Eric Rogers, who composed the music for the DePatie-Freleng cartoons in the '70s. He was the additional music composer for 260 episodes of ''The Electric Company'', and wrote some new songs, including the arrangement from ''The Electric Company'' theme song.
The original soundtrack album, released on
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
, won a
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
for the show's cast.
Visuals
The series was notable for its extensive, innovative use of early
computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images may ...
, especially
Scanimate
{{about, the computer animation system, the animation effect, Barrier grid animation and stereography
Scanimate is an analog computer animation (video synthesizer) system developed from the late 1960s to the 1980s by Computer Image Corporation of ...
, a then-state-of-the-art analog video-synthesizer system. They were often used for presenting words with particular sounds. Sometimes a cast member would be seen alongside or interacting in another way with a word animation.
Show numbering
Comedian, actor and writer
Paul Dooley
Paul Dooley (born Paul Brown; February 22, 1928) is an American character actor, writer and comedian. He is known for his roles in '' Breaking Away'', '' Sixteen Candles'', and ''Popeye''.
Early life
Dooley was born Paul Brown on February 22, ...
created the series and served as head writer. A total of 780 episodes were produced in the show's six-season run, 130 per season. As with ''Sesame Street'', each episode of ''The Electric Company'' was numbered on-screen instead of using traditional episode titles. Seasons One through Four were numbered 1–520 (1971–1975). Season five was numbered 1A–130A (1975–1976), while season six was numbered 1B–130B (1976–1977). The last two seasons were designated as such because they were designed as year-long curricula for schools.
Starting with season three, a show's number would be presented in the sketch-of-the-day teaser segment, a parody of soap-opera teasers, which would highlight a particular sketch that would be shown during that episode. The voice of a cast member would say a variant of, "Today on ''The Electric Company'', the so-and so says, '(bleep)'," and the action would freeze as the graphic of the word of the day (or a card with the word of the day printed on it) became visible to viewers. The
redacted words were replaced by a series of
Minimoog
The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...
sounds roughly mimicking the
modulation
In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the ''carrier signal'', with a separate signal called the ''modulation signal'' that typically contains informatio ...
of the word or phrase in question so children could guess them. The still action would linger on the screen for several seconds, then fade to black, where the show number would become visible in a
Scanimate
{{about, the computer animation system, the animation effect, Barrier grid animation and stereography
Scanimate is an analog computer animation (video synthesizer) system developed from the late 1960s to the 1980s by Computer Image Corporation of ...
animation in a random color. The music for this segment was a repetitive, funky instrumental groove featuring a
call-and-response
Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...
between horns and a scratchy
wah-wah electric guitar.
The next-show teaser, which was introduced in season two without music, worked in the same way, and usually used a different take of the music heard during the sketch-of-the-day teaser, except that the voice said "Tune in next time, when...," and there was no show number shown.
In season one, however, after the title sequence, the sound of a striking match would be heard, and a fade-up from black would reveal a hand holding a lit match and "Show #''x''" handwritten on a piece of paper that was placed in such a way so that it could blend with the surrounding objects in-frame. Instead of the next-show teaser, Ken Roberts's voice could be heard, saying, "And now, the last word," and the trademark light bulb would be shut off by a hand doing whatever the last word was. In season two, after the opening sequence the words "The Electric Company" would disappear from the logo, and the show number would appear in its place through the use of a
Scanimate
{{about, the computer animation system, the animation effect, Barrier grid animation and stereography
Scanimate is an analog computer animation (video synthesizer) system developed from the late 1960s to the 1980s by Computer Image Corporation of ...
animation and an electronic whooshing sound.
Notably, some episodes in seasons three through five had serious technical errors with either their sketch-of-the-day teaser segments or their next-show teaser segments, which was probably because of the failure of the
linear
Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship ('' function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear ...
analog video
Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying
Copying is the duplication of information or an artifact based on an instance of that information or artifact, and not using the process that originally generated it. With analog f ...
-editing equipment. Episodes that have these errors in their sketch-of-the-day teasers include 297, 390, 1A, 8A, and 15A—sometimes the music started too late, ended too early, or played too long; sometimes the errors are negligible, with the teaser music only playing a fraction of a second longer than usual.
