Electric Company theme song

Does anyone remember the old children's TV show "Electric Company?" In New York, when I was younger, it used to be on right after Mr. Rogers.

The show always started with someone shouting "Hey you guys!", then two sung lines (quite possibly the same line twice), then the beginning of the theme song "We're gonna turn it on..."

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Does anyone know what those first sung lines said? I could never make them out.

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Chaim Mattis Keller
ckeller@schicktech.com

"Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks."
-- Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective

We're gonna turn it on.
We're gonna bring you the power.
ladadadada-dah
dadadada-DAH
dadadada-DAAAHHH
The Electric Companeee
The Electric Companeee
The Electric CompanEEEEEE

Chaim, you can listen to it here! http://www.rt66.com/dthomas/70s/childtv/childtv.html

Thanks, Strainger, that was fun.

I listened to it and think I have the missing two lines:
"We're gonna light up the dark of night
Like the brightest day in a whole new way".

The channel TV Land actually showed some episodes of Electric Company a few weeks ago. I heard a new channel coming (I think it's called Noggin, not sure) that's going to carry it.

alright that one was easy but what about 3-2-1 contact. I seem to be the only one of my friends who remeber that one.

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no matter where you go...there you are

Not only do I remember 3-2-1 Contact, I remember Zoom!

We're gonna Zoom, Zoom, Zoom-ah Zoom!

I worked as an intern at CTW publishing one summer, on one of their magazines. They publish "Sesame Street Magazine", "3-2-1 Contact Magazine" and "Kid City". "Kid City" was the name they changed "Electric Company Magazine" to, cause the show had been off the air for so long, the name didn't have any meaning anymore. I don't even know if they still publish those magazines. It's been about 10 years.


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The Dave-Guy
"since my daughter's only half-Jewish, can she go in up to her knees?" J.H. Marx

Yup, they still publish Sesame Street and Kid City magazine. My kid just "graduated" from the former to the latter. :)

I loved The Electric Company. Rita Moreno was on it, remember? Anybody remember who played the part of "Easy Reader"? Morgan Freeman!

Was it "The Electric Company" that had the cartoon "The Adventures of Letter Man"? Remember? "Look! Up in the sky! It's a word! It's a plan! It's Letter Man." And would, like, add or remove a letter from a word to save the day? (HATE became HAT and they all had a good laugh, or something like that.) Man, I loved that show.

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I enjoyed The Electric Company also, as much as my children. "The Adventures of Letter Man" were narrated by Joan Rivers, IIRC. But my favorite song was "Silent E":

Who can turn a plan into a plane?
Who can turn a man into a mane?
It's elementary, it's silent E.

...and so on.

aseymayo:

No, that's not it. The lines I'm referring to aren't in the song itself, but are right before it, between "Hey You Guys" and "We're gonna turn it on"...sort of a prelude to the song.

The lines sound like "Uber alles the Jewish" or something, said in a singsong voice. But obviously, that's nonsense, and I'm trying to get the real words of those lines.

Chaim Mattis Keller

cmk, I think you're remembering something that wasn't there, or maybe it was an isolated incident. The way I remember the song is just how I heard it in the recording on that web site - "Heeeyyy yoouuu guuuyyyys!!", (intro measure), "We're gonna turn it on..." I remember Letter Man too! Didn't he go on to host a late night talk show? ::groan:: BTW, that web site I posted the link to also has a lot of "Zoom" stuff, in case you're interested.

Hey! DO you guys remember "Picture Pages?" , Bill Cosby's valiant battle against illiteracy??
"Picture pages, Picture pages, runa dn get your picture pages, time to grab your crayon and your pencil..."
and he had a special pen that would make a funky sound whenever he'd write with it??


I'm gonna start a thread at MPSIMS about people's favorite tv show/commercial theme songs from the past..... c'mon over


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"I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather - not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car"

Is the Reason
Is the Motion
When everything happens
Contact
Let's make Contact
3
2
1
Contact

Electric Company was my favorite!!! They were so much cooler than Mr. Rogers.

Okay, sure, different age bracket, but hey, ya gotta have a fave!

