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The Electric Company

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Children's television series (or children's television shows ) are television programs designed specifically for children . They are typically characterised by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are normally broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake, immediately before and after school schedules generally start in the country where they air. Educational themes are also prevalent, as well as the transmission of cautionary tales and narratives that teach problem-solving methods in some fashion or another, such as social disputes.

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79-523: 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 ,

158-467: A current to travel along an unintended path with no or very low electrical impedance . This results in an excessive current flowing through the circuit. The opposite of a short circuit is an open circuit , which is an infinite resistance (or very high impedance ) between two nodes. A short circuit is an abnormal connection between two nodes of an electric circuit intended to be at different voltages. This results in an electric current limited only by

237-483: A DVD boxed set on February 7, 2006, called The Best of the Electric Company that included 20 uncut episodes from throughout the show's run, including the first and last episodes, plus outtakes and introductions and commentary by Rita Moreno and June Angela. Due to the overwhelming—and somewhat unexpected—popularity of the initial DVD release, a second boxed set was released on November 14, 2006 ( The Best of

316-480: A block on Animax , known as "Nick Time") and Cartoon Network (Cartoon Network's age demographic is moving towards older viewers with shows such as Hello Kitty , Regular Show and Adventure Time ) One of the most well-known children's TV programmes comes from Iceland, LazyTown , was created by Magnus Scheving , European Gymnastics Champion and CEO of Lazytown Entertainment . The show has aired in over 180 countries, been dubbed into more than 32 languages and

395-560: A cable, satellite, streaming, or internet subscription to view them on first airing." In the United States, there are three major commercial cable networks dedicated to children's television. All three also operate secondary services with specialized scopes drawing upon their respective libraries, such as a focus on specific demographics, or a focus upon classic programming that fall within their scope and demographics; all three have also extensively franchised their brands outside

474-580: A channel co-founded by the CTW, from 1999 to 2003. Noggin also produced a compilation special for the show. 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. Since it was intended for children who had graduated from CTW's flagship program, Sesame Street ,

553-411: A channel of hot ionized plasma , is highly conductive and can persist even after significant amounts of original material from the conductors has evaporated. Surface erosion is a typical sign of electric arc damage. Even short arcs can remove significant amounts of material from the electrodes. The temperature of the resulting electrical arc is very high (tens of thousands of degrees), causing the metal on

632-413: A circuit presumed to be isolated. To help reduce the negative effects of short circuits, power distribution transformers are deliberately designed to have a certain amount of leakage reactance . The leakage reactance (usually about 5 to 10% of the full load impedance) helps limit both the magnitude and rate of rise of the fault current . A short circuit may lead to formation of an electric arc . The arc,

711-415: A fade-up from black would reveal a hand holding a lit match and "Show # x " handwritten on a piece of paper that was placed in such a way so that it could blend with the surrounding objects in-frame. Instead of the next-show teaser, Ken Roberts's voice could be heard, saying, "And now, the last word," and the trademark light bulb would be shut off by a hand doing whatever the last word was. In season two, after

790-724: A few exceptions, perhaps the best-known being the Power Rangers franchise). Typically, programs are either 'for boys' or 'for girls'. The teen demographic targets viewers 12 to 18 years of age. Live-action series that target this demographic are more dramatic and developed, including teen dramas and teen sitcoms . In some cases, they may contain more mature content that is usually not permissible on shows targeting younger viewers, and can include some profanity or suggestive dialogue. Educational programming targeted at this demographic has historically been rare, other than on NASA TV 's education block. However, some programming aimed at

869-507: A low- resistance conductor , like a wire . With a low resistance in the connection, a high current will flow, causing the delivery of a large amount of energy in a short period of time. A high current flowing through a battery can cause a rapid increase of temperature, potentially resulting in an explosion with the release of hydrogen gas and electrolyte (an acid or a base ), which can burn tissue and cause blindness or even death. Overloaded wires will also overheat causing damage to

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948-454: A number of children's channels under the Pop and Tiny Pop brands. British versions of Cartoon Network and its sister channels Boomerang and Cartoonito also operate in the country, some 25 years after the initial launch. Ireland has one dedicated children's TV service RTÉjr . Since 1998 RTÉ2 has provided children's programming from 07:00 to 17:30 each weekday, originally titled The Den ,

