The Golden Days of PBS...

(gets comfy in old rocking chair on front porch)

Now back in my day, when I was in grade school, we'd have a period or two in the day when the teacher would wheel out a TV on a tall stand. And we'd snuggle in 'cause we knew we were going to watch something; we didn't know what, but we KNEW it was going to be from PBS (that's Public Broadcasting System, for the two of you who didn't know).

'Course back then we didn't have all the flashy shows you do now. We had bare-bones shows that taught us bare-bones stuff. And we were grateful to get it!

And as for me, watching clips from those shows again gives me a great feeling of school nostalgia; throwing spitballs, getting called to the principal's office, detention....

Anyway, on to the clips:

We start with the classic PBS bumper with the heads. Kinda scary but it got your attention.



"Inside Out" was a show I remember watching quite well; it taught us morals, good manners, etc. And it was brought to us by a grant from Exxon, so how could it miss?



"Mulligan Stew" taught us nutrition and the four basic food groups, the nutrition pyramid, all that stuff. Isn't this all obsolete now? (BTW, the show wasn't in black-and-white, just this clip.)



And of course there was "The Electric Company", which taught us words, vowels, conjunctions, all the important stuff. And hey, it had Bill Cosby for a season and Morgan Freeman as Easy Reader (which he's probably still sick to death from hearing about).

Remember its '71 intro? Me neither.



But what I remember most are the cartoon interludes in the show. They were funny and got the point across. For instance....

Want a sweet roll?



How about some dinner at the diner?



There's no more ROOM in ths ROOM.



...and be steady, Freddy!



I know, I know; I didn't post anything fom "Sesame Street" or "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood". Next time, okay?

Dope out.

-TGWD