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| The Magic School Bus | |
|---|---|
 The Magic School Bus as seen in the show\'s opening sequence. | |
| Format | Children\'s television series |
| Created by | Joanna Cole Bruce Degan |
| Starring | Lily Tomlin (Ms. Frizzle) Malcolm-Jamal Warner (The "Producer") Danny Tamberelli (Arnold Perlstein) Daniel DeSanto (Carlos Ramone) Tara Meyer (Dorothy Ann) Erica Luttrell (Keesha Franklin) Maia Filar (Phoebe Terese) Stuart Stone (Ralphie Tennelli) Lisa Yamanaka (Wanda Li) Andre Ottley-Lorant (Tim) |
| Country of origin |  Canada United States
|
| No. of episodes | 52 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | approx. 0:30 (per episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | PBS |
| Original run | September 11, 1994 – December 6, 1997 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
The Magic School Bus is a series of children\'s books, intended to teach scientific concepts to children. They were written by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen, between the years 1986 and 2006. The most recent book was published in August 2006.
Contents |
The Magic School Bus features the exploits of Ms. Frizzle and her class of eight children (in the original books, the class population was at a larger and more standard amount), who board a magical school bus which takes them on field trips into the solar system, under the Earth, into the human body, or to other such impossible locations. The books were written in the first person from the point of view of an unnamed student in "the Friz\'s" class.
Since the Magic School Bus books present scientific facts in the form of stories in which fantastic things happen (for example, a bus turns into a spaceship, or children shrink to the size of blood cells), each book has a page at the end detailing in a humorous manner which parts of the book represented scientific fact and which were fanciful storytelling. In the TV show, this was replaced by the Producer Says segment at the end of each episode, in which the producer of the show (voiced by Malcolm-Jamal Warner of The Cosby Show fame) receives phone calls from kids complaining about how some things that happened on the show couldn\'t happen in real life.
On September 11, 1994, The Magic School Bus concept was made into an animated television series of the same name by Ellipse (France), Nelvana (Canada), and Scholastic Studios. Each episode ran about 30 minutes. In the United States, the show originally aired on PBS, through South Carolina\'s SCETV network; it was the first fully animated series to be aired on TV. The last episode was released on December 6, 1997, when the series was dropped to make room for more shows aimed at pre-schoolers.
The Fox network also had the series on the schedule, after it acquired the rights from PBS in 1998; it ran on that network until January of 2002.
The Magic School Bus is currently shown on TLC and Discovery Kids in the U.S., TVOntario and the Knowledge Network in Canada and Pop in the United Kingdom, with no plans to make more episodes.
After the last Magic School Bus book was released, Cole and Degan started a new series called Ms. Frizzle\'s Adventures in 2001, which teaches social studies. There are now three books in that series. Microsoft Home started publishing Magic School Bus software in 1994.
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.
The television series was released on VHS by KidVision between 1994 and 1997 and by PBS Home Video between 1997 and 2001, and is currently being released on DVD by Warner Bros..
When The Magic School Bus was premiered on other U.S. TV channels, the opening song was shortened, the \'Producer Says\' segment was removed, the ending sequence was rearranged to show the Scholastic logo first, and a National Science Foundation endorsement was added. Canadian broadcasts kept the original format intact.
The class is more than likely in the third grade, as Dorothy Ann celebrated her 9th birthday in The Magic School Bus Sees Stars, making the class 8 and 9 years old. In the computer game The Magic School Bus Explores the World of Animals, Phoebe mentions that the class is in the third grade.
Voiced by Lily Tomlin, a teacher at Walkerville Elementary. She is normally referred to as Ms. Frizzle, but her students sometimes call her "the Friz." She has red hair and wacky clothes and is usually described as being weird. Her clothing matches the subject of each adventure. Her earrings glow when they\'re about to have a field trip. In the original books, Ms. Frizzle\'s dress at the end gave a clue as to what the next book was about. In the last book, her dress at the end is covered with question marks.
Voiced by Danny Tamberelli, a unique member of Ms. Frizzle\'s class, in that he is the only one who doesn\'t enjoy the field trips. He is seen as something of a "wimp", but he is actually smarter and braver than given credit for. His middle name, "Matthew" is revealed in the book Ms. Frizzle\'s Adventures: Medieval Castle, and his catchphrase is "I knew I should have stayed home today."
Voiced by Daniel DeSanto, a "class clown" of the class, always making a pun or joke about the situation the class is in (most of the time, they\'re bad or corny). Carlos is a hands-on learner, preferring to invent different devices, such as an instrument or rain catcher, rather than learn from a book. After telling a joke, Carlos utters the closest thing he has to a catchphrase: "Get it?" to which the rest of the class utters in annoyance, "CARLOS!"
Voiced by Tara Meyer, the class bookworm, always looking for a fact in one of her many books. In the episode The Magic School Bus Blows its Top, Dorothy Ann lost her books, but she realized she didn\'t need them to learn about facts. However, when she got them back, she went back to checking everything in them. She usually wears her hair in pigtails. As in one episode, her hair was in pigtails, but with no tie. Dorothy Ann\'s last name is never mentioned in canon, books, or the TV show, and her catchphrase is "According to my research..."
Voiced by Erica Luttrell, Keesha is considered, by some, to be the most level-headed and realistic student in the class. She is usually always the most sarcastic one, as well. Because of her realism, she usually argues with Ralphie, who tends to live in his imagination. Her catchphrases include "Oh, bad! Oh, bad! Oh, bad, bad, bad!" and "Let me get the facts..."
