The Magic School Bus (TV series)

The Magic School Bus is a Canadian-American Saturday morning animated children's television series, based on the book series of the same name by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. It is notable for its use of celebrity talent and combining entertainment with an educational series.[1] Broadcasting & Cable said the show was "among the highest-rated PBS shows for school-age children."[2] On June 10, 2014 Scholastic Media announced that it will be releasing an all-new CG animated series inspired by the original show, entitled "The Magic School Bus" (Originally "The Magic School Bus 360°") .[3][4]

Production and airing[edit]

In 1994, The Magic School Bus concept was made into an animated series of the same name by Scholastic Entertainment, and premiered on September 10, 1994. The Idea for the show was thought up by Former Scholastic Entertainment Vice President and Senior Editorial Director Craig Walker. Scholastic Entertainment president Deborah Forte says that adapting the books into an animated series was an opportunity to help kids "learn about science in a fun way".[5] Around that time, Forte had been hearing concerns from parents and teachers about how to improve science education for girls and minorities.[5] Each episode of the series ran for 30 minutes. In the United States, the series originally aired on PBS as a part of its children's block, PBS Kids, through South Carolina's SCETV network; it was the first fully animated series to be aired on PBS. The last episode aired on December 6, 1997, the series then aired reruns on PBS until October 1998. The Fox network aired repeats from September 1998 to September 2002. Starting September 27, 2010, The Magic School Bus started a daily run on Qubo in the US, and on Saturday mornings on NBC. The Fox Kids and Qubo airings both use a shortened version of the opening. Based on information from their website, Qubo no longer carries The Magic School Bus in their programming lineup.

The Magic School Bus was also seen on TLC from February 24, 2003 until 2008, and Discovery Kids for a significant amount of time in the US,[5] TVOntario and the Knowledge Network in Canada and Pop and CITV in the United Kingdom, with no plans to make more episodes. The series was widely known in Canada for showing reruns on CBC as part of its children's block, now known as Kids' CBC, from 1999 to 2004. In 2005, Nelvana sold the series to Latin America's Cartoon Network.[6]

When The Magic School Bus is syndicated on commercial networks, the Producer Says segment at the end of each episode is cut out to make space for commercials. The Producer Says segments are only seen when the series is shown on non-commercial networks, international networks, VHS, and DVD releases. Within the episodes, there also are timepoints where the episode fades out and then fades back in after a series of commercials are shown. On non-commercial networks, VHS, and DVD releases the scene immediately fades back in right after it fades out as no commercials are shown.

The show's theme song called "Ride on the Magic School Bus" was written by Peter Lurye and performed by rock 'n' roll legend Little Richard.[7]

The show was produced in an animation and audio style reminiscent of Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the 1970s and 1980s.

The show's voice director is Susan Blu.

Two of the writers for the show were Brian Muehl and Jocelyn Stevenson, one of the creators of Fraggle Rock who later became an executive producer for "Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends" in 2003 and left in 2006.

On the PBS version, the show was funded by the National Science Foundation, Microsoft Home, the US Department of Energy, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the annual financial support from the viewers/stations of PBS.

Reception[edit]

Jason Fry, in a column for the online edition of the Wall Street Journal, expressed an overall appreciation for the show, but wrote that the episode The Magic School Bus Gets Programmed should have been about the perils of Internet searches and network concepts surfacing at the time, rather than an old-fashioned technology-run-amok story about the respective roles of programmer and machine (although he conceded that the episode was ten years old).[8]

Tomlin won a Daytime Emmy for her role as Ms. Frizzle.[9]

Characters[edit]

Main article: List of The Magic School Bus characters

Episodes[edit]

Main article: List of The Magic School Bus episodes

Media[edit]

The series was released on VHS by KidVision between 1994 and 1997 and by PBS Home Video between 1997 and 2001, and on DVD by Warner Home Video between 2006 and 2009. Only the DVDs contain the funding credits. In the home video releases, all the episodes are uncut with the Producer Says segments intact. In the UK, it was broadcast until mid 2007 when it was removed off the air on POP channel.

On July 31, 2012, New Video Group released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time.[10]

On August 15, 2013, Scholastic announced the entire series would be available on Netflix.[11]

Award[edit]

Daytime Emmy Awards
1995 – Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program – Lily Tomlin For playing "Ms. Frizzle" (won)

Game revival[edit]

A video game, titled The Magic School Bus: Oceans, was released for Nintendo DS on October 25, 2011. The game itself is likely based on the book, The Magic School Bus On the Ocean Floor. No other games have been released yet.

Reboot[edit]

A new series was announced by Netflix and Scholastic Media titled The Magic School Bus (formerly The Magic School Bus 360°). [12] The new iteration of the franchise features a modernized Ms. Frizzle and high-tech bus that stresses modern inventions such as robotics, wearables and camera technology. The hope is to captivate children's imaginations and motivate their interest in the sciences.[13][14] It will be produced by 9 Story Media Group.