Growing up, one of my favorite TV shows on was The Electric Company, the Children’s Television Workshop program that taught kids words, phonics and punctuation through skits and songs, much like fellow seventies show “Schoolhouse Rock” did.
I don’t know if it was the characters that were so funny, or the skits that were so intriguing, or simply the allure of the fabulous songs (written primarily by Jerry Rapozo, he of Sesame Street fame), but I absolutely adored this show.
I was first exposed to The Electric Company in first grade, way back in 1971.
I remember the teachers telling our parents that this was a new program and that they were testing out TV as a new “medium” to teach children, with Electric Company (and Sesame Street of course) as the examples.
In any case, It DID teach me a lot, but the reason I kept watching every day was to see my favorite songs and favorite skits performed daily! They were too funny and too catchy! This went on year after year and even going into intermediate school, whenever I’d be doing something around the house or working on Schoolwork, I would have the show on constantly. I remember friends coming over and laughing, saying, I can’t believe you still watch this show!” And I’d laugh back and say, “Yeah, and I always WILL!” But that came to an end sometime around 1980 or 1981, as PBS finally pulled the plug on my beloved show.
For the longest time, all I had to fill the void of The Electric Company were the audio cassettes I’d taped of some of my favorite songs. (Remember that, kids? Leaning the portable tape recorder against the speaker of the HUGE-ass wooden TV set!) L:istening to the tapes, It made me miss the show even more, and I wished and hoped for the day some TV station would bless us with rebroadcasting the Electric Company in some way so I could watch these again! But more than anything else, it made me realize how dear these songs were to my heart.
In particular, the songs I REALLY loved the most were the songs performed by the the teen singing group “The Short Circus”. Those were the songs I loved most of all, and considering the vast amount of great songs the show had to offer, that’s saying something! I didn’t really know which season was which at the time - as the later years of The Electric Company were sort of a mish-mash of all the past seasons put together: repackaged and re-ran - All I knew was that I loved ‘em!
I think there were about four incarnations of The Short Circus during the original six season run of The Electric Company. My memories of the group were that the original group looked like Sesame Street performers until they sort of changed into a 70’s bubblegum Pop outfit, and later they turned into variety show style dancers so common in the seventies.
The Short Circus 1971-72 :
Douglas Grant / Zach
Melanie Henderson / Kathy
Irene Cara / Iris
Stephen Gustafson / Buddy
June Angela / Julie
The Short Circus 1972-73:
Douglas Grant / Zach
Melanie Henderson / Kathy
Denise Nickerson / Allison
Stephen Gustafson / Buddy
June Angela / Julie
The Short Circus 1974-75 :
Greg Burge / Dwayne
Melanie Henderson / Kathy
Bayn Johnson / Kelly
Stephen Gustafson / Buddy
June Angela / Julie
The Short Circus 1975-77 :
Rodney Lewis/ Charlie
Rejane Magloire/ Samantha
Todd Graff / Jesse
Janina Matthews/ Gail
June Angela / Julie
The only constant in the ever-changing looks of the group was the lovely June Angela, the sole member who was a part of EVERY version of The Short Circus that came out!
That worked out great for me because I had a pretty severe crush on her! And Still Do!
Although all variations of the group were good, and all featured June, my favorite line up was the line up from the second season 1972-1973, featuring June, Douglas Grant, Stephen Gustafson and Melanie Henderson with Denise Nickerson (famous as Violet Beauregarde in the Charlie and The Chocolate Factory movie) taking the place of Irene Cara (who of course went on to super-stardom with “Fame”).
While I love Irene Cara (Hard, Hard, Hard’s a rocker!) to bits, the definitive line-up of the Short Circus (IMHO) is when Denise Nickerson joined. For some reason, the five voices balanced each other out perfectly, with Denise, Melanie and Stephen harmonizing together and Doug on the lower end with June soaring on the high end. I just LOVED hearing them sing!
Perhaps it was the Line-Up or maybe the songwriters were simply on a roll, but the fact of the matter is that during this second season, most if not ALL of my favorite Short Circus songs were released! Yes, as I mentioned above, this is the closest they got to “bubblegum pop”, and I just ate up every minute of it! The group at this point really gave me a “Partridge Family” or “Brady Bunch” feel, and can’t you just imagine the Circus singing “Time To Change” or “Let The Sun Shine In”?
Some of My favorites include:
“BOOM!”
I remember REALLY liking this a kid! I remember it was featured in the opening credits of The Electric Company every day, so I got to know the “look” of that particular video pretty well!
“Poison”
Two songs that taught me about poison were Sesame Street Sherlock Hemlock’s “X” song, and “Poison” by The Short Circus…Poison…”It’ll Kill You!”