1027-413: A parody of soap-opera teasers, which would highlight a particular sketch that would be shown during that episode. The voice of a cast member would say a variant of, "Today on The Electric Company , the so-and so says, '(bleep)'," and the action would freeze as the graphic of the word of the day (or a card with the word of the day printed on it) became visible to viewers. The redacted words were replaced by

1106-420: A scratchy wah-wah electric guitar. The next-show teaser, which was introduced in season two without music, worked in the same way, and usually used a different take of the music heard during the sketch-of-the-day teaser, except that the voice said "Tune in next time, when...," and there was no show number shown. In season one, however, after the title sequence, the sound of a striking match would be heard, and

1185-427: A series of Minimoog sounds that roughly mimicked the modulation of the word or phrase in question so children could guess them. The still action would linger on the screen for several seconds, then fade to black, where the show number would become visible in a Scanimate animation in a random color. The music for this segment was a repetitive, funky instrumental groove featuring a call-and-response between horns and

1264-431: A shorter, self-contained composition, these errors do not occur, with the exception of the teaser of 33B shown at the end of 32B (available on iTunes), where the teaser was accidentally cut by a fraction of a second. The Electric Company was canceled in 1977 at the height of its popularity. Unlike its counterpart Sesame Street , which licensed its Muppet characters for merchandising, The Electric Company never had

1343-531: A stand-alone brand or character that could have helped to generate additional profits. The only significant items the show licensed were comic books and a Milton Bradley board game of the Fargo North, Decoder character. Licensing rights were also granted to Mattel Electronics for two educational-based video games for the Intellivision console in 1979. These games featured both the show's title logo on

1422-459: A then-state-of-the-art analog video-synthesizer system. They were often used for presenting words with particular sounds. Sometimes a cast member would be seen alongside or interacting in another way with a word animation. Comedian, actor and writer Paul Dooley created the series and served as head writer. A total of 780 episodes were produced in the show's six-season run, 130 per season. As with Sesame Street , each episode of The Electric Company

1501-421: A very high current and therefore quickly trigger an overcurrent protection device. However, it is possible for short circuits to arise between neutral and earth conductors and between two conductors of the same phase. Such short circuits can be dangerous, particularly as they may not immediately result in a large current and are therefore less likely to be detected. Possible effects include unexpected energisation of

1580-414: Is generally more overtly educational. In a number of cases, such shows are produced in consultation with educators and child psychologists in an effort to teach age-appropriate lessons (the series Sesame Street pioneered this approach when it debuted in 1969). A format that has increased in popularity since the 1990s is the " pseudo-interactive " program, in which the action of the show stops and breaks

1659-774: Is nearly as old as television itself. In the United Kingdom, the BBC 's For the Children was first broadcast in 1946, and in English-speaking circles, is generally credited with being the first TV programme specifically for children. Some authors posit television for children tended to originate from similar programs on radio. For example, the BBC's Children's Hour was launched as a radio broadcast in 1922, with BBC School Radio commencing live broadcasts in 1924. In

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1738-635: Is the most expensive children's show of all time. In 1995, Cartoon Network became the first children's channel to be launched in India. Subsequently, Disney Channel and Nickelodeon arrived. Hungama TV (2004) was the first children's channel that had local content. Pogo and BabyTV came later in 2006. By 2018, 23 channels have aired in India. Nickelodeon was the first children's channel in Romania, launched in December 1998. Afterwards, Minimax became

1817-513: The Cartoon Network , Disney Channel , Disney Junior , Disney XD , and Nickelodeon brands. WildBrain operates Family Channel , as well as the spin-off services WildBrainTV and Family Jr. it has been majority owned and operated by British Columbia's public broadcaster Knowledge Network . In French, Corus operates Télétoon and La chaîne Disney , WildBrain operates Télémagino (a French version of Family Jr.), TVA Group operates

1896-614: The FCC mandates. (The rule for digital subchannels was repealed in July 2019; in practice, most still carry educational programs anyway.) In 2017, there was a programming block that aired on syndication called KidsClick ; it was notable as a concerted effort to program children's shows on television without regard to their educational content, one of the first such efforts since the E/I rule took effect. The transition to digital television has allowed for

1975-593: The Letterman sketch in this episode was the clip of the Short Circus singing "Stop!" and a Road Runner–Wile E. Coyote cartoon (due to Warner Bros. licensing). These altered episodes also contain special effects used to segue from one sketch to another that were not used in the show's original run. The other altered episodes are 197, 227, 322, 375, 35A, 57A, 77A, and 105A. It is believed that these changes were probably made to avoid repeats of segments that were on

