When I was 4ish (1978), the big thing for me to watch was public television. WETA Channel 26. Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, and The Electric Company.
I don’t think we got cable until 1981 (when I was 7) or so… Back when A&E and Nick were the same channel, there were 5 movie channels (everyone knows about HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, and even The Movie Channel, but few people remember the Home Theatre Network), and HBO wasn’t descrambled but was set at the tap for your house. (Meaning I could get it in my room via a cable split without a cable box, unlike the descrambled channels.)
You know what the most memorable moment of all that programming was for me? Not a specific show, but the period of silence between Sesame Street and The Electric Company. The period of time where the screen is completely black for an unpredictable amount of time (TV programming was not necessarily run by computers back then, and WETA 26 was, after all, a local public station). Followed by someone insanely screaming “HEEEYY YOOOOUUU GUYYYYYYYSSSSS!” and the Electric Company logo:
I also remember watching those 2 shows in kindergarten (I was 5-6) at Rockledge Elementary School in Woodbridge, VA.
Anyway… The silence between the two shows scared the shit out of me. I wasn’t scared of the “Hey You Guys!” scream as much as the antici…
…pation of waiting for it to happen. It filled my adrenal gland and my soul with a sense of dread. The same sense of dread I feel today if I wake up and notice that the music has inexplicably stopped playing. Is the power out? Did my computer fry? Will I be able to sleep without anything to entertain me enough to keep my thoughts from madly racing?
Anyway… I’ve never been a fan of silence. I listen to music 24/7/365. I don’t sit in silence. Period. Ever. Even if I’m sitting outside in the middle of the woods, alone, I’m going to be projecting my hearing as far as possible, trying to hear as many different sounds as possible.
It took me awhile to realize that my dislike of silence goes all the way back to the 1970s. At least I’m consistent.
Mood: full and reminiscing
Music: Tori Amos – Smells Like Teen Spirit
Claire's blog 
June 8, 2009 at 4:27 PM
really….
i personally think you need to practice comfortable silences. i find them rather relaxing, just focusing on the breath….
m
June 8, 2009 at 4:32 PM
I find them maddeningly boring and a waste of listening time that could be filled with art (i.e. music) instead of nothingness.
Plus, it’s never REALLY silent anyway. It’s music… or the sounds of cars passing my house, my house creeking, and other adrenaline-spiking sounds.
June 10, 2009 at 2:27 PM
WTF.. I did not know Morgan Freeman and Lily Tomlin were in The Electric Company. I guess that possibly explains why I’ve always known who Lily Tomlin was (and not just from Back To The Future 3)…
I still didn’t see them in this vid, cause VHS quality is shite:
February 4, 2010 at 7:25 PM
Okay, TraumaFessions (KinderTrauma.com) took my submission of this story and posted it there as well:
With more comments than here… And they embedded a video I’m going to incorporate into my post as well.
March 22, 2010 at 8:01 PM
Cullen P:
Yes, it was kind of surprising waiting for that “HEY YOU GUYS!” line every Monday thru Friday. Kind of like that lion roaring at the beginning of a lot of MGM shows and movies.
August 4, 2011 at 3:36 AM
[…] he was in 7 eps of thirtysomething). Sister Pete is Rita Moreno (Carmela from 780 episodes of The Electric Company)))) […]
October 22, 2017 at 8:41 PM
I grew up on the 2010 Electric Company. Trust me, you don’t know real fear until you’ve seen JACK FUCKING BOWSER.
October 22, 2017 at 10:10 PM
omg… are you saying The Electric Company has culturally appropriated Jack Bauer from 24?!?!?!?! OMG I NEED TO SEE THIS, got a youtube link? hehe