Diemazz

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008)

Schoolhouse Rock!
Schoolhouse Rock.
Format	Educational
Created by	David McCall
Country of origin	United States
Production
Running time	3 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	1972 – 2001

Schoolhouse Rock! is a series of animated musical educational short films that aired during Saturday morning children's programming on U.S. television network ABC. Topics covered include grammar, science, economics, history, mathematics, and politics. The series aired between 1972 and 1986, and infrequently during the 1990s and 2000s, with new shows created between 1993 and 1996 until its cancellation by ABC in 2001.^{[citation needed]}

Origins and history

Schoolhouse Rock! began as a commercial advertising venture by David McCall. The idea came to McCall when he noticed one of his sons, who was having trouble in school remembering the multiplication tables, knew the lyrics to many current rock songs. The first song recorded was "Three Is a Magic Number," written by Bob Dorough. It tested well, so a children's record was compiled and released. Tom Yohe listened to the first song, and began to doodle pictures to go with the lyrics. He told McCall that the songs would make good animation.

When a print workbook version fell through, McCall's company decided to produce their own animated versions of the songs, which they then sold to ABC (which already was McCall's company's biggest advertising account) based on a demo animation of the original "Three Is A Magic Number" for its Saturday morning lineup. They pitched their idea to Michael Eisner, then vice-president of ABC's children's programming division. Eisner brought longtime Warner Bros. cartoonist/director Chuck Jones to the meeting to also listen to the presentation.

The network's children's programming division had producers of its regular 30- and 60-minute programs cut three minutes out of each of their shows, and sold General Foods on the idea of sponsoring the segments. The series stayed on the air for 12 years. Later sponsors of the Schoolhouse Rock! segments included Nabisco, Kenner Toys, Kellogg's, and McDonald's.

The last of the original series were four segments about the then-novel personal computer technology. The shorts featured two characters by the name of Scooter Computer and Mister Chips, and so these were the only episodes in the series to feature any recurring characters.

A 1987 production of the series for VHS tape featured Cloris Leachman opening the collection and some songs with child dancers and singers but "Three Ring Government," "The Good Eleven" and "Little Twelve Toes" were not included on the videos. ^[1][2]

In the 1990s, the team reunited to produce Money Rock and two more Grammar Rock segments ("Busy Prepositions" and "The Tale of Mr. Morton").

Although ABC stopped regular broadcasts of this series in 2001, two new songs have been produced since:

• In 2002, the team once again reunited to produce a new song, "I'm Gonna Send Your Vote To College" for the release of the 30th Anniversary DVD. For the new song, Tom Yohe Jr. took over as lead designer for his father Yohe Sr., who had died in 2000.^[2]
• Six years later, a song called "Presidential Minute" explained the process of electing the President of the United States in greater detail. Hilary Duff was the singer. This was also for a DVD collection centered on the America Rock subseries.

Episodes

Multiplication Rock

No shows were produced featuring the numbers 1 or 10 explicitly

Grammar Rock

Science Rock

America Rock

"I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to College" was produced for the 30th anniversary DVD collection.

"Presidential Minute" was produced for the Election DVD collection.

Money Rock

Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips

Tie-ins

Several tie-ins were released in 1996:

• Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks, a tribute album featuring covers of Schoolhouse Rocks songs performed by alternative rock acts
• Schoolhouse Rock! The Official Guide (ISBN 0-7868-8170-4), written by Tom Yohe and George Newall, and including synopses, lyrics, and production notes about each of the shorts created to date, except "The Weather Show," which was the subject of pending litigation and so could not be included.

• The Schoolhouse Rock Songbook (Cherry Lane Music), containing sheet music for ten songs.

• Schoolhouse Rock! Soundtrack The 4 CD release with bonus tracks on each CD was released on June 18, 1996 by Rhino Records

In addition to the above, Rhino Records also released Schoolhouse Rocks the Vote!: A Benefit for Rock the Vote, a tribute album containing covers and original songs in the style of Schoolhouse Rock, all with an electoral theme. It was released on August 18, 1998.

DVD release

On August 26, 2002 Buena Vista Home Video released a 2-disc DVD featuring 51 of the 52 episodes (the only one missing being the presumed-lost Computer Rock segment) as well as many special features. The release coincided with the 30th anniversary of the show. An abbreviated VHS, featuring the "top 25" episodes plus "I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to College," was released at the same time.

Cover Art	DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date	Additional Information
	Schoolhouse Rock- Special 30th Anniversary Edition	51	August 26, 2002	All 46 original episodes Audio Commentary "I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to College" Making Of Long Lost Song "The Weather Show" Top Ten Jukebox Top 20 Countdown "Earn Your Diploma" Trivia Game Arrange-a-Song Puzzle 4 Music Videos by Contemporary Artists Emmy Awards Featurette "Three is a Magic Number" Nike Commercial "I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to College" in DTS 5.1 Surround Three of the four Computer Rock segments

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Schoolhouse Rock!

• Schoolhouse Rock at the Internet Movie Database
• Lyrics and other information on Schoolhouse Rock
• Podcast on the history of Schoolhouse Rock

Site Map: RSS 2.0

Recent Searches: Schoolhouse Rock
Wiki Dankowska
Alteckendorf
Viano
t657t
Anna Golubkina
The Four Deputies
Monestrol
Brooklands, Greater Manchester
t928t

Related Pages:
"schoolhouse rock videos"
"schoolhouse rock lyrics"
"youtube schoolhouse rock"
"schoolhouse rock live"