The Magic School Bus
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Template:Infobox television The Magic School Bus was a series of children's books intended to teach scientific concepts to children. They were written between 1986 and 2001 by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degan. The books feature the exploits of Ms. Frizzle and her class of students at Walkerville Elementary School who board a magical school bus which takes them on educational adventures to space, under the Earth, into the human body, or to other such locations. The books were written in the first person from the point of view of an unnamed student in the Friz's class.
In 1994, the Magic School Bus concept was made into a television show of the same name by Ellipse (France), Nelvana (Canada), and Scholastic Studios. Each episode ran about 30 minutes. In the United States, the show originally aired on PBS, through South Carolina's SCETV network; it was the first fully animated series to air on PBS. The last episode was released in 1997, when the series was dropped to make room for more shows aimed at pre-schoolers. The Fox network also had the series on the schedule, after it acquired the rights from PBS in 1998; it ran on that network until January of 2002, when 4Kids took over Fox's children's programming. The Magic School Bus is currently shown on TLC and Discovery Kids, and there are no plans to make more episodes. After the last Magic School Bus book was released, Cole and Degan started a new series called Ms. Frizzle's Adventures in 2001, which teaches social studies. There are now two books in that series. Microsoft started releasing Magic School Bus software in 1994.
Since the Magic School Bus books present scientific facts in the form of stories in which fantastic things happen (for example, a bus turns into a spaceship, or children shrink to the size of blood cells), each book has a page at the end detailing in a humorous manner which parts of the book represented scientific fact and which were fanciful storytelling. In the TV show, this was replaced by the Producer Says segment at the end of each episode, in which the producer of the show (voiced by Malcolm-Jamal Warner of The Cosby Show fame) receives phone calls from kids complaining about how some things that happened on the show couldn't happen in real life. With the show formatted for commercial broadcasts (evident by some of the fade outs on the show), this segment was merely a filler segment, due to PBS's commercial-free stance.
The television series was released on VHS by PBS Home Video between 1994 and 2001, and is currently being released on DVD by Warner Bros.
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Merchandise
See The Magic School Bus merchandise for specific information about books and software based on the series.
Episodes
See List of The Magic School Bus episodes for a list of television episodes.
When Magic School Bus was premiered on other US TV channels, opening song was shortened, and 'Producer Says' segment was removed, ending sequence was rearranged to show the Scholastic logo first, National Science Foundation endorsement was added. Canadian broadcasts kept the original format intact.
Characters
Ms. Frizzle
See Ms. Frizzle
Arnold
Arnold Perlstein (voiced by Danny Tamberelli) is a unique member of Ms. Frizzle's class. He is the only student who does not enjoy his magical field trips and would rather go on a normal trip. He is also Jewish.
He is interested in rocks and geology. When he lost some rocks from his collection in the CD-ROM The Magic School Bus Explores Inside the Earth, the class went on a field trip to recover them. He was excited, until he found out that they would encounter volcanoes and other dangers. Arnold knew enough about rocks to be the first kid to become a member of Granite, a prestigious society of geologists, in The Magic School Bus Goes Cell-Ular. Arnold has reddish blond hair and wears round glasses. He is usually portrayed as something of wimp, especially since his catch-phrase is "I knew I should've stayed home today." Though he is often the butt of jokes in the series, he seems to be smarter and braver than he is given credit for.
Arnold has a know-it-all cousin named Janet (voiced by Renessa Blitz), who first appeared in the book The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System, and appears often in the television series, but not enough to be considered a regular. In The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells, Arnold mentions his great-aunt was the famous archeologist Arizona Joan (a play on Indiana Jones.)
Carlos
Carlos Ramone (Daniel DeSanto) is known for telling bad jokes, at which the rest of the class usually respond exasperated with "Carlos!!". He has made many odd inventions, like an instrument and a rain-catcher. He prefers to learn from experiencing things first hand, which is partly why he doesn't get along with Dorothy Ann. Fans have often speculated that Carlos and Dorothy Ann's relationship would change later, and the two would become a couple. Carlos has a handicapped little brother named Mikey, who appeared in two episodes of the television series.
Dorothy Ann
Dorothy "D.A." Ann (Tara Meyer) is a bibliophile, her most prized possession being her pink book bag. She uses her books to research whatever the matter at hand is, and usually begins each of her educational contributions with "According to my research...". In The Magic School Bus Sees Stars, she celebrated her ninth birthday. D.A. enjoys star gazing and has a telescope outside her bedroom window. She also has a little sister.
Dorothy Ann has blonde hair, which she wears set in pigtails. In The Magic School Bus Goes On Air, when she took the bands out, her pigtails stayed in place, probably a result of her wearing bands for so long. In a close up of her in The Magic School Bus Plays Ball, we can see she had blue eyes.
Keesha
Keesha Franklin (Erica Luttrell) is probably the most skeptical of the students and arguably the most level-headed as well. She appears to be a close friend of Phoebe. Her catchphrases are "So let's get the facts..." and "Oh bad, oh bad, oh bad, bad, bad!".
Phoebe
Phoebe Terese (Maia Filar) has brown hair and would well deserve the title of "the compassionate one." She's very concerned with the well-being of animals and started an organisation called S.A.D.S. (Students Against Desert Scarcity) to help animals living in the desert in The Magic School Bus All Dried Up.
Phoebe transferred to Walkerville Elementary, where Ms. Frizzle teaches, from her old school, which is only ever referred to as Phoebe's Old School. In The Magic School Bus Goes to Seed the class went to her old school to pick up a plant, but Phoebe was worried Ms. Frizzle would embarrass her. However, it turned out her old teacher not only knew Ms. Frizzle, but was a close friend. Her catchphrase is "At my old school..".
Ralphie
Ralphie Tenelli (Stuart Stone) is interested mainly in sports. Though he plays a lot of sports, he weighs 49 kg. He frequently daydreams in Ms. Frizzle's class, where daydreams aren't a waste of time. Ralphie's mother, Dr. Tenelli (voiced by Tyne Daly) is a physician. His catchphrase goes, "Is it just me, or..."
Wanda
Wanda Li (Lisa Yamanaka) has black hair, wears a red vest and pink blouse. Wanda's mother (voiced by Rosalind Chao) is a science writer, who once kept an alligator in the bathtub. Wanda's little brother, William, is clearly no more than four, as he is still learning how to speak. Wanda is very interested in adventure and "going where no kid has gone before." Thus, she serves as something of a foil to Arnold. Wanda's catchphrase is "What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?"
Tim
Timothy "Tim" Hoggard (Andre Ottley-Lorant) can usually be found with a notebook used for drawing pictures. He has black hair and is very observant.
NOTE: Though only these eight students are featured in the television series, Ms. Frizzle's class was far larger in the original books which gives her a class of approximently twenty-five students. Some of these students include Amanda Jane, Shirley, Phil, and others. Keesha was added in the 1992 Magic School Bus book The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip.
Liz
Liz is the very intelligent class lizard, and often rescues the children from sticky situations.