I am now the official maintainer of The Electric Company MP3 and Video Archive.
That’s right, I’m “movin’ out in a new way.” (mp3, 1066KB)
My personal favorites:
- Spider Man (mp3, 243 KB) (where are ya comin’ from? Nobody knows who you are!)
- The Sign Song (mp3, 1962 KB), written by the late, great Joe Raposo. Also partially available in Quicktime video format (2.2MB)
Silhouette Syllables: chin, chip, chimp, chill, chick. (with Morgan Freeman) Even Family Guy spoofed this!
Letterman: Dancing In The Dark (with the voices of Joan Rivers and Gene Wilder)
and of course, Counting Pinball (one two three FOUR FIVE, six seven eight NINE TEN, ELEVEN TWELVE!)
Wow! I remember the Electric Company! Though I went to visit the website and I could barely read the text, it was like dark text on a dark background. O_o But, it’s cool! :)
Just fixed it — it was an IE bug, looked fine in Mozilla — does it look OK for you now?
Raise your little one with the show! I’ve got a couple of tapes of episodes if you’d like a copy. :)
Yup! I can see it now! Thanks! :) Sure! :) Jason loves to watch Blue’s Clues, and he likes this show on the Discovery Kids Channel called Hi-5. Some Aussie show that is actually pretty hip and cool. :)
Why… WHY did they always sing, “Nobody knows who you are?”!? He’s Peter Parker! PETER PARKER! Everybody knew that! Hehehe.. that singer musta been high.
Ahh… memories.. ^_^
That. Rocks.
Isn’t the 1-2-3-4-5 song from Sesame Street though?
I always watched Sesame Street, Electric Company, and Mr. Rogers in a block on Detroit’s Channel 56 PBS.
Some of the more bizarre childhood memories I have though come from Canada’s CBC Channel 9 …
Fables of the Green Forest
Ludwig
The Friendly Giant (Trivia: I actually met the actor Robert Homme when I was ten, at a restaurant in Dearborn with my dad. I was quite starry-eyed. I was also a bit confused as he called all children ‘Honey’, which I’d thought was reserved for girls ;) … the theme melody “Early one morning” is actually a depressing traditional folk tune … which I heard again in some of the last season eps of Buffy.
Jeremy (link 2)… I think I only ever watched like 1.5 eps of this show, though I always wanted to watch more. It must have been on opposite something else I always watched…
Woah. Nostalgia trip. Someone needs to find me a vidcap of the original extended-length silver-ball trailer for Nickelodeon. ;-)
Great! Although I was more of a Sesame Street kid, I’m still going to check it out a little later today.
have I mentioned I am so envious!
The Pinball bit was on both Sesame Street and The Electric Company, as were a few of the other animations (W is for Wanda, M is for Martha, tec.)
Sadly I never got the CBC, but now that I live in Toronto, everyone wants me to see The Friendly Giant and The Polkaroo. I did get Fred Penner, though, and The Elephant Show — I seem to remember them being on the very first year’s lineup of Nickelodeon. My parents convinced themselves to subscribe to cable mostly so they could get that channel for me… I might remember the Fables of the Green Forest programme, but I can’t be sure….
Don’t be envious! Join in the fun! Cooperate! :) (hands you a large black marker…)
*takes the marker* ok now what? I’m so willing, but just not sure where to go :-)
Ooh, and I remmeber Ludwig with crystal clarity! It was always a very strange show…but it helped me feel OK with being an introvert and a musician early in my life.
Write something on the screen! Go on! Teach me some phonics. :) <slips you a tab of acid>
I’m not sure. On TEC, they never showed Peter Parker turning into Spider-Man, or vice-versa. He was always masked, so much so that I used to wonder which of the actors actually was inside the suit… :)
I collect 1970s children’s television programs. Just because they’r from the era of platform shoes, disco and acid trips doesn’t mean that they can’t help today’s kids learn!
And before you ask, no, I’m not ready to have my own kids just yet. :D
I suddenly feel like a character in a rober anton wilson book :-)
when we saw the pinball, our brains suddenly siezed up!
