WEBVTT - How Schoolhouse Rock Rocked: Featuring Bob Nastanovich of Pavement 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:04.640 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:23.520 dot com straight because knowledge is power. Hey, and welcome 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:27.000 to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:31.800 there's Jerry and this is stuff you should Know. Chip 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:37.000 off the block of your favorite schoolhouse. Yeah that was 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:40.519 we just heard the theme song. If you're between the 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:44.840 ages of well, were you into it? Yes? Okay, so 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:51.360 you're what forty one? I'm forty, so probably younger than 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.520 you even a bit. Let's say if you're between, I 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:57.920 was definitely towards the tail end of it. Let's say 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:02.960 thirty eight to fifty years old. Actually, yeah, that's not true. 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:07.640 So let's say it was up to yeah nine, Yeah, 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:13.840 so iwhere in that rain fifty ish? All right, that's 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:16.280 what you agree on a little more. Maybe so that 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.320 fifteen year period you were lucky. Yeah, Like if you 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:23.640 just heard that theme song and like something inside your 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:29.200 body happened emotionally in your brain, then that means that 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.600 that you grew up in the seventies and eighties. Uh. 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:38.680 I think the heyday of Saturday Morning cartoons personally, uh, 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.080 as a fan of schoolhouse rock, one of my favorite 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.680 favorite favorite things in the world. Yeah, it was pretty great. 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:48.280 I still love it. Yeah, Like I still listen to 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:53.400 this stuff semi regularly. Oh do you. Yeah, it's been 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:55.800 a little while. When I went back to UM to 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.280 research this, I listened to or watched a bunch of them, 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:03.680 and they all just came flooding back. Yeah, and them. 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:09.440 The writer of this article actually interviewed, didn't he Bob Doro? 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:12.320 It's it sounded that way unless he's a big fat 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.160 liar in his author's note. Well, I just remember when 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:17.160 this article went around, Like the first thing we do 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:19.040 when there's an article at how SUF works is there's 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:22.440 a UM email that goes around everyone where people kind 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:25.560 of suggest kind of questions you can answer and stuff 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:28.519 like that. Um. I don't think we ever really talked 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:30.639 about that, did we don't think nine years in that's 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.120 a secret. Uh, And people say, hey, you should think 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:35.040 about this, you should do this, And I said, somebody 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.400 should try and interview Bob Doro. It's like he's ninety 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:39.880 three years old, and you know, you can still get 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.360 in touch with a guy, I think, and apparently this 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.080 dude did. And sadly, I think all we got was 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:47.639 like one quote. Yeah, well, he was on his way 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:51.360 to like a jazz gig in London when he caught him. 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:53.080 I bet you that was more in there than this. 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:57.400 I was all disappointed. Oh, you're saying I wanted like 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:02.000 more more select quotes from Mr Doro. You wanted like 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.360 I called Mr Doe. He answered, hello, said Mr Doro. 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:08.200 We should have interviewed him for this. I don't know 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:10.840 why we didn't. I don't either. Apparently it's easy to 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:14.720 get to uh and there's well, I'll get to that. 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.760 Never mind. Should we get in the way back machine? Yes, 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:21.720 let's go back to the seventies, the greatest decade history 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:33.000 of humanity. Probably, I'm not joking. I'm a fan of sixties. Seventies, 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:35.400 and eighties would be tough for me to decide. Sixties 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.720 were a little too hippie for me. I love the seventies, 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.160 so I mean, I had loved the seventies, and not 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:44.280 even as a Golden age. There was a lot wrong 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:47.760 in the seventies. Nixon was president during the seventies. Okay, 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:52.200 lots of stuff we're wrong in the seventies, but something 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:57.680 about that decade just hit all the boxes. I just 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:01.480 love it, and it reminds me my childhood, which is 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.480 great because you know, I had a good childhood. It 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:06.240 was fun. I a lot of We talked about that 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.560 in the Nostalgia episode on how nostalgi just the correct 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:13.920 path in life, even though John Hodgman doesn't think so. 