The Electric Company (1971): Season 5

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Season Details & Credits

PBS | Season Premiere Date: October 20, 1975

Starring: Hattie Winston, Rita Moreno, Mel Blanc

Summary: On the heels of its fabulously successful Sesame Street, the Children's Television Workshop (CTW) created The Electric Company. With its roots in Motown Sound, Broadway and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, The Electric Company drew attention for six years as the most popular instructional television show. It would win an Emmy for OutstandingOn the heels of its fabulously successful Sesame Street, the Children's Television Workshop (CTW) created The Electric Company. With its roots in Motown Sound, Broadway and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, The Electric Company drew attention for six years as the most popular instructional television show. It would win an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Series, and its soundtrack album earned a Grammy.

Targeting children ages 6 through 10, The Electric Company aimed to teach basic reading and grammar skills to the young viewers. The show's cast of skit players helped teach these concepts through the use of skits, songs, cartoon and blackout segments and regular features; all of them revolved around sound clusters (e.g., sh-, -ly, -oo-), contractions, punctuation marks, etc. The series provided material for elementary schools, as CTW published a biweekly TEC Teacher's Guide detailing program contents.

Quickly, the cast members began to establish themselves with various personas: • Skip Hinnant (who had played Schroeder in the off-Broadway production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown) had one of the best known characters: Fargo North, Decoder. Early in the run, this Peter Sellers knock-off interpreted messages that people gave to him when they couldn't understand what had been written.
• The show also made Morgan Freeman. He created Easy Reader, the cool dude who loved reading anything he could get his hands on. Freeman also played radio disc jockey Mel Mounds, who usually introduced The Short Circus tunes (see below).
• Rita Moreno created her tagline, "Hey You Guys!", while playing Millie, the Milkman's helper. She put the same fire into playing Otto the Director, who fumed as her actors didn't read their lines properly.
• Judy Graubart, alumnus of The Second City in Chicago, became Jennifer of the Jungle, teaching bits of phonetics to her friend Paul the Gorilla.
• And who can forget J. Arthur Crank? Jimmy Boyd (B. 1939) created the character, strictly as a voice on a telephone during the first season. In all future years, Crank was seen as that bad-tempered loud dresser.

Complimenting the adults in the cast was The Short Circus, a group of five teenaged performers usually involved in songs or dances. Members of The Short Circus drew names from a hat to determine what would be their character name. While the Short Circus changed its talents from one season to the next, they did keep one member constant: June Angela.

The show also set itself apart with the cloud sets by Nat Mongioi (which members of the cast called "Limbo Land"), cool music by the late Joe Raposo and others, unique sound effects Dick Maitland pinned to punctuation marks, and the high-tech computer animation. The logo above can only suggest these elements, which seemed to represent the New Era back in the 1970s.

Among the most popular of the regular features was Spiderman, a live-action segment added during the series' fourth season. The Spiderman segments (for which there were about two dozen or so made) featured The Electric Company cast as various characters.

Beginning in 1972, there was also The Adventures of Letterman cartoon series. The evil Spell Binder would cause trouble by using his magic wand, replacing key letters to make the worse of situations (e.g.: Train into Rain). Then Letterman would take the letter(s) off his varsity sweater and correct the hazard.

Muppet characters from Sesame Street (including Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch and Grover) also visited on occasion through the years.

A total of 780 episodes of The Electric Company aired from 1971 to 1977 on PBS; reruns of the final two seasons aired through the fall of 1985. Programs always ended with one of its cast members stating:

The Electric Company
gets its power from
The Children's Television Workshop.

This was followed by a superimposed caption:

The Electric Company is a
trademark and service mark of the
Children's Television Workshop.
© Copyright Children's Television Workshop 1971 to 1977

In 1972, CTW began issuing The Electric Company magazine. Appropriately enough, the mag contained feature articles, games and other activities featuring members of the show's cast. It was published until the late-1980s, when replaced with a magazine called Kid City. A sister magazine, Spidey Super Stories (also issued and endorsed by The Electric Company's producers) contained children's reading level-versions of the web slinger's battles with his arch-enemies plus comic strip versions of the The Electric Company Spiderman segments. Spidey Super Stories were published from October 1974 to January 1982.

