Schoolhouse Rock!
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Schoolhouse Rock! is a series of 46 educational short films featuring songs about schoolhouse topics, including grammar, science, economics, history, and politics. Originally conceived by Thomas G. Yohe in 1972, the shorts were broadcast on the ABC television network between 1973 and 1986; they were then broadcast infrequently during the 1990s and 2000s. An additional short, I'm Gonna Send Your Vote To College, was created for the 30th anniversary video release.
Often viewed with nostalgia by members of Generation X, Schoolhouse Rock! has become part of American popular culture and has been frequently parodied. A detailed list of School House Rock! parodies can be found at the end of this article.
The word "rock" is something of a misnomer, as only a few of the songs are in rock format (e.g., "Elementary, My Dear," "Conjunction Junction" and the progressive rock-like "Little Twelvetoes"), and the rest are either jazz (e.g., "I'm Just a Bill," "Naughty Number Nine," "Figure Eight") or are straight pop songs (e.g., "A Noun Is a Person, Place, or Thing," "Interjections!," "No More Kings").
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[edit] Origins
Rock was a commercial advertising venture by David McCall. The idea came to David 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", by Bob Dorough. It tested well, so a children's record was compiled and released. Tom Yohe Sr. listened to the first song, and began to doodle pictures in relation to the lyrics. He informed David that these 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 (who 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, who was at the time head 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 made its cartoon-producers 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 segments about computers featuring Scooter Computer and Mister Chips. They were so disliked by the creative team that production copies were not even retained. The first of the four segments is still missing.
In the 1990s the team reunited to produce Money Rock and two more Grammar Rock segments ("Busy Prepositions" and "The Tale of Mr. Morton"). 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.
[edit] Episodes
Titles (and topic) - (link to external page with lyrics):
[edit] Multiplication Rock
- My Hero, Zero - music, lyrics, & performance by Bob Dorough. lyrics
- Elementary, My Dear (2) - music, lyrics, & performance by Bob Dorough. lyrics
- Three Is a Magic Number (3) - music, lyrics, & performance by Bob Dorough. lyrics This was the first song composed for Schoolhouse Rock!.
- The Four-Legged Zoo (4) - music, lyrics, & performance by Bob Dorough (and chorus of children). lyrics
- Ready or Not, Here I Come (5) - music, lyrics, & performance by Bob Dorough. lyrics
- I Got Six (6) - music & lyrics by Bob Dorough; performed by Grady Tate. lyrics
- Lucky Seven Sampson (7) - music, lyrics, & performance by Bob Dorough. lyrics
- Figure Eight (8) - music & lyrics by Bob Dorough; performed by Blossom Dearie. lyrics
- Naughty Number Nine (9) - music & lyrics by Bob Dorough; performed by Grady Tate. lyrics
- The Good Eleven (11) - music, lyrics, & performance by Bob Dorough. lyrics
- Little Twelvetoes (12) - music, lyrics, & performance by Bob Dorough. lyrics
No shows were produced featuring the numbers 1 or 10 explicitly, though Zero was a lesson in base 10, and thus in a sense was about both numbers.
