Schoolhouse Rock, in case y’all have forgotten or were unlucky enough to be born too late, is a series of three-minute cartoons illustrating subjects like math, science, grammar and American history. It taught Gen-Xers by means of popular music, cute characters and memorable lyrics.
I first realized how much of an impact SHR had on me some years ago when I had to count something by fives, pennies or quarters or whatever. As I was counting out loud, I stopped mid-stream and realized that I was using the same rhythm that SHR did. I also remember the Preamble of the Constitution by singing along to SHR music.
This was television that reached out and tried to teach us something without preaching to us or condescending to us. It was spinach wrapped in candy.
So, let’s all get our big bowls of neon kiddie cereal, pretend it’s Saturday morning, sit down in front of the TV and discuss our favorites!
The college theatre department I work for did ‘Schoolhouse Rock - the musical’ a couple of years ago. Even toured it to another community. Fun show, if a bit hokey. (the songs are great - it’s the claptrap BETWEEN that I couldn’t stand.) It was great hearing those kids singing “Conjunction Junction” as they walked out the door at the end.
God, I loved those! I’m gonna have to get that CD.
My favorites are Conjunction Junction, Interjection! and my very favorite is Interplanet Janet. (She’s a galaxy girl…)
I also loved the nutrition guy cartoon shorts. He was sort of a yellow round guy with skinny legs, a blue top hat and a cane. He did one about brushing & flossing, one about healthy snacks and the one I remember best had a song called “Don’t drown your food” and it was about not putting too much salad dressing on stuff or something. Anyway, I liked those too.
Sunshine, was that the guy who sang “Let’s go down to the kitchen, let’s go down to the kitchen, let’s go down to the kitchen, and make ourselves a snack”? I remember him!
You’re thinking of Time for Timer–“I hanker for a hunka cheese!” and making those ice tray popsicles.
Actually, the covers are largely crap. There is a box set of all the originals, or they sell them individually be “genre” (Multiplication, Grammar, Science, History). Worth getting just for the incomparable jazz goddess Blossom Dearie alone (“Unpack your adjectives”, “Figure Eight”)
My faves (by genre) Grammar: A toughie (there are so many), but I’d have to go with Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla (pronouns) Multiplication:Three Is a Magic Number History: A pretty weak category, relatively speaking, but I’m Just a Bill has some great jazz piano in the background Science:A Victim of Gravity sung by The Tokens, who sang The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Of course, there’s also the priceless Simpsons spoof I’m an Amendment to Be
his name was Timer. he’d always start out by saying “ok, time for Timer!” my favorite one was “i hanker for a hunka cheese”. i think he was called Timer because he was an egg timer. my mom had one shaped like him, but not with legs and a hat and cane. it was egg shaped, though.
my favorite school house rock was “conjunction junction”, and i, too, learned the preamble from the cartoon. however, i have always had a hard time understanding lyrics, (yeah, i know, “kissthisguy.com” is one of my favorite web sites!), and i thought they were singing “provide for the communist stand”, not “the common defense”. i knew communists were bad (boo, hiss, remember, this is over 25 years ago), and i wasn’t sure what they were going to do, but i figured we’d be ready to “stand” against them whenever they did it. my mom just about stroked out the first time she heard me singing that, and very quickly explained the correct lyrics to me. good thing, too, i started 1st grade shortly thereafter, and if i’d stood up in class and sang “provide for the communsist stand”… well, who knows what might have happened.
#1) Timer first appeared in an ABC Afterschool Special (called something like “The Incredible, Indelible, Magical, Physical Mystery Trip”) that I’d happily pay $$$ to see again. Two kids (live action) are shrunk down to microsopic size (and become cartoons) by Timer and take a horrific trip through their gradfather’s body. He’s got all sorts diseases (lung cancer, ulcers, etc) which were done with live action footage of someone’s insides. It scared the bejezus out of me when I was a kid.
#2) Favorite Schoolhouse Rocks were;
The Revolutionary War one (“Rockin’ and a-rollin’/Splishin’ and a-splashin’/over the horizon/what can it be?”) and I don’t care if the history’s iffy. The tune is great!
No More Kings!
Definitely my favorite.
Also:
Just a Bill
the Preamble one.
Elbow Room
I personally always found the History Rock series much more interesting than the others.
Oh my gosh! There he is! Hi, Little Yellow Guy! No blue hat, apparently, but…hee hee…“Sunshine on a Stick”! And the cheese one! I remember those! That’s awesome. Thanks for the links, ArchiveGuy and Fenris!
My own favorites (and I have almost all of them on mp3 and they’re so much fun to sing along with):
Science: Interplanet Janet
Grammar: Interjections! and Verb! That’s What’s Happening (tie)
America: Sufferin’ till Suffrage, Great American Melting Pot and Shot Heard Round the World (tie)
Math: The one about five (I forget the title and I don’t have the CD in my computer)
I haven’t seen DVDs of Schoolhouse Rock, but I did find VHS versions of Grammar Rock and Multiplication Rock a couple of years ago.
I taught a night school course to aspiring writers in the mid-90s. One part of the course was a review of grammar, and when we discussed conjunctions, somebody in the class would always mention “Conjunction Junction.” And somehow, a class full of adults would end up singing “Conjunction Junction,” and having a great time doing it.
Anyway, my Grammar Rock favourites include “Conjunction Junction,” “Hey, Lolly, Lolly,” and “Interjection!” Multiplication Rock favourites include “Naughty Number Nine” and “Little Twelvetoes.” And “I’m Just a Bill” is up there, too.
As for Timer, I recall him too–and more from his cheese song:
“I hanker for a hunk of–
A slab, a slice, a chunk of–
I hanker for a hunk of cheese!”
I’ve never forgotten that, but I never thought I’d use it again.
Apparently, this was so successful that they made a sequel. It was called “The Trip through Little Red’s Head.” The gimmick was, instead of Timer and his little rugrat companions doing the Fantastic Voyage bit through someone’s internal organs, they were lodged exclusively in Little Red’s brain, and got to see all her psychological states. (“Hurry, the magic dream winds come and go!”)
These inside-the-body trips were the inspiration for the little Time for Timer segment where he says, “Here we are inside your body, and this noisy empty space / Is your stomach getting angry, 'cause there’s no food in the place!”
Actually, that’s not really the “Revolutionary War” one, that’s more like the “Pre-Revolutionary-War American Colonies” one. They did a different one about the Revolutionary War itself, called “The Shot Heard 'Round the World.”
I always hated “Rockin’ and a rollin, splishin’ and a splashin’” because it was such an incredibly slanted view of pre-Revolutionary-War American history. What about Salutory Neglect? What about the French and Indian War? What about the role of the British Parliament? And why, for heaven’s sake, did they turn King George the Third from the bumbling statesman he actually was into a cartoon villain evil-father-figure?
– tracer, who put a dime in the drugstore record machine.
