Schoolhouse Rock! Revisited
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
On May 11, 1995, the Museum of Television & Radio (now the Paley Center for Media) launched Schoolhouse Rock! into the animated annals of television history by hosting a seminar on this unique animation offering.
Generation Xers comprised most of the audience for producers Tom Yohe and George Newall along with musical director Bob Dorough. They held court with praising fans and examined the creation, success, and endurance of Schoohouse Rock! According to moderator and television curator David Bushman, the night’s mission was to explore ‘the cultural phenomenon it’s become.
Schoolhouse Rock! debuted on Saturday morning, January 6, 1973, 8:25 am EST. Multiplication Rock kicked off this new series of three-minute informational programs with music.
Approximately fifty three-minute segments aired under the Schoolhouse Rock! banner from 1973 to 1985 in various categories, e.g., Grammar Rock, History Rock, Multiplication Rock.
Segments explained subjects taught in school but presented the with a sugar coating of catchy music, clever lyrics, and animation.
Sesame Street can be seen as a forerunner of Schoolhouse Rock! First airing on PBS on November 10, 1969, Sesame Street ‘commercials’ promoted ‘sponsors’ such as letters or numbers. Schoolhouse Rock! echoed this theme, notably in Grammar Rock and Multiplication Rock segments. They took the idea one step further with music and lyrics complementing the animation to educate children.
In addition to academic basics, Saturday morning series in the 1970’s employed music to teach humanitarian, moral, and value lessons. Kid Power, an obscure cartoon produced by Rankin-Bass, can be summarized as the Rainbow Coalition meets Peanuts. Based on the Wee Pals comic strip by Morrie Turner, the Kid Power kids form the Rainbow Club, the name reflecting their different backgrounds. Kid Power used a music video featuring the characters to emphasize the episode’s lesson. Kid Power aired from 1972-74 on ABC.
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids also used the music video approach to convey messages to children. Fat Albert aired from 1972-84 on CBS.
By the early 1970’s, television networks were under pressure to air educational material during children’s programming blocks, i.e., kidvid blocks. A year before the debut of Schoolhouse Rock!, CBS premiered In the News. Narrator Christopher Glenn boiled down current news stories for children. These news briefs aired at the end of each program in the CBS Saturday morning lineup. ABC also aired Schoolhouse Rock! at the end of its programs. The scheduling decision forced animation studios to shorten their programs, a factor complicating syndication packaging plans.
Schoolhouse Rock! became a reality quite by happenstance. David McCall, an advertising partner at McCaffrey & McCall took his family on a camping trip. McCall discovered that his son knew the lyrics to popular rock songs but experienced difficulty learning multiplication tables. With colleagues Newall and Yoke, McCall figure that combining music and lessons on a phonograph record would make a marketable product.
The project took a different turn when McCaffrey et.al. learned that ABC wanted educational material. Coincidentally, ABC was McCaffrey & McCall’s biggest client. The agency handled the tune-in advertising for the Alphabet Network.
Michael Eisner, an ABC executive at the time, gave the project a green light after consulting with legendary animator Chuck Jones. The principals’ advertising background served the new venture’s commercial-like form well. Yohe explained that working in short bursts prepared them to work within the time restrictions.
The group chose Bob Dorough to handle songs for the pilot. I went home and read all my math books, Dorough joked. He was scared by the prospect of working in this relatively new art form. However he did it, Dorough created a Schoolhouse Rock! classic with Three Is A Magic Number (1973). It is the pilot for Schoolhouse Rock! and the favorite of animator/producer Yohe. The appeal endures. In 2006, the movie You, Me & Dupree starring Owen Wilson, Matt Dillon, and Kate Hudson used the song at the end of its climactic scene.
In the seminar, Dorough said that he still played professionally with frequent Schoolhouse Rock! requests. He fulfills them. I have to. They’re drinking now!. Some requests are for weddings!
Schoolhouse Rock! enjoys a musical diversity. Figure Eight (1973) has a lullaby quality thanks to vocalist Blossom Dearie. Dearie also contributed her vocal talents to Calvin Klein Eternity commercials.
A Noun Is A Person, Place, or Thing (1973) has a country and western feel, where I’m Just A Bill (1974) has a blues quality.
Combining animation with music is a challenge. For the creative team, the difficulty lies in matching the music and lyrics with animation able to hold attention while teaching a lesson. This challenge must be met within a restrictive time frame of three minutes or less. Newall acknowledged that the animator eventually has to make the story work visually and keep it flowing within the context of the song. I’ve got to tell you, it’s a rare gift, Newall conceded.
Some Schoolhouse Rock! segments have inside jokes regarding the creative team. We the People (1974), a segment on the U.S. Constitution, shows the team’s names as potential candidates in a voting booth.
A Noun Is A Person, Place or Thing shows Newall’s drug store at the line Every place that you can go. Like a neighborhood.
Although the lessons endure, certain signals are dated. We the People has the words Right On stamped at the bottom of the Constitution while Noun has quasi-psychedelic designs.
Schoolhouse Rock! can no longer air one segment for legal reasons. The Greatest Snow on Earth explains the weather. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus owns the trademark for the phrase The Greatest Show on Earth. Ringling Brothers thought the too phrases were too similar and protected its trademark rights by forcing the absence of the Schoolhouse Rock! segment from broadcast.
Another intellectual property battle concerned the title. Originally, the title was Scholastic Rock, but publishing company Scholastic House had its lawyers intervene because of the similarity of the names and potential confusion to the viewer.
While the success of Schoolhouse Rock! is evident, George Newall offered no intricate plans, formula, or strategy. Rather, he attributed the popularity to its innocence, lack of guile, and new quality because of the absence of a continuing character.
A couple of talented people just go in a room and do it.
However, a programming strategy was deliberate to coincide with the American Bicentennial in 1976. History Rock debuted. Radio City Music Hall’s Bicentennial Show featured Schoolhouse Rock! segments enlarged for the hall’s screen.
In 1994, Schoolhouse Rock! enjoyed prominence with the Generation X film Reality Bites (1994) starring Winona Ryder and Ben Stiller (who also directed). The film follows the trials and tribulations of four Generation Xers immediately after college graduation. The influence of Schoolhouse Rock! is clear, strong, and enjoyable. The opening scene features the four major characters celebrating their graduation and singing Conjunction Junction.
Later, the bluesy I’m Just A Bill provides dramatic impact. Valedictorian and documentary filmmaker wannabe Lelaina (Ryder’s character) sings it after her boyfriend Michael (Stiller’s character) allows her film about her friends to be bastardized for Michael’s employer, In Your Face TV, an edgy network in the mold of MTV.
Schoolhouse Rock! enjoys a unique, nostalgic, and valuable position in popular culture. Its initial audience now has children of their own. With Schoolhouse Rock! available on DVD, a new generation can find that learning is fun. And parents will recall songs verbatim.
We know we can get adverbs at Lolly’s.
We know Conjunction Junction’s function is hooking up words and phrases and clauses.
We know three is a magic number.
And we know we could be great if we could skate a figure eight.
In addition to Reality Bites, the off-Broadway show Schoolhouse Rock! Live helped revive the popularity of Schoolhouse Rock! in the 1990’s.