Bill Cosby Movies

Playwright Neil Simon turned to the hotel setting he used so successfully in his stage-play (later a movie) Plaza Suite to explore four more human dramas in his play California Suite, which was adapted into this quite successful movie. In the first episode, the divorced couple of Bill and Hannah Warren (Alan Alda and Jane Fonda) have rented a suite in a posh Beverly Hills hotel in order to have a discussion about who will get the custody of their child. In the next episode, Sidney Cochran and Diana Barrie (Michael Caine and Maggie Smith) are a hilarious pair of Hollywood stars who have rented the suite to await their appearance at the Academy Awards: it is a "date of convenience" which enables the sexually adventurous duo to conduct their other, more unconventional alliances out of the public eye. Drs. Willis Panama and Chauncy Gump (Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor) have brought their families to Beverly Hills for a vacation which takes on nightmarish tone. Finally, Marvin Michaels (Walter Matthau) tries frantically and unsuccessfully to explain the situation to his wife (Elaine May) when she catches him in flagrante delicto with a hooker. Actress Maggie Smith won an Academy Award as "Best Supporting Actress" for her role in this film, in which she plays the actress waiting to win . . . an Academy Award. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Rudy and his new pal Devray get the fright of their lives while playing Halloween pranks on the elderly as the rest of the kids set their sights on Searchlight Johnson and Mudfoot Brown. Little do the kids realize that the little old lady who lives in the house by the cemetery has finally gotten her fill of their moonlit mischief, and she's about to give them a frightening taste of their own medicine. Later, the kids come together and attempt to decide what to do about their friends who went out trick-or-treating and never came back. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Eight new episodes are on the menu as Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids enters its fourth season. For starters, the gang learn the hard way that Fat Albert's warnings about tobacco aren't to be dismissed in "Smoke Gets in Your Hair." The insufferable Rudy falls for a girl who pays no attention to him--but not for the reason one would think--in Episode #2, "What Say?" Rudy is also the center of attention ni "Readin', Ritin' and Rudy", in which old Mudfoot has a few choice words about why school is so important. The title character in "Suede Simpson" is what one might call hygienically challenged, so Fat Albert and Russell try to get him to literally clean up his act. The gang tries to get rich quick, only to find that they've been victimized, in "Little Business". And in three of the series' most memorable episodes, the gang tries to wean Monroe away from his TV addiction in "TV or Not TV" (a rather courageous choice of plotlines for a Saturday-morning cartoon show!); Fat Albert's friend Undine is unable to cope with the sudden death of her favorite uncle in "The Shuttered Window"; and in the season finale #Junk Food", Slim soon becomes fatter than Fat Albert because of his irresponsible eating habits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After coasting along with a full season of nothing but reruns, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids returned to CBS' Saturday morning lineup in the fall of 1975 with six brand-new episodes. The festivities begin with "The Fuzz", in which Fat Albert and his pals fall in with a new kid who doesn't like cops. This is followed by one of the series' most potent episode, "An Ounce of Prevention", in which the kids come to the aid of a youngster who likes to drink--and we don't mean soda pop. Next up, Albert is afraid to tell his buddies that he's fallen in love in "Fat Albert Meets Dan Cupid". "Take Two, They're Small is the story of how a nice kid like Albert's cousin Justin can be coerced into the not-so-nice habit of shoplifting. In "The Animal Lover", the gang conducts a desperate search for the dog who bit their friend Dulcie. And in the season finale "Little Tough Guy", the plot revolves around a physical deformity and the right and wrong way to deal with it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Uptown Saturday Night is a delightful comedy directed by and starring Sidney Poitier. Steve Jackson (Sidney Poitier) is a factory worker. One evening, when boredom gets the best of him, Steve and his pal Wardell (Bill Cosby) decide to go to an underground gambling club to have some fun. While they are there the place is held-up and Steve's wallet is stolen. When Steve and Wardell learn that the wallet contains a winning lottery ticket, the friends go on a desperate search to find it. Shape Eye Washington (Richard Prior), an incompetent private eye, is enlisted to aid them in their search through the criminal underworld where they come up against Geechie Dan Beauford (Harry Belafonte) the mobster who runs the town. Belafonte, in a hilarious parody of Marlon Brando in The Godfather, steals the show. The movie was a huge success and led to two sequels, Let's Do It Again and A Piece of the Action, both also directed by Poitier. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

