, the hood's resident scrooge who's keen on demolishing the trespasser's hangout.

Needless to say, Fat Albert lectures, there's plenty of bleeding heart moments, the gang get into some slapstick moments, the music pumps and it everything works out OK in the end (in the true spirit of Christmas of course), all to the stirring cacophony of canned laughter (thanks to the live audience that must've sat in the studio for months as this thing was slowly animated).

Strangely, there's no Bill Cosby wrap around segments, no Brown Hornet, no Legal Eagle and although Mudfoot makes an appearance, once again he doesn't bum any change which makes us wonder if he truly is a tramp or really an eccentric millionaire merely posing as a miserable waste of humanity.

Yeah... I'd go with some classic episodes, or at least the Easter Special but if you wanna catch up with the gang and this is all you've got to work with then give it a shot. It'll put a little hot sauce on your X-mas puddin'!

This was the first Fat Albert episode shown on television this entire millenium! They haven't shown Fat Albert on television since 1989! It was great to actually see Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids on television again! And it was great to hear that line that someone says in every episode of Fat Albert...NO CLASS!

The Fat Albert Christmas Special (1977)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Fat Albert and his gang come across a poor family who find themselves without a house, work or anything else. The mother is also about to give birth so Albert lets them use the clubhouse for a while but the rich guy in town is threatening to tear it down so the kids have to find something that will work for everyone. THE FAT ALBERT Christmas SPECIAL is a mix between A Christmas Carol (the mean rich man) and your average episode, which of course always had some sort of social message to it. I must say that this short is pretty far from what most would want to watch on Christmas and I'd even say that most parents would probably find this un-kid-friendly these days. With that said, there were a few interesting moments and I'm sure bigger fans of Fat Albert will probably be entertained with it. I thought some of the best moments were early on with the kids in the clubhouse and threatening to be thrown out by the rich man. There were a few funny jokes along the way that at least made me laugh. The animation is good for what it is and there's no doubt that the great Fat Albert voice is put to good use.