History, Impressions & Drawbacks of

Schoolhouse Rock!

1969908

This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of

MA in Music
at the School of Music,
Cardiff University

[September, 2020]
1969908 2

DECLARATIONS

By ticking the box below I declare that the following are true:

● This dissertation/portfolio is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
degree of the MA in Music programme.

● This dissertation/portfolio is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except

where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit
references. A Bibliography is appended.

● I hereby give consent for my dissertation/portfolio, if accepted, to be available for photocop ying
and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside
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Please tick

Student Number: 1969908

Date: 21 September 2020

1969908 3

History, Impressions
& Drawbacks of
Schoolhouse Rocks!

Abstract

Schoolhouse Rock! was an educational television program that debuted in the United
States in the early 1970s during a time slot that targeted school-aged children referred to
“Saturday Morning Cartoons”. It consisted of animated episodes that were three minute in
duration and presented academic topics set to an original song. Each of the seasons focused on
a specific academic topic (e.g. multiplication, grammar, science and US history) with a varying
cast of characters.
Utilizing a three-pronged approach, this dissertation will first chronicle the history of the
program, from conception through development of the initial broadcast run, onto the marketing
of the program after it was taken off the air in the mid-1980s and the musical, cultural, and
gender diversity exhibited by it creators. Second, the influence of the program on other television
programming and its appearance in other media will be highlighted. Lastly, the factual
representations of the “America Rock” season will be scrutinized.
1969908 4

To Davida & Mom

& the many others
over the years who have
supported & believed in me
1969908 5

Table of Contents

History ............................................................................................................................................. 1
Impressions ................................................................................................................................... 18
Drawbacks .................................................................................................................................... 38
Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 57
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 62
Chapter One

History
 Bart: “What the hell is this?”
Lisa: “It’s one of those campy seventies throwbacks that appeals to Generation
Xers!”
Bart: “We need another VietNam to thin out their ranks a little.” 1
This exchange between the animated siblings of the Fox Broadcasting Company’s
television program The Simpsons was in reaction to “I’m an Amendment-to-Be”, a musical
television short broadcast in place of their favorite cartoon duo Itchy and Scratchy, a Krustylu
Studios version of the acrimonious cat and mouse dynamics of MGM’s Tom & Jerry. 2 Included in
the half-hearted introduction by Krusty the Clown was the description “a cartoon that tries to
make learning fun”.
The premise of the short was to explain, through song, the necessity to propose changes
to the Constitution of the United States of America, instead of the passing laws via standard
legislative processes. The example provided was a proposal to ban flag burning, which had been
determined to be a protected form of speech under the Constitution’s First Amendment since
1989.3 Any prohibitions or punishment for engaging in the activity would be construed as
unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court and invalidated. Therefore, the only remedy would be
to amend the document. At the conclusion of the short, the amendment was ratified. Yet it did
not address the steps prescribed necessary to complete the process.
The demographic group born in the US between the mid-1960’s to early 1980’s may have
likely recognized the segment as an apparent parody. “Generation Xers” who attended
elementary school during the mid-1970s that watched weekend morning cartoons on the major
television networks would have been hard-pressed to forget “I’m Just a Bill”. The one of dozens
of three-minute episodes from the long-running, multiple Emmy-winning educational cartoon
series Schoolhouse Rock! that was aired on the network of American Broadcasting Company
(ABC).
In this chapter, a history of the program from conception to the cancellation of its initial
broadcast run will be presented. Along with marketing activities that made the series available

1
‘The Day the Violence Died’, The Simpsons, Fox Broadcasting Company, 17 March 1996.
2
Ibid.
3
Texas v. Johnson, 491 US 397 (1989) <tile.loc.gov/storage-
services/service/ll/usrep/usrep491/usrep491397/usrep491397.pdf > [accessed 2 July 2020]
1969908 2

for home media consumption and its brief return to broadcast television. The factor of the
program’s diversity will also be addressed, as various musical styles and cultural representations
were offered throughout the episodes.

Based on an Idea
The concept for the program was conceived when advertising executive David McCall was
vacationing with his family in Wyoming.4 He came upon the idea to produce an album based upon
his son’s ability to recall the lyrics to popular rock-n-roll songs, and coupled with his difficulties
retaining his multiplications tables. Upon returning to his agency, McCaffrey & McCall in New
York City, he shared the idea with co-creative directors George Newall and Tom Yohe and
dispatched jingle writers to compose songs. Unsatisfied with the results a search was then
undertaken to find a different kind of composer. 5
Being a musician himself and no stranger to the local jazz community, Newall sought a
recommendation from bassist Ben Tucker. 6 He recommended his partner in a jingle writing
company Bob Dorough, who had a reputation for being able to make ordinary day-to-day things
the subject of a song, such as the tag attached to mattresses. 7 Along with his songwriting ability,
Dorough was an established pianist, producer, arranger, and singer. 8 Amongst his other
accomplishments were recordings in 1962 with Miles Davis upon which he sang. 9 “Blue Xmas (To
Whom It May Concern)” and “Nothing Like You” put Dorough into an exclusive class of vocalists
backed up by Davis.10

4
George Newall & Tom Yohe, Schoolhouse Rock!: The Official Guide (New York: Hyperion, 1996), p. xi.
5
Ibid., p. xii
6
Marc T. Nobleman, ‘Schoolhouse Rock! Interview: Co-creator/Producer/Songwriter George Newall’,
Noblemania, 3 June 2014 [accessed via <www.noblemania.com/2014/06/schoolhouse-rock-interview-
co_3.html> 29 May 2020].
7
Newall & Yohe, p. xii
8
Marty Hatch, ‘Dorough, Bob [Robert Lrod]’, <www.oxf ordmusiconline.com> [accessed 6 July 2020];
Marc T. Nobleman, ‘Schoolhouse Rock! Interview: Songwriter/Singer Bob Dorough’, Noblemania, 5 June
2014 [accessed via <www.noblemania.com/2014/06/schoolhouse-rock-interview.html> 29 May 2020].
9
Hatch.
10
Various Artists, Jingle Bell Jazz, LP, CBS YS-206-C (1980); Miles Davis, Sorcerer, CD, MoFi UDSACD
2145 (1967); Ramsey, Doug, ‘Bob Dorough is Gone’, 18 April 2018
<https://www.artsjournal.com/rif f tides/2018/04/bob -dorough-is-gone.html> [accessed 26 July 2020].
1969908 3

A meeting arranged at the agency was attended by Dorough, Tucker, Newall, Yohe, and
McCall.11 The concept was pitched though Dorough initially thought it childish. 12 Yet, McCall’s
insistence that the songs should not talk down to younger listeners was enough for Dorough to
consider the proposal. Within weeks, Dorough presented a demo that included “Do the
Sevenses” and “Three is a Magic Number”, which the latter led to a commission to compose more
songs.
McCall utilized his connection with Bank Street College of Education to test the song in
urban and suburban elementary schools in the Greater New York area. 13 The feedback received
noted that the song was a legitimate and efficient means of introducing multiplication to
students. Yohe, head of the agency’s Art Department, went a step further with an idea that the
song would work as an educational film. 14 He drew up a storyboard that featured a magician as
the main character. Aware that an agency client was looking for a prosocial children’s program,
Rad Stone, Senior Vice-President of Accounts, suggested pitching the idea to the ABC network. 15
He scheduled a meeting with Michael Eisner, the network’s Vice-President of Children’s
Programming, who was accompanied by Chuck Jones, famed animator of Looney Tunes films. 16
When the presentation was completed, Jones’ response to Eisner’s request for an opinion was
simply, “Buy It”.17 The program’s original title Scholastic Rock! was changed, due to legal issues
with the publishing company Scholastic Inc. 18 Those concerns did not prevent Newall and Yohe
from retaining Scholastic Rock, Inc. as the name of the show’s production company though. 19

11
Nobleman, ‘George Newall’.
12
Ibid., ‘Bob Dorough’.
13
Newall & Yohe, p. xii
14
Newall & Yohe, p. xii
15
Marc T. Nobleman, ‘Schoolhouse Rock! Interview: Co-creator/Producer Rad Stone’, Noblemania, 4
June 2014 [accessed via <www.noblemania.com/2014/06/schoolhouse-rock-interview-co.html> 29 May
2020]; Newall & Yohe, p. xii
16
Amy Tikkanen, ‘Chuck Jones’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <www.britannica.com/biography/Chuck-
Jones> [accessed 14 July 2020]; Newall & Yohe, p. xii
17
Newall & Yohe, p. xii
18
Ibid., p.75.
19
Ralphwiggum, Original 1973 ending credits to Multiplication Rock, online video recording, Retrojunk
<www.retrojunk.com/content/child/credits/page/4290/schoolhouse-
rock/2#/content/child/credits/4661/show> [accessed 19 July 2020].
1969908 4

Go Ye Forth
The various steps necessary to get a three-minute episode prepared for broadcast
contributed to a lengthy process overall. The most aspects of music production, which took up
to a month, were handled by Dorough. He wrote and arranged ten more songs all related to
multiplication, including the replacement song “Lucky Seven Sampson”. 20 In his role as band
leader, he recruited several musicians with whom he had a prior working relationship, such as
Tucker, trumpeter Jack Sheldon, pianist Dave Frishberg, and drummer Grady Tate.21 Dorough also
recorded the lead vocals for eight of the eleven episodes. For “I Got Six” and “Naughty Number
Nine”, Tate stepped up to the microphone from behind his drum kit. The inner voice of the
schoolgirl daydreaming in “Figure Eight” was performed by Blossom Dearie, whose
accomplishments included a US Top 20 hit (“Lullaby of Birdland”) with the Parisian octet Blue
Stars in 1956.22
The visual process was delegated to storyboard designers and contracted animation
companies. The design personnel, such as Yohe, Jack Sidebotham, and Bill Peckmann, had
backgrounds in advertising and came up with various renderings to accompany the music. 23 A
bulk of the animation process was handled by Phil Kimmelman and Associates, except for
“Elementary, My Dear” and “Three is a Magic Number” which was produced by Focus Designs.24
This was the lengthiest process because the celluloid sheets were hand-painted.25
It took about a week for the content to be vetted by Bank Street College, retained as the
Educational Consultant for the series, then up to two weeks to clear the product with the
network.26 There were occasions when ABC considered not running specific episodes. In one
instance, the anthropomorphized cat smoking a cigar in a billiard hall was a concern of the

20
Appendix.
21
Jack Theroux, ‘Sheldon, Jack’, Grove Music Online <www.oxf ordmusiconline.com> [accessed 6 July
2020]; Steve Larsen & Barry Kernf ield, ‘Frishberg, Dave [David L. ]’, Grove Music Online
<https://www.oxf ordmusiconline.com> [accessed 15 July 2020]; J. Kent Williams, ‘Tate, Grady’, Grove
Music Online <www.oxf ordmusiconline.com> [accessed 6 July 2020].
22
Newall & Yohe, p. 19; ‘Cash Box Top Singles 3/10/56’, Cash Box
<https://cashboxmagazine.com/archives/50s_f iles/19560310.html> [accessed 7 July 2020]; Ed Bemis,
‘Dearie, Blossom’, Grove Music Online <www.oxf ordmusiconline.com> [accessed 6 July 2020].
23
Nobleman, ‘George Newall’.
24
Appendix; Newall & Yohe, p. 7, 9.
25
Nobleman, ‘George Newall’.
26
Ibid.
1969908 5

network censors, but the episode aired unchanged. 27 In another, Eisner considered pulling “Little
Twelvetoes”, because he thought it may be too confusing for the audience. 28 A representative
from the college assured him that viewers would understand the content, such was enough to
quell his doubts.
On Saturday 6 January 1973, Multiplication Rock! (MR) debuted its first four episodes,
which were dispersed interstitially throughout the morning between shows, such as The Brady
Kids, The Jackson 5ive, and The Osmonds.29 Subsequent episodes were released in the following
weeks.
To begin the series’ broadcast day, MR opened with a brief musical passage and montage
of the episodes’ characters.30 Dorough sang the show’s title and its sponsorship by General
Foods, then-producer of many foods and beverages favored by children, such as Kool-Aid and
Jell-O.31 A version was also used without the sponsorship plug. 32 At the conclusion of the day’s
final episode, closing credits scrolled down the screen. 33
An eponymously titled album of songs from the series was released by Capitol Records,
which received a nomination for a 1973 Grammy in the category of Best Recording for Children. 34
The series also went on to earn its first Emmy nomination in 1974.

Speech to the Choir

The success of MR was followed shortly thereafter by the release of Grammar Rock (GR)
episodes in September 1973.35 The focus of the series was the parts of speech and their proper
grammatical usage and modifications. The initial release consisted of five episodes for which

27
Newall & Yohe, p. 21.
28
Nobleman, ‘George Newall’
29
Woolery, George, Children’s Television: The First Thirty-Five Year, 1946-1981. Part 1: Animated
Cartoon Series (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1983), p. 248, 49, 150, 206.
30
Ralphwiggum, Original 1973 intro to Multiplication Rock (sponsored version with General Foods),
online video recording, Retrojunk <https://www.retrojunk.com/content/child/intro/page/4290/schoolhouse -
rock#/content/child/intro/13060/show> [accessed 19 July 2020].
31
Robert Curley, ‘General Foods Corporatio n’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<https://www.britannica.com/topic/General-Foods-Corporation> [accessed 26 August 2020].
32
Ralphwiggum, Original 1973 intro to Multiplication Rock (unsponsored), online video recording,
Retrojunk <www.retrojunk.com/content/child /intro/page/4290/schoolhouse-
rock#/content/child/intro/13059/show> [accessed 19 July 2020].
33
Ralphwiggum, Original 1973 ending credits to Multiplication Rock
34
Various Artists, Multiplication Rock, LP, Capitol SJA-11174 (1973); The Recording Academy, ‘Bob
Dorough’ <www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/bob -dorough/12364> [accessed 15 August 2020].
35
Woolery, p. 248.
1969908 6

Dorough composed three songs and sang on one (“Lolly, Lolly, Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here”). 36
The remaining songs were composed by Lynn Ahrens, whose involvement with the program
began when she was a secretary in Newall’s department at the agency. During her lunch hours
she played her guitar which caught the attention of her supervisor and elicited an invitation to
write a song.37 In addition to songwriting credits, she made her vocal debut singing her song “A
Noun is a Person, Place, or Thing”.38 For “Interjections” which included thematic passages based
on the “Hallelujah Chorus” from George Frederic Handel’s oratorio Messiah and cast Tom Yohe,
Jr. to cry out “Hey!”, “Ouch!”, and “Yow!” in the role of the flu-stricken Reginald.39 Recording
artist Essra Mohawk, whose career included working Frank Zappa’s Mother of Invention,
described moments when one might be inclined to make an exclamatory statement. 40
The design personnel were unchanged for the most part, while animation was produced
solely by Kimmelman & Associates.41 The role of Educational Consultant was fulfilled by English
professor Dr. Henry F. Beechhold from Trenton State College (now College of New Jersey). 42

Image 1: Grammar Rock logo used in opening and closing credits.

