The Electric Company
The Electric Company was an Edutainment Show that ran from 1971-77 on PBS (and the last two seasons reran until 1985) from Children's Television Workshop, the company that previously brought the world Sesame Street. Its main purpose was to teach reading to reluctant readers by using Sketch Comedy, but its clever writing, memorable characters (such as Easy Reader, Fargo North Decoder, J. Arthur Crank, Jennifer of the Jungle, Paul the Gorilla), appearances by Spider-Man, animated inserts with the superhero Letterman, and psychedelic Scanimation visuals made it a cult hit with all ages.
The cast was made up of a diverse group of performers such as Rita Moreno, who was already a well-known actress in her own right. Bill Cosby was a cast member in Season 1, and "The Adventures of Letterman" shorts featured the voices of Gene Wilder, Zero Mostel, and Joan Rivers. But most notable was a young and then-unknown Morgan Freeman, who played Easy Reader (and has been trying to live it down ever since). Other cast members included Skip Hinnant (best known as the voice of Fritz the Cat), Judy Graubart (a member of the improvisational comedy troupe The Second City), Luis Avalos, Jim Boyd, Hattie Winston, and Lee Chamberlin. In addition to the adult cast, there was a Fake Band called the Short Circus, which consisted of 11- to 17-year-olds; June Angela was the only member of the Short Circus to stay the whole series' run. Other notable members included Irene Cara, later to become a hit-making solo artist; Todd Graff, brother of Mr. Belvedere actress Ilene Graff, and Denise Nickerson, at the time known for playing Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.
Retooled and rebooted in 2009.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Surprisingly for a children's show, sometimes Spider-Man would fail to defeat the Villain Of The Day.
- Bob and Ray: They provided the voices for a couple of animated shorts featured on the show.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Here, it's an educational tool. Two silhouetted faces going "Ch." "Ew." "Chew." "Bl." "Ew." "Blew." And so on.
- Chain of Corrections
- Chuck Jones: He created special educational Road Runner & Coyote shorts for the show.
- Crossover: Big Bird, Grover and Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street all paid visits in separate episodes.
- The "Spidey Super Stories" comic.
- A primetime ABC special in 1974, Out to Lunch, featured the Electric Company cast and the Sesame Muppets.
- Cut a Slice, Take the Rest: A staple. When it was used in a live segment, the character doing so remarked that he'd "learned this from the Spellbinder [Letterman's animated foe]."
- Educational Song
- Evil Sorcerer: Letterman's foe the Spellbinder, a diminutive wizard in a turban who would play malicious pranks by switching letters in words, like turning a farmer's "rake" into a "snake". Fortunately, the hero was wearing his "C" shirt that day and turned it into a "cake". (Which the sneaky villain promptly stole while the hero and farmer were occupied eating it.)
- Everything's Better with Monkeys: Paul the Gorilla.
- Genius Ditz: Fargo North may qualify.
- Jungle Princess: Jennifer of the Jungle.
- Morgan Freeman: That's right, he was on this show. Don't be embarrassed, Morgan!
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Fargo North appears to have been based on Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau, although the voice is more of a rip-off of Maxwell Smart (Skip Hinnant admitted this was on purpose in the PBS pledge drive special The Electric Company's Greatest Hits and Bits).
- The recurring character of Dr. Dolots was an amalgam of Groucho and Harpo Marx.
- "On the Next...": Usually follows a format in which a clip from the next episode plays, and a cast member announces, "Tune in next time, when [character] says [a word or phrase appears onscreen, accompanied by one Sound Effect Bleep for each syllable]."
- Episodes from the last four seasons recycle these as opening teasers, with "Tune in next time" replaced with, "Today on The Electric Company..."
- Parental Bonus
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: HEY... YOU... GUUUUUUUUUUUUUYS!
- Punny Name: Fargo North, Decoder (Fargo, North Dakota); J. Arthur Crank (British film producer J. Arthur Rank); Dr. Dolots (Doctor Dolittle); Julia Grownup (Julia Child, "The French Chef"); Morgan Freeman's Easy Reader (Easy Rider).
- Shout-Out: Whenever Letterman would come in to save the day, Joan Rivers would make a speech reminiscent of one used for Superman.
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!
- Every "Love of Chair" sketch would end with the narrator and a cast member asking random questions, the second-to-last of which was always, "What about Naomi?" referring to producer Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal[1].
- Soap Opera: "Love of Chair," a Parody of the CBS soap opera Love of Life that even used the same continuity announcer (Ken Roberts).
- The Speechless: Spider-Man, in the "Spidey Super Stories" live-action skits, speaks only with word balloons.
- Tom Lehrer: He wrote a few songs for the show, all quite a change from his previous satirical work. Not surprising, however, as he was close friends with Joe Raposo, who served as the program's music director for the first three seasons.
- Vegetarian Vampire: Morgan Freeman's Vincent the Vegetable Vampire, of course (though Word of God says that he was originally supposed to be Dracula).
- Villain Episode: A few of the Letterman shorts were this for the Spellbinder, like the one where he broke out of jail by slipping his broken wand between the letters F and I in "fiend" and creating an monstrous "friend".
- With Catlike Tread: In "O-U (The Hound Song)", a hound sings very loudly about how he dare not make a sound.