THE ELECTRIC COMPANY

1971–77, PBS

WHY IT MATTERED Decades before Zoom video conferencing, kids learned how to read and write on the small screen thanks to this wildly imaginative variety show. Produced by the Children’s Television Workshop as a literacy-focused alternative for older kids to its own Sesame Street, the series taught basic punctuation and phonics via inventive cartoon shorts, sketches (starring a pre-famous Morgan Freeman!) and catchy songs. “It showed how entertaining an educational kids’ program could be,” Leverence says.

SHOW HIGHLIGHT “The Adventures of Letterman” was a clever animated superhero spoof featuring the voices of Gene Wilder, Zero Mostel and Joan Rivers. In one episode, the hero’s nemesis, the Spellbinder, devilishly rearranges and changes letters, transforming the word “snack” (and its corresponding object) into “snake”!

I’LL NEVER FORGET… “I used to watch it a lot as a kid, and it was part of my coming-of-age DNA,” says Reggie Watts, 49, the comedian and Late Late Show With James Corden bandleader, who appeared on a 2009–11 reboot. “I loved the adventures that all the kids would go through. It had a good mixture of music and cool educational elements that weren’t heavy-handed.”

DID YOU KNOW? The original cast album, released by Warner Bros. Records in 1972 and featuring Rita Moreno and Bill Cosby, won a Grammy for Best Recording for Children.

IT INFLUENCED Saturday Night Live, SCTV, 3-2-1 Contact, All That

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