36
Appendix.
37
4_Marc T. Nobleman, ‘Schoolhouse Rock! Interview: Songwriter/Singer Lynn Ahrens’, Noblemania, 6
June 2020 [accessed via <www.noblemania.com/2014/06/schoolhouse-rock-interview_6.html> 29 May
2020].
38
Newall & Yohe, p. 33.
39
Ibid., p. 44.
40
7_Marc T. Nobleman, ‘Schoolhouse Rock! Interview: Singer Essra Mohawk’, Noblemania, 8 June 2020
[accessed via <www.noblemania.com/2014/06/schoolhouse-rock-interview-singer-essra.html> 10 June
2020].
41
Appendix
42
1_Newall & Yohe, p. 27; Anon., ‘Ewing Prof . Honored’, The Signal, 21 November 1972, p. 6.
1969908 7

The introduction for GR featured the matriarchal character from “A Noun is a Person,
Place , or Thing” in a rocking chair as the title is spelled in yarn emanating from her knitting
needles as Dorough sang “Grammar is not your grandma it’s your grammar” (Image 1). 43 The
images of episode characters appeared adjacent to their corresponding title, during the closing
credits of the show.44
New episodes would be produced for broadcast in the following years and over a decade
later under the “Grammar Rock” heading. Debuted in 1975, “Unpack Your Adjectives”, written
by Newall, featured a return appearance by Dearie. 45 One year after GR won a Daytime Emmy
for Outstanding Instructional Children's Programming, Series and Specials, “Rufus Xavier
Sarsaparilla” (pronouns), co-written by Dorough and Kathy Mandry was added in 1977.46 In 1993,
eight years after the cancellation of the initial run, Ahrens and Dorough augmented the series
with “Busy Prepositions” and “The Tale of Mr. Morton” (subject/predicate), respectively.47
Sheldon accompanied Dorough on the former, but sang solo on the latter.

R.O.C.K. the U.S.A.

The program title Schoolhouse Rock first appeared in introductory and closing segments
that depicted children entering and leaving the schoolhouse from “Figure Eight” in 1975. 48 That
same year saw the release of episodes that dealt with the history and governmental functions of
the US, which coincided with the country’s upcoming 1976 bicentennial. 49
Band member Dave Frishberg, whose “A World Without Verbs” was not included in GR,
composed “I’m Just a Bill”, which would become another iconic episode. 50 It featured Sheldon

43
Ralphwiggum, Original 1973 intro to Grammar Rock, online video recording, Retrojunk
<www.retrojunk.com/content/child/intro/page/4290/schoolhouse-rock#/content/child/intro/13058/show>
[accessed 19 July 2020].
44
Ralphwiggum, Original 1973 ending credits to Grammar Rock, online video recording, Retrojunk
<www.retrojunk.com/content/child/credits/page/4290/schoolhouse-rock#/content/child/credits/6817/show>
[accessed 19 July 2020].
45
Newall & Yohe, p. 39.
46
‘1975-1976 Emmy Awards’, Infoplease, 11 February 2017 [accessed via <www.inf oplease.com/culture-
entertainment/awards/tv-radio/1975-1976-emmy-awards> 28 July 2020]; Newall & Yohe, p. 41.
47
Grammar Rock!, VHS, ABC Video 47021 (1995).
48
Ralphwiggum, 1975-1978 intro/ending, online video recording, Retrojunk
<www.retrojunk.com/content/child/intro/page/4290/schoolhouse-rock#/content/child/intro/13056/show>
[accessed 19 July 2020].
49
Newall & Yohe, p. 47.
50
Ibid., p. 35.
1969908 8

voicing the main character Bill and his son John was cast to play the supporting role of the boy
inquiring about the steps involved in making federal legislation. 51 Dorough wrote two songs that
he recorded the vocals for.52 With Yohe, they co-wrote “Sufferin’ Till Suffrage”, which was sung
by Mohawk. The remaining six episodes, composed by Ahrens, covered events dating back to the
early days of European colonization on the North American continent through a contemporary
concept of the country’s ethnic diversity. 53 Ahrens performed three of the songs, including “The
Preamble”, which got her onto the series’ songwriting staff a few years prior.
For the New Orleans jazz-styled “Fireworks”, Grady Tate made a return appearance, while
“Elbow Room” and “Great American Melting Pot” were sung respectively by SR one-timers Sue
Manchester and Lori Lieberman.54 The latter was an uncredited collaborator on her 1972 single
“Killing Me Softly with His Song”, inspired by a Don McLean concert that she attended in Los
Angeles.55 Remakes by R&B singer Roberta Flack (1973) and hip-hop trio the Fugees (1996)
reached #1 on the US and UK singles charts, respectively, and were both awarded Grammys. 56
For this series, Yohe and Sidebotham remained as designers, and were joined by Paul Kim
and Lew Gifford, whose company produced a majority of the episodes. 57 The educational
material was vetted by Columbia University Professor of History, John A. Garrety. 58 After being
nominated in 1977, SR won its second Daytime Emmy in the category of Outstanding Children's
Instructional Series the following year. 59
Despite previous successes getting ABC to air disputable episodes, Ahrens’ “Three Ring
Government” was shelved until 1979.60 The network feared that the comparison of the three

51
Ibid., p. 66.
52
Appendix.
53
Ibid.
54
Newall & Yohe, p. 53, 55, 57.
55
Nobleman, Marc T., ‘Schoolhouse Rock! Interview: Singer Lori Lieberman’, Noblemania, 9 June 2020
[accessed via <www.noblemania.com/2014/06/schoolhouse-rock-interview-singer-lori.html> 10 June
2020].
56
‘Chart History: Robert Flack’, Billboard Hot 100 <www.billboard.com/music/roberta-f lack/chart-history>
[accessed 17 July 2020]; ‘Full Of f icial Chart History: Fugees’, Official Charts
<www.of f icialcharts.com/artist/32663/f ugees/> [accessed 17 July 2020]; The Recording Academy,
‘Roberta Flack’ <www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/roberta-f lack> [accessed 6 July 2020]; The
Recording Academy, ‘Fugees’ <www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/f ugees> [accessed 6 July 2020].
57
Appendix.
58
Newall & Yohe, p.45.
59
‘1977-1978 Emmy Awards’, Infoplease, 11 February 2017 [accessed via <www.inf oplease.com/culture-
entertainment/awards/tv-radio/1977-1978-emmy-awards> 28 July 2020].
60
Newall & Yohe, p. 63.
1969908 9

branches of the US government to a circus might face repercussions, such as having its FCC
broadcast license revoked.61 No other episodes pertaining to “America Rock” would be produced
for broadcast, but “I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to College”, written by Newall, was included on
the 2002 30th Anniversary DVD release.62 An unlisted episode co-written by Yohe and Newall,
“Presidential Minute”, was offered as a reward for completing an interactive game included on
the disk.

Down to the Science

After the last of “America Rock” episodes debuted in 1977 SR would not air a new series
until the Fall of the next year. The broadcasts focused on scientific topics, such as human
anatomy, astronomy, physics, and climate.
Of the nine episodes, two-thirds were written by Ahrens, of which “Interplanet Janet” was
her only performance.63 Several of the series’ songs featured artists who made their debut SR
appearances.64 The 1950’s doo-wop styled “Victim of Gravity” reunited The Tokens, known for
their 1961 #1 hit “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. Dorough recorded vocals for Ahren’s “Body Machine”
with Sheldon, and composed “Electricity, Electricity'', sung by Sanders. 65 The writing
contributions made by Newall were both sung by Sheldon. 66
Tom Yohe designed most of the storyboards, while Kim & Gifford produced much of the
animation.67 The educational content was consulted upon by Professor of Science Education Dr.
Odvard Egil Dyrli from the University of Connecticut. 68 “Science Rock” earned the producers of
SR their third Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Series in 1979. 69
Due to complications stemming from a copyright infringement lawsuit, “The Greatest
Show on Earth”, a long held trademark of Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus, was pulled

61
Nobleman, ‘George Newall’.
62
Schoolhouse Rock!: 30th Anniversary Edition, DVD, Buena Vista 23048 (2002).
63
Appendix.
64
Ibid.
65
Newall & Yohe, p. 73, 81.
66
Appendix.
67
Ibid.
68
Newall & Yohe, pp. 67, xiv.
69
‘1978-1979 Emmy Awards’, Infoplease, 11 February 2017 [accessed via <www.inf oplease.com/culture-
entertainment/awards/tv-radio/1978-1979-emmy-awards> 28 July 2020].
1969908 10

from the broadcast rotation.70 The episode that would have been Bob Kaliban’s SR debut did not
become available for viewing until it was released on VHS in the late 1980s, retitled “ Weather”.71

Rock in the 80s and beyond

The airing of new episodes would not occur until 1983. In the interim, a new series
introduction and SR mascot debuted in 1981 (Image 2).72 The voiceover by Dorough sang, “As
your body grows bigger, your mind must flower. It’s great to learn,…”, while four children
transition from toddlers to middle schoolers. One of the boys completed the line with the
exclamation, “...’cause knowledge is power!” and transformed into a taller, muscle-bound
rendering of the boy in “My Hero, Zero”, introduced by a chorus, “ It’s Schoolhouse Rocky. A chip
off the block.”

Image 2: Schoolhouse Rock! mascot Schoolhouse Rocky.

The four episode “Scooter Computer & Mr. Chips” presented a basic overview of personal
computing.73 It was the first time that SR featured recurring characters of a skateboarding
youngster and his roller skating computer, which were cast by Darrell Stern and Kaliban,
respectively. The introduction was composed by Yohe and Dorough, Ahrens wrote “Software”,
and Frishberg penned “Hardware” and “Number Cruncher”.

70
Greg Ehrbar, ‘Schoolhouse Rock on Records’, Cartoon Research, 22 September 2015
<www.cartoonresearch.com/index.php/schoolhouse-rock-on-records/> [accessed 18 July 2020].
71
73_Schoolhouse Rock!: ABC Science Rock, dir. by Jim Bates, VHS, Golden Book Video 13883 (1987).
72
Ralphwiggum, 1981 intro, online video recording, Retrojunk
<www.retrojunk.com/content/child/intro/page/4290/schoolhouse-rock#/content/child/intro/13055/show>
[accessed 19 July 2020].
73
Newall & Yohe, p. 85-94.
1969908 11

At its height, SR was aired over 300 times a year, five times on Saturday mornings and
twice on Sundays.74 Its popularity could not prevent its cancellation by the network in 1985.75
The show was resurrected two years later into a four-tape home video collection by Golden Video
that reformatted the episodes into a long-form program hosted by Oscar and Emmy-winning
actress Cloris Leachman.76Joined by a cohort of children, the host sang introductory songs written
by Steven Geyer and Velton Ray Munch, which Dorough assessed as “inappropriate and inferior
material”.77 Overall, Yohe was not pleased with the Golden Video treatment of the series, which
omitted some of the episodes. He also commented that Leachman was “just hideous” and “the
antithesis of what we wanted to do.” 78
The program made its return to the ABC Saturday morning broadcast lineup in 1992 as
part of the hour-long cartoon compilation Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show.79 During this run, the
two additional “Grammar Rock” episodes debuted, along with a new series “Money Rock” in
1994.80 These episodes centered on topics related to micro- and macroeconomics, such as
personal savings, taxation, and government debt. Many of the people who participated in the
music and animation during the initial run returned for the series. 81
Another VHS collection was released in 1995 by ABC Video, replacing the Leachman
segments with an extended version of “Schoolhouse Rocky” that introduced the Conjunction
Junction Diner patronized by the series’ characters watching the episodes on a video jukebox.82
The collection was repackaged and re-released in 1998 to indicate “Disney presents” after ABC
became a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company. 83

74
Woolery, p. 249.
75
Newall & Yohe, p. ix.
76
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 44th Academy Awards Ceremony/1972
<www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1972> [accessed 21 July 2020]; ‘1973-1974 Emmy Awards’,
Infoplease, 11 February 2017 [accessed via <www.inf oplease.com/culture-entertainment/awards/tv-
radio/1973-1974-emmy-awards> 28 July 2020].
77
Schoolhouse Rock!: ABC Science Rock; 116_van Eekhout & Vanek
78
van Eekhout, Greg & Aaron J. Vanek, ‘Schoolhouse Rock! Remembered’, Wild Cartoon Kingdom
[accessed via <www.inthe80s.com/dynamic/shr.shtml> 21 July 2020].
79
Scott Moore, ‘Schoolhouse rock’, Washington Post, 1 May 1994 [accessed via
<www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lif estyle/tv/1994/05/01/schoolhouse-rock/176bb2c4-f 877-4348-8d50-
487de4c94cd5/> 28 July 2020].
80
Money Rock!, VHS, Buena Vista Home Entertainment 47106 (1998).
81
Appendix.
82
Grammar Rock! (1995).
83
Money Rock! (1998).
1969908 12

The licensing agreements led to adaptations of SR into educational CD-ROM programs

starting in the mid-1990s. Software companies Creative Wonders and Riverdeep produced
various topic-based, age-based games for home usage.84 In 1996, sheet music publisher Cherry
Lane Music marketed a limited selection of SR songs into a songbook.85 The original songs were
also issued on CD and cassette by Rhino Records, including a box set. The Best of Schoolhouse
Rock! CD gained inclusion on the US Library of Congress National Recording Registry in 2018. 86
The 21st Century witnessed the 2002 release of the DVD celebrating the 30th anniversary
of the program’s debut. In 2008, the Election Collection was released to coincide with the
presidential election happening in the US that same year. It was a compendium of past episodes
that addressed topics of history, civics, and politics. Included on the release was a version of
“Presidential Minute” that concluded with a woman winning the presidency, because, at the
time, Hillary Clinton was contending for the Democratic Party nomination. 87 A new series was
introduced in 2009 that went directly to DVD. Episodes that tackled the issues related to climate
change and conservation were released on “Earth Rock”, which involved the participation of
many of the longtime SR veterans.

