School House Rock!

From “Conjunction Junction” to “I’m Just a Bill,” let's explore how these catchy "Schoolhouse Rock!" tunes on Saturday mornings in the 1970s made learning fun, shaped a generation’s understanding of civics and grammar and left a lasting mark on pop culture. 

Transcript

Keith Loria 0:00

Welcome to season three of Don't Touch That Dial, a Classic TV podcast. So join us as we remember the shows that made watching TV in the days of antennas so much fun.

Anthony Stoeckert 0:09

Grab your remote and get ready for some fun and laughs.

Keith Loria 0:13

And remember, Don't Touch That Dial.

Anthony Stoeckert 0:16

Welcome to a very educational episode of Don't Touch That Dial, a classic TV podcast. This week we are all going to get smarter as we remember Schoolhouse Rock. I'm Anthony Stecker.

Jody Schwartz 0:31

I'm Jody Schwartz, and I feel smarter already. And I am Keith Lolly.

Anthony Stoeckert 0:36

Alright, I'm just gonna give some very brief background. Schoolhouse Rock was a series of educational videos for people who don't know. They were shown during those wonderful Saturday mornings in the 70s on ABC when we were.

Jody Schwartz 0:50

There were cartoons in between the cartoons. That's how great it was.

Anthony Stoeckert 0:55

It originally aired from 1973 to 1985. It came back from 93 to 96. There was like a direct-to-video release of some new videos, I believe, in 2009. The first one premiered January 6th, 1973. Do people know what the first video was?

Keith Loria 1:16

Three is a magic number.

Anthony Stoeckert 1:17

You got it. Ding ding ding. And for that, Keith, you get to go first. What do you want to say about this?

Keith Loria 1:22

I didn't read that. I know it because I went to see the composer, Bob. I don't know how to pronounce his name, Darrow.

Anthony Stoeckert 1:28

Duro, yeah. Yeah, he did a lot of them.

Keith Loria 1:30

Him and George Noole, who was one of the producers, were at the Kennedy Center in 2013 for a free concert. Man, there were thousands of people. There were so many people there. They did it in this, like they do something called the Millennial Hall, where they do free concerts every day.

Jody Schwartz 1:44

I remember reading an article about that, that they were stunned by the amount of people who showed up.

Keith Loria 1:48

Most people that have ever showed up, and people were like crunched in, standing all throughout. It was amazing. And he just sang all these songs.

Jody Schwartz 1:56

They actually said they didn't even realize what an impact it had until until that, until that show. And it when everybody just packed uh I think Entertainment Weekly had an article on it, but yeah, so it was billed as a schoolhouse rock concert because he did a lot of music.

Keith Loria 2:10

He was a very accomplished oh no, no, this was schoolhouse rock.

Anthony Stoeckert 2:13

It was a schoolhouse rock thing. Okay, right.

Keith Loria 2:15

Oh man, it was so good, you know. Just like kind of send, you know, you're sitting with all these people just singing along to these songs that you knew.

Anthony Stoeckert 2:23

I think one of the keys to it is that they hired very accomplished musicians. Jack Sheldon. He was a well-known jazz. Well, I mean, not well known to me, but he was a well-known jazz guy. Like he played with Miles Davis, the woman who did conjunction junk. No, no, no, he did that. I'm sorry.

Jody Schwartz 2:39

Well, Jack Sheldon did conjunction junction.

Anthony Stoeckert 2:41

Yeah, the woman who did um like a noun is a person, place her thing and interplanet Janet. She won a she won a Twitter. Lynn Arens.

Jody Schwartz 2:48

Lynn Lynn Arens?

Anthony Stoeckert 2:49

Lynn Arens, yeah. She won a Tony for ragtime. So these were very accomplished people.

Keith Loria 2:53

Wasn't Lynn Arens on House Calls?

Jody Schwartz 2:55

That was Lynn Redgrave.

Keith Loria 2:56

No, no, a trapper Johnny. I I don't know. For some reason, I have a memory of her being on the show.

Anthony Stoeckert 3:00

I have her as I only I looked her up only as a uh composer. So all right. So who wants to Keith? Why don't you talk about what are your earliest memories of schoolhouse rock, which ones you liked, yada yada yada?

Keith Loria 3:11

I don't know earliest memories, but one you know, very vivid memory I have is you know, during I I may have even been high school. I was gonna say junior high, but it could have been high school, just you know, taking a test, not like the SATs, but like one of those standardized tests that they did every year. And I, you know, you could kind of hear people like kind of humming the tunes because that's how they would know what an adverb, like well, get driving. Okay, adverb. Uh yeah, yeah. And I really have the preamble to the constitution.

Anthony Stoeckert 3:39

Everybody knows it because of that.

Keith Loria 3:41

Right, right. But I really, I mean, you I use those songs to help me on tests, and you know, that's how I knew what these things were.

