Schoolhouse Rock! is a series of animated musical educational short films that aired during Saturday morning children's programming on U.S. television network American Broadcasting Company (ABC). Topics covered include grammar, science, economics, history, mathematics, and politics. The series aired between 1972 and 1986, and infrequently during the 1990s and 2000s, with new shows created between 1993 and 1996, until its cancellation by ABC in 2001.
Before the superhero character Schoolhouse Rocky (and the yellow stony "Schoolhouse Rock!" logo itself) was created in 1981, the show originally was titled "Scholastic Rock" (or simply "Multiplication Rock" at the time) in 1973. In 1975, the publishing company Scholastic, Inc. hired a lawyer who insisted they change the title of the show to "Schoolhouse Rock." The show itself has since been more commonly known as "Schoolhouse Rock," but the publishing company that produced the clips retained the name "Scholastic Rock Inc."
The show also did not use the usual Schoolhouse Rock! opening credits back in the 70s. Each of the first four component series, Multiplication Rock, Grammar Rock, America Rock, and Science Rock had their own opening credits of the same title for each series. Sometime after America Rock, the shorts were then comprised of the series Schoolhouse Rock. Of the four series' opening and closing credits, only the first two have been made available online. The original opening and closing credits to Multiplication Rock have been found in their original sponsorless and uncut/untrimmed format (despite Naughty Number Nine and Little Twelvetoes' appearances edited out of the opening, though the opening sequence was in its untrimmed form in the sponsored version). A clean, sponsorless version of the original Grammar Rock opening credits was included in NantoVision2's upload of "Interjections!" with the original unfinished audio in 2008, but sadly deleted from YouTube. Only modified versions of the America Rock and Science Rock closing credits (having the closing title card followed by a new credits sequence, as seen in the 1993 re-airings of some Schoolhouse Rock shorts) have been uploaded to YouTube, while the original opening title card for America Rock is currently lost. The opening title card for Science Rock is unconfirmed to exist, judging by a YouTuber acholl980's comment:
"There were four original openings. two for Multiplication Rock ('73,sponser by General Foods and Nabisco)and one for Grammer Rock ('75)and America Rock ('76 Both by Nabisco only). Science Rock (78)didn't have an opening because by '77 the bundle the segments to make Schoolhouse Rock into one."
The 1975 opening and closing credits of Schoolhouse Rock (using a scene from the beginning of the song "Figure Eight") have also resurfaced. All the Nabisco-sponsored versions of the opening credits for the first three component series are all lost, and the Nabisco-sponsored opening for Multiplication Rock (with the announcer saying, "You'll find quality in our corner!") also got deleted off of YouTube and has not resurfaced since.
.jpg "Multiplication Rock (Closing).jpg (39 KB)")
Findings[]
- Multiplication Rock opening and closing (unsponsored) (LOST)
- Multiplication Rock opening (General Foods sponsor) (FOUND)
- Multiplication Rock opening (Nabisco sponsor) (LOST)
- Grammar Rock opening (w/General Foods sponsor) (Finally found! HALLELUJAH!)
- Grammar Rock opening and closing (unsponsored) (FOUND)
- Grammar Rock opening (Nabisco sponsor) (LOST)
- Grammar Rock closing (FOUND)
- America Rock opening (unsponsored) (FOUND)
- America Rock opening (Nabisco sponsor) (LOST)
- America Rock closing (LOST)
- Science Rock opening (Existence Unconfirmed; the 1975 opening for Schoolhouse Rock! is used instead)
- Science Rock closing (LOST)
- Schoolhouse Rock 1975 opening and closing (FOUND)
- Schoolhouse Rock 1981 opening (FOUND)
- Schoolhouse Rock 1981 closing (FOUND)