An Electric New ‘Company’
HEY, YOU GUYS! That's not a desperate plea to read this article (mostly). For children of the '70s, it's the catchiest catchphrase from the hippest TV show this side of "High School Musical." "The Electric Company" was the first show to make a grade-school kid feel like a grown-up. It was basically a sketch comedy—a sort of junior "Carol Burnett"—filled with silly skits, pop-culture spoofs and snappy songs. It was so good that most kids never noticed it was really a reading booster shot. The amazing cast included Bill Cosby, Morgan Freeman and Rita Moreno, but the real stars were the diphthongs, blended syllables and a pre-Dave guy named Letterman.
No PC-savvy, Wii-crazy kid would go near such retro stuff today, so why is PBS launching a new version of "Electric Company" next week? Because more than a quarter of public-school fourth graders are still below-level readers for their age. Because after kids graduate from "Dora" and "Sesame Street," there isn't a lot of literacy-oriented programming out there. And because any show that can take a song called "Silent E" and turn it into a lesson so infectious that you'll be singing it in the shower more than lives up to its legacy.
Still, boomers might be a bit disappointed to hear that the new "Company" stays as far away from the original as possible. "Are you going to remake a Beatles album? You can't take any of this stuff lightly," says executive producer Karen Fowler. The new version is less shticky and more narrative. It follows four kids with an unusual superpower: they can "throw" letters and words anywhere, like a paintball. The special effects are awesome, and the soundtrack has a light hip-hop flavor—the guys behind Broadway's Tony-winning "In the Heights" do the music. "We live in such a cacophonous media environment," says Fowler. "Kids aren't just going to turn us on. We have to become a playground, something they can touch and own." But there are a few shoutouts to the past, including the most important shout of all: "Hey, you guys!" is back.
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Marc Peyser was named senior editor of the Arts & Entertainment section in October 2006, overseeing NEWSWEEK's coverage of movies, television, theater, books, art and architecture.
Previously he had served as a senior writer covering the television industry since 1999. He has contributed to numerous cover-length stories on popular television shows, stars and personalities. Among the most recent topics: "The Colbert Report," "Desperate Housewives" and "American Idol," along with "The Sopranos," the end of "Friends" and "Six Feet Under." He has also reviewed new television shows as well as Broadway and off-Broadway theater.
Before that, Peyser was a general editor in the Nation and Arts sections and penned the popular Newsmakers page from 1997 through 1999. He joined Newsweek in September 1989 as a letters correspondent and later served as editorial and senior editorial assistant of arts and associate editor of Nation, Society and Arts & Entertainment.
Peyser was a reporter for The Register newspaper in Red Bank, N.J. from 1987 to 1989. While at The Register, Peyser won two New Jersey Press Association Awards for feature stories.
He received his B.A. in English from Stanford University and his M.A. in Journalism from Columbia University. He resides in Manhattan.
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