The Brown Hornet | |
---|---|
Genre | Cartoon science fiction Superhero parody |
Created by | Bill Cosby |
Voices of | Bill Cosby |
Country of origin | United States |
Production | |
Executive producer | Bill Cosby |
Production company | Filmation |
Original release | |
Network | CBS (1972-1984) First-Run Syndication (1984-1985) |
The Brown Hornet is a show-within-a-show (or more accurately, a cartoon-within-a-cartoon) which is a spin-off on the Filmation animated series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids from 1979 to approximately 1984. The Brown Hornet was a show that Fat Albert's gang watched on a barely working television in their clubhouse. Originally the Brown Hornet was presented on a radio program by Cosby as an African-American version of the Green Hornet. During the cartoon the character was re-imagined as a caped and masked space hero.
The Brown Hornet was a golden-garbed black superhero who traveled the universe and always seemed to thwart the evil-doers and teach viewers a valuable lesson in the process. In each opening, the mighty Hornet and his two trusty masked sidekicks, his big and bumbling pink-clad pal Stinger and their squeaky little white robot Tweeterbell, were facing certain doom aboard their hornet-shaped spaceship until the fearless hero used one of his many amazing superpowers to save them all, usually with a simple snap of his white-gloved fingers. Their victory would be fleeting, however, as the episode would often end with a new threat emerging.
In the Fat Albert episode entitled "Video Mania", Weird Harold is seen playing a Brown Hornet arcade cabinet at a video arcade. In another episode, Fat Albert and his friends make their own Brown Hornet movie to submit to a film festival. The Brown Hornet also features prominently in The Fat Albert Easter Special (1982) where the Brown Hornet teaches Fat Albert and his friends the spirit of giving and rejuvenation.
The Brown Hornet's name is a play on the name of the old time radio hero The Green Hornet. In fact, Bill Cosby had done a syndicated radio Brown Hornet series around 1970 that directly parodied the old program and serials and the hardboiled detective genre in general as the hapless hero drove around in his "very fast car" the White Beauty having myriad misadventures with his hoarse-whispering sidekick Leroy and his pet dog Weaver. [1]
The fictional film The Brown Hornet: The Great Galaxy World Adventure Movie was featured in the 2004 film Fat Albert .
The Brown Hornet - Bill Cosby
Stinger - Lou Scheimer
Tweeterbell - Erika Scheimer
Announcer - Norm Prescott/Lou Scheimer
The Brown Hornet appeared in the South Park episode "Imaginationland."
Black Thought of the hip hop band The Roots mentions the Brown Hornet in the lyrics to Thought @ Work.
Appeared as Bill Cosby's Henchman in the Black Dynamite episode "Sweet Bill's Badass Singalong Song or Bill Cosby Ain't Himself"
Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and principal producers were Lou Scheimer, Hal Sutherland and Norm Prescott.
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture.
William Henry Cosby Jr. is an American comedian, actor, spokesman, and media personality. He has made significant contributions to American and African American culture and gained a reputation as "America's Dad" for his portrayal of Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show (1984–1992). He has received numerous awards and honorary degrees throughout his career, many of which were revoked following sexual assault allegations made against him in 2014.
The Green Hornet is a superhero created in 1936 by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell.
Kato is a fictional character from The Green Hornet franchise. This character has appeared with the Green Hornet in radio, film, television, book and comic book versions. Kato is the Hornet's assistant and has been played by a number of actors. On radio, Kato was initially played by Raymond Hayashi, then Roland Parker who had the role for most of the run, and in the later years Mickey Tolan and Paul Carnegie. Keye Luke took the role in the movie serials, and in the television series, he was portrayed by Bruce Lee. Jay Chou played Kato in the 2011 Green Hornet film.
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids is an American animated television series created, produced, and hosted by comedian Bill Cosby, who also lent his voice to a number of characters, including Fat Albert and himself. Filmation was the production company for the series. The show premiered in 1972 and ran until 1985. The show, based on Cosby's remembrances of his childhood gang, focused on Fat Albert, and his friends.
Journey Back To Oz is a 1972 American animated adventure musical fantasy film produced by Filmation. It is loosely based on L. Frank Baum's second Oz novel The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), although Baum received no screen credit.
The 1st Daytime Emmy Awards were held on Tuesday, May 28, 1974, to commemorate excellence in daytime programming from the previous year (1973). It was hosted by Barbara Walters and Peter Marshall at the Rockefeller Plaza in New York City and televised on NBC. They were introduced to the stage by game and variety show host Garry Moore. Broadcast from 12-1:30 p.m. EST, the telecast preempted Jackpot, Celebrity Sweepstakes and local programming. For the first and only time, the Daytime Emmy Awards aired on the same day as the Primetime Emmy Awards, broadcast that evening on NBC.
The Brady Kids is an American animated television series and a spin-off based on the ABC live-action sitcom The Brady Bunch, produced by Filmation in association with Paramount Television. It aired on ABC from September 9, 1972, to October 6, 1973, and also spun off another Filmation series, Mission: Magic!, starring Rick Springfield.
Fat Albert is a 2004 American live-action/animated comedy film based on the 1972 Filmation animated television series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids created by Bill Cosby. Kenan Thompson stars as the title character. Fat Albert transforms the cartoon characters into three-dimensional humans, who have to come to grips with the differences that exist between their world and the real world.
Norman Zachary Prescott was co-founder and executive producer at Filmation Associates, an animation studio he created with veteran animator Lou Scheimer.
Louis Scheimer was an American producer and voice actor who was one of the original founders of Filmation. He was also credited as an executive producer of many of its cartoons.
Erika C. Scheimer is an American voice actress in cartoons of defunct animation studio Filmation. She is the daughter of Lou Scheimer, who was an integral member of Filmation and a voice actor in her own right.
The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty is an American animated and partially live-action television series, produced by Filmation, which originally aired for one season Saturday mornings on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) from September 6 to November 29, 1975. Howard Morris, Jane Webb, and Allan Melvin provided voices for the three main characters on the series. The show follows a cat named Waldo who daydreams of being a superhero and defeating the villainous bulldog Tyrone. It was inspired by James Thurber's 1939 short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", and his widow Helen Thurber sued Filmation in 1975 for creating the series without the permission of her husband's estate. The outcome of the decision resulted in the series being retitled in future broadcasts as The New Adventures of Waldo Kitty.
Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle is an American animated series created by the Filmation studio for Saturday mornings on CBS, starting in 1976. This was the first animated series about the jungle hero. There are 36 episodes produced over four seasons.
The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle is a 1979–1980 television series featuring newly produced Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle cartoons. The series was produced by Filmation, and aired from 1979 to 1980 on CBS with 96 episodes produced. It was the second Mighty Mouse cartoon series, following the original Mighty Mouse Playhouse from 1955 to 1967, and followed by Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, which aired from 1987 to 1988.
The New Adventures of Superman is a series of six-minute animated Superman adventures produced by Filmation that were broadcast Saturday mornings on CBS from September 10, 1966, to September 5, 1970. The 68 segments appeared as part of three different programs during that time, packaged with similar shorts featuring The Adventures of Superboy and other DC Comics superheroes.
Uncle Croc's Block is an hour-long live-action/animated television series. It was produced by Filmation, and broadcast on ABC in 1975–76.
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.
James Francis Ryan was an American screenwriter in the DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, also the Filmation studios and Hanna–Barbera.