The Untold Truth Of Schoolhouse Rock!
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- čas přidán 7. 07. 2024
- Whether it was teaching kids how a bill becomes a law or showing them how to properly use a conjunction, "Schoolhouse Rock!" was always a welcome presence in any classroom. But how did a series of educational songs turn into a nationwide phenomenon?
#Series #Educational #Animation
Schoolhouse Rock! is born | 0:00
Finding the magic number | 1:07
Educator approved | 2:06
Finding a new name | 3:02
It wasn't always a cartoon | 4:00
One day, two hits | 5:20
A family affair | 6:15
Nearly banned songs | 7:10
It works on adults, too | 8:30
The lost Schoolhouse Rock! song | 9:30
How Schoolhouse Rock! lived on | 10:16
Rescued from oblivion | 11:16
Voiceover by: Jacent Jackson
Read Full Article: www.grunge.com/1427122/untold... - Zábava
At age 60, I can still recite the Preamble to the Constitution by singing it in my head. Schoolhouse Rock does indeed rock!
My 4th grade class sang it for my teacher in the mid 70's.
same
Same! I'm 56 (57 in 4 months), and grew up with SHR. In 7th grade, our Social Studies teacher assigned to us learning The Preamble to individually recite in class. I'm pretty sure that most, if not all, 150 or so 7th graders that year, and several surrounding years, already knew it from SHR; I know I did. 😊
One just has to remember that the second line of the original The Preamble, "of the United States," was omitted from the SHR song, for rhythm or something, I guess, so if one knows the song, and has to recite it, don't forget that line! 🤜🏼🤛🏽
I too.
Same. 5th grade, had to recite it from memory. Did my best not to sing it.
In freshman year of HS (1979-80), our social studies teacher went to introduce the Constitution to us & we all started singing the Preamble song! He just stared at us, dumbfounded that we knew that already. It was hilarious!
So happy to hear that your class did that too! My history teacher in the same year (except as 8th grade) prompted us all to sing along to make sure we were all on the same page.
That happened to us, too. LOL. The teacher couldn't believe we were able to sing the Preamble, and we couldn't believe she had never heard the song.
Right? He actually skipped going over the Preamble that day & flipped right to the Bill of Rights lol
I can still sing many of the schoolhouse rock songs! I loved them! How can we get /buy the segments ? They were wonderful ❤
I think a lot of Gen Xers have such great memories of Schoolhouse Rock because of its association with Saturday mornings, which were the one time of the week that belonged exclusively to kids. We were always excited to get up early on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons and the various kid friendly scheduling and anything associated with that brings back great memories
Yo, well said. Loved sat mornings SO much. No children's programming on in those days except for those 4 or 5 special hours on that single day...and if you missed it, you missed it. No way to go back and watch it. Kids got it so good these days.
i still do. learned this when i was about 5 or 6. now i teach it.
Yes! My favorite is Conjunction Junction.
@@Desdichado-vs8ls I'm 54, I still remember multiples of 3 by singing the Multiplication Rock song. When my millennial daughter was little I used to tell her that when I was a kid we only had cartoons on Saturday mornings and sometimes after school for a couple hours.
Have I got news for YOU! “Schoolhouse Rock” ran for YEARS before.ANYONE thought of “Gen-X-ers”. If you want to do a factual documentary series on ANYTHING, try getting some actual FACTS about the subject FIRST!
Sincerely,
A retired Network Television Director
School house rock is permanently a part of my brain storage. When I'm older and more senile, I'll probably only remember "I'm just a bill up on capital hill...."
Capitol
@@Brutus-co9dt Not when you are old and senile! I'll probably not remember my name and just tell everyone that I'm just a Bill. :)
I had an English teacher who always put down schoolhouse rock. He couldn't see how anyone could learn anything by watching it. I had a hard time learning anything because Im dyslexic. This was before anybody had heard of it.
I had an English test one day. I went through the quiz answering the ones I knew. Then I saw the word noun. The song, a noun is a person, place or thing popped into my mind. The lightbulb came on. I went back through the quiz thinking of all the songs and answered the questions for rest of the quiz. I was the first one who turned my paper in, something I'd never had done before. My teacher handed it back to me without looking at it. I handed it back to him and told him I knew I had all the questions correct. He looked it over just to humor me. His eyebrows rose higher and higher as he read my answers. He was in total shock and asked how i was able to get the right answers. I gave him a smug smile and said schoolhouse rock.
