Schoolhouse Rock Live!

About the show

Tom, a young teacher, is preparing for his first day of teaching. As he nervously rehearses what he's going to say, he turns on Schoolhouse Rock! Soon, personifications of his emotions appear. There's George – the romantic facet, Dori – the goofy facet, Shulie – the sweet aspect, Joe – the cool facet, and Dina – the mature facet. They intend to teach him so he's ready for his job. In their first lesson to him, they cover grammar ("Verb: That's What's Happening"). They tell him that they represent anywhere he has been, each person he has recognized and met ("A Noun Is A Person, Place Or Thing"). They help Tom realize that teaching is as easy as counting to three ("Three Is a Magic Number"). Tom thinks he is hallucinating and tries to get rid of them, but he realizes that he needs them ("Mother Necessity"). They encourage Tom to remember that he wants to be a teacher because both his grandmother and her mother were teachers. In their lifetimes, teaching was one of the few job opportunities open to women ("Sufferin' 'til Suffrage"). He also remembers working at his grandfather's hardware store as a child and sneaking away on Saturday mornings to watch Schoolhouse Rock!, which taught him about adverbs ("Lolly, Lolly, Lolly") and adjectives ("Unpack Your Adjectives"). But Tom has to teach more than that – math, science and social studies ("Just a Bill" / "The Preamble"). By revisiting these moments from his childhood and getting caught up in them, Tom remembers that learning can be fun ("Ready or Not, Here I Come"). When the gang becomes exhausted from all of the excitement, Tom encourages them to stay active ("Do the Circulation"). Joe is ready to do a song about pronouns, but he needs some help from the group ("Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla"). Shulie plays Tom's guitar; the instrument is shaped like a figure eight, which inspires her to remember how Tom learned multiplication tables ("Figure Eight"). Next, George gives a physics lesson using rock and roll ("A Victim of Gravity"). Staying on the math and science track, George and Shulie introduce a hero who changed counting forever ("Zero, My Hero"). Although they have covered many parts of speech, Tom remembers one that they have left out, conjunctions ("Conjunction Junction"). Joe reminds Tom that school will be a very important transition to America for many of his students who are not native English speakers, just as America went through an important transition as it expanded ("Great American Melting Pot / Elbow Room"). Shulie teaches a lesson about space ("Interplanet Janet") and the thought of going to the Moon gets the whole group energized. They use words that properly express the energy they are feeling ("Interjections"). Tom thanks everyone for helping him. He has one last song for them about sentence structure ("The Tale of Mr. Morton"). As the song ends, all of the characters are gathered around Tom as if he were teaching. He asks if there are any questions, and a student's hand goes up.