The show is VERY rooted in its times. I don’t think the original would really work for today’s kids…if they’re rolling their eyes at you, you aren’t going to teach them anything.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the original EC. I’m one of those obsessive people who have “Silent E”, “-LY” and the Joan Rivers Letterman intro on my iPod. But it’s very dated. The information is still relevant, but the delivery system isn’t going to work today.
Some of the originals are on DVD, IIRC.
Yeah, the old EC is much too dated to play now. I loved it, but I was little in the 70’s. I rented a DVD a while back and my kids could barely understand it. It has not aged very well, unless you’re feeling very nostalgic.
I still sing them the Lehrer songs, though. Who can turn a can into a cane? Who can turn a man into a mane?
What I liked about the hosts of the original Electric Company was that they were adults having silly fun, so they felt a little bit like cool teachers.
Whereas I fear the new hosts are too youthful, and will come across like Christians* who think they’re being “cool” and hanging out with “the kids” when they’re really just lame and out of their depth.
*Not that I think there’s any religious angle, I’m just making a comparison
Amen! When I was a kid, I always hated shows that had a “token kid” in them, and this kid was somehow a wonder who always saved the day.
Oh, good God. I can’t think of why I made such an elementary mistake. :mad: I must’ve had some kind of petit mal seizure or unfelt brain aneurysm - that’s the only explanation I can think of for such a massive bit of misinformation. 
Can Morgan Freeman make a guest appearance? Please? No Spider-Man, probably, but at least a reference…?
It’s well known that Morgan Freeman hated his time on TEC and that he avoids talking about that part of his life. I don’t think he’d be amenable to the idea of a guest appearance.
Here’s the review I wrote for a friend:
At first glance, PBS’s new series The Electric Company- loosely inspired by a series of the same name that aired in the '70s- looks like what would have happened if Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place had vocabulary-based skills. Upon watching the first episode of four that PBS premiered today as a sneak peek (the series moves into its regular day Friday- check local listings), the series comes out to be much more: it’s a clever, entertaining, and even captivating way to teach vocabulary and phonics to children, reminicent of PBS’s other phonics based-series, Between the Lions.
The first episode, entitled “Skills,” introduces the Electric Company, a group of four young children with magic word-based powers, and their nemeses The Pranksters- as well as the two sounds of “s,” the “st” prefix and suffix, and the silent “e.” This show is produced by Sesame Workshop- the same folks who gave us Sesame Street- and these phonemes could very easily be the Company’s equivalent of the letters and numbers that sponsor Sesame. They show up in the dialogue of the main story and take center stage in the interstitals.
Much like Sesame and Lions, the show features a main story with commercial-like interruptions introducing the lessons of the day- in this case, the phonemes. During a game of Horse (notice how the word “horse” has both an “s” sound and a silent “e?”), two boys named Hector and Keith argue over whether or not Hector is the loser and deserves the “E” in “HORSE.” Hector denies his loss, but Keith is so adamant he literally throws the “E” from his hand onto the ground. It’s at this point that the Company realizes that Keith has the word skills that they have, and let them join their team. However, Francine- the leader of the Pranksters who looks and acts like a refugee from Gossip Girl- rushes in at the last minute while Keith is taking the Company’s pledge and steals Keith’s power. Keith and the Company (which consists of an ethnically diverse mix of a white girl, a black boy, and a Latino brother and sister) come up with a clever plan to trick Francine into believing that Keith has all four of the Company’s word-based powers in order to trick her into giving Keith his power back. The young actors are believable- and so is the dialogue, which actually sounds like something that kids would say rather than the joke- and insult-filled scripts of most kidcoms.
In between the main story, the phonemes of the day are reinforced with brief bits including animated segments, songs (both professional and beatboxed), and other routines. Silent E is described in one segment meant to look like a YouTube video as “the ninja of the English language” because of its ability to sneak up and change the sound of a letter, and also gets an R&B-inspired tribute which may even rival Tom Lehrer’s classic vaudevillian number from the original series. Much like Sesame, celebrities and parodies also come into play- Kyle Massey from Cory in the House appears in a quick Rocky parody about a thumb wrestler with dialogue loaded with silent Es, and a cartoon dog named Jack Bowser must read a silent-E-filled sentence in 24 seconds to free himself from an exploding cake (“cake”- another silent-E word.)
The Electric Company, though it may have little in common with its namesake, is entertaining and educational. Kids will probably love it, and learn that words have power- perhaps not physical powers like the Company kids themselves, but pretty darn close.
Gee Whiz…Ok I watched it when i was a kid and I know times have changed,but does everything have to be all hip hoppy? Why does hip hop/rap have to be incorporated into every commercial,tv show and radio ad ???..This is not an “urban” slam, BTW.
In order to reach kids, you have to speak their language. Nickelodeon and Disney have been able to do it for years, and I guess so has Sesame (The musical directors for The Electric Company are the songwriters for In The Heights, so I assume they know a thing or two about the music and culture of New York City.)