The most famous of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids' first season episodes doesn't show up until four weeks into the show's run: "Creativity", in which Albert and his pals create their legendary "Junkyard Band." Backtracking a bit, the series opener is "Lying", in which the gang finds out that the friend Edward has been stringing them along with his tales of adventure. Other highlights include "The Runt", where Fat Albert proves to his new pal Pee Wee that size isn't all that matter; "Fish Out of Water", in which the gang is in for quite an eye-opener during their first trip to summer camp; "Playing Hookey", wherein a valuable lesson is learned from a pair of illiterate old hoboes who once thought that skippin' school was cool; "The Hospital", a reworking of Bill Cosby's classic "Tonsils" monologue; "The Hero", which shows that just because you look up to someone doesn't make him worth looking up to; and "The Prankster", an object lesson in the unanticipated consequences of practical jokes. The last of Season One's 14 half-hour offerings is "Stage Fright", which of course Albert and the Cosby Kids must learn to overcome before episode's end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Created and produced by Bill Cosby, the long-running animated series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was based on Cosby's classic monologues about his boyhood in North Philadelphia. Corpulent pre-teener Fat Albert and his buddies first appeared in cartoon form in the 1969 in the half-hour NBC special Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert, produced by Cosby in association with Filmation studios. It was Filmation who was given the assignment of converting the property into a weekly, half-hour Saturday morning series, which made its first appearance September 9, 1972 on CBS. Described as "lovable and jovial" in the studio's publicity packet, Fat Albert was "the undisputed leader" of a gang of rambunctious black kids living in a seedy but respectable inner-city Philadelphia neighborhood. His buddies included Bill (based on guess who) pint-sized, sarcastic Russell (based on Cosby's real-life kid brother), blustery braggart Rudy, laid-back Bucky stringy Old Weird Harold, affable oaf Dumb Donald, and of course Mushmouth, whose bizarre speech patterns were the source of humor for many a youthful amateur impressionist. Basically a good bunch of kids, Fat Albert's gang did tend to get into trouble from time to time, but always emerged fortified with a valuable life lesson that would serve them well as they grew older. The kids were also remarkably inventive and resourceful, as witness the series' weekly musical numbers, performed on a variety of instruments constructed from discarded pipes, radiators, bed frames, funnels and the like. Bill Cosby himself appeared in the live-action wraparounds, inviting the viewers to have some fun--"and if you're not careful, you might learn something." Cosby also popped up during the action of each episode to underline the lesson that Fat Albert and company had learned or were about to learn. Though light-hearted in nature, the series was not afraid to tackle such issues as peer pressure, lying, betrayal, street crime, substance abuse, the death of a loved one, racial and/or religious intolerance, learning disabilities, and even obsessing about television and overindulging in junk food. Commendably, there were a few dilemmas left unresolved, with Cosby sagely observing that some problems take more than a half hour to solve. To uphold the quality, integrity and educational content of the scripts, the producers solicited the advice of ten prominent psychologists and philosophers from UCLA. In 1979, the series was briefly retitled The New Fat Albert Show. At that time, the kids began sharing air space with their favorite comic-book superhero The Brown Hornet, another carryover from Cosby's standup act. Though universally applauded by TV critics and the recipient of scores of industry awards, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids did not always get the high ratings it deserved. Too, the network was averse to bankrolling new episodes each season, reasoning that they'd accrue as much profit from reruns as from first-runs. As a result, although Fat Albert remained on CBS Saturday-AM schedule for eight seasons, only 60 episodes were produced. After its network cancellation on August 29, 1984, the series was packaged for daily, off-net syndication, with 50 new episodes added to the manifest. This arrangement permitted Bill Cosby and the other producers to tackle subject matter that had been deemed too "rough" by the CBS censors, including teen pregnancy, alcoholism, and child abduction. The most memorable of the new episodes was "Busted", inspired by the "Scared Straight" program whereby youthful lawbreakers were literally terrified into reformation by a loud and obscene group of hardened prison inmates. The 50 additional episode also introduced a new character, the Southern-accented "Legal Eagle", a farcical attorney. Unfortunately, ratings for the syndicated Fat Albert were disappointing, despite earning two Emmy nominations. The entire 110-episode Fat Albert package was picked up for rerun play by both NBC and the USA cable network in 1989, while the 50 made-for-syndication installments were briefly seen in 2000 on cable's Odyssey Channel, the precursor to the Hallmark Channel. And in 2004, a live-action theatrical feature version of the property was released, with Kenan Thompson of Kenan and Kel fame as Fat Albert. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Approximately one year before the debut of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, comedian Bill Cosby, the CBS network and the Filmation cartoon firm collaborated on this 30-minute TV special. Cosby appears in the live-action wraparounds as Greek storyspinner Aesop, who talk-sings a brace of songs and narrates animated versions of two fables. In the "Tortoise and the Hare" segment, funnymen John Byner and Larry Storch provide the voices for the title characters, with Byner returning in "The Tortoise Who Wanted to Fly". And in an extended sequence combining live and cartoon action, two youngsters, Joey (Keith Hamilton) and Marta (Jerelyn Fields), lost in an enchanted forest, are guided to safety by the all-wise Aesop. The special was written by Earl Hamner Jr., of The Waltons fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this program, host Bill Cosby shares several accomplishments that have not always been fully or properly covered in the history books. The achievements of important historical figures are discussed, including the medical advances made by black doctors, the dedication of the black soldiers who fought in the Civil War, and the contributions made by Admiral Perry's navigator. Though the film was made in the late '60s and doesn't include the many new discoveries and accomplishments made since then, it does present important information that encourages young people to meet their academic goals and follow their dreams. Children in grades six and up are the primary audience for this film. ~ Elizabeth Smith, All Movie Guide