Mixing It Up
A notable feature of SR was its diverse representation of musical styles and characters.
Though the series titles included “Rock”, most of the music was not rock-n-roll driven. Dorough’s
musical background led to an output that ranged from jazz to blues to funk. Ahrens wrote several
songs that could have been categorized as folk or pop. Interestingly though, the first song that is
discernibly country & western is Frishberg’s “Dollars and Sense” for the “Money Rock” series. 88

84
Creative Wonders, Schoolhouse Rock!: 1st-4th Grade Math Essentials (1997), MS-Windows and Mac;
Riverdeep, Schoolhouse Rock!: Grammar Rock (2005), MS-Windows and Mac.
85
Milton Okun ed., The Schoolhouse Rock! Songbook (Port Chester, NY: Cherry Lane Music, 1996).
86
Library of Congress, Complete National Recording Registry Listing <www.loc.gov/programs/national -
recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/complete-national-recording-registry-listing/> [19 July
2020].
87
Schoolhouse Rock!: Election Collection, DVD, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment 058039
(2008).
88
Money Rock! (1998).
1969908 13

For the most part, the music influenced the animation and the various characters that were
developed.89
Many of the lead roles in SR were of Caucasian males, with a handful of
anthropomorphized statues, animals, and celestial bodies. Yet the series provided numerous
representations of people of color. Saturday morning programs, such as ABC’s Jackson 5ive and
the Columbia Broadcast System’s (CBS) Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, that centered on black
characters were already on the air. 90 The first SR episode to feature a black male lead was “I Got
Six”, Tate was accompanied by female singers in a call-and-response structure backed by a funk-
style guitar riff, accented by a horn section. 91

Image 3: Characters f rom “I Got Six”: children f rom opening scenes (lef t); Prince f rom later scenes.

The scenes addressing multiples of six from 6 to 48 followed a boy, his younger sister, and
his (maybe) Latino friend (Image 3) on their ventures around a New York City neighborhood,
which was confirmed when the boy descended the stairs to the subway (likely W. 40th St & 6th
Avenue entrance to the 42nd St-Bryant Park Station) at the end of the episode. The segment
when 6 was multiplied with 9 through 12 was set in a restaurant that ultimately focused on a
black man, described as a prince, wearing a dashiki and turban, which he removed to reveal his
afro, or “fuzzy hair” (Image 3). His representation alluded to a composite of a wealthy Muslim
and black nationalist, who owned a caravan of barrel-toting camels and was married to twelve
wives, which had each bore him six children.

89
David Serlin, ‘Urban Pedagogy and Soul Iconography in the 1970s’, in Soul: Black power, politics, and
pleasure, ed. Monique Guillory, Richard C. Green, and Richard Green. (New York University Press,
1998), p. 111.
90
Woolery, p. 150, 99.
91
Schoolhouse Rock!: 30th Anniversary Edition.
1969908 14

The superhero figure in “Verb: That’s What’s Happening” marked the first time a black
superhero, appearing in the daydreams of a boy watching a movie, was the lead in a cartoon.
Though black superheroes, such as Marvel’s Black Panther and Luke Cage, were integrated into
mainstream comic book canon, none would get to the screen until Black Vulcan, a DC character
created specifically for The All-New Super Friends Hour in 1978. The music and depiction of Verb
was consistent with a practice befitting blaxploitation film music (e.g. Shaft and Superfly) and
adaptations of established film characters, such as Blackula or Blackenstein.92 He possessed
abilities, such as flight and noun-bending strength, with a look consisting of a caped one-piece
leotard that left his hairy chest exposed, sunglasses, and loose curls that predate jheri curls
(Image 4).93 The music centered on syncopated chord progression vamped by the horn section,
while female singers, reminiscent of Ray Charles’ Raylettes, alternated with Sanders’ lyrics.94
Amongst other ethnically diverse characters were the sibling pairing in “Rufus Xavier
Sarsaparilla''.95 Based on their darker complexions and specifically the name of the titular
character’s sister, Rafaella Gabriella (Image 4), they could have been of Latino or Mediterranean
descent. Their friend Albert Andreas Armadillo, the narrator voiced by Sheldon, who had a dark
complexion and Spanish surname, may have had Caribbean or South American heritage. The 5th
grader in “Body Machine” was the first lead role filled by a black female on SR.96 Though she was
not voiced, her figure was used to demonstrate the process by which foods are converted into
energy. The next episode to feature black leads was 1994’s “Where the Money Goes”, which
depicted a father, voiced by Sheldon, explaining to his son the importance of paying bills to
maintain their suburban lifestyle, which was set to a musical backdrop of New Orleans jazz. 97

92
Serlin, p.112.
93
Ibid., p. 111.
94
Schoolhouse Rock!: 30th Anniversary Edition.
95
Ibid.
96
Ibid.
97
Money Rock! (1998).
1969908 15

Image 4: Superhero f rom “Verb: That’s What’s Happening” (lef t); Characters f rom “Ruf us
Xavier Sarsaparilla”.

Lead roles for female SR characters started with “Figure Eight”, which was followed up by
the angelic figure that guided viewers through “The Good Eleven”. Two episodes of Grammar
Rock, “A Noun is Person, Place, or Thing” and “Unpack Your Adjectives” featured girls explaining
the functions of those parts of speech. For “America Rock”, the “Mother Necessity” character
was briefly voiced by Dearie and Mohawk in separate scenes, but most of the narration was
provided by Dorough and Sheldon. Though the Statue of Liberty was the subject of the chorus in
“Great American Melting Pot”, the narration sung by Lieberman was revealed to be a young girl
flipping through a photo album.
The first episode that portrayed the female lead actively singing the entire song was
“Suffering Till Suffrage”. It began and ended as a staged performance that celebrated the passing
of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution that extended the right to vote to women. The
up tempo piano and guitar rhythms, and Mohawk’s raspy vocals gave the song late 1960’s blues
rock sound akin to Janis Joplin.
A young lady opened “Do the Circulation” from the season of “Science Rock” by hopping
out of bed and beginning her exercise routine to improve her blood flow, which was followed by
the vocal trio of Joshie Armstead, Mary Sue Berry, and Maeretha Stewart describing the function
of the circulatory system.98
The star trekking “Interplanet Janet” who would emerge to be the most popular female
character in the SR canon.99 As Ahrens sings, viewers were guided through the Earth’s stellar

98
Newall & Yohe, p. 71.
99
Anon., liner notes to Schoolhouse Rock!: 30th Anniversary Edition, DVD, Buena Vista 23048 (2002).
1969908 16

region of the Milky Way Galaxy by an extraterrestrial creature that was part humanoid and part
rocket fuselage. She offered descriptions of the larger bodies that inhabit the Solar System from
the Sun to distant Pluto (Image 5).

Image 5: Lead character f rom “Interplanet Janet” requesting autograph f rom the star of the
Solar System.

On top of the reference to Islam in “ I Got Six”, allusions to religion were present in some
episodes. Most obviously, the story of Noah’s Ark from the Book of Genesis was the setting for
“Elementary, My Dear”.100 It relied on the myth’s imagery of paired animals to illustrate
multiplying by two. Other references were less apparent. The mention of the “ancient, mystic
trinity” in “Three is a Magic Number” may have implied the Christian representation of the three
states of their god’s presence as the “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost”. 101 Yet, other religions around
the world, such as Buddhism, utilize triadic symbolism also (Image 6). 102 The episode that
explained the body’s skeletal system opened with a barbershop quartet claiming that the
assemblage of rigid organs was the “working of the Lord.” This usage of the term “Lord” in “Them
Not-So-Dry Bones” is a common designation to the deity depicted in Judeo-Christian texts.103

100
Schoolhouse Rock!: 30th Anniversary Edition.
101
Ibid.
102
Artist Unknown, Buddhist Triad [online]
<www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/41922.html?mulR=392> [accessed 8 September 2020].
103
Schoolhouse Rock!: 30th Anniversary Edition.
1969908 17

Image 6: Ink on silk Buddhist Triad f rom late-14th to late-16th century Japan.

The eclectic assortment of music and characters offered by SR endured for twelve years
since it debuted on ABC. Its continued afterlife has made the show accessible to subsequent
generations of young learners. To what extent though has David McCall’s idea had on the broader
cultural landscape?
1969908 18

Chapter Two

Impressions
1969908 19

The success of Schoolhouse Rock! is demonstrable beyond its broadcast longevity and
multiple awards. Charles Caleb Colton’s reflection that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”
is applicable to confirm the impression that the program left on the cultural landscape in the
decades since it first hit the airwaves. 104 Personnel from SR, amongst many others, have made
efforts to replicate, commercialize, emulate, and satirize the series. This chapter will survey the
works that have been produced in various media that reveal the program’s lasting impact.

Catching Lightning Twice

At the network, ABC aired various musical public service announcements (PSA’s) on
Saturday mornings, concurrent to SR throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s to encourage their
viewers to engage in healthier practices. Among them were the dozen-plus commissioned from
the animation company co-founded by Friz Freleng, known for his work at Warner Bros. and
creation of the Pink Panther cartoons, which premiered in 1974.105 Under the title ABC Health &
Nutrition Commercials that featured music and lyrics composed by Lynn Ahrens, these 30-60
second spots focused on topics related to health, nutrition, dental hygiene, and career options,
in an effort to provide counterbalance to the advertisements for sugary breakfast cereals and
snack foods.106

Image 7: Timer as he appeared in “Hanker f or a Hunk of Cheese” (lef t); Twinkie the Kid.

104
Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon, or Many Things in Few Words: Addressed to Those Who Think
(London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, 1829), vol. 1, p. 113.
105
Mark Arnold, ‘Charlie the Tuna, Advertising and PSA’s’, Think Pink: The Story of DePatie-Freleng
(Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media, 2016), p. 46.
106
Woolery, p. 5.
1969908 20

The bulk of these PSA's, unofficially dubbed Time for Timer, featured a character that
originally appeared in two episodes of the ABC After School Specials, for which DePatie-Freleng
Enterprises (DFE) provided the animation. 107 Over seven spots, Timer, a yellow globule with
spindly extremities adorned with a top hat and bowtie, sang his way through the digestive system
or from a kitchen countertop instructing children to make and eat more nutritious foods. 108 His
wardrobe differed in “I Hanker for a Hunk of Cheese”, as he sported a cowboy hat and
handkerchief teaching the audience to make a between-meal snack out of rounded slices of
cheese and crackers called wagon wheels. This particular look can be inferred as a negligible
resemblance to the Hostess’ mascot Twinkie the Kid (Image 7). In keeping with the practice of
SR, an expert in the subject matter, Dr. Roslyn B. Alfin-Slater from the University of California-Los
Angeles, served as a consultant.

Image 8: Munchies carrying their target to the ref rigerato r (lef t); Minilla as he appeared in
Son of Godzilla (1967).

