In the Creative Education Spotlight:

 

Electric Company TV Show

 

 

 

Electric Company Intro on Wikipedia.org

The Electric Company was an educational American children's television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) for PBS in the United States. PBS broadcast 780 episodes over the course of six seasons, from 1971 to 1977. CTW produced the show at Reeves Teletape Second Stage in Manhattan.

The Electric Company employed sketch comedy and other devices to provide an entertaining program to help children of primary school age develop their reading skills. It was intended for children who had graduated from CTW's flagship program, Sesame Street.

The original cast included Morgan Freeman, Rita Moreno (it was Moreno who screamed "Hey, you guyyyyys!!" to open the show in seasons two through six and first screamed the phrase in episode 19), Bill Cosby, Judy Graubart, Lee Chamberlin, and Skip Hinnant. Most of the cast had done stage, repertory and improv work, with Cosby and Moreno already well-known from film and television. Ken Roberts, who was best known as a soap-opera announcer, was the narrator of some of the segments during the first season.

Jim Boyd, who was strictly an off-camera voice actor and puppeteer in the first season, began appearing on-camera in season two, mostly in the role of J. Arthur Crank. Luis Avalos also joined the cast in that season, with both men filling in for a now-departed Bill Cosby (Cosby occasionally appeared in new segments during season two and left the show altogether just before season three, but he was billed as a cast member throughout the show's entire run).

Chamberlin left after the second season and was replaced by Hattie Winston, a talented actress and singer who later appeared on the show Becker. Beginning in the fourth season, Danny Seagren appeared in the role of Spider-Man.
 

   

 

LINKS

Extensive Electric Company Profile on Wikipedia.org

This overview includes details on all of the regular sketches, such as The Adventures of Letterman, and Fargo North, Decoder. It also includes information on the "Short Circus" music group, the closing credits skits, and more.

 

Overview of Electric Company on Retrojunk.com

Includes video clips of two different beginnings of the show, including the one for seasons 2 through 6 where Rita Moreno hollers "Hey You GUYS!" at the beginning.

DVD

The Best of the Best of The Electric Company

Also available in the same series: The Best of The Electric Company, Volumes One and Two.

Return to the Creative Education Index