The Electric Company

This article is about an American television program. For electric utilities, see electric company.

Opening title

The Electric Company was an educational children's television program produced by the Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) for PBS in the United States. PBS broadcast 780 episodes over the course of 6 seasons, from 1971 to 1977. CTW produced the show at Reeves Teletape Second Stage in Manhattan.

The Electric Company employed sketch comedy and other devices to provide an entertaining program to help children of primary school age develop their reading skills. It was intended for some children who had stopped watching CTW's flagship program Sesame Street.

Performers

Rita Moreno and Bill Cosby headlined the cast; Cosby would stay for the first two seasons, while Moreno remained for the show's entire run. Morgan Freeman and Hattie Winston went on to become prolific television and film celebrities in the decades that followed. Luis Avalos, Jim Boyd, Lee Chamberlin, Judy Graubart, Skip Hinnant, and Danny Seagren also appeared on the show.

Also a regular part of the show was The Short Circus, a band of kids whose songs also facilitated reading comprehension. June Angela was the only Short Circus member to remain with the show's cast throughout its run (she was 11 when The Electric Company began, and 17 during its final season); others lasted anywhere from one to four years. Irene Cara appeared during the first two seasons and would go on to become a major pop star ("Fame", "Flashdance (What a Feeling)").

Other members of the Short Circus included Gregg Burge, Todd Graff (Ilene Graff's brother; he went on to become a successful actor as an adult, co-starring in James Cameron’s The Abyss), Douglas Grant, Melanie Henderson, Bayn Johnson, Stephen Gustafson, Rodney Lewis, Réjane Maglorie, Janina Matthews, and Denise Nickerson (who previously co-starred as Violet Beauregarde in the 1971 film Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory).

Regular sketches

Some of the regular sketches performed on The Electric Company included the following:

