The Electric Company
American children's television series (1971–1977) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Electric Company is an American educational children's television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now known as Sesame Workshop). It was co-created by Paul Dooley, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Lloyd Morrisett. The series aired on PBS for 780 episodes over the course of its six seasons from October 25, 1971, to April 15, 1977. The program continued in reruns until October 4, 1985. The Electric Company later reran on Noggin, a channel co-founded by the CTW, from 1999 to 2003. Noggin also produced a compilation special for the show.
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| The Electric Company | |
|---|---|
 The series title card | |
| Created by | Paul Dooley Joan Ganz Cooney Lloyd Morrisett |
| Directed by | Robert Schwarz Henry Behar John Tracy |
| Starring | Morgan Freeman Judy Graubart Skip Hinnant Rita Moreno Jim Boyd Lee Chamberlin (1971–1973) Bill Cosby (1971–1973) Luis Ávalos (1972–1977) Hattie Winston (1973–1977) Danny Seagren (1974–1977) The Short Circus June Angela Irene Cara (1971–1972) Douglas Grant (1971–1973) Stephen Gustafson (1971–1975) Melanie Henderson (1971–1975) Denise Nickerson (1972–1973) Bayn Johnson (1973–1975) Gregg Burge (1973–1975) Janina Mathews (1975–1977) Réjane Magloire (1975–1977) Rodney Lewis (actor) (1975–1977) Todd Graff (1975–1977) The Adventures of Letterman (1972–1977) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 780 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 28 minutes |
| Production company | Children's Television Workshop |
| Original release | |
| Network | PBS |
| Release | October 25, 1971 (1971-10-25) – April 15, 1977 (1977-04-15) |
The Workshop produced the show at Reeves Teletape Studios in Manhattan. The Electric Company employed sketch comedy and various other devices to provide an entertaining program to help elementary school children develop their grammar and reading skills.[1] Since it was intended for children who had graduated from CTW's flagship program, Sesame Street, the humor was more mature than what was seen there.[citation needed]
The show was directed by Robert Schwarz (1971 and 1977), Henry Behar (1972–1975), and John Tracy (1975–1976), and written by Dooley, Christopher Cerf (1971–1973), Jeremy Stevens (1972–1974) and John Boni/Amy Ephron (1972–1973).
In many areas, a preview special, Here Comes The Electric Company, was seen in syndication through sponsor Johnson Wax on many local commercial stations during the week before its 1971 debut.[2]