[HN Gopher] 50 years ago, The Electric Company used comedy to bo...
___________________________________________________________________
50 years ago, The Electric Company used comedy to boost kids'
reading skills
Author : samizdis
Score : 146 points
Date : 2021-10-25 15:44 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.npr.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.npr.org)
| sundaeofshock wrote:
| I was born in 1967 and just ate this up as kid. The intro with
| Rita Moreno yelling "Hey you guys!" followed by the theme song
| brings back a flood of emotion.
|
| I was a voracious reader as a kid. I suspect this show had
| something to do with that.
|
| Thanks for sharing.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| I was born in the 70s and I don't think I ever watched a full
| episode, thus having no point of reference for Sloth in Goonies
| yelling the same phrase. And now I do.
| bink wrote:
| Wow. I was born in the 70s as well and you just made that
| connection for me. I had no idea.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| The funny thing is that I remember watching the intro to
| The Electric Company after seeing it again for the first
| time in decades (and somehow got myself down into a rabbit
| hole of watching 3-2-1 Contact intros). Still didn't recall
| the "Hey You Guys" at the beginning though.
|
| https://youtu.be/H_iGaQglnKg
|
| Apparently Sloth was locked alone in a room with a TV,
| which is where he got the catch phrase from.
| jimbokun wrote:
| It's amazing looking back that Spider Man was a recurring
| Electric Company character:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM22mzqWUec
|
| Morgan Freeman narrating a silly Spider Man comic book / live
| action mashup is surreal and hilarious. And incorporating the
| reading part is subtle and most kids watching don't realize
| it's meant to teach them to read.
|
| I used to watch the Electric Company just waiting for the
| Spider Man segment, back before there was limitless Spider Man
| movies and cartoons available on Disney+.
|
| And it's impressive that Marvel lent one of their most valuable
| pieces of intellectual property to an educational effort. But
| it probably helped them marketing the character and
| merchandising efforts.
| rectang wrote:
| My favorite was "Spidey Up Against The Wall". Where the dude
| dressed up as bricks blends into a portion of the outfield
| fence at Shea Stadium and then sneaks forward to mess up a
| routine catch by a Mets outfielder.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hMRRWzACpM
| themodelplumber wrote:
| "Hey you guys" was always fun to hear on the TV. I was born
| about a decade later so it also instantly reminds me of another
| show that was on after The Electric Company: 3-2-1 Contact.
| That theme song always got my little heart going too.
| bink wrote:
| Just don't leave the TV on until HR Puffinstuff comes on.
| That was nightmare fuel.
| smhenderson wrote:
| Aw, no way, he's your friend when things get rough!
|
| Along with the Bugaloos and all those crazy Sid and Marty
| Krofft shows! I loved that stuff as a kid. Although I think
| Land of the Lost was my favorite, certainly a little less
| out there than most of their shows...
| drewcoo wrote:
| The boy with the magic flute. And the only adult present,
| witchy-poo, wants to get the flute. The psychedelic
| design was fabulous but something always bothered me
| about the show.
| rolph wrote:
| H.R. pufnstuf?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.R._Pufnstuf
|
| i recall a number of years back, a props warehouse was
| broken into and freddy the magic flute was stolen, i
| wonder who has him and where he will show up.
| chrisweekly wrote:
| Yes! Also (even more so) -- Doctor Who!
| themodelplumber wrote:
| For sure! Mine was basically Tom Baker, you? I've been
| learning to appreciate the others recently. A lot of fun.
| chrisweekly wrote:
| Yes, the 4th Dr by a country mile. (And Leela, and K-9)
| cronix wrote:
| Whenever there's trouble, we're there on the double. We're
| the Bloodhound Gang!
| themodelplumber wrote:
| Totally. For some reason that segment got me creeped out on
| many a sick day, watching TV alone. lol
| duderific wrote:
| 1969 here, and my Mom used to yell "Hey you guys!" exactly in
| the style of Rita Moreno when she wanted us to come in for
| dinner. Back then of course, we would go outside and play all
| day or after school, so we'd inevitably be down the street
| somewhere...
| busyant wrote:
| 1968 here. I'm not sure why, but The Electric Company resonated
| with me much more than Sesame Street. I was in awe of Morgan
| Freeman and his sonorous voice.
|
| Years later, I remember seeing him start to get traction in
| Hollywood and thought, "Hey! That's the guy from the Electric
| Company!"
