Schoolhouse Rock

Schoolhouse Rock! is a U.S. series of fifty-two educational short films featuring songs about schoolhouse topics, including grammar, science, economics, history, mathematics, and politics. Originally conceived by Thomas G. Yohe in 1972, the shorts were broadcast on the ABC television network in the U.S. between 1973 and 1986. They were then broadcast infrequently during the 1990s and 2000s with new shows created between 1993 and 1996.

Initially, Schoolhouse Rock! was played in between each ABC Saturday and Sunday Morning Children's program. Some shows were 27 minutes and others were 57 minutes. The shows would either end at 27 minutes after the hour or at 3 minutes before the hour. ABC ran this from 1972 until 1989. Beginning in 1989, ABC ran Schoolhouse Rock three times a week on Saturday mornings. Schoolhouse Rock uasually aired once at the end of The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, a collection of Looney Tunes shorts, aired. In 2000, Schoolhouse Rock was dropped from ABC.

An additional short, I'm Gonna Send Your Vote To College, was created for the 30th anniversary video release.

Often viewed with nostalgia by members of both late Baby Boomers and Generation X, Schoolhouse Rock! has become part of American popular culture.

The word "rock" is something of a misnomer, as only a few of the songs are in rock format (e.g., "Elementary, My Dear" and the progressive rock-like "Little Twelvetoes"). The rest are either jazz (e.g., "I'm Just a Bill," "Figure Eight"), blues ("Naughty Number Nine"), or straight pop songs (e.g., "A Noun Is a Person, Place, or Thing," "Interjections!," "No More Kings").

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