Also liked:
Scooby Doo
Bugs Bunny (of course!)

Didn't like:
The Flintstones
Wile E. Coyote

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...it has never been my way to bother much about things which you can't cure.
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court-Mark Twain

The Electric Company:

Currently shown in reruns on the new cable network "Noggin" (joint effort of Nickelodeon and CTW).

Zoom:

NEW EPISODES! Still a great series. Check your local listings on your public television channel(s).

3-2-1 Contact:

Also being rerun on Noggin. Go to http://us.imdb.com/Title?0190169 for details about the series.

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Carpe hoc!

Cmkeller

The last two years of TEC they changed the theme song a little bit. Perhaps the reason is because the original could only be sung by castrated boy sopranos (noticed how the song kept going up in pitch and children are singing in falsetto at the end?). The words you are thinking of are
Moving out in a new way
Moving out in a new way


There is a link for a TEC web site that includes both versions in realaudio format, but I can't remember the link. I think it the first part of it was member.home.net/???

Now. Who can supply me with the words to the ZOOM song?

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Signature?? I don't need no stinking signature.

You guys just made my day with the Electric Company stuff. What memeories! And 3-2-1 Contact was the coolest show when I was 10. The Bloodhound Gang-WTTWTOTD.

From Captain Kangaroo-"you know my name is Simon, and the things I draw come true"

Feelgood, here's that site you're talking about. It's got a lot of good memories for TEC fans.

http://members.home.net/davechad/ec.html

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Carpe hoc!

Sorry, Chaim, I got a little confused there. I think it was just the excitement of hearing the song again. I remembered it the way Strainger posted it - with a lot of la's filling in for the words I didn't know.

what about 3-2-1 contact.

3-2-1
Contact
Is the feeling
Is the moment
When everything happens
Contact
Is the reason
Is the ....

That's all I can remember, JL. Starring Mark, Lisa and of course the hottie Trini.


Alphagene

Hmmm, I seem to remember the "hey you guys" part being tacked on to the front of the song after some skit with a female garbage collector or something got really popular. Then again I saw the first episode of Sesame Street when I was a kid. But for those who want to wax nostalgic try soundamerica.com they have a vast collection of wavs from childrens programs, cartoons movies ect... and the silent e song is there with about a dozen others from the same songwriter

Thanks, Feelgood!

Chaim Mattis Keller

WHy is it that everyone I know can only remember one bloodhound gang episode and that's the one where they find the missing "stolen" camera by pouring salt in the well to make the baggie float?

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To deal with men by force is as impractical as to deal with nature by persuasion.

That "silent e" song from the Electric Co. TV show was sung Tom Lehrer (one of the rare times he recorded anything after those early albums in the 1960s).

My favorite part of "Zoom" was the ubbie-dubbie language (which we called "double dutch" in the neighborhood where I grew up).

"Hu-bye fru-bends! Ub-its ub-all wub-ays gub-ood tu-boo tu-balk tu-boo yu-boo!"



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SoxFan59
"Its fiction, but all the facts are true!"

Burn

If I recall correctly, it was not a camera but a clock.

There was a show I used to watch as a kid, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. It was pretty freaky (for a 8 year old), all I remember is that it often involved other dimensions, time travel, people disappearing, and ghostly writing on a fogged up window.

The show might have only been on in Canada, any ideas?

Best kids show in Canada, MR. Dressup!!

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Scoobysnax

Save water drink beer!

Scooby, are you talking about Ghost writer? the words on the fogged up window sound like it but the other dimensions, time travel and people disappearing doesn't. I don't know what it is but it sounds cool. As for the blood hound gang I just rember The one where they are in a spooky libary or something, boy add 20+ years to a memory and things start to get a little foggy, go fig. :)

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no matter where you go...there you are

I wondered if anyone was going to mention Tom Lehrer as the composer and performer of the Silent E song. He also wrote the "Ly" song ("At an eating contest you boast/That you can eat the most/So how do you down your 50th piece of pie?/Eagerly/Eagerly/Eager....LY")and the "Sn" song, featuring a wolf-like animal in a somewhat seedy top hat singing about how he likes to snore and sniff and sneeze. As a kid watching TEC, I recognized Lehrer's voice from the albums he had made a decade or so earlier (I was in Jr. High/High school during TEC's run). Lehrer was a brilliant satirist, and had a genius for imitating musical styles. He is to popular musical satire what Peter Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach is to classical music.