Sixty-five episodes of The Electric Company from various seasons – a good share from the 1972-1973 and 1973-1974 seasons – began airing on Nickelodeon's new Noggin network in the spring of 1999 (kicked off with a two-hour retrospective of the show on TV Land, another Nickelodeon sister network). The shows were edited slightly, removing all program numbers and show-ending teases (see Notes within Show 131). Also for the Noggin run, CTW gave credit to Marvel Comics, which had never received a copyright notice on the original run. Thus all episodes from Seasons 4 to 6 had their copyrights redisplayed:

The Electric Company is a
trademark and service mark of the
Children's Television Workshop.
© Copyright Children's Television Workshop 1974 to 1976
The use of the character Spiderman
was provided as a courtesy to
the Children's Television Workshop by
Marvel Comics Group.
© Copyright Marvel Comics Group 1974 to 1976

At first, Noggin aired The Electric Company during several daytime and overnight time slots seven days a week. By the time CTW was renamed Sesame Workshop in 2000, however, the show's timeslots were downgraded to late-nights and then, in 2002, only a couple of weekend overnight airings. In early 2003, with the value of Sesame Workshop's interest in Noggin even less (if not zero), The Electric Company was pulled from Noggin's schedule altogether.

(Note: Classic episodes of Sesame Street, which were shown under the title Sesame Street Unpaved, had also been a part of Noggin's schedule. Noggin had shown 65 classic episodes (originally airing between 1969 to 1986) of the series. Like The Electric Company, Sesame Street Unpaved had originally aired weekdays before being placed in downgraded timeslots (eventually weekend overnights). Both shows had attracted primarily adults (who had watched the show as children) and college-aged fans, and both shows were too dated for their intended childhood audience. Noggin underwent a total personality change beginning April 1, 2002, placing more emphasis on original programming (in addition to airing reruns of Nickelodeon kiddie shows).
The general effect of removing The Electric Company from the airwaves, has not been a pleasant one for American society. Some people believe Sesame Workshop discusses The Electric Company only when lowering the wrecker's ball on those who have violated their copyrights. (To this day, The Electric Company™ and the logo are trademarks and service marks of Sesame Workshop, © 1971-1977.) Though it appears Sesame Workshop chooses not to live in the past, it has been digitizing segments from all its old shows in preparation for DVD releases. The first DVD of The Electric Company is scheduled for release in 2006. (This is the result of an independent campaign for a TEC DVD release; see below.) The Electric Company will always be remembered by its fans as an entertaining series which taught children to read. Elementary classroom teachers regularly scheduled their days so their students could watch the show, and reading scores increased as a result of in-class and home viewing. Hey You Guys! petersmith among them We're gonna turn it on We're gonna bring you the power We're gonna light up The dark of night Like the brightest day In a whole new way We're gonna turn it on We're gonna bring you the power It's coming down the line Strong as it can be Through the courtesy Of The Electric Company™ from The Electric Company Theme Music and Lyrics by Joe Raposo © 1971 Jonico Music… Expand

Genre(s): Comedy, Kids

Season 5 Episodes

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S5:E130. Show 130A - Whipped Cream
Air Date: April 16, 1976
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S5:E129. Show 129A
Air Date: April 15, 1976
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S5:E128. Show 128A
Air Date: April 14, 1976

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Seasons & Episodes

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Series Overview
Season 6

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- Season 6 Overview
  Air Date: October 18, 1976
Season 5

