Customer Reviews

The Best of the Electric Company

5 star:		(116)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As any child of the 70's will tell you, "The Electric Company" was a milestone in educational TV. Its educational emphasis was on basic word recognition, spelling and pronunciation. The fact that so many adults recall specific scenes from the show (as evidenced on numerous message forums) attests to the show's potenecy.

What really set "The Electric Company" apart was its high standards. The cast included many acclaimed actors (including oscar-winner Rita Moreno and Bill Cosby) and actors who earn their star status later (such as Morgan Freeman and June Angela). As for the music and dialogue, it was nothng short of brilliant. The show made frequent use of humor that could be appreciated by all age groups. Contrast that to most children's fare today, which talks down to children and seems designed to alienate adults.

One aspect that stood out for me was the frequency of inter-racial couples in the show's skits. Not only did such couples appear (which you rarely see today) but the characters did not make a big deal about it, unlike say, Sesame Street, where they seem to insist on applauding themselves every time two people of different ethnicities interact.

My one concern is the comment that they are targetting the adult nostalgia market. It makes the show seem dated. I used to watch the show on Noggin with my daughter, and I can truthfully say that the show is every but as effective, and as enjoyable, as it was back in the day.

Growing up, I think I was a little resentful of the baby boom childhood nostalgia being foisted on us. Leave it to Beaver, Kuklah Fran and Ollie, Howdy Doody... never did it for me. So I found myself feeling a little sheepish ordering the Electric Company on DVD and trying to convince myself it was for my children.

I love this show. I am stunned at how vivdly I can recall these episodes when I see them. Sesame Street gets a lot of credit for educating my generation, in part because of its longevity and overall decency. However, I think I learned a lot more watching the Electric Company. It's probably where I learned to spell. That's nothing for the producers to feel proud about since I'm a lousy speller, but I was pretty good back in those first few grades, when mastering concepts like the 'silent E' got you pretty far.

I was surprised at how flashy, trippy, and rapid-fire the show was. I don't know exactly where I stand on the argument that TV has caused an epidemic of ADHD. Viewing hours as a prime cause seems an over-simplific stance. I think there are probably far more complex variables to take into account. I'm sure too much of the wrong kind of stimulation can trigger it in susceptible individuals. Conversely, a moderate amount of good, educational TV can also be benificial. I watched a lot of TV as a kid. That TV was on a lot more than my parents would admit to, and I bet this is true for many people my age. And I'm a working, functioning member of society. On the other hand, I don't have the greatest attention span. So, maybe... I don't remember where I was going with this.

I do agree with some of reviewers who have pointed out that both the episode selection and the bonus features suggest that they were marketing this DVD package more for nostalgic parents than for children. That's understandable from a business point of view. But I do wish, instead of a collection of episodes from each season, that they just chose a sampling of bits and sketches from each season that would represent a balance of the more educational, more entertaining, and more memorable bits. That would make it a little easier for me to pretend I was buying this for my children and not myself.

But it is what it is, and on the whole it's good, worth the price.

This is a great set of DVD's for this show. However, I do think parents should be aware of the previews for other shows that seem targeted to the 30-something crowd and not something I would want my 4 and 7 year old to see. For example, there is a scene in one of the preview ads for a show where a girl asks a guy, "so, you want to have sex?" NOT a DVD that you can just pop in for your little kid and walk away. I was VERY disappointed in this marketing ploy.

The Electric Company was just what it's name implies: a company of players, presenting an energetic show of fun sketches and animation with word sounds and letters on an almost electric level. I used to love to tune in to this show, even at the age of 4 which was earlier than the show's target audience of 6- 7. So many reviewers here have commented on the show's obvious appeal to even adults, but it's so much more than that. The fast paced show is obviously tuned to the merits of Sesame Street's 1970's approach to smart children's programming but unlike Street which is so heavily geared towards very young kids, Company pays off huge dividends in entertainment for anyone who is a fan of sketch comedy.

As for the reviewer discussing hidden agendas or messages in the show, come on, lets get real here. The Electric Company was designed to be a phonics teaching medium that is STILL light years ahead of any of the many boring, pedantic excuses for learning systems or shows of today. The message is fun, and as a professional in the field of alternative modes of education for developmentally or crisis challenged kids, I can tell you that if you make learning fun and the child doesn't know he or she is learning, that's the most winning formula there is. Bottom line: if you are a fan of the show, buy the "best of" dvd's so that they get the message that we want ALL of the episodes of the show, not just what they consider the best ones. If you never have seen the show but are curious about it or love sketch comedy, check the show out. I promise you, you won't be disappointed. For the rest who want so much to find something wrong with ANYTHING positive, please go elsewhere to find your negative dosage. If you want to tear down children's shows, I assure you, there are many more worthy candidates that really WILL have you actually reaching for alcohol to numb your brain of the stupidity elsewhere that passes for children's programming. I seem to remember there is a large, bulbous headed purple dinosaur who deserves to have the stuffing ripped out of his idiotic suit.....why not start there instead?

As another child of the 70's that grew up on this show, and learned to read before beginning school, I have to say that I am so suprised that it took till 2006 for this show to be released on dvd. Better still, I fail to understand why it is not still running on television. Sesame Street has been on the air since 1969. Why not have the next level on as well. The Electric Company was one of the BEST teachers of reading. In one episode you got MANY skills: phonics...decoding...pronunciation...blends...sentence structure...capitalization...punctuation...all included in fun sketches and musical selections. I VIVIDLY remember the Punctuation song...and BOOM...as well as Letterman and Spiderman. My teachers would have us watch the Electric Company *and the Letter People* just about EVERYDAY as a part of our reading program.

I am now a teacher of grades 7 and 8 in a Pre-K - 8 building. And for 8 years one of the struggles is getting the kids to read...and helping them read upper level material when they don't have the skills they should have gotten at an earlier age. the kids don't understand the material they have to read because they can't understand the words they are reading...they can't sound them out...they don't have the simple decoding skills that we all got as kids with the help of strong phonics programs and shows like The Electric Company and the Letter People. How can we expect them to get the meaning of the text when they can't get past, "What is this word and what does it mean?" So believe you me when I say that there is a market out there for The Electric Company today. And for those critics that say that the show is too dated:

I did a little experiment:

The Question: Does the time period of the show take away from it's importance to education?

The Test: I took about ten first grade students in my building...and about 12 eighth grade students and put them in a room to watch The Electric Company...the GR 8 kids were there to "help" me with the little ones...keeping them on task and what have you...

What I found was great news...

Not only were the Gr 1 kids paying attention to the show...singing along to the songs...they've NEVER heard of before...and repeating the sounds and words...BUT

So were the Gr 8 kids...

To the Gr 1...it didn't matter that the people were wearing 70's clothing...dancing like they did in the 70's or saying 70's lingo...all that mattered was that the show captured their attention...

To the Gr 8...once they got past the 70's clothing, dancing, music and lingo...which didn't take them long...they too began to sing along and repeat the sounds and words...

My Gr 7 kids...ASKED me to show them the show...they ATE IT UP!

Both gr 7 and 8 kids admitted to learning words they had never even heard of before!!!

The GR 1 kids asked me WHEN THEY COULD COME BACK AND WATCH AGAIN?

The GR 8 and 7's want to produce their own version of the show to help the struggling readers...esp in gr 1, 2 and 3 (6, 7, 8 :D)!!!

BTW...some favs among the kids were...

Greedy Greg grabbed the green grapes.

BOOM

PUNC TU A TION!!!...pun...pun...pun...PUNC TU A TION!!!...they are the little marks that use their influence...to help a sentence make more sense!

and of course...sillouettes...ch...irp..chirp!...YEAH!


THIS DVD IS WELL WORTH ITS PRICE!!!

One of the successes of The Electric Company was that it was aired twice a day...once during the school day...and again after school...(backed with 3, 2, 1, Contact...another good show that should be on the air still)...Kids got a double dose of the skill taught earlier in the day...reinforcement is good. Back all of this with good parents who encourage reading books (like I had)...and you have a kid on the road to reading success.

Now How Cool is That?!

A long time ago, children's television was fresh and innovative, thanks in large part to Children's Television Workshop (now called Sesame Workshop). Today, children's television, is condescending and artificial, including, sadly, many shows produced by the once innovative Sesame Workshop. What happened?

Well, I could write pages on this stuff, but I won't bore you. Basically, here are my thoughts in a nutshell: Basically, children's television was hit with a double whammy some time ago: the death of genius composer Joe Raposo in 1989 and, even more importantly, the death of Jim Henson in 1990. Once Jim died, it seemed as if everyone in children's television said to themselves, "Now that we don't have to compete with Jim and his crew, we don't have to work as hard." Then along came Barney in 1992, and children's television was destroyed. This was followed by a bunch of greedy for-profit companies far more interested in parting young parents from their hard-earned dollars than in whether children are actually learning, jumping in on the kiddie TV bandwagon, and children's television has yet to recover.

Exacerbating this situation is the fact that Children's Television Workshop, rather than continuing to develop innovative and fresh shows after the success of Barney, decided that they were going to make their shows just like all the other new kiddie TV shows: syrupy, artificial, and condescending. What were (are) they thinking? Then they make a bad situation worse by dragging their feet for years on releasing their classic television shows on DVD, despite begging and pleading from millions of fans. And what happens when someone tries to create a site honoring such great shows and maybe puts up a picture or a small video? SW hits them with "cease and desist" orders. What a way to run a railroad.

Well, I'm hopeful that CTW/SW is finally starting to wake up, and this collection is hopefully the first of many classic CTW shows to be released on DVD. For those of you unfamiliar with The Electric Company (and probably anyone under 25 is), The Electric Company was a program designed for post-Sesame Street students (approximately ages 6-10) in order to get them to read. The show placed a heavy emphasis on phonics, and used comedy, music, and animation to encourage students to read. As was a trademark of CTW shows before Henson's death, the show was designed to appeal to adults as well as children.

