The Electric Company (children's educational television series)
A US children's educational television series (1971–1977; revivals 2006, 2009–2011) using sketch comedy, music and short segments to teach reading, produced by CTW/Sesame Workshop for PBS.
The Electric Company is an American educational television series created for elementary-age viewers. First broadcast in the United States in 1971, it combined fast-paced children's comedy sketches, songs and animated inserts designed to develop reading skills. The program was developed and overseen by the Children's Television Workshop, later known as Sesame Workshop, and intended as a follow-up for children who had graduated from preschool programming such as Sesame Street but still needed focused instruction in phonics, vocabulary and decoding.
The show's format emphasized short, repeatable segments rather than long narratives. Writers and educators used parody, humor and contemporary music to dramatize letter-sound relationships, syllable patterns and sight words. Recurring features—musical ensembles, live-action sketches, animated interludes and comic characters—created multiple entry points for varied learners. A central musical element in the original series was the rock group The Short Circus, whose performances reinforced language lessons and became a signature of the program.
Production was managed by CTW/Sesame Workshop with episodes filmed at Reeves Teletape Studios in the 1970s and at the Kaufman Astoria Studios for later productions, both located in Manhattan. The series aired on PBS and was produced with educational consultation and classroom testing so segments could be used directly by teachers. Episode catalogues and broadcast guides record broadcast dates and changes in format; for listings see archived episode indexes and production notes.
Educational approach and content
The Electric Company was explicitly created to teach reading to children who had outgrown preschool shows but were still developing literacy skills. Content designers collaborated with reading specialists to ensure materials addressed phonemic awareness, decoding strategies, vocabulary expansion and fluency. Segments were short and repetitive to encourage practice; songs and physical comedy supported memory and engagement. The program aimed to combine entertainment techniques with research-informed pedagogy so that lessons could be adapted for classroom use or home viewing.
Broadcast history and seasons
The original series ran in the early 1970s and the program was later revived. Public records and program guides list the main broadcast seasons and some revival years. Season dates often cited in production notes include: Season 1 (October 25, 1971 – April 21, 1972); Season 2 (October 23, 1972 – April 20, 1973); Season 3 (October 22, 1973 – April 19, 1974); Season 4 (October 21, 1974 – April 18, 1975); Season 5 (October 20, 1975 – April 16, 1976); Season 6 (October 18, 1976 – April 15, 1977). Later revivals and new episodes were produced in 2006 and again from 2009 to 2011, with broadcast runs in 2009 (January 19 – October 1), 2010 (January 25 – May 7) and 2011 (February 7 – March 28). Across its runs the program delivered hundreds of short lessons and is commonly described in retrospective sources as having produced over nine hundred individual segments by some counts (see episode listings).
Cast and contributors
The show featured a mix of actors, singers, writers and educators. Some performers became closely identified with particular characters and musical numbers; among long-running cast members was June Angela, who appeared with The Short Circus during the original run and in later revival material. Production credits and studio notes list many additional writers, directors and researchers; for production details consult archived production records and institutional histories (production notes, CTW/Sesame Workshop materials).
Legacy and use
The Electric Company is noted for marrying entertainment and explicit literacy instruction in a way that influenced later children's educational media. Its focus on decoding strategies, repetition and multimodal presentation helped shape later programs and multimedia literacy initiatives. Educators have adapted segments for classroom lessons and literacy interventions; curricular guides and research summaries describe how specific sketches targeted skills such as phonemic segmentation, syllable division and high-frequency word recognition. For further background and archival resources consult institutional collections and academic studies of children's media and reading instruction (educational archives, national broadcast records, children's media studies).
Selected references and resources include production credits and filming location notes (Kaufman Astoria, Manhattan), broadcaster materials (PBS), episode catalogues (episode index) and organizational histories from Sesame Workshop. Contemporary accounts and cast profiles provide additional perspective on the series' creative aims and educational outcomes; for biographical information see cast databases and oral histories (Sesame Street relation, cast profiles, graduation and follow-up programming).
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