Trivia / Schoolhouse Rock!

• Creator Backlash: When Schoolhouse Rock! was first released on video in the 1980s, it was from Golden Book Video's "Golden Vision" series, where it was hosted by the late Cloris Leachman with some kid friends, and a new theme song ("Knock knock / It's Schoolhouse Rock! / All the kids are coming / From around the block...") In addition, "Three Ring Government", "The Good Eleven" and "Little Twelvetoes" were excised from the releases just to make room for additional Cloris Leachman segments. Bob Dorough was not at all thrilled about this, which is probably why the Conjunction Junction Diner intro and segments were created in the early '90s.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Lynn Ahrens has called "Interplanet Janet" her favorite among the songs she wrote for the show.
• Edited for Syndication:
  • The original version of "Three is a Magic Number", as seen on the pilot episode of Curiosity Shop in 1971, contains an additional scene/verse which explains a pattern involving the relationship between sets of ten and multiples of three, animated in the form of a carnival shooting range. Although the verse still remains intact on soundtrack releases, the scene was cut by ABC when the regular series premiered, and was never restored for any VHS/DVD/streaming releases. As such, it has went unseen for just short of 50 years — until YouTube channel Obsolete Video Services posted much of the aforementioned pilot in 2021 with the song starting at 26:12.
  • None of the copies of the songs found on Disney+ have the "Schoolhouse Rock!" intro. They instead retain the short title screens used in the 1990s VHS collections.
  • The Disney+ upload of "Electricity, Electricity" greatly slows down the Epileptic Flashing Lights to reduce the likelihood of triggering seizures for those with photosensitive epilepsy.
• From Entertainment to Education: The show is used for a variety of subjects. However, "We the People" is notably used to help students remember the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
• Late Export for You: The Disney+ release of the show worldwide is this for countries outside of North America, being added 47 years after premiering.
• Life Imitates Art: Scooter Computer's voice actor, Darrell Stern, eventually started his own digital marketing firm.
• Meaningful Release Date: "Fireworks" was originally aired on July 3, 1976, i.e. the day before the bicentennial. This makes the lyric "we declared our liberty 200 years ago" only one day short of being accurate to the day.
• Milestone Celebration:
  • In 1997, Disney prematurely re-released the ABC Video cassettes with 25th Anniversary clamshell packaging, and music videos of songs from Schoolhouse Rock Rocks! at the end of each one.
  • In 2002, Disney prematurely released a 30th Anniversary Edition DVD of all the songs they could find, as well as a Best of Schoolhouse Rock! VHS compiling 25 episodes chosen by an online poll.
  • In 2023, ABC aired the Schoolhouse Rock! 50th Anniversary Singalong, in which celebrities covered classic SHR tunes.
• Missing Episode: Even discounting the weather short that was removed from syndication for years, there is one Scooter Computer episode that has yet to receive an official home video release. "Introduction" only survived in audio form on the four-CD soundtrack set released in 1996. That is until August 2013, when Scooter Computer's voice actor, Darrell Stern, found a VHS tape of the lost video and put it up on YouTube. You can view it here.
• Never Work with Children or Animals: Several episodes feature child actors in their songs, and while some, like Tom Yohe Jr., proved to be talented enough to become mainstays, others, such as the boys and girls from "The Great American Melting Pot" and "Fireworks", have very noticeably stilted deliveries.
• No Export for You: Despite how successful it was, Schoolhouse Rock! wasn't exported outside of North America for several reasons:
  • First, it is too short (clocking in at three minutes per episode) to be considered a "true" TV show. This is because it usually took the place of a commercial break. In fact, during the same era Schoolhouse Rock! was run, ABC also made several other in-house shorts to serve this purpose.
  • Second, until Disney acquired it, it was made by ABC in-house rather than by another studio, making international TV distribution nigh impossible.
  • Third, one season, "America Rock", was based upon United States history, making it hard to sell outside of the U.S.
  • Despite it never releasing outside of North America, many countries (such as Italy) have shows based on Schoolhouse Rock!, but with different names.
• Role Reprise: The 50th Anniversary Singalong has Matt Vogel and Eric Jacobson reprising Kermit the Frog and Fozzie Bear.
• The Other Darrin: In the computer games, none of the original voice actors reprise their roles.
• The Other Marty: Early airings of "Interjections!" boasted temp vocals, and lacked several lines and sound effects. The later, more common print has Tom Yohe's sons dub over Bob Dorough, among other changes.
• Technology Marches On:
  • "Telegraph Line" explains how the nervous system works, using telegraph lines as an analogy. These days, it would be easier to explain the nervous system to a child than it is to explain telegraph lines, as they haven't been around since the 1990s.
  • The "Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips" segments suffer this as a whole due to being about computer technology that quickly became outdated. As such, these segments haven't received any reruns. In fact in the DVD release, they are on the special features disc instead of the main one.
• What Could Have Been: One part of "No More Kings" was going to focus on the Boston Massacre- which was likely cut out due to such a gruesome event being impossible to discuss towards children.

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