WHAT WE ARE WATCHING IS TRUTH
it was like.. you know there’s that brief formative window in which all psycho-linguistic and logical constructs are jelling in your mind, as a child? that’s when those bastards got that pinball sequence into us. every color, every surface, every shape.. the flashing lights.. the ramps.. they could not have had any idea how deeply wired into us that sequence would become, when they were making it. it’s like the queen of hearts, in the manchurian candidate..
woo! :)
Do you have any “Hilarious House of Frightenstein” in your collection? It is, without doubt, the very finest in the Universe.
Are you asking me to father your children in the future? Can I use the Andromeda as part of this deal? Will we be filming it?
the spiderman link is dead!!! AAAH!!
okay. maybe not, but the chin (shadow) one is kinda… not working.. meemories. geeze.
Works for me….can you try it again? Try right-clicking on it and choosing “Save link target as…”
You’re completely right, from my point of view. And, fortunately for me, these patterns of ramps, pinball, and counting are all soulful and warm. Kinky, funky, loving energy helped me become the person I am today.
Do you think the pinball sequence affected you adversely negatively? I hope not! It’s my belief that these are ALL good energies for people to experience. And what better way to learn to count to twelve? :)
Check your Quicktime installation. You might need to install or reinstall it for it to display correctly.
Oh that’s why I remember pinball but don’t remember the Electric Company. I watched Sesame Street though, in the 80s.
Janelle
Wow, that’s crazy synchronicity. Mr_Pugh and I were up until late last night looking up old tv shows from our youth, including The Electric Company. That’s excellent.
i did, it keeps skipping on the first word (i’m guessing it’s “chin”???) ah well. probably my puter.
nah, I liked it. it just surprised me how deep the wiring went. if the sequence had ended with someone biting the head off a chicken, and someone handed me a chicken, y’know.. I can’t tell how far it would have gone.
This was mentioned earlier, but I would like to add that Hilarious House of Frightenstein is the best children’s show ever. You wouldn’t happen to have any tapes of that kicking around, would you?
i need for you to email or IM me. right away.
I was just going over alot of this stuff the other day,but most of the people on my friends list are too young to remember it.The Electric Company was great…along with the non-educational stuff I was prone to absorb…Land Of the Lost,Sigmund and the Seamonsters,Shazaam and Isis,Davie and Goliath…sorry,getting carried away here.Just wanted to say I enjoyed your LJ. ;)
Man, this show brings back so many memories! How did you manage to get all those songs and videos, since the show is no longer airing? They just don’t make shows like this anymore.
Upon looking at the photos of the original cast, I thought that Jennifer of the Jungle looked a liitle like Gilda Radner.
She was a very funny comediene, and she looked good to. The show was very entertaining, and fun to watch and something to look forward to seeing on TV. I had somehow managed to find and purchase a used record of the Electric Company at an outdoor flea market. And the funniest thing is that after the opening theme song is sung, the short animated man from the series says his famous funny line “Who’s the Dummy Writing This Show?” Very Funny.
The short animated man who says “Who’s the Dummy Writing This Show?” was voiced by Mel Brooks. ;)
Glad you enjoy the archive! The files come from the original Electric Company MP3/Video archive by Joe Renzetti, who captured most of the video and audio from The Electric Company’s brief rebroadcast on Noggin, the childrens’ cable channel formerly partially owned by CTW.
My Dear
You out did yourself with this website!!! Tomorrow (Feb 25th) is me birthday and I got this in a e-greeting card… needless to say when I opened it at work… a FLOOD of 30 something people poured in my office… and begin to sing the “Sign Song” (along with me)… then at our Fat Tueday luncheon we all started “Silhouette Syllables.” It’s amazing how different people from different walks of life have on common connection… THE ELECTRIC COMPANY… honey thanx so much…you site is almost better than Tiffany’s & CO!!!! Hug and Kisses from Los Angeles, CA
Regards
DEMI X
you have earned a nice place in my heart for having the Sesame Street link out there. i really needed to see it today.
I never thought I’d ever see Electric Company again, let alone video/audio files floating around on the net! Is the show still being broadcast on Noggin? I’ve been trying to keep an eye out for it, but I never was able to find out just when. I miss that ‘ol show, but these video files are quite a nice flashback to the days of old. Will there be any more? Now that I found these ones, I’ll most likely be cryin’ for more craziness with the croonin’ crew of the most creative show in the crowning days of my youth.
…tune in next time, when SonicBlu buys a new *waaahmp*