Everyone has a Pain
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!
Also of interest:
I used to watch the Electric Company. We lived in Maine most of my first 7 years of life and we also had one on public TV up there called Zoom. Other fun stuff I remember from those days were “The Land of the Lost”, “Sigmund and the Sea Monster”, and “School House Rock” (which my husband was just watching on YouTube the other night–those were pretty clever/catchy tunes).
I haven’t followed the news yesterday/today but at the X-ray place I saw that Morgan Freeman was in an accident. Hope he’s okay.
B-mom,
I enjoyed the Electric Company back in the day, also, being a kid in the 1970s the timing was right for me. Zoom was another PBS staple, coming out of PBS’s Boston station but getting a national audience.
Kids programming reached its zenith in the 1970s – the shows weren’t trying to sell toys, candy, or sugary cereals to children. They treated children as young people, avoiding the commercialism of 1980s programming and the saccharine nonsense of 1990s programming.
You may be happy to know that I hear ‘Land of the Lost’ is getting the big-screen treatment as a comedy, starring Will Ferrell!
I heard about Mr Freeman, too. As I have written many times, he is one of my favorite actors and his character Easy Reader is one of my heroes and role models! Here’s to a speedy recovery for Mr. Freeman – it’s not everybody who gets to build The Batmobile, after all!
I wish to object in the most strenuous terms to this blatant Republican attempt to paint Morgan Freeman as some sort of heartless, handmaiden to the oil companies, get-over-yourself conservative! Look closely at the nurse’s desk: there is a tiny statue of the Washington Monument, and a tiny statue of the Leaning Tower of Pisa directly in view. Run the song again and take a look at it! POW!
Jaytee,
Right wingers are such monsters! Mired so deeply in their hate and bigotry! Alert Bob Herbert!!!