Four of the commercials closed with a tag promoting membership of the ABC Bod Squad.
“(Watch Out for) The Munchies” encouraged viewers to resist, through activity or food choice,
the temptations of a band of seemingly child-sized versions of Godzilla’s offspring Minilla (Image
8) that enticed children to eat sweets when feeling “bored or blue”, which may lead to unwanted
weight gain.109

107
Arnold, p. 322
108
RadMardigan, Time For Timer Compilation! Saturday Morning Cartoon 70/80s PSAs , online video,
YouTube, 9 February 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJPmJaPBQaw&t=36s> [accessed 11
August 2020].
109
SatAMBrainFood, Watch Out for the Munchies, online video recording, YouTube, 18 November 2010,
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYECiRQW8i4> [accessed 27 July 2020].
1969908 21

For children short on time in the morning, “Quickfast” recommended fast and easy meals
in lieu of skipping breakfast altogether.110 The prolific Scatman Crothers, whose career spanned
the breadth of music, film and television, sang the snack recipe of nuts and raisins in “Nutty
Gritty” and performed the titular role in “Yuck Mouth”, who addressed the perils of poor dental
care.111
Other food-oriented commercials produced by DFE had a closing graphic that identified
them as “Another Nutritional Message”. Louis the Lifeguard, donning a scuba mask and flippers,
sought to dissuade his audience from the overuse of condiments in “Don’t Drown Your Food”.112
The healthier alternative to an ice cream sundae in “Make a Saturdae” suggested a dessert
consisting of yogurt and assorted fruit. 113 The ensemble in “Exercise Your Choppers” were
evocative of the leather-jacket clad Danny Zucco and his T-Bird entourage from Grease, as they
harmonized the importance of eating fruit, vegetables, and nuts that are hard and crunchy, in
order to strengthen one’s teeth.114

110
SatAMBrainFood, Quickfast, online video recording, YouTube, 18 November 2010,
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTT2Rdrvy3w> [accessed 27 July 2020].
111
Woolery, p. 5.; Arnold, p. 47.
112
SatAMBrainFood, Don’t Drown Your Food, online video recording, YouTube, 18 November 2010,
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oWR2QMrI9k> [accessed 27 July 2020].
113
SatAMBrainFood, Make a Saturdae, online video recording, YouTube, 18 November 2010,
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btWy-tGlkjM> [accessed 27 July 2020].
114
SatAMBrainFood, Exercise Your Choppers, online video recording, YouTube, 18 November 2010,
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuEOusBTYkE> [accessed 27 July 2020]; Grease, dir. Randal
Klieser (Paramount, 1978).
1969908 22

The 1980’s series Zack of All Trades employed the vocal stylings of Luther Vandross to
show the audience “what work’s all about”. 115 The episodes proposed a means for older children
to introspectively determine the tasks or activities that they were most interested in or proficient
at, then suggested potential careers. 116 Amongst the contributors to SR, Ahrens ventured into
the development and production side of the industry creating her own brands of educational,
but not music-driven, shorts for ABC. The Dough Nuts illustrated the pitfalls that frivolous
spending habits could lead to.117 Via narration in spoken verse, the financial misfortunes of
characters, such as Mary Mabel Meeker and Gordon Graham Gantz, were coupled with the
designs of another SR veteran George Cannata.118
The series of H.E.L.P.!! (Dr. Henry’s Emergency Lessons for People) focused on safety and
first aid practices.119 Kimmelman & Associates, who had been involved with SR in its inaugural
season, provided the animation for the program. Credited as the “Medical Authority” was Henry
J. Heimlich, the developer of the throat-clearing emergency maneuver that bears his name.120
Though short-lived, Ahrens was awarded an Emmy in 1980 for “Outstanding Children's
Informational/Instructional Programming, Short Format (Daytime)” in a three-way tie with CBS’
In the News and SR, collecting its fourth trophy. 121 H.E.L.P.!! generated the spin-off series High-
Class Hudson’s Earning Lessons for Person, which featured an affluent black character doling out
financial advice.122

115
Arnold, p. 54.
116
SatAMBrainFood, The Future Blob, online video recording, YouTube, 19 November 2010,
<www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3qv5RM5rWY> [accessed 27 July 2020].
117
SatAMBrainFood, Gordon Graham Gantz-Dough Nuts, online video recording, YouTube, 18
November 2010, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf v2-poF3yg> [accessed 27 July 2020].
118
SatAMBrainFood, Mary Mabel Meeker-Dough Nuts, online video recording, YouTube, 18 November
2010, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lzSWq2NG9Y> [accessed 27 July 2020].
119
David Perlmutter, ‘H.E.L.P.!’, The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows (Lanham,
MD: Rowman & Littlef ield, 2018), p. 274.
120
muttley16, Dr. Henry’s Emergency Lessons for People, online video recording, YouTube, 14 May
2008, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmHm8OOz8P8> [accessed 29 July 2020].
121
‘1979-1980 Emmy Awards’, Infoplease, 11 February 2017 [accessed via
<www.inf oplease.com/culture-entertainment/awards/tv-radio/1979-1980-emmy-awards> 28 July 2020].
122
SatAMBrainFood, High Class Hudson, online video recording, YouTube, 18 November 2010,
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh5n1SjUT7s> [accessed 27 July 2020].
1969908 23

In an attempt to spur a voluntary transition to the International System of Units (SI), the
US government enacted the Metric Conversion Act of 1975.123 The US Office of Education
sponsored a metric literacy campaign consisting of a musical animated PSA comparing liters,
grams, meters and Celsius to quarts, ounces, yards and Fahrenheit, respectively. 124
Orsatti Productions released a series of 14 minute untelevised films following the exploits
of the superhuman Metric Man as he confronted rivals, such as The Ounce Family, Pounder and
Puncheon, who were intent on maintaining the measurement status quo. 125 The caped
protagonist was an assemblage of superhero tropes, reminiscent of DC Comics’ Superman and
Captain Marvel (aka Shazam), comprised of diminutive alter-ego, Newton Joule, who
transformed inside a telephone kiosk subsequent to calling out an enchantment and being struck
by a bolt of lightning as the following narration announced his heroic appearance as “faster than
a kid leaving school, more powerful than the phone company, able to leap over math problems
with a single measure”.126 Each adventure featured a song complimentary to the unit addressed,
which was included on the 1976 compilation Songs of Metric Man.127

Image 9: Metric Marvels (right); Justice League of America in ABC’s Super Friends.

123
United States, Metric Conversion Act of 1975, Pub. L. 94-168
<www.govinf o.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-89/pdf /STATUTE-89-Pg1007.pdf > [accessed 22 July 2020].
124
Museum of Classic Chicago Television, U.S. Office Of Education-"Metric Education" (PSA, 1978),
online video recording, YouTube, 10 February 2012, <www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUXutV6Vk6k>
[accessed 22 July 2020].
125
Ewald Breuer, liner notes of Songs of Metric Man, LP, Metric Records MR 1-51 (1976).
126
Superman: The Mechanical Monsters, dir. Dave Fleischer (Paramount, 1941); Len Wein, et al.,
‘Captain Marvel’, Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe, 4 (1985), p. 12; Metric Man
Takes a Vacation, dir. Paul Sommer & Paul Gruwell (Orsatti Productions, 1976).
127
Various Artists, Songs of Metric Man, LP, Metric Records MR 1-51 (1976).
1969908 24

From 1978 to 1979, a series of two-minute musical animated shorts developed by Newall
& Yohe, Inc. featured a cast of SI “super friends” (Image 9), which aired on National Broadcast
Company (NBC) .128 The Metric Marvels, rostered by Meter Man, Liter Leader, Super Celsius, and
Wonder Gram (a full-figured knockoff of Wonder Woman from Super Friends), were intent on
“fighting to stamp out metric ignorance and introduce the system that rules the world”. 129
Due to the public resistance to the metric system, the conversion measure ultimately
failed which led to the company ceasing further production beyond seven episodes. 130 To this
day the US, along with Myanmar and Liberia, does not employ SI as the official system of weights
and measures.131
The live-action/animation venture Drawing Power was a program of 30-minute episodes
also produced by Newall & Yohe for NBC. Airing from October 1980-May 1981, the show was set
in an animation studio operated by a veteran artist (played by SR alum Bob Kaliban) and his two
younger assistants. Interactions between the characters established a pro-social topic, which
segued into animated segments that reinforced the theme. 132
Billed as “Cartoons with a conscious”, “Bus Stop” explored different cultures throughout the US,
“The Book Reporters” (Dewey Decimal, Page Turner and Constance Reader) interviewed literary
characters, and “Superperson U.” addressed improving interpersonal skills endorsed by the duo
of Miss Law and Order and their Australian cohort Captain Boomerang (not the DC Comics
villain).133 The brief run neither hindered Yohe and past SR designers Paul Kim and Lew Gifford
from winning a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming-
Graphics and Animation Design, nor prevented the series from being released on VHS collections
in 1999 (e.g. Girl Power, Brain Power) and 2004 (e.g. Reading Rock, Kids Rock).134

128
Woolery, pp. 180-181.
129
Sean Mc, Metric Marvels 1970's NBC Saturday Morning PSA, online video recording, YouTube, 27
December 2013, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02wgP_FlXC4> [accessed 23 July 2020].
130
Noell K. Wolf gram Evans, ‘George Newall and Tom Yohe: The Entertaining Educators’, Animators of
Film and Television: Nineteen Artists, Writers, Producers and Others (Jef f erson, NC: McFarland & Co.,
2011), p. 144.
131
‘Appendix G :: Weights and Measures’, The World Factbook 2020 (Washington, DC: Central
Intelligence Agency, 2020).
132
Woolery, p. 86.
133
Anon., back cover of Drawing Power: Reading Rock, VHS, Sterling Entertainment Group 1581 (2004);
Len Wein, et al., ‘Captain Boomerang’, Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe, 4 (1985),
7.
134
Evans, p. 144.
1969908 25

Rock Out
Artists in the music industry have produced recordings that have used excerpts or covered
songs from the SR catalog. On their 1989 release 3 Feet High and Rising, hip-hop trio De La Soul
included the track “The Magic Number”, which reached the Top 10 on the UK singles chart the
following year.135 Over a repetitive drum beat and record scratch fills, the verses of self-adulation,
for the most part, emulated Bob Dorough’s lyrical rhythmic pattern with unsampled refrains of
“three is the magic number, yes it is” throughout. 136 Despite some legal issues regarding royalty
payments to Dorough, he and De La Soul formed an amicable relationship, which led to a planned
collaboration for Amnesty International. He composed “I Am a Human” for the group to perform,
but it did not come to fruition due to the organization’s financial troubles. 137
Whether it’s a DJ mixing records for a live MC or looping a phrase on a recording, the
practice of sampling another artist’s music has been synonymous with hip-hop since its inception.
Ample references to SR appear in tracks throughout the hip-hop community. Samples of the
keyboard phrase from “Figure Eight” were featured on recordings by Will Smith, Mobb Deep, and
Compton’s Most Wanted.138
Diamond and the Psychotic Neurotics utilized that piece as well, along with the xylophone fill
from “Four-Legged Zoo” on their track “Red Light, Green Light”. The descending opening theme
of “Little Twelvetoes” (Figure 1) is featured prominently throughout 2014’s “Om” by MF Doom
and Bishop Doom.139 Lyrically, the line “Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?” (verbatim
or modified) has appeared in songs by Naughty by Nature, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Warren G and Big
Daddy Kane.140
141

135
De La Soul, 3 Feet High and Rising, CD, Tommy Boy TBCD 1019 (1989); ‘Full Of f icial Chart History:
De La Soul’, Official Charts <www.of f icialcharts.com/artist/25353/de-la-soul/> [accessed 23 July 2020].
136
Vinyl Stash, De La Soul-The Magic Number (HQ), online video recording, YouTube, De La Soul - The
Magic Number (HQ), <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZoYEr6NdmE> [accessed 23 July 2020].
137
Jack Needham, ‘The Unlikely Inf luence of Schoolhouse Rock! on Hip-Hop: How an Animated
Educational Children’s TV show f rom the Late 1970s Inspired Artists f rom De La Soul to MF Doom and
Beyond’, Red Bull Music Academy Daily, 3 August 2017 [accessed via
<https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/08/schoolhouse-rock-and-hip-hop> 13 August 2020].
138
Ibid.
139
NehruvianDoom, NehruvianDoom (Sound of the Son), LP, Lex Records LEX099 LP (2014).
140
Needham.
1969908 26

Figure 1: Opening melody of “Little Twelvetoes” sampled in “Om” by MF Doom and Bishop Doom.
(transcribed by author)

In 1996, the Atlantic subsidiary Lava Records released an album of SR covers. Dorough’s
recording of “Schoolhouse Rocky” was the opening song, followed by a track list that spanned
various popular music genres. Amongst the contributors were rapper Biz Markie (“The Energy
Blues”), electronica DJ Moby (“Verb: That’s What’s Happening”), and alternative rock band Blind
Melon (Three is a Magic Number”).142 The Children’s Defense Fund, an advocacy and lobbying
organization that focuses on improving access to health care, proper nutrition, and education for
US youths living in poverty, was the recipient of a portion of the proceeds of album sales. 143
Another compilation of remakes was released by the Rhino label to fundraise for a
political awareness organization founded by music industry executives in 1990. 144 Contributors
to 1998’s Schoolhouse Rocks the Vote!: A Benefit for Rock the Vote included Grammy winners,
such as Etta James (“Sufferin’ Till Suffrage”), Isaac Hayes (“I’m Just a Bill” with Joan Osbourne),
and John Popper from Blues Traveler (“The Preamble”), as well as hip hop pioneers Sugarhill Gang
(“Fireworks”).
Four of the tracks are not part of the SR animation canon, three of which are sung by Dorough
(“The Campaign Trail”), Essra Mohawk (Do You Wanna Party?), and Grady Tate (“Messin’ with
My Bill of Rights”).

