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'''''The Magic School Bus''''' is an American [[Saturday morning cartoon|Saturday morning]] animated television series based on [[The Magic School Bus|the book series of the same name]] by [[Joanna Cole]]. It is notable for its use of celebrity talent and combining entertainment with an educational show, according to an article in ''[[Animation World Network|Animation World Magazine]]'' by Annemarie Moody incorporating an interview with Executive Producer Deborah Forte.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&category2=&article_no=3921&page=1 |title=Word Knowledge is Power for WordGirl |accessdate=2009-03-07 |last=Moody |first=Annemarie |coauthors= |date=2009-03-07 |work=Animation World Magazine |publisher=Animation World Network }}</ref> ''[[Broadcasting & Cable]]'' said the show was "among the highest-rated [[PBS]] shows for school-age children."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Green |first=Michelle Y. |coauthors= |date=1997-07-28 |title=Scholastic Productions banks on Best-Sellers |journal=Broadcasting & Cable |volume=127 |issue=31|pages=48 |publisher=Cahners Publishing Co./Reed Publishing (USA ) Inc. |location= |issn= }}</ref> The show is also the longest running children's science television series program to date.
'''''The Magic School Bus''''' is an American [[Saturday morning cartoon|Saturday morning]] animated television series based on [[The Magic School Bus|the book series of the same name]] by [[Joanna Cole]]. It is notable for its use of celebrity talent and combining entertainment with an educational show, according to an article in ''[[Animation World Network|Animation World Magazine]]'' by Annemarie Moody incorporating an interview with Executive Producer Deborah Forte.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&category2=&article_no=3921&page=1 |title=Word Knowledge is Power for WordGirl |accessdate=2009-03-07 |last=Moody |first=Annemarie |coauthors= |date=2009-03-07 |work=Animation World Magazine |publisher=Animation World Network }}</ref> ''[[Broadcasting & Cable]]'' said the show was "among the highest-rated [[PBS]] shows for school-age children."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Green |first=Michelle Y. |coauthors= |date=1997-07-28 |title=Scholastic Productions banks on Best-Sellers |journal=Broadcasting & Cable |volume=127 |issue=31|pages=48 |publisher=Cahners Publishing Co./Reed Publishing (USA ) Inc. |location= |issn= }}</ref> The show is also the longest running children's science television series program to date [Citation Needed].


==Production and airing==
==Production and airing==

Revision as of 15:00, 13 June 2011

The Magic School Bus
The Magic School Bus as seen in the show's opening sequence.
Created byBruce Degen
Joanna Cole
Voices ofLily Tomlin
Danny Tamberelli
Daniel DeSanto
Tara Meyer
Erica Luttrell
Maia Filar
Stuart Stone
Lisa Yamanaka
Theme music composerPeter Lurye
Opening theme"Ride On the Magic School Bus", performed by Little Richard
Country of originUnited States
Canada
No. of episodes52 (list of episodes)
Production
ProducersNelvana Limited
South Carolina ETV
Scholastic Entertainment
Running time30 minutes
Original release
NetworkPBS
ReleaseSeptember 10, 1994 (1994-09-10) –
December 6, 1997 (1997-12-06)

The Magic School Bus is an American Saturday morning animated television series based on the book series of the same name by Joanna Cole. It is notable for its use of celebrity talent and combining entertainment with an educational show, according to an article in Animation World Magazine by Annemarie Moody incorporating an interview with Executive Producer Deborah Forte.[1] Broadcasting & Cable said the show was "among the highest-rated PBS shows for school-age children."[2] The show is also the longest running children's science television series program to date [Citation Needed].

