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Little Bill
Little Bill and his family
Format	Children's television series
Created by	Bill Cosby
Directed by	Robert Scull Jennifer Oxley Olexa Hewryk Mark Salisbury
Starring	Xavier Pritchett Gregory Hines Phylicia Rashad Monique Beasley Devon Malik Beckford Ruby Dee as Alice the Great
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	58
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Nickelodeon
Original run	November 29, 1999 (1999-11-29) – February 16, 2004 (2004-02-16)

Little Bill is a television show for children on Nick Jr. The stories are based on Bill Cosby's Little Bill book series, set in Philadelphia^[1] and feature Bill Jr. learning a lesson or moral. It was developed through research and in consultation with a panel of educational consultants.^[2]

The show also aired on CBS as part of Nick Jr. on CBS, from September 16, 2000 - September 7, 2002, then as part of Nick on CBS from September 7, 2002 - September 16, 2004. The show returned with the return of Nick Jr. on CBS on September 16, 2004, and seen through September 16, 2006 when the block was replaced with The KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS. The series went back into production in fall 2006 and a new season of 6 episodes aired on Noggin throughout April & July 2007. The series has yet to be renewed by Nick Jr., however the series is not canceled.

Sonia Manzano was a frequent writer for the show. Manzano is best-known for playing Maria Rodriguez on Sesame Street.

Cast

• Xavier Pritchett as Little Bill
• Zach Tyler Eisen as Andrew
• Gregory Hines as Big Bill(Seasons 1-3)
• Phylicia Rashad as Brenda
• Ruby Dee as Alice the Great
• Kianna Underwood as Fuchsia
• Tyler James Williams as Bobby
• Monique Beasley as April
• Eunice Cho as Kiku
• Bill Cosby as Captain Brainstorm

Characters

• Little Bill Glover: A 5 year old boy loves his hamster and is a fan of the (fictional) Blue Sox baseball team. He also likes Captain Brainstorm because he comes up with great ideas. He enjoys going to school, although he misses Elephant, he is still happy. He is known as Little Bill because he is actually Bill Jr, his father's name also being Bill.
• Elephant: Elephant (a hamster) is a small light yellow hamster who loves Little Bill, the only noise that is heard from him is his blinking eyes after Little Bill has spoken. When the rest of the family go on holiday, he is left alone with Alice the Great, Little Bill's great-grandmother.
• April Glover: The oldest of the Glover children, she is a highly talented basketball player—on the school team, and also at basketball camp, where she won a trophy. She is often seen getting bossy with Little Bill or Bobby. (She sometimes argues with Bobby.)
• Bobby Glover: Bobby is the most studious of the kids. He is always reading and investigating things. He is the middle child and oldest son of the Glover children.
• Big Bill Glover: Father of Bobby, April and Little Bill. They have a very close relationship with their father. He works for the Department of Housing, as a housing inspector.
• Brenda Glover: Little Bill, Bobby, and April's mother. Wife of Big Bill, she works as a photographer.
• Alice the Great: Great-Grandmother of Little Bill, Bobby, and April, and Brenda's grandmother (see "The Magic Quilt"). Usually teaches Little Bill lessons and tells stories to him. She also lives with the family.
• Captain Brainstorm: Captain Brainstorm is an astronaut who has an orange rocket and an orange space suit. Little Bill is a fan of his TV show, Space Explorers. Captain Brainstorm has a dog called Spark-E whose tagline, "Ruff-Roo!", is in a dog accent. He was seen in just one episode in which Little Bill and his friends meet him in person at a shopping mall appearance.
• Fuchsia Glover: Fuchsia is the cousin of Little Bill, Bobby, and April. Her father Al (Big Bill's brother) runs a shop close to Little Bill's house. Her mother's name is Vanessa.
• Andrew Mulligan: Andrew is a red haired freckled boy who is Little Bill's best friend.

Andrew and Little Bill have many things in common - they both like to watch Captain Brainstorm or play with construction sets, etc. Andrew has a pet dog named Farfy.

• Kiku Wong: Kiku is a Japanese-American friend of Little Bill's. She loves nature (particularly flowers) and her favorite hobby is origami (She showed Little Bill how to make origami in the episode "Shipwreck Saturday").
• Jeffrey Lappin: Jeffrey Lappin is a good friend of Bill's and he is of Russian decent. His hobbies are playing basketball and reading books. He also teaches Bill how to shoot foul shots.
• Monty: Grandson of Alice the Great's longtime friend Emmeline, uses a wheelchair to get around because he has cerebral palsy. He and Little Bill are good friends and pretend to be dinosaurs together* Monty's favorite is the triceratops. Monty introduces Bill to fried bananas, a cultural dish from his country Puerto Rico.
• Michael Rhiley: A classmate of Little Bill's who moves to the neighborhood from Miami. He sleeps over at Little Bill's house and likes his spaghetti without sauce.
• Miss Aisha Murray: Little Bill's teacher, later marries Dr. Winthrop Clinkscales (but the students are still allowed to call her Miss Murray, since they have trouble pronouncing her husband's name).
• Mrs. Shapiro: A Hawaiian lady who was Little Bill's neighbour but then moved back to Hawaii but they're still friends. She moved away in the episode "Same Moon, Same Sun, Same Star."
• Mr. Miguel Rojas: Mr. Rojas is a old man who speaks English and Spanish. He moved into Mrs. Shapiro's house and met Little Bill in the episode "The New Neighbours." He has a dog called Lito who's good at doing tricks. He only appears in "The New Neighbours", "Doggie Magic" and "The Early Bill."