142
Various Artists, Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks, CD, Lava 92681-2 (1996).
143
Children’s Def ense Fund, Our History <www.childrensdef ense.org/ab out/who-we-are/our-history/>
[accessed 23 July 2020].
144
Various Artists, Schoolhouse Rocks the Vote!: A Benefit for Rock the Vote, CD, Rhino 75511 (1998).
1969908 27

Curtain Up
The production company Theatrebam Chicago, founded in 1992, premiered a musical that
incorporated a selection of SR songs on 26 August 1993 in the basement theater of the Cabaret
Voltaire.145 The one-act Schoolhouse Rock Live!, authored by George Keating, Kyle Hall, and Scott
Ferguson, recounted the anxious morning that 3rd Grade teacher Tom Mizer was experiencing,
as he prepared himself for his first day on the job. 146 With emotions that ranged from enthusiastic
to petrified, Tom attempted to settle himself by watching television and happened upon SR,
which was uncharacteristically airing on a weekday.147 The songs proceeded as aspects of Tom’s
various emotions became personified and actively engaged with him. 148 As the events came to
their conclusion, he found himself in his classroom in front of his students having navigated his
lessons.149
After its initial eight-month run and a second at the Body Politic, the show went on to
have a nearly year-long Off-Broadway stint in New York City.150 An abridged version that ran
concurrently was developed from performances in schools. 151 The show returned to Chicago for
another engagement, before partnering with Music Theater International (MTI), leading to a
national tour and performances in Canada and London’s West End. 152
As part of MTI’s Junior Broadway Collection, Schoolhouse Rock Live! JR was developed
with Ahrens credited as an additional author. 153

145
Schoolhouse Rock Live, ‘About Theatrebam Chicago’ <schoolhouserocklive.net/aboutus/index.html>
[accessed 24 July 2020]; Schoolhouse Rock Live, ‘Production History’
<schoolhouserocklive.net/history/index.html> [accessed 24 July 2020].
146
Music Theater International, Schoolhouse Rock Live! <www.mtishows.com/schoolhouse-rock-live>
[accessed 23 July 2020]; Music Theater International, Schoolhouse Rock Live! JR.
<www.mtishows.com/schoolhouse-rock-live-jr> [accessed 23 July 2020]; Music Theater International,
Schoolhouse Rock Live! Too <www.mtishows.com/schoolhouse-rock-live-too> [accessed 23 July 2020].
147
MTI, Schoolhouse Rock Live!.
148
Ibid.
149
Ibid.
150
Schoolhouse Rock Live, ‘Production History’.
151
Ibid.
152
Ibid.
153
MTI, Schoolhouse Rock Live! JR.
1969908 28

The production is geared to be performed by younger performers, thus necessitating

transposition of the music to accommodate children’s vocal ranges. 154The plot was altered in its
depiction of Tom interacting with the characters from the television program, instead of his own
emotions.155
A sequel, Schoolhouse Rock Live! Too, penned by Ferguson, blended his and Dennis
Curley’s original songs with SR selections into a story set in a failing diner where the owner, Nina,
is desperate to come up with a concept that would keep the establishment from permanently
shuttering its doors.156 The school teacher Tom, a patron of the restaurant, initiates a
brainstorming session, with Nina, the staff and other customers.157 The musical runs through SR
songs, which represent ideas presented to turn the business around.158 It was eventually decided
that the eatery’s theme would be based on the television series and renamed The Conjunction
Junction Diner. 159

Going Commercial
Schoolhouse Rock! had a bit of homecoming, when its songs began to appear in
advertisements for products and services unrelated to the show. A television commercial for a
Virginia-based railroad shipping company used a song based on “Conjunction Junction”. 160 In the
recording the original title was supplanted by the firm’s name Norfolk Southern.
In several advertisements for a variety of clients, “Three is a Magic Number” found its way
into campaigns in and out of the US. A 1997 Nike commercial focused on an outdoor backboard,
a basketball rim and a single sneaker hung up in the broken chain net. 161 With an ocean view in
the background the original version of the song plays for the duration of the advertisement.

154
Schoolhouse Rock Live, ‘Synopsis’<schoolhouserocklive.net/synopsis/index.html> [accessed 24 July
2020].
155
MTI, Schoolhouse Rock Live! JR.
156
Ibid.
157
MTI, Schoolhouse Rock Live! Too.
158
Ibid.
159
Ibid.
160
RP3 Agency, Norfolk Southern: What’s Your Function, online video recording, YouTube, 25 April
2014, <www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI8pNnmDzdE> [accessed 22 July 2020].
161
miner257, Magic Number Commercial, online video recording, YouTube, 15 May 2007,
<www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvqwsiVn3W0> [accessed 22 July 2020].
1969908 29

In commemoration of his team's third straight National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals
victory in 2002 highlights Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant are flashed in a soft drink plug. 162 The
De La Soul-type version with lyrics that mention Bryant is coupled with graphics that reiterated
the number “3” and a final shot of him drinking a Sprite. In collaboration with Gatorade, John
Legend customized the song for retiring Miami Heat’s player Dwayne Wade whose uniform
number was “3”.163 The music accompanied a celebratory video first played at Wade’s last home
game in 2019.
Canadian telecommunications company Telus promoted a discounted service bundle as
part of their commercial series featuring exotic birds. The offering of their telephone, television
and internet service package presented a sequence of three trios of birds, which was
soundtracked by the Blind Melon version from the 1996 benefit album.164
The utilization of “Three is a Magic Number” in commercials on UK television may have
been driven by the success of the De La Soul single, due to SR not having a broadcast in the
country. For the 9 February 2003 launch of the television channel BBC 3, a cart drove past images
that scrolled right to left across the screen as Dorough’s recording accompanied. 165 Additionally,
the station aired a bumper cast by three girls playing Rock Paper Scissors underscored by an
isolated keyboard phrase and the graphic “THE MAGIC NUM3ER”.166 A computer-animated,
anthropomorphized cornucopia of slug-like creatures sang the tune in a station ident that
introduced upcoming programming.167

162
SwimInMystery, Kobe Bryant-Sprite Commercial 2002 (Three is the Magic Number), online video
recording, YouTube, 5 August 2012, <www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GTskBzdXr8> [accessed 22 July
2020].
163
Ann-Christine Diaz, ‘John Legend Sings '3 is the Magic Number' f o r Gatorade’s Dwyane Wade
Tribute’, Ad Age, 10 April 2019 [accessed via <adage.com/creativity/work/gatorade-dwayne-wade-tribute-
3-magic-number/2163791> 22 July 2020].
164
PreciousParrots, Telus-Parrots-3 is a Magic Number, online video recording, YouTube, 1 April 2008,
<www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf bK7XQ89BA> [accessed 22 July 2020].
165
Darren Rigby-O’Neill, BBC Three-Three is the Magic Number-Advert, online video recording,
YouTube, 7 September 2015, <www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIqFv7si9q8> [accessed 22 July 2020].
166
ppotter, BBC3: The Magic Number bumper (BBC2, 2003) , online video recording, YouTube, 13 July
2017, <www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRrrStg8hk4> [accessed 22 July 2020].
167
PRES BITS f rom thisisf ive.co.uk, BBC Three Ident-Three is the Magic Number, online video recording,
YouTube, 7 February 2010, <www.youtube.com/watch?v=z34XUDTz0GQ> [accessed 22 July 2020].
1969908 30

McDonald’s made use of the song to promote the CBO (Chicken Bacon Onion) sandwich,
as parts were performed by live action or animated references to various popular trios (e.g.
Parisian swashbucklers, visually-impaired rodents, house-building swine).168
The National Lottery, for a 2019 commercial celebrating its 25th anniversary, adapted the tune
to list the various number of accomplishments and initiatives funded during its tenure, starting
with three.169 It was performed by a cast intended to be representative of various segments of
the British population.

Word Play
Variants of SR titles have appeared on television segments and presentations. On her
eponymously titled MSNBC political news program The Rachel Maddow Show, the host
presented a recurring segment that focused on fact-checking statements made by members of
the US government or media. “Debunktion Junction”, which opened with animation similar to
the original episode’s train-theme, aired during several of the show’s seasons. 170
In a 1999 episode, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which aired on Comedy Central,
featured a “This Just In” segment, which reported a story dubbed “Schoolhouse Crock”. The
subject was a trend where yet to be known UK pop artists performed concerts for children at
their schools, which Stewart repeatedly poked fun at. 171 Spotlighted in the report were British
singing duo Fred & Roxy, who were promoting their pending album that yielded their only Top
40 hit in the UK, “Something for the Weekend”. 172

168
Dan Styles, McDonald’s Ad Three is the Magic Number, online video recording, YouTube, 29 July
2013, <www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKa_N4P6Hco> [accessed 22 July 2020].
169
The National Lottery, Your Numbers Make Amazing Happen, online video recording, YouTube, 26
October 2019, <www.youtube.com/watch?v=f dbKE0kjle4> [accessed 22 July 2020].
170
‘E1601161’, The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, 15 January 2016.
171
‘Tori Amos’, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Comedy Central, 16 November 1999.
172
‘Full Of f icial Chart History: Fred & Roxy’, Official Charts <www.of f icialcharts.com/artist/8735/f red -and-
roxy/> [accessed 27 July 2020].
1969908 31

The Congressional Management Foundation, in partnership with the Emergency Nurses

Association, released a video that discussed the people and processes involved in the US
legislative process. The presentation was titled Schoolhouse CROCK: How a Bill REALLY Becomes
a Law in the 21st Century went into detail that “I’m Just a Bill” had not addressed, such as the
influence lobbyists and advocacy groups have over the passage of a piece of legislation. 173
In Ken Bradford’s Exclamations the opening production logo displayed “Schoolhouse
Crock” stylized similarly to the SR logo (Image 10).174 The video was a parody of “Interjections”,
though Handel was credited for the music not Ahrens.
The overall sequencing was consistent with the original, yet the lyrical and visual content
was changed to depict the interactions of a couple of twenty-somethings (pre- and post-coitus),
with the intent of being humorous.

Image 10: Opening logo f rom Exclamations by Ken Bradf ord.

173
Emergency Nurses Association, Schoolhouse Crock-How a Bill Really Becomes a Law, online video
recording, YouTube, 2 March 2015 <www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2dFyLhYvWU> [accessed 27 July
2020].
174
Exclamations, dir. Ken Bradf ord (Schoolhouse Crock, 1999).
1969908 32

Prepare for Takeoff

In contemporary contexts, a parody is a comedic work based on an existing work, through
some alteration or exaggeration of content. 175 Parody has a centuries-old history throughout
music and literature and more recently in television and film. 176 On their 2005 album, the Austin,
Texas duo Brobdingnagian Bards released light-heartedly rendition of “Interjections” with lyrics
recounting battles and dragons titled “Exclamations”. 177 It was reminiscent of Allan Sherman’s
treatment of “Greensleeves” in his “Sir Greenbaum's Madrigal”. 178 Yet, mockery and contempt
may also be the objective of a satirist. 179 Schoolhouse Rock! has been the vehicle and target for
others to address topics not presented in the shorts.
Parodies of the SR episode “I’m Just a Bill” have appeared on popular primetime
programs. In the “Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington” episode of Fox’s animated series Family Guy,
a brief electric guitar lick led in a scrolled document that tiredly crooned, “They call me Bill. Yes,
they call me Bill. And I’m standing here on Capitol…” just prior to being stabbed by the spike of a
custodian’s litter picker.180 Like in The Simpsons segment, the titular character was voiced by SR
stalwart Jack Sheldon.181
On ABC’s black-ish, members of the hip hop ensemble The Roots (Black Thought,
Questlove, and Captain Kirk Douglas) were rendered in animation as they sang “I Am a Slave” to
an inquisitive youngster.182 The tune began discussing the circumstances of the holiday
Juneteenth, celebrated annually on 19 June. During the US Civil War (1861-1865) President
Abraham Lincoln issued the

175
Michael Tilmouth, ‘Parody (ii)’, Grove Music Online <www.oxf ordmusiconline.com> [accessed 15
August 2020].
176
J.E. Luebering, ‘Parody’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <https://www.britannica.com/art/parody -literature>
[accessed 15 August 2020].
177
Brobdingnagian Bards, Brobdingnagian Fairy Tales, Mage Records MRBB8 (2005).
178
Allen Sherman, The Son, the Folk Singer, Warner Bros. W1475 (1962).
179
Luebering.
180
‘Mr. Grif f in Goes to Washington’, Family Guy, Fox Broadcasting Company, 25 July 2001.
181
Family Guy; The Simpsons.
182
‘Juneteenth’, Black-ish, ABC, 3 October 2017.
1969908 33

Emancipation Proclamation on 17 September 1862, which threatened to free the slaves of the
seceded Confederate States that continued to engage in hostilities against the US after 1 January
1863.183 The document had little effect prior to Robert E. Lee’s surrender to US general Ulysses
S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia on 9 April 1865.184
Despite the Confederate defeat slaves in Texas remained unaware of their freedom for
another two months. The Roots addressed the cycle of forcibly migrating African slaves to the
Americas, shipping raw materials to Europe, and finished products to Africa, known as the
Triangular Trade (Image 11), and identified Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK as
participants in this practice. The penultimate scene depicted a woman, presumably Harriet
Tubman (Image 11), leading Black Thought to freedom via the Underground Railroad, which
covertly provided slaves a route to freedom.

Image 11: Map of Triangular Trade shown in “I’m Just a Slave” f rom black-ish; Harriet
Tubman-type character leading slave to f reedom.

183
Jef f Wallenf eldt, ‘Emancipation Proclamation’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<www.britannica.com/event/Emancipation-Proclamation> [accessed 27 July 2020].
184
Myles Hudson, ‘Battle of Appomattox Court House’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of -Appomattox-Court-House> [accessed 27 July 2020].
1969908 34

Late weeknight variety shows have produced animated and live-action sketches to
articulate mostly pointed comments directed at individuals, practices and institutions within the
US political system. NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon aired the proactive segment
“Voting Avenue”, which featured cartoon versions of the host and black-ish cast member Yara
Shadidi encouraging potential voters to register and participate in elections other than those for
the US President held in four-year intervals.185 They are joined by a singing and dancing Ballot,
whose voice is similar to Sheldon, as viewers are provided online registration resources, and the
multiple offices and issues, which are decided by elections.
Programs in the same time slot on other networks have targeted Donald Trump's
proclivity to make false statements and communicate inconsistently. A cartoon on ABC’s Jimmie
Kimmel Live was of a document laying on the steps of the White House explaining to a visiting
student the nature by which “alternative facts” are disseminated by Trump in “I’m Just a Lie”. 186
The intent being that his lies will eventually be accepted as facts via various media outlets, in
order to advance his political interests. CBS’ Late Show with Stephen Colbert satirized Trump in
the “Conjunction Junction” takeoff “Double Negative Junction”. 187 Using modified footage from
the original short, the means by which a double negative is constructed and used by Trump to
obscure his shortcomings was the subject. In this instance, his rejection of the accusation that his
2016 election was assisted by the Russian government.
During George W. Bush’s first term, a Daily Show segment, animated by J.J. Sedelmaier,
opened with “The Daily Show Rocks” graphic and featured an older gentleman explaining to his
grandson voting in elections held two years after a presidential election. Followed by choruses of
“Midterm Elections”, stylized like “Interjections”, the child was taught what national and local
offices are usually decided, yet cynically informed of their insignificance due to the high rate of
incumbents being re-elected.188

185
‘Reese Witherspoon/Lenny Kravitz’, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, 17 September 2018.
186
‘Justin Theroux/Snoop Dogg’, Jimmie Kimmel Live!, ABC, 16 May 2017.
187
‘Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen/Dominic Cooper/Beck’, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, 18
July 2018.
188
‘Torie Clarke’, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Comedy Central, 29 Oct 2002.
1969908 35

Prior to the 2014 midterm elections, Stewart, in “How a Bill Becomes an Ad”, explained
disingenuous and sluggish legislative tactics. 189 At the close of the segment, original “I’m Just a
Bill” footage accompanied lyrics expressing Bill’s disillusionment with the process, and ultimately
taking his own life by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, which was illustrated by an explosion of
confetti.
In 2011 of segment The Daily Show, Jon Stewart interviewed a disheveled looking Dodd-
Frank, played then-cast member John Oliver (Image 12). Responding in song to the host’s
question, viewers were updated on the status of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act passed a year earlier, which sought to:
“To promote the financial stability of the United States by improving
accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end ‘too big to fail’, to
protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from
abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes.” 190
The musical montage bookended by “I Am a Law” pointed out the shortfalls of the legislation,
such as no director being approved by Senate (“Confirmation”), the nowhere-near 400 rules
assured to be created (“38 is a Magic Number”), and the political influencers had had in keeping
the law ineffective (“Lobby, Lobby, Lobby Get Your Access Here”). 191
In a 2014 cold open of the NBC sketch-comedy program Saturday Night Live, a live-action
and animated rendition of “I’m Just a Bill” briefly followed the course of the original episode.192
It took a turn when Barack Obama threw Bill down the Capitol steps to explain an Executive
Order, which a President may use to enact policy without legislative action from the US Congress
(Image 12).

