REBECCA ROBERTS, Host:
Unidentified child: Hey, you guys!
REBECCA ROBERTS, host:
No, it's not the old school "Electric Company." It's the 2009 version, which switches on this Monday.
(Soundbite of song "The Electric Company")
Unidentified Woman: (Singing) It's Electric, Electric Company...
ROBERTS: The modern version of this much-beloved, 1970s PBS kids' show is both familiar...
(Soundbite of song from "The Electric Company")
Unidentified Man: (Singing) "(unintelligible) changes everything."
ROBERTS: And new.
(Soundbite of song from "The Electric Company")
ROBERTS: That is by design, according to executive producer Karen Fowler, who joins me now from our New York bureau. Welcome to the program.
Ms. KAREN FOWLER (Executive Producer, "The Electric Company"): Thanks for having me.
ROBERTS: Why don't we start with what is different about the 2009 version of "The Electric Company"?
Ms. FOWLER: Today's "The Electric Company" is made for kids who grew up in a very different world than back in 1971. Our kids are - you know, they're dealing with cell phones and TVs and broadband and all that kind of stuff, so this project, the new "Electric Company," is really driven by the need to bring something to kids across all those mediums. It's a storyline, and it's short-formed bits that come together to create a half-hour TV show that brings kids music and dancing and literacy in a package that I think really will light them up.
ROBERTS: Why bring back "The Electric Company" now?
Ms. FOWLER: There is a literacy crisis in the United States. And, you know, the facts are that 27 percent of fourth-graders are not reading on target. That means that there's a whole bunch of kids who are not likely to become literate adults.
ROBERTS: The storyline revolves around these four kids in a health-food diner.
Ms. FOWLER: (Laughing) Yeah. Yeah, it's four friends who have literacy superpowers, and who live in a neighborhood. So, there's moments that occur within this whole-foods diner, the Electric Diner, and then there's a whole bunch of stuff that occurs on the streets of New York, which appears as any urban center.
ROBERTS: Describe an episode, a typical episode for our audience. How do you balance, say, the narrative story with the interstitials, and when do they sing and dance, and how does it look?
Ms. FOWLER: Each episode is built around the domain of language. So a domain could be space. Inside that storyline, there are five words and the words - one of the words will be orbit. We've got this group of characters that live in the neighborhood called the Skalakian(ph), and the Skalakians are a group of people that come from another planet. They've emigrated to Earth, and they live here. And they're pretty much the same as us, except they never lie. And when they reach the age of 14, they get a special talent. And that moment occurs when the Earth orbits around the sun. So it's at an eclipse. And so, in that moment - so we've got a story of a girl who's about to get her special talent, but it's against this time clock of this orbit, and so that's how we teach the idea of the word against this emotional story of this girl who's about to get the most special thing of her life.
ROBERTS: Were you a fan of "The Electric Company" as a kid?
Ms. FOWLER: Hey, you guys. Who wasn't? (Laughing) Absolutely.
ROBERTS: And what's your favorite part of the new version?
Ms. FOWLER: OK. I love the core cast. They're brilliant. There's also this other piece of the show called "Music Man," these series of one-minute animations that are stunning. And they are a groove tune that just won't leave me.
(Soundbite of song from "The Electric Company")
Unidentified Man: (Singing) Let me tell you about my love of the silent E.
ROBERTS: Do you expect when the 2009 version airs that you'll hear from a lot of nostalgic parents?
Ms. FOWLER: (Laughing) I hope so. Actually, I really hope we hear from nostalgic parents who say, you know what? It's not my "Electric Company," but it is "Electric Company" for my kid. That's what I hope.
ROBERTS: Karen Fowler is executive producer of the new "Electric Company," which debuts Monday on PBS. Thank you so much.
Ms. FOWLER: Thank you.
(Soundbite of song from "The Electric Company")
Unidentified Man: (Singing) Sometimes I have a plan. When I add an E, it becomes plane. And I can take that plane and fly away.