Does anybody know who cosby based his characters on?? I know one of them is him and one is his little brother but where did the others come from??
shareFormer NFL player, Charles Janerette, was the inspiration for the character of Fat Albert. They grew up in Philly together.
shareALL the characters in Fat albert are kids he grew up with in Philadelphia.
Bill-was of course the cartoon version of Mr Cosby
Russell- was actually based on his little brother Russell
Fat Albert- was actually based on a kid he grew up with as someone also mentioned....
Rudy- was actually supposed to be used in the Cosby Show as well ( meaning Rudy on that show was to be a boy based on the rudy he grew up with.) But in real life he had 4 girls and a boy so he just named the girl Rudy or Rudith (which was a silly name)
i have never seen by name who Mushmouth, Wierd Harold, Bucky, and Rudy were based on. I just know he based them on people whom he actually saw growing up.
If you ever get a chance to see the film Mr. Cosby made you will see that in the end as they looked as old men. LoL i am sure they probably aren't the exact people he grew up with but you would get the picture.
The cartoon was based on the fact that Kids at that age are all awkward in some way shape or form, it is just making it so they do not feel inferior to anyone because of it.
They are all based on his friends growing up. Go back and listen to his comedy albums from the 60s to hear the stories about Fat Albert and old Weird Harold, etc.
shareRudy- was actually supposed to be used in the Cosby Show as well ( meaning Rudy on that show was to be a boy based on the rudy he grew up with.) But in real life he had 4 girls and a boy so he just named the girl Rudy or Rudith (which was a silly name)
That's true. When Bill Cosby first concived "The Cosby Show" the family in the show was in no way based on his real family. Originally, it was going be about a family with two daughters and two sons. The youngest son was to be named Rudy and was to be based on his childhood friend fo the same name. However, by chance Cosby happend to see Keshia Knight-Pulleum (sp) in another audition and was so impressed by her preformance that he decided to make the yougest Huxtable child a girl, thus making the show about a family with three daughters and one son. During the first season he noticed the similary in the make up of this TV family and his real family so he decided to make it complete and added an older daughter, Sandra, during the second season.
Old_Painty_Cans_Ned wrote:
"During the first season he noticed the similary in the make up of this TV family and his real family so he decided to make it complete and added an older daughter, Sandra, during the second season."
Actually, the Sandra character made several Cosby Show appearances in Season One, with her first being episode #6 called "Breaking With Tradition."
I always wondered why the spelling of Rudy was never changed to Rudie or Rudith when Keisha was hired.
Probably from kids he knew and hung around with. Actually, the Bill character was my favorite on the show, next to Albert, of course. Maybe because Bill was an older brother like I am and he didn't seem to cause trouble.
shareDid any of the people who the characters were based on ever speak publicly about it? Did Bill Cosby ever offer them any compensation?
shareI've been researching this for months. I think all the other kids were just made up for his comedy routines. That they were real was just a plot point in the Fat Albert movie. I mean the internet has rumors that Fat Albert died a junkie in the sixties, that his picture was in Jet. I looked up the Jet archives and it was a total falsehood.
Bill and Russell Cosby are the only "real" people in the gang. He could have based the others on people he knew loosely but I can't find any solid info on that.
Yes,
We all know that Bill and Russell are real, but I could never find any factual info if there was a real Fat Albert, Rudy, Weird Harold, etc. Only Cosby himself can justify this and unfortunately he has other issues to deal with today.