The Electric Company, 1971-1979

This series contains information associated with CTW's The Electric Company, a daily 30-minute television series designed to supplement the teaching of reading for children ages 7-10. It was developed by Sam Gibbon, who had been studio producer of Sesame Street, and his associate Naomi Foner. They followed the pattern established for Sesame Street, beginning with a series of seminars with experts in reading instruction. Five test programs were produced in the fall of 1971. The program premiered on PBS stations on October 25, 1971, and ran for six years in new production, followed by another eight years in a specially designed repeat sequence. As with Sesame Street some essential program information will be found elsewhere in the records.

This series has been arranged into the following subseries: Administration, Planning Seminars, Production Files, Research, Content, Research Papers and Evaluations, Scripts, Promotion, Viewer Mail, and Ancillary Materials.