| technothrasher wrote:
| I was 1971, so a few years younger than you folks. For some
| reason The Electric Company scared the crap out of me,
| especially the creepy Spider-man segments. My older brother
| liked it, so we would watch it. But I had to watch Mr. Rogers
| afterward just to calm myself down. Obviously I grew out of
| being scared of it, but by the time I did I'd moved on to
| other shows.
| bsenftner wrote:
| "Hey! That's Easy Reader!"
|
| I had the opportunity to chat with him once. I asked him how
| many people remember and ask him about Easy Reader. He lit up
| and says only grey haired people remember Easy, but the light
| in their eyes warms his heart.
| crispyambulance wrote:
| My favorite was the "Easy Reader" character-- a very young
| Morgan Freeman!
| mbostleman wrote:
| 1963 here and same. Also Zoom from WGBH.
| mwcremer wrote:
| ZOOM Z double-oh M box 3 5 0 Boston Mass 0 2 1 3 4... send it
| to ZOOM!
|
| And Schoolhouse Rock: Ready or Not, Here I Come; Conjunction
| Junction; I'm Just a Bill; The Preamble
| samstave wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XanjZw5hPvE
| redleggedfrog wrote:
| 1966'er here, and watched myself a ton of Electric Company. I
| too ended up a life-long reader, and interestingly, ended up
| hardly watching any television past childhood. Anecdotal, but
| still...
| qohen wrote:
| _The intro with Rita Moreno yelling "Hey you guys!" followed by
| the theme song brings back a flood of emotion._
|
| Here's a good-quality clip of that (6th season, 1977):
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu7qn7c7Gpo
| JJMcJ wrote:
| Most current children's programming now, either PBS or
| commercial, seems hysterical and intended to create anxiety by
| comparison.
|
| Mister Rogers, Sesame Street, Electric Company, were really
| excellent.
| handrous wrote:
| They're so _sedate_. It 's wonderful. From what I've seen with
| my own kids, they're entirely OK with and plenty entertained by
| that pace--until they become accustomed to super-fast modern
| kids' media. Even most of the stuff on PBS seems hyper-
| caffeinated by comparison. And don't get me started on the damn
| auto-tune. "Let's teach 3 year olds this is what a normal human
| singing voice sounds like". Bleh. Friggin' Daniel Tiger.
| JJMcJ wrote:
| Cartoon kids talk in hysterical falsettos, even third graders
| don't talk that high pitched in real life.
|
| Adults mostly don't exist. Often the kids have superpowers
| that solve all the problems.
|
| The only PBS Kids shows that seems to have kids in a normal
| relationship with adults is Molly Of Denali. Also just about
| the only one that shows adults interacting with each other.
| tclancy wrote:
| Which shows are these? The biggest difference I see between
| when I was a kid (born in the 70s) and my daughter (born in the
| 10s) is that shows now are relentlessly upbeat, focused
| entirely on teaching and nonviolent. We recently got HBO Max
| and most of Looney Tunes is lost on her because it's basically
| assholes whaling in each other.
|
| I still love it, of course.
| jmkb wrote:
| My favorite skit: "Hey, what are doing inside
| that crate? Where's the new loudspeaker I ordered?" "I
| *AM* A LOUD SPEAKER!"
| amacbride wrote:
| I was 3-1/2 when it premiered, and it was my favorite show;
| apparently I could already read, but I'm certain the show helped
| improve that.
|
| "It's a word, it's a plan...it's Letterman!"
|
| (narrated by Joan Rivers, Letterman played by Gene Wilder, with
| Zero Mostel as Spell Binder!)
| chriselles wrote:
| Actor Morgan Freeman was Easy Reader on Electric Company.
|
| Morgan Freeman's voice is one of the most distinctive for me as
| I've been listening to it since I was a very young child learning
| how to pronounce words and read.
|
| No wonder he has played so many trusted characters, his voice
| alone conveys deep trust from millions of people who grew up
| listening to it as children.
| doodpants wrote:
| I loved this show as a kid.
|
| ...Holy crap I'm almost 50.
| WalterBright wrote:
| I'm pretty skeptical of claims that childrens' TV boosts academic
| skills. Even if it does, the results hardly justify a thousand
| hours spent watching it. It's probably the most inefficient
| teaching method ever devised.
|
| The reason is simple. It's completely passive. In order to learn,
| kids have to actively participate.
| setpatchaddress wrote:
| Sure, but is it worse than what they'd have otherwise been
| watching on TV?
|
| Stipulated that in an ideal world, children should watch no
| television.
|
| But if the alternative is, I don't know, reruns of Leave it to
| Beaver?