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The Dave-Guy
"since my daughter's only half-Jewish, can she go in up to her knees?" J.H. Marx

Man, reading this brought back memories for me too. I used to watch those shows all the time - sure wish I could remember more specifics. Any of you folks remember "The Great Space Coaster"? It wasn't a PBS show, but it was equally quirky with some funny characters. "No gnus is good gnus with Gary, Gnu". I also saw "Square One TV" during its short run, but I was always a math nerd (still am).

P.S. Now that I think about it, I can remember a bunch of Bloodhound Gang episodes. I.e., the amnesiac scientist with a tape of a cricket chirping...and a secret coded signal. Not to mention the famous actress who faked her death and disguised herself as a white-bearded cousin "Tex". Ironically, I don't recall seeing the one with the clock and salt....

My god, new episodes of Zoom? I wonder if they're still at the same zip code? You remember: OOOOOOOOH-two-OOOOOOOOOONE-three-FOOOOOOUUUUUUR! SEND IT TO ZOOM!!!!!!!!

Thinking about that show now it hardly seems real. It's almost like I hallucinated the whole thing.

Another reason why I liked the "Zoom" program back in the 70s was it featured actual kids as the stars, which included adolescent females. Being an adolescent male at the time made the show much more interesting than most other PBS programs.

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SoxFan59
"Its fiction, but all the facts are true!"

[quote]Best kids show in Canada, MR. Dressup!![/quote}

Oh, yeah! Y'know, he's still on Scoobysnax! He's a lot fatter and a lot grayer, but he's still there. You can see him on, oh, it's either TLC or the Family Channel, I can't remember which. But Casey and Finnegan are nowhere to be found. Remember them? I grew up in Detroit where Channel 9 was the Canadian channel. We got "Mr. Dressup" "The Friendly Giant" and "The Uncle Bobby Show". Remember that one? Bimbo the Birthday Clown! That thing terrified me. :)



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Sigh. One of these days I'm going to learn how to make those bold and quote codes work properly.

Anyway, here's the freaky thing. I remember watching Sesame Street and Electric Company at SCHOOL! I was in the first grade, and if we got our work done, the teacher would sit us all around a table and turn on the tube. My parents' tax dollars at work. :)

Actually, it was probably a better education than I was getting in that sorry-ass public school.

Scoobysnax, did the spooky show involve a haunted Printing shop one of the kid inherited and crossword puzzles?
I remember something like that.

Before this thread gets (justifiably) bumped to MPSIMS :) ... Satan mentioned the New Zoo Revue and here's something I've been trying to remember for a long time. What were all the characters names? One was Henrietta and I think one was Freddie but I can't for the life of me remember the third.

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Never regret what seemed like a good idea at the time.

yeah yeah YEAH!! All the good kids' TV! OK, I'm gonna go through this post again and find out what questions I can answer.

From Ivana:
DO you guys remember "Picture Pages?"

Yeah, me and my sister were too old to order them but we had great fun cracking on Bill and Mortimer Ichabod Marker. Giving the wrong answers and all that. Great fun! :)

From SoxFan59:
That "silent e" song from the Electric Co. TV show was sung Tom Lehrer...
My favorite part of "Zoom" was the ubbie-dubbie language

That's "Ubbi Dubbi" - I sent for the pamphlet back when the original series was on the air. And yes - they're still at

Box three-five-oh BostonMass OH two ONE three FOURRRRRRRR....

From BonnKansan:
Any of you folks remember "The Great Space Coaster"?

Yeah! What the hell was that gorilla's name? And Baxter, the clown thingy on the run from the evil ringmaster.
"Get on board, step inside, we're going on a magic ride..."

