The Electric Company Goes Daily and Hits the Road

The top show on PBS KIDS GO! continues to extend its educational content beyond television with a roadshow and great Web presence

The Electric Company is a unique, undeniable force on TV and the Web and, starting September 7, the show returns to the airwaves five days a week — just in time for back-to-school!

Additionally, the show — and its electrifying cast member, Shock — is on tour, bringing its one-of-a-kind brand of literacy, fun, music and energy to select cities around the country.

The Electric Company — which is the number one show on PBS KIDS GO! in it’s block — aims to combat the literacy crisis facing America’s second graders and reduce the literacy gap between low- and middle-income families by advancing the idea that “reading is cool.”

Executive Producer Karen Fowler developed The Electric Company not only as a TV show but a multimedia and outreach project that would create a 360-degree experience for viewers. Sesame Workshop has always extended its educational content beyond television. But, as Fowler explains, The Electric Company — a curricular cluster of narrative story line, music videos, sketch comedy, animation, short film and celebrity cameos — aims to take that one step further.

A COMPLETE MEDIA EXPERIENCE

“The great, unique thing about this property is that, since the beginning, it’s always been built on the idea of creating a 360-degree literacy intervention. Kids don’t just watch TV. They live in a surround-sound media world. And so the idea of television, the Web, and outreach was always our intention from the get-go.”

“What we’ve tried to do with The Electric Company,” she says, “is break all the boundaries and separation between curriculum, production, outreach and broadband, and bring it all together under one creative banner to make this revolutionary brand for 6- to 9-year-olds.”

Fowler explains that the show will now consist of four new episodes per week and one repeat. Each show features vocabulary words that relate to the week’s larger theme, such as friendship, which “really gives kids a greater context of words that are related inside a bigger idea.”

ON TOUR

“The Electric Company 2009 Outreach Events are a multimedia experience chock-full of video, live performance and interactivity that only The Electric Company can deliver.”

Host Shock (Chris Sullivan) guides kids on an interactive adventure to help him find the letter H, which has been “stolen” by Manuel “Manny” Spamboni. (Because the letter H has been stolen, the lovable host is known as “Sock” until it is returned.)

The show features a mural on which children can color and “leave their mark” when they arrive for registration; activities where the audience helps Shock make sounds and find the missing letter H; a song clip by Jimmy Fallon called “Pocket Full of H’s” during which kids play along, Guitar Hero-style; and more.

Randell Bynam, Director of Outreach for The Electric Company, says the Circuit Tour has been years in the making.

“This whole concept has been developing for the last three years. And to actually be out there in the community and see kids and families together and seeing their eyes light up when they’re doing the beat box or they find the pocketful of H’s is pretty amazing. To see it come alive is really rewarding.”

Shock says he hopes kids will take more from the show than just a vocabulary lesson.

“I want to make sure that kids learn what transformer H does. Also, I want them to know that the show’s about music and having fun and self-expression, and hopefully get them to tune in when we go daily in September.”

“I hope that they’ll know a little bit about transformer H, but that they’ll also be excited about the characters and the cast of the show, and playing additional games on the Web site,” adds Bynam. “I hope that parents will be aware that the show is on, and will be on daily starting in September, and then be excited that The Electric Company came to their town. For those kids who see the show, being acknowledged and feeling like they’re part of The Electric Company is a really big deal. So it will be something that they’ll always cherish and feel like they’re part of. I hope all the kids that participate walk away with that feeling.”

Each child also walks away with an Electric Company backpack, an all-access pass, pencil, sticker sheet, a “Live Strong” bracelet, and the Electric Company magazine.

The 20-city show is scheduled to stop in cities including Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Md., and Nashville, Tenn. To find out if The Circuit Tour will be stopping in your town, click here.

“We’re really excited,” Shock says. “The audiences and the PBS volunteers have been amazing. Each stop seems to raise the bar for the next one.”

A RICH EXPERIENCE ON THE WEB

After the show, kids can log on to http://pbskids.org/electriccompany/ to continue their Electric Company experience — which, says Fowler, is a “really rich experience.” The site, which boasts bonus, Web-exclusive video content, games, activities and more, has enjoyed four million site visits since its mid-January 2009 launch. Additionally, an astonishing 13 million Electric Company video clips have been played since its launch — which, Fowler says, “speaks volumes.”