Love Of Chair—Spoof of the soap opera Love of Life about a boy (Hinnant) sitting on a chair. Announcer Ken Roberts (who, appropriately enough, also announced for Love of Life) read the day’s story, told in the style of the old "Dick and Jane" primers. Most of the time the phrase ”The boy is sitting” is heard. It always ended in the same way: The announcer would ask several rhetorical questions about what might happen to the boy and the chair: “Will the boy get off the chair? Will the chair break?", with the final question always being "AND... WHAT ABOUT NAOMI?" The announcer would then state "For the answer to these and other questions--". The image would then jump-cut to a one of the cast members asking a quick non-sequitur (e.g "What time is it?", "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"), and then the image would jump-cut back to the room with the boy and the chair, with the announcer (apparently unaware of the interruption) concluding "-- tune in tomorrow for Love Of Chair!" Seen primarily during the 1971–1972 season. A shot of the boy sitting on the chair was used for the Friday closing credits during the first season. In the final "Chair" sequence, the boy interrupts the announcer to declare "The boy is NOT sitting! The boy is QUITTING!".
Fargo North, Decoder—A detective (Skip Hinnant) tries to decode scrambled word messages and phrases. His name is a pun based on Fargo, North Dakota.
The Adventures of Letterman—“Faster than a rolling ‘O,’ stronger than silent ‘E,’ able to leap capital ‘T’ in a single bound! It's a word, it’s a plan...it's Letterman!" super-hero spoof that was a favorite of many viewers. The villainous Spell Binder ("Curses!") creates havoc by changing a key letter in a word (e.g., “custard” to “mustard”). After the humorous results are depicted and Spell Binder revels in his fun, the heroic Letterman replaces the incorrect letter with a more appropriate one from his varsity sweater ("Ripping a "T" off his chest (rip)..."). The title character ("I'm Letterman!”) was voiced by Gene Wilder most of the time, the Spell Binder was voiced by Zero Mostel, and the narrator was voiced by Joan Rivers (“Oh, where is our hero?”). First seen during the 1972–1973 season. Parodied as Litterman in season six.
Five Seconds—Midway point of the show where viewers are challenged to read a word within a 5-second time limit. From 1973–1975, in a spoof of Mission: Impossible, the word would self-destruct through the use of a chroma-key special effect after the time limit expired. (“The word you see here will self-destruct in five seconds. Can you read it before it does?”) After 1975, the viewers had to read the word before a cast member (often from a featured skit) did.
Spidey Super Stories—Short pieces featuring the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, which was provided to CTW free of charge. Spider-Man was played by Danny Seagren and communicates only in word balloons (much like in the comics)—because he was drawn without a mouth—and would always wear his mask and costume (he would never appear in his secret identity of Peter Parker). Stories involved the web-masked super-hero foiling mischievous characters who were involved in petty criminal activities (such as burglary or assault); cast members filled the supporting roles. One of the best-remembered and loved features, Spidey Super Stories premiered during the 1974–1975 season. The theme: "Spider-Man, where are you coming from, Spider-Man? Nobody knows who you are!" Marvel also published a spin-off comic book that ran long after the show ended production.
The Director—A hapless director (Rita Moreno), dressed as an old-style Hollywood film director, tries in vain to make her actors read the correct line as printed on an oversized cue card held by Marcello (Morgan Freeman). The director uses her riding crop as a pointer to the cue card, but she usually ends up wacking the cue card in anger with the crop startling Marcello. Several flubbed takes are depicted before the director gives up in frustration. Common director lines include, "Marcello!!!!!" "Aaaaanndd ROLL ’EM!!" and "Aaaaaction!"
Giggles, Goggles—Two friends (usually Rita Moreno and Judy Graubart) conversing when one of them misuses a word (e.g., "flack" as in "flap," when the other was talking about something with the word "flap"). Several words, similarly tied by prefix or suffix, are humorously misused until they get back to the original word. "That's what I was trying to tell you," remarks one of the characters, after which the other fumes in frustration.
Soft-Shoe Silhouettes—Two cast members appear in silhouette, one giving the prefix of the word, the other the suffix, to form a new word (e.g., “th-” “-ing” to form “thing”). Most notable for the soft-shoe-type music that plays during the segment. Done twice through, sometimes with the viewer trying to read the word the second time through. The song usually ended with the two saying a soft "yeah!"
Dr. Doolats—Parody of Dr. Doolittle and Groucho Marx in which the title character (Luis Avalos) uses words to cure his patients.
Vi’s Diner—Customers try to read simple menus to place their order at proprieter Vi's (Lee Chamberlin) eatery. Grover from Sesame Street made a cameo in one skit because he was in tears and lost, and needed the help of Vi and J. Arthur Crank to get back home.
Easy Reader—"Easy Reader, that's my name, umm, umm-umm!" — Segments featuring the title character, played by Morgan Freeman, teaching words of the day. Often associated with Val the librarian (Hattie Winston) after 1973). His name is a pun based on the film Easy rider.
Jennifer of the Jungle—George of the Jungle send-up with (Judy Graubart) and Paul the Gorilla (Jim Boyd). Usually opened with Jennifer swinging on Viney the vine, yeling, "Oy-yoy-yoo-yoy...." * Count Dracula—Send-up of the Bram Stoker literary character, played by Morgan Freeman. Sometimes, he is seen with Frankenstein’s monster (Skip Hinnant) and the Wolfman (Jim Boyd). Known in one skit as Vincent the Vegetable Vampire.
Dr. Frankenstein—Another monster-based parody, this time with an evil scientist (Morgan Freeman) and his assistant, Igor (Luis Avalos) trying to read words.
Slow Reader—A bald-headed slow reader is given a message to read by a delivery man and has trouble sounding out the words. Each message is advice he needs to follow (e.g., “Please do not bother this giant person,” “Go away,” “Duck!” “Keep off the grass”), but winds up not understanding the words or meaning until it is too late.
Here's Cooking at You—Send-up of Julia Child, with Judy Graubart playing Julia Grown-Up.
Road Runner—New segments of the Looney Tunes character and his pursuer, Wile E. Coyote, produced and directed by Chuck Jones. These segments reinforced reading skills. These segments, unlike the classic Warner Bros. shorts, were completely devoid of sound, save for vocal effects such as laughing and sound effects such as the switching of a traffic light or the bouncing on a trampoline.
Clayton—During the 1976–1977 season, a Claymation character who often commented on the previous skit or introduced a new concept.
Monolith—An animated short, set in outer space, used to introduce segments discussing a sound cluster. A huge Washington Monument-type structure begins to collapse to the strains of the Richard Strauss composition "Also sprach Zarathustra" (the theme of the film "2001: A Space Odyssey"), and the appropriate sound cluster would be chisled from the structure (i.e. “alk,” “oo,” “all,” “ee’). A skit based on a scene from the film 2001 was usually built around this segment (with the characters always cowering in fear and awe as the music begins).
The Corsican Twins—Twin brothers (Skip Hinnant and Jim Boyd) who could hurt each other by punching, biting, kicking, etc., himself, all while reinforcing sounds.
Mel Mounds—The disc jockey (Morgan Freeman) who introduced songs, usually by the Short Circus. Known for the phrase “Sounds righteous, delightious, and out of sighteous! Heavy, heavy, (finger snap) heavy! Ha-ah!”
Vaudeville Revue (aka The Stage)—Skits and songs are presented — variety show-style on-stage, with music fanfare and canned applause to introduce and end each segment.
A Very Short Book—Typically the last sketch of the episode in which a very short story is read. Usually based on nursery rhymes or fairy tales and having a humorous ending. Always finished with ”The End.”
Last Word— Always came at the end of the show; mainly featured in the early seasons. The camera would show a bare lit incandecent bulb on a pull-chain switch hanging from a wire. An unseen announcer would gravely state "And now... a last word." A single word would appear, usually one that had been featured earlier in the episode. An unseen cast member would read the word aloud, reach their arm into the shot, and turn the light off by tugging the pull chain.
Sign Sing-Along—Sometimes the last sketch on a Friday episode, filmed segments married to a sing-along type song (e.g., “I like fish food/You do, too”), with filmed snippets of a sign with said words. Sung once through, after which the viewers are expected to supply the lyrics the second time around ("All right, we'll be quiet and you sing it!") while a wah-wah-muted trumpet and bassoon duo plays the melody of the words. Alternate: vignettes depicting literal translations of road signs (e.g., slow-motion action of children playing for a Slow Children sign).
The Blue Beetle—a bumbling superhero (Jim Boyd) who would often make matters worse instead of better for people who he tried to help. He wore a mask, a hood with antennas, wings attached to his back, tennis shoes, boxer shorts, and a T-shirt with “Blue Beetle” written on it all of which were all colored blue. He's also often put up against Spider-Man of whom he is both jealous of and intimidated by. One of his favorite taglines was, "I would if I could, but I can't, so I won't."
J. Arthur Crank—Jim Boyd's plaid-wearing character who often interrupted sketches to complain when spellings or pronunciations confused him. In early episodes, he was just a voice on the phone, much like an irate viewer on a radio call-in show. In one sketch he sings a song devoted to his spiritual cousin Oscar the Grouch.