2054-485: The Thévenin equivalent resistance of the rest of the network which can cause circuit damage, overheating , fire or explosion . Although usually the result of a fault , there are cases where short circuits are caused intentionally, for example, for the purpose of voltage-sensing crowbar circuit protectors . In circuit analysis , a short circuit is defined as a connection between two nodes that forces them to be at

2133-405: The fourth wall to give a young viewer the opportunity to answer a question or dilemma put forth on the show, with the action continuing as if the viewer answered correctly. Shows that target the demographic of persons 6 to 11 years old focus primarily on entertainment and can range from comedic cartoons to action series. Most children's television series targeting this age range are animated (with

2212-689: The 1990s, more children's television series such as Barney & Friends , Blue's Clues , SpongeBob SquarePants , Bear in the Big Blue House , and The Big Comfy Couch were created. A voluminous range of children's television programming now exists in the 2020s. Notable successes outside the US include shows like Play School , Noggin the Nog , Clangers , Bagpuss , Teletubbies , Thunderbirds , Danger Mouse , Count Duckula , Mr. Men and Thomas & Friends originating from

2291-404: The BBC runs CBBC as well as the preschool-oriented CBeebies , while ITV runs CITV as well as the preschool-oriented LittleBe , as a programming block on ITVBe . Both channels were spun off from children's television strands on their respective flagship channels ( BBC One , BBC Two , and ITV ). The BBC and ITV have largely phased out children's programming from their main channels to focus on

2370-542: The Electric Company: Volume 2 ). This second volume contained 20 episodes from seasons one through five plus a 30-minute documentary on the effects of in-school viewings of The Electric Company from 1975. Cast members Luis Ávalos, Jim Boyd, Judy Graubart, Skip Hinnant, and Hattie Winston provided commentary and reflected on their years on the show. However, the original content of nine episodes presented in this set were altered. In some cases, material that

2449-468: The Short Circus. The lyrics of the song summed up the closure of the series: We're glad you came to call. We really had a ball. The show is done; we hate to run; we're sorry, but that's all. After the last original episode on April 15, 1977, The Electric Company continued on PBS in reruns until early October 1985. The earlier shows did not resurface until February 2, 1999, when the Noggin network, which

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2528-455: The UK, Paw Patrol from Canada, Le Manege Enchantè from France, The Singing Ringing Tree from Germany, and Marine Boy and Pokémon from Japan. Canadian studio Nelvana is a particularly prolific producer of children's programming. Much of Nelvana's product is broadcast worldwide, especially in the US, where the similarities in dialect do not require any dubbing or localization. In

2607-445: The United States, early children's television was often co-opted as a platform to market products and it rarely contained any educational elements (for instance, The Magic Clown , a popular early children's program, was primarily an advertisement for Bonomo's Turkish taffy .) In the early years of television, advertising to children posed a dilemma as most children have no disposable income of their own. As such, children's television

2686-458: The United States. Under current mandates, all broadcast television stations in the United States must show a minimum of three hours per week of educational children's programming , regardless of format. Until 2019, this rule also applied to digital subchannels ; as a result, digital multicast networks whose formats should not fit children's programming, such as Live Well Network and TheCoolTV , were required to carry educational programs to fit

2765-467: The Universe , the 1980s saw a dramatic rise in television programs featuring characters of whom toy characters were being sold to retail consumers in bricks and mortar stores, underscoring the value potential of manufacturing merchandise for fans of children's programs. This practice remains firmly embedded in the broadcast sector's business case broadly in the 2020s. Commercial-free children television

2844-456: The camera and simulate small talk with the viewing audience at home, demonstrating basic skills for the camera. This practice lives on in contemporary children's broadcasting as a genre in of itself, with Australia's ongoing program Play School one example. At one time, a program called Winky Dink and You took a more interactive approach, prompting its viewers to affix a clear vinyl sheet to their television and draw pictures to match what

2923-450: The cast. The Electric Company also featured celebrity guest appearances, including: With the exception of Tom Lehrer , all the individuals listed below were Children's Television Workshop in-house composers. The original soundtrack album, released on Warner Bros. Records , won a Grammy Award for the show's cast. The series was notable for its extensive, innovative use of early computer-generated imagery , especially Scanimate ,