189
‘Ben Af f leck’, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Comedy Central, 30 October 2014.
190
United States, Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Pub. L. 111-203.
191
‘Peter Tomsen’, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Comedy Central, 28 July 2011.
192
‘Cameron Diaz/Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars’, Saturday Night Live, NBC, 22 November 2014.
1969908 36

Image 12: Live-action parodies of “I’m just a Bill”: John Oliver as Dodd -Frank Act on The
Daily Show with Jon Stewart (lef t); Kenan Thompson as Bill and Bobby Moynihan as
Executive Order on Saturday Night Live.

On Fox, “Public Schoolhouse Rock” was a recurring animated segment that appeared on
MadTV that took a jab at aspects of the troubled public education system in the US. The practice
of prescribing medication to students deemed to have attention or hyper-activity disorder was
the subject of “Dysfunction Junction”. 193 “Lolly Lolly Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here” became “Fatty
Fatty Fatty” in an unflattering depiction of school lunch programs. 194 The hazards of attending
school and students’ reactions to the experiences are addressed in “A Noun is Person, Thing, or
Place” and “Interjections”.195 In “Substoot Teecher”, the issue of effectively remedying high staff
turnover, due to increased class sizes, reductions in pay, and violence, is sung to the tune of
“Three is Magic Number”.196
Though the previous examples were comedic in nature, a humorous outcome is not
necessarily the objective of parody as demonstrated by animated videos that have been released
online. T’ruah, an organization intent to “assert Jewish values by raising our voices and taking
concrete steps to protect and expand human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied
Palestinian territories”, produced a short entitled “Conjunction Junction has Malfunctioned”.197
The video focused on the misuse of US money sent to Israel which funds encroaching Israeli

193
‘Episode 723’, Mad TV, Fox Broadcasting Company, 4 May 2002.
194
‘Episode 803’, Mad TV, Fox Broadcasting Company, 28 September 2002.
195
‘Episode 717’, Mad TV, Fox Broadcasting Company, 16 March 2002; ‘Episode 715’, Mad TV, Fox
Broadcasting Company, 16 February 2002.
196
‘Episode 823’, Mad TV, Fox Broadcasting Company, 3 May 2003.
197
T’ruah, ‘About T’ruah’ <www.truah.org/about/> [accessed 28 July 2020].
1969908 37

settlements into Palestinian territories, instead of advancing a two-state solution.198 In “Pirates

and Emperors: Size Does Matter” (to the tune of “A Noun is a Person, Place, or Thing”), a
comparison of outlaw marauders and imperialist nations is made, suggesting little distinction,
because both engage in similar activities of theft and murder. 199 It began with Alexander the Great,
then fast forwarded to a US practice of assisting murderous groups and individuals (e.g.
Nicaraguan Contras, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden) to further US interests.
The parody that may be construed as a direct comment of SR is “Great American
Slaughterhouse”, which was introduced by “Schoolhouse Rocky”, then stamped “Rejected”.
Unlike “Great American Melting Pot” it did not offer a rose-colored perspective of the immigrant
experience in the US. Instead, the narrator, claiming to have been of British ancestry, itemized the
mistreatment incurred by the indigenous tribes from European settlers. Followed by Andrew
Jackson and the US government forcibly resettling tribes from the southern states and territories
into Oklahoma via the Trail of Tears. 200 In all likelihood, based on the network’s previous
reluctance to be deemed controversial, ABC would not have broadcast an episode of that content,
which might call into question the accuracy by which US history was presented in “America Rock”.

198
T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call f or Human Rights, Conjunction Junction Has Malfunctioned, online video
recording, YouTube, 10 May 2016 , <www.youtube.com/watch?v=f z0ItkNZaec> [accessed 22 July 2020].
199
Jasmine Archer, Pirates and Emperors-Schoolhouse Rock, online video recording, YouTube, 17
September 2006 <www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQBWGo7pef 8> [accessed 17 July 2020].
200
illyounotme, School House Rocks: Rejected-Great American Slaughter House, online video recording,
YouTube, 6 March 2009 <www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd37B0MrlSE> [accessed 17 July 2020].
1969908 38

Chapter Three

Drawbacks

As a program intended to be educational, the accuracy of the SR content was probably to

be inferred by its young audience. The information disseminated in “Multiplication Rock” and
“Grammar Rock” were likely verified in classrooms across the country—four times nine equaled
36 (“Four-Legged Zoo”) as did nine times four (“Naughty Nines”), and the modifying function of
adverbs (“Lolly Lolly Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here”). Yet in the fields of science and history, it is
highly implausible that every minute detail may be included within a 180 second presentation.
The dynamic nature of scientific research has been demonstrated by constant changes in
understanding and defining the composition and development of the observable world, and
beyond, have made portions of “Science Rock” outdated (e.g. the demotion of Pluto's status as
1969908 39

a planet in 2006).201 The presentation of history is more akin to accentuating highlights of an

event, as would be done in the reporting of sporting contests. Even though it may not be a
complete play-by-play resuscitation of events, a reliable synopsis may be expected by its
consumers.
Yet in its capacity as an educational vehicle SR offered information or imagery which were
incorrect. In “Victim of Gravity”, the myth of Isaac Newton being struck on the head by an apple,
which inspired him to formulate his laws of gravity, made an appearance. While in “A Noun is a
Person, Place, or Thing”, Chubby Checker is rendered as a Caucasian (Image 13).

Image 13: Rendering of Chubby Checker in “A Noun is Person, Place or Thing” (lef t);
Chubby Checker.

The episodes of “America Rock” had presented errors and omissions of fact in the
recounting of the history and achievements of the US in an oversimplified manner. 202 Considering
this collection of educational shorts was developed with the consultation of an Ivy League
professor, the information could have been more accurate than a Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks
sketch.203 The chapter will survey the discrepancies in the SR version of US history and point out
topics that may have been potentially addressed in further episodes.

201
‘Science’ in Collins English Dictionary [online]

<https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/science> [accessed 6 September 2020] ; Owen,

Tobias Chant, ‘Pluto’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <www.britannica.com/place/Pluto -dwarf -planet>

[accessed 6 September 2020].
202
Burke, Timothy & Kevin Burke, Saturday Morning Fever (New York: St. Martin’s Grif f in, 1999), p. 142.
203
2000 Year Old Man, dir. by Leo Salkin (Rhino, 1975) [DVD].
1969908 40

Revolting Colonists
The point when the history of the US begins is toward the end of the 18th century. During
that time colonists who had settled along the Atlantic coast of North America engaged in
hostilities against the British empire. The goal was to secure independence and form a new nation
by “the consent of the governed”.204 The causes, events and outcomes of the American
Revolutionary War were addressed in three episodes of SR. Of the three, “Shot Heard ‘Round the
World”, written and performed by Bob Dorough, provided as comprehensive a synopsis as
possible of the war from its first musket fire in Lexington, Massachusetts (19 April 1775) to the
British surrender in Yorktown, Virginia (19 October 1781). 205 The episode was inclusive of the
successes, setbacks, and assistance received from Spain and France as the colonists achieved
victory.
In commemoration of the 200th anniversary of signing of the Declaration of
Independence, “Fireworks” explained the reason behind the tradition of igniting combustible
devices that are designed to make elaborate light displays in the night sky every Fourth of July in
the US.206 For the most part, it correctly articulated the intent of drafters and signatories to claim
themselves free from British rule. Yet, details pertaining to its authorship and Britain’s response
were not.
In listing the five committee members appointed to compose the Declaration: Presidents-
to-be John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert
Livingston, the last was erroneously named Philip Livingston. 207 Also, hostilities between the
insurgents and the Crown were not instigated when King George III was informed of the colonists’
action, because the war had been ongoing for more than a year. 208
A spoken portion of the episode featured children reciting the first sentence of the second
paragraph: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and

204
United States, Declaration of Independence (1776) <www.archives.gov/f ounding -docs/declaration-
transcript> [6 September 2020].
205 Schoolhouse Rock!: 30th Anniversary Edition

206
Schoolhouse Rock!: 30th Anniversary Edition
207
United States, Declaration of Independence
208
Wallace, William M., ‘American Revolution’, Encyclopaedia Britannica ,
<https://www.britannica.com/event/American-Revolution> [accessed 21 August 2020].
1969908 41

the pursuit of Happiness.” 209 The last clause, which is part of the chorus as well, is accompanied
by a recurring visual motif that portrays the pursuit of happiness as a man chasing a woman
across the screen. By today’s standards that behavior is likely to be construed as harassment.
Though, it may have subtly reinforced the concept of the privilege of white men, at the time, to
believe in their right to self-determination, as opposed to women or slaves or indigenous peoples.
“No More Kings” was the episode that was the least reliable in recounting the events of
the colonial and revolutionary periods. In its coverage of the period from 1620 to 1788, the
account of the circumstances that motivated English settlement in North America, maintained
ties with the homeland, and rallied the cause for rebellion was incomplete and misleading.
Its representation of the king was a significant flaw of the episode. The nearly 170 year
timespan addressed was temporally associated with the reign of King George III, who was
crowned in 1760.210 The first attempted English settlements in North America began in 1580s,
while the throne was occupied by Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603).211 Yet, the Pilgrims (English
Puritans), depicted in the first verse, that sailed aboard the Mayflower and landed on the
continent were credited with being the first settlers, based on the animation in the third verse,
which showed subsequent colonial growth spreading outward from Massachusetts. 212 England’s
first permanent settlement was Jamestown in 1607 in what is now Virginia, during the reign of
King James I (1603-1625).213
The issue related to the Pilgrims desire to remain associated with England was erroneous.
The primary impetus for those settlers to “find a place to call their own” as they “hoped to find
a better home” was to distance themselves from the lack of religious freedom back in their

209
United States, Declaration of Independence.
210
John Steven Watson, ‘George III’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <www.britannica.com/biography/George-
III> [accessed 25 August 2020].
211
Jonathan Hogeback, , ‘The Lost Colony of Roanoke’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<www.britannica.com/story/the-lost-colony-of -roanoke> [accessed 25 August 2020]; John S. Morrill,
‘Elizabeth I’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-I>, [accessed 25
August 2020].
212
Schoolhouse Rock!: 30th Anniversary Edition
213
Price, David A., ‘Jamestown Colony’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<https://www.britannica.com/place/Jamestown-Colony> [accessed 25 August 2020]; Mathew, David,
‘James I: King of England and Scotland’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-I-king-of -England-and-Scotland> [accessed 21 August
2020].
1969908 42

homeland.214 Their first relocation took them to Holland, but seeking greater economic
opportunity was a secondary cause for their journey to North America. 215 In spite of their
reasons, it was necessary for the group to acquire a land patent, which granted rights to settle in
English claimed territory. Therefore, they were tether to England regardless, whether or not
“they were missing Mother England”.216
Initial rumblings of self-determination were not solely born out of the colonists’ success
at building up the colonies, and George’s assertion to “rule them to the end”.217 That sentiment
was demonstrated by the heavy-handed policies of King Charles II (1660-1685) and King James II
(1685-1688), which exacerbated colonial antipathy. 218 After James II abdication, Parliament
became the primary governing power that levied taxations, not the monarchs, throughout the
early-1700s on the colonists.219 The Stamp Act Congress in 1765 was formed to officially present
objections to the unfair practice of ‘taxation without representation”, which was dismissed by
the British government.220
After ten more years of exchanged animus, such as the Boston Massacre (1770)
perpetrated by the British military, and the mentioned Boston Tea Party (1773), hostilities on 19
April 1775 were the onset of the Revolutionary War.221 When it concluded six years later, the
steps of forming and reshaping a government was initiated that ultimately led to the election of
George Washington in 1788 as the first President, a position in fact not initially established in the
country’s first constitution, the Articles of Confederacy. 222 Therefore, the episode’s assertion that
electing a president was a foremost desire of the people was not correct.