[edit] Grammar Rock
- Unpack Your Adjectives (adjective) - music & lyrics by George R. Newall; performed by Blossom Dearie. lyrics
- Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here (adverb) - music, lyrics, and performance by Bob Dorough. lyrics
- Conjunction Junction (conjunction) - music & lyrics by Bob Dorough; performed by Jack Sheldon and Terry Morel. lyrics
- Interjections! (interjection) - music & lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; performed by Essra Mohawk. lyrics
- Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla (pronoun) - music by Bob Dorough; lyrics by Kathy Mandary; performed by Jack Sheldon. lyrics
- Verb: That's What's Happening (verb) - music & lyrics by Bob Dorough; performed by Zachary Sanders. lyrics
- A Noun Is A Person, Place Or Thing (noun) - music, lyrics, & performance by Lynn Ahrens. lyrics
- Busy Prepositions (preposition) - music & lyrics by Bob Dorough; performed by Jack Sheldon and Bob Dorough. lyrics
- The Tale of Mr. Morton (subject and predicate) - music & lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; performed by Jack Sheldon. lyrics
[edit] Science Rock
- The Body Machine (nutrition) - music & lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; performed by Bob Dorough and Jack Sheldon. lyrics
- Do The Circulation (cardiovascular system) - music & lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; performed by Joshie Armstead, Mary Sue Berry, & Maeretha Stewart. lyrics
- Electricity, Electricity (electricity) - music & lyrics by Bob Dorough; performed by Zachary Sanders. lyrics
- The Energy Blues (energy conservation) - music & lyrics by George Newall; performed by Jack Sheldon. lyrics
- Interplanet Janet (solar system) - music, lyrics, & performance by Lynn Ahrens. lyrics
- Telegraph Line (nervous system) - music & lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; performed by Jaime Aff and Christine Langner. lyrics
- Them Not-So-Dry Bones (skeletal system) - music & lyrics by George Newall; performed by Jack Sheldon. lyrics
- A Victim Of Gravity (gravity) - music & lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; performed as a Doo-wop song by The Tokens. lyrics
- The Weather Show (weather) - Music & Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; Performed by Bob Kaliban. lyrics
[edit] America Rock
- No More Kings (independence) - music, lyrics, & performance by Lynn Ahrens. lyrics
- Fireworks (Declaration of Independence) - music & lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; performed by Grady Tate. lyrics
- The Shot Heard 'Round The World (American Revolutionary War) - music, lyrics, & performance by Bob Dorough. lyrics
- The Preamble (United States Constitution) - music, lyrics, & performance by Lynn Ahrens. lyrics
- Elbow Room (U.S. territorial expansion, see Manifest Destiny) - music & lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; performed by Sue Manchester. lyrics
- The Great American Melting Pot (immigration/melting pot) - music & lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; performed by Lori Lieberman. lyrics
- Mother Necessity (American inventions) - music and lyrics by Bob Dorough. lyrics
- Sufferin' Till Suffrage (women's suffrage) - music by Bob Dorough; lyrics by Tom Yohe; performed by Essra Mohawk. lyrics
- I'm Just A Bill (legislation) - music & lyrics by Dave Frishberg; performed by Jack Sheldon. lyrics
- Three Ring Government (separation of powers) - music & lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; performed by Lynn Ahrens. lyrics
- I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to College (Electoral College election) -music & lyrics by George R. Newall and Bob Dorough; performed by Jack Sheldon.
[edit] Money Rock
(made in the 1990s)
- Dollars and Sense (interest and loans) - music & lyrics by Dave Frishberg; performed by Val Hawk and Bob Dorough. lyrics
- Making $7.50 Once a Week (budget) - music & lyrics by Dave Frishberg; performed by Dave Frishberg. lyrics
- Where The Money Goes (paying bills) - music & lyrics by Rich Mendoza; performed by Jack Sheldon. lyrics
- Tax Man Max (taxes) - music & lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty; performed by Patrick Quinn. lyrics
- Walkin' On Wall Street (stock exchange) - music & lyrics by Dave Frishberg; performed by Dave Frishberg. lyrics
- This For That (barter) - music & lyrics by George R. Newall; performed by Bob Dorough. lyrics
- Tyrannosaurus Debt (budget deficit) - music & lyrics by Tom Yohe; performed by Bob Dorough and Bob Kaliban. lyrics
- The Check's In The Mail (using checks) - music & lyrics by Bob Dorough; performed by Luther Rix. lyrics
[edit] Computer Rock
(aka Scooter Computer & Mr. Chips)
- Introduction (computers) - music & lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, Tom Yohe and Bob Dorough; performed by Jaime Aff and Bob Kaliban. lyrics
- Hardware (computer hardware) - music & lyrics by Dave Frishberg; performed by Jaime Aff and Bob Kaliban. lyrics
- Software (computer software) - music & lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; performed by Jaime Aff and Bob Kaliban. lyrics
- Number Cruncher (computerized statistics) - music & lyrics by Dave Frishberg; performed by Jaime Aff and Bob Kaliban. lyrics
[edit] Trivia
- Lauren Yohe, the daughter of Schoolhouse Rock creator Tom Yohe, is the little girl that voiced the classic line "Darn! That's the end" in "Interjections!"