For season six, because the teaser music was changed to a shorter, self-contained composition, these errors do not occur, with the exception of the teaser of 33B shown at the end of 32B (available on iTunes), where the teaser was accidentally ''cut'' by a fraction of a second.
Cancellation
''The Electric Company'' was canceled in 1977 at the height of its popularity. Unlike its counterpart ''
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...
'', which licensed its
Muppet
The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are ...
characters for merchandising, ''The Electric Company'' never had a stand-alone brand or character that could have helped to generate additional profits. The only significant items the show licensed were comic books and a
Milton Bradley
Milton Bradley (November 8, 1836 – May 30, 1911) was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with his eponymous enterprise, which was purchased by Hasbro in 1984, and ...
board game of the Fargo North, Decoder character. Licensing rights were also granted to Mattel Electronics for two educational-based video games for the
Intellivision console in 1979. These games featured both the show's title logo on the game's packaging and label and the first several notes of the theme song played on the title screen of the games.
In addition, the PBS stations and statewide networks that aired the show often complained of the Children's Television Workshop "soaking up so much money in public television", said veteran television producer Samuel Gibbon, who worked on the show. "The stations demanded that one of the programs—either ''Sesame Street'' or ''The Electric Company''—be put into reruns to save money. By that time, ''Sesame Street'' was a cash fountain for the Workshop. The show was almost supporting itself by then with all the productions, books, records, and games. There was no way, it was felt, that they could reduce the number of original shows of ''Sesame Street''. But the thought was that if we produce two final seasons of ''The Electric Company'' that were designed to be repeated, that would give the show four more years of life." Most PBS programs at the time were produced entirely by local stations, instead of being the work of independent producers like CTW. The final episode of ''The Electric Company'' featured a short musical and dance number featuring the final cast members (with the exception of Rita Moreno, Bill Cosby, and Lee Chamberlin, who did not take part in this episode) including the then-current members of the Short Circus. The lyrics of the song summed up the closure of the series:
Following the last original episode on April 15, 1977, ''The Electric Company'' continued on PBS in reruns until early October 1985.
Revivals
1999 rebroadcast
The earlier shows did not resurface until February 2, 1999, when the
Noggin (brand)
Noggin is an American entertainment brand launched on February 2, 1999, as a joint venture between MTV Networks (owners of Nickelodeon) and Sesame Workshop. It started out as a cable television channel and interactive website, both centered aroun ...
network, which was partly owned by Sesame Workshop at the time, rebroadcast the show as a result of its co-ownership of the network. Noggin created a two-hour compilation special to re-introduce the series to a new generation. The special was aired on
TV Land
TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cla ...
as a way to promote Noggin.
Noggin ran 65 select episodes until mid-2003, when they were pulled from the program lineup because Sesame Workshop sold its half of the network to
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to:
* Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate
* Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom
* Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
, which already owned the other half. The shows were cut subtly to fit Noggin's shorter running time and free up time for various interstitial segments produced for the network. These deletions included the episode numbers, the
Scanimate
{{about, the computer animation system, the animation effect, Barrier grid animation and stereography
Scanimate is an analog computer animation (video synthesizer) system developed from the late 1960s to the 1980s by Computer Image Corporation of ...
word animations, the segments of up to 15 seconds, and the teasers of the next episodes (in seasons 2–6).
During the same period as the Noggin rebroadcasts, numerous fans of the program produced
QuickTime and
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
clips from the Noggin rebroadcasts, old over-the-air recordings, and, in some cases, from
master recording
Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via met ...
s. These were hosted online at various places and received heavy attention from the
blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can pu ...
(e.g.,
Boing Boing
''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twic ...
)
until a
cease-and-desist
A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not disc ...
letter took down th
most prominentof these sites in 2004.
DVD releases
The series was not seen since it was pulled from Noggin's schedule until Sesame Workshop, under license to
Shout! Factory and
Sony BMG Music Entertainment
Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout ...
, released a DVD boxed set on February 7, 2006, called ''The Best of the Electric Company'' that included 20 uncut episodes from throughout the show's run, including the first and last episodes, plus outtakes and introductions and commentary by Rita Moreno and June Angela.
