Schoolhouse Rock! coming to Disney+ this June
Long before the song “Zero to Hero” was made popular in Disney’s “Hercules,” many of us grew up with the tune “My Hero Zero,” from Saturday morning’s “Schoolhouse Rock!”
Now, the generation who grew up singing “Three is the Magic Number” and “Figure Eight” will be able to relive them and share them with their children and grandchildren. The first season of “Schoolhouse Rock!” is coming to Disney+ on June 19.
Hopefully, the other seasons will soon follow. For those not familiar with this series, which helped many kids learn multiplication, grammar (remember “Conjunction Junction) and the legislative process (“I’m Just a Bill”), these 3 minute shorts were aired during the Saturday morning children’s programming block ABC.
The series, which debuted in 1973, came about after an advertising director, David McCall, noticed his son was having trouble learning his multiplication tables but had no problem memorizing lyrics of every Rolling Stones song. So, he hired a musician, Bob Dorough, to write a song to teach multiplication. Ton Yohe, an illustrator who worked for McCall created visuals to go along.
They then pitched it to ABC and the vice president of children’s programming by the name of Michael Eisner (later to be the CEO and Chairman of Disney) who greenlit the project.
From 1973 through 1978 there were 41 episodes over four seasons: Multiplication Rock, Grammar Rock, America Rock and Science Rock. In 1982, four more episodes for Computer Rock was created. In 1994, another season as added with eight episodes for Mony Rock. And in 2009, the series going straight to video with 11 episodes for Earth Rock.