Anthony Stoeckert 3:47

I should have done that.

Keith Loria 3:48

Probably when I got out of college. Uh, I was an English major without having known these things, but yes, just love them. I love the grammar ones more than I wasn't into the history ones that much.

Anthony Stoeckert 3:59

Oh, I like the history.

Keith Loria 4:00

I don't know about you guys. Like, yeah, you know, conjunction junction. I really love that. It was one of my favorites.

Anthony Stoeckert 4:05

Didn't you really like Interplanet Janet?

Keith Loria 4:07

Interplanet Janet. Well, that was personal, you know. I had a thing for her. Um I did used to have I used to have the Interplanet Janet little figure on my um in my office on my desk. I think they were in the Toxas Serial at some point.

Anthony Stoeckert 4:21

Wow.

Keith Loria 4:22

In the years we were working together, and that's how I got that. But my my all-time favorite was Gravity.

Anthony Stoeckert 4:28

I'm not sure I know that.

Keith Loria 4:29

It was like in the 50s, like I'm the victim of down, down, down, down, down, yeah. It was like a 1950s group. Yeah, they did a do-wop thing to it.

Anthony Stoeckert 4:40

Yeah I remember, I remember Newton under the tree now.

Keith Loria 4:42

Yeah, so that's why that was that was my all-time favorite one.

Anthony Stoeckert 4:45

Which do you think is the most famous one out of all of them?

Keith Loria 4:49

Conjunction, junction.

Anthony Stoeckert 4:50

Really? That was not my guess, Keith. What do you think is the most famous one? I think it's clear.

Keith Loria 4:56

Do you really? Yeah, and and not three is a magic number. No, I would almost go three is a magic number.

Jody Schwartz 5:01

I want to see what you what you what you think is clear.

Keith Loria 5:02

Oh, you probably think the constitution one.

Anthony Stoeckert 5:04

I'm just a bill. Yeah, because they parried it so much. I think if you went around and you asked a hundred people, name a schoolhouse rock, I think you would get I'm just a bill more than I'll I'll take that bet.

Jody Schwartz 5:15

I'll bet you it would be conjunction junction. Oh we're we're doing this next week. I think I'm gonna go with driving around next week and asking people, yeah.

Keith Loria 5:23

No, because they did it on the Simpsons, right? Or family guide. Right, but the bill one, I think even Senator Live maybe did uh just the bill one.

Jody Schwartz 5:34

So for that reason Simpsons one is hysterical and it was done like in the 90s and it works now. Yeah, that it would be it would be funny now. The Simpsons.

Anthony Stoeckert 5:43

Yeah, I think like there's even like like even like political cartoons will have the bill like all beaten up because you're right, you're right. Congress did something, or even I listened to Chuck Todd's podcast, and he said something a week, he said something a couple of weeks ago about getting a loss. He goes, you know, we've all seen just a bill. And like he doesn't even contextualize it. He just says, you know, we've all seen I'm just a bill. So I'm pretty good. You think it's conjunction junction?

Jody Schwartz 6:04

I think if you went up to somebody uh in our age bracket and just said to them conjunction junction, they would come right back with what's your function.

Keith Loria 6:11

Well, yeah, I but I think you could do that with a lot of them. But if you just ask you, I think that one more than any of them. I'm still I'm I think three is a magic number. I think everybody knows that one. I just felt like in college that was the one like because you I do remember having talks about schoolhouse rock with my college roommates. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anthony Stoeckert 6:27

Well, I don't know how many followers we have, but let's have before this episode posts, let's have our social media person text name a schoolhouse rock. But yeah, just have her say, name a schoolhouse rock video and see what we got.

Jody Schwartz 6:44

The first one that comes to mind. Yeah, yeah.

Anthony Stoeckert 6:46

Okay, all right, and we'll we'll see what happens.

Jody Schwartz 6:48

We'll announce the results.

Anthony Stoeckert 6:49

Maybe it'll be five. We will I love the five one interjection.

Keith Loria 6:53

Interjection.

Anthony Stoeckert 6:54

Interjection could be. I think interjection would be higher up than conjunction junction.

Jody Schwartz 6:59

I disagree. Um, but interjections is great. Another Lynn Aaron sang one. Jack Sheldon sang conjunction junction, and he did the pronouns one with everyone's name, Ruf and Allen Sasparella.

Keith Loria 7:10

But like you said earlier, I mean, every person knew the constitution because of the preamble. So the people might say that one.

Anthony Stoeckert 7:15

Is the constitution one no more? What's no more kings? Is that the constitution? No, no more.

Jody Schwartz 7:20

That's a separate one. No more kings is it starts with the pilgrims.

Anthony Stoeckert 7:24

And then uh, you know, rockin' in the rolling, rockin' in the rollins, and then splash and over the horizon.

