The Electric Company employed sketch comedy and various other devices to provide an entertaining program to help elementary school children develop their grammar and reading skills.

In many areas, a preview special, Here Comes The Electric Company, was seen in syndication through sponsor Johnson Wax on many local commercial stations during the week before its 1971 debut.

[2] The original cast included Morgan Freeman, Rita Moreno, Bill Cosby, Judy Graubart, Lee Chamberlin and Skip Hinnant.

Most of the cast had done stage, repertory, and improvisational work, with Cosby and Moreno already well-established performers on film and television.

Beginning in season four (1974–1975), Danny Seagren, a puppeteer who had worked on Sesame Street and also as a professional dancer, appeared in the role of Spider-Man; Marvel Comics published Spidey Super Stories that tied into Seagren's appearances as Spider-Man in character, who never spoke aloud or unmasked himself.

For seasons three (1973–1974) and four (1974–1975), Grant and Nickerson were replaced by tap dancer Gregg Burge and Broadway actress Bayn Johnson.

In the first season (1971–1972), a number of unbilled children were also used on-camera with the show's cast, as on Sesame Street, but this concept was quickly dropped.

Because of the frequent reuse of segments, a practice derived from Sesame Street, actors continued to appear after their departures from the cast.

The Electric Company also featured celebrity guest appearances, including the following: With the exception of Tom Lehrer, all the individuals listed below were Children's Television Workshop in-house composers.

The series was notable for its extensive, innovative use of early computer-generated imagery, especially Scanimate, a then-state-of-the-art analog video-synthesizer system.

The still action would linger on the screen for several seconds, then fade to black, where the show number would become visible in a Scanimate animation in a random color.

The music for this segment was a repetitive, funky instrumental groove featuring a call-and-response between horns and a scratchy wah-wah electric guitar.

In season two, after the opening sequence the words "The Electric Company" would disappear from the logo, and the show number would appear in its place through the use of a Scanimate animation and an electronic whooshing sound.

The only significant items the show licensed were comic books and a Milton Bradley board game of the Fargo North, Decoder character.

But the thought was that if we produce two final seasons of The Electric Company that were designed to be repeated, that would give the show four more years of life.

The final episode of The Electric Company featured a short musical and dance number featuring the final cast members (with the exception of Bill Cosby, Lee Chamberlin, both of whom had long since left the show and Rita Moreno, who did not take part in this episode) including the then-current members of the Short Circus.

The show is done; we hate to run; we're sorry, but that's all.After the last original episode on April 15, 1977, The Electric Company continued on PBS in reruns until early October 1985.

This second volume contained 20 episodes from seasons one through five plus a 30-minute documentary on the effects of in-school viewings of The Electric Company from 1975.

Cast members Luis Ávalos, Jim Boyd, Judy Graubart, Skip Hinnant, and Hattie Winston provided commentary and reflected on their years on the show.

An hour-long television show called The Electric Company's Greatest Hits & Bits[8] was broadcast on many PBS stations in late 2006.

The special was produced by Authorized Pictures and distributed by American Public Television, and was designed to be seen during pledge drives.

In early 2007, Apple Inc., through its iTunes service, started selling 15 previously unavailable episodes of The Electric Company.