From Satan:
I also vividly remember seeing a very early Kermit appearance on a more adult-flavored show

That more than likely was "Sam and Friends", one of Henson's first forays into TV. He's a local boy - came outta the 'burbs of Maryland, and did some hilarious commercials for Wilkins Coffee. I saw one of their trucks rolling down Wisconsin Avenue a few years back and nearly lost it laughing. I couldn't believe they were still around.

Speaking of which, does anyone know where I might be able to land video copy of Henson's "Timepiece"?

From ruadh:
Satan mentioned the New Zoo Revue...What were all the characters' names?

"We have fun with our friend Doug
(Our friend Doug!)
And his helper Emmy Jo
(Emmy Jo!)
With Charlie! Freddie! Henrie-e-etta!
We have fun learning what we don't know
It's the New Zoo Revue
Comin' right at you..."

my head hurts.

I remember a lot of educational programming coming on in the mid-afternoon on PBS, and a lot of these shows that people only half-remember sound familiar to me too. I seem to remember the Bloodhound Gang being a part of 3-2-1 Contact. The haunted printshop sounds familiar too- wasn't there some evil alien named Duneedin on it?

Now for a real stretch - anyone remember The Hot Fudge Show? With that weird fuzzy tooty goof named Seymour...

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Cave Diem! Carpe Canem!

You had to mention the New Zoo Review - I hate that show.

Here's a challenge for y'all: The premise was that the children went to this tree, which had a door. When they went in, the inside was much larger & had all sorts of neat stuff. There was a closet(?) and when one of them went in there, some sort of neat film or graphics would be shown. The one I remember was a graphic done to "Windmills of your mind" ... which pretty much dates this, eh?

You guys were lucky. We only had Bozo and Hobo Kelly and they were on at some unGodly hour in the morning. But I can still remember some of the Bozo song.
Bozo, Bozo
Always laughs, never frowns
Bozo, Bozo
Bozo the clown.
(?)

Well, I now feel the need to delve into the childhood programs which made me the man I am today...

ZOOM: Man, I loved that show. I think it was because I lived in New York City, because that and Sesame Street (which I swore was actually a street in Manhattan somewhere as an impressionable youth) most closely resembled the multi-ethnic world I lived in. Of course I eventually reached the point where I outgrew Sesame Street, so I turned to...

THE MUPPET SHOW: Oh my GOD I loved this show and still do - if anyone knows about someone doing reruns, please let me know!! I still think back to those two geezers who complained all the time in the balcony, and that great band fronted by Dr. Teeth! And the ecclectic guest hosts were usually great!

And speaking of Jim Henson creations, I also vividly remember seeing a very early Kermit appearance on a more adult-flavored show, where he is eating a worm, and it keeps going until he finds out it is the nose (?) of a huge monster, who proceeds to eat a scared-shitless Kermit in one gulp. After seeing this, I was shaken for days! Like, how DARE something eat Kermit! I think I even cried to my Mom I was so upset!!

THE NEW ZOO REVIEW: Looking back, this world of giant hippos with parasols and a frog in a turtleneck interacting with normal humans had to have been a mindfuck! And it was... I still remember the theme song!

LAND OF THE LOST: My favorite of the Kroft Superstars shows, I ran home from school for this one. Remember the crystals, the sleestack, the fighting of huge dinos with sticks in the eye? I sure do!

SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK:I can still remember learning that "a noun is a person, place or thing," the functions of conjunctions, rooting for Bill to become a law, and unpacking my adjectives. And yes, Zero is still my hero!

I also, as an adult, envied the youth for having such quality fare as Degrassi Junior High and Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego.

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Brian O'Neill
CMC International Records
www.cmcinternational.com (http://www.cmcinternational.com)

ICQ 35294890
AIM Scrabble1
Yahoo Messenger Brian_ONeill

Smegmum

The haunted printshop sounds right.

Any idea on the title??

And Leslie, yes Mr. Dressup is still on the air but they are reruns, he retired about a two years ago after being on the air for more than 25 years.

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Scoobysnax

Save water drink beer!

Now for a real stretch - anyone remember The Hot Fudge Show? With that weird fuzzy tooty goof named Seymour...

