MovieChat Forums > The Electric Company (1971) Discussion > What I don't understand...

What I don't understand...

posted 13 years ago by SteveM-1
5 replies | jump to latest

This series had one of the best Literacy Tools ever. It really worked. It was effective. It was simple.

I was born about the time this show first went on the air. This and Sesame Street were on just about every day when I was a child. Because of this series, I learned to read at a very early age and by the time I entered Kindergarten, I was reading at a 2nd grade level. I never met a person my age who was Illiterate. Ever. It's only been the Very Old or the Very Young.

Today, Child Literacy rates are in the Toilet. People are scratching their heads: "How oh How can we get our Children to learn to Read?"

It's like they totally forgot this formula. Now when somebody "rediscovers" it (like in those "Your Baby Can Read" videos), people hail it as Amazing and "Wow, we never knew that was possible!!" However, as soon as somebody hails these Videos as something great, they stop producing them, people forget and then we're in the same quandry that we've been in before.

What gives? Do we just have Collective Amnesia? Are we so embroiled in creating the "Next Best Thing" that we completely blank stuff like this out?

The Electric Company should never have gone off the air. They should have kept on producing it. Heck, they should have put it on in the Schools 30 to 60 minutes a day every Day.

If we had only kept up with this formula Nation Wide, Child Illiteracy would have been whipped.

[–] mactach 13 years ago

Uh are you not aware of the fact it's back on the air?

And did it ever occur to you that their might of been a reason why it went off in the first place?

[–] SteveM-1 13 years ago

Uh are you not aware of the fact it's back on the air?

Uh, yeah, I'm aware that a pale comparison is currently on the air. It's not nearly as effective as the Original Formula.

Here's the storyline from the current show: Thirty-two years after the power was first turned on, a natural-foods diner opens in New York City that becomes the hangout for four kids who have superhuman powers with words. With the help of a beat-boxing short-order cook and a lot of music, the kids keep their neighborhood safe from troublemakers.

Are you kidding me? That's nothing like the original show.

And did it ever occur to you that their might of been a reason why it went off in the first place?

Did it occur to you that you're proving my point with bad sentence structure and incorrect words?

First, you don't start a sentence with a conjuction (that's the word "and" if you didn't watch Schoolhouse Rock either). Another correction is this: It's not "their might of been", it's "there might have been".

Proof Positive that Literacy in this country is in the toilet. Literacy isn't just about being able to read words, it's also about being able to use them. Sure, a lot of people can read words now, but they can't even construct a proper sentence.

I work with supposed High School Graduates today who write worse than a Kindergarten Student. theywrite there wordslike this And they dont know even where they end there sentences should i have Put a period at the end? i Don't know maybe Pretty darn pathetic.

As for why the Original went off the air, it can only be for Money. Sesame Street is marketable because you have lots of Muppets that can easily translate into Children's Toys, Clothing, Games and other Merchandise. The Electric Company, although it had its share of familiar Catch-Phrases and some recognizable characters like Spider-man (who wasn't an original creation of the show itself), didn't translate into Merchandise as well. It didn't have as recognizable a "Face" as Sesame Street did. So, success is measured in Dollars and not in Childrens' Development. Therefore, off the air it goes.

[–] Error_PC_LOAD_LETTER 12 years ago

The 2006 version of "The Electric Company" is, in fact, atypical of why illiteracy is so high. Its a dirty cartoon (c)rap video that rips off the "Ghost writer" (1990s) format. Whoever produced it was probably too young and unfamiliar with the original "Electric Company."

Another caveat about the 2006 debacle: the artistic, creative "natural foods" subculture does not listen to "Gangsta rap", even with edited lyrics. Neither do children, except when forced upon them by miscreants that have somehow made it into the educational and child care system.

The original Electric Company is by no means dated. It is multicultural, creative, educational,VERY funny (the 2006 crap has NO comedic elements) and many child-advocate celebrities found their original voice and audience here, in the early 1970s. Look at the movies, cartoons and sitcoms from the same era that today's kids watch There was no need for a remake.

[–] mactach 12 years ago

Uh what do you mean by child-advocate celebrities?

If you're referring to Bill Cosby he was a household name before TEC.

[–] solex10 9 years ago

Just because you don't like rap doesn't mean that anybody else hates it. Sesame Workshop wanted to do something different when they revived TEC, and so they did.

Also, Mr. Spelling Police, not all rap is gangsta. So please stop being such a suck about rap, and such a stick-in-the-mud who's stuck in the past.