Little Bill

Premise

Set in Philadelphia, the show centers on 5-year-old, African-American "Little" Bill Glover as he discovers everyday life through his imagination. Little Bill lives with his parents, his great-grandmother Alice (nicknamed Alice the Great), his older sister April, and brother Bobby. Each episode includes a daydreaming sequence where Little Bill imagines a fantastical scenario. At the end of every episode, he breaks the fourth wall by summarizing his day to the audience by talking to the audience or Elephant, his hamster, before going to bed, and a family member off-screen asks, "Little Bill, who are you talking to?" causing Little Bill to laugh as a signal for "Bye! See you next time.".

Episodes

Main article: List of Little Bill episodes

Characters

Glover household

• William "Little Bill" Glover Jr. (voiced by Xavier Pritchett) is an inquisitive 5-year-old boy. He has a knack for storytelling and often finds himself daydreaming his own fantasy worlds. The show's executive producer, Janice Burgess, described Little Bill as "in a way, little Bill Cosby." Little Bill's catchphrase "Hello, friend!" was originally a greeting used by Bill Cosby's late son, Ennis Cosby.
• William "Big Bill" Glover Sr. (voiced by Gregory Hines) is the city's building inspector who is Little Bill, Bobby, and April's father, and Brenda's husband. He is nicknamed Big Bill since both he and his son are named Bill. In an interview, Bill Cosby said that "I am Big Bill."
• Brenda Glover (née Kendall; voiced by Phylicia Rashad) is Little Bill, Bobby, and April's mother, and Big Bill's wife. Brenda's voice actress, Phylicia Rashad, had previously played Clair Huxtable (wife to Cosby's character, Cliff Huxtable) on the 1980s sitcom The Cosby Show and Ruth Lucas (wife to Cosby's other character, Hilton Lucas) on Cosby.
• April Glover (voiced by Monique Beasley) is the 10-year-old oldest child and only daughter of Brenda and Big Bill. She tends to be competitive and plays basketball.
• Robert "Bobby" Glover (voiced by Devon Malik Beckford in Season 1 and Tyler James Williams in Season 2) is the middle child and the oldest son of the Glover children. He is an 8-year-old Boy Scout and plays the violin.
• Alice "Alice the Great" Kendall (voiced by Ruby Dee and Anika Walker in a flashback in "Good Ol' Lightning") is the maternal great-grandmother of Little Bill, Bobby, April, and Jamal. Alice is also Brenda and Deborah's grandmother. She is in her seventies and lives with the family.
• Elephant is the family's pet, a small, light golden hamster who lives in Little Bill's bedroom. He often rolls all over the house in a plastic hamster ball. He was named after Little Bill's favorite animal.

Family members, friends and neighbors

• Captain Brainstorm (voiced by Bill Cosby) is Little Bill's favorite superhero. He is an astronaut with his own TV show, Space Explorers. He rides an orange rocket and wears an orange spacesuit.
• Miss Murray (voiced by Ayo Haynes in Season 1 and Melanie Nicholls-King in Season 2) is Little Bill's brightest kindergarten teacher. She has brown dreads and wears purple glasses. She marries Dr. Clinkscales in "Miss Murray's Wedding".
• Fuchsia Glover (voiced by Nakia Williams in the first episode and Kianna Underwood for the rest) is the paternal cousin of Little Bill, Bobby, and April. Her mother is named Vanessa and her father is named Al. She is known for always speaking her mind.
• Andrew Mulligan (voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen) is an Irish-American boy who is Little Bill's best friend. He lives two houses away from Little Bill. He has an active imagination like Little Bill, and they often join each other in fantasy sequences. He has a pet dog named Farfy.
• Kiku (voiced by Eunice Cho) is an Asian-American friend of Little Bill's. She liked to be creative, putting on puppet shows, and making artwork. She is very ambitious and wants to be president when she grows up.
• Alan "Al" Glover (voiced by Michael Green) is Big Bill's brother, Fuchsia's father, Vanessa's husband, and Little Bill, Bobby, and April's uncle. He works at the convenience store while living in a town.
• Monty (voiced by Cole Hawkins) is the disabled grandson of Alice the Great's friend Emmaline. He uses a wheelchair to get around, because of being born with cerebral palsy. Later in the series, he joins Little Bill's class.
• Dorado (voiced by Vincent Canales) is Little Bill's friend who is of Puerto Rican ancestry.
• Valencia (voiced by Rosie Perez) is Dorado's single mother who is also of Puerto Rican ancestry. She speaks with a Puerto Rican accent.
• Michael Riley (voiced by Muhammad Cunningham) is a classmate of Little Bill's who moves to the neighborhood from the Southern city of Miami. At first, he is somewhat of a bully by playing ranking with Little Bill, but he reforms and befriends him in the end.
• Mrs. Shapiro (voiced by Madeline Kahn in her first appearance, and later by Kathy Najimy after Kahn's death) is Little Bill's 50-year-old red haired neighbor who wears glasses. In "Same Moon, Same Sun, Same Star", Mrs. Shapiro and her brunette sister, Mimi, grew up in Hawaii. In the same episode, Mrs. Shapiro moves back to Hawaii to live with Mimi because she misses her.
• Dr. Winthrop Clinkscales (voiced by Christopher Grossett) is Mrs. Murray's husband, whom she married in "Miss Murray's Wedding".
• Mr. Miguel Rojas (voiced by Victor Argo) is an elderly Mexican-American man who speaks two languages: English and Spanish. In "The New Neighbors", he and his dog, Miguelito "Lito", move into Mrs. Shapiro's old house after Mrs. Shapiro moved away.
• Mr. Clark Terry (voiced by Clark Terry) is Alice the Great and Little Bill's new friend.
• Baby Jamal Welsh (voiced by unknown) is Little Bill's baby cousin (on his mother's side), son of Deborah (Brenda's sister) and Gary.
• Percy Mulch (voiced by Doug E. Doug) is the African-Caribbean owner of a pet shop.
• Mr. Williams (voiced by Mike Mearian) is a music store owner.
• Aunt Deborah Kendall (voiced by Grace Garland) is Brenda's younger sister, Uncle Gary's wife (voiced by Weston Clark) and Baby Jamal's mother.

