The long running era of the Saturday morning cartoon has officially ended, but no one can stop you from fulfilling your true weekend calling. Cartoons and Saturday mornings were made for each other and no one can tell us otherwise. It is to that end that we maintain vigil, bringing you animated selections each Saturday morning until the internet dies, or until we run out, good thing there’s always reruns.
“The Magic School Bus” Based on the book series of the same name written by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen; Starring Lily Tomlin, Daniel DeSanto, Erica Luttrell, Tara Meyer, Maia Filar, Lisa Jai, Stuart Stone, Danny Tamberelli, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner.
Some of my earliest memories of reading involved those floppy little Scholastic “The Magic School Bus” books. Each one took me on a different adventures somewhere in the universe, whether it was into the great expanses of the universe or into the tiny spaces of a cell, there was always something new to explore through the eyes of kids just like me, their adventurous (and possibly psychotic) teacher Ms. Frizzle, and her impossible bus.
The book series was created when author Joanna Cole and illustrator Bruce Degen were approached by the then vice-president of Scholastic Craig Walker. Walker had an eye toward creating a children’s book series that would combine scientific education with fictional adventure stories and taxed Cole and Degen with creating such a series. What resulted was Ms Frizzle and her magic school bus.
While the original series only consists of twelve books it has had a lasting impact on children and their interest in scientific topics due in large part to the animated series adapted from them.
While the television adaptation didn’t first air until September of 1994, I don’t remember a time that both iterations didn’t exist, I can’t imagine a life without Ms. Frizzle.
Episodes of “The Magic School Bus” consisted of direct adaptations of the Scholastic books as well as new material, it differed from the source material in that some of the students were redacted, reducing the class size for television. While the original class consisted of 19 students, the animated series class only had eight regular students, leaving Alex, Amanda-Jane, Carmen, Florrie, Gregory, John, Michael, Molly, Phil, Rachel, and Shirley to the annals of print history. To make up for them the show had occasional cameos from Janet, a new character created for the animated series, and Arnold’s cousin.
“Ride on the Magic School Bus” perhaps one of the most memorable theme songs from my early years (along with the “DuckTales” and “TMNT” themes) was written by Peter Lurye, a veteran of children’s theme song writing with credits for “Eureeka’s Castle,” “Out of the Box,” and “Dora the Explorer.” The song was performed by Little Richard, of Little Richard fame and contains some of the greatest lyrics ever raspy-shouted including such gems as “navigate a nostril” and “spank a plankton too.”
The series ran for a total of 52 episodes between 1994 and 1997 and has been aired in reruns on a number of networks since then. Sadly, it seems, that aside from streaming services like Netflix, the days of “The Magic School Bus” are over, for now.
Gladly, Netflix previously announced that they’ll be updating and rebooting the series in 2016. The new show, titled “The Magic School Bus 360°” will be computer animated and will debut with 26 new episodes exploring modern scientific topics like robotics and wearable technology, presumably (hopefully) there will also be some content tackling navigating the internet with an eye toward kids. I can’t wait to once again ride on the magic school bus.