| The Brown Hornet | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Name |
The Brown Hornet |
|
Voices |
Bill Cosby (Hornet) |
|
Brown Hornet sequence produced by |
Paul Dini |
"It's not a bird... It's not a bee... It's the BROW-W-N... HOR-NE-E-E-E-T!!"
[~narrator's introduction to every episode]
The Brown Hornet is a "show-within-a-show" featured in The New Fat Albert Show beginning in 1979 until 1984. To wit, The Brown Hornet is the title character of a TV show frequently watched by Fat Albert and the rest of the Junkyard Gang. The Brown Hornet vignette replaced the Junkyard Band songs from the earlier episodes of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.
While Hornet himself did not appear in the movie, a long-sleeved shirt with a graphic of him is seen being worn by Bill throughout the whole movie, as well as a Brown Hornet comic book Bill is seen holding in one scene.
About The Brown Hornet[]
The Brown Hornet is an intergalactic superhero who travels throughout the cosmos in his barely-functioning spaceship shaped like a giant bee, and is assisted by Tweeterbell, a small robot/computer, and Stinger, his beefy sidekick. Hornet's facial features are similar to that of Bill Cosby, his creator.
Hornet is very confident in his own powers and abilities, as he is able to effortlessly defeat every ne'er-do-well who crosses his path, and in so doing teach valuable life lessons to the villain, and also to the viewers which, though initially ambiguous, are remembered and clearly applied to whatever situation Fat Albert or the others are dealing with in the same episode. His dialogue is highly enunciatory, even when talking with his own crew.
Appearance[]
Hornet wears a predominantly off-yellow superhero costume (shirt, shorts and boots) with a orange belt, white gloves, black domino mask, and a short yellow cape tied around his neck. He travels throughout the cosmos in his barely-functioning spaceship, which is shaped like a giant bee complete with wings.
Stinger[]
Stinger (voiced by Lou Scheimer) is the Brown Hornet's "trusty pal". He is somewhat dimwitted, but is almost always at his boss' side no matter what. Stinger is overweight with a mustache and muttonchop sideburns. His costume is primarily pink (shirt, shorts and boots), except for his yellowish-white cap and red cape which, like Hornet's cape, is tied around his neck. Stinger also wears a black domino mask.
Tweeterbell[]
Tweeterbell (voiced by Erika Scheimer) is the Brown Hornet's other assistant. Though she resembles a small transistor radio, she is actually an anthropomorphic robot. Except for her legs, arms and light blue eyes, Tweeterbell is all white with white gloved humanlike hands and white wheels for feet. She wears a small yellowish-orange cape and an orange knit floppy hat that just loosely sits on top of the corner of her head, and like Stinger and Hornet, she too wears a domino mask.
"Episode" formula[]
At the beginning of each episode, viewers are reminded of the end of a previous but never seen story, in which Hornet and Stinger are "hopelessly trapped" in some outlandish predicament. But in each episode, using Hornet's super powers, he and Stinger, according to the narrator, "naturally escaped unharmed". The episode then rejoins the heroes "as they face an even worse threat".
At the end of each episode after Hornet's victory, the three take off in their ship only to encounter yet another bizarre and seemingly inescapable doom, with the narrator teasing, "Will our daring heroes survive their latest, dangerous threat? If so... how??", and then invites viewers to tune in to next week's episode.
Character Inspiration[]
The Brown Hornet was originally inspired by the long-running radio series The Green Hornet. In 1968, Bill Cosby produced a syndicated radio show (sponsored by Coca-Cola) which borrowed heavily from the Green Hornet series. By the time episodes of the New Fat Albert Show began airing, the character was completely revamped while the name "Brown Hornet" remained.
Trivia[]
- Sometime after The New Fat Albert Show first aired in 1979, a few of the episodes produced prior to 1979 had their closing songs removed in favor of a Brown Hornet story at the beginning. Unlike the 1979-85 episodes where the Brown Hornet is often referenced again in the main story, the original episode stories remain intact with no Brown Hornet mention. So far, it's unknown how many episodes were affected, but the few episodes that have circulated in this format were "An Ounce of Prevention", "The Shuttered Window", and "Junk Food". These versions were broadcast on Teletoon Retro and were included on the Time-Life DVDs.
- "Little Girl Found" is the only episode in the 1979-82 run with no Brown Hornet episode, as the kids' TV set was stolen.
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