Schoolhouse Rock! is an American interstitial programming series of
animated musical educational short films (and later, videos) that
aired during the Saturday morning children's programming block on the
U.S. television network ABC. The themes covered included grammar,
science, economics, history, mathematics, and civics. The series'
original run lasted from 1973 to 1984; it was later revived with both
old and new episodes airing from 1993 to 1996. Additional episodes
were produced in 2009 for direct-to-video release.The series was the
idea of David McCall, an advertising executive of McCaffrey and
McCall, who noticed his young son was struggling with learning
multiplication tables, despite being able to memorize the lyrics of
every single Rolling Stones song. McCall then hired musician Bob
Dorough to write a song that would teach multiplication, which became
"Three Is a Magic Number." Tom Yohe, an illustrator at McCaffrey and
McCall, heard the song and created visuals to go along with it.
Radford Stone, who was in charge of ABC, suggested they pitch it as a
television series, which caught the attention of Michael Eisner, then
vice president of ABC, and cartoon director Chuck Jones.The pilot
episode of the series, "Three Is a Magic Number," originally debuted
during the debut episode of Curiosity Shop on September 2,
1971.Schoolhouse Rock! debuted as a series in January 1973 with
"Multiplication Rock," a collection of animated shorts adapting the
multiplication tables to songs written by Bob Dorough; Dorough also
performed most of the songs, with Grady Tate and Blossom Dearie each
performing one during this season. General Foods was the series' first
sponsor; later sponsors of the Schoolhouse Rock! segments also
included Nabisco, Kenner Toys, Kellogg's, and McDonald's. During the
early 1970s, Schoolhouse Rock was one of several short-form animated
educational shorts that aired on ABC's children's lineup; others
included Time for Timer and The Bod Squad. Of the three, Schoolhouse
Rock was the longest-running. Schoolhouse Rock! Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter