Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids: Season 05 (1979)

Member Rating:

From 1977 to 1979, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids offered not one new episode, instead coasting on reruns of the existing episodes. But as it entered its fifth season in the fall of 1979, the series made up for lost time with eight new half-hour installments. And that's not all: The series had been retitled "The New Fat Albert Show", and a hitherto much-talked-about but unseen character, klutzy superhero The Brown Hornet, had been added to the cast. Next up, Albert has trouble keeping up with a talented terpsichorean in "The Dancer." Then there's Spare the Rod", in which the gang faces the appalling likelihood that the gang's beloved junkyard will be sold. The poignant "Sweet Sorrow" spotlights a troubled young girl named Roberta, who takes out her anger over her parents' divorce on poor Albert. A school election in which the "race card" is unfairly exploited is the focal point of "Poll Time." "The Mainstream" is the show that everyone has been waiting for: A "battle of the bands" between Albert's junkyard aggregation and a rival band. Then, Dumb Donald finds out that cheating is no solution for academic problems in "Free Ride." And education of a different sort--namely, the birds and the bees--sets the tone of the season finale, "Soft Core". ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi