"The Funny Company" was a series of short (5 or 6 minute) films about a bunch of enterprising kids doing chores and deeds for local businesses. A distinguishing thing about this series is that each film contained a short film-within-a-film, which might be an educational piece, a story, a song, a how-to segment, or other item of interest to kids. In a sense, this show could take a place next to "Captain Kangaroo" in showing that a show could be entertaining and educational at the same time.
In a sense, it's a shame this little gem didn't continue longer than it did. The educational segments (most of which were introduced by a gizmo called the Weisenheimer) taught without hitting the viewer over the head, and anyway, why does the value of a cartoon have to depend on how empty-headed it is? It is on record that a six-year-old child saved the life of a 2-year-old by giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, which he learned from this show. Know of any other cartoon that can make that claim?
Trivia bit: This show's "educational" segment - later used on shows like "The Big World of Little Adam" and "Tennessee Tuxedo" - was spoofed in the early years of "Saturday Night Live" in a segment called "The Mr Bill Show". Every episode had poor Mr. Bill getting the what-for beaten out of him by Mr. Sluggo and Mr. Hand... and every episode had some "lesson" that usually lasted one line. Example (from the first "Show"):
MR HAND: Look, Mr. Bill, here comes Mr. Sluggo! (Mr. Sluggo, in his car, runs over Mr. Bill) MR BILL: Ooooohh!! MR HAND: You should always look both ways before you cross the street, Mr. Bill.
Trust me, it loses something in the spoofing.