Episodes

1. Just A Baby/The Campout (Originally Aired November 28, 1999)
2. The Treasure Hunt/The Best Way To Play (Originally Aired December 5, 1999)
3. Monty's Roar/Natural Root Pals (Originally Aired December 12, 1999)
4. The Dollar/The Choice (Originally Aired December 19, 1999)
5. Guppies/The Magic Quilt (Originally Aired January 9, 2000)
6. The Meanest Thing To Say / Lavatory Story
7. The Zoo / My Pet Elephant (Originally Aired February 20, 2000)
8. Chicken Pox / Shipwreck Saturday (Originally Aired June 19, 2000)
9. Zoopity Zoo/Neighborhood Park (Originally Aired September 4, 2000)
10. Elephant On The Loose/If A Bird Rings, Answer It (Originally Aired September 5, 2000)
11. Big Kid/The Bills Go To Work (Originally Aired September 6, 2000)
12. The Promise/The Practice (Originally Aired September 7, 2000)
13. Are We There Yet?/Super Family Fun Land! (Originally Aired September 8, 2000)
14. The Ring Bear/Miss Murray's Wedding (Originally Aired September 12, 2000)
15. The Birthday Present/The Birthday Party (Originally Aired September 13, 2000)
16. A Trip To The Hospital/The Wrong Thing To Do (Originally Aired September 14, 2000)
17. Rolling Along/The Stage Trick (Originally Aired October 9, 2000)
18. The Snack Helper/Buds (Originally Aired November 13, 2000)
19. Copy Cat/Picture Day (Originally Aired December 4, 2000)
20. Ready, Set, Read!/I Got a Letter (Originally Aired May 7, 2001)
21. The Violin Lessons/Squirmy (Originally Aired May 9, 2001)
22. Monty's Visit/Mom's Trip (Originally Aired May 10, 2001)
23. The No-Talking Contest/The Search Is For The Sock (Originally Aired May 11, 2001)
24. Merry Christmas Little Bill (Originally Aired December 25, 2001)
25. A Day At The Beach/The Get Well Song (Originally Aired February 12, 2002)
26. Michael Sleeps Over/Michael's First Snow (Originally Aired March 6, 2002)
27. Monty Joins The Class/Dad Goes To School (Originally Aired March 13, 2002)
28. Number One On Honeywood Street/Baseball Glovers (Originally Aired March 19, 2002)
29. Wabbit Worries/Wabbit Babies (Originally Aired November 25, 2002)
30. Cakeland/ the Goldenmoon is a friend(Originally Aired December 27, 2002)
31. The Car Keys/Doggie Sitting (Originally Aired February 18, 2003)
32. New Foods/Elephant Tricks (Originally Aired February 19, 2003)
33. What About Me?/Happy Not Birthday To You (Originally Aired February 20, 2003)
34. Racing Time/All Tied Up (Originally Aired February 21, 2003)
35. Echo Falls/Going Fishing (Originally Aired July 28, 2003)
36. The Best Book Ever!/A Ramp For Monty (Originally Aired July 29, 2003)
37. The New Babysitter/My Friend Isabel (Originally Aired July 30, 2003)
38. The Early Bill/Going Camping (Originally Aired July 31, 2003)
39. Same Moon, Same Sun, Same Star/All Together Now (Originally Aired September 22, 2003)
40. The Surprise!/Good Ol' Lightnin' (Originally Aired September 23, 2003)
41. The Musical Instrument/The Choir (Originally Aired September 24, 2003)
42. The Incredible Shrinking Little Bill/ The Big Swings (Originally Aired September 25, 2003)
43. New Neighbors/Doggie Magic (Originally Aired September 26, 2003)
44. I Can Sign/The Sign For Friend (Originally Aired September 29, 2003)
45. Summertime In The Wintertime/Snow Racer (Originally Aired February 2, 2004)
46. Get Well, Elephant/Elephant's Best Friend (Originally Aired February 3, 2004)
47. The Skating Lesson/Mr. Moth (Originally Aired February 4, 2004)
48. Private Time/Never (Originally Aired February 5, 2004)
49. When Friends Get Mad/The Party Box (Originally Aired February 16, 2004)

Trivia

• Little Bill lives on 5 Honeywood Street, the "Honeywood" part of the name of the street is the last name of the illustrator of the Little Bill book series, Varnette P. Honeywood.
• Andrew's cousins, Kevin and Rachael Mulligan, only appear in the episode "Number 1 on Honeywood Street".

References

External links

• Official website
• Little Bill at the Internet Movie Database
• Little Bill at TV.com