I bought the cds to share good childhood memories. All three of my children loved them as much as I did but it helped my youngest daughter the most. She later told me she would not have done as well in English if it weren’t for School House Rock. ❤️
Thanks for sharing this. What a great story of how important music is in our learning of all subjects.
Same here. I attribute my ability to pass English to Schoolhouse Rock
@@annshoemake3007 The only problem with the CDs is that the sound effects are not there. Either they were filtered out for the CD or the songs were specially prepared for the original audio recordings without them. The sound effects are just as important as the music, and I wound up getting the DVD and ripping the songs from that. So much better.
I bought the 30th anniversary edition from Hastings when it was released. Every Sunday, after church, the wife and I would take the kids to CiCis pizza then go home and pop in the DVD, hit shuffle and let them play. The kids would sing along and try to guess which one was coming on next. It was several hours of them singing while they were learning and not even realizing it. They all had their favorite song. My oldest graduated in 2014 and now works with me. We were talking about it a few years back and he told me it helped him greatly. If the subject had a song, he could answer the question. He said that at the time he just thought they were songs. He had no clue that a few short years from then he would be singing them to himself to pass a test.
"Conjunction Junction" and "Lolly Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here" were my two all-time favorites! I am now in my mid-50s and still sing them.
Right
I'm just a bill.
The only one I remember
I was was thinking about" I'm Just A Bill" today. What memories!
We had a general store in our town named Lalli's during that time. They had a sign on the door stating that they were out of adverbs!
@@JamieStuff I'm rolling in laughter at that one. That's pretty good.
i passed exams remembering school house rock songs . Should have a comeback for todays students
They should have a comeback just for Congress... ;-P
@@igorschmidlapp6987 Congress knows how it all works. It's civilians who are confused. Honestly, why don't most of you care that our taxes are wasted to prop up things like unhealthy foods that are not turning their own profits? Do you really want to be responsible for the ROI on meat and dairy? WHY?!
I watched this when I was a youngster. Conjunction Junction what's your Function still goes thru my head at age 50.
50 here also, alas Interplanet Janet is my weakness, and one of these days, I'm going to learn CAD and print me an 18" model of her :)
I bought the DvD. I originally bought for myself, but I passed it on to my daughter when she was in grade school. She's in college now and from time to time, we watch it together. One of the few things that is missing from television today.
I bought it for teaching elementary school.
One year I was teaching 5th grade, in a community that was mostly English Language Learners. I especially used Grammar Rock in that class. My students aced the English Language Arts portion of the state test.
Every teacher should be using Schoolhouse Rock!
The 70’s was a great time to be a kid.
Yes it was....SIGH!!
Agreed
Music, TV, sports, toys..it was a great time...AND NO SMART PHONES!
unless you ended up on a milk carton
It was in so many ways. Too bad the birth rate had fallen to an all-time low in 1976 when I was born.
I'm 53, and I definitely think Schoolhouse Rock played a major role in my upbringing.
One thing that amused me is that, via Schoolhouse Rock, we all learned that "a noun is a person, place, or thing." However, in later years, my english teacher used to hate that. She said that a noun is "anything you can show." So she would ask us, "What is a noun?" and we would all reply that a noun is a person, place, or thing and she'd get very frustrated because we weren't using her terminology.
I see why she was angry at you all. "Anything that you can show" is a lyric in the song you were all screaming back at her. She just wanted you to learn the rest of the damn song.
I love Schoolhouse Rock. I'm 57 years old, and I still watch the videos on CZcams with my 15 year old son all the time. Those were some great songwriters.
It’s funny that Congress didn’t want to be portrayed as a circus, so the SHR episode was pulled. The truth hurts. Congress IS a circus and everyone knows it. Decades ago, Will Roger’s stated that every time Congress makes a law, it was a joke and every time Congress makes a joke, it becomes a law. (My recollection of the quote may be off, but the meaning is the same)
creepshow, with corpes, slimshadies, crooks, worlds oldest, trans, and whatever...