Due to the overwhelming—and somewhat unexpected—popularity of the initial DVD release, a second boxed set was released on November 14, 2006 (''The Best of the Electric Company: Volume 2''). This second volume contained 20 episodes from seasons one through five plus a 30-minute documentary on the effects of in-school viewings of ''The Electric Company'' from 1975. Cast members Luis Ávalos, Jim Boyd, Judy Graubart, Skip Hinnant, and Hattie Winston provided commentary and reflected on their years on the show. However, the original content of nine episodes presented in this set were altered. In some cases, material that was originally broadcast in a particular episode was removed completely while material from other episodes was included. For example, 60A originally contained the Spider-Man episode "Spidey Meets the Prankster" and used a scene from that sketch as the opening teaser, which was removed completely (due to
Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC (formerly Marvel Enterprises) is an American show business, entertainment company (law), company founded in June 1998 and based in New York City, New York (state), New York, formed by the merger of #Marvel Entertainment ...
licensing) after the opening credits, leaving only the episode number. Also removed following the ''Letterman'' sketch in this episode was the clip of the Short Circus singing "Stop!" and a Road Runner–Wile E. Coyote cartoon (due to
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
licensing). These altered episodes also contain special effects used to segue from one sketch to another that were not used in the show's original run. The other altered episodes are 197, 227, 322, 375, 35A, 57A, 77A, and 105A.
It is believed that these changes were probably made to avoid repeats of segments that were on the first DVD set, but it is more likely that it was due to ownership rights—the segments that were used to cover up the material not under Sesame Workshop's control (Spider-Man, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, etc.) were longer than the excised segments, so the episodes were cut further to get them down to their required 28-minute length.
An hour-long television show called ''The Electric Company's Greatest Hits & Bits''
The Electric Company's Greatest Hits & Bits
' was broadcast on many PBS stations in late 2006. It included interviews with cast members, voice talent, and creator-producer
Joan Ganz Cooney
Joan Ganz Cooney (born Joan Ganz; November 30, 1929) is an American television writer and producer. She is one of the founders of Sesame Workshop (formerly ''Children's Television Workshop'' or CTW), the organization famous for the creation of ...
. The special was produced by Authorized Pictures and distributed by
American Public Television
American Public Television (APT) is an American nonprofit organization and syndicator of programming for public television stations in the United States. It distributes public television programs nationwide for PBS member stations and indepe ...
, and was designed to be seen during pledge drives. It was released on DVD on March 6, 2007.
iTunes
In early 2007,
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
, through its
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
service, started selling 15 previously-unavailable episodes of ''The Electric Company.'' "Volume 1" contained Episodes 5, 13, 23, 128, 179, 249, 261, 289, 297, 374, 416, 475, 91A, 8B, and 32B.
In late 2007, another collection of 15 episodes dubbed "Volume 2" became available from iTunes. The new additions were Episodes 2, 36, 40, 75, 142, 154, 165, 172, 189, 218, 245, 290, 337, and 350. Repeated from ''Volume 1'' was Episode 8B, erroneously labeled as 658, even though it ''is'' correct if the A–B designations were disregarded (1A–130A are 521–650, 1B–130B are 651–780).
It is unclear if these episodes were altered from the versions originally shown on television. Shout! Factory representatives indicated that it had no plans for another DVD set, implying that episodes distributed via iTunes would not be available in another format.
See also
*
*
* ''
Crashbox
''Crashbox'' is an educational children's television series co-created by Eamon Harrington and John Watkin for HBO Family that ran from 1999 to 2000 in the United States. It was HBO's second attempt (their first being ''Braingames'' 15 years ea ...
''
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Electric Company, The
1970s American children's comedy television series
1970s American sketch comedy television series
1970s preschool education television series
1971 American television series debuts
1977 American television series endings
American children's education television series
American television series with live action and animation
American television shows featuring puppetry
Children's sketch comedy
English-language education television programming
PBS Kids shows
PBS original programming
Reading and literacy television series
Television series by Sesame Workshop
Television shows filmed in New York (state)
Television shows filmed in New York City