THREE RING GOVERNMENT - MISHA FRANKLY
Three Ring Government as covered by Misha Frankly. Written and originally performed by Lynn Ahrens. Track 2 on "Gonna Have a Good Time: Two Decades of Saturdays," a collection of cover versions of Saturday Morning favorites produced by Kelly McCubbin. Video edited by Mark Bowen. Original animation designed by Arnold Roth and produced by Phil Kimmelmann & Associates. Schoolhouse Rock! is an American interstitial programming series of animated musical educational short films that aired during the Saturday morning children's programming on the U.S. television network ABC. The topics covered included grammar, science, economics, history, mathematics, and civics. The series' original run lasted from 1973 to 1985, and was later revived with both old and new episodes airing from 1993 to 1999. Additional episodes were produced as recently as 2009 for direct-to-video release. Schoolhouse Rock! began as a commercial advertising venture by David McCall, half of the Madison Avenue advertising agency McCaffrey & McCall. The idea came to McCall when he noticed one of his sons, who was having trouble in school remembering the multiplication tables, knew the lyrics to many current rock songs. The first song recorded was Three Is a Magic Number, written by Bob Dorough. It tested well, so a children's record was compiled and released. Tom Yohe listened to the first song, and began to doodle pictures to go with the lyrics. He told McCall that the songs would make good animation. When a print workbook version fell through, McCall's company decided to produce their own animated versions of the songs, which they then sold to ABC (which was already the advertising company's biggest account) based on a demo animation of the original "Three Is A Magic Number" for its Saturday morning lineup. They pitched their idea to Michael Eisner, then vice-president of ABC's children's programming division. Eisner brought longtime Warner Bros. cartoonist/ director Chuck Jones to the meeting to also listen to the presentation. The network's children's programming division had producers of its regular 30- and 60-minute programs cut three minutes out of each of their shows, and sold General Foods on the idea of sponsoring the segments. The series stayed on the air for 12 years. Later sponsors of the Schoolhouse Rock! segments also included Nabisco, Kenner Toys, Kellogg's, and McDonald's. During the early 1970s, Schoolhouse Rock was one of several short-form animated educational shorts that aired on ABC's children's lineup; others included Time for Timer and The Bod Squad. Of the three, Schoolhouse Rock was the longest-running. Thirty-seven episodes were recorded and produced between 1972 and 1980. The first season of Schoolhouse Rock, "Multiplication Rock," debuted in 1973 and discussed all of the multiplication tables from two through twelve, with one episode devoted to powers of 10 (My Hero Zero) instead of multiples of ten. This original series was followed in short order by a new series which ran from 1973 to 1975, entitled "Grammar Rock," which discussed nouns, verbs and adjectives along with one of the most well-known titles of the series, "Conjunction Junction." To coincide with the upcoming United States bicentennial, a third series, entitled "America Rock," airing in 1975 and 1976, had episodes covering the structure of the United States government (such as "I'm Just a Bill" and "Three Ring Government") along with important moments in American history. Gonna have a three-ring circus someday, People will say it's a fine one, son. Gonna have a three-ring circus someday, People will come from miles around. Lions, tigers, acrobats, and jugglers and clowns galore, Tightrope walkers, pony riders, elephants, and so much more... Guess I got the idea right here at school. Felt like a fool when they called my name, Talkin[ about the government and how it's arranged, Divided in three like a circus. Ring one, Executive, Two is Legislative, that's Congress. Ring three, Judiciary. See it's kind of like my circus, circus. Step right up and visit ring number one. The show's just begun. Meet the President. I am here to see that the laws get done. The ringmaster of the government. On with the show! Hurry, hurry, hurry to ring number two. See what they do in the Congress. Passin' laws and juggling bills, Oh, it's quite a thrill in the Congress. Focus your attention on ring number three. The Judiciary's in the spotlight. The courts take the law and they tame the crimes Balancing the wrongs with your rights. No one part can be more powerful than any other is. Each controls the other you see, and that's what we call checks and balances. Well, everybody's act is part of the show. And no one's job is more important. The audience is kinda like the country you know, Keeping and eye on their performance. Ring one, Executive, Two is Legislative, that's Congress. Ring three, Judiciary. See it's kind of like my circus, circus. Gonna have a three-rin