3002-412: The contact surfaces to melt, pool and migrate with the current, as well as to escape into the air as fine particulate matter. A short circuit fault current can, within milliseconds, be thousands of times larger than the normal operating current of the system. Damage from short circuits can be reduced or prevented by employing fuses , circuit breakers , or other overload protection , which disconnect

3081-572: The cultural similarities between Canada and the US, along with film credits and subsidies available from the Canadian government, a large number of animated children's series have been made in Canada with the intention of exporting them to the United States. Such programs carry a prominent Government of Canada wordmark in their closing credits. The BBC and ITV plc both operate children's oriented television networks on digital terrestrial television:

3160-498: The debut of whole subchannels that air children's programming 24/7; examples include BabyFirst , PBS Kids , Smile , and Universal Kids . The country's only directly nationally operated TV service for public consumption, NASA TV , also includes educational programs in its schedule for use in schools. English-language children's specialty channels in Canada are primarily owned by Corus Entertainment and WildBrain . Corus operates YTV and Treehouse , as well as localized versions of

3239-633: The dedicated services; in 2012, as part of the "Delivering Quality First" initiative, the BBC announced that it would end the broadcast of CBBC programmes on BBC One following the completion of the transition to digital terrestrial television, citing low viewership in comparison to broadcasts of the programmes on the CBBC channel. Channel 5 also broadcasts a preschool-oriented block known as Milkshake! , while its owner, Paramount Networks International , also runs versions of Nickelodeon and its sister networks Nicktoons and Nick Jr. Narrative Capital operate

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3318-534: The demographic has had some tangential educational value in regard to social issues, such as the now-defunct TNBC block of sitcoms, which often tackled issues such as underage drinking or drug use. According to at least one journalist, for years, Broadcast Standards and Practices departments of networks, Parental Guidelines , and campaigns by social conservatives limited "efforts to make kids animation more inclusive." One former executive of Disney, David Levine, said that "a lot of conservative opinion" drove what

3397-464: The early 1930s, radio adventure serials such as Little Orphan Annie began to emerge in the United States and became a staple of children's afternoon radio listening. Early children's shows included Kukla, Fran and Ollie (1947), Howdy Doody , and Captain Kangaroo . Another show, Ding Dong School , aired from 1952 to 1965. Its creator and host, Frances Horwich , would sit in front of

3476-409: The failure of the linear analog video -editing equipment. Episodes that have these errors in their sketch-of-the-day teasers include 297, 390, 1A, 8A, and 15A—sometimes the music started too late, ended too early, or played too long; sometimes the errors are negligible, with the teaser music only playing a fraction of a second longer than usual. For season six, because the teaser music was changed to

3555-428: The first DVD set, but it is more likely that it was due to ownership rights—the segments that were used to cover up the material not under Sesame Workshop's control (Spider-Man, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, etc.) were longer than the excised segments, so the episodes were cut further to get them down to their required 28-minute length. An hour-long television show called The Electric Company's Greatest Hits & Bits

3634-480: The first Romanian children's channel to air locally produced content, launched on Children's Day in 2001. Since then, channels like BabyTV and Disney Channel have arrived. Children's channels that exist in Turkey are Cartoon Network , TRT Çocuk , MinikaÇOCUK , Minika GO and Zarok TV . Short circuit A short circuit (sometimes abbreviated to short or s/c ) is an electrical circuit that allows

3713-419: The first two seasons were repeatedly used for the remainder of the series run. Similarly, Chamberlin was a regular for the first two seasons, and her segments were also repeatedly used throughout the show’s run. As a result, they were billed as cast members throughout the whole series run. Added to the cast at the beginning of season three (1973–1974) was Hattie Winston , actress and singer who later appeared on

3792-406: The forces generated in a short circuit. In electronics , the ideal model (infinite gain ) of an operational amplifier is said to produce a virtual short circuit between its input terminals because no matter what the output voltage is, the difference of potential between its input terminals is zero. If one of the input terminals is connected to the ground, then the other one is said to provide

3871-570: The game's packaging and label and the first several notes of the theme song played on the title screen of the games. Also, the PBS stations and statewide networks that aired the show often complained of the Children's Television Workshop "soaking up so much money in public television", said veteran television producer Samuel Gibbon, who worked on the show. "The stations demanded that one of the programs—either Sesame Street or The Electric Company —be put into reruns to save money. By that time, Sesame Street

