“Schoolhouse Rock” helped teach an entire generation of kids about civics with “I’m Just a Bill” and grammar with “Conjunction Junction,” among many other classics.
But the series of Saturday morning cartoon shorts, which debuted 50 years ago this month, started with more modest aims: A parent, frustrated that his boys knew the lines to rock songs but couldn’t multiply, asked a co-worker at his advertising agency if he could help by setting multiplication tables to music.
The agency happened to be a client of ABC, and when it came up with “Three Is a Magic Number,” the timing couldn’t have been better to pitch the idea for TV. The network, under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission and parents upset about violent cartoons and incessant ads for sugary cereals, had recently started leaning into more educational programming.
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The head of children’s programming at ABC was a young executive named Michael Eisner. He greenlit “Schoolhouse Rock” after hearing “Three Is a Magic Number,” by jazz musician Bob Dorough, and seeing the storyboards for the educational cartoon that accompanied it. That episode would debut in January 1973.
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At the time, an advocacy group called Action for Children's Television was pressuring the TV industry to clean up kids’ programming, Eisner recalled in a recent telephone interview.
“They were a real problem for the three networks, which were doing massive commercialization of children’s programming, violent programming, Saturday morning programming,” said Eisner, who would go on to become chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Co. “And I walked into this situation and actually had to go to Washington to testify to the FCC.”
In an era when Saturday morning TV was dominated by cereal ads and “wall-to-wall monster cartoons,” in the words of Action for Children’s Television’s founder, the three-minute “Schoolhouse Rock” educational cartoons provided a welcome respite to parents.
A half-century later, it’s their kids — now middle-aged Generation Xers — who treasure the memories of such classics as “Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here!”
Eisner said that people in their 40s and 50s bring up “Schoolhouse Rock” in conversation with him more than any other show or film, including blockbuster Paramount Pictures movies such as “Saturday Night Fever” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which were produced when he was president of the studio.
“It’s what they can still sing — which I can, but I won’t,” he quipped.
The man who taught millions of Americans to read before being forgotten
The series, which ran until the mid-1980s and was revived in the 1990s, won four Emmy Awards.
People magazine wrote in a 2016 profile of Dorough, who would become music director of “Schoolhouse Rock,” “chances are Bob Dorough has had more of an impact on grammar fluency than any other individual in the 20th century.”
Disney, the parent company of ABC, announced this month that ABC will air a “Schoolhouse Rock” 50th-anniversary singalong on Feb. 1, hosted by Ryan Seacrest and featuring Black Eyed Peas, Kal Penn and Shaquille O’Neal.
ABC’s “Schoolhouse Rock! 50th Anniversary Singalong” will air Feb. 1, featuring Ryan Seacrest, among others. (Giovanni Rufino/Abc)
Eisner said the network had already begun launching other educational programming, but he had zero expectations when he agreed to meet with the people who would become the creators of “Schoolhouse Rock.”
“I was doing it as a favor,” he said. “And it just was a matter of putting two and two together, which was hearing something that is kind of hip, like ‘Sesame Street’ was.”
Another participant at that meeting was Chuck Jones, the cartoon animator who had directed “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies.” According to a 2000 Los Angeles Times obituary of Yohe, who would partner with Newall to produce more than 40 “Schoolhouse Rock” episodes, Jones told Eisner: “Buy it!”
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Out of that meeting came a strategy to shave off some commercials and run the series between Saturday morning cartoons.
But the series of Saturday morning cartoon shorts, which debuted 50 years ago this month, started with more modest aims: A parent, frustrated that his boys knew the lines to rock songs but couldn’t multiply, asked a co-worker at his advertising agency if he could help by setting multiplication tables to music.
The agency happened to be a client of ABC, and when it came up with “Three Is a Magic Number,” the timing couldn’t have been better to pitch the idea for TV. The network, under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission and parents upset about violent cartoons and incessant ads for sugary cereals, had recently started leaning into more educational programming.
ADVERTISING
The head of children’s programming at ABC was a young executive named Michael Eisner. He greenlit “Schoolhouse Rock” after hearing “Three Is a Magic Number,” by jazz musician Bob Dorough, and seeing the storyboards for the educational cartoon that accompanied it. That episode would debut in January 1973.
Press Enter to skip to end of carousel
At the time, an advocacy group called Action for Children's Television was pressuring the TV industry to clean up kids’ programming, Eisner recalled in a recent telephone interview.
“They were a real problem for the three networks, which were doing massive commercialization of children’s programming, violent programming, Saturday morning programming,” said Eisner, who would go on to become chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Co. “And I walked into this situation and actually had to go to Washington to testify to the FCC.”
In an era when Saturday morning TV was dominated by cereal ads and “wall-to-wall monster cartoons,” in the words of Action for Children’s Television’s founder, the three-minute “Schoolhouse Rock” educational cartoons provided a welcome respite to parents.
A half-century later, it’s their kids — now middle-aged Generation Xers — who treasure the memories of such classics as “Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here!”
Eisner said that people in their 40s and 50s bring up “Schoolhouse Rock” in conversation with him more than any other show or film, including blockbuster Paramount Pictures movies such as “Saturday Night Fever” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which were produced when he was president of the studio.
“It’s what they can still sing — which I can, but I won’t,” he quipped.
The man who taught millions of Americans to read before being forgotten
The series, which ran until the mid-1980s and was revived in the 1990s, won four Emmy Awards.
People magazine wrote in a 2016 profile of Dorough, who would become music director of “Schoolhouse Rock,” “chances are Bob Dorough has had more of an impact on grammar fluency than any other individual in the 20th century.”
Disney, the parent company of ABC, announced this month that ABC will air a “Schoolhouse Rock” 50th-anniversary singalong on Feb. 1, hosted by Ryan Seacrest and featuring Black Eyed Peas, Kal Penn and Shaquille O’Neal.
ABC’s “Schoolhouse Rock! 50th Anniversary Singalong” will air Feb. 1, featuring Ryan Seacrest, among others. (Giovanni Rufino/Abc)
An unlikely origin story
One day at the McCaffrey & McCall advertising agency, firm President David McCall — the one whose sons couldn’t multiply — was chatting with Creative Director George Newall. According to Newall’s obituary in the New York Times last year, McCall told him that while his boys struggled with math, “they can sing along with Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones.” Newall connected his boss with Dorough, who came up with “Three Is a Magic Number.” An agency art director, Tom Yohe, supplied the animation.Eisner said the network had already begun launching other educational programming, but he had zero expectations when he agreed to meet with the people who would become the creators of “Schoolhouse Rock.”
“I was doing it as a favor,” he said. “And it just was a matter of putting two and two together, which was hearing something that is kind of hip, like ‘Sesame Street’ was.”
Another participant at that meeting was Chuck Jones, the cartoon animator who had directed “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies.” According to a 2000 Los Angeles Times obituary of Yohe, who would partner with Newall to produce more than 40 “Schoolhouse Rock” episodes, Jones told Eisner: “Buy it!”
Meet the Asian woman nominated before Michelle Yeoh for best actress Oscar
Out of that meeting came a strategy to shave off some commercials and run the series between Saturday morning cartoons.