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:17.480 So early seventies, there's a gentleman named David McCall and 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:21.320 um he was. He co owned an ad agency called 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:24.520 McCaffrey and McCall and as the story goes, he was 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.440 on vacation with his family and he knew his son 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:32.760 was having some trouble in math um remembering specifically multiplication tables. Yeah, 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:34.880 no matter how much he yelled at him every night, 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:38.120 he couldn't get multiplication. But they're in the car and 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:42.360 this kid was singing, as the story goes, rolling Stones, 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.400 rolling Stone song, and he was like, well you know that, 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:49.440 Why can't you remember the other stuff? I don't think 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.479 he was that gruff, but it did hit him. He 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:54.400 was like, you know, my son, remember, he has no 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:58.320 problem memorizing things, but there's something about these multiplication tables. 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:02.160 So I wonder if there's something too. Uh sing song 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.760 and turning learning into not only just music, because that's 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:08.520 not a new thing. People have been doing that forever, 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:13.080 but popular sounding music, right, and like pairing them with 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:21.920 concepts to teach, right, to to make kids understand difficult concepts, right, 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:26.120 And it's it's so weird now, especially if in the 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:31.080 post school house rock world that that, yeah, of course 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:33.680 people do that, Like that's a technique that you used 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:37.800 to teach kids, but apparently no one else is doing this. 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:42.160 At the time that this was a pretty interesting idea 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.599 and it really it germinated in just the right guy's mind, 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.240 because this guy McCall was, like you said, he was 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:54.039 a partner in this advertising firm and they basically specialized 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:58.000 in in doing the same thing but get you getting 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:01.320 you to buy something. He was, maybe we could do 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:04.280 the same thing that we do to sell people stuff, 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:08.239 but to basically sell education to kids, to teach kids 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.440 using the same techniques that we use in advertising. Yeah, 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.680 Like they would see a jingle for a product that 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:18.599 would get lodged in someone's head, and they would say, 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:20.640 you know, why can't we do that same thing, Like 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:22.840 it would get lodged in a kid's head and they 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.120 would have learned something instead of bought something. Right, But 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:28.640 you could also buy stuff. If you learn enough stuff, 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.440 you can buy even more stuff. Uh. So he went 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:35.359 to UM. One of these Uh I think he was 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:38.599 a creative director or co creative director named George Newell 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.920 ran it by him. He said, great idea, get someone 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:44.520 on it, and he threw a cigarette at him, got 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:48.080 out of the office and commissioned a one of their writers. 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:50.840 They had jingle writers on staff or at least working 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:54.040 with them, and they said, go write something. Uh. It 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:56.479 wasn't very good. Didn't you feel bad for this person? 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:58.320 I did, But you know what, it could have died 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.200 there right, never would have a Schoolhouse Rock. But this 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:04.400 person went down in history is the contributor to Schoolhouse Rock. 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:08.919 Who who didn't it didn't make it? Yeah, or the 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:12.520 person who almost killed Schoolhouse Rock. I guess so. But 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:14.640 McCall was like, no, this idea is too good for 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:17.200 this Yeah, which is really, you know, a great thing 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:21.160 and a lesson in persistence. So he went. Newell was 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:23.480 a jazz piano player and he went to his buddy 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:27.840 one Bob Doro, one of my heroes, who was was 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.800 a and is a great bebop jazz pianist and composer, 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:36.200 and said, you can write a jingle too. Why don't 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:39.280 you try this out? And here's the one quote we 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:42.680 might as well read it from ninety three year old 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.760 Mr Doro. I don't know how I looked out. Apparently 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:48.280 they tried other songwriters, but most of them wrote down 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:50.680 to kids. When I met McAuley said here's my idea. 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:52.160 I give it a try, but don't write down to 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:54.240 the kids. And when he said that, I gotta chill. 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:56.920 I have a high opinion of children. And that was 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.280 sort of the key right there. They weren't uh songs 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:02.760 like written in a remedial way because it was children. 