| 0134340 wrote:
| I didn't learn anything from this comment while passively
| reading. /s
|
| Seriously though, I've learned a lot just from reading and
| watching media growing up, in some cases much more than school
| because it's something I actively wanted to do. For me, doesn't
| matter whether it's active or passive, if it's something I
| enjoy I can learn from it much easier.
| WalterBright wrote:
| Reading is an active process. Watching a show about reading
| is not. You're not going to learn how to play a guitar by
| passively watching a show, nor are you going to learn dancing
| that way, etc.
|
| I totally understand that people _want_ to believe that EC
| and other "educational" TV shows work, because it is
| effortless for the parent, the teacher, and the child. But
| the very nature of it being effortless leads to it not
| working.
|
| Heck, I'd absolutely love it if watching an exercise video
| would add muscle mass. Sadly, it doesn't.
| smhenderson wrote:
| My favorite bit was the Spiderman character that didn't talk.
| Little thought bubbles, akin to comic books, would appear over
| his head so you had to read to get in on the joke/gist of the
| sketch.
| tclancy wrote:
| He did talk in some things. I used to have an LP of a bunch of
| the Spider-Man stories from the show. At least I think they
| were from the show.
| wenc wrote:
| I was more into Sesame Street but the Spider-Man segment was
| the one reason I watched the Electric Company.
| jasperry wrote:
| Electric Company was still playing in reruns in the early 80s
| and they would show it to us in school. All the kids would
| cheer out loud when the Spider-man segment came on.
| russellbeattie wrote:
| It's really hard for anyone today to understand how awesome
| it was to have Spider-Man show up on your TV set _in real
| life_!! It was exciting the way a celebrity sighting is... He
| just wasn 't seen outside of comics.
| 1cvmask wrote:
| Would the old Electric Company be received the same way if it was
| released today?
|
| There was so much "mature" comedy and comedians in it that it
| defies disbelief in what was a children's show:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_Company
| joezydeco wrote:
| Pixar kind of took that baton and ran with it.
| dtgriscom wrote:
| C'mon; aren't there any "Love of Chair" fans out there?
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuMd0xWleJQ
| asdff wrote:
| Anyone else learn to read from Pokemon Red or Blue?
| idworks1 wrote:
| Interestingly enough, I watched this growing up in Saudi Arabia.
| In the late 80s, early 90s there were only 2 TV channels.
|
| Channel 1 was in Arabic. Channel 2 was mostly English and had a
| lot of old school American programs. We watched sesame streets,
| the electric company, old episodes of Tom and Jerry and Looney
| Tunes.
|
| I can't say it taught me how to read, but it taught me English
| for sure.
|
| > Take the detective character Fargo North, Decoder (get it?),
| who would solve missing letter mysteries. "Kids don't know Fargo,
| North Dakota," Fowles points out.
|
| There was a show my wife watched when she was a kid in Florida.
| One of the main character was called LaCienega Boulevardes. It
| sounded like any other name. Until a couple years ago she moved
| to California. She started laughing hysterically when we drove on
| La Cienega Blvd.
| jedberg wrote:
| As someone who is a native of Los Angeles, and spent many
| childhood drives on La Cienega, I love this story. I had to
| look up the character -- looks like it was an animated series
| called The Proud Family that ran on Disney in the early 00s,
| and was created by an LA native.
|
| Growing up in LA I could see a lot of influences from my local
| area in media (and in the 80s a lot of stuff was filmed in LA
| too so I'd literally see local spots in movies). But it never
| occurred to me that the LA inside jokes wouldn't really be
| inside jokes to people outside of LA.
| hahamrfunnyguy wrote:
| I think it's a good thing though. Parents could watch with
| their kids and still enjoy it. From what I've seen of today's
| children's programming, it's not very enjoyable for the
| parents. I guess it doesn't really matter, most parents just
| give their kids a tablet.
| paulpauper wrote:
| I am really skeptical about the purported efficacy of any tv
| program to teach kids how to read. I think learning to read comes
| from actual reading.
| cratermoon wrote:
| If there are words on the screen and the TV show talks about
| and explains the words on the screen, the kid is reading and
| being taught to read, no?
| MontagFTB wrote:
| They rebooted the show for a time a decade or so ago - it was a
| breath of fresh air, and I'm sad it didn't last longer.
| samizdis wrote:
| There's a surprisingly detailed Wikipedia page on that 2009
| reboot:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_Company_(2009_TV_...
|
| Also, the 70s original:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_Company
| lambic wrote:
| My son watched the reboot, I credit his ability to use
| punctuation correctly to that show.