And they got such great talent to write and sing the songs: Bob Dorough, Jack Sheldon, Grady Tate, Lynn Ahrens, and Blossom Dearie. More than 50 years later, these lyrics STILL infect my brain. They did have an influence on our young minds, and we loved all of them.
Thank you for posting this - it's great to hear a little more on the making of the series.
Grady Tate had a great distinctive voice and was a hell of a drummer!!!
Conjunction Junction was, and is, a certified jam.🚂
I learned so much watching these as a kid. "Knowledge is power!"
Fun fact.
The law ratified in the song im just a bill was about school busses having to stop at rail crossings.
What a blast from the past! I looked forward to watching school house rock with my bowl of cereal on Saturdays in the 80s. I enjoyed the music while learning. Those were such awesome times ❤ My kids enjoyed watching the series as well.
I did in the 70s when this was brand new great times to be a kid them 1970s
One of my faves you forgot to mention was "Electricity, E-lec-tricity!"
I loved Schoolhouse Rock! It was my entire childhood! I still watch it if i need a reminder on something.
I would love to see each and every one of these back on TV. Very educational then and now.
Love your channel!
Let's get legislation that would require TikTok to show them between videos. Most of the people who watch TikTok need it!
We certainly need it!!!
I honestly never knew about Schoolhouse Rock until the Johnny Bravo episode that guest starred Jack Sheldon and after hearing the songs in that episode, I started looking into the show and never stopped loving it since.
I'll always love the "Interjections" one.
So if you're HAPPY, or SAD, or FRIGHTENED, or MAD, etc.
Adjectives was a good one. A touch of melancholy. Maybe bc it reminds me of the 1970s
My High School Government teacher gave 5 bonus points on every test or quiz if students wrote the preamble onto the test paper. I got the bonus points every time because of School House Rock.
I’m Gen X. I still hear these in my head. When my kids were in school I bought the complete set of school house rocks on dvd for them. Now they love them too
I'm 37 and I still remember a lot of the multiplication songs. Really gets in your head.
Growing up during this time was reality
C O O L. All these were very catchy tunes that indeed help those of us out as visual learners. Even today I still sing
Conjunction junktion , hooking up
And but and OR !
Thanks school house ROCK !
This was so transformational for those of us who were fortunate enough to have had them as part of our education! I still use the songs as part of my repertoire of memory tools for math, English, history, science and political understanding. God bless all of those who put themselves out to educate us - in spite of the PTB!
The information in "I'm Just A Bill" helped me pass the Constitution Test which was a requirement to graduate from highschools in the San Diego Unified School district when I was a student there in the 1970's.
I'm 65 and can still sing some of the songs. Multiplication songs really helped me out in school and I would sing them in my head during class.
How many of you memorized the Preamble like I did thanks to Schoolhouse Rock?
To this day, I can only recite the preamble of the Constitution by singing it in my head first. I also remember either or, neither nor from conjunction junction.
They absolutely worked. I can still sing the preamble to the Constitution. I can’t recite it, but I can sing it!
I was in high school when Schoolhouse Rock started coming on tv. I LOVED it!! As an elementary school teacher it was one of the best teaching tools. BRING IT BACK!!!!! Can it be viewed on youtube?
Yes it is.
Dial it up on the NET and see!
I remember being in a high school and one of our teachers asked us to write out the preamble to the constitution. You could here half the class humming the schoolhouse rock tune. Yes, it works.
*My favorite **_Schoolhouse Rock_** singer by far was **_Essra Mohawk,_** as featured on the tune, **_Sufferin' 'til Suffrage,_** shown here at **10:33**. She was definitely the most **_Rock n' Roll_** singer they had, with that gritty Janisesque soulfulness.* 🤘😎👍
They built a huge impression on me in the 1990s. I had VHS re-releases of Science Rock and Multiplication Rock. All of them are now on Disney+, and I marvel even more now at just how they managed to teach me even though the actual lyrics were over my head.
How could these not merit preservation?!? That's like a crime against humanity. I can still easily recite the Preamble to the Constitution due to this series and I'm anyone else who watched it still can too! Meanwhile people are somehow being allowed to graduate high school nowadays while being functionally illiterate. Oh how far we have fallen.