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:08.040 It's a bitsy spider, give me a break. Oh that's 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.880 a classic. So um, but you're right. But so this 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.240 idea germinates in this right guy's head. He happens to 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.760 end up indirectly getting in touch with this guy who 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.000 has a high opinion of children, and he happens to 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.640 be a jazz composer. Things are starting to like happen. 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:28.160 There's basically the hand of the Almighty at work here. 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:32.400 That's right. Uh So Dora goes home. Um, he has 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:35.400 a daughter, gets out of textbooks, and the first thing 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:39.720 he comes up with to me one of the best man. 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:43.480 It is far out. Three is a Magic number was 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.880 the very first Schoolhouse song written because the first thing 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:51.480 they wanted to tackle was math. Because of uh McCall's son. Yeah, 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:54.800 this this composition that he came back with, three is 0:08:54.800 --> 0:09:00.880 a magic number. Um, it's a I when I hear it, 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:05.040 it's super cool. But I don't. I I'm really surprised 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:09.080 that everybody was like, this is, yes, figure something out 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:11.520 from this. Man. I loved it. It is, it's cool, 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:15.080 but it just doesn't seem like the basis the keystone 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:19.200 of Schoolhouse rock to me. I'm surprised. Well, it's one 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:24.360 of my favorites. That's great because it dealt with multiplication. Uh. 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:26.400 And not only that, but uh, like you said, got 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:29.600 a little trippy with the symbolism faith, hope and charity, 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:33.280 heart and mind and body. Uh, it was about and 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:36.200 I wanted to do a podcast on three, the number three, 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.559 because it's very special. It is very special. It is. 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.400 We did one on zero, Why not three? Man, I 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.080 forgot about that. Remember, I think my brain melted a 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:49.720 bit there. One it's tough. Zero is tough. It is tough, 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:54.199 um and not at all magic, right, not really? Um? 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.160 So regardless, if you would have been working there, you 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:00.280 would have been like and everyone else enjoy I did, 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:03.520 You'd be like, I'm gonna go get a bagel. I'm 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:06.680 not gonna even work on this process cheese account. Um. 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:09.320 I did think of Madmen quite a bit when I 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:13.120 was researching this. It was sort of that same time 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.960 period or I guess towards No, Madman didn't make it 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.040 into the seventies. Yeah, I thought he did, because it 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:21.839 wasn't he supposed to be dB Cooper at the end, 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:27.280 and that was yeah, early, I guess that was seventy one. 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:30.880 I think it did crack into the seventies, not like 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:35.280 Boogie Nights did. That was all seventies. The No, that's right, 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.920 it cracked into the eighties with that cheese that that 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:41.760 song you recorded. Well, no, I was, well, yeah, that 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:44.200 for sure. But I was thinking about when it when 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:48.600 the the Party, the New Year's e Party Girl nineteen 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:53.600 with Bill Macy. Yeah, man, what a great movie. That 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:57.120 was wonderful. Yeah, movies almost like twenty years old. I 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.640 believe it. We're old, Chuck, I know. But those those 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:02.600 pop culture references are the ones that really hit home 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.959 for me. What the ones from the seventies. Well, when 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:07.640 I think of like Boogie Nights, I was like, oh, yeah, 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:10.480 that was just like a few years ago, right. And 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.160 then someone says it's celebrating its twentieth anniversary and I'm 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.040 like what, Or like when I see an athlete's son 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:18.640 or daughter. Yeah, it's weird to see that it is 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.480 playing the same sport. The rookies are now like the 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:27.960 old coaches and managers in the sports now man bizarre. Uh. 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.800 So everyone's impressed at McCaffrey and McCall um. Then they 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:34.080 did a pretty smart thing. They went to um. McCall 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.440 was on the board of the Bank Street College of 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.199 Education uh in New York there, and he took it 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:40.760 to them. It was just a song at this point 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:44.680 he said, what do you think is a learning tool? Uh? 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:46.719 They used it, played it for the students and they 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:51.600 were like, this is awesome. They're responding again, little job. 