This set contains 20 episodes. There are some nice extras, like introductions of each episode by Rita Moreno, short but sweet interviews with Rita Moreno, June Angela (one of the Short Circus children on the show throughout its entire run), some great bloopers (REAL ones, not fake ones like on other classic shows, where they claim things like a number off center on a house is a "blooper"), and some of the writers.

It would have been nice if audio commentary was included as well as some interviews with some cast members who have seemed to disapper after the show ended. (I'm particularly interested in the whereabouts of Jimmy Boyd and Skip Hinnant.) The episodes are completely intact as well, from the opening show numbers to the original copyright messages to the classic 1971 PBS bumper with the creepy Moog theme. (If you've never seen or heard the theme to this logo before, prepare yourself. It's a bit scary.)

Also, when you produce 780 episodes of a show, almost all of them brilliant, some beloved stuff is going to be left out. Shout Factory and SW did a good job in selecting episodes, and there is very little repetition, but some favorite skits are left out, such as the "TION" song (tion-tion-tion-tion) Tom Lehrer's "LY" song (although "Silent E" and "I Like to Sneeze" are both included), and my favorite Electric Company song of all time, "Molly Lick a Lolly". Hopefully these classic skits will be released on future collections.

One of the previous reviewers mentioned that he/she was an educator. I am one as well. I just recently got transferred to an elementary school after working in a middle school for several years. I have been telling everyone at my school that as soon as this collection came out, I was going to show it to the kids to see how they reacted. I wasn't sure how the kids would react. First of all, I work in an urban school district, with a large population of poor children who have a lot of problems both inside and outside of the classroom. Could a show over 30 years old really hold their attention? Well, I showed my first episode to the kids today. They LOVED it, and they were absolutely mesmerized. Some of the biggest problem children in the school sat SILENTLY as they watched Spider Man battle The Spoiler and Paul the Gorilla accidentally blow up an Electric Company sign. This would have NEVER happened with any of the sissy children's TV shows on today.

As I said in my title, this is an ESSENTIAL purchase for both children and adults. Adults will relieve some great memories and still find both the comedy and music enjoyable. Children will love this show because there hasn't been anything like it on TV in a long time, and the sissy stuff of today is garbage compared to this show. Hopefully the people running CTW/SW will pull their heads out of the sand and start releasing all of their classic shows on DVD: 70s Sesame Street, Villa Allegre, and more volumes of the Electric Company. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, Shout Factory and Sesame Workshop, we NEED these shows on DVD! Please don't delay any longer! Get these shows out ASAP! Thanks for reading.

I bought this for my 5 year old who is starting to sound out words. I used to love the Electric Company growing up in 70s. I remember the AV monitor rolling the television into my 3rd Grade class to watch it - it was the highlight of the school day.

I was hoping there would be more episodes with Spiderman but I only found one so far. My son is only mildly interested in the videos except for Spiderman. He prefers Between The Lions on PBS which caters to the same "learning to read" level as the Electric Company. He may catch on to it later but right now not a hit with him. For me, it was a nice bit of nostalgia and I have no regrets about the purchase...

One other thing...considering there were 100s of episodes it is pretty lame that they only released 20 on DVD. Why couldn't they package them in seasons??

The Electric Company episodes themselves are great. But the previews that we accidentally let our little girls watch are not at all appropriate for an audience of children who are learning to read, particularly the preview from the TV show, Undeclared. This was a really bad match.

I just ordered the new Electric Company DVD box set for my children. It brings back a lot of great memories from my childhood while already grabbing the attention of my 4-year old who is just getting excited about learning to read.

One thing that really surprised me, though. Disc one has an 'Outtakes' feature as one of the Bonus sections. I love outtakes for their glimpse of the behind-the-scenes fun, however, was quite shocked while watching the outtakes with my 4-year old and 3-year old daughters only to hear Bill Cosby joke about Tampax, a female cast member 'peeing herself' while laughing too hard and Rita Moreno calling another female cast member a 'slut.'

At 38, I'm completely okay with the humor. However, I am really surprised at the lack of judgement shown by the producers of the DVD collection not to provide a warning for us parents who would naturally jump to the conclusion that our beloved 'Electic Company' is G-rated and okay for our young children to enjoy like we did.

Great DVDs, Great memories, Poor judgement by the producers.

This is a great show! I WOULD BUY EVERY EPISODE IF AVAILABLE ON DVD. This is how I learned growing up and I would like for my children to learn the same way. My 5 year old daughter is really enjoying these episodes of the best of the Electric Co. My 2 year old son has gotten into the show too. We look forward to more shows of the Electric Co. on DVD and we could only hope they will put out all 780? episodes on DVD soon, while my children are still young and learning words and punctuation. It has really helped my daughter alot. But we would like to see more than just the same 20 episodes over and over again. Please buy this DVD and write those positive reviews. You won't be sorry. Your child will love it!