2 posts tagged “electric company”
While I’ve loved everything about the show, whether it be cast members, songs or skits, by far my favorite thing about the show was the singing group THE SHORT CIRCUS, a group I’ve babbled on with love in an earlier post. And the member who was always my very favorite was the lovely June Angela, the one member who remained as the group went through its various changes over the years.
When NOGGIN began re-airing vintage episodes of the Electric Company, my interest in June got a shot in the arm, and it was then, browsing around for June-related articles on the internet, that I discovered that June had not only created a homepage of her own, but was announcing the release of her very first solo CD!
WOW! I’d already picked up the RCA soundtrack of THE KING AND I years ago because I knew June performed on it as Tuptim, but here was a brand new CD collecting June’s songs from not just The King and I, but a handful of OTHER shows as well!
Generally known simply as “June Angela”, the CD’s complete title was actually “Sayonara Love Theme, Songs from Shogun & other Broadway Asiana…with a Touch of Jazz”, and that’s exactly what it was! With “Special Guests” David Gaines, Joseph Foranda and John Schneider (Whodathunk them Hazzard Boys could sing!). June’s songs ranged from Sayonara, Shogun, Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen and Sing To The Dawn among others, the tracks presented a wide variety of styles! She even did a jazzy take on the Electric Company theme, just for us fans!
I was so happy! Later, The Boss was walking around demanding to know, “Who Stock Transferred a consignment?!” Oops! Fortunately, they let me off with a “Don’t do that again!” Ah, the things I do for my June Angela fix!
Well, that CD became my soundtrack for that month…I just fell in love with the songs, and though I was already familiar with songs from Shogun and of course The King And I, I was really interested in knowing more about some of the other ones, especially Sing To The Dawn, the songs from this play (like the awesome The City) come across so powerful!
I don’t know if it was the characters that were so funny, or the skits that were so intriguing, or simply the allure of the fabulous songs (written primarily by Jerry Rapozo, he of Sesame Street fame), but I absolutely adored this show.
I was first exposed to The Electric Company in first grade, way back in 1972 or so, and I remember the teachers telling our parents that this was a new program and that they were testing out TV as a new “medium” to teach children, with Electric Company (and Sesame Street of course) as the examples.
In any case, It DID teach me a lot, but the reason I kept watching every day was to see my favorite songs and favorite skits performed daily! They were too funny and too catchy! This went on year after year and even going into intermediate school, whenever I’d be doing something around the house or working on schoolwork, I would have the show on constantly. I remember friends coming over and laughing, saying, I can’t believe you still watch this show!” And I’d laugh back and say, “Yeah, and I always WILL!” But that came to an end sometime around 1980 or 1981, as PBS finally pulled the plug on my beloved show.
For the longest time, all I had to fill the void of The Electric Company were the audio cassettes I’d taped of some of my favorite songs. (Remember that, kids? Leaning the portable tape recorder against the speaker of a HUGE-ass wooden TV set!) Listening to the tapes, It made me miss the show even more, and I wished and hoped for the day some TV station would bless us with rebroadcasting the Electric Company in some way so I could watch these again! But more than anything else, it made me realize how dear these songs were to my heart.
In particular, it seemed the songs I missed the most were the songs performed by the the teen singing group “The Short Circus”. Those were the songs I loved best of all, and considering the vast amount of great songs the show had to offer, that’s saying something! I didn’t really know which season was which at the time - as the later years of The Electric Company were sort of a mish-mash of all the past seasons put together: repackaged and re-ran - All I knew was that I loved ‘em!
I think there were about four incarnations of The Short Circus during the original six season run of The Electric Company. My memories of the group were that the original group looked like Sesame Street performers until they sort of changed into a 70’s bubblegum Pop outfit, and later they turned into variety show style dancers so common in the seventies.
Douglas Grant / Zach
Melanie Henderson / Kathy
Irene Cara / Iris
Stephen Gustafson / Buddy
June Angela / Julie
The Short Circus 1972-73:
Douglas Grant / Zach
Melanie Henderson / Kathy
Denise Nickerson / Allison
Stephen Gustafson / Buddy
June Angela / Julie
The Short Circus 1974-75 :
Greg Burge / Dwayne
Melanie Henderson / Kathy
Bayn Johnson / Kelly
Stephen Gustafson / Buddy
June Angela / Julie
The Short Circus 1975-77 :
Rodney Lewis/ Charlie
Rejane Magloire/ Samantha
Todd Graff / Jesse
Janina Matthews/ Gail
June Angela / Julie
The only constant in the ever-changing looks of the group was the lovely June Angela, the sole member who was a part of EVERY version of The Short Circus that came out! That worked out great for me because I recall having a pretty severe crush on her! And Still Do!
Although all variations of the group were good, (and all featured June), my favorite incarnation was the line up from the second season (1972-1973), featuring June, Douglas Grant, Stephen Gustafson and Melanie Henderson with Denise Nickerson (famous as Violet Beauregarde in the Charlie and The Chocolate Factory movie) taking the place of Irene Cara (who of course went on to super-stardom with “Fame”).