| cronix wrote:
| It was such a wondrous time to be a kid. I learned so much from
| TV in my early years. It makes me sad that once we valued things
| like reading and writing as a society, as we recognized it
| benefited all of society, but seem to be going the opposite
| direction in some places.
|
| > Oregon Gov. Kate Brown privately signed a bill last month
| ending the requirement for high school students to prove
| proficiency in reading, writing, and arithmetic before
| graduation.
|
| https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/oregon-governor-signs-bill...
| mc32 wrote:
| WTH?
|
| And we wonder why we're losing out to other economies and have
| to import skilled labor (not a bad thing per se, where it makes
| sense) but throwing your own under the bus is malfeasance.
| 1cvmask wrote:
| Importing immigrants is the easy way out. Improving schools
| is a non-starter. At least for most public schools. Instead
| of focusing on the basics like math and language proficiency
| we have the stranglehold of the teachers unions and the
| academic sports complex (where there 80 million dollar high
| school football stadiums):
|
| https://www.chron.com/sports/highschool/article/Most-
| expensi...
| mc32 wrote:
| We're failing kids in the most basic academics. How can we
| ever hope to be long term competitive?
|
| Third world countries treat academics with more importance
| and rigor than this kind of defining the problem out.
|
| Let's see the governor redefine taxes and see if the IRS
| humors that. Neither will life for these kids.
| elliekelly wrote:
| Why does MSN allow disreputable publications like the
| Washington Examiner to link launder via their domain like that?
|
| https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/oregon-graduation-proficie...
| cronix wrote:
| > (b) Notwithstanding paragraph (a) of this subsection, the
| State Board of Education may not require a student who has
| successfully completed the credit requirements prescribed by
| paragraph (a) of this subsection or by rule of the board to
| demonstrate proficiency in any skill or academic content
| area.
|
| https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2021R1/Downloads/Meas.
| ..
|
| Read the bill. Snopes?
| elliekelly wrote:
| Reading the statute doesn't give any context. Also, people
| incorrectly and misleadingly quote snippets of law all the
| time on the internet because they don't know how to read
| and interpret a statute.
| macintux wrote:
| The Electric Company and Sesame Street taught me to read as a
| kid. My parents were both in school, very busy, but I was reading
| and writing before I started talking in sentences.
|
| Sadly that accelerated learning curve didn't last very long.
| samizdis wrote:
| This is just incredible:
|
| > The show's cast included Academy Award winner Rita Moreno, Bill
| Cosby and a then unknown Morgan Freeman. Guest stars included Mel
| Brooks, Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder and Joan Rivers. The teen pop
| band Short Circus (get it?) included future star Irene Cara. The
| comedy writers were among the best in the business, and later
| went on to work on hit TV shows including MASH and Everybody
| Loves Raymond.
| supernova87a wrote:
| I don't know about anyone else, but listening to the theme song
| of 3-2-1 Contact just brings me back to coming back from school
| afternoons, or lazy days in summer as a kid.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2-LEBc2sO8
|
| By the way, listening now, this song still impresses me. Every
| single measure in the main part, while sounding repeated, has a
| slight rhythmic or instrumental variation from the previous one,
| maybe to keep you on your toes. Very clever. And pure 1980s...
|
| Oh what a simpler time we enjoyed growing up.
| xbar wrote:
| I feel it, too. I associate 3-2-1 Contact with its associated
| print magazine, in particular the issue that highlighted the
| Exploratorium in San Francisco.
| tclancy wrote:
| Man, there was one episode of the detective show on that which
| scared me every time it came on.
| russellbeattie wrote:
| I am now humming that song from memory. I LOVED watching 3-2-1
| contact after school.
|
| But as a parent, I can tell you that it's sooo much better
| growing up today. We had to have shows like that dribbled out
| to us on a daily basis, and learning stopped after the 30
| minutes were over and the McNeil Lehrer News Hour would start.
| Today, kids have access to that kind of programming any time
| they want, on various screens, in never ending quantities. Any
| question can be answered without a trip to the library or
| reading decades old information out of whatever volume of World
| Book Encyclopedia your family had on hand.
|
| It was simpler when we were younger because our world was so
| much smaller.
| 0des wrote:
| Most of the episodes for 3-2-1 Contact as well as Mr Wizard and
| other classics are on YouTube now, which is great!
| [deleted]
| doublerabbit wrote:
| Interactive Educational learning never moved past the television
| nor the 00's and it's sad.
|
| 00's was a dark era for the UK with operation yewtree with
| discovering that many child tv presenters were doing unspeakable
| acts to children. That was the start of the decline of kids TV.