Of COURSE “Schoolhouse Rock” merits preservation. But the Corporate Behemoths like Disney (who now owns ABC-TV, where these segments first aired) just DON’T CARE unless preserving such things makes a PILE OF MONEY FOR THEM! I can’t think of a way for that to happen, so unless someone who works where these things are stored STEALS THEM in in middle of the night, there’s no way they will ever be preserved. HUGE CORPORATE TV doesn’t care about ANYTHING but the almighty Bottom Line. Therefore, saving something of quality, such as the SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK series is NOT going to happen. If someone organized picket lines around EVERY BUILDING ABC-TV HAS from coast to coast, that MIGHT get ABC’s attention. But I’d say “Don’t Hold Your Breath.”.
Sincerely,
A Former Network TV Director (now retired).
I will never forget these films! I loved them. They played on Saturdays usually and wait, also after school sometimes. “Conjunction junction what’s your function?!!” They’re imbedded in my head. Also I’m not sure if “Yuck Mouth” was part of this group but I loved it too! “They call me yuck mouth cuz I don’t brush and I like my teeth like this!!” Ahhh the memories.
I remember "Yuck Mouth," too, though it wasn't part of Schoolhouse Rock. It was a PSA, possibly part of the "Time for Timer" PSAs, though I'm not sure of that. I have to search that, now! 👍🏻😀
Yuck mouth was part of the ABC "Bod Squad" PSA block they would run in the lineup promoting good health, hygiene and food habits.
Similar animation style, but not part of school house rock.
"Hey, it's time for Timer!!"
"Hanker for a hunk o' cheese!?"
I can't explain how I still remember all that so vividly. 😅
"films". You obviously have no idea what you're talking about. From a different country
@@rjdub8455 clearly you are the one who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Yes, FILMS. If you did your research, you MIGHT get it through your head that television networks purchased the film rights to display them.
Here is a little snippet of information for you:
“School house Rock an American interstitial programming series of animated musical educational short films (and later, music videos) which aired during the Saturday morning children's programming block on the U.S. television network ABC. The themes covered included grammar, science, economics, history, mathematics, and civics. The series' original run lasted from 1973 to 1985.”
In the 90s they were revived and new ones were made for direct to video release.
1970s television was very different from today. You couldn’t just snap your fingers and have whatever you want appear for you to watch on a phone that you can carry around in your pocket. I know it’s hard to fathom.
@@rjdub8455 check the last two minutes or so of this video because they literally say how these were on film reels and the masters were nearly lost, but found and used to make a DVD remaster.
When my kids (now both ROCKING college) hit kindergarten, I ordered the box set for them and had a blast revisiting these absolute BOPS from my childhood!
To this day, 40+ years later, I still remember watching and can remember some if not all of the songs.
Back when we made mixtapes for friends, my friend made me a mix of hip hop with other weird songs included.
Three is a Magic Number was my favorite song on that cassette. I was in my early twenties and this song actually improved my multiplication skills.
Im Just a Bill was another that I recall from saturday mornings.
3 Is a Magic Number is still my favorite-- especially the 30 linebacker crashing through the wall
Oh my gosh! How could they not preserve this iconic series? I loved it and I was in high school.
I am 63. I watched Schoolhouse Rock in the 70s, along with Saturday morning cartoons. I have a learning disability in math and ‘Three is a Magic Number’ is the only reason I have the 3 times table integrated into my personal. Thank god for Schoolhouse Rock.
I still remember the preamble. "We the people in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility. Provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and ensure blessings of liberty. Do ordain and establish this constitution. For the United States of our America."
I grew up in the 90's, and i remember loving schoolhouse rock
I never heard them played during the 90s when I was raising kids. I also raised some through the 80s and didn’t see them there then either. Maybe they made a different batch.
I remember SHR Very well in the 1970s brand new .
Still, to this day, when ever I deal with 3 of anything, that song pops into my head.
I grew up over seas, but still saw school house rock. I could discover my generational peers
with the words: Conjunction Junction, What's Your Funjion?
Interesting just how much resistance the original series met when getting, considering that it did become popular enough to produce a 'companion' series called The Metric Marvels which was used to teach kids about the then metric conversions coming up (but that's a whole different story).