Not a stretch at all, Olentzero. I believe that show came out of Detroit. It was hosted by this dude named Larry . . . Larry. . . .damn, I can't remember his last name anymore. But he wrote a bazillion jingles that everyone would recognize.

I can see more
When I talk to Seymour
It's never a bore
Just me and you
the Hot Fudge Crew
We'll see all our troubles through
Shall we, Seymour?

Whew! Hot Fudge -- I can't believe it really exists. I assumed I dreamt it during a fever or something. I do remember seeing it but the only thing I remember is that it seemed like a sort of psychedelic knock-off of the Muppets and a segment called "Holy Moley" with the song that went (appropriately enough) "Hot Fudge, holy moley -- Hot fudge holy moley!" (Clever, eh?)

Now, anyone remember Big Blue Marble? I remember once they did an episode where they visited the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and I was so blown away because I'd actually been there and there it was! On Big Blue Marble!

PS -- Two old guys from the Muppet show: Statler and Waldorf (spelling?)

For Chicagoans, another kid-t.v. show from the 1970s were the various incarnations of Bill Jackson's programs. The most succesful of these programs was on WFLD-TV, channel 32 in Chicago. (Tough to get in the early 70s, when UHF was in its infancy and not common on all T.V.s).

Bill was a puppeteer/artist who incorporated live cartooning on a huge pad of paper (set up behind him). One gimmick he had was to have kids send in thier names and what they wanted to be when they grew up, and he would draw the names out of a drum and use the kids initials and fashion a caricature cartoon of the child in the profession he chose, and send the kid the original art with some prizes. I tried for years to get him to pick my name.

An early incarnation had him as a clown. Later, he had a daily afternoon program about a fictional town (I wish I could remember the name of it). "Doodletown Pipers" was the theme song. Maybe that was the name of the show, too. Bill (or B.J. as he was known) wore a bowler hat and was the Mayor of the town. It was populated by his puppets. Most famous was "Dirty Dragon," a puppet that actually spewed smoke through tubes in its nostrils when he would cry out "Fie!" There was also a myriad of strange little humanoid puppets: "Wally Goodscout," a strange little guy named "Weird," a Granny puppet who was used to advertise Maurice Lanell Cookies, one ofthe show's sponsers, the "old Professor," a charicature of Albert Einstein, and my favorite, the "Blob," a mound of modeling clay which served as the town's statute, and which BJ would mold into a different character everyday. The Blob communicated by mumbling incomprehensibly.

Later, the show was retitled "The BJ and Dirty Dragon show" and was cut back to a half an hour. Years later, all these characters showed up on Chicago's ABC affiliate on a Sunday morning with BJ as the manager of a seedy hotel (shades of Fawlty Towers!) known as "Gigglesnort Hotel." I don't think the show lasted too long.

And regarding Zoom: Its funny. My kids are into it now, and we have conversations in Ubbi Dubbi. It drives my wife absolutely nuts.

SoxFan59
"Cubs Fever! Catch it and Die!"

Zoom's gotta be 25, 30 years old now. I remember watching it as a toddler, and writing a letter saying I wanted to join the show when I was 6. I think they were into their second or third crew by that point too.

I seem to remember they did an Ubbi Dubbi version of Cheech & Chong's Sister Mary Elephant sketch once, too...

Clubass... Clubass... WUBAKE UBUP!!!

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Cave Diem! Carpe Canem!

Was the Bill Jackson show, referred to earlier, called "Clown Alley"? the IMDb lists this show starring a man named Bill Jackson. It started in 1962.

BTW, Zoom was off the air for several years, and started up again this year. So yes it's 20-some years old, but its run hasn't been continuous.

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Carpe hoc!

How old is Zoom? I was flipping around and came across it the other day and I don't remember it at all. If I can remember watching something as obscure as "Gigglesnort Hotel", then why don't I remember Zoom?

http://www.imdb.com
the best source for info on casts of movies and TV and Actors filmography.

I have no Idea about the print shop title, but I do remember the alien. I think the show may have been Canadian because I seem to remember something that confused me regarding "Col-OU-r" rather than "col-O-r"

www.imdb.com

It has information about nearly everything ever captured on film or videotape.