Perhaps it was the Line-Up or maybe the songwriters were simply on a roll, but the fact of the matter is that during this second season, most if not ALL of my favorite Short Circus songs were released! Yes, as I mentioned above, this is the closest they got to “bubblegum pop”, and I just ate up every minute of it! The group at this point really gave me a “Partridge Family” or “Brady Bunch” feel, and can’t you just imagine the Circus singing “Time To Change” or “Let The Sun Shine In”?
“The Vampire”
The Short Circus channeling Scooby-Doo here! Special guest appearance by Morgan Freeman as Count Dracula! The Circus really did a lot of Horror-themed songs, didn’t they….Creepy Creature, anyone?
“Sing Out!”
Aw, another fave song, a real positive encouraging song, and when you add June Angela groovin’ up a storm, that just bumps it up a notch!
“The Sweet Sweet Sway”
Denise Nickerson’s showcase song! I like how Buddy and Zach are playing their instruments like they did back when they were a “band” in the first season, and I love the way June really seems to be enjoying herself during the song.
Another thing I really liked about this clip is that they utilized every single member of the cast for this song. Morgan introduces the song, and Judy, Skip, Lee, Luis, Jim and Rita are at the dance. Add in the Circus, and you’ve got everyone!
“Poison”
Two songs that taught me about poison were Sesame Street Sherlock Hemlock’s “X” song, and “Poison” by the Short Circus…Poison…”It’ll Kill You!”
“Chili”
In this clip the Short Circus is blue-screened into a bowl of Chili (with crackers on the side!) and I remember a kid going “I want to play in a big bowl of chili, too!”
“BOOM!”
I remember REALLY liking this a kid! I remember it was featured in the opening credits of The Electric Company every day, so I got to know the “look” of that particular video pretty well!
“The Fling”
Every time I watch this performance,. I have to wonder how long it took them to learn some of the dance moves they had to do on a regular basis. Some of them (like this one) were rather intricate!
“STOP!”
Every once in awhile, a member will get a “solo” song - like Melanie Henderson’s “Feelings are Funny Things” or Irene Cara’s “Hard Hard Hard”…well, this was Doug’s chance to shine, and he gives his performance 100%!
“Let’s Rap”
Melanie and Denise do some duetting together, and when they harmonize together singing, “Rap about something Heavy, rap about something Dumb , Rap about the way you feel Oh Baby , Rap, rap, rap ,rap…don’t be mum…” it just makes the song!
“The Blob”
I really like this song because everyone gets a chance to show off their singing a bit, and I really like the build up to the end with June’s operatic climax! Not only that, but the lyrics were just great: “It’s such a menace so you’d better stay alert, the way to kill it is to eat it for dessert!”
“Dunking Donuts”
I love how the lyrics are almost written like limericks, in that the last line is always humourous. “Dunk em in your fruit juice, dunk em in your tea…if you have a rowboat, you can dunk em in the SEA!” “Dunk em in your soda, dunk em in your soup…get the gang together, you can dunk em in a GROUP!”
“Hamburger”
One thing I always noticed whenever I watch this clip is that Melanie Henderson never actually eats her Hamburger, and I always wondered if she was a vegetarian or something. Humorous line: “Hamburger-if I’m messy, well I beg your pardon… Hamburger eat a piece before the cheese can harden!”
and last but not least:
Probably my very favorite song from the Short Circus
Not only does it invoke my childhood with its 70’s poppy sound, it seemed to be a bit longer than some of the other songs, and clocking in at 2:50, I really felt like it could have been released as a “Single”!
Awesome singing from the gang and I particularly like the choreography. Like when Julie sings about Ices, they all systematically stick out their hands as if to grab one, and when Buddy sings the line about a Parade, they all air-band a procession complete with Julie air-baton leading!
The video begins with the girls walking in from one side and the boys walking in from the other, ending up with the gang meeting up "on the corner" in town, they sing about various fun things that one can see or experience at the hub of the neighborhood, like meeting friends, eating ice cream, or seeing a parade!
Lots of stuff going on in the clip, but what always makes me smile is when Denise and June are doing a fancy little shuffle, and Melanie tries it out for a second before holding up her hands as if to say, “ahh, forget it.”…then she relaxes and puts an arm around June! And in another part, Buddy and Zach high-five each other….really nice, you feel like these kids were actually friends, and that always leaves me with a great feeling!
After sitting on the sidewalk and relaxing after the activities, It's time to go, and the song ends with the kids splitting back up and going home the way they came in, after a long day of fun on the corner!
It wasn’t until the Electric Company’s revival on the cable station NOGGIN that I finally got to put all the seasons and performances into a cohesive order. I was able to watch my beloved songs again (or at least the ones that NOGGIN decided to show), and I found my obsession return with a vengeance! This time, via the internet, I was able to enjoy a kind of Electric Company renaissance, where I could hook up with other nostalgics like me who’d never stopped loving the show either! I found that I wasn’t alone in my strong love of The Short Circus, and with every new clip I get to hear, or new skit I get to see, I continue to love them even more!
