The Brown Hornet
Encyclopedia
The Brown Hornet was a show-within-a-show (or more accurately, a cartoon-within-a-cartoon) 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 rewritten as a space superhero.
The Brown Hornet was a bumbling superhero
who always seemed to thwart the evil-doers and teach viewers a valuable lesson in the process. In each opening, The Brown Hornet and his sidekicks Stinger and Tweeterbell the Robot were facing certain doom until the Brown Hornet used his superpowers to save them all. Their victory would be fleeting, however, as the episode would often end with a new threat emerging.
In one episode of "Fat Albert", 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, where the Brown Hornet teaches Fat Albert and his friends the spirit of giving and rejuvenation the springtime holiday provides.
; in fact, Bill Cosby
had done a syndicated radio Brown Hornet series around 1970 that directly parodied the old program. However, this Brown Hornet is closer to a parody of Space Ghost
- a space-faring, caped superhero.
A feature film is rumored to be in the works.
Stinger - Lou Scheimer
Tweeterbell - Erika Scheimer
Announcer - Norm Prescott
/Lou Scheimer
episode "Imaginationland
."
Black Thought of the hip hop band The Roots
mentions the Brown Hornet in the lyrics to Thought @ Work.
Filmation
Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live action programming for television during the latter half of the 20th century. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1963...
animated series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids is an animated series created, produced, and hosted by comedian Bill Cosby, who also lent his voice to a number of characters, including Fat Albert himself. Filmation was the production company for the series. The show premiered in 1972 and ran until 1985...
from 1979 to approximately 1984. The Brown Hornet was a show that Fat Albert's gang watched on a barely-working television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
in their clubhouse. Originally the Brown Hornet was presented on a radio program by Cosby as an African-American version of the Green Hornet
Green Hornet
Green Hornet may refer to:* The Green Hornet, a fictional character created by Fran Striker for the 1930s radio program and adapted into several media versions...
. During the cartoon the character was rewritten as a space superhero.
The Brown Hornet was a bumbling superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
who always seemed to thwart the evil-doers and teach viewers a valuable lesson in the process. In each opening, The Brown Hornet and his sidekicks Stinger and Tweeterbell the Robot were facing certain doom until the Brown Hornet used his superpowers to save them all. Their victory would be fleeting, however, as the episode would often end with a new threat emerging.
In one episode of "Fat Albert", Weird Harold is seen playing a Brown Hornet arcade cabinet
Arcade cabinet
A video game arcade cabinet, also known as a video arcade machine or video coin-op, is the housing within which a video arcade game's hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the JAMMA wiring standard...
at a video arcade
Video arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
. 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, where the Brown Hornet teaches Fat Albert and his friends the spirit of giving and rejuvenation the springtime holiday provides.
Inspiration
The Brown Hornet's name is a play on the name of the old time radio hero The Green HornetThe Green Hornet
The Green Hornet is an American radio and television masked vigilante created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell, in 1936. Since his radio debut in the 1930s, the Green Hornet has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media...
; in fact, Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
had done a syndicated radio Brown Hornet series around 1970 that directly parodied the old program. However, this Brown Hornet is closer to a parody of Space Ghost
Space Ghost
Space Ghost is a fictional superhero created by Hanna-Barbera Productions and designed by Alex Toth for CBS in the 1960s. In his original incarnation, he was a superhero who, with his sidekick teen helpers Jan, Jace, and Blip the monkey, fought supervillains in outer space...
- a space-faring, caped superhero.
Fictional theatrical film
The fictional film The Brown Hornet: The Great Galaxy World Adventure Movie was featured in Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids: The Movie.A feature film is rumored to be in the works.
Voice cast
The Brown Hornet - Bill CosbyBill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
Stinger - Lou Scheimer
Lou Scheimer
Louis Scheimer is an Emmy and Grammy Award–winning American producer, one of the original founders of Filmation, an animation company, and also an executive producer of many of its cartoons .-Career:Early in Filmation's history, Scheimer also contributed...
Tweeterbell - Erika Scheimer
Erika Scheimer
Erika Scheimer is an occasional voice-actress in the cartoons of the defunct Filmation animation-studio. She is the daughter of Lou Scheimer, who was an integral member of Filmation and a voice actor in his own right....
Announcer - Norm Prescott
Norm Prescott
Norman "Norm" Prescott was co-founder and executive producer at Filmation Studios. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he began his radio career in the Hub, becoming program director at station WORL in the late 1940s. He went to work for Joseph E. Levine's Embassy Pictures Corp. in 1959, serving as...
