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Friday, February 13, 2009

...But where the heck are Spider-Man and J. Arthur Crank?!

This afternoon I finally got to watch the new version of The Electric Company on PBS. It's a revival of the very fondly remembered original series from the 1970s.

So what did I think of it? I watched many of the episodes of the original The Electric Company a few years ago when they ran on Noggin, and was surprised at how well the show had held up over the years. The Electric Company circa 2009 remains faithful to the purpose of its parent... but is a fresh and rapid-fire delightful update aimed at a new generation. And I was surprised at how many homages to the Seventies series there are: right down to paying tribute to Rita Moreno's immortal warcry "HEY YOU GUYSSSSSS!!!" Didn't spot an appearance by Letterman (no, not the late night TV host) but there was an animated spoof of 24, among other clever sketches. The one with the farmer and his mixed-up signs: can't help but wonder if the original show would have ever tried to be, dare I say it, "risque"? :-)

All in all, I thought that the new The Electric Company holds a lot of promise, and maybe even quite a bit of entertainment value for (ahem...) those of us among the "older" set. There's a lot of potential here for PBS to have another classic show on its hands.

Now all it needs is something on par with Morgan Freeman taking a bath in a casket...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's plum creepy. Don't vampires hate water?

Chris Knight said...

It's running water that vampires traditionally can't cross on their own. I think how it works is that even if you were being chased by one and you crossed a bridge over a river, the vampire still couldn't come after you.

(I know that both from reading Bram Stoker's Dracula, and the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual :-)

Anyhoo, Dracula is probably fine taking a bath in his casket. And if we take the running water thing into consideration, that's probably ALL he can do, since showers are out of the question :-)