HEY YOU GUY(Girl)S!
On this week’s Deep Thoughts, Tracie revisits a classic of GenX childhood: The Electric Company. This children’s sketch comedy program with an all-star cast (Morgan Freeman! Rita Moreno! Bill Cosby?) showcased the wonderful ways that informal education can be intentional, subversive, funny, and validating. While not everything from The Electric Company has aged well (the Spell Binder relied on racist stereotypes about Arabs and did we mention Bill Cosby?), there is much to enjoy in this staple of 1970s television.
Make like Fargo North, Decoder, and apply your mustache and headphones to take a listen!
Get your sticker while supplies last!
Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thoughts by visiting us on Patreon.
HEY YOU GUY(Girl)S!
On this week’s Deep Thoughts, Tracie revisits a classic of GenX childhood: The Electric Company. This children’s sketch comedy program with an all-star cast (Morgan Freeman! Rita Moreno! Bill Cosby?) showcased the wonderful ways that informal education can be intentional, subversive, funny, and validating. While not everything from The Electric Company has aged well (the Spell Binder relied on racist stereotypes about Arabs and did we mention Bill Cosby?), there is much to enjoy in this staple of 1970s television.
Make like Fargo North, Decoder, and apply your mustache and headphones to take a listen!
Get your sticker while supplies last!
Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thoughts by visiting us on Patreon.
I'm Tracy Guy-Decker and you're listening to Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Because pop culture is still culture, and shouldn't you know what's in your head? Today, I'll be sharing my deep thoughts about the 1970s children's TV show, the Electric Company, with my sister, Emily Guy-Burken, and with you. Let's dive in. Have you ever had something you love dismissed because it's just pop culture, what others might deem stupid shit? You know matters, you know it's worth talking and thinking about, and so do we. So come over, think with us as we delve into our deep thoughts about stupid shit. Okay, Um, I know we watched it together, but it was a long time ago. So tell me what you remember, what you know about the electric company.
Speaker 2:Very little. In fact, most of what I remember about the electric company is you telling the story that you thought when they went, hey, you guys, that they were talking directly to us. So I kind of vaguely remember that aspect of it. I just did a quick lookup of the electric company last night, knowing that we were going to be talking about it, like I didn't do much more than just a Google search, but just to kind of remind myself of it, because I get it and 321 contact mixed up. Yeah, we're going to talk about that a little bit and I think I have like much stronger memories of 321 contact. But the logo that was very 70s, very 70s, yeah, like that was like oh yeah, yeah, I remember that, but I could not have called it up without having seen it first. Yeah, I know that Morgan Freeman was on it.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're stealing my thunder.
Speaker 2:Did you know that before you looked it up? No, no, no. Well then, stop, it's supposed to be what you remember did a reboot of the Electric Company? Yes, they did a reboot, which I saw an episode or two of when my kids, like my kids, were the right age to watch the reboot, and so I did a little bit of like looking. So, yes, I did know this before last night before looking it up.
Speaker 2:So I'm not stealing your thunder, you are, but that's okay. So, with the way you said it, for some reason I got my yes, no mixed up. Anyway, it's early, I've only just had my coffee, so I just remember that as a fun fact. That was like in my back pocket for a little while and I feel like there was music. I feel like there were songs and music, yes, music, yes, and I remember, when watching the reboot, being surprised at how it was set up, because it just it, it was different from what I expected it to be, based on my very vague memories of the original. So so that's what I know. Sorry to steal your thunder.
Speaker 1:I still got it. I still got one or two things up my sleeve, so I think we'll be all right, Tell me, why are we talking about this?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, as you say that like hey, you guys, has been a joke of mine for years. You know, like I'll tell people whatever their last name is at your house, I thought they said, hey, you insert your last name and it always makes people laugh. Well, Gen Xers, it makes Gen Xers laugh. It does Like younger people don't know what the heck I'm talking about. Yeah, and it's just had this like really kind of place of affection and that's it Like, as you say, I actually didn't remember that much, but I I knew it was important to little baby Tracy and, given the way that our project has been evolving, like those are some of the things that I really want to investigate, especially as a. I mean, my kid is about to turn 12, but thinking about some of the media that she has consumed and like what is that doing in her little brain has got me thinking about you know when my brain was little.
Speaker 2:One thing that I'm curious about when it comes to things like the electric company and then, like, we talked about this with the Muppets, but when we were this little, our parents had buy-in on what we were watching, in a way, that's like, even though, like you know, they were okay with us watching Princess Bride and other things like that, but they were more likely to have been in the room yeah, not long after dad passed away.
Speaker 2:I talked about there. I wish I knew how to get to know him better, and this is like the sort of thing where, like revisiting this, I can kind of like think through what 30 something dad was thinking while watching this. That's a great point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great point, yeah, yeah. So so that's kind of why I decided to make it the topic of of our conversation. It's interesting what I did and didn't find. So I I'm going to talk a little. I want to talk a little bit about diversity and inclusion in children, especially, for you know, in children's television, and the importance of representation, and I'm going to talk about sort of attention and holding kids attention and about humor, and I'm sure other things will come up as we talk, because they always do. So that's kind of where I'm going.
