School House Rock - 3 Is A Magic Number

11 months ago
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Schoolhouse Rock "Three Is a Magic Number" by Bob Dorough first aired, January 6, 1973. The series was the idea of David McCall, an advertising executive of McCaffrey and McCall, who noticed his young son was struggling with learning multiplication tables, despite being able to memorize the lyrics of many Rolling Stones songs. McCall hired musician Bob Dorough to write a song that would teach multiplication, which became "Three Is a Magic Number." Tom Yohe, an illustrator at McCaffrey and McCall, heard the song and created visuals to accompany it. Radford Stone, who was in charge of ABC, suggested they pitch it as a television series, which caught the attention of Michael Eisner, then vice president of ABC, and cartoon director Chuck Jones.
The pilot episode of the series, "Three Is a Magic Number," originally debuted during the debut episode of Curiosity Shop on September 2, 1971. The Curiosity Shop version is an extended cut which includes an additional scene/verse that explains the pattern of each set of ten containing three multiples of three, animated in the form of a carnival shooting game. This scene has never been rebroadcast on ABC, nor has it been included in any home media releases.

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