School is or was a reality for almost all of us. We learned the basics like math, history, language, science, and so forth. For some of us, learning these subjects were hard. It could be difficult understanding things like multiplication and the three branches of government. Where could we turn to when we needed help? Other than tutors and family members, children living in the 1970s onward received aid in the form of animated television shorts known as Schoolhouse Rock! These music videos, which aired between programs on ABC, taught a generation how to multiply, how bills became laws, and how conjunctions function, among other things.
An interview with creator George Newall included in the complete series DVD box explains the creative genesis and impact, which I will reproduce here:
Q: HOW DID SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK GET ROLLING?
A: It all started in 1972 on a horseback ride in Wyoming where my boss, David McCall of McCaffery & McCall Advertising, heard his young son, who couldn't begin to remember multiplication tables, singing Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead lyrics. When Dave got back to New York, he commissioned Bob Dorough to set the multiplication tables to rock music. Bob responded with "Three is a Magic Number." The lyrics were so visual that my partner, Tom Yohe, drew a storyboard and met with Michael Eisner, who was then ABC's Vice President of Children's Programming. On the recommendation of the legendary animator, Chuck Jones, Eisner bought it on the spot. All it took was that one meeting. And that first song is still my favorite.
Q: LOOKING BACK, WHY DO YOU THINK IT WORKED SO WELL?
A: We never wrote "down" to kids. And we weren't in the television business. We had good paying day jobs and didn't worry about whether or not the shows would be picked up for the next season. Most importantly, we had the music of Bob Dorough, Lynn Ahrens and Dave Frishberg. Their songs gave Tom a creative leg up to start with. It was their music made visual by Tom's enormous talent for animation design that guided Schoolhouse Rock. Who could ever forget that "...sad little scrap of paper sitting on Capitol Hill"?
(Third question relates to one of the shorts which I will not spoil; thus I will skip it.)
Q: WHEN DID YOU BEGIN TO REALIZE THE IMPACT YOU WERE MAKING ON YOUNG PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD?
A: We'd been off the air since 1986 when, in the early nineties, Tom got a call from Dartmouth College asking him to participate in a symposium sponsored by the senior class. Expecting 30 or 40 kids in a classroom, Tom was shocked to find himself in the largest auditorium on campus overflowing with 900 students who were boisterously singing our songs and clapping along -- before he showed a single film. A year or so later, while giving a seminar for the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, a student stood up and said, "I don't think you guys realize that Schoolhouse Rock defined my generation." No, we hadn't realized that.
-- May 21, 2002
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