Keith Loria 7:29

And that's sung by both of them, Bob Enlin.

Anthony Stoeckert 7:31

Oh wow, they got them both.

Jody Schwartz 7:32

Yeah, there aren't that many like that. The Simpsons parody on I'm Only a Bill was actually sang by Jack Sheldon, who sang the original I'm only a bill for the schoolhouse rock, and his was an amendment to be.

Anthony Stoeckert 7:44

The Saturday Night Live one, it was the I'm just it was when Obama was president and it was just on and it was I'm just a bill, and then they did one for executive actions, and it's like, yeah, he just signs it. That's it. Like, you know, for Bill, they went through the whole process and he's like, I'm an executive action. Boom, get out of here.

Jody Schwartz 8:01

There's there's a part in the Simpsons one where they're like, because he wants the the the whole thing is they want to ban flag burning. And he says, Well, what if we what if we just and the the kid doing the voice sounds like the kid from the original I'm only a bill? He goes, What if we just make a law outlawing flag burning? He goes, Because that law would be unconstitutional. But if we change the constitution, it goes, we can make all sorts of crazy laws. He goes, now you're catching on.

Anthony Stoeckert 8:26

I'm just the bill does a pretty solid job of explaining the process.

Jody Schwartz 8:31

Yes, complicated process at that one.

Anthony Stoeckert 8:34

Yeah, and with the um no more kings, I had a friend who would just go, it's gonna be a president. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He would just say that like out of nowhere.

Jody Schwartz 8:44

We're gonna elect the president is the line.

Anthony Stoeckert 8:46

And that's what it is.

Jody Schwartz 8:46

We're gonna elect the president, we're gonna elect the president.

Anthony Stoeckert 8:48

Yeah, he would just say that. I guess that's no, we're gonna elect the president. We're gonna elect the president, yeah.

Jody Schwartz 8:53

And then someone else would say, No one tells us what to do.

Anthony Stoeckert 8:56

Now, what about the port that there was a Boston Tea Party one too? Is that the same one?

Keith Loria 9:01

No, that's a shot heard around the world, isn't it? That's a shot. No, oh god, I'm getting a mix up.

Anthony Stoeckert 9:05

Because I remember like they dump the tea in, and then like they like they pan out and like they made it look like a that's the one too.

Jody Schwartz 9:11

You know, you know, we're gonna show you how it feels, we're gonna dump this tea.

Anthony Stoeckert 9:15

It's the same song, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I but am I right? They they pan out and it looks like a big, big giant cup.

Jody Schwartz 9:21

It looks like a big tea cup, yeah, floating floating in Boston Harbor.

Anthony Stoeckert 9:24

Yeah, I love that as a kid.

Jody Schwartz 9:25

And there's one there now. Yeah.

Keith Loria 9:27

Yeah. So I was much more interested in the grammar rock ones.

Jody Schwartz 9:30

Me too. The grammar ones were my favorite, and you know, conjunction junction's my favorite. I love the pronoun one. And there's an underrated one that I'm gonna talk about, the tale of Mr. Morton, which is about subject and predicate.

Keith Loria 9:41

Oh, yeah, that's a great one. What's the pronoun one?

Jody Schwartz 9:44

Is that pronouns can make to take a place of another?

Keith Loria 9:47

Oh, that's the Rufus one, right?

Jody Schwartz 9:48

Yeah, the Rufus out. Yeah.

Keith Loria 9:50

What's what's I I can never remember that name.

Jody Schwartz 9:52

Yeah, those the long names. And he goes, I can just say him, her, them, you know.

Keith Loria 9:57

Oh, Rufus Xavier Sasparella.

Jody Schwartz 10:00

Sasparella. And he had Gabrielle Gabrielle Sasparella. All right. These long names. He goes, but I don't have to say that because I got pronouns.

Anthony Stoeckert 10:08

Now I want Sasparella.

Keith Loria 10:10

You know, we haven't mentioned Esra Mohawk, who also did a bunch of these.

Anthony Stoeckert 10:14

Which ones did they do?

Keith Loria 10:15

Interjections, uh, suffering and suffrage. Wow, that was a woman's rights movement once. Yeah, that seems to be it.

Anthony Stoeckert 10:22

But what did we mention David Frischburg?

Keith Loria 10:25

No. What did he do?

Anthony Stoeckert 10:26

He did I'm did he do I'm just a bill? Yeah, he I think he did I'm just a bill and lolly lolly and conjunction conjunction junction.

Jody Schwartz 10:34

David, yeah, you're right. David Frishburn. Well, Jack Sheldon sang sang it. Yeah, yeah.

Anthony Stoeckert 10:39

David Frischburg wrote them.

Jody Schwartz 10:41

Yes, he wrote them. Yeah, he wrote it. He wrote on the thing.