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:55.400 He's just sitting there with his arms across the scowling. 0:11:55.920 --> 0:12:00.880 I've never seen him so mad before. Uh. The students 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.600 liked it. The agency liked it, so they knew they 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:08.360 were onto something. They got their art director, Uh Tom 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:11.319 yo y o h e, oh you're going with Yo. 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:17.839 I'm going all out with yoh okay Tom YOHI and 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.920 UM said, put put some animation to this, draw out 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:25.000 some storyboards, because that was the beauty of Schoolhouse Rock 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:28.160 to me was Uh, it was a combination of everything. 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:31.240 It wasn't just the song, like the songs are great, um, 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:33.679 and we'll get more to the music here in a bit, 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:37.079 but it was the combination of the visuals with the 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:39.760 song and the fact that you were learning something in 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.480 such a unique way. It was just like the perfect 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.320 storm of awesomeness. Yeah. The songs on their own would 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.760 have stood up on their own. Oh yeah. And initially 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:50.679 like they they planned to just release an album of 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:53.920 cool songs like this. Yeah, but it was when Yo 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:57.240 he started sitting there right like drawing some of this 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:00.679 stuff out. That's I mean. School was Rock is not 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.280 one or the other. It's the combination of those two things, 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:06.480 and they play off each other. So well, I agreed. Uh, 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:11.000 So they took UM. Now they have these storyboards. Uh. 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:12.959 They take this to a guy named Radford Stone. He 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:17.120 was their account supervisor of the vp UM for ABC, 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:21.439 and they said, there's this young upstart at ABC for 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:25.720 their children's programming named Michael Eisner that if he's ever 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.319 going to go anywhere, but right now he's running the 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:31.600 kid's shop over there. Um, and let's bring in because 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.120 this guy knows a lot about kids programming, Let's bring 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.080 in Chuck Jones to the meeting. Shout out to her 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:42.679 from Jessica, granddaughter of Mr Jones, and uh sat down 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:45.199 in a meeting, played the demo tape, showed him the 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:48.240 storyboard they helped. Turned to Chuck Jones, so what do 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:52.120 you think? And he said, buy it? By it that's 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:56.760 how Chuck Jones do that. He didn't and Michael Eisner 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:00.640 bought it and uh, before you knew it are own business. 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.120 We're gonna take a break, I think we should. Josh 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:07.120 is gonna go collect himself and we'll be right back 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:48.080 you all right, all right, we're back. So strange. Um, So, 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:51.480 Schoolhouse Rock started on ABC Saturday morning. Is that what 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.200 they call an interstitial? Yeah, we had some of this, Yeah, 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:57.920 it was. It was. It's programming between the programming that's 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:02.840 not commercial. When the creators of the program you're actually 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:06.360 watching weren't good enough to make twenty two full minutes, 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:10.760 you round it out with interstitial program Yeah, exactly. Uh, 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:13.400 this is January six and seven was the first weekend 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.200 in ninety three, so I was but two years old. 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:22.160 Well three, yeah you you were in the upper atmosphere 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.920 just playing my liar, coalescing, waiting to be born, flapping 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:30.840 my wings. Uh. And this was before like like you said, 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:32.920 this is the original thing was. It was just gonna 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:37.200 be an album called Multiplication Rock um, until they realized 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:39.360 that the visuals were important they could put it on television. 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:42.680 And the first four songs that first weekend were some 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:47.040 of the greatest, aside from threes, magic number four, legged Zoo, Elementary, 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:51.200 my Dear, and my Hero zero great song uh zero 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:54.600 again yeah, not magical, but it is a cool number. 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.360 Such a funny little hero came along. They counted on 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:04.080 their fingers and so that when was that check three? 