“Chili”
In this clip the Short Circus is blue-screened into a bowl of Chili (with crackers on the side!) and I remember my kid going “I want to play in a big bowl of chili, too!”
“The Vampire”
The Short Circus channeling Scooby Doo here! Special guest appearance by Morgan Freeman as Count Dracula! The Circus really did a lot of Horror-themed songs, didn’t they….Creepy Creature, anyone?
“The Fling”
Every time I watch this performance,. I have to wonder how long it took them to learn some of the dance moves they had to do on a regular basis. Some of them (like this one) were rather intricate!
“Sing Out!”
Aw, another fave song, a real positive encouraging song, and when you add June Angela groovin’ up a storm, that just bumps it up a notch!
“Let’s Rap!”
Melanie and Denise do some duetting together, and when they harmonize together singing, “Rap about something Heavy, rap about something Dumb , Rap about the way you feel Oh Baby , Rap, rap, rap ,rap…don’t be mum…” it just makes the song!
“Dunking Donuts”
I love how the lyrics are almost written like limericks, in that the last line is always humourous. “Dunk it in you soda, dunk it in you tea…if you have a rowboat, you can dunk it in the SEA!” “Dunk it in your fruit juice, dunk it in your soup…get the gang together, you can dunk it in a GROUP!”
“Hamburger”
One thing I always noticed whenever I watch this clip is that Melanie Henderson never actually eats her Hamburger, and I always wondered if she was a vegetarian or something. Humorous line: “Hamburger-if I’m messy, well I beg your pardon… Hamburger eat a piece before the cheese can harden!”
“STOP!”
Every once in awhile, a member will get a “solo” song - like Melanie Henderson’s “Feelings are Funny Things” or Irene Cara’s “Hard Hard Hard”…well, this was Doug’s chance to shine, and he gives his performance 100%!
“The Blob”
I really like this song because everyone gets a chance to show off their singing a bit, and I really like the build up to the end with June’s operatic climax! Not only that, but the lyrics were just great: “It’s such a menace so you’d better stay alert, the way to kill it is to eat it for dessert!”
and my two favorites of all time,
“The Sweet Sweet Sway”
Denise Nickerson’s showcase song! I like how Buddy and Zach are playing their instruments like they did back when they were a “band” in the first season, and I love the way June really seems to be enjoying herself during the song.
Another thing I really liked about this clip is that they utilized every single member of the cast for this song. Morgan introduces the song, and Judy, Skip, Lee, Luis, Jim and Rita are at the dance. Add in the Circus, and you’ve got everyone!
and
“On The Corner”
Probably my favorite song from the Short Circus!
Not only does it envoke my childhood with its 70’s poppy sound, it seemed to be a bit longer than some of the other songs, and clocking in at 2:50, I really felt like it could have been released as a “Single”!
Awesome singing from the gang and I particularly like the choreography. Like when Julie sings about Ices, they all systematically stick out their hands as if to grab one, and when Buddy sings the line about a Parade, they all air-band a procession complete with Julie air-baton leading!
Lots of stuff going on in the clip, but what always makes me smile is when Denise and June are doing a fancy little shuffle, and Melanie tries it out for a second before holding up her hands as if to say, “ahh, forget it.”…then she relaxes and puts an arm around June! And in another part, Buddy and Zach high-five each other….really nice, you feel like these kids were actually friends, and that always leaves me with a great feeling!
It wasn’t until the Electric Company’s mighty revival on the cable station NOGGIN that I finally got to put all the seasons and performances into a cohesive order. I was able to watch my beloved songs again (or at least the ones that NOGGIN decided to show), and I found my obsession return with a vengeance! This time, via the internet, I was able to enjoy a kind of Electric Company renaissance, where I could hook up with other nostalgics like me who’d never stopped loving the show either! I found that I wasn’t alone in my strong love of The Short Circus, and with every new clip I get to hear, or new skit I get to see, I continue to love them even more!
Postscript:
June Angela is still active in recording and performing, and has a terrific CD collection featuring songs from some of her stage shows as well as some Electric Company hits that you should check out!!
When It originally came out, It wasn’t in a lot of places, and I actually had to have The Tower Records in New York stock transfer a copy to a Tower here in Hawaii! But now I am happy to report that June’s CD is available at Amazon.com! June fans can now rejoice!
Personal Faves are “Sayonara Love Song”, “Time To Choose” and the sweet “Cha No Yu”. She even revamps her performance of “I Have Dreamed” from The King and I (which also is a must-own for June fans) and wait til you hear her updated version of “The Electric Company!”
