The Magic School Bus (TV series)
| The Magic School Bus | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover of the complete Magic School Bus series |
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| Format | Children's Educational |
| Created by | Bruce Degen Joanna Cole |
| Voices of | Lisa Yamanaka Lily Tomlin Danny Tamberelli Daniel DeSanto Tara Meyer Erica Luttrell Maia Filar Stuart Stone Renessa Blitz Malcolm Jamal-Warner |
| 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 seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 52 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Nelvana Limited South Carolina ETV Scholastic Entertainment |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | PBS Kids |
| Audio format | Dolby Surround |
| Original run | September 10, 1994 – December 6, 1997 |
The Magic School Bus is a Canadian/American Saturday morning animated children's television series, based on the book series of the same name by Bruce Degen and Joanna Cole. It is notable for its use of celebrity talent and combining entertainment with an educational series.[1] Broadcasting & Cable said the show was "among the highest-rated PBS shows for school-age children."[2] Although it has long since concluded its original airing, the series still airs reruns on a variety of different networks worldwide.
Contents |
Production and airing [edit]
In 1994, The Magic School Bus concept was made into an animated series of the same name by Scholastic Studios, and premiered on September 10, 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 series ran for 30 minutes. In the United States, the series originally aired on PBS as a part of its children's block, PBS Kids, 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 in the US, and on Saturday mornings on NBC. The Fox Kids and Qubo airings both use a shortened version of the opening. Based on information from their website, Qubo no longer carries The Magic School Bus in their programming lineup.
The Magic School Bus was also seen on TLC from February 24, 2003 until 2008, and Discovery Kids for a significant amount of time in the US,[3] Pop and Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, with no plans to make more episodes, on November 9, 2002. The series was widely known in Canada for showing reruns on CBC as part of its children's block, now known as Kids' CBC, from 1999 to 2004. In 2005, Nelvana sold the series to Cartoon Network.[4] The series continued on these six stations until February 4, 2006.
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, international networks, VHS, and DVD releases. 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 non-commercial networks, 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.
Reception [edit]
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]
Characters [edit]
Episodes [edit]
Media [edit]
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.
On July 31, 2012, New Video Group released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time.[8]
Funding [edit]
The show is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation and by Microsoft Home/Microsoft, with additional funding from the United States Department of Energy and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the viewers/stations of PBS also provided additional funding for the show during Seasons 2, 3 and 4.
Award [edit]
- 1995 – Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program – Lily Tomlin For playing "Ms. Frizzle" (won)
Game revival [edit]
A game for Nintendo DS was released on October 25, 2011. It is unknown if other games are planned for the revival.
References [edit]
- ^ Moody, Annemarie (2009-03-07). "Word Knowledge is Power for WordGirl". Animation World Magazine. Animation World Network. 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. 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. Retrieved 2009-03-25.
- ^ "Biography: Lily Tomlin". American Theater Wing. May 2007. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
- ^ http://www.amazon.com/Magic-School-Bus-Complete-Series/dp/B007I1Q4MM
External links [edit]
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- PBS Kids
- The Magic School Bus
- 1994 American television series debuts
- 1997 American television series endings
- American science fiction television series
- 1990s American animated television series
- American children's television series
- American animated television series
- Buses in fiction
- Educational television series
- PBS network shows
- TVOntario shows
- ITV children's television programmes
- South Carolina Educational Television
- Television programs based on children's books
- Television programs featuring anthropomorphic characters
- Science education television series
- Fox Kids
