The Magic School Bus

Making this thread, because I just got a boxed set of all 52 episodes as a nostalgia indulgence.

Made a quick skim of the episode list, and calculated at least 2/3rds of the episodes (35/52) involved shrinking in some way. Talk about a recurring plot device...

And Ms. Frizzle comes across as just plain manipulative now... wow.

But that music... still catchy. And the animation is actually pretty nice.

Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?

And about 18% overall involve going inside an organism (Albeit one of them being a dead log, but that's made up for by one of them being a chicken's reproductive tract).

Ms. Frizzle is a voraphile who uses the bus as an excuse to teach "scientific lessons"

You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!

Either that or she's just terribly irresponsible.

I agree about the music - it's one of the shows of my youth where I never noticed how much the music stuck with me until Youtube, and then suddenly I found myself really wanting to track down the BGM somewhere. As much as I love Western Animation BGM and scores, the only other shows where I've been really struck with the desire to find and acquire their soundtracks were BTAS, Talespin, Ducktales, Inspector Gadget and one Popeye cartoon.

edited 14th Aug '12 8:27:24 PM by KnownUnknown

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Tangent: Does that include all the episodes where the shrinking is incidental to what the subject actually is? Like when the Bus turns into a frog?

I have no clue in hell how that show got away with the chicken episode.

"@[=g3,8d]&fbb=-q]/hk%fg"

Possibly because it's aimed at a young enough audience that they don't know how babies are made, so learning how eggs are made holds no ick-factor for them.

Yeah, I counted every instance of shrinking I could recall in an episode. So, the flight episode counted due to the model plane they rode in, for instance.

I did not count the two episodes where the bus grew in size. (the asteroid and gravity episodes)

It's kinda silly, but I always wondered why the Portashrinker had that mesh reflector behind the laser thingy.

Also, the Lost In Space episode, while technically the pilot, always seemed more like a first season finale...

edited 14th Aug '12 10:18:50 PM by Tangent128

Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?

I remember this show from when I was a kid. Unfortunately, the only episode I have on video is a Christmas one, and I didn't even like that one that much when I was a kid. I think the episode I remember the most is the when where they traveled in Arnold's body, but that's probably because I had a computer game based on it. I also had a bunch of books based on the series, which I kind of liked when I was little.

I don't think I ever saw the chicken one, and I'm not really sure if I want to O_O

Always did like this show.

To pity someone is to tell them "I feel bad about being better than you."

Do you mean the original book series, or the books based on the show based on the books?

Possibly, though there's also the episode where she had the class go inside of her.

I don't remember the chicken episode though. o.o

I'm not sure, but it was more likely the latter. I don't have them anymore, all I really remember is that they were not picture books.

Tangent: I was actually really surprised that the space episode was the first one, when I looked up the series after seeing this thread. Possibly because I think it's weird for a rarely recurring character like Janet to be featured so prominently in a pilot.

I think my favourite episode is the one where they go inside the pinball machine to learn about light and colour.

Wait, it was?

To pity someone is to tell them "I feel bad about being better than you."

Yeah, if I recall correctly, the "lost in the solar system" story was originally the fourth book, but it must have been a popular one, since it came first in both the TV series and the computer game series.

I caught most of the first two seasons during their original run on PBS, though I missed the first two episodes the first time around, and that one where they go inside Ralphie was an odd one to start on. But I guess that's better than seeing it right after the one where they go inside Arnold...

I mean, the first one where they go inside Arnold, because they had to do it again a few seasons later! Orange Arnold, that was another strange setup...

Inside Ralphie was the first one I saw, actually.

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

I use to read the books alot in school and watch the tv show on Discovery Kids and PBS Kids during my days in elementary school.

"A Lady does not start fights but they can finish them"

The space one holds a special place in my heart. I had the computer game based on space as a kid, and it was like my favorite thing EVAR.

I think Ms. Frizzle and that teacher who was her boyfriend (what was his name, again?) was one of my first ships. I always rooted for them.

"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

I had three of the computer games, I think. Space, ocean, and rainforest.

edited 16th Aug '12 10:30:07 PM by BadWolf21

We had the space, human body, and ocean games; I once played the geology game and think I somehow managed to get lost.

It was kinda fun how the human body game let you sometimes chose what to turn the bus into. Even so, a lot of Nightmare Fuel in that one...

Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?

I had the forest game and I think a couple others

To pity someone is to tell them "I feel bad about being better than you."

I had Space, Human Body, Ocean, Rainforest, and Dinosaurs. I don't remember when I got the first three, but I've had them for as long as I can remember... they're kind of busted up and broken now. Plus I lost all of them. But man, were those some good memories.

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

I knew someone who had...I'm not sure. Volcano? Was that one? Might have been Geology. I never played it, either way.

I totally forgot about Inside The Earth. Yeah, I had that one too.

It was one of the later ones, I remember - it, Rainforest and Dinosaurs had increasingly Obvious CGI in places, while the first three didn't. As a kid I thought it was cool.

edited 17th Aug '12 3:04:26 PM by KnownUnknown

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.