Voiced by Maia Filar, the new student of Ms. Frizzle\'s class, always referring to how things were at her old school. The "caring soul" of the class, she also seems to be a little bit shy. Phoebe is an animal activist. Her catchphrase is "At my old school...," usually phrased in some way to point out how unusual their field trips are.
Voiced by Stuart Stone, the class athlete. Whilst in class, he likes to daydream. He plays a lot of sports: (soccer, basketball, hockey, and baseball are his favorites). Ralphie is of Italian descent, once mentioning that his mother\'s calzones "go down like rocks" (The Magic School Bus Ups and Downs). He has a distaste for anchovies, which his dad puts on pizza to keep him from eating it. Ralphie\'s voice went through a drastic change because Stuart Stone was going through puberty at the time. His catchphrase is "Is it just me...?"
Voiced by Andre Ottley-Lorant, the more observant and artistic student in the class. He is not necessarily the most quiet of the students, and he can usually be found drawing something (such as Liz posing on a crater on Mercury or his Ralphie-inspired comic book The Adventures of Weatherman). His grandfather owns a bumblebee farm outside of Walkerville, and as a small job he delivers the honey at the start of winter time. Like Dorothy Ann, his last name is never mentioned in canon. Tim is quite level-headed, as demonstrated by his flat-top haircut. Tim\'s catchphrase is "We\'ve been Frizzled!" and variants thereof.
Voiced by Lisa Yamanaka, the boisterous tomboy of the class. Always willing to jump into adventure and going where "no kid has gone before", she serves as a foil to Arnold. Despite her tough exterior, she loves the ballet, especially The Nutcracker (The Magic School Bus Holiday Special). Wanda\'s favorite singer is Molly Cule (play on the word molecule), and, like Ralphie, she loves sports. She has several catchphrases, primarily: "What are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do?", "Come on, you weasly wimps!", and "Yawn burger with a side of snores".
While normally the bus is completely under Ms. Frizzle\'s control, there are certain episodes where the bus exhibits independant, even irrational, behavior: in the Magic School Bus Holiday Special, the bus dissasembles itself into raw materials (while scowling), after having done so to several other structures. It is interesting to note that some of the bus\' technologies also have specific names. For example, the device that allows the bus to shapeshift is called the Mesmerglober, and the device that allows it to change size is called the Shrinkerscope.
Voiced by Renessa Blitz, Arnold\'s bossy, know-it-all cousin is not really popular with the rest of the class. Janet usually tries to sabotage the class in some way to gain something for herself. She initially appeared in the book The Magic School Bus lost in the Solar System, where it was stated she went to another school. In the TV series, she apparently attends a different class instead of a different school.
Carlos\'s younger[citation needed], paraplegic brother who is a mechanical and computer whiz. No more than two or so years younger[citation needed] than Carlos, the brothers seem close, Carlos calling him when the class needs help with something mechanical. Mikey tends to be a know-it-all much to the annoyance of his brother\'s classmates. He usually thinks he\'s better then everyone else because of his superior intelligence.
Voiced by Dolly Parton, Ms. Frizzle\'s very first cousin who owns and operates Murph\'s Recycling Plant. She teaches the class the value of recycling in the episode The Magic School Bus Holiday Special.
Voiced by Wynonna Judd, a famous rock singer and one of the original Frizzlettes (Ms. Frizzle\'s old band she used to tour with). She\'s Wanda\'s favorite singer, and the class got to wash her car in the episode The Magic School Bus Meets Molly Cule.
Voiced by Paul Winfield, Principal of Walkerville Elementary, he once ran a bet with Ms. Frizzle on whether or not she could beat the light pinball machine she and Liz had built (The Magic School Bus Makes a Rainbow). He\'s an expert on chickens, owning a Rhode Island Red rooster named Giblets, who Dorothy Ann had accidentally lost in the episode The Magic School Bus Cracks a Yolk.
Voiced by Tyne Daly, Ralphie\'s mother who thought the broadcast of the class from inside of Ralphie looked real. When Ralphie was sick and made a joke, she responded, "Even your jokes are sick".
Voiced by Tony Randall, Ms. Frizzle\'s mechanic who appeared in The Magic School Bus Flexes Its Muscles and provided the M.I.K.E. to help the kids build RalphieBot.
Ms. Frizzle\'s class was originally larger in the books than the class on the television series. In the original books, Ms. Frizzle\'s class consisted of Tim, Arnold, Ralph (changed to "Ralphie" on the show), Dorothy Ann, Wanda, Alex, Amanda Jane, Rachel, Gregory, Florrie, Carmen, Michael, Phil, Molly, Shirley and John. Phoebe was first introduced in the 1987 book, The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth, and Carlos and Keesha were added in the 1994 book, The Magic School Bus In the Time of Dinosaurs.
Major funding for The Magic School Bus was provided by the National Science Foundation, and by Microsoft Home. Additional funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. And by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (1996-1997), and by the annual financial support of Viewers Like You (1996-1997).
The National Science Foundation, Microsoft Home, The United States Department of Energy, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York were the permanent funders for The Magic School Bus. The only temporary sponsors were The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Viewers Like You, which funded several episodes for the final 2 seasons of the show, the 1996 season (Season 3), and the 1997 season (Season 4). One such episode funded by the two, was the Season 3 episode, Under Construction.
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