Speaker 1:So let me start with, like, what this thing was. So it was actually the Department of Education asked the people at Children's Television Workshop, who are the people who created Sesame Street, to help with kids who had aged out of Sesame Street but still needed help with literacy. So there was a very specific learning objective for this TV show and apparently it was quite successful by the ways that they were able to measure, which is pretty cool. So, but what they did was kind of like Sesame Street. It was a sketch show. So we had a mix of live action, sketches and animation and a few puppets not like Sesame Street, but there were a few puppets and it was teaching things like sort of letter combinations and reading, and there were some recurring characters. It did not have recurring characters, it did not have the. It did not have this sort of central conceit of sesame street, of this like neighborhood and characters who were living their lives. Rather, it was these, uh, the set of recurring characters in these different sketches and they were a sketch comedy troupe and that that was sort of what we got from them.
Speaker 1:I don't have like a plot to give you listeners and in fact there were some crazy number of um episodes made that I had in my head when we pressed record and now I have lost 780 episodes. There were 780 episodes of this thing.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, I did not watch the whole oeuvre in order to prepare for today. Wow, I'm not sure it all exists actually, at least to be screened 30-minute show 30-minute episodes and it aired five days a week for five years.
Speaker 1:No, five days a week for six years, six years, 71 through 77. And so they canceled it. And the commentary that I've read that's like looking back on it says it was canceled because, unlike Sesame Street that had this merchandising opportunity that allowed the children's television workshop to actually make money on it, the electric company really didn't have that. So even though it was successful by the sort of learning objectives and measures that the doe had had asked them to do, that it wasn't profitable in the way that sesame street was able to be profitable because we, you know, we had big bird toys. So that's why it got cancelled. But but they actually decided to like that final season, they put in sort of syndication and it continued to air for many years, which is how we would have seen it, since it stopped airing when I was one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and CTW, the Children's Television Workshop, also did 321, contact, which was a science show, and they aired it the same like in succession, and so that's why you get them confused. I think, and in my mind they were kind of the same thing, because when I sat down to research I was like but the Bloodhound Gang was a part of Electric Company and I loved the Bloodhound Gang and then I looked it up, like no, it wasn't, the Bloodhound Gang was a part of 321 Contact, which, by the way, when I went and watched the title sequence for 321 Contact, it was like going home. Yeah, like all these cuts of like there's a baby and there's like a frog who needs to fly.
Speaker 2:The drop of water, the drop of water, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:The whole. Thing. I was just like oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Like I can call that up easily.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we. I think that one we really really loved. I I even remember sort of watching it with Chris. There's an episode of the bloodhound gang where, like, one of the kids was Jewish and there's like a thing about the shofar like calling when you are in danger and anyway. So, so some of the things that, like in this now 48-year-old Tracy, like looking back to see what eight-year-old Tracy loved. The thing, the hey you guys, which I recall as the start of the credits, when I went and I found episode number one on YouTube and it doesn't do that and I was like but that's my key memory. Well, it turns out that that phrase didn't happen until a sketch in episode 19 of season one and it didn't actually become a part of the title sequence for a while after that. But the thing that really blew my mind about hey you Guys, it's Rita Moreno. She was part of the ensemble, as was Bill Cosby. No, yes.
Speaker 1:Oh, bill Cosby, morgan Freeman, rita Moreno, oh, oh bill cosby, morgan freeman, rita moreno there, the other people on it were joan was her name. You would recognize her. Uh, let me find her name. Oh sorry, judy grobart, who you would know if you saw lee chamberlain and skip hennant, so they'd all done repertory theater before. Initially bill cosby's name like really surprised me, and then I was like, but bill cosby was actually involved in other children's television like the albert stuff exactly. So he was actually that.
Speaker 2:Once I thought about it, it didn't surprise me and we're gonna have to have an episode to talk about bill cosby at some point yeah, just him by himself, yeah.
Speaker 1:So when I think about the fact that it was rita moreno's voice, and like she was an I think she maybe was already an oscar winner, I'm not sure, but like this very accomplished, celebrated actress, where would I know her from?
Speaker 2:oh, um, well, I know the name, but I can't call up a face.
Speaker 1:Well, most recently she was in the reboot of One Day at a Time. She's a Puerto Rican actress. She's Emmy, grammar, oscar and Tony winner. She was in Singing in the Rain. She's an EGOT. She was in Singing in the Rain. She was in the King and I West Side Story.
Speaker 1:West Side Story is her famous one, that's okay, okay, okay okay, and that's where she won won the oscar, okay, in 61. So she was an oscar winner in 71. When she was on this, she was in poppy carnal knowledge the four seasons I like it, like that Slums of Beverly Hills.
Speaker 2:She was in Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story Okay, okay, she's a very accomplished actress and it's her voice saying hey, you guys, okay, okay, which kind of blew my mind, that's one of those things where like, uh, you said the name and I was like I know, I know who that is, but I could not tell you what she looks like and or how I know her. So thank you for that, because that was like you know how you say Morgan Freeman and immediately you hear the voice of God. I was thinking like I know I should hear her voice too in the same way. And then Lee Chamberlain, you said, was another one. Yeah, that name sounds familiar, that's a she, right, a she-ly.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, because I know Lee can be, yes, and I'm looking up her discography, or whatever that word is. She had guest appearances on what's Happening in Different Strokes NYPD Blue. She is a stage actress. Okay. Most notably played Odalie Harris in roots the next generation, okay. Okay. White shadow Brian's for beat street Viper the practice.
