Happy 35th birthday, Schoolhouse Rock!
On a Saturday in 1973 at about 8:56 in the morning, right after Super Friends on ABC, kids were introduced to a new hero, Zero.
This was the first appearance of Multiplication Rock, brought to you by Nabisco ("You’ll find quality in our corner"). It was the beginning of Schoolhouse Rock, which taught millions of kids across the country multiplication, grammar, history, science, and finances.
So let’s all take a few minutes and watch the video for the first song written for the project, and give thanks for all those lessons learned– it’s okay to sing along, you know how it goes:
I don't know about you, Glenn, but I was an adult and working when this first started. My dependent was my brother who is 17 months younger than I am and he had to be in school before this started in the morning. So, no, I don't know how it goes!
One of my favorites was "Interjections" — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhHpJ45_zwMParticularly when the visiting team scored in the football game:"AW! You threw the wrong way!DARN! You just lost the game!HURRAY! I'm for the other team!" (crowd boos) ;-)
You can tell how beloved a thing is by how often it's parodied. Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) did several SR parodies when he was working on Johnny Bravo, including getting Jack Sheldon (Bill) for a couple. They had a parody on Comedy Central once (ONCE – it was on before MST3K and it never aired again as far as I know) of Nouns called "Conspiracy" about the JFK assassination ("Conspiracy's an ugly word, it's every lie you ever heard") that I would be QUITE keen to see again.
I learned to multiply in 5th grade via flash cards.