”I’m Just a Bill” Is predicated on a Congress that actually works. That is not a reasonable assumption.

I loved all of Schoolhouse Rock when I was growing up, and still think highly of many (esp. the Grammar Rock episodes), but some of these civics episodes are certainly problematic, the worst being "Elbow Room." Later, after I learned what the word meant, I used to sing the tune but sub in the word "Lebensraum" - seemed fitting.

The creators themselves came to regret that particular episode; but, it did reflect a lot of the teaching of US history, of the time.  Now, my history book treated "manifest destiny" as a theory put forward by politicians and others of the time, without endorsing it.  I did enough independent reading about Native American tribes and specifics of the frontiers that I knew more than the general picture we were given.

America Rock, as it was called, was to build up to the Bicentennial and they went through the easy stuff, like the Revolution, though massively simplified (which is the way American's like their history...U-S-A, U-S-A....).  For the most part, I thought they did a fine job on most of them, though "Elbow Room" is too simplified and too ambitious.  Great song, though.

I thought they did a really great job with topics like immigration, via "The Great American Melting Pot," as it really celebrates the diverse places people came from and how that diversity strengthened the country.  Of course, it ignores those that were prohibited from coming, by legislation, like the Chinese Exclusion Act, the troubled relationship between previous generations and each new wave of immigration (the Irish, Eastern Europeans, Asians, Latinos, East Asian and Middle Easterners, etc...), not to mention racial battles, religious battles, etc.  However, it is a short cartoon, designed for young children, to whet their appetite, not be the authoritative  guide to American History.  "Sufferin' For Suffrage" does a great job of briefly illustrating the Women's Suffrage Movement, something that was barely even mentioned in a lot of history texts, certainly my school.


It does fail in presenting non-white history, especially slavery and the Native Americans.  It was a product of its time and networks were squeamish about controversial topics; but, if you look at programming since, not a lot has changed.  if you look at Band of Brothers or The Pacific, you get a very white view of the war, even with the barely visible red Ball Express drivers in the Bastogne prelude.  Ken Burns, in The War, which dealt with some segregation and race riots, still took heavy criticism about the absence of Native Americans, Latinos and Asians in the episodes.  More often than not, those kinds of things are left to lower budget productions, like Windtalkers, Zoot Suit, or The Tuskegee Airmen.


Schoolhouse Rock started as Multiplication Rock, setting multiplication tables to music, to make them memorable.  It was a huge success and they expanded into grammar, but still had foul ups, like Chubby Checker animated as white, "A Noun Is A Person, Place or Thing."  Science Rock followed America Rock, but had problems covering some of its subjects.  They later did one for computers, but their research proved their assumptions had been false.  Kids didn't have problems adapting to computers, adults did. 

I don't really recall Agnew, at all; but, I wasin the second grade and not paying attention to news programs. Ford, as VP, then Prez was all I can recall, as far as Nixon's VPs.

Watergate was another matter, as the televised coverage of the hearings took over my morning cartoons of Space Angel, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo and The New 3 Stooges. Damn that man and his criminal conspiracy!

I was in the hospital, having hernia surgery, when the crook finally resigned and woke up in my room, with my parents watching the tv and being vaguely aware of my mother saying the president had resigned and Ford was now president. I think I fell back to sleep, which was kind of America's reaction to Ford. Then it was a mix of bits of ABC News and Saturday Night Live sketches, as to my awareness of national news, like Patty Hearst, Three Mile Island, the incompetent Ford would-be assassins (guy couldn't catch a break....even his assassins were klutzes).

For a while, I thought Watergate was about someone leaving some kind of literal gate open that let water flood something.  I didn't realize that it was a break-in at the Watergate hotel complex and that they were caught because Dr Sam Beckett pulled tape off of a fire door lock, trapping them inside, while Forrest Gump called the hotel to tell them that someone was trapped in an office, without lights.

And today we have "info-tainment!"

Isn't progress grand?