Speaker 2:Okay, wow, so it sounds like these are all like I morgan they were big. He wasn't morgan freeman yes, but not like he went on to become morgan freeman. All capital letters, yes, but and then these all sound like they're very accomplished actors in on stage and screen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Which is really cool.
Speaker 1:Also, you were right about the music. The guy who wrote the music also went on to be quite a celebrated person.
Speaker 2:So this was not some fly-by-night undertaking.
Speaker 1:No. No, and in fact, in the animation. Mel Brooks did some of the voiceover in the animation, as did Gene Wilder, and Zero Mostel also did some of the voice acting in the animation. So it was really an all-star cast, and even the folks who were not yet stars, like Freeman, went on to be quite, quite big.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and it sounds you had mentioned something about diversity.
Speaker 1:I'm just thinking of, like, the names that you mentioned and those that I know it sounds it was very so in terms of it was like there weren't any Asian players who were part of the main cast, but it wasn't like you know how sometimes we'll especially, I feel, like kids stuff, it'll be like a white girl, a white boy and like maybe one black character. It it changes which gender, but this was like there was one white dude in the main cast and otherwise there, so and then Rita Morena is Latina, judy, whatever I said her name was Grobar is a white woman, and then there were two black men and a black woman and that was the main cast, and so it wasn't it. It wasn't sort of like oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we need like the diversity, hire, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, it wasn't that at all.
Speaker 1:It wasn't an afterthought, mm-mm, and that was really awesome in the like the skits that I went to look back at and also to your point about like trying to get to know dad better, like these were comedians and like sketch actors, right and so, and they were writing. The writers were trying to make it fun for themselves as well, so, like one of so, morgan Freeman. One of Morgan Freeman's recurring characters was Easy Reader.
Speaker 2:Like Easy Rider.
Speaker 1:And he's this like super hip, you know like 1970s yeah hip black guy, you know, and the bell bottoms and the big hair and the clashing patterns.
Speaker 2:I'm kind of remembering the bell bot, like the bell bottoms and like, did he wear his hair in an afro as easy?
Speaker 1:yep, not huge, but not huge yes, but definitely natural that that is striking a chord. Yeah, and just there was like this little rhyme that my name's easy, my name's easy reader. He just can't help himself. He has to read out loud. It just makes him happy to read. And then another recurring character is a detective called Fargo North comma decoder. He decodes messages and um. And then there was Jennifer of the jungle who, like, is teaching Paul, who's a gorilla, she's teaching him to read.
Speaker 2:Oh, so there was someone in a gorilla suit. Yes, I remember the gorilla suit.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So the hey you guys came from another recurring bit where Bill Cosby is a milkman, like a milk delivery man, and Rita Moreno is Millie, his assistant, the milkman's assistant. And so the very first occurrence which I watched on YouTube of these characters, where the first time she says hey you guys, she's like listen, do I have to get up so early? It's four, 30 morning. He's like, yeah, that's how milk delivery works and they're trying to figure out how many bottles to leave for this one family. And you know it's this sketch back and forth. And she's like well, that's easy. And she like yells at the top of her lungs, like, hey, you guys, how many? You know whatever? Like she's going to ask them, but it's four in the morning and it's like it's just so, so, silly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it taps into that humor that we have talked about before, that Americans apparently love. That's what we talked about in our Monty Python episode. We've actually talked about this a couple of times, about this brand of humor that maybe, possibly, americans tend to favor, which is one that allows us, the viewer, to feel smarter than the people in the joke which we see, like with we've talked about, like with Mr Noodle, who's on Elmo's World. Damn it, mr Noodle.
Speaker 2:It's like it's a.
Speaker 1:Sorry, yes, go ahead. So this is a pretty common like humor vein that we use with children, Right Like where do we put our hats? Do we put it in our hands?
Speaker 2:No, like that sort of a. Thing.
Speaker 1:That's silly. So it's that kind of humor with Millie the milkman's assistant, but it's still charming, you know, especially with these two talented actors who are hamming it up, because that's what you do in children's sketch television and comedy, true, true, two talented actors who are hamming it up, because that's what you do in children's sketch television and comedy, true, true.
Speaker 1:So, going, looking back on it, it's hard to find one. I mean like it's on youtube, but it's clearly like recorded from someone's tv, like you can see sort of the and and maybe I could find I I'm sure I did not do an exhaustive search they did release it on DVD, or at least highlights, like 10 or 15 years ago. Maybe it was around the reboot or it was around some sort of anniversary, because they also interviewed some of the original cast members, including Rita Moreno. Morgan Freeman and Bill Cosby were not on that dvd as far as I could tell, and some of the music actually has been apparently released online. So what was really fun about this? Looking back on it, in addition to the all-star cast, with some of the, there's a.
