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The Electric Company is an American educational children's television series that first aired in 1971. The show was produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW) and aimed to teach children reading and grammar skills through sketch comedy and animation. The show ran for six seasons until 1977 and continued to air in reruns until 1985. A reboot of the show aired from 2009 to 2011, with reruns playing until 2014. The Electric Company has also aired in other countries, such as Australia, and has had a significant impact on educational television.
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The Electric Company first aired in 1971
The Electric Company is an American educational children's television series that first aired in 1971. The show was produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), now known as Sesame Workshop, and co-created by Paul Dooley, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Lloyd Morrisett. It was targeted at elementary school students who were too old for Sesame Street but still needed help learning to read.
The series aired on PBS from October 25, 1971, to April 15, 1977, with 780 episodes over the course of its six seasons. The program continued in reruns until early October 1985. The Electric Company employed sketch comedy, psychedelic graphics, wildly creative animation, mod outfits, and over-the-top characters to provide an entertaining program to help children develop their grammar and reading skills.
The show was groundbreaking for its time, as most people thought that using television to teach kids to read was "anathema." Despite this skepticism, The Electric Company became a huge success, airing on more than 250 public TV stations and becoming a teaching tool in thousands of classrooms nationwide. It won two Emmys and spawned various spin-offs and merchandise, including comic books, board games, and educational video games.
A reboot of the show aired from 2009 to 2011, with reruns continuing until 2014. This new version featured similar short animations, parodies, sketches, and music videos but with a focus on teaching vocabulary words through hip-hop and contemporary R&B music.
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Reruns aired until 1985
The Electric Company is an American educational children's television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), now known as Sesame Workshop. It was co-created by Paul Dooley, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Lloyd Morrisett. The series aired on PBS for 780 episodes over the course of its six seasons from October 25, 1971, to April 15, 1977. The Electric Company targeted elementary school students who were too old for Sesame Street but still needed help learning to read. The program continued in reruns until early October 1985.
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. The show featured psychedelic graphics, wildly creative animation, mod outfits, over-the-top characters, and sketch comedy all functioning to serve the same goal: teaching kids to read. The show became a teaching tool in thousands of classrooms nationwide.
The show's signature phrase, "Hey, You Guys!!", was yelled by Rita Moreno at the beginning of each episode. The show also featured appearances by Paul the Gorilla and Spider-Man, who was used for free, courtesy of Marvel Comics. The Electric Company also had a spin-off magazine that featured a shortened version of the comic, with only characters from the Marvel Universe.
After the show's original run ended in 1977, reruns continued until 1985. The show did not resurface again until 1999 when the Noggin network, co-owned by Sesame Workshop and PBS, rebroadcast the show. Noggin created a two-hour compilation special to reintroduce the series to a new generation. The special aired on TV Land as a way to promote Noggin. Noggin ran 65 select episodes until mid-2003 when they were pulled from the program lineup due to Sesame Workshop selling its half of the network to Viacom.
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A reboot aired from 2009-2011
A reboot of the original Electric Company series aired from 2009 to 2011, with reruns continuing until 2014. The show ran for three seasons, with the first season consisting of 28 episodes, and the second and third seasons consisting of 12 episodes each. The show aired on PBS Kids Go! and was produced by Sesame Workshop, with Karen Fowler as the developer. The target audience was children between the ages of 5 and 10, and the show focused on teaching English and Language Arts skills such as vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, and grammar. Each episode featured a storyline designed to teach four to five vocabulary words through a mix of short animations, parodies, sketches, and music videos. The Electric Company group consisted of five friends with unique powers who battled a group of neighbourhood vandals called the Pranksters.
The reboot included nods to the original series, such as the opening sequence, appearances by Paul the Gorilla, and updated versions of the soft-shoe silhouette segments. It also featured interactive web elements and community outreach projects to engage viewers. The cast included Josh Segarra as Hector Ruiz, the leader of the Electric Company, who had the power to replay any image he saw. Other members of the Electric Company included Keith Watson (played by Ricky Smith), who could generate and manipulate images in mid-air, and Lisa Heffenbacher (played by Jenni Barber), who had the power to unscramble any anagram. The Pranksters included characters like Annie Scrambler, Manny Spamboni, and Danny.
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Reruns of the reboot aired until 2014
The Electric Company is an American educational children's television series produced by Sesame Workshop. It first aired in 1971 and ran for six seasons until 1977. The show continued in reruns until 1985. The Electric Company was rebooted in 2009 and ran until 2011, with reruns airing until 2014.
The original series aired on PBS for 780 episodes over six seasons, from 25 October 1971 to 15 April 1977. It was created by Paul Dooley, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Lloyd Morrisett and produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), later renamed Sesame Workshop. The show was intended for elementary school students who had graduated from CTW's flagship program, Sesame Street, but still needed help with their reading skills. It featured sketch comedy and various other devices to entertain and educate its young audience.
The 2009 reboot of The Electric Company ran on PBS Kids Go! from 19 January 2009 to 4 April 2011. Reruns of the reboot continued to air on PBS until 31 August 2014. The series also aired on HBO Kids on HBO Family from 1 January 2016 to 1 November 2020, as part of HBO's deal with Sesame Workshop.
The reboot features similar elements to the original series, including short animations, parodies, sketches, and music videos. However, each episode also includes a storyline designed to teach four to five vocabulary words through hip-hop or contemporary R&B-style music. The show revolves around the Electric Company, a group of tween and teen literacy heroes who battle a group of neighbourhood vandals called the Pranksters.
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The show was produced by the Children's Television Workshop
The Electric Company is an American educational children's television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), now known as the Sesame Workshop. The show was co-created by Paul Dooley, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Lloyd Morrisett. It was developed by Sesame alumni, including Dave Connell, and was produced at Reeves Teletape Studios in Manhattan.
The Electric Company was CTW's second television series, following the success of Sesame Street, which debuted in 1969. The show was aimed at elementary school children who had outgrown Sesame Street but still needed help with reading. The show's creators spent 18 months researching and developing the show before it aired, which was unusual at the time. The Electric Company used sketch comedy, psychedelic graphics, creative animation, and song to teach children reading and grammar skills.
The show aired on PBS from 1971 to 1977, with reruns continuing until 1985. It was also aired in Australia on ABC in the mid-1970s and on the Ten Network in 1979-80. A reboot of the show, produced by Sesame Workshop, aired from 2009 to 2011, with reruns continuing until 2014.
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Frequently asked questions
The original Electric Company aired from 25 October 1971 to 15 April 1977.
Reruns of the original Electric Company aired from 1977 to 1985.
The Electric Company aired in Australia on ABC in the mid-1970s and in 1979-80 on the Ten Network.
The Electric Company reboot aired from 19 January 2009 to 4 April 2011.
Reruns of the Electric Company reboot aired from 2011 to 2014, and on HBO Kids from 2016 to 2020.
