The Magic School Bus (TV series)
| The Magic School Bus | |
|---|---|
 The Magic School Bus as seen in the show's opening sequence. |
|
| Format | Children's television series |
| Created by | Bruce Degen Joanna Cole |
| Voices of | Lily Tomlin Danny Tamberelli Daniel DeSanto Tara Meyer Erica Luttrell Maia Filar Stuart Stone Lisa Yamanaka Renessa Blitz |
| Theme music composer | Peter Lurye |
| Opening theme | "Ride on the Magic School Bus", performed by Little Richard |
| Country of origin | United States Canada |
| No. of episodes | 52 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Nelvana Limited South Carolina ETV Scholastic Entertainment |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Fox Kids (first episode only) PBS |
| Original run | September 11, 1994 – December 6, 1997 |
The Magic School Bus is an American Saturday morning animated television series based on the book series of the same name by Joanna Cole. It is notable for its use of celebrity talent and combining entertainment with an educational show, according to an article in Animation World Magazine by Annemarie Moody incorporating an interview with Executive Producer Deborah Forte.[1] Broadcasting & Cable said the show was "among the highest-rated PBS shows for school-age children."[2]
Contents |
[edit] Production and airing
In 1994, The Magic School Bus concept was made into an animated series of the same name by Scholastic Studios (USA), and premiered on September 11, 1994. Forte says that adapting the books into an animated series was an opportunity to help kids “learn about science in a fun way”.[3] Around that time, Forte had been hearing concern from parents and teachers about how to improve science education for girls and minorities.[3] Each episode of the show ran about 30 minutes. In the United States, the show originally aired on PBS, through South Carolina's SCETV network; it was the first fully animated series to be aired on PBS. The last episode aired on December 6, 1997, when the series stopped production. The Fox network aired repeats from September 1998 to September 2002. Starting September 27, 2010, the Magic School Bus started a daily run on qubo (United States), and on Saturday mornings on NBC/Telemundo (Telemundo broadcast The Magic School Bus in Spanish). The Fox Kids and qubo airings both use a shortened version of the opening.
The Magic School Bus was also seen on TLC and Discovery Kids[3] in the U.S., Pop and CITV in the United Kingdom, with no plans to make more episodes, on November 9, 2002. In 2005, Nelvana sold the show to Cartoon Network.[4] The series continued on these six stations until February 4, 2006. Qubo picked the show up on September 27, 2010.
When The Magic School Bus is syndicated on commercial networks, the Producer Says segment at the end of each episode is cut out to make space for commercials. The Producer Says segments are only seen when the series is shown on non-commercial networks (e.g. PBS and Knowledge) and children's networks (commercial breaks are shorter). Within the episodes, there also are timepoints where the episode fades out and then fades back in after a series of commercials are shown. On the VHS and DVD releases the scene immediately fades back in right after it fades out as no commercials are shown.
The show's theme song called "Ride on the Magic School Bus" was written by Peter Lurye and performed by rock 'n' roll legend Little Richard.[5]
The show was produced in an animation and audio style reminiscent of Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the 1970s and 1980s.
The show's voice director is Susan Blu.
Two of the writers for the show were Brian Muehl, and one of the Fraggle Rock creators Jocelyn Stevenson.
The series was released on VHS by KidVision between December 13, 1994 and March 3, 1998 and by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment between January 12, 1999 and April 2, 2002, and on DVD by Warner Home Video between May 9, 2006 and August 4, 2009. Both the DVDs and VHS releases contain the funding credits. In the VHS and DVD releases, all the episodes are uncut with the Producer Says segments intact.
[edit] Reception
Jason Fry, in a column for the online edition of the Wall Street Journal, expressed an overall appreciation for the show, but wrote that the episode The Magic School Bus Gets Programmed should have been about the perils of internet searches and network concepts surfacing at the time, rather than an old-fashioned technology-run-amok story about the respective roles of programmer and machine (although he admitted that the episode was ten years old).[6]
Tomlin won a Daytime Emmy for her role as Ms. Frizzle.[7]
[edit] Characters
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Funding
Major funding for The Magic School Bus was provided by the National Science Foundation, Microsoft, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. During Seasons 2-4, additional funding was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the viewers/stations of PBS.
[edit] References
- ^ Moody, Annemarie (2009-03-07). "Word Knowledge is Power for WordGirl". Animation World Magazine. Animation World Network. http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&category2=&article_no=3921&page=1. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
- ^ Green, Michelle Y. (1997-07-28). "Scholastic Productions banks on Best-Sellers". Broadcasting & Cable (Cahners Publishing Co./Reed Publishing (USA ) Inc.) 127 (31): 48.
- ^ a b c Clarke, Melanie M. (2005-06-20). "A Scholastic Achievement". Broadcasting & Cable (Cahners Publishing Co./Reed Publishing (USA) Inc.) 135 (25): 30.
- ^ Dinoff, Dustin (2005-11-07). "Deals for Toons, Docs at MIPCOM". (accessed through Proquest. Playback: Canada’s Broadcast and Production Journal. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=3&did=925361991&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1237925887&clientId=43936http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=1&did=1396338271&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1237925887&clientId=43936. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
- ^ Little Richard at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Fry, Jason (2007-12-10). "Real Time: From PET to Net; A Kid's TV Show Leaves Your Columnist Pondering a Generation of Immense Change; Online edition". The Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition) (Online Edition) (accessed through Proquest). Dow Jones & Company, Inc. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=1&did=1396338271&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1237925887&clientId=43936. Retrieved 2009-03-25.
- ^ "Biography: Lily Tomlin". American Theater Wing. May 2007. http://americantheatrewing.org/biography/detail/lily_tomlin. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
[edit] External links
- The Magic School Bus
- 1994 American television series debuts
- 1998 television series endings
- 1990s American animated television series
- American children's television series
- American animated television series
- Educational television series
- PBS network shows
- PBS Kids shows
- Children's ITV television programmes
- South Carolina Educational Television
- Television programs based on children's books
- Television programs featuring anthropomorphic characters
- Science education television series
- Fox Kids