3950-986: The highest number of LGBTQ characters they ever recorded up to that point. In 2017, some said that LGBTQ+ characters in animated television were somewhat rare, despite the fact that GLAAD praised the number of characters in broadcast and primetime television. From 2017 to 2019, Insider noted that there was a "more than 200% spike in queer and gender-minority characters in children's animated TV shows." In 2018 and 2019, GLAAD stated that Amazon , Hulu , and Netflix, had increased LGBTQ representation in "daytime kids and family television." In their January 2021 report, GLAAD praised LGBTQ representation in episodes of DuckTales , The Owl House and Adventure Time: Distant Lands . Despite this, some industry practitioners state that more than 90% of LGBTQ characters in kid's animated shows within Insider 's database of characters in children's animated television shows "require either

4029-454: The humor was more mature than what was seen there. 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

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4108-673: The maximum prospective short-circuit current . In an improper installation, the overcurrent from a short circuit may cause ohmic heating of the circuit parts with poor conductivity (faulty joints in wiring, faulty contacts in power sockets, or even the site of the short circuit itself). Such overheating is a common cause of fires . An electric arc, if it forms during the short circuit, produces high amount of heat and can cause ignition of combustible substances as well. In industrial and utility distribution systems, dynamic forces generated by high short-circuit currents cause conductors to spread apart. Busbars, cables, and apparatus can be damaged by

4187-477: The mid-1970s and in 1979-80 on the Ten Network . It aired on SBS in 1984-89. Children%27s television series The purpose of these shows, aside from profit, is mainly to entertain or educate children, with each series targeting a certain age of child: some are aimed at infants and toddlers, some are aimed at those aged 6 to 11 years old, and others are aimed at all children. Children's television

4266-547: The network to Viacom , which already owned the other half. The shows were cut subtly to fit Noggin's shorter running time and free up time for various interstitial segments produced for the network. These deletions included the episode numbers, the Scanimate word animations, the segments of up to 15 seconds, and the teasers of the next episodes (in seasons 2–6). During the same period as the Noggin rebroadcasts, numerous fans of

4345-513: The networks turned to affiliated cable cartoon channels or outside programmers for their blocks. On September 27, 2014, the last traditional Saturday network morning cartoon block, Vortexx , ended and was replaced the following week by the syndicated One Magnificent Morning on The CW . Children's television series can target a wide variety of key demographics based on age and gender. Few television networks target infants and toddlers under two years of age. Preschool-oriented programming

4424-410: The opening sequence the words "The Electric Company" would disappear from the logo, and the show number would appear in its place through the use of a Scanimate animation and an electronic whooshing sound. Notably, some episodes in seasons three through five had serious technical errors with either their sketch-of-the-day teaser segments or their next-show teaser segments, which was probably because of

4503-457: The power in reaction to excessive current. Overload protection must be chosen according to the current rating of the circuit. Circuits for large home appliances require protective devices set or rated for higher currents than lighting circuits. Wire gauges specified in building and electrical codes are chosen to ensure safe operation in conjunction with the overload protection. An overcurrent protection device must be rated to safely interrupt

4582-700: The preschool-oriented Yoopa , and Bell Media runs the teen-oriented Vrak . Via its majority-owned subsidiary Telelatino , Corus also operates two children and family-oriented networks in Spanish and Italian, TeleNiños and Telebimbi respectively. On broadcast television and satellite to cable undertakings, children's television content is relegated to the country's public and designated provincial educational broadcasters, including CBC Television and Ici Radio-Canada Télé , as well as City Saskatchewan , CTV Two Alberta (formerly Access), Knowledge Network , Télé-Québec , TFO , and TVOntario ( TVOKids ). Aided by

4661-530: The program produced QuickTime and MP3 clips from the Noggin rebroadcasts, old over-the-air recordings, and, in some cases, from master recordings . These were hosted online at various places and received heavy attention from the blogosphere (e.g., Boing Boing ) until a cease-and-desist letter took down the most prominent of these sites in 2004. The series was not seen since it was pulled from Noggin's schedule until Sesame Workshop, under license to Shout! Factory and Sony BMG Music Entertainment , released