Anthony Stoeckert 10:45

You're talking about these musicians. He worked with Bette Mittler, Mel Tormey, Rosemary Clooney. You know, they they got real real talented people to do these.

Keith Loria 10:53

Yeah, there was someone named Blossom Deary, who I don't know who who sang the figure eight one. Do you remember that one? They really smelled it.

Jody Schwartz 11:02

Figure four is half of eight.

Anthony Stoeckert 11:04

That one's sad.

Jody Schwartz 11:04

Yeah, that is. Yes, she sounds like she's going through a rough time when she's when she's talking about she was a jazz singer, famous jazz singer. Yeah, they're always upset.

Anthony Stoeckert 11:19

Yeah, and then what Lolly Lolly and has going by, and it would he would drop the LYs on everything, right?

Keith Loria 11:26

Yeah, and they had like the son saying, Hey, dad.

Jody Schwartz 11:31

Suppose you're going nut gathering, your buddy wants to know when and where.

Anthony Stoeckert 11:34

Oh, that's right. He owned a store. Yeah, he owned Lolly.

Jody Schwartz 11:39

It was a grandfather, a father, and a son. They sold it.

Anthony Stoeckert 11:42

You can get you can get adverbs. I can get adverbs for free. I don't need to pay you for them, pal.

Jody Schwartz 11:47

Yeah, and then they you know, they got Lolly Sr. here. Talk about this. Suppose you want to paint your house, you can do it neatly or rather sluppily. I don't remember with our handy L Y attachments.

Keith Loria 12:00

I don't remember this busy prepositions one. How did that one go?

Anthony Stoeckert 12:03

I don't remember that either.

Jody Schwartz 12:04

The tailor Mr. Morton, as I was saying before, very underrated, and it talks about subject and predicate. Yeah, and I gotta tell you, I still hum it sometimes when I'm editing copy and thinking in my head, subject and predicate.

Anthony Stoeckert 12:15

I don't remember.

Jody Schwartz 12:16

Mr. Morton is the subject of the sentence, and what the predicate says, he does. There you go.

Anthony Stoeckert 12:21

I don't know that one.

Keith Loria 12:22

I'm looking at busy prepositions when I've never seen it before. I think they it was a newer one, but for some reason.

Anthony Stoeckert 12:28

They made some ones later on.

Keith Loria 12:30

Yes, it was 1993. But this one also came out. Tell Mr. Morton was also 93.

Jody Schwartz 12:35

The one of Tale of Mr. Morton, I know it because I got the DVD um when my kids were little, and I wanted to show you know my sons the uh schoolhouse rock, and and they they loved it. And the Mr. Morton one I didn't remember because it came out in the 90s, but I it stuck with me.

Keith Loria 12:51

I'm looking on my shirt, and he's not on my shirt. I'm wearing the schoolhouse rock shirt for you viewers who aren't watching along with the video. He doesn't he doesn't look at his shirt normally to get answers. Like I have I have Interjection, I have Interplanet Janet, Mr. Bill.

Anthony Stoeckert 13:06

Well, they probably have the classic era ones.

Keith Loria 13:09

Yeah, you do, yeah.

Anthony Stoeckert 13:11

So uh they brought it back actually, also when they brought it back in the 90s. They did like a series of money rock, also.

Keith Loria 13:17

Oh, yeah. I don't think I've watched it.

Anthony Stoeckert 13:19

Things like how to um, you know, I think like how to balance a checks checkbook, how to pay your taxes, you know, all that kind of stuff. How to pay your taxes somehow was not as popular as history and you know, that kind of stuff.

Jody Schwartz 13:33

I think they overshot on that one, huh?

Anthony Stoeckert 13:35

Hey, listen, if in the 90s you're asked come come up with some new schoolhouse rock, that's a tough assignment.

Keith Loria 13:41

Imagine doing it now. So let's go through each of the the different ones and talk about our favorite ones. Like, do you with multiplication rock? What are the ones that that you remember most or you like most?

Anthony Stoeckert 13:52

I think I'm in the minority on this. I always love the five one five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty, forty-five, fifty, fifty-five, sixty, seventy-five, eighty, eighty-five, ninety, nine-five, one hundred.

Keith Loria 14:03

Very impressive. Very impressive, I think.

Anthony Stoeckert 14:06

And I've been terrible at math my whole life. I know the fives like nothing. There you go. And that they were playing hide and seek, right? I think, yeah, yeah. And he and that was his count off for hide and seek. And I my hunch is that's not one of the most popular ones.

Jody Schwartz 14:23

I don't think it is, but but I do remember it very well, but it's definitely not one of the more popular ones. That was one of my and what we need to talk about when we talk about schoolhouse rock is simply the fact that again, it was before everyone had a VCR, it was before you know streaming or recording or anything like that. Whatever one was on was the one you watched, and you got excited when the one you liked came on. Yes, yes, yes.