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- Season 5 Overview
  Air Date: October 20, 1975
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  S5:E130. Show 130A - Whipped Cream
  Air Date: April 16, 1976
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  S5:E129. Show 129A
  Air Date: April 15, 1976
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  S5:E128. Show 128A
  Air Date: April 14, 1976
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  S5:E127. Show 127A
  Air Date: April 13, 1976
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  S5:E126. Show 126A
  Air Date: April 12, 1976
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  S5:E125. Show 125A
  Air Date: April 9, 1976
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  S5:E124. Show 124A
  Air Date: April 8, 1976
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  S5:E123. Show 123A
  Air Date: April 7, 1976
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  S5:E122. Think Tank
  Air Date: April 6, 1976
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  S5:E121. Show 121A
  Air Date: April 5, 1976
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  S5:E120. Show 120A
  Air Date: April 2, 1976
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  S5:E119. Show 119A
  Air Date: April 1, 1976
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  S5:E118. Show 118A
  Air Date: March 31, 1976
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  S5:E117. Show 117A
  Air Date: March 30, 1976
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  S5:E116. Show 116A
  Air Date: March 29, 1976
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  S5:E115. Show 115A
  Air Date: March 26, 1976
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  S5:E114. Show 114A
  Air Date: March 25, 1976
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  S5:E113. Show 113A
  Air Date: March 24, 1976
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  S5:E112. Show 112A
  Air Date: March 23, 1976
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  S5:E111. Show 111A
  Air Date: March 22, 1976
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  S5:E110. 110A - Bowl
  Air Date: March 19, 1976
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  S5:E109. Show 109A
  Air Date: March 18, 1976
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  S5:E108. Show 108A
  Air Date: March 17, 1976
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  S5:E107. Show 107A
  Air Date: March 16, 1976
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  S5:E106. Show 106A
  Air Date: March 15, 1976
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  S5:E105. Show 105A - Mr. Vinton's Pants
  Air Date: March 12, 1976
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  S5:E104. Show 104A
  Air Date: March 11, 1976
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  S5:E103. Show 103A
  Air Date: March 10, 1976
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  S5:E102. Show 102A
  Air Date: March 9, 1976
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  S5:E101. Show 101A
  Air Date: March 8, 1976
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  S5:E100. Show 100A
  Air Date: March 5, 1976
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  S5:E99. Show 99A
  Air Date: March 4, 1976
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  S5:E98. Show 98A
  Air Date: March 3, 1976
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  S5:E97. Show 97A
  Air Date: March 2, 1976
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  S5:E96. Show 96A
  Air Date: March 1, 1976
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  S5:E95. Show 95A
  Air Date: February 27, 1976
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  S5:E94. Show 94A
  Air Date: February 26, 1976
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  S5:E93. Show 93A
  Air Date: February 25, 1976
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  S5:E92. Show 92A
  Air Date: February 24, 1976
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  S5:E91. I Am Batting
  Air Date: February 23, 1976
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  S5:E91. Episode 91A
  Air Date: unknown
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  S5:E90. Show 90A
  Air Date: February 20, 1976
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  S5:E89. Show 89A
  Air Date: February 19, 1976
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  S5:E88. Show 88A
  Air Date: February 18, 1976
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  S5:E87. Show 87A
  Air Date: February 17, 1976
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  S5:E86. Show 86A
  Air Date: February 16, 1976
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  S5:E85. Show 85A
  Air Date: February 13, 1976
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  S5:E84. Flower Power
  Air Date: February 12, 1976
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  S5:E83. Show 83A
  Air Date: February 11, 1976
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  S5:E82. Show 82A
  Air Date: February 10, 1976
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  S5:E81. Show 81A
  Air Date: February 9, 1976
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  S5:E80. Creepy Creature
  Air Date: February 6, 1976
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  S5:E79. Show 79A
  Air Date: February 5, 1976
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  S5:E78. Show 78A
  Air Date: February 4, 1976
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  S5:E77. Show 77A - Light
  Air Date: February 3, 1976
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  S5:E76. Show 76A
  Air Date: February 2, 1976
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  S5:E75. Show 75A
  Air Date: January 30, 1976
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  S5:E74. Show 74A
  Air Date: January 29, 1976
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  S5:E73. Show 73A
  Air Date: January 28, 1976
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  S5:E72. Is It Love?
  Air Date: January 27, 1976
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  S5:E71. Show 71A
  Air Date: January 26, 1976
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  S5:E70. Show 70A
  Air Date: January 23, 1976
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  S5:E69. Show 69A
  Air Date: January 22, 1976
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  S5:E68. Show 68A
  Air Date: January 21, 1976
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  S5:E67. Show 67A
  Air Date: January 20, 1976
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  S5:E66. Show 66A
  Air Date: January 19, 1976
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  S5:E65. Show 65A
