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Thursday, August 24, 2006
It is fairly rare to become shocked when passing down the DVD aisle of Tower Records. This is probably because in the ever expanding DVD marketplace, virtually anything that can be burned onto a disk can find itself selling for $14.95. After having seen two disk commemorative editions of forgetton drive-in films that maybe played two dozen theaters, tops, I would be hard pressed to ever take a step back after seeing something released.
Yes, the rare, black and white episodes of Benny Hill's BBC skits that were not released into US syndication where a bit surprising to see. But, Benny Hill saw his TV show released in several videotape volumes in the 1980's long before the release of television programming was common. There have been quite a number of Benny Hill DVDs released and seeing the black and white episodes hit the market was not really all that surprising. But, occasionally, a DVD release will come along that will just make my jaw drop. Such was the case when I came across Shout's ten hour boxed set release of The Electric Company.
Yes, it was shocking to see considering the program has all been somewhat overlooked in the last decade. The word here, remember, is overlooked because to any kid who grew up watching PBS programming before, during or after school probably has enormous affection for this classic program. In many ways, Generation X'ers have a bit more fondness for The Electric Company than its sister program Sesame Street mainly because The Electric Company was a bit hipper, fresher and more, dare it be said, subversive than Sesame Street.
But while Sesame Street has passed on into godlike status among pop culture aficionados, The Electric Company doesn't get the mentions that it deserves. This is to say nothing of the academic community's love for Sesame Street and its ability to help children learn while The Electric Company is seemingly ignored. In all fairness, The Electric Company discontinued original programming in 1977 while Sesame Street continued on another thirty years so it is still a relevant program even to this day, although the four hundred channel cable universe has seriously fragmented its audience.
Purchasing the boxed set and plugging it into my DVD player, for a short period of time, transported me back to the late 1970's when the program aired on Philly's Channel 12 PBS channel. More than just a look at an old TV series, the viewing experience was a trip back to a more simpler time and a television universe that was much different than it is today. With three network channels, one PBS channels and three UHF channels, there was very little fragmentation of the TV audience. When it came to kids, everyone watched the same programs all the time. Kids were connected to each other through the shows and the shows had more impact on kids because there was so little choice in terms of channels and because taping a program for viewing at a later date was still many, many years away.
Watching the DVDs marks the first time in what has to be, at the latest, 1982. While the program stopped making new episodes in 1977, it aired regularly on PBS until 1985 before disappearing until a brief cable TV run on the Noggin Channel a four years ago. Considering the huge volume of The Electric Company tie in merchandise on the market, the decision to cancel is a truly curious one.
On second thought, I did view an episode of The Electric Company in 1993. I had acquired a black and white, poor quality, multi-generation fragment of an episode that had probably been taped on a betacam in the early 1970's. So, I still had Electric Company on my mind even into my adult years.
In 1998, I had discovered message boards and asked if anyone remembered The Electric Company. Surprisingly, dozens of people responded all with found memories. I was surprised that I wasn't the only one who waxed nostalgic about the program. In reality, it shouldn't have come as any surprise. The program was INCREDIBLY important to Gen-X kids when they were growing up. One person who posted a message simply responded "HEY YOU GUYS!" the rallying cry that opened later episodes of the program. "Hey You Guys!" had pop culture catchphrase superstardom written all over it, but The Electric Company's disappearance from home viewing for twenty plus years (a tiny cable channel does not count as exposure) the classic catchphrase found itself relegated to the dustbin of history for a while.
The Electric Company originated as a program which was designed to teach 7 to 10 year olds how to read. What the Electric Company did was it presented the educational lessons around sketch comedy type skits that featured some incredibly memorable characters. The Blue Beetle, Spiderman, Letterman, Paul The Gorilla all made up an exciting and unique crew that had a charm to them that relied on sly humor as opposed to being cute. (Cute has become a plaque among children's TV shows) Perhaps my favorite characters were the Monster ensemble of Frankenstein, The Wolfman and Dracula. These characters ended up being quite controversial as they were pretty scary even by kid's programming standards. Dracula, by the way, was played by a then unknown Morgan Freeman.
Watching one of Freeman's Dracula skits really shows that Freeman was going to become an eventual superstar. Look at his facial expressions that he uses to communicate to the audience. It is off the charts in terms of acting ability. (There is a surreal skit, too, with Freeman as Dracula taking a bubble bath in a casket while singing a song. I'm sure Freeman is THRILLED they included this one)
Actually, the entire cast really knocks it out of the park on the acting front. As the program was fairly minimalist as special effects and TV productions were very primitive at the time, so the actors had to rely on their own abilities far more to get a reaction and, oh boy, did it pay off)
If there was any complaint that could be directed against the DVD is that it included too many episodes from 1971-1974. Yes, there were some great episodes then, but most fans of the series remember the 1975-1977 episodes as it was around this time that all the famous characters would rotate during skits. The early 1971 years were missing most of the characters that would go on to be incredible popular. Plus, many PBS stations stopped running the 1971 season during the latter half of the 1970's because it was so far removed from what the popular program evolved from.
Other than that, this is a great DVD release and a welcome addition to the world of home nostalgia viewing.
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