George Newall, ‘Schoolhouse Rock’ Co-Creator, Dies at 88

George Newall, the last surviving original creator of ABC-TV’s “Schoolhouse Rock” cartoon, died Nov. 30 in a hospital near his Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., home. He was 88.

According to The New York Times, Newall’s wife Lisa Maxwell attributed his cause of death to cardiopulmonary arrest.

The Emmy Award-winning cartoon TV series ran from 1973-1984 with a 1990s revival. The animated show provided lessons to young viewers covering math, civics, science and grammar through song every Saturday morning, setting a precedent for informative programming later mandated by the government in the 1990s.

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Newall served as an advertising executive and one of the founding creators of the series, which racked up four Emmy Awards.

Beyond television, the series expanded into books, recordings and live singalong specials, spawning a fandom that already anticipates its 50th anniversary next year, for which The Walt Disney Company has scheduled a special, rereleases of the official guidebook and coloring books.

Catchy songs were set with colorful cartoons like “Three Is a Magic Number,” “Unpack Your Adjectives,” “Conjunction Junction,” “I’m Just a Bill” and “Interjection!”

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President of McCaffrey & McCall advertising agency David McCall planted the seed of the show’s creation with a complaint to Newall that “his young sons couldn’t ‘multiply,’ but they could sing along” to stars like Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones.

McCall asked Newall, who in turn asked Ben Tucker and Bob Dorough for help, if he could somehow set the times-tables to song. “Three Is a Magic Number” resulted about two weeks later.

“I asked Ben, and he said, ‘Oh yeah, my partner, Bob Dorough — he can put anything to music!’” Mr. Newall told The New York Times Magazine in 2018.

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Mr. Newall is survived by his wife, the artist and singer Lisa (Chapman) Maxwell; a stepson, Lake Wolosker; and his sisters, Jessie Newall Bissey, Kathy Newall Hogan and Anne Newall Kimmel.