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Fifty years of Schoolhouse Rock! [1]
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Date: 2023-01-07
Schoolhouse Rock! "I'm Just A Bill"
Those of us who grew up in the USA during the 1970s likely have fond memories of waking up on Saturday morning, grabbing a bowl of super sugary cereal then sitting down right in front of a big CRT television to watch cartoons.
In addition to our favorite cartoons, we had ABC’s Schoolhouse Rock! to entertain and educate us.
Schoolhouse Rock! debuted as a series on January 6, 1973. Let’s take a look back.
Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla
In the early 1970s, David McCall, co-owner of New York ad agency McCaffrey & McCall, took his family on vacation to a dude ranch in Wyoming. Along the way, it struck him that his son, who was having trouble memorizing multiplication tables in school, knew every word of the Rolling Stones songs on the radio. Was there a way to combine math and the sounds of the '70s [source: Nobleman]? Back at the office, McCall ran the idea by George Newall, who was then a co-creative director at the agency. Newall thought the idea had legs, so McCall asked one of the agency's jingle writers to create a song. What came back didn't feel quite right, so Newall, who was also a jazz pianist, reached out to the now-late Bob Dorough, another jazz pianist and composer who'd written engaging songs about everyday items like mattress tags [source: Newall and Yohe]. Dorough went home and spent some time with his daughter's textbooks. He returned a few weeks later with "Three is a Magic Number," an insanely addictive ditty that covered everything from the symbolism of threes (faith, hope, charity; heart, mind, body) to shapes, addition and multiplication that ran less than three minutes. Everyone at McCaffrey & McCall was completely blown away [source: Newall and Yohe]. — HowStuffWorks
Conjunction Junction
Rad Stone, who described himself as the “suit” among the show’s five creators, produced the entire project and eventually pitched it to his contacts at ABC. Stone took Dorough’s song and Yohe’s artwork to ABC children’s programming head Michael Eisner, who was working on the educational variety show Curiosity Shop, produced by Warner Bros. animation legend Chuck Jones. Newall and Yohe recalled what happened at the meeting with Eisner and Jones: We played Bob’s demo tape and presented our storyboard, frame by frame. At song’s end, Mike turned to Chuck and said, “What do you think?” Chuck’s reply: “Buy it!” And that’s how easy it is to get into show business! — CartoonBrew
The Shot Heard Round the World
To celebrate the show's 50th anniversary, two books (one coloring book and an updated version of Newall & Yohe's book) and a Disney primetime special are in the works.
In the meantime, let’s celebrate here. Let's see your favorites in the comments.
"I'm Just A Bill", "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here", "My Hero, Zero", "Interplanet Janet", "Interjections", "The Preamble", "Bones", "No More Kings", "Electricity", "Verb: That's What's Happenin'", "Telegraph Line", "Figure Eight", "A Victim of Gravity" — so many great ones to choose from
Here’s a song that samples Three Is a Magic Number. From De La Soul’s ‘3 Feet High and Rising’ — an album that along with Beastie Boys ‘Paul’s Boutique’ were the best of the golden age of sampling (IMO).
De La Soul :: The Magic Number [1989]
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