Speaker 1:There was a repeating sketch where marvel lent spider-man to this show, really, yeah, so, and part of the whole, the sort of reading gig, was that spider-man doesn't. You don't hear him, you see his voice. So it's kind of this mix of animation and live action but framed by as if you're looking at a panel in a comic, okay, and so as the viewer, you're forced to kind of read Spidey's voice, which so the kids are reading. Kids watching this are reading without maybe even realizing that they're reading, which is part of the point. That is brilliant. Chuck Jones actually did some Roadrunner and Coyote cartoons for the electric company. Yeah, similarly like with the signs and stuff. So there was reading, because they're not. You know, the Roadrunner and Wile and Wiley coyote don't ever talk out loud except to say meet me, so seeing sort of those other big brands, not just those two, but also the voice actors, you know Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder, who were stars in their own right in the in the 70s.
Speaker 1:I don't know why it was surprising, because even today we see big stars on Sesame Street still, or big music names who recorded stuff for Yo Gabba Gabba, for instance, or other kids' shows. It's a thing that we still happening. So I don't know if it's because it was like from my childhood and I don't remember it, but something about seeing these like big name brands Spider-Man, chuck Jones, um Wile E Coyote and the Roadrunner and you know some of the big voice actors in this show it like warmed my heart in a way that I did not anticipate, and I think part of that is it does the same when I see it today. It's just not for me anymore. But something about the builders of culture, the carriers of culture kind of Culture, the carriers of culture kind of I don't want to say elevating, because that's the wrong word, but validating, I guess, is the word feels aligned with what we're doing with, with deep thoughts, in a way that just like, really like, gave me the warm fuzzies.
Speaker 2:It also strikes me as part of what dad would have liked about this.
Speaker 1:Agreed.
Speaker 2:In part because like so I don't know if that was innovative, it may have been. I don't like because Sesame Street was very innovative because they didn't have programming for children and like Mr Rogers and his speaking before Senate about public television and the importance it brings to educating children, you know that was all relatively new in the seventies. And so the idea of makers of like straight pop culture I don't know what else to call it, but like just general pop culture, mainstream, mainstream thank you Mainstream pop culture coming together for education.
Speaker 2:There's something really impressive about that. And I'm also thinking, since Marvel owned Spider-Man and you know about the weirdness with Spider-Man versus Marvel and Sony owned Spider-Man but not the rest of Marvel. Do you know about all of that? No, oh, it's this bizarre thing. So Marvel wasn't doing well in like late 90s, early 2000s I think, and so Sony bought Spider-Man, the rights to Spider-Man, but not the rest of the MCU. Well, it's not CU. The MEU, the Marvel Extended Universe, because they're like nobody cares about any of the other characters. The marvel extended universe, because they're like nobody cares about any of the other characters. And I may have it backwards, it might be that sony now owns the meu and not spider-man, but in any case, that seems unlikely.
Speaker 1:yeah, I think it's, I think it's that way. Marvel definitely owns like black panther.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, so yeah, that's what it is. So sony bought spider-man, just spider-man. They are now kicking themselves, yeah.
Speaker 1:But that also, although it took the people, the minds at Marvel, to create the Absolutely yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And there is some like very odd, like legal issues that they go into with any kind of. And then when Disney bought Marvel, that's what I was thinking of Disney now owns. Marvel, oh yes, but Sony owns Spider-Man and so like there's some weirdness there and so they have to deal with rights and legal issues and it sounds like either a legal nightmare or some law nerds like just wet dream. Like oh yeah, I get to dive into this, like who owns what and what can you use?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Anyway, that strikes me as I don't know that you'd be able to do something like that. Yeah, I don't know that you'd be able to do something like that. Yeah, I don't know. Like, if today the people behind Black Panther wanted to lend Black Panther to a children's educational show, the amount of paperwork and red tape you'd have to go through with Disney to do that seems like it just wouldn't happen. It would just be like it's just not worth the mountain of paperwork.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and money and money. Yeah, that seems like it just wouldn't happen. It would just be like it's just not worth the mountain of paperwork. Yeah, and money and money. Yeah, yeah, right, because so in 72 or whenever it was, that they first started doing it. I believe it was a promotional thing for the folks who owned Spider-Man at the time, and I'm sure there was some genuine altruism in it as well. Yeah, yeah, okay. So so those are some of the things that I discovered.
Speaker 1:So I also was pleased, though there it's the seventies, and so some of the women's costumes were. Their skirts were short, extra short to the end, like they were very short skirts, I'm. They were like Jennifer the jungle is wearing like a what's meant to be like a skin, you know, like a animal skin dress. Now she is also wearing tights because I um, but so it was like well, it was the seventies, and at the same time, like there are several skits that I watched, you know, in my just quick sort of spot sampling, where Rita Moreno is playing Like there's one where she plays a director, like a film director, and she's wearing, you know, like trousers and like a beret, you, you know, and like just sort of masculine coded clothing.
Speaker 1:Another where she's that episode they were looking at the ue sound and she's looking for her pool cue and again is dressed very sort of masculine coded. So we had the very short skirts, but that wasn't like a uniform, which was the only way that the female cast was to appear on screen. So that was refreshing and I was pleasantly surprised. I was pleasantly surprised by that.