|
| Shows still exist but are so heavy watered-down in what they can
| say or do you don't get the same effect.
|
| Educational video games were never popular either. Word rescue,
| Maths rescue, Fun School; taught me english and maths, I found
| them fun but its a genre that never sells. I have never been a TV
| person and I still struggle to sit and watch TV.
|
| My concern is that kids are now growing up with a mobile phone in
| their hands but the device lacks in educational learning. That's
| not to say there are not educational apps but most don't feel the
| same quality and standard as television once produced.
| rmidthun wrote:
| No mention of Tom Lehrer? I still remember the -LY song he wrote.
|
| One recurring joke was based on 2001. A giant monolith would
| crumble to reveal the sound of the day while Also Sprach
| Zarathustra played. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY0GhNBMkM8
| dllthomas wrote:
| > I still remember the -LY song he wrote.
|
| https://tomlehrersongs.com/l-y/
|
| Tom Lehrer may be obliquely mentioned (but not named):
|
| _Lynette Murray of Washington, D.C., who was 12 years old at
| the time, marveled at the power of the silent e.
|
| "One thing surprised me, that the way they take the e off the
| word and it comes to another word," Murray explained. "Like for
| ride you can take the e off then the word becomes rid."_
|
| That same word-play may have appeared in the show outside of
| it, but Lehrer contributed a song with exactly that gimmick:
| https://tomlehrersongs.com/silent-e/
| brandonmenc wrote:
| I learned to read by watching The Electric Company.
|
| My mom tells me that I would sit in a trance while watching this
| show, especially during the "silhouette" segments. Just zoned out
| while being programmed by the TV.
|
| When I entered preschool, she told the teachers that I could read
| and they were like, "yeah, right." After about a week they were
| shocked and amazed that I actually _could_ read.
|
| I recently purchased the DVDs for my nephews.
| shadowgovt wrote:
| There were a handful of firms and people that looked at
| television and recognized the immense educational potential of
| an immersive audio-visual broadcast media.
|
| I've seen inklings of this in VR but nothing I'd call on the
| scale of an Electric Company, Sesame St, Mister Rogers
| Neighborhood, or 321-Contact yet.
| GeekyBear wrote:
| PBS also had a show to teach English to native Spanish
| speakers in the early 70's, Villa Alegre.
|
| They made some effort to teach Spanish to English speakers
| too, but too much of the show was only in Spanish for young
| me to follow.
|
| The theme song from that show is quite the ear worm.
| zeruch wrote:
| EC was probably my favorite show as a kid, at least until I
| discovered the Muppet Show (which is still to this day one of my
| favorite shows).
|
| EC was brilliant.
| vondur wrote:
| According to my parents, this show is why I was able to read at a
| young age.
| [deleted]
| samstave wrote:
| I LOVED this show as a kid, the blood hound gang, 321 Contact!.
| And fraggle rock.
|
| Anyway, for all us Nerds who grew up with these shows, this will
| be enjoyable to the HN crowd in this thread:
|
| ---
|
| Hard 'n Phirm - Pi
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XanjZw5hPvE
| rainandcoffee wrote:
| I recall my brother and I using the Electric Company formula to
| curse openly--until my mother caught on. Remember the silhouettes
| that would face each other and one would say part of a word and
| the other would complete it. My brother and I would sit facing
| each other and he would say, "Sh.." and I would say, "it". Chased
| out of the house to play outside.
| exogeny wrote:
| I'm from the '80s, so for me, it's Square One TV, Where In The
| World is Carmen Sandiego, 3-2-1 Contact, and more.
|
| I mean, just take Square One as an example here. Imagine walking
| into a TV producers office and saying, "Alright, I want to do a
| sketch comedy variety show that is very loose spoof of 'Saturday
| Night Live', except that it's entirely about math and aimed at 10
| year olds."
|
| And they actually put it on the air! Amazing.
|
| I have to be very careful with nostalgia here, but it certainly
| seems like PBS has really lost a lot of the clout that it once
| had. Certainly for me it was immensely valuable.
| jedberg wrote:
| > I have to be very careful with nostalgia here, but it
| certainly seems like PBS has really lost a lot of the clout
| that it once had. Certainly for me it was immensely valuable.
|
| If it makes you feel better, PBS has a streaming app and my
| kids watch it all the time. If I let them they would just watch
| it all day. So they still have clout, even though my kids don't
| watch Sesame Street (but they do watch Daniel Tiger, which is
| cartoon Mr Rogers).
| tclancy wrote:
| Well, all networks have lost mindshare, but I wouldn't say
| their kids programming is worse.
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