Category: The Electric Company

Educational TV at it’s finest

Well, I’ll keep The Electric Company clips coming since I can tell from the web traffic stats that the prior posts in the series are quite popular!

This song is a personal favorite so I decided to share it. Football player Wally Saggitarian (Steve Hinnant) wanders into a doctor’s office with a foot injury. The doctor and nurse (Morgan Freeman and Lee Chamberlin) try to tend to him but his whining and complaining prompt the medical professionals to remind him that life has it’s pains and not to be a crybaby.

And what a wonderful message to the youth of America! Instead of indulging their bloated self importance, this song reminds the kids that sometimes they should just toughen up and work through the minor pains and difficulties of life. “So what do you really gain? It makes no sense to complain. From purple mountains to the fruited plain, everyone has pain.”

This little song is a nice composition by the very talented Joe Raposo, who contributed many songs to The Electric Company and its sibling, Sesame Street. I particularly like the line “Every globe has a Spain!” Thank you Mr Raposo for the wonderful music, and kudos to Morgan Freeman and Lee Chamberlin for doing this song justice!

Here’s to Phyllis & The Pharaohs

Several weeks ago I posted The Easy Reader Theme Song as a tribute to my favorite character on PBS’s classic educational series The Electric Company. As folks who know me, not only did Easy Reader help foster my lifelong love affair with reading, but he also greatly influenced my personal wardrobe! Heavy!

In any event, that post was so popular that I decided to follow it up with some more Electric Company music. I searched and found a collection of songs by The EC’s 1950s group, Phyllis & The Pharaohs: Phantom of Love, Grease, and Is It Love?. I personally like Phantom of Love the best!

Of course, that’s the extraordinarily talented Rita Morena on lead vocals, and she is backed up by Morgan Freeman, Jim Boyd, Luis Avalos, and Skip Hinnant.

This all harkens back to the wonderful 1970s, where children’s tv programming was about educating them (and not patronizing them), and when it wasn’t obsessed with selling them a toy or a candy. So sit back and enjoy these classic three songs by Phyllis & The Pharaohs.

“Close cover before striking. I say, Is that heavy?”

Well, it’s no secret that I think PBS sucks. There is very little on it that I find interesting, amd much of the original PBS mandate has been exceeded by the rise of private sector cable television channels that serve educational purposes.

That being said, The History Channel or The Discovery Channel haven’t come up with anything nearly as cool as one of my great heroes and role models, Easy Reader!

Back in the 1970s, PBS had quite a few shows for children -- most of which left me pretty cold. I never cared much for Sesame Street (my physical resemblance to Ernie notwithstanding), and even as a young child I never connected with Fred Rogers. PBS did deliver one hip show, though -- The Electric Company. Intended for slightly older kids, the show benefited from expecting a longer attention span from its viewer, as well as a very talented cast including Rita Moreno and Morgan Freeman.

Well, Morgan contributed one of the classic EC characters -- Easy Reader. Easy was one cool cat who bopped around town, and he loved reading so much that he would stop to read any sign he would see. Along the way, he would interact with other EC characters. Indeed, I confess that my lifelong love affair with reading started with the strong example of Easy Reader.

So sit back and enjoy this great clip from the show, featuring Easy Reader singing his theme song, with an assist from the lovely and talented Rita Moreno. They just don’t make them like this anymore!