Keith Loria 14:44

And you never knew, you never knew.

Jody Schwartz 14:45

You never knew, you never even knew when they were coming on. It was right, it was on, it would it would be on in between whatever cartoon you were watching, but when it came on, you didn't know which one was gonna be, you didn't exactly know when it was gonna be on. And they used to announce it with that little with the kids walking into the schoolhouse, yes, yeah, yeah. And and like, oh my god, yeah, school house rock is you know, you gotta get it.

Anthony Stoeckert 15:05

There was like a very brief intermission, like school, house rock.

Jody Schwartz 15:08

And then you see the kids walking into the into the into the schoolhouse, and then if it was something you liked, you got very, very happy about it.

Anthony Stoeckert 15:14

But to your point, no VCRs or anything, but yet we remember these lyrics 50 years later. So, how many times did we see them?

Jody Schwartz 15:22

But think about it. They premiered in the early 70s. That's when we were starting to watch Saturday morning cartoons. All of us watched them every Saturday non-stop for a number of years. So, so you hear you heard you hear about it, and you know, it's like it's like when Botsy learned uh pump your blood, right? Right, yes. That's how I learned it. Yeah, you learn things by song, you know. You know, my favorite numbers one was the four-legged zoo. I went to the four-legged zoo.

Anthony Stoeckert 15:45

Do you know that I don't know that one? Do you know that one, Keith?

Jody Schwartz 15:47

Yeah, yeah.

Anthony Stoeckert 15:48

Yeah, yeah.

Jody Schwartz 15:49

It was a school field trip to to the zoo, and it's about multiplying by four.

Anthony Stoeckert 15:53

That's why I can't multiply by four.

Jody Schwartz 15:55

Yep, that's what they tell me.

Anthony Stoeckert 15:57

What about you, Keith, for multiplication?

Keith Loria 15:58

I'm sticking with three is a magic number. I think that I really enjoy that one. That's a good one.

Anthony Stoeckert 16:03

That's great.

Keith Loria 16:04

But I like I outside of that one, I did like My Hero Zero too.

Anthony Stoeckert 16:08

I remember that one. I don't remember these that well.

Jody Schwartz 16:11

It was a little kid in a cape. Yeah.

Anthony Stoeckert 16:14

That sounds vaguely familiar. Three is a magic number, I remember. Ready or not? Ah boy, that I got six. Lucky seven Samson? These don't seem familiar to me. I need to watch these. You should. They're fun. The good eleven.

Jody Schwartz 16:28

And you know what's funny? All of the multiplication rocks were all from the 70s. They didn't do any updated ones for those in the 90s.

Anthony Stoeckert 16:35

But like you guys know the good 11 and little 12 toes?

Jody Schwartz 16:39

There were some of them that you didn't like as much, so you didn't really watch them as much. I know they were never. They definitely showed some more than others for sure.

Anthony Stoeckert 16:48

They were probably ones that were popular, and that's why some of them we know the lyrics too.

Keith Loria 16:52

But just think if they had done a schoolhouse rock for the number 13 or 14, we would all know our 13 and 14 tables today. Yeah. Yeah. Right? And we don't, so it's it's really ABC that kind of uh has I blame schoolhouse rock's laziness on me not being good at that. Yeah, in China they went up to 99.

Anthony Stoeckert 17:09

They sure did. Why was nine? Why was it called naughty number nine? What was number nine doing?

Jody Schwartz 17:15

That was the after dark uh schoolhouse rock.

Anthony Stoeckert 17:19

The trick I know for multiplying nines is that the answers, the two digits add up to nine, right? Yeah, like nine times. 72, 63, yeah, and eight and one add up to nine. I don't know if I learned that from schoolhouse rock or not.

Keith Loria 17:33

I don't think so. I don't think that was a schoolhouse rock thing.

Anthony Stoeckert 17:36

And I don't know what makes nine naughty. All right, so what category do you want to do next, Keith?

Keith Loria 17:39

I guess next we would go to grammar rock. Now, this is hard because they're all great. These are these are all the best ones. I think Anthony, you said is interjection your favorite, or that's just I think I would say interjections.

Anthony Stoeckert 17:51

I love the guy at the sporting event who goes, hooray, I'm rooting for the other team, and everyone just looks at him. I love that.

Jody Schwartz 18:01

Yes, if that happened now, everybody would attack him.

Anthony Stoeckert 18:04

Oh, yeah.

Jody Schwartz 18:06

Can you imagine if the if the Eagles throw an interception? And the guy says, and some guy says, Hey, I'm rooting for the other team. Imagine Jalen Hurts throws an interception.

Keith Loria 18:20

What I learned from interjection was the part where you put a comma if the feeling's not as strong.

Jody Schwartz 18:24

Yes.

Anthony Stoeckert 18:25

Oh, that's right.

