“Schoolhouse Rock” interviews: introduction

In 1973, in one way, Saturday morning started to look like Monday to Friday morning: it got educational. But not via school. Via TV.

That was the year that Schoolhouse Rock! (animated musical shorts teaching multiplication, grammar, science, American history, and more) debuted during commercial breaks on ABC.

Like many people my age, I consumed them as readily as the Frosted Flakes I enjoyed while doing so. And so like I have done before, I tracked down the talent who brought us these landmark, Emmy-winning cartoons.

This series features original interviews with most of the key surviving creators:

• George Newall, co-creator/producer/songwriter
• Rad Stone, co-creator/producer
• Bob Dorough, songwriter/singer
• Lynn Ahrens, songwriter/singer
• Dave Frishberg, songwriter
• Essra Mohawk, singer
• Lori Lieberman, singer

Among the talent involved with the series whom I am regrettably too late to reach:

• David McCall, co-creator/advertising executive, died 1999
• Tom Yohe, co-creator/lead animator, 2000
• Zachary Sanders, singer (“Verb: That’s What’s Happenin’”), 1992 (according to Wikipedia, but he doesn’t have his own entry)

If you, too, were a kid in the ‘70s, you had to wait a week until the next batch of Schoolhouse Rock goodies. However, we now live in the modern world, so with my Schoolhouse Rock series, each new installment will appear only one day after the previous.

First: George Newall.