What?? A 2009 Electric Company?

Every now and then we watch a few episdoes of the The Electric Company, more because I like it than for any other reason.

[Did everybody else in my generation already know that both Morgan Freeman and Bill Cosby were in it? And that Joan Rivers and Gene Wilder did voices in The Adventures of Letterman, or that Irene Cara was in the Short Circus? I didn't know any of that until about a year ago. I was also delighted to learn that Skip Hinnant (Fargo North Decoder) was Schroeder in the Broadway show, "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," which I feel in love with when I was ten.]

Anyway.

I recently saw "The Electric Company" listed on our local PBS channel and got very excited, thinking that finally somebody got smart and started re-airing all the shows. I eagerly taped it, but then blinked, disappointed, a few times when I started to play it back. As I FF-ed, I saw nobody I recognized ... yes, there were some letters on the screen, but ... what was this, anway? Did I make a mistake and record the wrong thing?

At first I was simply confused (as usual), but then later read about it here. It turns out that this is a new and current version of The Electric Company.

I was really irritated by this at first. If you know me well, you know I can't stand when things are Different From How They Used to Be, and that my childhood memories are semi-sacred. It also bugs me a bit that they are using the exact same name, instead of modifying it somehow.

But when Rachael heard about it, she was eager to watch it, so I finally bit the bullet and we watched this new version of The Electric Company tonight.

The most obvious difference is that, instead of of skits and characters like Easy Reader and Julia Grown-Up, etc, there are some hip-and-happening teens, somewhat reminiscent of Hannah Montana, with a storyline. Interspersed through the storyline are different songs and animated bits about phonics and reading.

Also, of course, there is no groovy 70's feel, but rather, a sort hip-hop, homeboy, modern urban feel.

When we done watching it tonight for the first time, I asked the girls if they liked it. "Yes!" they both said. "We like it better than the other one!"

My comment to them was, "Well ... I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would."

(BTW, if you're longing for the original Electric Company in all its Grooviness, YouTube has a vast assortment of clips, which I am off to go watch right now.)