Speaker 1:Now, while we're talking about diversity, though, I mentioned that Zero Mostel shows up as a voice character. He was the. In this animation, this repeated animation, there was a character called the Letterman, who was wearing by zero mostel and was definitely coded to be arab and has been criticized as sort of insensitive at best insensitive and, and you know, contributing to racial stereotypes against arabs. So it it wasn't. I don't want to, I don't want to suggest that it was perfect. Yeah, yeah, oh, another big name Joan Rivers. I totally forgot. Joan Rivers was in that same biscuit with the Letterman. Wow, june Wilder, joan Rivers, zero Mustel, wow, yeah, so I don't want to suggest that it was perfect and it was progressive. It was truly progressive. As far as I can tell, there were no gay characters, whether open or not, so that was missing, but it was the 70s and so that actually makes a lot of sense to me. Yeah, well.
Speaker 2:I mean, three's Company was considered progressive by having John Ritter pretend to be gay. Yeah, which is so Gross. Yeah, it's so gross and only like. The only reason it's you can even like watch it now is because John Ritter is so charming.
Speaker 1:It's funny to me, like I remember thinking how Mr Roper was, like, so old. It's funny to me I remember thinking how Mr Roper was so old Somebody recently pointed out he was 53 years old when the show started, which is five years from where I am right now. I'm like, oh my God, he was ancient when we were kids. It's amazing how things change. I digress, I digress. So, in terms of diversity and inclusion, there was no sexual orientation diversity, at least not openly so.
Speaker 2:That being something that is included in children's television, I mean, is still being fought right now.
Speaker 1:Agreed, yeah, still being fought right now. Agreed, yeah, so yeah, yeah, and I think about sort of what their learning objectives were, why, like, why they existed, their reason for being, and I'm so glad that actually you know that they had the racial diversity, that they did it just it feels really good and even like the original. So the song stay the same for the title sequence, but prior in the very first episode. If you go on, if you go onto youtube and you search it up, you can find the very first episode and it opens with this sequence where each of the players kind of comes in and says hello and greets the other one in different ways, in sort of a sing-songy kind of a rhythm, but in ways like the dialect, if you will, like the affect that they use.
Speaker 1:There are it's not middle america, hello, how are you? You know, it's like, hey, how you doing, like, how you doing, like how you been, and they're all and there's a bit of their natural accent, if you will. That comes through in that, which feels really powerful when we think about representation for kids who are in that sort of 7 to 10 range, who've outgrown Sesame Street, having trouble reading to see people who look and sound like the people around them and like themselves makes it all the easier for this informal education to work, and I find that also like really powerful.
Speaker 2:And I find that also like really powerful. I'm also thinking just the fact that Spider-Man was part of this and you know, yes, you're right, it's promotional, like that. You know I wasn't thinking that, you know, I was just like, oh, how kind. But this was, and we were kind of raised with the idea that, like, comic books aren't real reading, yeah, but this also opens it up to like, hey, you're reading, when you're reading Spider-Man comic books and like encouraging kids to go, like you know, read more about your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, you know, go get, go get a comic book. It's reading. Yeah, it's fabulous, yeah, Fabulous, and it feels progressive. Because even when I was teaching which was from 2006 to 2010, I had colleagues who were like it's not real reading if they're reading a graphic novel or a comic book and it's just like why, why is that not real reading?
Speaker 1:It makes sense too that this television show would feel that way, because part of your point earlier when you're talking about how this was kind of progressive and thinking about Mr Rogers going before the Senate and just kind of convincing the broader culture that this informal education is valuable and worthwhile, the whole notion of informal education as a thing that we did intentionally is relatively new and it makes sense that it followed television or, in this case, is following television. I mean, what we do in museums is informal education, this reified, rarefied kind of informal education that also in that field has had to kind of bring some folks forward who had snobbery about what museums are and do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's interesting, like I love the informal education. You know, of course, I've heard that term before, but just thinking about it right now, we think informal and we think not intentional. And it's this is just kind of a side effect, a product of conversation with them, or what movies I show them and stuff like that, but taking the reins and saying like no, no, no, let us be intentional about this informal education, let us make sure that we are making decisions about what they are taking in, which is exactly what we're talking about in this whole podcast for millions of students.
Speaker 1:As a bolster to their formal education. It feels so important and powerful and also I almost and this may be me projecting or misjudging, but it almost feels like we've forgotten as a culture, we've forgotten what the Department of Education knew in 1970. And part of that is the preponderance of media. In 1971, when the first episode of Electric Company aired, we only had five channels and you watched what was being broadcast. Yeah, so that has changed completely. That has changed completely, you know. And so, even if the most wonderful informal education media is being produced, the number of people it can reach is both exponentially larger and exponentially smaller, depending on your marketing budget, which was not the case in 1971. And so I think my sense that we've forgotten is un-nuanced, but maybe not wrong.
Speaker 2:There's also I mean, that is definitely an aspect of it, having worked in education there is also, like the, the shifting winds of what education is willing to do, and so some of it is like you remember, our elementary school had all those weird open classrooms and it was because it was built during a time where they're like collaboration among classrooms and then you know they realized this does not work and they had to put up these like temporary walls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so so you get these pendulum shifts that are very political in some ways, and in particular in the past 20 years, we have, like the no child left behind, which focuses on metrics to a degree that is actively harmful, because, instead of the squidgy, informal education is boosting, and all of that Even though, as you said, the electric company met its targets in terms of what it wanted to do with education. If you can't put it on a Scantron and judge whether or not a teacher should be fired based on it, people haven't been interested in the last 20 years, or?
