The Electric Company (1971 TV series)

The Electric Company
The series title card.
Starring	Morgan Freeman Judy Graubart Skip Hinnant Rita Moreno Jim Boyd Lee Chamberlin (1971–1973) Bill Cosby (1971–1973) Luis Ávalos (1972–1977) Hattie Winston (1973–1977) Danny Seagren (1974–1977) The Short Circus June Angela Irene Cara (1971–1972) Douglas Grant (1971–1973) Stephen Gustafson (1971–1975) Melanie Henderson (1971–1975) Denise Nickerson (1972–1973) Bayn Johnson (1973–1975) Gregg Burge (1973–1975) Janina Mathews (1975–1977) Réjane Magloire (1975–1977) Rodney Lewis (1975–1977) Todd Graff (1975–1977) The Adventures of Letterman (1972–1977)
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	780
Production
Running time	28 minutes
Production company(s)	Children's Television Workshop
Release
Original network	PBS
Original release	October 25, 1971 (1971-10-25) – April 15, 1977 (1977-04-15)

The Electric Company is an American educational children's television series created by Paul Dooley and directed by Bob Schwartz, Henry Behar (1972–1975) and John Tracy (1975–1976); written by Dooley, Christopher Cerf (1971–1973), Jeremy Steven (1972–1974) and John Boni/Amy Ephron (1972–1973); and produced by the Children's Television Workshop (now called Sesame Workshop) for PBS in the United States. PBS broadcast 780 episodes over the course of its six seasons from October 25, 1971, to April 15, 1977. (In many areas, a preview special, Here Comes The Electric Company (pilot episode), was seen in syndication through sponsor Johnson Wax on many local commercial stations during the week before its 1971 debut.) After it ceased production in 1977, the program continued in reruns until July 5, 1985, as the result of a decision made in 1975 to produce two final seasons for perpetual use. The Workshop produced the show at Second Stage, located within the Reeves Teletape Studios (Teletape), in Manhattan, which had been the first home of Sesame Street.

The Electric Company employed sketch comedy and various other devices to provide an entertaining program to help elementary school children develop their grammar and reading skills. Since it was intended for children who had graduated from CTW's flagship program, Sesame Street, the humor was more mature than what was seen there.

The original cast included Morgan Freeman, Rita Moreno, Bill Cosby, Judy Graubart, Lee Chamberlin and Skip Hinnant. Most of the cast had done stage, repertory, and improvisational work, with Cosby and Moreno already well-established performers on film and television. Ken Roberts (1971–1973), best known as a soap-opera announcer (Love of Life; The Secret Storm), was the narrator of some segments during season one, most notably the parody of the genre that had given him prominence, "Love of Chair".