I still have my ‘Electric Company’ record (as in vinyl) from when I was a kid. I probably played ‘Free to Be You and Me’ more, but it’s cool to think Joss' dad had a hand in something that was so influential to me before and during my early school days.

bloodflowers | January 17, 22:42 CET

Even without the extra Whedon goodness, I would have purchased this set immediately. I loved the Electric Company and can't wait to see how much I don't remember.

holymother | January 17, 22:43 CET

You scare me, bloodflowers...we could've been twins. I still have the record as well, and I couldn't stop playing "Free to Be You and Me" when it came out, years ago. I also had a Sesame Street album and a few albums from the "Let's Pretend" collection.

Man. Talk about children of the 70s...

And yup, I quickly snatched up that DVD, too! Gotta have that to complete ye ol' nostalgia collection. Not to mention for the Tom Whedon goodness! :D

nina | January 17, 23:24 CET

This is so wonderful!!!! Even more than Sesame Street this show made such an impact on me. I was an avid reader as a kid, and everything from Fargo North Decoder to Easy Reader to Silent "E" to those "B-At" "BAT" things they used to do is as vivid today as ever. Why am I not surprised that the genius of words (Joss)'s father was a head writer on a show about language?

Miss Edith | January 18, 00:08 CET

Who can turn a can...into a cane?
Who can turn a man....into a mane?
It's e-le-men-ta-ry with Silent E!!!

I loved The Electric Company.
I was way way outside of the target audience, but I thought it was great. Witty, funny, sly...and danged educational!
: )

AmazonGirl | January 18, 01:11 CET

Embarrassed to say I'd never before heard of The Electric Company. But not too embarrassed - correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think we had this on English TV in the 70s.

From the bits you've all quoted, it does sound very similar to Schoolhouse Rock (which I've watched on video with the kids) - was there any overlap in participation of writers and such? And were the shows pretty thematically related, or not so much?

SoddingNancyTribe | January 18, 01:31 CET

Not so much, SNT. Schoolhouse Rock was just a several minute-long feature ABC used to bow to pressure from various camps to fit in brief educational material between such 1970s' "classics" as Super Friends and Scooby Doo. Schoolhouse Rock was cool not only because of the creative animation (much better than most of the $#@$ that was on Saturday morning at the time), but also because it featured some marvelous performers/songwriters from the jazz world, including Dave Fritschberg, Jack Sheldon (who still performs around the L.A. area on occasion -- I've seen him several times at Micelli's on Hollywood Blvd.) and, if I'm not mistaken, Blossom Dearie.

The Electric Company was sort of like Sesame Street without muppets, focused on teaching reading skills, and aimed at a somewhat older group of kids.

[ edited by bobster on 2006-01-18 00:32 ]

bobster | January 18, 02:31 CET

Wow! I LOVED "The Electric Company". Never knew there was a Whedon connection. I will never forget Morgan Freeman as Easy Reader. I thought Easy Reader was the coolest dude ever :)

supersymetry | January 18, 02:36 CET

supersymetry, I LOVED Easy Reader, too. Imagine my surprise when I grew up and found out it was Morgan Freeman.

April | January 18, 19:35 CET

OK, I'm jealous of you all. My mom would never let me watch "Sesame Street" or "The Electric Company". I was only allowed to watch "Mister Rogers". So now at thirty-six years of age, this DVD set may be my first chance to watch it (sad, I know). The Whedon interview is certainly an added draw.

chickenbird | January 18, 20:51 CET

Should anyone chance upon this old thread, the Tom Whedon "interview" is only a small segment. Executive Producer Sam Gibbon does 80% of the talking in the 10-minute feature - still, it's quite interesting to see JW's dad up there.

SoddingNancyTribe | February 21, 09:30 CET