4740-422: The same voltage. In an 'ideal' short circuit, this means there is no resistance and thus no voltage drop across the connection. In real circuits, the result is a connection with almost no resistance. In such a case, the current is limited only by the resistance of the rest of the circuit. A common type of short circuit occurs when the positive and negative terminals of a battery or a capacitor are connected with

4819-760: The second season (1972–1973) by Denise Nickerson , who previously appeared on the ABC daytime series Dark Shadows and was best known for her appearance as Violet Beauregarde in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory . The other three original members of the Short Circus were singer and guitarist Melanie Henderson; drummer and singer Stephen Gustafson; and singer, tambourinist, and guitarist Douglas Grant. For seasons three (1973–1974) and four (1974–1975), Grant and Nickerson were replaced by tap dancer Gregg Burge and Broadway actress Bayn Johnson . Except for June Angela, an entirely new Short Circus

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4898-762: The service was renamed TRTÉ and RTÉjr in 2010. Irish-language service TG4 provide two strands of children's programming Cúla 4 Na nÓg and Cúla 4 during the day. Commercial broadcaster TV3 broadcast a children's strand called Gimme 3 from 1998 to 1999. And then broadcast a new strand called 3Kids . Children's channels that exist in Australia are ABC Family , ABC Kids , and its spin-off CBeebies , Nickelodeon and its spin-off Nick Jr. , and Cartoon Network and its spin-off Boomerang . Children's channels that exist in Japan are NHK Educational TV , Kids Station , Disney Channel , Disney XD , Nickelodeon (also under

4977-473: The show was the Short Circus (a pun on short circuit ), a five-member singing band whose songs also facilitated reading comprehension. June Angela was the only Short Circus member to remain with the show during its entire six-year run. Others lasted anywhere from one to four years. Irene Cara appeared during the first season (1971–1972) and would go on to become a pop-music star. Cara was replaced in

5056-792: The sitcom Becker . Beginning in season four (1974–1975), Danny Seagren, a puppeteer who had worked on Sesame Street and also as a professional dancer, appeared in the role of Spider-Man ; Marvel Comics published Spidey Super Stories that tied into Seagren's appearances as Spider-Man in character, who never spoke aloud or unmasked himself. The adult cast also had recurring roles as Spider-Man (Danny Seagren) (seasons 4–6 (1974–1977)), J.J. (Skip Hinnant), Carmela (Rita Moreno), Brenda (Lee Chamberlin) (seasons 1–2 (1971–1973)), Mark (Morgan Freeman), Hank (Bill Cosby) (seasons 1–2 (1971–1973)), Roberto (Luis Ávalos) (seasons 2–6 (1972–1977)), Winnie (Judy Graubart), Andy (Jim Boyd), and Sylvia (Hattie Winston) (seasons 3–6 (1973–1977)). Another regular part of

5135-417: The time were produced entirely by local stations, instead of being the work of independent producers like CTW. The final episode of The Electric Company featured a short musical and dance number featuring the final cast members (with the exception of Bill Cosby, Lee Chamberlin, both of whom had long since left the show and Rita Moreno, who did not take part in this episode) including the then-current members of

5214-421: The week before its 1971 debut. The original cast included Morgan Freeman , Rita Moreno , Bill Cosby , Judy Graubart , Lee Chamberlin and Skip Hinnant . Most of the cast had done stage, repertory, and improvisational work, with Cosby and Moreno already well-established performers on film and television. Ken Roberts (1971–1973), best known as a soap opera announcer ( Love of Life ; The Secret Storm ),

5293-463: The wire's insulation, or starting a fire. In electrical devices, unintentional short circuits are usually caused when a wire's insulation breaks down, or when another conducting material is introduced, allowing charge to flow along a different path than the one intended. In mains circuits, short circuits may occur between two phases , between a phase and neutral or between a phase and earth (ground). Such short circuits are likely to result in

5372-527: Was Episode 8B, erroneously labeled as 658, even though it is correct if the A–B designations were disregarded (1A–130A are 521–650, 1B–130B are 651–780). It is unclear if these episodes were altered from the versions originally shown on television. Shout! Factory representatives indicated that it had no plans for another DVD set, implying that episodes distributed via iTunes would not be available in another format. In Australia, The Electric Company aired on ABC in

