Decades after it first went on the air, Sesame Street is still going strong.
So why was the Electric Company canceled? It’s another great educational show for young children, why keep one going strong while killing the other one?
I can’t find any reason for cancellation online… anyone know the history?
Since this is a question about a tv show, let’s travel over to Cafe Society.
samclem GQ Moderator
Wow, I can’t believe it only ran in original episodes for six years- it seemed like more than that.
Favorite show growing up, and my celebrity crush on Morgan Freeman apparently started in grade school… :eek: 
I’m not exactly sure. Wikipedia states the show stopped production in 1977 but continued to run on PBS until 1985. Sesame Workshop has revived the series through merchandising and two DVD boxed sets, and a new version of the show will appear on PBS in 2008. (This isn’t the first PBS kids’ show to get a revival- a new version WGBH’s ZOOM ran from 1999 to 2005.) The WGBH series Between the Lions is almost a cousin to The Electric Company as they are both the next step up from Sesame Street- whereas Sesame teaches letters and basic words, these shows teach how to use phonics to pronounce words and use words to read and construct sentences.
It’s a good question, but I imagine much has to do with the demographics of the intended audiences - the **Electric Company ** target audience was at an age that was much more fickle than the **Sesame Street ** one, not to mention that that would be the age where kids would be out playing on their own instead of the more monitored age group for Sesame Street, where parking your kid in front of the television was more likely. So…probably not the same viewrship figures.
I would think that the merchandising potential was much, much lower on **Electric Company ** as well, considering that’s where a good portion of the bankroll for the CTW came from.
Those are all wild-ass guesses, but reasonable.
No muppets.
I knew Electric Company was long gone, but my heart skipped a microbeat when the thread title implied Sesame Street was gone, too.
We’re gonna turn it offff
We’re gonna cut off the powaaah
Fun show. I read early, but I liked the humor and characters.
I loved the show. I watched Sesame Street, mostly because it came on so much, (four times in a row on Sunday!). But Electric Company had my heart.
Well said!
I don’t care how many movies he’s made, Morgan Freeman is that guy from the Electric Company.
Oops didn’t mean to imply Sesame St was gone… sorry!
I forgot about Zoom. Wow! I lived in Boston in the mid 70’s as a kid, and had we lived there another year or two I wanted to audition to be part of the show. In fact, my friend’s older sister was part of the cast.
Zoom!
Z-double-Oh-M
Box 350
Boston Mass oh-two-one-three-four
send it to Zoom!
As for demographics and merchandising for Elec Co… good answers, as is the older kids not parked in front of the TV. But as much as I played outside, and even though I was reading long before I watched EC, I still caught every episode I could. As did most of my friends.
Still not sure why it went away. Glad to hear it’s coming back, though!
But what about Naomi?
Same goes for Rita Moreno. She can sexily strut around West Side roof-tops all she wants, she’ll still be the exasperated movie director trying to get the actors to read the cue cards correctly.
Oh, for the love of…!
Spaghetti with a spoon!
Spaghetti with a spoon!
Spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti with a spoon!
Anyone remember Luis Avalos as the florist with Maurice, the grumpy little plant? It was like a takeoff on Little Shop of Horrors…
Jennifer of the Jungle and Paul the Gorilla!
Spider-man, where are you comin’ from?
Spider-man, nobody knows who you are!
My wouldn’t let me watch Electric Company (I don’t know, it was too hip and edgy for her, or something), so I used to sneak and watch it when she wasn’t looking.
Maybe she figured the show was as racy as another of Skip Hinnant’s projects. Fritz was X-rated and animated!
Sesame St died when that disgusting, squeaky-voiced little bloody tampon Elmo took over the thing. It used to be a gutsy show with basic Spanish lessons, bluegrass music, and crabby characters. Now it’s just McKidsshow.