Jody Schwartz 18:26

I an explanation point or by comma if the feelings aren't as strong.

Anthony Stoeckert 18:30

Yeah, I think interjections would clearly be my favorite.

Keith Loria 18:33

I don't know if I have a clearly one. I really like Lolly. But I also like the noun. Noun is a person placed.

Anthony Stoeckert 18:38

Noun is a person who places.

Keith Loria 18:40

But I think we all knew that. Like that may have been the one that we knew before Squells Rock.

Anthony Stoeckert 18:45

Well, yeah, but I don't know if I was going for educational value. I just think it was the song and the cartoon, whatever.

Jody Schwartz 18:52

Uh I like the verb one.

Keith Loria 18:55

Verb.

Jody Schwartz 18:55

That's what's happening.

Anthony Stoeckert 18:56

Oh, that's right.

Jody Schwartz 18:57

That's what's happening. That was a cool one.

Anthony Stoeckert 19:00

And you know what? I will say, I think conjunction junction's a better song than interjections. But when you combine the cartoon and the story, you know, of these things overall, I just like the inter the interjections uh, you know, short video more than overall than conjunction junction. Yeah, song-wise, conjunction junction's better.

Jody Schwartz 19:24

Also, it's you know, like like the verb one, the the the scenes are really great with the superhero in the you know, you know, and he's going to see the movie with the superhero in it, then he's playing baseball.

Anthony Stoeckert 19:35

And what's going on with the noun? Like, what can the what can you do with a noun? Like, there's a person, place a thing. What more can you do? What was going on in that video? That's a good one. Nobody remembers.

Jody Schwartz 19:46

No, oh, the girl, she's going places, and at one point she she put a dime in the drugstore record machine, Beatles and the Monkeys. She actually mentions the Beatles and the Monkeys.

Anthony Stoeckert 19:55

Oh wow, wow, that's cool.

Jody Schwartz 19:57

Yeah, and then they say, you know, it could be a thing like a uh like like a like a record machine or uh people like the Beatles and the Monkey.

Anthony Stoeckert 20:04

I don't remember busy prepositions.

Jody Schwartz 20:06

I don't remember that one either. That's I don't either. I don't either. You know what? That was a nightmare. Yeah, that was a night, that one came out. Actually, two of them came out on September 11th, 1993. And Mr. Morton was one of them, the one I mentioned before.

Anthony Stoeckert 20:18

And I'm gonna say the science ones, I don't know those very well. Let me see. I'm looking at the body.

Jody Schwartz 20:23

Well, let's let's let's let's go in order. We'll we'll uh we'll get to America Rock next.

Anthony Stoeckert 20:27

Did everybody did everybody give a favorite grammar rock?

Jody Schwartz 20:29

I haven't yet. My favorite one is probably the verb one, although conjunction junction is amazing. It's hard to pick with this one, so but I'm gonna I'll go with with the uh verb one just because you know so let's go with America Rock.

Keith Loria 20:42

Now, the these are the ones that I don't know as well. A lot of these I'm not that very familiar with.

Anthony Stoeckert 20:47

Elbow Room, Elbow Room, I remembered now.

Jody Schwartz 20:51

Yeah, elbow elbow room talks about the Louisiana Purchase, yeah.

Anthony Stoeckert 20:55

Fireworks Manifest Destiny is that elbow room?

Jody Schwartz 20:58

It's the evolution, it's so it's expansion of the United States, like the president with Thomas Jefferson, and you had them all. He made a deal with Napoleon, yes, yeah.

Anthony Stoeckert 21:08

And they they like everybody was lined up and they could move their elbows because now they had elbow room because they well, no more, no more kings. I know. I don't know what fireworks is.

Jody Schwartz 21:17

I don't either.

Anthony Stoeckert 21:17

The shotgun round the world, I know that the start of the revolution, the preamble. I know, elbow room. I know great American melting pot. That seems a little familiar.

Jody Schwartz 21:27

That talks about immigrant again, something that would be you know talked about now. Immigration.

Anthony Stoeckert 21:32

Yeah, mother necessity.

Keith Loria 21:33

I that definitely sounds familiar, but mother necessity where would we be without the inventions of electricity? I feel like Mother Necessity was kind of like the beginning of others, wasn't it? Like a couple of them.

Anthony Stoeckert 21:48

Oh, I don't know. Like they had a series of Mothers Necessities.

Jody Schwartz 21:53

Nah, that was one song. It was it was one song, okay?

Keith Loria 21:55

And then there was there's a lot packed in.

Jody Schwartz 21:57

That's just the thing with all these songs. There's a lot packed in them, so it seems like there might be more than one, but it was really mostly just all one.

Keith Loria 22:05

Yeah, for some reason, I didn't know these were. I must have been watching different channel cartoons back in 76.

