Seatbelts, everyone!

I’d like to start off today’s post by thanking Peter N. Trinh for my awesome branding identity and layout help. His webcomic Maddy McGee, P.I. is really good and you should give it a read! And keep an eye out for his new comic Perfume & Primer Caps.

Now onto business!

If you haven’t guessed by the title of the post, I’m going to be talking about everyone’s favorite school bus, The Magic School Bus! This show was the bomb when I was a kid, teaching me about digestion, space and many other things. The Magic School Bus would take Ms. Frizzle (voiced by Lily Tomlin) and her class of very multicultural students to various place one couldn’t go on a normal field trip — with the Frizz? No way!

This is the face of a woman with which you can trust your kids.

The series was based on a series of books written by Joanna Cole, and ran from 1994 to 1998. Ms. Frizzle’s class included:

Arnold, the scaredy-cat; Carlos, the pun master; Dorothy Ann, the class know-it-all; Keesha, the somewhat regular student; Phoebe, the new kid in class; Ralphie, the Jock/second class clown; Tim, the artist; and Wanda, the Tomboy. Everyone had their favorite, and mine was definitely Ralphie. I found everyone else to be really contrived. Ralphie seemed fairly genuine. But, hey, the past is always rose coloured.

Now while the Magic School Bus’ content was fairly accurate, there was always some inaccuracies. None that I could recall at this very moment, but I always remember thinking that’s not quite how it goes. Usually if there was some discrepancy due to time (speeding up digestion to a half hour for instance) that’s usually when the producer got a call. I found these segments to be the best, usually because Malcolm Jamal-Warner was voicing the producer. But I digress. The show had a slew of celebrity voices, including Dom DeLuise, Dan Marino, Tony Randall and many others. My favorite was probably Dan Marino, since I was obsessed with Ace Ventura, Pet Detective as a kid.

Look kid, as Producer, I just dole out the money. To myself mostly.

So does the show hold up? Well, not really. I mean it’s still great for kids, but it’s not really something you can watch as an adult and enjoy. The Characters a little silly and the catchphrases get a little repetitive. If I had kids, though, I would probably sit and watch a few episodes with them before switching it to something else. So there you have it. The Magic School Bus, awesome as a child, but a little painful when you grow up. Unless it’s the Dan Marino episode. That guy rocks!

And looks sharp in a bowtie!