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:08.200 And um, I think that first one had quite was 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.240 so it was up to third. There were thirteen episodes 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:13.760 that if it went from zero to twelve. Yeah, I 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:17.120 think what they settled on was, um almost like seasons, 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:20.440 uh themed season, so that the first season was going 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:25.840 to be math related. Yeah. So um. Apparently Bob Darrow 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:29.400 had been off like coming up with songs, didn't realize 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:32.080 that they wanted a song for each number, and he 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:36.160 had started to combine several numbers in a different song, 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:38.520 so he didn't get the memo. He didn't and he 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:43.440 finally did and um he uh. He was trying to 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.520 figure out how to like break the songs apart, and 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:48.480 he came up with one called the four Legged Zoo. 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:52.720 Have you heard that one? Yeah? It's fine, so so 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.560 not one of my favorites, but I mean they're all great. 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:58.160 It's just some standout a little more than others. So 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:02.000 what's your favorite of the multiple k rock Three is 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:04.680 a magic number? Okay? Yeah? And and that was something 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:08.320 else I noticed about this. There are um for each season. 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:13.280 There were at least one standout song per per season 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:17.160 that just about everybody knows. And I would guess three 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:19.880 is the magic numbers. Probably that one, yeah, or maybe 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:21.639 my Hero zero. That was a big one. Yeah, that 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:24.560 was a hit, so much so that um Bob Doro 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:31.240 was up for Grammy in nine four for um, I 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:36.080 I think the whole album, right, yeah, but the those 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:40.640 jerks at Sesame Street one, if you're gonna lose, lose 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.720 the Sesame Street. Yeah, And Dora is like writing and 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:48.040 singing these initial first few songs. I think he's saying, yeah, 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.400 all of them except two, and he hired two other 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:55.520 jazz musicians, Grady Tate and Blossom Deery, Grady Tate saying 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:59.080 Naughty number nine and Blossom Deery saying figure eight. But 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:03.119 all the rest of them, the other eleven, Bob Durrow 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:06.320 sang and he wrote all of them. So yeah, they 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:08.920 really struck gold with that guy. Yeah, I mean he 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:11.920 was he was that initial genius behind this whole thing. Yeah, 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.399 and this is another cool thing about Schoolhouse Rock that 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:19.679 I noticed, Um, the people involved stayed on for basically 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.920 the whole run. In the initial run from seventy to 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:26.520 eighty five, Yeah, it seemed like a project that everyone 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.159 enjoyed working on, and that was highly collaborative, and it 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.080 just seemed like a good experience. I don't think there's 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:34.800 like the v H one special like the Dark Side 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:39.399 of the school House rockyears. You know. Uh, so they 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:42.359 move on to I don't know which one is my favorite, 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.480 Grammar Rock or History, Um, but they moved on to 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:49.879 Grammar Rock next yea seventy three to seventy four, And 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:52.960 we should say I don't think that these were, Um, Like, 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:55.800 I don't think there are breaks in the season. I 0:18:55.880 --> 0:19:02.320 get the impression that from three till when they had 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:05.400 enough episodes, they were just running on like every Saturday 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:08.439 morning during cartoons. Yeah, I certainly don't remember like breaks, 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:12.280 like it just seems like every week they were there. Um. 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:15.160 So seventy three and seventy four you have Grammar Rock, 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:20.159 which um debuted. Some people will probably say the biggest 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.520 of all time Conjunction Junction. Yeah, that's so, and everybody 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:27.720 knows it's a great, great song, uh song, as he's 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.280 sang many others, including my all time favorite, which I'll 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.159 get to later. Okay, but I know what it is. 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.800 I bet you don't. Um. He was MRF MERV Griffin's 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:41.280 trumpet player, Jack Sheldon, who just had this voice that's 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:46.040 just like it's the conjunction Junction. Yeah, it's unbelievable, very 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.760 unique guy. And he kind of looked like Will Ferrell 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:51.800 to me, like he should play him if they did 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.600 a movie about they should do a movie about the 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:58.280 whole thing. If she asked me, Yeah, I think there's 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:01.240 no controversy or conflict. It's just two hours of everybody 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:05.520 getting along doing great stuff. He wants to see that, right, Um, 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:10.199 so Jack Sheldon came along, uh sank in junction junction 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:13.080 and did you go back and listen to that? Like 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:16.080 for this, listen to a lot of these, So that 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:19.480 is a sophisticated song. If you listen to like that, 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.440 we remember our poetry episode. If you listen to like 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:27.359 the meter and the um, the rhyming pattern, the rhyme scheme, 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:31.200 and the slant rhymes they use, like for something that's 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:35.880 made for kids, it is not just rhyme, rhyme, rhyme, rhyme, rhyme, ryme, rhyme, rhyme, rhyme. 