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Schoolhouse Rock (view source)

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''Your mind must flower''
''It's great to learn''
'''Cause knowledge is power!''|'''Opening theme'''}}
|'''Opening theme'''}}
 
A series of educational short cartoons -- so short that they fit in the space of a single commercial break -- aired from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s on [[Saturday Morning Cartoon|Saturday mornings]] on [[ABC]].
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At around the same time, ad executive David McCall noticed that while his son was struggling in school, he had no trouble remembering the lyrics to his favourite songs. Thus the idea to [[Educational Song|introduce basic learning concepts to young minds via simple-but-catchy rock, jazz, folk and pop tunes]] -- most written by jazz mainstay Bob Dorough and eventual Broadway lyricist Lynn Ahrens -- accompanied by entertaining visuals, animated by a team led by Tom Yohe.
 
The intialinitial pitch was made to Michael Eisner, then vice president of ABC's children's programming, who brought along one [[Chuck Jones]]. Jones loved the concept, Eisner persuaded his regular program lineup to snip three minutes each off their running time to accommodate it, and a legend was born. The Saturday-morning format provided a perfect vehicle to repeat the shorts over and over until the lesson was learned; from the start, ''Schoolhouse Rock'' was a roaring success as both education and entertainment, running for 37 episodes repeated ''endlessly'' over 12 years. Many of the shorts were burned into the minds of young viewers permanently.
 
Besides the educational content, the series won accolades for the consistently high quality of the songs - besides Dorough and Ahrens, performers included Jack Sheldon, Blossom Dearie, Essra Mohawk and Grady Tate - and the overall cleverness of the lyrics and animation. Taking cues from ''[[Sesame Street]]'' and other contemporary educational programming, ''Schoolhouse Rock'' avoided sentimentality and presented a hip, inclusive, fast-paced and funny (often [[Deadpan Snarker|downright snarky]]) attitude to learning.
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All of the classic ''Schoolhouse Rock'' shorts are now available on [[DVD]]. The newer Earth Rock set is also available as a separate release.
 
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== {{filmography|Notable episodes: ==}}
* "[http://youtu.be/3FI2tTNjrUI Three Is a Magic Number]" (Multiplication Rock, performed by Bob Dorough) - The song that started it all, used as the initial pitch to ABC and still one of the best ever produced for the series. Eventually used in Nike and ESPN commercials years later and was sampled for the [[De La Soul]] song "The Magic Number" off their ''Three Feet High and Rising'' album in 1989.
* "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxT7QjlvDqM I'm Just a Bill]" (America Rock, Jack Sheldon) - A forlorn little bill sitting on the steps of the Capitol explains the long, contentious process by which he someday 'hopes and prays' to become a law. This one became so iconic it earned ''[[The Simpsons]]'' parody "I'm an Amendment to Be" (about an amendment against flag-burning waiting to be ratified), a ''[[Family Guy]]'' throwaway joke in "They Call Me Bill" (which ends with the bill being poked with a trash pick and put in a garbage bag), and ''[[The Daily Show]]'' parody "Midterm Elections", ''and'' was referenced by ''[[MSNBC|The Rachel Maddow Show]]'''s coverage of the 2009-10 health care <s>bill</s> law.
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* "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDre36ZW14I Interplanet Janet]" (Science Rock, Ahrens) - She's a galaxy girl! Another notoriously catchy tune, about... um... an alien softball team exploring our solar system. No, really. "She travels like a rocket with her comet team/and there's never been a planet Janet hasn't seen..."
* "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuAx_hk0n20 The Weather Show]" (Science Rock, Ahrens) - A [[Missing Episode]] for years because of legal difficulties stemming from the song's use of the phrase "Greatest Show on Earth", which trademark owner Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus did not view kindly. Eventually released as part of the 30th anniversary DVD, with the offending references rather awkwardly excised.
 
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{{tropenamer}}
* [[My Hero Zero]]
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* [[Alternative Number System]]: The song "Hey Little Twelvetoes" is about a friendly alien with six digits on each hand and foot, who uses base 12 and as such has an easy time multiplying by twelves.
* [[Bigger on the Inside]]: The schoolhouse in "Figure Eight."
* [[Canon Discontinuity]]: The first VHS copies cut out several songs in favor of new, live-action numbers performed by [[Cloris Leachman]] and a group of children. These songs disappeared from later home video versions, since they do not have the same composers as the original shorts.
* [[Creator Cameo]]: David McCall influenced the design of one of the "very weird creatures" Interplanet Janet meets on Earth.
* [[Creepy Child]]: Arguably, the cute little skater from "Figure Eight", whose eerily ethereal song (by Blossom Dearie) includes the wholly non-sequitur lines "If you skate/Upon thin ice/You'd be wise/If you thought twice/Before you made another single move..."
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Saturday Morning Cartoon]]
[[Category:One Saturday Morning]]
[[Category:Edutainment Show]]
[[Category:Western Animation]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}Western Animation of the 1970s]]
[[Category:Western Animation of the 1980s]]
[[Category:Western Animation of the 1990s]]
[[Category:Western Animation of the 2000s]]
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