Speaker 1:merchandise it. Yes, Right. So they didn't have additional funding from the federal sources because that whatever it was had run out right. And they didn't have additional funding from capitalism because there were no dolls to sell or action figures to sell.
Speaker 2:Or even books like Monster at the End of this Book, because that came out in the 70s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're right. It also speaks to my sense that we've forgotten, speaks to what it is that we as a culture have decided to value.
Speaker 2:Yes, and funding for education programs. This is not something I have any kind of exhaustive knowledge on, or even more than middling knowledge on, but you know, funding for like this educational program in the seventies is one thing, and then at the in 1980, ronald Reagan is elected, and so that's very like there's a very different vibe about what government is for you know, like he was the one who said the worst.
Speaker 2:The scariest words in the English language is we're here from the government, we're here to help. And so like the idea, like that's very bootstrappy time of American life, and so, even when the pendulum swings backward, and then like it's very unusual for the same party candidate to win after a two-term president, so the fact that HW won the presidency and he had been vice president and he was in a lot of ways, poised, but that's very unusual for that to happen. So, just thinking the politics of what Americans, if you stop them in the street, said that they wanted, we're not necessarily going to support what you want to make a comedy show for children to help them read Are you kidding me? No, yeah, like there's a pothole on my street. Or you know, like we need to secure our borders. Or you know, or like can you put that in the schools for people who are even, like, not averse to spending money on education?
Speaker 1:Right, right, right. So I'm trying to decide if I actually want to put 321 Contact on our list, to look at it separately.
Speaker 1:Part of me feels like this actually wasn't sufficient, because I'm not sure what else I'm going to have to say about it, but I'm taking note of the way that public television in particular I'm using the Electric Company as a stand in there but, Mr Rogers, the Electric company and 321 contact together like all in a row, was how we received these. Now we're a little bit younger on the Gen X, in the Gen X generation, like you're right at the end and I'm kind of at the tail end. So I think some of our old, older members of our generation probably didn't have to be reminded, for instance, that it was Rita Moreno, that Morgan Freeman was in it. In fact, I was reading up for today and somebody who was interviewing Freeman sometime in the past 15 years and asking if people still recognize him as Easy Reader, and the journalist said that he got a glint in his eye and said they all have gray hair now. But yeah, those are some of my favorites which I thought was pretty adorable.
Speaker 2:That is adorable.
Speaker 1:So they don't need to be reminded of that and and and and. I think we see that too in culture. Like if we think about a lot of people know, hey, you guys from the Goonies, but the Goonies had it because of the electric company, right, like that character had been locked in a room with a TV for his whole life and so hey you guys was one of his phrases. Like this show was a touchstone for Gen Xers, as was Mr Rogers' Neighborhood and 321 Contact and Sesame Street when we were younger. Like the idea that television would help support our literacy, our math literacy and science, with 321 Contact, our emotional literacy with science, with 321 contact, our emotional literacy with mr rogers.
Speaker 1:Like I don't think that as a culture we still hold tv to that kind of uh I don't know responsibility. It still has that responsibility. We just have stopped recognizing it. And maybe I'm speaking only for myself, but I don't think so. I feel like I mean, that's even why we named this podcast, what we did, because we sort of we treat it as if it's throwaway and this group of creators in the 70s didn't, and I don't know. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:It's interesting because part of what's going on today is there are so, so, so many more sources of entertainment. Right, so many more sources of entertainment. So recently, when my kids were much littler, we had a rule they could watch YouTube only on Saturday mornings and that was our way to be able to get to sleep in, and we had like parental like things on YouTube. But I'm very uncomfortable with YouTube because it can like radicalize people. It's just their algorithm is awful. And then I am reminded when I was in college I remember talking to a friend about someone watching TV and I was like I know I can't speak. I can't talk because I love movies. And my friend was like, yeah, but movies end, tv just keeps going, like you never have to turn off the TV if you don't want to.
Speaker 1:Whereas a movie.
Speaker 2:when it's over it's over, and you have to make the decision to start a new one. And now it's even more so now. I mean, that was when you had to get a DVD to watch a movie, and so that's my issue with YouTube is it is never ending.
Speaker 2:So as the kids have grown, they have found particularly my youngest has found ways to watch YouTube without watching YouTube. He's found other streamers and things like that and it's like I'll overhear what he's listening to or what he's watching, and it's just junk, basically. And so I recently made a rule. I was like we're going back to no YouTube except on Saturday mornings. And he's really upset at me and I was just like he's like, but I can, you're going to let me watch other stuff. And I was like even like the Nickelodeon sitcoms, which I can't stand because they are regressive and like bad, badly written, badly acted, and like bad, badly written, badly acted.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really really weird sexual and racial politics and they lean on weird stereotypes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so like I hate them. But what I told him is like even these are more nutritious and that's the way I use it than this YouTube stuff where they're just they're playing video games and they're screaming at each other and they're making edgelord meme jokes and saying stuff that I'm like I don't want my 10 year old knowing. And I said they are more nutritious because you're at least learning story structure. Yeah, you know, a 30 minute sitcom has almost perfect story structure, with inciting incident, rising action, climax, demon. So you are actually learning something with that, whereas all you're learning is how to be nasty to people and think it's funny by watching this.