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:39.280 You know, like it's a sophisticated song. Um. And it's 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:42.080 pretty pretty cool. Yeah, I think that's I mean, I 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:44.280 think that's why it worked. That was a secret is 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:47.000 um it's I guess it's that not not talking down 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:50.040 to kids. Yeah, And like the music was was good, 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:54.040 Like if you listen to um, I mean those are 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:57.080 a little sing songy, but like some of them were 0:20:57.119 --> 0:20:59.240 like pop music at the time, like the Verb song 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.040 some one of the funkiest songs I've ever heard. Verb 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:06.240 That's What's happening, And especially that one, like I read 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.240 I read this great blog post by this African American 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:12.000 guy that was talking about how verb was like meant 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:14.639 so much to him because at the time, you know, 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:17.200 they didn't have a lot of like cartoons and stuff 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:20.200 that but addressed the black community at all. And so 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:22.679 all of a sudden, you get this cartoon. It's got 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:27.040 the super funky music and this kid that looked like 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:31.320 him having this great adventure uh in the city, and 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:33.960 uh it just kind of it's pretty pretty neat thing, 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:37.000 I think. Yeah that was season two, was Grammar, right, Yes, 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:41.080 So apparently in that same season, lady named Lynn Aaron's 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:47.400 um was a She was a copy copy department secretary. Yeah, 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:49.160 this is where it reminded me of Madman, and she's 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:55.760 like basically took Peggy's journey from like secretary to superstar. 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:59.520 I've never seen mad Yeah it's good. I'm rewatching it 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:03.159 right now. Really, yeah, it's that good. Yeah. So, um, 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:08.200 Lynn was she was a secretary at the advertising agency. 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:11.160 And apparently she was playing her guitar on lunch break. 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:16.160 Another reason the seventies were great exactly, And um, who 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:20.120 was it that Founder Newell, the creative director guy. Yeah, 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:22.040 like in the movie, he's just walking down the hall 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:24.800 and here's this beautiful music and stops. It's like, what 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:27.720 in the world's going on in there? Right? And it 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:30.360 was Lynn Errands, And so they took her and put 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:33.120 her on I guess part time on the project um 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:39.000 and they, I guess eventually made her a full time songwriter, 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:42.119 which is pretty cool. That was her gig. Fifteen of 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:45.480 the songs, including some of the biggest ones. Now and 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:48.680 as a person plays her thing great song in Her Planet, 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:51.680 Janet interjections to good one a Victim of Gravity about 0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:54.679 Isaac Newton in Her Planet Janet, sounds like Rocky Horror 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:57.200 if you go back and listen to it, kind of 0:22:57.240 --> 0:22:59.800 does it bears a real resemblance to it? Or Rocky 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:01.920 Horror sounded like inter Planet Janet. I went and looked. 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:04.679 Rocket Horror was three years before In A Planet Janet 0:23:04.760 --> 0:23:07.200 the movie or the play the movie? Okay, so the 0:23:07.200 --> 0:23:11.359 play was even before that? Was it a play first? Uh? 0:23:11.560 --> 0:23:14.120 Meat Loaf was even in the play, oh yeah, before 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:18.119 the movie, right, and not a play I guess, musical 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:25.560 which play with songs and dancing. Uh So. The next 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:28.240 one to come along was America Rock or History Rock, 0:23:28.359 --> 0:23:32.639 which kind of vised for the best to me with 0:23:32.880 --> 0:23:35.480 Grammar Rock, and that one tied into the bi centennial. 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:38.399 Yeah that was a big deal, which you don't remember, 0:23:38.480 --> 0:23:40.840 but I remember being a little kid, being five years old, 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:44.800 and uh, it took over the country for you know, 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:47.480 that entire year. Yeah, I know there was like a 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:51.200 resurgence and colonial emblems and stuff like that. You know 0:23:51.320 --> 0:23:54.719 that if you ever walked past like a very very 0:23:54.800 --> 0:23:58.680 old person's house today, you might see like a flag 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:03.399 holder that's a black metal eagle holding like some arrows 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:08.760 maybe or that is from still there, like a resurgence 0:24:08.840 --> 0:24:12.479 and Betsy Ross and colonial like knick knacks and stuff. 0:24:13.200 --> 0:24:15.479 I wasn't I was just born, but it was there 0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:17.879 was a it created like a high water mark that 0:24:17.960 --> 0:24:20.119