Coordinates | 41°52′55″N87°37′40″N |
---|---|
Show name | Schoolhouse Rock! |
Format | Educational, Animated, Musical |
Runtime | 3 minutes |
Creator | David McCall |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Network | ABC |
First aired | |
Last aired | |
Num episodes | 64 (60 aired) |
Num seasons | 7 |
List episodes | List of Schoolhouse Rock! episodes |
Schoolhouse Rock! is an American series of animated musical educational short films that aired during the Saturday morning children's programming on the U.S. television network ABC. The topics covered included grammar, science, economics, history, mathematics, and civics. The series' original run lasted from 1973 to 1985, and was later revived with both old and new episodes airing from 1993 to 1999. Additional episodes were produced as recently as 2009 for direct-to-video release.
When a print workbook version fell through, McCall's company decided to produce their own animated versions of the songs, which they then sold to ABC (which was already the advertising company's biggest account) based on a demo animation of the original "Three Is A Magic Number" for its Saturday morning lineup. They pitched their idea to Michael Eisner, then vice-president of ABC's children's programming division. Eisner brought longtime Warner Bros. cartoonist/director Chuck Jones to the meeting to also listen to the presentation.
The network's children's programming division had producers of its regular 30- and 60-minute programs cut three minutes out of each of their shows, and sold General Foods on the idea of sponsoring the segments. The series stayed on the air for 12 years. Later sponsors of the Schoolhouse Rock! segments also included Nabisco, Kenner Toys, Kellogg's, and McDonald's.
Thirty-seven episodes were recorded and produced between 1972 and 1980. The first season of Schoolhouse Rock, "Multiplication Rock," debuted in 1973 and discussed all of the multiplication tables from two through twelve, with one episode devoted to powers of 10 (My Hero Zero) instead of multiples of ten.
This original series was followed in short order by a new series which ran from 1973 to 1975, entitled "Grammar Rock," which discussed nouns, verbs and adjectives along with one of the most well-known title of the series, Conjunction Junction.
To coincide with the upcoming United States bicentennial, a third series, entitled "America Rock", airing in 1975 and 1976, had episodes covering the structure of the United States government in another well-known episode I'm Just a Bill along with important moments in American history such as Sufferin' til Sufferage and The Shot Heard Round the World
A fourth series entitled "Science Rock" followed in 1978 and 1979, and included a broad range of science-related topics such as Do the Circulation and The Body Machine (a play on The Body Electric), The Energy Blues, Electricity, E-Lec-Tri-City, to the most well-known of the series, Interplanet Janet (which is about the solar system).
A fifth follow-up series, entitled "Computer Rock," featuring the characters Scooter Computer and Mister Chips (the only episodes in the series to feature any recurring characters), premiered in the early 1980s and comprised just four segments about personal computer technology, then just emerging onto the scene. As the references and depictions became quickly outdated, due to the rapid advance of technology, the series was never rerun after 1984.
After leaving the airwaves in 1985, the original team reunited to produce two more Grammar Rock segments ("Busy Prepositions" and "The Tale of Mr. Morton") for television in 1993. This was followed in 1995 by a brand new series, "Money Rock," which discussed topics related to money management on both the personal and governmental scale. Episodes from the new series aired in rotation with the original segments from 1994 to 1996.
Schoolhouse Rock as a whole ceased airing on television in 2000 with newer episodes released directly to home video. Starting in 2002, the team once again reunited to produce a new song, "I'm Gonna Send Your Vote To College" for the release of the 30th Anniversary DVD. For the new song, Tom Yohe Jr. took over as lead designer for his father, Tom Yohe Sr., who had died in 2000. was created by the original production team, premiered in 2009, and featured eleven environmentally-themed songs.
Sometime after its initial airing, The Greatest Show on Earth/The Weather Show was pulled from broadcast rotation due to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus objecting to its use of their trademark slogan "The Greatest Show On Earth" and filing a lawsuit. The episode would remain unseen until 2002, when it was included on the bonus disk of the 30th Anniversary DVD (see below). Also, the episode was deleted on the "Science Rock" 1995 VHS.
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