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DVD The Best Of The Electric Company - Volume 2
Each episode was an explosion of creativity. From 1971-1977, The Electric Company made learning to read not just fun, but downright hip. Designed more as a complement than an alternative to Sesame Street, that means skits, animated segments, musical interludes, and funky fashions--always a plus. (Dig those fringed jackets and snakeskin stretch pants.) The cast includes Emmy winner Bill Cosby, Oscar winner Rita Moreno, Fame star Irene Cara (a member of the Short Circus), and a skinny beanpole named Morgan Freeman, who would pick up his own Academy Award a few decades later. In this 20-episode set, cast members Judy Graubart, Luis Avalos, Skip Hinnant, Jim Boyd, and Hattie Winston provide introductions. In addition, pop-ups dispense fun facts, like the show's original title: The Reading Program. As in the first four-disc collection, episodes appear out of sequence, but work fine as stand-alones--although it would be nice to have all of them available at some point. Musical highlights include Freeman's hobo lament "Shoo Shoo Sunshine" (episode 12), Short Circus funk jam "Knock Knock Rock" (35A), and let's not forget that "empowering" theme: "We're gonna turn it on / we're gonna bring you the power!"
Watch carefully or you'll miss quick-as-a wink cameos from the likes of I Dream of Jeannie’s Barbara Eden (150), Bonanza’s Lorne Green (223), and All in the Family’s Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton (166). Other notables to contribute their talents include Tom Lehrer, author of the "Silent E" song, Mel Brooks, voice behind "Blond-Haired Cartoon Man," and Producers pals Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel, voices behind The Adventures of Letterman (with Joan Rivers as narrator and Mostel as the evil Spell Binder). The Electric Company set its sights on children aged 7-10, but there's plenty of fast-paced fun here for younger kids and adults, too. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Review(s): DVD The Best Of The Electric Company - Volume 2
What a show!
I was so excited when I heard this was coming out, I just had to have it, so I told my husband to get it for me for an early Christmas present!
It's so great, I really like "Whimper and Whine" and "Sweet, Sweet, Sway", but the whole set is incredible!
I really wish "T-I-O-N" and "L-Y song" were on here too, but oh well, I sure hope they put out another box set, that would be nice!
It's a must have, it certainly helped me, I only hope it'll help my son someday too!
The in between commentaries with the former stars is GREAT, they look so different, but sound the same especially Skip, and Jim!
Buy it today, you'll be glad you did!(I know I was) :-)!!!!!
better than anything you'll find on TV today for kids
It's amazing how well this show has held up. I never missed it growing up and am so thankful that unedited episodes are available on DVD. If there is a volume 3 (I think there will be since volume 1 suprisingly sold well, and vol. 2 will do likewise), there should be a Friday episode from season 4 so we can see the production credits. They haven't been seen since their original airing so it will be worth it. Also, more season 1 Friday shows with the now classic Love of Chair segment over the credits. Apparently, the boy (Skip Hennat), does different things over the credits (including falling asleep!!). I will stick by that this show (and Sesame Street) are FAR better than any show you will find for kids. From Barney to Bob the Builder to Spongebob; these shows are idiotic and I would rather die than show these shows to kids. Shows produced by CTW is the ONLY shows that I would recommend to kids.
Keep Them Coming!
Once again, Sesame Workshop (or Children's Television Workshop as I like to still think of it) and Shout Factory came up with the goods for another winning DVD box set of The Electric Company. Heads-up warning: If you are expecting to see a PBS logo at the end of the 1975 documentary shot entirely on film showing teachers' employment of the show in the classroom, there isn't one. Strange, and I was told this was a prime-time special for PBS. The PBS I.D. logo was added to the master tapes of just about everything they distributed to their member stations. But it still appears at the end of the episodes, just like on the previous DVD box set. Judy Graubart's (Jennifer Of The Jungle) hair has colored considerably since the series' final show in 1977. Jim Boyd (J. Arthur Crank, Paul The Gorilla, voice of Lorelei The Chicken) doesn't appear to have aged too much, even with sporting eyeglasses now. Skip Hinnant (Fargo North, Decoder) has gray hair at 66, but his voice still sounds like it did during the series' run. He had about the same hair color I do when he was my current age of 35. There are 40 episodes officially released on DVD now, another 740 to go until the whole series is covered. I really do hope this DVD box set does as well as the first one did to warrant a third volume DVD box set, and many others after that. That next set should include interviews with Lee Chamberlin, Bill Cosby, Morgan Freeman, Melanie Henderson (Kathy of The Short Circus), Stephen Gustafson (Buddy of The Short Circus). A side note to the New Jersey educator that reviewed the first DVD box set; I did find the PBS logo bumper with its Moog synthesizer theme a bit scary when I was a kid. Looking at it in my maturity, it's still a bit scary to me but also exciting at the same time.
Signed, David (B. Gill's son)
Related DVD's The Best Of The Electric Company - Volume 2
I used to watch this show when I was a kid, and it taught me to read when I was 3. By the time I was in kindergarten I was reading at an 8th grade level, and I attribute that GREATLY to this show. More Info about this DVD Director(s): John Tracy (II) - Chuck Jones - Henry Behar DVD Release Date: Released the 07 February 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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When the Children's Theater Workshop's Sesame Street first aired on television in 1969, it was a revolutionary new show aimed specifically at preschool children--an audience previously untargeted by television programming. Exhaustively-researched and tested on real audiences of preschoolers, this "experiment in kid programming" aimed to teach preschoolers the alphabet, numbers, body parts, rhyming, and basic reasoning skills while thoroughly entertaining them. Through the use of humor, the amazing puppetry of Frank Oz and Jim Henson, animation, the incredibly catchy music of Joe Raposo and Jeffrey Moss, and a fast-action pace borrowed from the television commercial format, Sesame Street was, and still is, more successful at educating and entertaining children than anyone... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 24 October 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I am a huge Match Game fan and love any version of the show. That being said, I totally agree with some of the other reviewers that the set should have included more shows from the '74 to '77 era. There was really alot of zany stuff that went on in the panel during those shows, making them the best ones in my opinion. The later episodes '78-'81 which alot of the shows are from on this set, are way too edited and you don't get the interaction within the panel like you do in the older episodes. Honestly, that's what made MG good. The fact that the panel interactions were edited in the later years make those shows slightly less than great. Really, I watch MG to hear the "arguments" between Brett and Charles or Brett and Fannie or Betty. That's what makes for good tv.
That being... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Marc Breslow DVD Release Date: Released the 21 November 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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If you've got the others, grab this set as well. Looney Tunes have never looked better.
This time around, the box set is smaller and much more efficient. The previous sets had one disc per fold-out, which left extra space on the opposite side to fill up with dumb quotes from the shorts. Now the layout is much better.
The cover art however, could've been much better. It looks so much like the first volume - why couldn't they do something different? Volume 3's cover was refreshing, volume 4's looks bland. The gloss and emboss is nice, though.
I love the black and white shorts - the sense of humour in the early 30's shorts is totally different from later years. The characters would always make objects do things they weren't supposed to - like grabbing... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Chuck Jones - Robert McKimson - Friz Freleng DVD Release Date: Released the 14 November 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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