Jody Schwartz 22:11

I remember, you know, like you know, No More Kings shot heard around the world. Suffering until suffrage was really I'm just the bell.

Anthony Stoeckert 22:17

And I three ring government, that doesn't ring a bell.

Jody Schwartz 22:20

I would say Suffering Until Suffrage. That is how I knew that the women got the right to vote in 1920.

Anthony Stoeckert 22:26

I would say my favorite of these is No More Kings. That's rocking that's rocking in a rolling split.

Jody Schwartz 22:31

Rockin' and a rolling split. Yeah, we're gonna elect the president.

Anthony Stoeckert 22:34

We're gonna elect the president. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Keith Loria 22:36

I mean, I mean, I'm just a bill is my favorite.

Anthony Stoeckert 22:38

I'm just a bill is great.

Jody Schwartz 22:40

Yeah, but I I would say I'm just the bill is my favorite of these. That definitely.

Keith Loria 22:44

I would think uh they probably showed I'm just the bill probably like 10 times more than any of these others.

Jody Schwartz 22:49

Yeah, without question.

Keith Loria 22:50

I'm looking at them now. I probably have only seen like half of these. Well, I'm sure I've seen them all, but I only remember half of them.

Anthony Stoeckert 22:57

I agree, yeah. I'm gonna watch these because I have the DVD too. So I'm I'm gonna watch these and see maybe maybe some of them will come back to me. Guess what?

Jody Schwartz 23:04

Bill they signed you, and now you're already. No, but this is so much better. We're going by our memories. It's this is that's true. That's what we wanted to do. Yeah, yeah. You know, this you know, it's a conversation now, it's not a not a research process.

Keith Loria 23:18

So in 1978, the ABC cartoons must have been good again because I know all these science rock ones. Um gravity, as I already mentioned, I think is my favorite, but I I really did like Interplanet Janet.

Jody Schwartz 23:30

Um and I like Planet Janet, she's a galaxy girl, and I like the electricity one.

Keith Loria 23:34

Electricity, electricity.

Jody Schwartz 23:36

Electricity.

Anthony Stoeckert 23:38

I don't know these well. What's them not so dry bones?

Jody Schwartz 23:42

Talks about your skeletal system, it's amazing.

Anthony Stoeckert 23:44

That does seem a little familiar. I guess I'd have to go with Interplanet Janet, but I these really ones I have any remembrance of are Interplanet Janet and Electricity. Electricity. The others, these really do not seem familiar to me.

Keith Loria 23:58

You don't remember the electricity, or you said you did. I'm sorry.

Anthony Stoeckert 24:00

I do vaguely, but what about the nervous system?

Keith Loria 24:03

Yeah, there's a telegraph line. You got yours, and I got mine. It's called a nervous system. They had different singers. I don't know who sang that, but yeah, didn't have their usual. Oh, yeah, Jamie F and Christine Lagner. Wow. And I don't believe they did any others.

Jody Schwartz 24:23

Interplanet Janet actually also had like like the artwork was a little different for it and a little like more elaborate, you know, as I recall. It was a little more colorful than than the other ones, you know, with the solar system. And by the way, again, what I learned from that one, which I needed to know once on a test, was uh that the sun was made up of hydrogen and helium, which I did not know until I saw that.

Anthony Stoeckert 24:44

I don't I don't think I knew that speech said she's been to the sun, it's a lot of fun.

Jody Schwartz 24:51

It's a lot of fun.

Anthony Stoeckert 24:52

Do we want to choose our favorite money rock from the nineties?

Keith Loria 24:55

Or computer rock from the 80s, and I don't know any of these. I don't think I ever saw it.

Anthony Stoeckert 25:00

My listener doesn't have computer rock.

Jody Schwartz 25:02

I I think we should be rejecting these.

Keith Loria 25:04

Yeah. They weren't done by well, I guess Shelly.

Anthony Stoeckert 25:07

Oh, look, I've got the I've got the booklet from the um DVD. It's got all the lyrics.

Keith Loria 25:12

Oh, really?

Anthony Stoeckert 25:13

Not all of them, but a lot of them. They they don't have um the money rock ones. And they have an all-new one for the DVD. I'm gonna send your vote to college with Boothie.

Jody Schwartz 25:25

Well, here's here's something good from uh from '96. Uh Tyrannosaurus Death.

Anthony Stoeckert 25:30

Yeah, I saw that one. Yeah, yeah. That's funny.

Jody Schwartz 25:33

That's clever.

Anthony Stoeckert 25:34

Uh Tax Man Max walking on Wall Street, the checks in the mail. That that you know what? That's my favorite one.

Jody Schwartz 25:42

Didn't Weird Aldo with do a s do a song called Checks in the Mail?

Anthony Stoeckert 25:46

I've never seen Money Rock, but Checks in the Mail is my favorite one. Because I can relate to that.

