TVSquad

If you were a kid during the early 1970s, those were your salad days for children's programming. If you weren't getting up before your parents on Saturday mornings to watch Scooby-Doo or Superfriends, you were up before your parents on weekday mornings to watch Captain Kangaroo or your local kid's show.

Also likely, since you only had about four channels to choose from back then, you were spending some time watching your local public television station. If you were really little, you would probably be watching Sesame Street, which was just hitting its stride with all of the preschool set (we called it nursery school back then, dangnabit!). If you had already learned all of your letters and numbers, and Susan was losing some of her allure, you were probably watching Sesame Street's older brother -- The Electric Company.

Helmed by former Sesame Street producer Samuel Gibbon and actor/improv comedian Paul Dooley (who would later portray the father in Sixteen Candles), The Electric Company was designed to teach kids the reading and grammar skills that were lacking across the United States during that time. Dooley and a gaggle of writers were given the job of creating a show that was totally not like its younger sibling. It was this group of people that gave the show such characters as 'Fargo North, Decoder', 'Jennifer of the Jungle', and the most famous of all, 'Easy Reader' portrayed by future Academy Award winning actor Morgan Freeman.

By coupling known stars such as Freeman, Rita Moreno and Bill Cosby with other lesser known actors, Dooley gave The Electric Company a unique voice in the early years of public television. After its premiere in 1971, the show was airing on most PBS stations twice a day, and in many public schools that had television. In later seasons Spider-Man and Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner would be added to teach kids about reading and grammatics. Production was halted in 1977 after 780 episodes; however, it continued on the air until 1984.

Now, nearly 30 years later, Shout! Factory has released a 4-disc box set entitled The Best of the Electric Company, which features 20 of the best episodes from the show. Special items include cast interviews, outtakes, and show intros by Rita Moreno.

Karen Walrond, from our sister site BloggingBaby, expresses a large amount of glee about this new release.  In addition, Billy Ingram, head television geek of TVParty.com, has a very nice, in-depth article on the inception of The Electric Company and how it changed over its years in production.  While TVParty is a subscription site, Billy has graciously allowed us to view to the article here.

Now, I wait with barely hidden anticipation for the Best of Sesame Street collection, when there was no Elmo, Mr. Hooper ran the store, and Maria was a young goddess.