I had a smile the whole time on my face while watching this video. Remembering Saturday morning cartoons and waiting to see which one was going to pop up next at the commercial!
Amazing how I learned so much from School House Rock between my favorite cartoons on Saturday mornings. I had no idea back then, but now looks back and see how beneficial they were for me and others. Figure 8 is one that really stands out to me; kinda eerie but mystical voice and music. I can still sing every word to it to this day.
I grew up in the 70s. I loved School House Rock, and still remember the preamble of the US Constitution as a result of this show: “We the people (of the United States of America) in order to form a more perfect union establish justice and assure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare-air-hair, to assure the blessings of (our) liberty to ourselves and and our posterity- do ordain and es-tab-lish this Constitution of the United States of America!”
I still sing them all at 54! It was how I learned the Preamble to the Constitution!
I'm 58 years old, and I STILL use Schoolhouse Rock times tables to this day!
When i transfered in 4th grade. Everyday after morning news from our school, an episode of School House Rock would be. Ah memories ❤️
One of my favorite SHR moments was when I heard the music from a Norfork Southern Railroad commercial and had to explain to Nephew why the lyrics I was singing were different from the commercial. Nephew was 10 at the time and really enjoyed seeing the original cartoon VS the NS commercial.
I so remember some of the songs they would show between cartoons! It was a major part of my childhood!
3 is a magical number is my favorite Schoolhouse Rock songs!
It had so many fun songs!
My wife got me the whole School House Rock CD compilation. I grew up on School House Rock and learned so much.
I grew up with the original show and still remember it fondly. At one point, I wanted to be Lucky Seven Sampson when I got older! Thanks for the history trip down Memory Lane ;D
I was a pre-teen at the time these were aired. I loved them. My favorite was Interjections and the Pre-Amble!
I had a chemistry teacher in high school that knew this before Schoolhouse Rock was ever aired. Other educators also knew. Good on the guy for implementing it so well, though the well educated that we don't see from universities anymore, knew.
I loved this growing up ,just SO brilliant for so many reasons . We need WAY more of these programs ...... Just genius .
good stuff as a kid in 1970's
A BBBBBLLLLAAAASSSSTTTTT
I will never listen to anything bad about Schoolhouse Rock! I learned SO very much from Schoolhouse Rock! It made learning fun!!
I am old enough now to have memory problems. But to this very day, I still remember the lyrics to the Schoolhouse Rock videos! Well done!!
Aww, you showed but didn't talk about a couple of other catchy episodes! "Adjectives ", sung in the girlish voice of the late great jazz singer Blossom Dearie and "Interplanet Janet" from the Science Rock series.
"Interplanet Janet, she's a galaxy girl. A solar system Ms. from a future world." Love her still. 💕
Schoolhouse Rock was the best. "I'm Just A Bill", "The Preamble to the Constitution", "Conjunction Junction" and more were all good. But my favorite has always been "Verb".
I'm 60 years old and can STILL recite most of the lyrics and remember the concepts.
Such as the two "and" 's in the above sentence are conjunctions.
Loved SHR as a kid.
I bought the complete CD box set for my son when he was born in 98.
I loved watching this and can remember them all. From 6th grade to through high school. After-school specials was where I first saw it.
I still can remember, I am just a Bill to this day and The Verb also! This is needed today! My grandson having ADHD, it could actually help him. 💜✌
I can remember just about every song mentioned in this video. I must've been watching enough Saturday morning cartoons back in the day. 😁
I have this collection on DVD. Just love it and takes me back too times as a kid❤️
I remember the original. It came out in junior high and got me through grammar in high school. I still have dyscalculia (the dyslexia for numbers) so I learned multiplication with the SHR and could sing it when I needed to figure out what I as trying to see. I'm 66, a grandmother of 9, and I've made sure the grandkids had what I could find of the series. It was a great teaching tool. Maybe it should have an update?
I'm sitting here raving about it to my husband, how much I loved it. He's six months older than I am and never watched any of them. He says he was way past them when they came out. Whatever, hubby, I still love them. :)
And now "The Naughty Nine" is a kids' Christmastime version of Ocean's Eleven, you cannot escape the Rock!
I grew up on School House Rock in the 70's, and yet still to this day, I remember the songs😂
Watching this brought back a lot of memories. I still remember the words of the songs I haven't heard in 40 years. Conjunction junction, what's your function😊.