Merchandising

A PC video game, Little Bill Thinks Big, was released on September 29, 2003, for Windows XP and Macintosh. In 2017, the American Library Association reported that the Little Bill series of books was most often targeted for removal in school libraries due to the sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby.

Production, broadcast, and home media

Little Bill was first announced in 1997. It aired on Nickelodeon from November 28, 1999, to February 6, 2004. The first eight episodes premiered on Sunday nights before airing on its preschool-aimed morning block Nick Jr. at a later date. The series confirmed a regular weekday timeslot on Nick Jr. starting on September 4, 2000. Nick Jr. aired reruns until December 22, 2006. The series also aired on CBS during the Nick on CBS block from September 16, 2000 until September 9, 2006. In September 2007, Little Bill was moved to the Noggin channel, which advertised it as a "new series". Noggin aired five "premiere episodes" from September 10 to September 15, 2007.

Reruns of Little Bill were shown on the Nick Jr. Channel from September 28, 2009, until February 21, 2014, when Nickelodeon removed the series from its services. In addition to pulling reruns, Little Bill was removed from NickJr.com online in 2014. Commenting on the show's removal from television, Distractify wrote: "Perhaps Little Bill should be left in the past."

Nickelodeon would even go far as to remove it from archived schedules.

In December 2014, TV Guide noted that Little Bill episodes had become difficult to find after the allegations, since the show was no longer aired on television.

During the 2000s, several episodes were released to VHS and DVD by Paramount Home Media Distribution. As of 2025, the series has not been added to Paramount+, but the series remains available on Amazon, iTunes, and Vudu.

Main video releases

Episodes on Nick Jr. compilation DVDs

Awards

Emmy Awards

• 2001 – Outstanding Individual in Animation - Jane Howell and Jonny Belt
• 2003 – Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program – Gregory Hines
• 2004 – Outstanding Children's Animated Program Peabody Award
• 2001

Footnotes

References

References

1. Zurawik, David. (November 28, 1999). "Cosby's 'Little Bill' sends the right message to kids". [[The Baltimore Sun]].
2. "Shows - Little Bill". [[Noggin (brand).
3. (2004). "''Little Bill'', Episode 224". [[Nick.com.
4. "Little Bill episodes". TV Guide.
5. "Little Bill".
6. "Little Bill". noggin.com.
7. (June 4, 2000). "'Little Bill' Has a Brainstorm". [[Tulsa World]].
8. Owen, Rob. (November 29, 1999). "'Little Bill' takes aim at kids, not merchandise". [[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]].
9. (May 6, 2001). "Met Him on a Fun Day and His Name Is Bill". [[The New York Times]].
10. (December 12, 1997). "Cos and Effect".
11. "Nickelodeon's 'Little Bill' Debuts as First African American Balloon In 76th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade". PR Newswire.
12. Piazza, Bianca. (January 21, 2022). "'Little Bill' Boasts a Darker Energy Today Than It Did in 1999 — Is Bill Cosby the Protagonist?". [[Distractify]].
13. (2009). "Meet the Characters of Little Bill". [[Nick Jr..
14. [[Bill Cosby]]. "Bill Cosby - June 15, 2014".
15. Goldberg, Lesley. (February 29, 2012). "'The Cosby Show's' Phylicia Rashad Joins NBC Drama Pilot". [[The Hollywood Reporter]].
16. "Little Bill Thinks Big".
17. Grinberg, Emmanuella. (April 10, 2017). "Bill Cosby's 'Little Bill' books targeted for censorship, library group says". [[CNN]].
18. (December 18, 2006). "Nick Jr. TV Schedule: Week of December 18, 2006". [[Nick.com.
19. (2005). "Broadcast Journalism in the 21st Century". New Dawn Press Group.
20. (September 5, 2007). "Little Bill NOGGIN Release". [[Nickelodeon.
21. "NickJr.com".
22. https://web.archive.org/web/20200921235729/https://www.twitter.com/nickandmore/status/1308193556494987264
23. https://web.archive.org/web/20040922042925/http://www.nickjr.com/home/tv_schedule.jhtml
24. Schneider, Michael. (December 1, 2014). "How Bill Cosby's Tarnished Legacy Impacts His Business". [[TV Guide]].
25. [http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/little-bill 61st Annual Peabody Awards], May 2002.