Holy Buckets! I hadn’t thought about this PBS program in years and today was its anniversary. Growing up in the Seventies, The Electric Company was must-see TV after you “graduated” from Sesame Street and/or found Mr. Rogers too patronizing; today, I revere him as a rare saint.
The show was an awesome demonstration of how to teach phonics and all of English’s weird pronunciations because we love to mess up words with those silent Es. I was too little to understand the comedy Company‘s skits were performing, probably to keep the trapped adults from being bored. Still, I loved Easy Reader, Fargo North, the gorilla Paul, Crank, Letterman and how loud Rita Moreno was. When Spider-Man joined the show, then I couldn’t be kept away! He was my fave at the time and the Sixties version of Spider-Man was being shown on Channel 44 before it went all Spanish, ergo, I was awash in fandom for what it was in the Seventies.
I didn’t know Company ended well before the Seventies (1977), they could’ve had a field day with Disco. Quite a bummer but Sesame Street was the smarter investment as its characters could be licensed as toys, so I don’t blame PBS and CPB for its decision. The funnier thing was seeing all the actors in other TV shows, movies and commercials. Moreno was already famous from at least West Side Story and The Ritz. Morgan Freeman (Easy Reader) had his second act in the late Eighties and is a constant presence today. Judy Graubart (Jennifer of the Jungle) was in a detergent commercial and Alan Arkin’s odd comedy Simon. Skip Hinnant (Fargo North) was also in a detergent ad, nothing else I saw. Luis Avalos (Dr. Doolats) was quite busy on TV until he died yet I only remember him squeezing a guy’s junk with pliers in Stir Crazy. The others are a blank and I feel bad about it. According to imdb.com, Hattie Winston and Lee Chamberlin had prolific careers alongside Luis and Rita. I vaguely recall celebrities appearing: Gary Owens, Lily Tomlin and Willie Tyler with Lester. I had no idea Mel Brooks was involved nor Gene Wilder and Joan Rivers with the Adventures of Letterman cartoons. Zero Mostel I remember a bit. Sadly, I do clearly remembers Bill Cosby’s earlier involvement before he went to Captain Kangaroo to host Picture Pages. The Dr. Jekyll side of him was probably key to making the show happen. He was huge promoter of education and early child development but all his good legacies are erased by the true Mr. Hyde we’ve finally have been informed of.
The Electric Company was a great show for its day. Entertaining and educational, especially at a time when most American TV programming was limited to four broadcast networks and three were only interested in making money. Despite its brief tenure, it did have great reach and impact as it lived on in skits on SNL and years later with Family Guy, I didn’t say they were good skits…
It went on to be repurposed through cable stations. It’s the least Nick Jr., Disney Jr and the other attempts at true educational programming could do; it’s sad when “The Learning Channel” is absolute shit now. Poor PBS, a victim of its own success. Personally, I hope PBS can find a way to be reborn as its own streaming product in the same way the BBC has done. For all of JFK’s numerous personal failings, he was a champion of public television and using television as a means for helping, teaching and informing everybody regardless of their wealth.
Thanks to everybody involved with The Electric Company. I count myself as one of its successful graduates! Through the first half of my grade-school education, it helped me for I was in the top reading classes until St. Agnes, and as an adult, I would give the show credit for my voracious vocabulary. As for my pronunciation difficulties caused by my Midwestern accent, regional dialects proved to be more formidable than radio/TV critics claimed.