  Air Date: January 16, 1976
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  S5:E64. Show 64A
  Air Date: January 15, 1976
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  S5:E63. Show 63A
  Air Date: January 14, 1976
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  S5:E62. Show 62A
  Air Date: January 13, 1976
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  S5:E61. Show 61A
  Air Date: January 12, 1976
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  S5:E60. Show 60A - Jelly Belly
  Air Date: January 9, 1976
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  S5:E59. Show 59A
  Air Date: January 8, 1976
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  S5:E58. Show 58A
  Air Date: January 7, 1976
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  S5:E57. Silver Sipper
  Air Date: January 6, 1976
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  S5:E56. Show 56A
  Air Date: January 5, 1976
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  S5:E55. Show 55A - Sherriff
  Air Date: January 2, 1976
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  S5:E54. Show 54A
  Air Date: January 1, 1976
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  S5:E53. Show 53A
  Air Date: December 31, 1975
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  S5:E52. Show 52A
  Air Date: December 30, 1975
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  S5:E51. Show 51A
  Air Date: December 29, 1975
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  S5:E50. Show 50A
  Air Date: December 26, 1975
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  S5:E49. Show 49A
  Air Date: December 25, 1975
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  S5:E48. Show 48A
  Air Date: December 24, 1975
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  S5:E47. Show 47A
  Air Date: December 23, 1975
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  S5:E46. Show 46A
  Air Date: December 22, 1975
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  S5:E45. Show 45A
  Air Date: December 19, 1975
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  S5:E44. Show 44A
  Air Date: December 18, 1975
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  S5:E43. Show 43A
  Air Date: December 17, 1975
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  S5:E42. Show 42A
  Air Date: December 16, 1975
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  S5:E41. Show 41A
  Air Date: December 15, 1975
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  S5:E40. Show 40A
  Air Date: December 12, 1975
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  S5:E39. Show 39A
  Air Date: December 11, 1975
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  S5:E38. Show 38A
  Air Date: December 10, 1975
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  S5:E37. Show 37A
  Air Date: December 9, 1975
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  S5:E36. Show 36A
  Air Date: December 8, 1975
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  S5:E35. Show 35A - Knock Knock Rock
  Air Date: December 5, 1975
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  S5:E34. Show 34A
  Air Date: December 4, 1975
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  S5:E33. Show 33A
  Air Date: December 3, 1975
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  S5:E32. Show 32A
  Air Date: December 2, 1975
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  S5:E31. Show 31A
  Air Date: December 1, 1975
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  S5:E30. Show 30A
  Air Date: November 28, 1975
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  S5:E29. Show 29A
  Air Date: November 27, 1975
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  S5:E28. Show 28A
  Air Date: November 26, 1975
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  S5:E27. Show 27A - Yankee Doodle
  Air Date: November 25, 1975
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  S5:E26. Show 26A
  Air Date: November 24, 1975
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  S5:E25. Show 25A
  Air Date: November 21, 1975
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  S5:E24. Show 24A
  Air Date: November 20, 1975
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  S5:E23. Show 23A
  Air Date: November 19, 1975
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  S5:E22. Show 22A
  Air Date: November 18, 1975
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  S5:E21. Show 21A - Reach
  Air Date: November 17, 1975
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  S5:E20. Show 20A
  Air Date: November 14, 1975
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  S5:E19. Show 19A - Eyeball
  Air Date: November 13, 1975
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  S5:E18. Show 18A - Are You Happy?
  Air Date: November 12, 1975
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  S5:E17. Show 17A
  Air Date: November 11, 1975
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  S5:E16. Show 16A
  Air Date: November 10, 1975
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  S5:E15. Show 15A
  Air Date: November 7, 1975
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  S5:E14. Show 14A
  Air Date: November 6, 1975
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  S5:E13. Show 13A
  Air Date: November 5, 1975
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  S5:E12. Show 12A
  Air Date: November 4, 1975
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  S5:E11. Show 11A
  Air Date: November 3, 1975
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  S5:E10. Show 10A
  Air Date: October 31, 1975
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  S5:E9. Show 9A
  Air Date: October 30, 1975
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  S5:E8. Show 8A
  Air Date: October 29, 1975
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  S5:E7. Show 7A
  Air Date: October 28, 1975
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  S5:E6. Show 6A
  Air Date: October 27, 1975
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  S5:E5. Show 5A - Bobby Hall For Fall Fashions
  Air Date: October 24, 1975
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  S5:E4. Show 4A
  Air Date: October 23, 1975
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  S5:E3. Show 3A
  Air Date: October 22, 1975
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  S5:E2. Show 2A
  Air Date: October 21, 1975
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  S5:E1. Show 1A
  Air Date: October 20, 1975
Season 4

tbd
- Season 4 Overview
  Air Date: October 21, 1974
Season 3

tbd
- Season 3 Overview
  Air Date: October 22, 1973
Season 2

tbd
- Season 2 Overview
  Air Date: October 23, 1972
Season 1

tbd
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: August 21, 2017