Production and airing

In 1994, The Magic School Bus concept was made into an animated series of the same name by Scholastic Studios (USA), and premiered on September 10, 1994. Forte says that adapting the books into an animated series was an opportunity to help kids “learn about science in a fun way”.[3] Around that time, Forte had been hearing concern from parents and teachers about how to improve science education for girls and minorities.[3] Each episode of the show ran about 30 minutes. In the United States, the show originally aired on PBS, through South Carolina's SCETV network; it was the first fully animated series to be aired on PBS. The last episode aired on December 6, 1997, when the series stopped production. The Fox network aired repeated from September 1998 to September 2002. Starting September 27, 2010, the Magic School Bus started a daily run on qubo (United States), and on Saturday mornings on NBC. The Fox Kids and qubo airings both use a shortened version of the opening.

The Magic School Bus was also seen on TLC and Discovery Kids[3] in the U.S., Pop and CITV in the United Kingdom, with no plans to make more episodes, on November 9, 2002. In 2005, Nelvana sold the show to Cartoon Network.[4] The series continued on these six stations until February 4, 2006. Qubo picked the show up on September 27, 2010.

When The Magic School Bus is syndicated on commercial networks, the Producer Says segment at the end of each episode is cut out to make space for commercials. The Producer Says segments are only seen when the series is shown on non-commercial networks (e.g. PBS and Knowledge) and children's networks (commercial breaks are shorter). Within the episodes, there also are timepoints where the episode fades out and then fades back in after a series of commercials are shown. On the VHS and DVD releases the scene immediately fades back in right after it fades out as no commercials are shown.

The show's theme song called "Ride on the Magic School Bus" was written by Peter Lurye and performed by rock 'n' roll legend Little Richard.[5]

The show's voice director is Susan Blu.

Two of the writers for the show were Brian Muehl, and one of the Fraggle Rock creators Jocelyn Stevenson.

The series was released on VHS by KidVision between December 13, 1994 and March 3, 1998 and by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment between January 12, 1999 and April 2, 2002, and on DVD by Warner Home Video between May 9, 2006 and August 4, 2009. Only the DVDs contain the funding credits. In the VHS and DVD releases, all the episodes are uncut with the Producer Says segments intact.

Reception

Jason Fry, in a column for the online edition of the Wall Street Journal, expressed an overall appreciation for the show, but wrote that the episode The Magic School Bus Gets Programmed should have been about the perils of internet searches and network concepts surfacing at the time, rather than an old-fashioned technology-run-amok story about the respective roles of programmer and machine (although he admitted that the episode was ten years old).[6]

Tomlin won a Daytime Emmy for her role as Ms. Frizzle.[7]

Characters

Main article: List of The Magic School Bus characters

Episodes

Main article: List of The Magic School Bus episodes

Funding

The series was primarily funded by the National Science Foundation, Microsoft Home, the United States Department of Energy, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the viewers/stations of PBS also provided funding.

References

  1. ^ Moody, Annemarie (2009-03-07). "Word Knowledge is Power for WordGirl". Animation World Magazine. Animation World Network. Retrieved 2009-03-07. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ Green, Michelle Y. (1997-07-28). "Scholastic Productions banks on Best-Sellers". Broadcasting & Cable. 127 (31). Cahners Publishing Co./Reed Publishing (USA ) Inc.: 48. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ a b c Clarke, Melanie M. (2005-06-20). "A Scholastic Achievement". Broadcasting & Cable. 135 (25). Cahners Publishing Co./Reed Publishing (USA) Inc.: 30.
  4. ^ Dinoff, Dustin (2005-11-07). "Deals for Toons, Docs at MIPCOM". (accessed through Proquest. Playback: Canada’s Broadcast and Production Journal. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
  5. ^ Little Richard at IMDb
  6. ^ Fry, Jason (2007-12-10). "Real Time: From PET to Net; A Kid's TV Show Leaves Your Columnist Pondering a Generation of Immense Change; Online edition". The Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition) (Online Edition) (accessed through Proquest). Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Retrieved 2009-03-25.
  7. ^ "Biography: Lily Tomlin". American Theater Wing. May 2007. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
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