- The short "The Preamble," set to highly infectious music, has a slightly abridged wording of the Preamble of the United States Constitution. The song starts, "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union...", but the actual document starts, "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union...."
- Along the same lines: a more complete definition of a noun is that it's the name of a person, place, thing, "or idea". Or, more completely, that it's the name or title of any object or idea. Love and fear are not tangible things or objects of any kind, but their names are nouns.
- "Busy Prepositions" contains an error. When Jack Sheldon lists the "nine or ten" prepositions that "do most all of the work," he correctly states that "for" is a preposition. However, the word "far", which is an adjective or adverb, appears on the screen in its place.
- "Three Is A Magic Number" has been adopted by both the Irish television station TV3 Ireland and the British television station BBC Three as their theme tunes. In 2006, the Blind Melon version of "Three is a Magic Number" was used by Three in Australia as part of an advertising campaign. The Blind Melon cover was also featured at the end of the movie You, Me and Dupree. Portions of "Three Is A Magic Number" were also sampled and used in a song entitled "The Magic Number by Hip-Hop group De La Soul on their album 3 Feet High and Rising. "Three Is A Magic Number" is notable for its musical sophistication and its use of the kalimba.
- One subtlety of note is that, in many of the episodes, the producers added in staff names in unlikely places. Prime examples: "Tyrannosaurus Debt", where Tom Yohe's name is on the $10 bill; "The Preamble", where the voting booth has Jack Shelton and Lynn Ahrens names on it; and "Ready or Not, Here I Come!", where there is a boy wearing a T-shirt labeled "Camp Yohe".
- In the mid-1980s, when Schoolhouse Rock left ABC, it was replaced by Puerto Rican teen band Menudo.
- "The Good Eleven", "Lolly Lolly Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here", "The Preamble", and "Them Not-So-Dry Bones" were the tunes heard on the closing credits of their respective Rock. These "closing credit" runs were aired only on Sunday mornings at the end of the final episode that morning (around noon).
- In "Walkin on Wallstreet", Lester mentions that Leroy uses Dollar cost averaging, an investing strategy that has been questionable since 1979.
- When Multiplication Rock first began airing, the opening of each short would begin with a jingle that sang "Multiplication Rock, brought to you by your favorite, your very favorite General Foods," with the Zero Hero boy sticking out of the corner of the screen.
- According to the DVD commentary and her official website, Lynn Ahrens was a copy secretary at McCaffrey and McCall when she first began writing lyrics, music and singing for the show.
- "The Greatest Show On Earth" (aka "The Weather Show") was never aired due to a lawsuit with the circus industry, as that phrase is copyrighted.
- According to the DVD liner notes, "Little Twelvetoes" is dedicated to the Duodecimal Society of America, which changed its name in 1978 to the Dozenal Society of America, an organization which promotes the base-12 number system.
- Computer Rock characters Scooter Computer & Mr. Chips also appeared in a children's book explaining how computers can calculate numbers. Scooter is trying to earn money to buy building supplies in order to build a clubhouse. He and Mr. Chips meet a kindly shopkeeper who wants to buy an unused business adjacent to his shop in order to sell more goods and give Scooter a job. Mr. Chips calculates how much the shopkeeper will need to sell in order to retire the loan.
- 1960's recording artist Chubby Checker is mentioned in the episode: "A Noun Is A Person, Place, Or Thing". However, in what is perhaps the series' most famous error, they depicted him as a white man.
[edit] Parodies and cultural references
- Johnny Bravo - "The Sensitive Male" - Johnny Bravo learns from a man, voiced by SHR singer Jack Sheldon, how to be a sensitive male in the style of this show. For example, in the episode, a song about sensitivity talked about how it is used and the grammar of the word.
- Johnny Bravo - "Red Faced in the White House" - Johnny Bravo goes to Washington DC and sees a bill is sitting on the Capitol steps. After Congress votes "No" on the bill to make children's toys flammable, a man who looks mysteriously like Newt Gingrich walks out and says "Tough luck, kid," before vaporizing the bill with a flamethrower.
- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - "The Daily Show Rocks" - A cartoon, animated by J.J. Sedelmaier, explains midterm elections.
