If you are over 50 years old chances are you remember watching Saturday cartoons and a quick short film would come on the TV. Little did we know that not only were they catchy little tunes but that they would become a staple mark in teaching kids lessons about history math and other things. The show was called “schoolhouse rock” and it became a household name for generations. This past week George Newall, the co-creator of the educational musical cartoon series died. He was 88. Newall was an advertising executive, jazz pianist, and the last living founding member of “Schoolhouse Rock.”
The kids series which ran from 1973-84 before being revived in the 1990s introduced millions of children to math, civics, science and grammar lessons set to music. The shows premise stemmed from a conversation Newall, then a creative director at the McCaffrey & McCall advertising agency, had with agency president David McCall in which McCall expressed frustration that his young sons were horrible at math, “ but they can sing along with almost every Jimi Hendrix and Rolling Stones tunes. Thus the legendary educational show began.
“Schoolhouse Rock” won four Emmy Awards and spawned books, recordings and live singalong shows to educate Generation X among others.
The idea and show will surely live on for a long time, after all who could forget some of these classics?
I’m just a bill
Three is a magic number
Electricity electricity
My hero zero
Inter-planet Janet
Conjunction junction what’s your function
Unpack your Adjectives
Interjection The preamble.