Music

Joe Raposo was the Music Director of the series from Season 1–3. Gary William Friedman served as the Music director of the series for Season 4, writing some 40 songs, which included the popular Spider-Man theme song. Tom Lehrer wrote ten songs for the series. L-Y and Silent E are among the more memorable. (see link) Dave Conner was the Music Director of the last two seasons of the series

The original soundtrack album won a Grammy award for the show's cast.

Show numbering

A total of 780 episodes were produced in the show’s six-season run, 130 per season. The first four seasons were numbered 1–520. The season-five shows were numbered 1A–130A, and the season-six shows were numbered 1B–130B because these seasons were designed as year-long curriculum for schools. Starting with season three, a show’s number would be presented in the teaser segment of the day’s highlighted sketch. The voice of a cast member would say a variant of, “Today on the Electric Company, the so-and-so says, ‘(censored),’” and the action would stop as the graphic of the word of the day—or card with the word of the day printed on it—became visible to viewers. The censored words were replaced by a series of harsh electronic sounds that sounded something like a theremin in the amount of syllables required for each word. The still action would linger on the screen for several seconds, then fade to black, where the show number would become visible through a chroma-key effect. 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 there was no show number shown. In season six, the electronic sounds were made less harsh-sounding.

In season one, however, after the title sequence, the sound of a striking match would be heard, and a fade-up to 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 familiar logo, and the show number would appear in its place with a chroma-key effect and an electronic whooshing sound.

Syndication

Following the last original episode on April 15, 1977, the series continued on PBS in reruns until late 1985, with the final two seasons (1A–130A and 1B–130B) shown in rotation (these are the episodes most familiar to viewers).

The earlier 1971–1975 shows did not resurface until January 31, 1999, when the Noggin network, which was partly owned by Sesame Workshop at the time, acquired the syndication rights. A 2-hour feature-length compilation special re-introduced the series to a new generation whose previous one grew up watching the show. Noggin ran select episodes until 2003, when they were pulled from the program lineup. The shows were cut subtly to fit Noggin’s shorter running time to allow for Noggin’s various interstitial segments. What was cut were the episode numbers, Chroma Key word animations, the segments 15 seconds and shorter, and the teasers for the next episodes (in seasons 2–6).

The series has not been seen since then, but Sesame Workshop (in partnership with Shout! Factory and Sony BMG Music Entertainment) released a DVD boxed set on February 7, 2006 (The Best of the Electric Company), which includes 20 uncut episodes from all six seasons, plus outtakes, and introductions and commentary by Rita Moreno. It is rumored that additional DVDs may be produced in the future.

External links