- Family Guy - "Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington" - A bill on the steps of the Capitol Building sings dejectedly before being picked up by a street cleaner.
- Family Guy - "Running Mates" - A sex education spin on "Conjunction Junction" was called "Vagina Junction".
- MADtv - "Public School House Rock, Interjections" - A parody about overcrowded classrooms and outdated textbooks.
- MADtv - "Public School House Rock, Nouns" - A parody about what goes on in a public school in noun form.
- MADtv - "Public School House Rock, Substoot Teacher" - Parodies the "Three Is A Magic Number" segment, talks about how a hobo became a substitute teacher.
- MADtv - "Public School House Rock, Dysfunction Junction" - Parodies "Conjunction Junction," talks about medicating kids with learning or behavioral problems.
- The Simpsons - "Amendment To Be" shown on the episode "The Day the Violence Died" had an anti-flag burning amendment waiting to be ratified, and threatening to out Ted Kennedy as a homosexual if he didn't vote for it. Once again, Jack Sheldon voices his own parody in this "I'm Just a Bill" spoof.
- Saturday Night Live's TV Funhouse - "Conspiracy Theory Rock" - TV stations being bought out by corporations, several scandals from Westinghouse and General Electric, and the "real" reason why former SNL castmember Norm MacDonald got fired. Lorne Michaels claims the short was cut because it "didn't work comedicly"; Former SNL castmember and Simpsons voice artist Harry Shearer claims the short was cut because "Lorne wanted to keep his job at 30 Rock". This short has gained some popularity on Internet video sites such as YouTube.
- Drawn Together - "Foxxy vs. the Board of Education" - This episode is about how The Board of Education keeps black children from passing tests by manufacturing pencils made of grapes and menthol.
- Sifl and Olly - After an episode where Olly's grammar gets worse and worse, Sifl decides to "learn you English" with a Schoohouse Rock type song called "Bad English."
- In 1996 Atlantic Records released the album Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks, a collection of popular artists, including The Lemonheads, Blind Melon, and Ween each covering a Schoolhouse Rock! tune (list below).
- Elliott Smith recorded a cover of "Figure Eight". It was not included in his 2000 album of the same name.
- In 2006 Hitachi created a parody called Get Perpendicular! to explain their new data storage system.
- VeggieTales – In the 2004 video Sumo of the Opera, Larry the Cucumber does a "Silly Song" called Schoolhouse Polka about homophones.
- Several characters in the 1994 film Reality Bites sit around and sing "Conjunction Junction."
- Clone High - In "Episode 2: Election Blue-Galoo", Marilyn Manson sings a Food Pyramid song whose animation and music seems similar to Schoolhouse Rock, namely "The Body Machine".
- Homestar Runner - In Strongbad Email #161 "4 branches", at the very end Homestar sings "And that's how I become a law!"
- "School of Rock" - "Three is a Magic Number" was used as an expermental math lesson with different lyrics played Jack Black
[edit] List of songs used in movie soundtracks
- "Three is a Magic Number" in Slackers (2002)
- "Conjunction Junction" in Reality Bites (1994)
- "I'm Just a Bill" in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003), and Reality Bites (1994)
- "Figure Eight" in The Squid and the Whale (2005)
[edit] Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks
- Deluxx Folk Implosion (I'm Just a Bill)
- Blind Melon (Three Is A Magic Number)
- Better Than Ezra (Conjunction Junction)
- Goodness (Electricity, Electricity)
- Pavement (No More Kings)
- Ween (The Shot Heard 'Round the World)
- The Lemonheads (My Hero, Zero)
- Biz Markie (The Energy Blues)
- Moby (Verb: That's What's Happening)
- Chavez (Little Twelvetoes)
- Man or Astro-man? (Interplanet Janet)
- Buffalo Tom (Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here)
- Daniel Johnston (Unpack Your Adjectives)
- Skee-Lo (The Tale of Mr. Morton)
[edit] DVD Release
On August 27, 2002 Buena Vista Home Video released a 2-disc DVD featuring all 46 episodes as well as many special features. The release co-incided with the 30th anniversary of the show.
| Cover Art | DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additiional Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Schoolhouse Rock- Special 30th Anniversary Edition | 46 | August 26, 2002 |
|
[edit] External links
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