Jody Schwartz 25:53

And now nobody pays my check anymore.

Anthony Stoeckert 25:55

So it's and the last page of the booklet has the little girl saying, Darn, that's the end. Yes.

Jody Schwartz 26:02

Of his rejection.

Anthony Stoeckert 26:03

Well, no, on the on the uh DVD.

Jody Schwartz 26:05

Oh, on the DBD bo, yeah, yeah.

Anthony Stoeckert 26:06

Yeah, that's the back page of it, you guys uh. So what do we know what cartoons we were watching? I don't even know what cartoons I was watching when I saw these. But I yeah, I don't remember like these I remember.

Keith Loria 26:18

Or the Laugh Olympics.

Jody Schwartz 26:19

The Laugh Olympics was was on ABC. Speed buggy was probably a lot of there was there was definitely at least one or two years where all the good ones were on Bogie, Scooby-Doo. Yeah, those that there was definitely the Blue Falcon. There was definitely a couple of years where ABC had all the best ones.

Anthony Stoeckert 26:35

And then well, who was that other guy you mentioned, Jody? He was like I don't know.

Jody Schwartz 26:39

Oh, Super Friends was definitely ABC as well. Oh, yeah, all the superhero ones were were that as well.

Anthony Stoeckert 26:45

But I don't remember episodes of those, but I remember some of these. Yeah, well, that's you know I guess because they were songs, it was songs, yeah. Yeah, you're able to remember lyrics and stuff like that.

Keith Loria 26:56

Fonzy and the happy days gang was ABC. Yeah, of course it was.

Anthony Stoeckert 27:00

I don't know if I watched it. Laverne and Shirley in the Army.

Jody Schwartz 27:03

Come on, you didn't watch Fonse in the Happy Days Gang? I don't think I just listening to Wolfman Jack do the opening credits was was was enough. I think I tried and didn't trying to get back to 1950s Milwaukee.

Anthony Stoeckert 27:14

Yeah, I I I think I just wanted to see them hanging out in Milwaukee. I didn't want to see them in space.

Keith Loria 27:19

Oh, you did. You just didn't know it.

Jody Schwartz 27:21

Yeah, you you just didn't know it. True, you wanted to see them in space. What was great about all the shows where they were in space was that every planet, not just them, but also Josina Pussycats in Outer Space and other shows that went Gilligan's planet, you know, all the all the shows that went in outer space, wherever they went, they had air. They never needed space helmets. Oxygen was fine. Yeah, the the atmosphere of whatever planet they went to had the same kind of air we did.

Anthony Stoeckert 27:46

The partridge family didn't go in space, they were in the future.

Jody Schwartz 27:49

They were in the future.

Anthony Stoeckert 27:49

Yeah, were they in the Jetsons world basically?

Jody Schwartz 27:52

Yeah, that's what it was.

Keith Loria 27:53

It was it was it was the Jetsons with the Partridge family, and they use the same cells, like so it's the same ships and the same buildings, and yeah, yeah.

Jody Schwartz 28:03

There's an episode where Danny is playing Little League and they're calling it Spaceball.

Anthony Stoeckert 28:10

I watched a little, we did an episode of on cartoons, and I watched a little bit of a happy Fonz and the Happy Days gang. And the only line I remember is Fonzi going, This space chick is cute, but she don't listen.

Jody Schwartz 28:24

That may have been in the actual show.

Anthony Stoeckert 28:26

It was. Oh, and in the actual happy day show?

Jody Schwartz 28:29

Yeah, that may have been the actual happy day show.

Anthony Stoeckert 28:32

No, no, yeah, no. He actually actually says she don't listen.

Keith Loria 28:35

Maybe he should watch the woman suffrage schoolhouse rock.

Jody Schwartz 28:39

I think I'm well in his world, you know, the women have only had the right to vote for like 10 years.

Anthony Stoeckert 28:45

I think after Fonse said that, I'm like, yeah, Fonz, I've been there, man.

Jody Schwartz 28:53

I hate it when space chicks don't listen. I think our producer's gonna cut this part out. Oh, well, and then call us idiots.

Keith Loria 29:03

That's normal. Think how much more idiots we would be if we didn't watch schoolhouse rock.

Jody Schwartz 29:07

Seriously.

Anthony Stoeckert 29:09

Look how much smarter we actually are. I don't think I'd know what a bill is if it wasn't the schoolhouse rock joke. Like today in 2025. I'd be like, what?

Keith Loria 29:20

All right, so we're running out of time. Okay. All right.

Anthony Stoeckert 29:23

Bye everybody. Bye.

Keith Loria 29:26

Thanks for listening to Don't Touch That Dial, a classic TV podcast. If you like what you heard, be sure to subscribe. Please leave a review on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen. We'll be back soon with another journey back in time to the days of static, laugh tracks, and seven channels.