5451-486: Was a cash fountain for the Workshop. The show was almost supporting itself by then with all the productions, books, records, and games. There was no way, it was felt, that they could reduce the number of original shows of Sesame Street . But the thought was that if we produce two final seasons of The Electric Company that were designed to be repeated, that would give the show four more years of life." Most PBS programs at

5530-799: Was broadcast on many PBS stations in late 2006. It included interviews with cast members, voice talent, and creator-producer Joan Ganz Cooney . The special was produced by Authorized Pictures and distributed by American Public Television , and was designed to be seen during pledge drives. It was released on DVD on March 6, 2007. In early 2007, Apple Inc. , through its iTunes service, started selling 15 previously unavailable episodes of The Electric Company. "Volume 1" contained Episodes 5, 13, 23, 128, 179, 249, 261, 289, 297, 374, 416, 475, 91A, 8B, and 32B. In late 2007, another collection of 15 episodes dubbed "Volume 2" became available from iTunes. The new additions were Episodes 2, 36, 40, 75, 142, 154, 165, 172, 189, 218, 245, 290, 337, and 350. Repeated from Volume 1

5609-476: Was cast for the show’s fifth and sixth season (1975-1977). The new hires were Todd Graff , singer Rodney Lewis, Réjane Magloire , and singer Janina Matthews. In the first season (1971–1972), a number of unbilled children were also used on-camera with the show's cast, as on Sesame Street , but this concept was quickly dropped. Because of the frequent reuse of segments, a practice derived from Sesame Street , actors continued to appear after their departures from

5688-420: Was depicted on Cartoon Network , Disney Channel , and other alike channels. Some argued that cable television, which began to pick up in the 1990s, "opened the door for more representation" even though various levels of approvals remained. Through the 2000s', advocacy group GLAAD repeatedly highlighted the lack of LGBT representation in children's programming in particular. Two years later, they recorded

5767-543: Was first introduced with Sesame Street on PBS in November 1969. It was produced by what is now known as Sesame Workshop (formerly Children's Television Workshop, known as CTW). In the United States, Saturday mornings were generally scheduled with cartoons from the 1960s to 1980s. In 1992, teen comedies and a "Today" show weekend edition were first to displace the cartoon blocks on NBC. Starting in September 2002,

5846-586: Was going on on-screen. This format did not persist, nor was it replicated, due to a number of factors unrelated to its popularity: children whose parents did not buy them the vinyl sheet would draw with crayons directly on the television screen itself, potentially causing expensive damage; there were also concerns that having children within arm's length of a television screen of the era could expose them to harmful radiation. Later and more recognisably modern shows for young children include Sesame Street , The Electric Company and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood . In

5925-603: Was not a particularly high priority for the networks. This practice continued in a toned-down manner through the 1980s in the United States after the Federal Communications Commission prohibited tie-in advertising on broadcast television. These regulations did not apply to cable, which remains out of the reach of the FCC's content regulations. Due in part to the success of He-Man and the Masters of

6004-436: Was numbered on-screen instead of using traditional episode titles. Seasons One through Four were numbered 1–520 (1971–1975). Season five was numbered 1A–130A (1975–1976), while season six was numbered 1B–130B (1976–1977). The last two seasons were designated as such because they were designed as year-long curricula for schools. Starting with season three, a show's number would be presented in the sketch-of-the-day teaser segment,

6083-537: Was originally broadcast in a particular episode was removed completely while material from other episodes was included. For example, 60A originally contained the Spider-Man episode "Spidey Meets the Prankster" and used a scene from that sketch as the opening teaser, which was removed completely (due to Marvel Entertainment licensing) after the opening credits, leaving only the episode number. Also removed following

6162-417: Was partly owned by Sesame Workshop and PBS at the time, rebroadcast the show as a result of its co-ownership of the network. Noggin created a two-hour compilation special to re-introduce the series to a new generation. The special was aired on TV Land as a way to promote Noggin. Noggin ran 65 select episodes until mid-2003, when they were pulled from the program lineup because Sesame Workshop sold its half of

6241-525: Was the narrator of some segments during season one, most notably the parody of the genre that had given him prominence, Love of Chair . Jim Boyd , who was strictly an off-camera voice actor and puppeteer during the first season, began appearing on-camera in the second season, mostly in the role of J. Arthur Crank. Luis Ávalos also joined the cast at that time. Cosby was a regular in season one, and occasionally appeared in new segments during season two, but left afterward. Segments that Cosby had taped for

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