Speaker 2:And I said like, and you know what that's like a candy bar. I am okay with you having a candy bar once a week, but you have to eat something that has some nutrition the rest of the week. And that's how I feel about entertainment that is intentionally produced, and that's the way that I put it. I was like you need to be watching something that somebody wrote Because he's like, well, what if I do this? What if I do this? I'm like it has to be something that somebody wrote ahead of time that there are multiple people making who are creators of different types. So, like you know, someone has to have edited it, someone has to have written it ahead of time. There needs to be multiple actors, or or at least one actor, and, like I know, youtube streamers and and and Twitch streamers they have, they have editors and stuff like that and they do all that, but it's still just like there needs to be intention behind it. Yeah, and so and this is reminding me of why I, I, I drew that rule- yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, we actually ended up having a lot more to say about the lecture company than I thought we might hit record today, so let me see if I can reflect it back a little bit. So this 1970s kids comedy sketch that was asked for from the department of education by the children's television workshop to help kids who in the second grade, specifically like that age, who were having trouble reading, and it worked, and it worked and it brought together a very talented group of people rita moreno, morgan freeman, judy grob. We had Bill Cosby long before we knew what a parasite.
Speaker 2:He's a shit. He is. He's a talented man, but he is a horrible human being In 1970s. Did not know that at the time Lee Chamberlain, skip Hennant.
Speaker 1:We also had Jim Boyd as a voice actor and notably we had Mel Brooks, gene Wilder, Joan Rivers and Zero Mostel as voice talent in animation. This show was for kids but used like really funny, interesting wordplay and and some physical humor as well that would have appealed to the moms and dads in the room who were watching, including probably our dad. Like Fargo North comma decoder puts his mustache on when he, before he answers the phone, fargo North decoder uh, puts the, hangs up the phone and takes the mustache back off, which I know dad would have loved.
Speaker 2:That would have tickled him so much.
Speaker 1:I just know he loved that when he saw that, cause he probably saw it. Yeah, so, um. So some of the things that we noted was the value of the representation in terms of diversity, not as an afterthought, not as like a single diversity hire so we could say, oh look, we're not an all white cast, but a genuinely diverse cast in terms of race and mix of men and women. Not a lot of sexual orientation diversity, which makes sense given the pressures of the culture in the 70s and today.
Speaker 1:When talking about children's entertainment, we also noted that thinking about treating informal education with intention is a thing that works. The metrics were there in terms of the kids who are exposed to the electric company doing better with their literacy, and it is not something, apparently, that our culture values, because the show was canceled due to lack of funding and lack of opportunities for merchandising. Some of the things that we've noticed that are different from the 70s to today are the sheer volume of media and the ways in which we consume media, so that it is both easier and harder to reach people today. But for creators it's easier insofar as like it doesn't take a huge startup cost to just get out there on the interwebs, and harder because to actually reach more than three people, you need money to spend on advertising, as we well know.
Speaker 2:I was going to say it's like it's not like we know anything about that. Hey, tell your friends about this podcast. Please, Please, Seriously.
Speaker 1:We want to keep doing it and while the diversity was great and progressive I mean, even by today's standards, I think it would be considered progressive it wasn't perfect. We did have Zero Mostel playing an evil bad guy, the Spellbinder, which contributed to anti-Arab stereotyping, the power of this TV show and the influence on Gen Xers. We are a smaller generation in terms of the number of us compared to the generation before and the generations after, and a huge percentage of us were influenced and affected by this TV show, as evidenced by the Goonies and the character who yells hey, you guys.
Speaker 2:Which some younger millennials might think that's where that phrase originated, when in fact it was from that character being influenced by the electric company, you know it's interesting, I feel like, cause there's a lot of online discussion about like millennials versus boomers, and now they're talking about Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and oftentimes Gen X is like forgotten. Yeah, it's just not even mentioned. It's just not even mentioned. And it feels to me like the electric company is a is kind of like a micro example of that, in that people just kind of don't think about it, they forget about it. But if you mentioned it, like oh yeah, that was a thing, and so in the same way, like you know, what are millennials and boomers thinking about stuff, and they're like you know, there's a whole generation. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Those Lachkey kids. That was a thing. That was a.
Speaker 2:thing to do with the fact that, even though Gen X are currently in the age range to be in charge of the world, we still generally aren't. We're not, yeah, because, in part because boomers were such a big generation, but like we talk about how old politicians are, but that's also true of like CEOs and other stuff. Like you know, we just were.
Speaker 1:They're living longer and retiring later. Yes, Thanks, boomers Thanks boomers.
Speaker 2:But that also kind of fits with the. I talked about this when we talked about Reality Bites, the Gen X view of the world, which is kind of like you know what we're happy to like? Get home, make ourselves some Testino pizza rolls and let you all fight it out. We'll sit back and look cool.
Speaker 1:Or try, or try to anyway. Yeah, I don't know if we succeed, but yeah, anything else that I missed in terms of highlights about Electric Company.
