On the heels of its fabulously successful Sesame Street, the Children's Television Workshop (CTW) created The Electric Company. With its roots in Motown Sound, Broadway and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, The Electric Company drew attention for six years as the most popular instructional television show. It would win an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Series, and its soundtrack album earned a Grammy. Targeting children ages 6 through 10, The Electric Company aimed to teach basic reading and grammar skills to the young viewers. The show's cast of skit players helped teach these concepts through the use of skits, songs, cartoon and blackout segments and regular features; all of them revolved around sound clusters (e.g., sh-, -ly, -oo-), contractions, punctuation marks, etc. The series provided material for elementary schools, as CTW published a biweekly TEC Teacher's Guide detailing program contents. Quickly, the cast members began to establish themselves with various personas:
Actors: Zero Mostel, June Angela, Mel Blanc, Irene Cara, Mel Brooks, Hattie Winston, Danny Seagren, Joan Rivers, Judy Graubart, Gregg Burge, Stephen Gustafson, Janina Mathews, Rejane Magloie, Rodney Lewis, Jimmy Boyd, Melanie Henderson, Bayn Johnson, Todd Graff, Lee Chamberlin,
Genre: Children
