The Electric Company The Electric Company was a live - action series produced by the Children ' s Television Workshop following the success of " Sesame Street " . Developed by " Sesame " alumni , including executive producer Dave Connell , the program ran on PBS from 1971 to 1977 . The last two seasons remained in reruns until 1985 . 130 episodes were produced per season , a total of 780 episodes . While " Sesame Street " was targeted primarily at preschool children and covered a broad curricular base from letter and number recognition to shapes , relational concepts , and abstract ideas , " The Electric Company " was aimed at elementary school kids aged 6 – 9 and intended to teach and supplement reading skill instruction , with emphasis on phonics , rhymes , punctuation , and basics of sentence structure . Although the series used a variety of short segments and animated commercials much like " Sesame Street " , there was no one central set equivalent to Sesame Street as the primary starting point . Its slogan was " for the graduates of " Sesame Street " . " The show also utilized a repertory cast portraying a variety of recurring and one - shot characters , in contrast to the on " Sesame " , who generally had fixed names and identities . The company included such name players as Rita Moreno and Bill Cosby ( for the first two seasons ) , as well as a then - unknown Morgan Freeman ( as Easy Reader , Dracula , and others ) and a motley group of stage veterans and improvisational comedians including Skip Hinnant , Jim Boyd , Luis Avalos , Hattie Winston , Judy Graubart , and Lee Chamberlin , among others . Recurring characters included the surly old man J . Arthur Crank ; detective Fargo North , Decoder ; diner owner Vi ; the bellowing Hollywood director Otto ( played by Rita Moreno ) ; and Spider - Man . Puppetry was minimal , limited to the aniform character Lorelei the Chicken and a handful of guest appearances by the " Sesame Street " Muppets . In May 2008 , Sesame Workshop began shooting for a new revival of the series that debuted January 19 , 2009 , and features few references to the original series . Muppet performer Tyler Bunch provides voices for several of the cartoon segments , notably in the Jack Bowser series . Appearances . Crank : ( pointing ) Listen , do you live up here ? Grover : What , on that piece of cardboard ? " Note : This skit originally aired during the second season , from 1972 to 1973 . " The Electric Company on DVD . Shout ! Factory released 3 DVD sets of " The Electric Company " . In February 2006 , " The Best of The Electric Company " was released on DVD as a 4 - disc boxed set . The visits from Big Bird , Oscar , and Grover were all included — Big Bird on Disc 2 , Oscar on Disc 3 , and Grover on Disc 4 . In November 2006 , a second 4 - disc volume , " The Best of The Electric Company Vol . 2 " , was released , but unlike the previous volume , several episodes were altered from the original versions due to copyright issues . In March 2007 , a retrospective of the series , " The Electric Company ' s Greatest Hits & Bits " , was released . A clip from Grover ' s appearance was included . An additional 29 episodes were made available for purchase on iTunes the same year . Connections . Several cast and crew members also worked on " Sesame Street " or appeared in Muppet / Henson productions .