WHAT is Going On!?
From The Electric Company (1971) · 1974
Summary
No Diving in the Food! Help Fargo North decode what that sign means, and find out what the big deal is about “what!” Featuring: The Blue Beetle, Fargo North Decoder, and Letterman. A sketch-comedy literacy lesson from the original 1971 Electric Company, focused on wh- words and quotation marks.
Viewer safety
Vintage 1971-77 sketch comedy — content is squeaky clean, but Amazon lists a photosensitivity advisory (brief flashing/strobing in some segments), so preview if you have a sensitive student. Paid source: about $2 an episode or $22 a volume.
Our rating is a quick teacher-to-teacher guide — preview before showing.
Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Discussion
The original Electric Company drills one or two word patterns per episode through fast sketch comedy — the joke lands and the phonics sticks. Watch for the pattern the sketches keep circling back to.
- Which letter sounds or word parts did the sketches keep coming back to?
- What new words can you build with that word part?
- How did the actors stretch or repeat sounds to help you hear them?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: sound it out, word family, blend, pattern.
Try it: Start a class word hunt for wh- words and quotation marks — collect every word the episode shows, then add three of your own to the list.