214
Newall & Yohe, p. 46; Adam Augustyn, ‘Pilgrim Fathers’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pilgrim-Fathers> [accessed 25 2020].
215
Augustyn, ‘Pilgrim Fathers’.
216
Newall & Yohe, p. 46.
217
Ibid.
218
Henry Godf rey Roseveare, ‘Charles II: King of Great Britain and Ireland’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-II-king-of -Great-Britain-and-Ireland> [accessed 21 August
2020]; John P. Kenyon, ‘James II: King of England, Scotland and Ireland’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-II-king-of -England-Scotland-and-Ireland> [accessed 21
August 2020].
219
Kenyon, ‘James II’.
220
Jef f Wallenf eldt, ‘Stamp Act’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <www.britannica.com/event/Stamp-Act-Great-
Britain-1765> [21 August 2020].
221
Jef f Wallenf eldt, ‘Boston Massacre’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <www.britannica.com/event/Boston-
Massacre> [accessed 21 August 2020].
222
Adam Augustyn, ‘Articles of Conf ederation’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<www.britannica.com/topic/Articles-of -Conf ederation> [accessed 4 July 2020].
1969908 43

Though these three episodes in one way or another addressed the topic of war, no other
wars that the US partook were broached. The victory of the northern Union forces over the
southern Confederacy during the US Civil War secured the abolition of slavery throughout the
country. The US involvement in World War II that helped to defeat Nazi Germany in Europe and
elevated the country’s status as a superpower, when it used the atomic bomb to ensure Japan’s
surrender. The outcomes of these events had lasting repercussions for the country.

New New Beginning

Ahrens’ composition and performance, “The Preamble”, set a portion of the text of the
US Constitution, which established the fundamental structure and processes of the US
government, to music. The song opened with the query, “Hey, do you know about the USA? Do
you know about the government? Do you know about the Constitution?”, as scissors traverse the
screen cutting stripes, then stars for a flag being sewn by a seamstress, presumably Betsy Ross,
whose participation in designing and sewing the first US flag is closer to legend than fact. 223 The
song centered on discussing the drafters’ motivations to pen the document in 1787 that itemized
principles to guarantee the freedom of the citizens of the newly formed country. Each verse was
followed by a chorus of the a near verbatim rendition of the opening paragraph:
We the People of the United States of America, in Order to form a more perfect
Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common
defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to
ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the
United States of America.224
Besides the exclusion “of the United States of America” from the lyrics, the difficulties
experienced during the document’s creation were not addressed. Instead, an impression was
given that the men had no conflict as they set out to build a nation.
The first verse asserted that the “USA was just starting out as a whole brand new country”,
which discounted the existence of the Articles of Confederation, the country’s first

223
Schoolhouse Rock!: 30th Anniversary Edition; Marc Leepson, ‘Betsy Ross’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<www.britannica.com/biography/Betsy-Ross> [accessed 22 August 2020].
224
United States, Constitution of the United States (1787) <www.archives.gov/f ounding-docs/constitution-
transcript> [23 June 2020].
1969908 44

constitution.225 Under this structure, approved by Congress on 15 November 1777, and ratified
on 1 March 1781, each state existed as an autonomous entity yielding limited power to the
Congress, which itself had no practical means of enforcing compliance from the states. 226 The
Constitutional Convention of 55 delegates from the thirteen states convened in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, not set out to replace the Articles, only to amend them. 227
The proceedings were threatened by disputes regarding issues, such as the
apportionment of Congressional representatives, rights of the states, and slavery. Regional
interests of the northern states and southern states were vastly different. Several agreements
and assurances were made that permitted the Constitution to come to fruition.
Among them were the Great Compromise, which gave birth to the US Senate. 228 Under
this bicameral legislature, the number of representatives from each state in the House of
Representatives is determined by the population of each state, whereas two senators from each
state would be appointed by their respective state legislatures regardless of population. Another
population question revolved around the counting of slaves, a significant issue in determining
membership in the House. Slave populations were more prevalent in the southern states than
northern states, which had not succeeded in abolishing the practice. Therefore, a settlement
reached was not to count each slave as an individual, but every five would be equal to three,
otherwise known as the Three-Fifths Compromise.229
Once completed on 28 September 1787 the document needed nine of the thirteen state
legislatures to ratify it, in order to make it effective. 230 Some states were resistant, unless
immediate changes placing limitations on the powers of the new federal government were
assured. These first ten amendments would go on to be known as the Bill of Rights. When New
Hampshire ratified the Constitution in June 1788, the steps were undertaken to implement this
new government which included an executive and judicial branch.

225
Newall & Yohe, p. 50.
226
Adam Augustyn, ‘Articles of Conf ederation’.
227
Brian Duignan, ‘Constitution of the United States of America’ , Encyclopaedia Britannica
<www.britannica.com/topic/Constitution-of -the-United-States-of -America> [accessed 21 August 2020].
228
Ibid.
229
Jef f Wallenf eldt, ‘Three-Fif ths Compromise’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<www.britannica.com/topic/three-f if ths-compromise> [accessed 1 August 2020].
230
United States, Constitution of United States.
1969908 45

Image 14: Members of the jury depicted during the f irst chorus of “The Preamble”.

The animation took part in skewing the reality of life in the US as the 19th century
approached. During the beginning of the first chorus, a rendering of an empaneled jury of twelve
included women and a black gentleman, which would not have occurred (Image 14). The first
state to permit women to serve on juries was Utah (admitted in 1896), nearly forty year after the
first black performed jury duty in 1860 in Massachusetts. 231 The animation of the second chorus
was more accurate, because it was set in more contemporary times. To their credit, the
animators, when depicting the states filling out the US map across the continent, sequenced the
states in the order they had become part of the US.
An amendment to the Constitution was addressed in “Sufferin’ Till Suffrage”, sung by
Essra Mohawk. In this episode that passage of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right
to vote in 1920 is celebrated, yet the process by which this change occurred was not described,
as in Article V:
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall
propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the
legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing
amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as
part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the
several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof... 232

231
Lisa Madsen Pearson & Carol Cornwall Madsen, "Innovation and Accommodation: The Legal Status
of Women in Territorial Utah, 1850–1896", Women in Utah History: Paradigm or Paradox, eds. Patricia
Lynn Scott, Linda Thatcher, and Susan Allred Whetstone (Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado,
2005), p. 61; Equal Justice Initiative, ‘The History of Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection’, Illegal Racial
Discrimination in Jury Selection: A Continuing Legacy (Equal Justice Initiative, 2010), p. 9.
232
United States, Constitution of the United States.
1969908 46

No other episodes addressed amendments that granted rights to once marginalized segments of
the population. The period after the US Civil War, known as Reconstruction, was when three
amendments were ratified to codify the civil rights of recently freed slaves.

Re-creation
Throughout human existence, the species ability to create instruments has made
traversing, manipulating, and understanding of the environment possible. Whether it be the
wheel or Gutenberg’s printing press, invention has played a significant role in defini ng the
advancement of cultures.
A character reminiscent of “Whistler’s Mother” played the titular role in “Mother
Necessity” (Image 15), an episode that identified inventors whose technological contributions
were credited for growing the US. The matriarch’s name is derived from the idiom “necessity is
the mother of invention”, a paraphrasing of Plato. 233 Yet, the extent to which these inventors had
a role, if any, in the conception, development and patenting of these devices featured was not
addressed. A minority of the inventions were novel, others were improvements on extant ideas,
while some were the co-opted works of others.

Image 15: Lead character f rom “Mother Necessity” (lef t); Arrangement in Gray and White
No. 1 (1871) by James MacNeill Whistler, aka “Whistler’s Mother’s”.

An advance in the textile industry topped the episode’s list. The cotton gin, patented by
Eli Whitney in 1794, made the deseeding of the green-seed, short-staple class of the raw material

233
Plato, The Republic, rev. 3rd ed, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Oxf ord: Clarendon Press, 1888), 369.
1969908 47

significantly easier for the increasing domestic and international demand. 234 A demand that was
likely a byproduct of the establishment and construction of cotton mills in the US, when Samuel
Slater “showed us how the factories go” in 1793. 235 The processes and machinery that he
implemented were based on his experience working in UK textile factories. 236 He emigrated to
the fledgling country despite a British prohibition on expatriation by skilled textile workers, who
were being wooed by US companies. Elias Howe contributed to the textile industry by developing
the first sewing machine in 1846, but not to help his mother. 237 His motivation was financial,
which he did not begin to realize until eight years later.
Of the men credited with inventing machines that transformed transportation, none of
them were invented by those named in the episode. Robert Fulton and his steamboat was
responsible for elevating the craft from its experimental stages to commercial viability, even to
military applications with the construction of the Demologos, the first steam warship. His other
sea-faring ventures involved designing submarines and inland waterways, which yielded little
success.238
Long before Ford rolled out his Model T in 1908, depending on one’s definition of an
automobile, Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (France, 1769), Robert Anderson (Scotland, 1832-1839), and
Karl Friedrich Benz (Germany, 1885-1886) invented steam, electric, and gasoline versions of the
vehicle, respectively.239 He did revolutionize the US car industry through an adaption of
Whitney’s process of mass production (not mentioned in the episode), whereby components are
pre-fabricated and assembled to create the finished product. 240 Ford significantly reduced
production times by subdividing tasks amongst the laborers performed along an unstopping
assembly line.241

234
Jeanette Mirsky, ‘Eli Whitney’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <www.britannica.com/biography/Eli-Whitney>
[accessed 4 August 2020].
235
Newall & Yohe, p.59.
236
Amy Tikkanen, ‘Samuel Slater’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-
Slater> [accessed 4 August 2020].
237
Amy Tikkanen, ‘Elias Howe’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <www.britannica.com/biography/Elias-Howe>
[accessed 4 August 2020].
238
Richard S. Hartenberg, ‘Robert Fulton’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Fulton-American-inventor> [accessed 4 August 2020].
239
Library of Congress, ‘Who Invented the Automobile?’ <https://www.loc.g ov/everyday-
mysteries/item/who-invented-the-automobile/> [accessed 19 August 2020].
240
Mirsky, ‘Eli Whitney’.
241
Carol W. Gelderman, ‘Henry Ford’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-
Ford> [accessed 4 August 2020].
1969908 48

The history of aviation spans centuries, which includes travel by lighter -than-air hot-air
balloons or dirigibles. Yet, the events at Kitty Hawk (now Kill Devil Hills), North Carolina in 1903
were not the first time the skies were conquered by heavier-than-air flying machines. Engine
powered aircrafts had existed since the mid-1800s. Wilbur and Orville Wright’s accomplishment
was successfully conducting the first sustained, pilot-operated flight of their powered airplane,
not the invention of the airplane.242
The originality of those credited as pioneers in telecommunications is not as absolute as
presented either. Short-distance telegraphs had been in use decades before Samuel Morse
worked on his device, but the system of dots and dashes that represent letters and numbers,
which bears his name was developed by him and Alfred Vale. 243 If on 14 February 1876 Alexander
Graham Bell had been delayed getting to the patent office, his name may not have become
synonymous with the telephone. His rival Elisha Gray applied for a patent on the same day for
his telephone design, only hours after Bell’s submission. 244 Guglielmo Marconi’s work with radio
waves had lasting impacts on communication, broadcasting, and navigation, but his claim to have
been the inventor of wireless radio was nullified by the US Supreme Court in 1943. The Court
determined that his efforts were preceded by others, among them Nikola Tesla, and his patent
rescinded.
Thomas Alva Edison was one of the most prolific inventors in US history. Among his more
than 1,000 patents, the phonograph is considered his most original. Yet, SR recognized him as
the inventor of the light bulb. The reality was that he was one of many working on improvements
to the incandescent light bulb. His successes were in utilizing more suitable filament materials
and newer vacuum technology.
Absent from the list were people of color or women whose contributions were valuable
to the US. The research and innovations of George Washington Carver, a man born into slavery,
helped to revive the declining agricultural fortunes in the southern US. His work to create
hundreds of practical products out of peanuts and sweet potatoes diversified the once single-

242
Tom D. Crouch, ‘Wright Brothers’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <www.britannica.com/biography/Wright-
brothers> [accessed 4 August 2020].
243
Carleton Mabee, ‘Samuel F.B. Morse’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-F-B-Morse> [accessed 4 August 2020].
244
David Hochf elder, ‘Alexander Graham Bell’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-Graham-Bell> [accessed 4 August 2020].
1969908 49

crop region.245 The ingenuity of Maria Beasley went without mention. Her 1882 improvements
on the life raft proved vital in saving many lives, including some who were passengers on the RMS
Titanic.246

Melting Crock
The “Great American Melting Pot” opened with a photo album as the narrator sang of her
grandparents arriving in the US from Russia and Italy as children. 247 The soft-voiced Lieberman
admitted having a personal connection to the song due to her Russian ancestry. 248 From there
the suggestion was made that immigrant populations were not met with any difficulties upon
coming to their adoptive home. The assertion that people simply got off the boat, found work,
and became part of the fabric of society could not be further from the truth. Many immigrant
groups and their descendants, whether they came to the US willingly or by force, faced (and
continue to face) challenges being fully accepted within the country’s borders.

Image 16: From the ‘The Great American Melting Pot’: a page f rom the Statue of Liberty’s
recipe book showing ingredients (lef t); saucepan shaped like the 48 continental states.

Adam Augustyn, ‘George Washington Carver’, Encyclopaedia Britannica

245

<www.britannica.com/biography/George-Washington-Carver> [accessed 20 August 2020].

246 Iowa State University Institute f or Transportation, ‘Maria Beasley: Engineering Dynamo’,

InTrans, 24 April 2018 < https://intrans.iastate.edu/news/maria-beasley-engineering-dynamo/>

[accessed 21 August 2020].