These will always be in my memory. Today’s children need updated version with the same words
Those songs helped me with math. I am so grateful for them.
This Saturday morning schoolhouse rocks is what helped me in school by memorizing these songs lol ! I miss the late 70s, and 80s
As someone born in the mid 90s, I still watch Schoolhouse Rock to this day. Science Rock has always been my favorite subject from the series.
Music is the potent adhesive that helps information stick in our minds.
These came out just as I was growing out of Saturday cartoons. These were extremely memorable. I still remember most of them!
You grew out of Saturday morning cartoons? I never did. They just quit showing them.
Well, the 'Paranoid Mothers Squad' (note initials) castrated Cartoons after 1969! Suddenly everything had to be sanitized and non violent. Almost all the good cartoons got taken off the air; Space Ghost, Johnny Quest, etc. For a couple of more years there was still a little bit of quality in animation. But Popeye and Bluto weren't allowed to fight anymore, Bugs Bunny cartoons were cut up, Super Heroes couldn't hit the Villains anymore! Don't believe me, watch them, the Hero had to throw the Villains and were only allowed to punch rocks! Even the Joe's could only shoot equipment but the Cobras were always shown escaping! Everything had to be done by Commitee, couldn't have people solving things by themselves! No, had to throw in a Papa Smurf authority figure! These are the reasons why I turned away from cartoons! A bunch of Damn Communist Mothers ruined them! Every year quality of cartoons went downhill. The animation got worse and worse. In 1976 I was in the Navy and I got to visit Japan for the first time of many! I have to tell you, Anime blew my mind! I was exposed to Space Cobra, Captain Harlock, Lupin 3rd, Original Macross! I was, and still am, a huge fan of Anime! I even saw some early seasons of Power Rangers later on, I just didn't know what it was then. Oh, did I ever remember Monkey though!
As an educator this was just brilliant.
Priceless educational tool!!! STILL HIGHLY EFFECTIVE!
I am a musician, singer and songwriter. I grew up watching this show. I am teaching myself the baseline to Conjunction Junction.
I remember Saturday mornings watching School House Rock. We would skip the end of a cartoon we were watching on another channel just so we could catch Schoolhouse Rock!
Loved the one on irresponsible spending. "Who spends money without using their common sense? It's the dough Nuts."
Also really enjoyed the one with the preamble constitution. If I can remember the tune I can generally regurgitate the preamble, and I'm Canadian. Good work guys.
Oh and Interjection " Hooray! I'm for the other team."
I grew up with these in the 90s and loved them! We had a VHS copy and later the CD games to play. It's definitely a core part of my childhood.
My favorites are No More Kings, Unpack Your Adjectives and Interjections!
This brings back memories of my childhood. Wow what happened to the years now that I am at 62 trips around the local star. I remember all these cartoons that were played on Saturday mornings when there was the regular cartoons played.
The Simpson parody I’m an Amendment is still a funny classic!
Lots of love here for Conjunction Junction and I'm Just A Bill, and like many others here, I can only sing the Preamble to the Constitution (bff, who's 7 months older than me, told me about a history teacher of hers giving the class a pop quiz on the Preamble and after noticing that everyone was singing silently, he gave up and had everyone sing out loud, then gave them all an "A"). But it is also thanks to SHR that I will forever remember the 19th Amendment to the Constitution gave women the right to vote 😁
I'm gen x. I had these on DVD for my son and he knew all the multiplication tables way before his school mates.
We certainly could use School House Rock today but the kids of the 21st century (not all, but most) are so limited in knowledge that the producers wouldn't be able to keep up. A colleague of mine who is approximately 22 years old openly admits to me that he cannot count money nor read an analog clock.
I can still sing all the songs today. They were all over Saturday morning in the 80s
Although i didnt care for the jazz aspect of these they were genius. They helped a couple generations w/ making education fun and interesting. To this day, some 45+ years later, i still reflect back to Math Rock when im stuck multiplying 7s and 8s 😃
LOVE!! Great Forever Memories!!!💖💖💖💖💖
I’m 70 and still sing conjunction junction learn while watching cartoons with my now 47 year old daughter.