/Lou Scheimer
Lou Scheimer
Louis Scheimer is an Emmy and Grammy Award–winning American producer, one of the original founders of Filmation, an animation company, and also an executive producer of many of its cartoons .-Career:Early in Filmation's history, Scheimer also contributed...
Other media
The Brown Hornet appeared in the South ParkSouth Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
episode "Imaginationland
Imaginationland
"Imaginationland" is a three-part episode of the American animated television series South Park.*Episode I*Episode II*Episode III...
."
Black Thought of the hip hop band The Roots
The Roots
The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...
mentions the Brown Hornet in the lyrics to Thought @ Work.
The Artists
- Produced By Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott
- Vice President In Charge Of Production: Joseph Mazzuca
- Executive Vice President/Creative Affairs: Arthur H. Nadel
- Production Manager: Joseph Simon
- Director In Charge of Animation: Gwen Wetzler
- Animation Directors: Bob Arkwright, John Allan Armstrong, Kent Butterworth, Ed Friedman, Lou Kachivas, Marsh Lamore, Ernie Schmidt, Kay Wright, Lou Zukor
- Story Director: Karl Geurs
- Supervising Storyboard Artist: Mike Joens
- Unit Supervisor: Wendell Washer
- Storyboard Artists: Barry Caldwell, Paul Fennell, Sharon Forward, Mike Hazy
- Production Designer: Bob Kline
- Layout Director: Jim Fletcher
- Asssistant Layout Supervisor: Irma Rosien
- Layout: Alberto DeMello, Larry Eikleberry, Sharon Forward, Sergio Garcia, Wes Herschensohn, Carol Lundberg, Lorenzo Martinez, Greg Nocon, Norly Paat, John Perry, Rocco Pirrone, Virgil Raddatz, Louise Sandoval, Cliff Voorhees, David West
- Color Director: Ervin L. Kaplan
- Backgrounds: Barbara Benedetto, Alan Bodner, Sheila Brown, Dianne Erenberg, Vern Jorgensen, Ellen Kashan, Pat Keppler, Rolando Oliva, Tom O'Loughlin, Curt Perkins, Don Peters, Don Schweikert, Don Watson
- Animators: Tom Baron, Arland Barron, James Brummett, Bill Carney, Pat Clark, Richard Coleman, James A. Davis, Ed DeMattia, Zeon Davush, Jeff Etter, Lillian Evans, Rick Farmiloe, Kennetha Gaebler, Miguel Garcia, Michael Gerard, Lee Halpern, Karen Haus, Brett Hisey, Chrystal Klabunde, Stephen Marsh, Larry Miller, Gale Morgan, Frank Nakielski, Eduardo Olivares, Jack Ozark, Bill Pratt, William Recinos, Bill Reed, Sonja Ruta, Don Schloat, Cheryl Selleck, Larry Silverman, James Simon, Kamoon Song, Michael Toth, Richard Trueblood, Bob Tyler, Dardo Velez, Larry White
- Assistant Animation Supervisor: Marlene Robinson-May
- Animation Check Supervisor: Joyce Gard
- Xerography Supervisor: John Remmel
- Paint Supervisor: Alla Marshall
- Director Of Animation Photography: R.W. Pope
- Camera: Gary Gunther, Richard Haas, Roncie Hantke, Dan Larsen, David J. Link, Craig Littell-Herrick, Jeffery Mellquist, Lin-Z Rogers, Dean G. Teves, David Valentine, Steven Wilzbach, F.T. Ziegler
- Film Editors: Ron Fedele, Joe Gall, Hector C. Gika, Tom Gleason, Jim Puente, Robert Waxman
- Film Coordinators: June Gilham, Toni Christiansen
- Production Controller: Robert W. Wilson
- Sound By Glen Glenn Sound
- Color By Technicolor
- Supervising Film Editor: George Mahana
- Film Transfer: Paul Galloway
- Background Music Composed By Ray Ellis And Norm Prescott
- Music Published By Shermley Music Company, ASCAP
- Educational Advisor: Dr. Gordon L. Berry from the Graduate School of Education at UCLA
- Live Action Sequences Directed By Arthur H. Nadel
- Executive Producer: William H. Cosby, Jr.
- (c)Copyright 1980 Filmation Associates - Bill Cosby
- A FILMATION PRODUCTION