I vaugely remember Gigglesnort Hotel. Was that on only in Chicago?

Satan, say "hi" to Lemmy for me!

Thanks for IMBd link. It gave me some leads, and I found some great info on Bill Jackson's T.V. career.

The show I had in mind was called "Cartoon Town," and ran from 1969 to 1974 on WFLD-TV in Chicago. It was 90 minutes, daily.

In 1975, the show moved to WGN-TV for one year, went to a half hour format, and sort of fizzled as "The BJ and Dirty Dragon show."

I also found a link to a short recording of the theme song with an audio clip from the start of the show. Its at http://www2.wi.net/~rkurer/kidra.htm, and has lots of audio clips from Chicago area (and other) kid shows from the past.



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SoxFan59
"Its fiction, but all the facts are true!"

There was a show I used to watch as a kid, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. It was pretty freaky (for a 8 year old), all I remember is that it often involved other dimensions, time travel, people disappearing, and ghostly writing on a fogged up window.


That sounds a lot like another show called Read All About It! which was a brilliant concept that kept expanding on itself until, presumably, it caved in on itself. I don't recall the heroes ever solving their big mystery.

And my vote for best kids show was the inimitable Readalong on TVO (TV Ontario).
Put yourself in a book
Enjoy the story in side
Read along with us at Readalong
And ride, ride, ride!

Cuz reading is a lot of fun
And easy too
So join us here at Readalong
You and You and You and You and You!

That sounds a lot like another show called Read All About It! which was a brilliant concept that kept expanding on itself until, presumably, it caved in on itself. I don't recall the heroes ever solving their big mystery.

It didn't exactly cave in. I think it was planned to only run a certain number of episodes (12?) The one girl's dad had been abducted, and she and the other boy and girl were trying to figure out where he was and bring him back. At the same time, they were trying to save the town park from being bulldozed. The alien was also the developer who wanted to raze the park. They fixed both problems, everyone's vocabulary was enriched, and that was it.

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Remember, I'm pulling for you; we're all in this together.
---Red Green

Yes, I think the original Bill Jackson show was "Clown Alley." But 1962? I guess I'm older than I thought. Those kids shows from my childhood blend in with watching baseball telecasts of the Cubs and White Sox, but its hard to keep the years straight. I remember BJ's "doddletown" incarnation best (if that was the name of the show - - somebody help m!) because it was on WFLD-32, which also carried the White Sox, so the shows often "blended" in my mind for day games.

I remembered the name of Bill JAckson's "granny" puppet! "Mother Plumtree!" I think she and the Old Perfessor had a thing going.

But the sobering thing to me is that I could have been watching "Clown Alley" in 1962. Lord, I'm getting old!

By the way, Mr. K-it-A, what it this IMDb list? I am unfamiliar with it.

SoxFan59
"Memories of Chuck Tanner and Dick Allen, advertising for Chevy, and "Switching On!"

Yes it was Read All About It!

Thank You.


Man I still can't believe that Ottawa lost to Buffalo in the first series. BUFFALO!! GOD DAMN Hassik.

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Scoobysnax

Save water drink beer!

Satan mentioned the New Zoo Revue and here's something I've been trying to remember for a long time. What were all the characters names? One was Henrietta and I think one was Freddie but I can't for the life of me remember the third.

Henrietta Hippo.
Freddie Frog.
Charlie Owl!

Does anybody remember a children's show starring Charles Nelson Riley where he would wear funny hats? A friend mentioned this a few years ago & I vaguely remember the show. The title almost pops into my head, but then it's gone.

Some cool websites have been mentioned, but not this one so far..

Yesterdayland
www.yesterdayland.com
it's dedicated to saturday morning kid's TV from the 50's, 60's, 70's & 80's.

It kind of slick and has search features, which are cool, info, message boards, interviews. I spent several hours perusing the 'Inspector gadget' listings. watch out - it can suck away your life if you let it (kinda like this board...)

As for Charles Nelson Riley, I'm pretty sure you're thinking of "Lidsville" a hallucinogenic creation from Sid & Marty Krofft. read all about it at the above.
rmariamp

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