Schoolhouse Rock! | |
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Created by | David McCall |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of episodes | 64 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Running time | 3 minutes |
Production company(s) | McCaffrey & McCall |
Release | |
Original network | ABC |
Original release | January 6, 1973 | – March 31, 2009
Website |
Schoolhouse Rock! is an American interstitial programming series of animated musical educational short films (and later, videos) 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; it was later revived with both old and new episodes airing from 1993 to 1999. Additional episodes were produced in 2009 for direct-to-video release.
Schoolhouse Rock! began as a commercial advertising venture by David McCall, half of the Madison Avenue advertising agency McCaffrey & McCall. The idea came to McCall when he noticed one of his sons, who was having trouble in school remembering the multiplication tables, knew the lyrics to then-current rock songs. McCall eventually enlisted song writers Bob Dorough, Dave Frishberg, Lynn Ahrens and others to create the various Schoolhouse Rock! numbers. Performers included not only Dorough and Ahrens, but also included the distinctive voices of such jazz singers as Jack Sheldon, Blossom Dearie, and Grady Tate, pop singer Essra Mohawk, the doo-wop group The Tokens, and others.
The first song recorded was "Three Is a Magic Number", written by Dorough, and a children's record was compiled and released. Tom Yohe listened to the first song, and began to doodle pictures to go with the lyrics. He told McCall that the songs would make good animation.