The Electric Company/YMMV

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The 1971 Original

• Ear Worm: Maybe too many to list here.
  • "We're gonna turn it on! We're gonna bring you the power!"
  • "We're gonna open the book, and read every word we can see!"
  • "Movin' out in a new way! Movin' out in a new way!"
  • "Spider-Man, where are you comin' from? Spider-Man, nobody knows who you are!"
  • "Unbutton your heart, unzip your lip, and tell me that you lo-ove me!"
• Harsher in Hindsight: Spellbinder's plant/plane stunt. See Hilarity Ensues in the main section.
• Retroactive Recognition: Yes, Morgan Freeman was one of the original cast members (and yes, it is weird to see him this young).
  • Skip Hinnant, though it hurts realizing that a voice actor for an X-rated animated movie was on a kids' show...or maybe not.

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The 2009 Retool

• And the Fandom Rejoiced: The addition of a new villain in Season 3 and, for those who disliked her Canon Sue tendencies, the removal of Lisa.
• Canon Sue: Lisa from seasons 1 and 2. There is an entire song about how perfect she is.
• Ear Worm: Some of the songs can become this.
• Family-Unfriendly Aesop: Three episodes in a row (the last three of Season 1) seem to give off a shared aesop of "Never trust or befriend anyone who has been bad but seems to have changed his ways, since they'll always turn out to still be douches in the end."
  • Not to mention the episode about Lisa's colonial ancestor, who was believed to be a traitor. It looks like it's shaping up to deliver the reasonable aesop that if an ancestor or family member does wrong, it doesn't mean that you are a bad person. But nope, Lisa's ancestor is revealed to have been a hero all along, which leaves one with the impression that having an ancestor or family member who did something wrong is a horrible fate and shouldn't ever happen to a good person.
• Rooting for the Empire: The members of the Pranksters (except for maybe Francine) are arguably much more entertaining to watch than the members of the Electric Company.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Fans of the original thought a revival sounded promising, as the 1970s version used both short and long segments to deliver both knowledge and entertainment at no cost to either...but then they heard about all the changes, especially the part about using full-on stories and actually requiring the viewer to pay attention throughout. (Although to be fair to the new show, the fact they want viewers to increase their attention spans is actually a pretty noble cause.)
• Unfortunate Implications: Several promos for the new series, which ran before its debut, showed the 1971 lightbulb for a second before shattering into the new logo.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The Title Sequence got an Emmy for this in 2011.
• What an Idiot!: The Pranksters. They're supposed to be evil, but their only ambition is (as stated in the pilot) to "take over the neighborhood". The town/city, fine, as at least then you've got at least one position of actual power from which you can try to bring other places under your control...but the neighborhood?!
  • Francine alone has these moments a lot.