Speaker 2:No, I do. I'm now wanting to kind of go back and look at some of the skits. I'm now wanting to kind of go back and look at some of the skits just because, as I mentioned, like one of the ways that I try to get to know dad better is think about the media that I know or suspect he would have consumed like I did this. He couldn't have seen it, but when I watched nope, like the person I most wanted to talk about it with was dad, because it had so many.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he would have loved that movie. Yeah he would have loved that movie like the thing is, or he would have hated it no, I don't think for the same reason he would have loved it because, like children in danger oh yes, you're right, that piece of it would have bothered him it would have really bothered him, but it was in backstory, so I think he's like you in that case, except when the the entire audience is sucked up
Speaker 2:oh so, um, so yeah, it's like and that, but him hating it would have been because it's. It touches all of the things that he cares about too. Yeah, yeah so and so like that's. That's one of the things, like thinking about how he would have been like oh, this is delightful. This is something I can sit and watch with my six-year-old and nine-year-old daughter and also enjoy myself. Like this is not me wanting to take a hammer to the never ending story. Right, Right, Right yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. And like the music was fun and that like one of the recurring things that actually, once I saw it, I was like, oh yeah, it's like two people facing each other in silhouette and the one says the start of the word, blah, yes, ooh, blah, ankh, blah, and they say like the two parts of the word and then they say the word together. Oh my gosh, they do that regularly. I remember that Blah, ooh, that blue, blue, um, and like that. It's such a weird little thing. But like the moment it started I was like, oh, this thing I remember. Yeah, anyway, that's pretty much how the electric company went. And and three, two, one contact, two. When I went to I I started to rewatch Although I rewatched this one and the one kid goes to a pig farm, like a swine farm, and he's like in with the pigs. Well, first like little piglets and then like older pigs, and they're like these guys are ready to go to the slaughterhouse In fact, we got some chops on the grill, let's go and I was like, oh my God.
Speaker 1:It's going to be sick? Well, like stand there looking at pigs and then go eat pork what is when you go eat their friend?
Speaker 2:oh, I know, I'm not.
Speaker 1:I'm not squeamish like you are about, uh, about meat even if you're not squeamish about meat in general, to actually stand there. But that heading an animal and then, like, walk 10 feet and eat flesh from the same kind of animal. Yeah, I guess I'm soft, I don't know. Well, no, that's you know what. If this is soft, I don't want to be hard.
Speaker 2:It makes me, it makes me glad I like I do not eat pork products because I keep kosher ish and uh like, one of the reasons why I'm kind of glad that I do that is because, like pigs are charming animals, Like they're very bright. And they can be sweet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so anyway. Wow, we really went afar. Sorry, I didn't mean to take us there, okay, so next time, I think it's your- turn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is my turn. Yes, and so next time I will be bringing you my deep thoughts on the 1980 film the Shining oh oh, yes, cool.
Speaker 1:You know, I didn't actually see that until the past 20 years, so I actually I don't think I saw it as a child either.
Speaker 2:I think I was late teens I have a lot of thoughts about gender, misogyny and the place of horror. We talked a little bit about how I feel about feminist horror and things like that, and then also the making of that film. I think there's some really interesting stuff to think about in terms of gender and misogyny, in terms of making it, not just what's on screen Cool. So yeah, I'm excited to talk about it.
Speaker 1:I feel like there's some opportunity to talk about race a little bit in that film too.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, yes, yes, the Scatman Carruthers gets done dirty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the man who shines, yeah, yeah, actually, I remember dad saying for a man who shines, he's not too bright. Oh really, I don't remember that. I think we watched it together, dad and I did. Anyway, cool and listener comments? Let me check. No, I have one. One of our patrons actually commented on our reality bites episode. She said Alison said I was about to graduate from college in the spring of 94 when I saw this movie, so I related to the character situations pretty well. However, I was definitely anti-Laney when Vicky says to her I can get you a job at the Gap, and she put on a total look of disgust and said I am not working at the Gap and instead use the gas card. I was done with her. Maybe she wasn't lazy per se, but she came off as entitled and arrogant to me. But perhaps I just knew too many people like that Smiley face emoji. Alison also then commented OMG, I had no idea that reality bites the term meant anything other than reality sucks in the context of this film.
Speaker 2:You know it's interesting. I always thought of that as not a plot hole, but like when Lainey responds like I'm not working at the gap, it was ugly. Like that's an ugly moment I remember many, many times, since once she's starting to like, apply it like the wiener hut, yeah, why does she go back to Vicky and say like I was wrong?
Speaker 1:I'm sorry. I know they're living together. They're best friends. Why didn't you say I was wrong? If it's the offer still stands, I'll work at the cap. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Anyway, thanks, alison and listener, if you want to share your deep thoughts to our deep thoughts or to anything that we've talked about, please share it with us. You might end up mentioned here on the air. You can reach us at guygirlsmedia at gmailcom or on our website, guygirlsmediacom, where you can sign up to receive our weekly emails. They're pretty cool. They are pretty cool Seriously. Or find us on socials. We're both in many of the places under our own name or under Guy Girls Media. Until then, see you next time. Do you like stickers? Sure, we all do. If you head over to guygirlsmediacom, slash, sign up and share your address with us, we'll send you a sticker. It really is that easy, but don't wait, there's a limited quantity. Thanks for listening. Our theme music is Professor Umlaut by Kevin MacLeod from incompetechcom. Find full music credits in the show notes. Until next time, remember, pop culture is still culture, and shouldn't you know what's in your head?