247
Schoolhouse Rock!: 30th Anniversary Edition
248
Marc T. Nobleman, ‘Schoolhouse Rock! Interview: Singer Lori Lieberman’, Noblemania, 9 June 2020
[accessed via <www.noblemania.com/2014/06/schoolhouse-rock-interview-singer-lori.html> 10 June
2020].
1969908 50

For most of the episode, the concept of assimilation was reinforced by the cultural
metaphor of a “melting pot”, which was the practice of non-British residents identifying
themselves as Anglo-Saxon to distance them from their national origins. 249 The chorus depicted
the Statue of Liberty leafing through a cookbook to highlight the titular recipe, which included
several nationalities (e.g. Africans, Puerto Ricans, Spaniards) as an ingredient to the concoction
(Image 16). The penultimate scene was of people diving into and swimming in a saucepan shaped
like the continental US (Image 16). Yet in the final verse, the claim of being “American and
something else as well” suggested that the US was a “salad bowl”. This metaphor describes a
society in which different ethnicities intermingle in society, yet retain their cultural recognition,
which is exhibited through compound identifiers, such as Latin American, Afro-American, and
Native American.250
The description of the founding of the US and the subsequent immigration from the Old
World is profoundly Eurocentric. A spoken bridge asserted, “America was founded by the English,
also the Germans, Dutch, and French.” 251 A claim that excludes the role of Spain and Portugal in
the colonization of the Americas. More notably, the indigenous populations that faced the
sustained effects of subjugation, relocation, or attempted genocides, dating back to Columbus’
first landings in the Caribbean, were completely unaccounted for. The atrocities that disrupted
native ways of life, usurped their autonomy, and attempted to extinguish their cultures and
languages throughout colonial and post-colonial times was illustrated in the aforementioned
parody “Great American Slaughter House”. 252

249
Jef f Wallenf eldt, ‘American Colonies’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<https://www.britannica.com/topic/American-colonies> [23 August 2020].
250
Savickas, M., ‘Innovations in counseling f or career development’, New Perspectives on Counseling for
the 21st century. (Symposium conducted at the annual convention of the American Psychological
Association, Washington, DC. 1992); ref erenced in Mike Pope, ‘The ‘Salad Bowl’ is Big Enough f or Us All:
An Argument f or the Inclusion of Lesbians and Gay Men in Any Def inition of Multiculturalism’, Journal
Counseling and Development, 73/3 (1995), p. 303.
251
Newall & Yohe, p. 56.
252
illyounotme.
1969908 51

Image 17: Old World descendants (lef t); New World progeny.

The section continued, “The principle still sticks; our heritage is mixed. So any kid could
be the president.”253 On screen, immigrants holding flags of European nations (e.g. Poland,
Finland, then-Czechoslovakia) were shuffled and transformed into a group of children under one
US flag, (Image 17). From the rendering, the heritages left out of the mix are those from other
continents, such as Africa and Asia. Yet, two figures of presumably Far East Asian descent
emerged from the shuffle (Image 17). This particular line misrepresented the experience of
several immigrant groups and their posterity in the following ways.
First, the “principle” appeared to have been expanded upon in the following stanza, “You
simply melt right in, it doesn’t matter what your skin. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, or
your religion, you jump right in.” 254 Groups arriving from the Old World were not immunized from
facing bigotry and discrimination, though their skin tone may not have differed from previous
European settlers. Animus toward non-Protestant sects have percolated and boiled over
throughout the country’s history. The delusions that fueled anti-Semitism, such as a Jewish
plotting to destroy Christianity or to gain control of financial services, took root in the US, as it
did other regions of the world where Jews lived. 255 Though, it was comparably more tolerable in
the US than in Europe. The acrimony between Catholics and Protestants re-emerged with the
arrival of immigrants from Ireland. 256 Sentiments led to violent outbreaks in the cities. Both

253
Newall & Yohe, p. 56.
254
Newall & Yohe, p. 56.
255
Frederic Cople Jaher, A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in
America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), pp. 1-2.
256
Library of Congress, ‘Religious Conf lict and Discrimination’ <www.loc.gov/classroom -
materials/immigration/irish/religious-conf lict-and-discrimination/> [accessed 23 August 2020].
1969908 52

Catholic and Jews, along with other immigrants, at some point have been the target of nationalist
organizations, such as the white supremacist hate group the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). 257
Those who had descended through generations of African enslavement and did not enjoy
the trappings of the melting pot, even after they were granted the freedoms and rights afforded
to US citizens when the US Civil War concluded. The formation of the KKK and the discriminatory
laws of the Jim Crow era, which lasted from the late-19th century to the mid 20th century in
southern states, sought to prevent freed blacks and their progeny from voting and integrating
into society.258 The 1896 Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson upheld the constitutionality
of racial segregation, until it was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.259
The practice of redlining denied families that lived in predominantly black or mixed raced
areas access to federal home owners loans, therefore limiting access to residing in communities
of their choice.260 The effects of that practice, which was made illegal in the late-1960’s,
continues to reverberate in many communities throughout the country. Until 1967, sixteen states
legally prohibited miscegenation (interracial marriage), Loving v. Virginia nullified and the
associated punishments.261 Other discriminatory laws and practices made illegal through judicial
decisions or legislation spurred by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960’s.
In the months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
signed Executive Order 9066, which mobilized the relocation of US citizens of Japanese descent,
mostly in western states, to internment camps. 262 This governmental action compelled the sale
or surrender of homes, businesses and possessions, because of long-held bigotry toward Far East
Asians, which was masqueraded as national security concern. Most of the interned were
transported as far as Arkansas and spent years in camps surrounded by barbed wire and armed
security. At the conclusion of the war, internees were released and left to their own means to
restart their lives.

257
Jaher, p. 246.
258
Melvin I. Urof sky, “Jim Crow Law”, Encyclopaedia Britannica <www.britannica.com/event/Jim-Crow-
law> [accessed 23 August 2020].
259
Brian Duignan, ‘Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<https://www.britannica.com/event/Brown-v-Board-of -Education-of -Topeka> [accessed 23 August 2020].
260
John P. Raf f erty, ‘Redlining’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <www.britannica.com/topic/redlining>
[accessed 13 June 2020].
261
Brian Duignan, ‘Loving v. Virginia’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <www.britannica.com/event/Loving -v-
Virginia> [accessed 13 June 2020].
262
Jef f Wallenf eldt, “Japanese American Internment”, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<www.britannica.com/event/Japanese-American-internment> [accessed 23 August 2020].
1969908 53

The claim that “any kid” could ascend to the Presidency was, at the very least, overly
optimistic. The three requirements, as prescribed in Article II of the Constitution, to eligible for
the office are:
1. Be a natural born citizen of the US
2. Be at least 35 years old
3. Be resident within the US for fourteen years263
Thus, most children who are not born on US soil are disqualified, regardless of having gained
citizenship and meeting the other requirements. In a historical context, when this episode first
aired in 1977, John F. Kennedy was (and remains) the only President that was Catholic. While the
election of a candidate of African descent, Barack Obama, would not be witnessed for another
31 years.

Elbow Greased
The westward expansion of the US across the North American continent was broadcast
as a jaunty enterprise in the upbeat folky “Elbow Room”. 264 Overpopulation was suggested as the
initial impetus for the acquisition of more land, followed by economic opportunities, such as the
gold rush in the mid-1800s. Left out of the presentation are the several methods by which the US
government and citizens achieved their ambitions to the Pacific Oceans.
From the outset, the land size of the US was misrepresented, even though the country
officially consisted of the original thirteen states. A consequence of the Treaty of Paris (3
September 1783) was Great Britain ceded further territories to the former colonists, as far west
as the Mississippi River.265 Therefore, if no further activity occurred beyond the natural boundary,
those lands could have doubled the size of the country, at least. (Image 18).

263
United States, Constitution of the United States.
264
Schoolhouse Rock!: 30th Anniversary Edition.
265
Adam Augustyn, ‘Peace of Paris’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <https://www.britannica.com/event/Peace-
of -Paris-1783> [accessed 25 August 2020].
1969908 54

Image 18: Land acquired by the US f rom Great Britain as a result of winning the
Revolutionary War.

The 1803 acquisition of the Louisiana Territory by Thomas Jefferson from France, which
was referenced in the song, was not the only instance when the US purchased land from another
country. In 1867 during Andrew Johnson’s term, Russia was paid $7.2 million for the territory of
Alaska, which went on to become the 49th state in 1959. 266 Fifty years later, during the Woodrow
Wilson administration, Denmark sold their claim to the Virgin Islands (St. John, St. Thomas, and
St. Croix) in the Caribbean, which has remained a US colony since, for $25 million. 267
The acknowledgement of “there were plenty of fights to win land rights” didn’t clearly
suggest that military engagements with other nations had been a means by which land was
obtained. Ongoing battles with the native Seminole tribes in and out of Florida, which was held
by Spain at the time, led to the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819. 268 Under its terms, the future
45th state was ceded to the US, along with the surrender of all Spanish claims in the Pacific
Northwest (now Oregon and Washington). The US victory in the Mexican-American War (1846-
1848) accounted for territorial gains in the southwest region from western Texas to California.269
A residual outcome of the war, referred to by President-to-be Ulysses S. Grant as “one of the

266
Maynard M. Miller, ‘Alaska’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <https://www.britannica.com/place/Alaska>
[accessed 25 August 2020].
267
Luther Harris Evans, ‘Virgin Islands’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<https://www.britannica.com/place/Virgin-Islands> [accessed 26 August 2020].
268
Of f ice of the Historian, ‘Acquisition of Florida: Treaty of Adams -Onis (1819) and Transcontinental
Treaty (1821)’ <www.history.state.gov/milestones/1801-1829/f lorida> [accessed 26 August 2020].
269
Jef f Wallenf eldt, ‘Mexican-American War’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<www.britannica.com/event/Mexican-American-War> [accessed 26 August 2020].
1969908 55

most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation”, was the Gadsden Purchase in
1853, which included southern portions of the states of New Mexico and Arizona. 270 A brief
conflict with Spain in 1898 enabled the acquisition of territories in the Pacific Ocean (Guam and
the Philippines) and Caribbean Sea (Puerto Rico).271
The US was not unwilling to annex independent republics either. Immigrants from the US
into Mexico resisted laws that made ownership of slaves illegal and commenced to fight a war to
gain independence.272 After their successful campaign, the Republic of Texas was established in
1836, then accepted as a state nine years later.273 Growing European and US economic interests
in the sovereign Pacific island group of Hawaii culminated into private businessmen with
assistance of US troops to overthrow the country in 1893. 274 After initially being rejected as a US
territory by President Grover Cleveland, an oligarchical republic was installed until President
William McKinley accepted it as a territory in 1898. Hawaii became the 50th state in 1949.
In the song’s proclamation “the West was meant to be, it was a Manifest Destiny” was a
passing reference to an ideological attitude of the mid-1800s and that a divine mission guided
and justified the nation’s encroachment through native lands and international borders.275
Preceding Manifest Destiny, the foundation of US foreign policy was established by the Monroe
Doctrine in 1823. Issued by President John Monroe, it proclaimed the nation’s expanded
presence throughout the hemisphere, as it sought to prohibit further European colonization with
a pre-emptive declaration of war on countries that did not abide. 276 This was reinforced during
the early-1900s revival of New Manifest Destiny by the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe

270
Jef f Wallenf eldt, ‘Gadsden Purchase’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<https://www.britannica.com/event/Gadsden-Purchase> [accessed 26 August 2020].
271
Michael Ray, ‘Spanish-American War’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<https://www.britannica.com/event/Spanish-American-War> [accessed 4 August 2020].
272
Paul D. Lack, ‘Slavery and the Texas Revo lution’, The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 89/2 (1985),
181-202.
273
DeWitt C. Reddick, Ralph A. Wooster & Gregory Lewis MacNamee, ‘Texas’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<https://www.britannica.com/place/Texas-state> [accessed 26 August 2020].
274
J. Patricia Morgan Swenson, Lee S. Motteler & John Heckathorn, ‘Hawaii’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
<www.britannica.com/place/Hawaii-state> [accessed 4 August 2020].
275
Newall & Yohe, p. 55; David S. Heidler & Jeanne T. Heidler, ‘Manif est Destiny’, Encyclopaedia
Britannica <www.britannica.com/print/article/362216> [accessed 10 June 2020].
276
Amy Tikkanen, ‘Monroe Doctrine’, Encyclopaedia Britannica <www.britannica.com/event/Monroe-
Doctrine> [accessed 23 June 2020].
1969908 56

Doctrine, as President Theodore Roosevelt demarcated the US sphere of influence in Latin

America to prevent renewed European interventions.277
The shortfalls of “America Rock'' are numerous, but was the intent of the segments to be
accurate? The US was celebrating its bi-centennial in 1976, just two years after the country’s
retreat from VietNam and the scandal-filled resignation of President Richard Nixon. Considering
the interventive power that ABC could and did exert, the speculation can be made that factuality
may not have been paramount to production goals.

John M. Cooper, ‘Theodore Roosevelt’, Encyclopaedia Britannica

277

<www.britannica.com/biography/Theodore-Roosevelt> [accessed 23 June 2020].

1969908 57

Appendix 278

278
Data compiled f rom Schoolhouse Rock!: The Official Guide by George Newall & Tom Yohe (New
York: Hyperion, 1996), except:
a. Grammar Rock!, VHS, ABC Video 47021 (1995).
b. Ibid.
c. Anon., liner notes to Schoolhouse Rock!: 30th Anniversary Edition, DVD, Buena Vista
23048 (2002).
d. Schoolhouse Rock!: 30th Anniversary Edition, DVD, Buena Vista 23048 (2002).
e. Schoolhouse Rock!: ABC Science Rock, dir. by Jim Bates, VHS, Golden Book Video
13883 (1987).
f. Various Artists, The Best of Schoolhouse Rock, CD, Rhino RZ 75515 (1998).
g. Money Rock!, VHS, Buena Vista Home Entertainment 47106 (1998).
h. Schoolhouse Rock! Earth, DVD, Disney Educational Productions 77D54VL00 (2009).
1969908 58
1969908 59
1969908 60
1969908 61
1969908 62

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