American secret agents Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp) and Alexander Scott (Bill Cosby) tackle an exhausting variety of international counterespionage missions while respectively posing as a champion tennis player and his athletic trainer as I Spy embarks upon its first season. Unlike other spy shows of the period, which were filmed exclusively on Hollywood backlots, I Spy relies extensively upon location shooting in a variety of far-flung lands. This season, Kelly and Scotty's permutations take them to Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Mexico (and, occasionally, the Desilu studios in L.A. for close-ups and exposition scenes). Although the series was originally conceived as a starring vehicle for Robert Culp, from the outset Culp's co-star Bill Cosby is given equal footing, and even dominates the proceedings in several episodes -- a rarity for an African-American performer in the mid-'60s. It can be argued that Cosby's presence on the series permitted producer Sheldon Leonard to provide a number of major black actors with bravura guest-star turns that might have been denied them on other programs. In the very first episode, "So Long, Patrick Henry," Ivan Dixon is seen as an embittered athlete who has defected to the "enemy," with Cicely Tyson as Dixon's sweetheart, an African princess. Later on, comedian Godfrey Cambridge plays it straight as a cold-blooded crime kingpin (described by Cambridge as a "Black Goldfinger") in "Court of the Lion." And best of all, Eartha Kitt delivers an Emmy-winning performances as an expatriate nightclub singer hopelessly addicted to drugs in "The Loser." Other noteworthy first-season guest-star turns are provided by Martin Landau as the title character in the ironically yclept episode "Danny Was a Million Laughs"; Carroll O'Connor as a wickedly pragmatic Russian brainwashing expert in "It's All Done With Mirrors"; and France Nuyen (soon to be the wife of series star Robert Culp) in "The Tiger." Although the overall tone of I Spy is somber and serious, with the two protagonists plunged in a hellish world of betrayal and backstabbing in which friends and enemies are virtually interchangeable, most of the episodes are leavened by the hilarious verbal byplay between Culp and Cosby. Reportedly, much of this banter was improvised on the set, and it went over so well with viewers that the actors were encouraged to ad-lib to their heart's content in subsequent seasons -- so much so that in some cases, one yearned for "dramatic relief" from all the comedy! In addition to the aforementioned award bestowed upon guest star Eartha Kitt, I Spy's inaugural season also yielded an Emmy statuette for leading man Bill Cosby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season two of I Spy finds globetrotting secret agents Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp) and Alexander Scott (Bill Cosby) plying their trade in such locales as Italy, Spain, and Las Vegas -- all the while posing as a high-priced tennis bum and his athletic trainer. As in season one, the series relies heavily on genuine location footage, with the stars playing out most of their scenes in the actual countries where the episodes are set (of course, an occasional pickup shot or close-up filmed within the walls of Desilu Studios in Hollywood still creeps in now and then!). While the series remained the most "adult" and realistic of the many spy shows of the period, and the characters of Kelly and Scotty spend as much time agonizing over the morality of their work as they do carrying out their assignments, the comedy content that had been sprinkled throughout season one of I Spy is even more pronounced in season two. Robert Culp may be the nominal star, but it is Bill Cosby who sets the comic pace and provides most of the series' delightful verbal improvisations -- with the pliable Culp sounding like a Cosby clone in several scenes! Which is not to say that Bill Cosby is the sole creative force behind the program; indeed, some of the best second-season episodes were scripted by Robert Culp. This season offers the series' only two-part episode, "To Florence, With Love," and also features the only "dual" performance by star Robert Culp, cast in his tradition "Kelly" role and as the Asian title character in "The War Lord." There are also a number of impressive guest-star turns: Boris Karloff plays a doddering scientist who imagines himself to be Don Quixote in "Mainly on the Plains"; Don Rickles delivers a shattering performance as a mean-spirited USO comedian who sparks an international crisis in "Night Train to Madrid"; and Wally Cox is delightful as a meek clerk whose fondness for foreign girls nearly proves fatal to Kelly and Scotty in "Casanova From Canarsie." The season ends with the poignant "Cops and Robbers," in which a not-so-sentimental journey to Scotty's old neighborhood imperils the live of his mother (played by the magnificent Beah Richards). Bill Cosby's performances in this and previous episodes are proof positive that his second Emmy award, bestowed upon him during the 1966-1967 awards ceremony, was richly deserved. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide