Techtite's TV Reviews!

"Kids will want to see a lot more of the series their parents watched as children. Most importantly, they'll have much more fun reading afterwards. Seeing as that is the whole point, there's little to complain about here, in a finely crafted DVD set."

---from the review

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Sidebar ::

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Episode Skits By Title... Fans of the Spider-Man and Letterman shorts will particularly want to know how many of these skits are present, and which ones. While not all of these shorts could be included, there are at least a half dozen of each. Letterman's included capers are: "A Jarring Experience," "Sticky Finances," "The Great Escape," "Singing in the Train," and another episode, where Spellbinder turns the Sun itself into a burger roll...! Spider-Man skits include his first appearance as a cast member (with an introductory skit starring Easy Reader and Crank), plus the adventures: "Spider-Man vs. The Spoiler," "Spider-Man Meets The Blowhard" and a particularly humorous "Spider-Man Vs. The Wall," where the villain is literally a walking brick wall.

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The Best Of 

The Electric Company

Click picture to order this DVD

A Review by Techtite

Know all about the show? Jump to the DVD extras.

It is for more than just personal reasons, when I say how much I regret that PBS no longer airs The Electric Company. Far more important (and fun) than any Brady Bunch rerun, this is a show that deserves to be aired every season, every year, for every child who wants to learn to read. Of course, it helps that the show was vibrant and fun; so much so, even this 30-something adult had more fun with this DVD review than any video review in the past year.

For the tots who never heard of it: The Electric Company was a PBS series from the creators of Sesame Street. Its plan was to be sort of a stepping stone for kids who learned their ABC's and now needed to learn how to use them. Moreover; its intent was to show them not just how to read and spell, but the fun of reading. A child of the 1970's may or may not tell you that they learned to read thanks to this show, but they will certainly tell you reading was more fun thanks to this show. The series aired new episodes from 1971 until 1977, and kept airing in re-runs until the mid 1980's.

It is hardly in jest when I say that most children of the 1970's would look at the title of this DVD set ---"The Best of The Electric Company"--- and say, "Wow! All Six Seasons of The Electric Company!" All kidding aside it must have been a daunting task to choose only 25 episodes out of a series that filmed for six years. Making matters even more difficult; little was ever "bad" about this series, with a whole lot of "classic" skits to choose from. How many episodes of "The Adventures of Letterman" do you include? How many installments of Fargo North Decoder should be present? Let's not forget all the many amusing educational cartoons through the years, from the irrefutably toe-tapping "Silent E" song, to the downright groovy "True Blue Sue," and a personal favorite of mine, the sci-fi savvy cartoons spoofing "2001 a Space Odyssey," with the obelisk crumbling into the latest word or lesson for the day.

Unfortunately, each episode was a montage of various skits, and it's impossible to list them all on any fair-length review. So allow me to list some of my favorite skits included on these discs. There are several installments of "The Adventures of Letterman," for example, which is an interesting cartoon on so many levels, right down to celebrity voices Joan Rivers (narrator) and Gene Wilder (Letterman). There are several skits including Fargo North Decoder, which was my all time favorite skit as a child because each "mystery" Fargo would solve was a cool word puzzle! As for "firsts" for the show; although I would've loved to see the first-ever skit with Rita Moreno shouting, "Hey you guys!" there is at least one classic "milk lady" skit, where she shouts the line which may be (no joke) one of the most remembered TV buzz phrases of the 1970's.

Another memorable trait of the series were its many educational animated clips. Cartoon shorts included in this collection range from the classic "I'm the plumber I've come to fix the sink" cartoon, to the classic "Silent E" song. Also included are "True Blue Sue," the "AS IS" used car salesman, and the hilariousness of "Myrna's house" ("My dog...my basement...my furnace...my bicycle...ooh; what's that?"). The list could last for several web pages, but I guess fans like myself loved these cartoons the most because as children we were so busy laughing we didn't realize we were learning the same time.

Overall, the episodes are very well chosen. This set even includes the series premiere, which begins with all the cast members offering the many ways to greet someone for the first time. As for the final episode of the set; the series was never allowed the luxury of a "finale" where the cast said goodbye, but this DVD set found a suitable substitute. The final episode in this set, which originally aired on a Friday,  concludes with a poignant "Sorry, but that's ALL" musical number. The skit was originally meant to conclude the week, but makes for a cute conclusion to this "Best Of" DVD set as well.

Mind you; this series lasted for six seasons on a weekday-to-weekday basis. Almost 800 episodes aired. So you can forgive this "Best Of" set for some omissions. Off the top of my head there was this amusing "We're Out Of Sweet Rolls" Coffee Shop cartoon that isn't included here, and was one of my personal favorites. There was also this cute puppet plant called "Maurice," who was sort of like a friendly Venus Flytrap. Aside from a few quick peeks of Maurice during one or two opening credits, there is no sign of Maurice in this entire collection. Aw! In addition; I was also a bit disappointed at only one or two skits of Jennifer of the Jungle. But hey; when you have to include as many episodes of "Letterman" and "Spider-Man" that are possible, there's bound to be a few omissions, right?

In the end, the parting thought when watching this complete set, is how forward we're all looking to a second volume! This is a fantastic collection for either the diehard fan of the series, or the newcomer. Parents will love the salute to yesteryear this provides. Kids will want to see a lot more of the series their parents watched as children. Most importantly, they'll have much more fun reading afterwards. Seeing as that is the whole point, there's little to complain about here, in a finely crafted DVD set.

---Techtite

DVD Extras: Clearly this DVD set was a labor of love based on the high quality transfer of the episodes themselves. Yet what's really cool here are the impressive number of extras, which are scattered among all four discs. These are great.

On disc one there is not just an admittedly hilarious behind-the-scenes blooper reel, but there's also a nice, present-day interview with Rita Moreno. While Moreno introduces all the episodes on all four discs, this interview is about her experiences during the show's entire run. There are far too many anecdotes to list here, but one fact I thought was sweet, was when Rita talked about getting her own star on Hollywood's walk of fame, and her old friend Morgan Freeman flew in, on his own dime, to be there as keynote speaker. Obviously, they had a lot of fun doing this show, and the cast has remained friends. That's pretty cool.

Disc two includes a "then and now" video of the creator of this series, Joan Ganz Cooney. The first video seen is a fascinating look at the original "pitch" for the series, as given by Cooney to PBS at the time. This is followed by Cooney in "present day" as she talks about her own experiences, before, during, and after the series' run.

Disc three has two interesting extras, starting with a "Silent E Karaoke" feature. I don't know why they have a karaoke sing-along for this one song on the series, but I guess it was the most popular. The third disc includes an interview with two of the people responsible for making the show so popular: executive producer Sam Gibbon, and head writer Tom Whedon. If the name Whedon sounds familiar; his son Josh Whedon would grow up to write some of the most popular teen TV series of present day, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. What makes this amusing is how many skits on this DVD set are of Morgan Freeman as "Dracula," and no doubt, Tom Whedon wrote most of these vampire-centric skits. I guess the apple never falls far from the tree...!

Disc four has an interview with June Angela, who was the only young star of the series to stay on for all six seasons. In addition to seeing the young star as she looks "today," this video has some nice anecdotes, like when Angela confesses to being the narrator for most of the Spider-Man skits, and she could hear the adult stars talking among themselves, when they didn't think anyone could hear them. I'll leave it up to you to listen in on what she says she heard...!

Overall, this is a very well made video collection. True, it would be nice if the series was on DVD "complete," but with over 700 episodes, that is close to impossible. All we can hope for now are additional volumes in the series. I'd really love to see "Maurice" the talking plant again, not to mention even more classic skits...and there were many of them. This set will have to do for now, and it does very well indeed. 

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