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If you’re a fan of animation, you know the name John Musker, whose four decades at Disney included writing and directing such classics as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Moana. Since retiring from the studio in 2018, he independently pursued an idea for a playful hand-drawn short, which he populated with caricatures of dozens of people from his life, among them fellow animators, CalArts classmates and Disney studios execs.

I’m Hip — shortlisted for an Academy Award — is a charming, music video-like film featuring a cat singing the catchy title song, Dave Frishberg’s 1970s recording of a tune he wrote with Bob Dorough. “[The song’s] very witty, and I always thought that would make for a fun short,” says Musker, 70.

“I have a penchant for teasing people,” he says, and his film “teases people who are so desperate to be on the cutting edge of things. Certainly Los Angeles is full of those people.

George Newall, who was an advertising agency creative director in the early 1970s when he helped create what would become one of TV’s most beloved and educational children’s titles with Schoolhouse Rock!, died Nov. 30 at a hospital near his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. He was 88.

His death was announced to The New York Times by his wife Lisa Maxwell, who said the cause was cardiopulmonary arrest.

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The series of interstitial animated shorts that ran on Saturday mornings from 1973-84 (later revived in the ’90s) got their start in the early 1970s when ad exec David McCall of the McCaffrey & McCall asked Newall, the agency’s creative director, to set multiplication tables to music to assist McCall’s young son.

George Newall, who co-created the celebrated kids’ educational cartoon Schoolhouse Rock for ABC, has died. The New York Times reports that he passed away at 88 years old due to cardiopulmonary arrest, according to his wife, Lisa Maxwell. The series ran from 1973 until 1984 and was known for helping kids learn through song. Generation X grew up on these cartoons every Saturday morning, with songs like “Three Is The Magic Number”, “Conjunction Junction”, and “How A Bill Becomes Law” still remembered today. The series came about when the president of McCaffrey & McCall advertising agency, David McCall, complained to his creative director about the lack of education his kids received in media. He asked if Newall could set the multiplication table to music as his kids had an easier time memorizing song lyrics than learning math. Newall searched for a musician to make it happen, eventually finding Bob Dorough, who quickly wrote “Three Is The Magic Number.

Pioneering hip-hop group De La Soul landed the kind of song placement in a blockbuster film that most artists dream of: A major spot for their 1989 song “The Magic Number” in the end credits of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which, with more than $1.4 billion thus far in ticket sales, has been a rare runaway success in the pandemic film industry.

Yet, to the disappointment if not outrage of many fans, the song is not available on streaming services and will not be anytime soon, due to longstanding legal issues that last year made major steps toward being resolved, but still are not.

Reservoir Music, which last year acquired the catalog of Tommy Boy Records, the group’s original label, pledged that the music will be “coming to fans” — but in a statement to Variety on Friday, a rep for the company wrote: “Unfortunately, no update on the status of De La Soul coming to streaming.

Memory is a powerful, if inaccurate, curating tool.

It’s like how current seasons of Saturday Night Live are never as good as the seasons from your youth, because you mostly recall only standout sketches from historical episodes that, realistically, had a similar ratio of hits-to-misses as new episodes.

Or take Schoolhouse Rock!, the iconic cartoon songs that taught kids everything from grammar to basic mathematics to governance between 1973 and 1984. The Schoolhouse Rock! team — mostly Bob Dorough and Lynn Ahrens — wrote dozens of songs and, depending on your age, you might only remember a half-dozen, or possibly just “...

Memory is a powerful, if inaccurate, curating tool.

It’s like how current seasons of Saturday Night Live are never as good as the seasons from your youth, because you mostly recall only standout sketches from historical episodes that, realistically, had a similar ratio of hits-to-misses as new episodes.

Or take Schoolhouse Rock!, the iconic cartoon songs that taught kids everything from grammar to basic mathematics to governance between 1973 and 1984. The Schoolhouse Rock! team — mostly Bob Dorough and Lynn Ahrens — wrote dozens of songs and, depending on your age, you might only remember a half-dozen, or possibly just “...

The special “In Memoriam” segment on the 2018 Emmy Awards ceremony will be especially tearful this year. Beloved television legends Steven Bochco, Anthony Bourdain, Robert Guillaume, Monty Hall, John Mahoney, Jim Nabors, Charlotte Rae, Burt Reynolds, Neil Simon and Craig Zadan will certainly be just a few people honored with in a musical tribute.

Let’s take a look back at these TV icons as well as over 50 others who have died since mid-September last year. Many will be included in the memoriam for the live Emmys ceremony hosted by Michael Che and Colin Jost for NBC on September 17.

SEECelebrity Deaths 2018: In Memoriam Gallery

Bochco died on April 1 at age 74. The 10-time Emmy winner was the creator of such TV classics as “Hill Street Blues,” “L.A. Law,” “NYPD Blue” and “Doogie Howser, M.D.” He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1996.

Bourdain died in France on June...

Bob Dorough, the jazzman who created the clever and enduring Schoolhouse Rock toons that taught grammar, math, science, and citizenship to a generation of TV-watching kids, has died. He was 94. His family told the Associated Press that Dorough died Monday at his home in Mount Bethel, Pa, but did not give a cause.

Born on December 12, 1923, in Cherry Hill, Ar, Dorough was a jazz musician in the early 1970s when a New York ad man complained that his young sons couldn’t do multiplication and wanted to have the times tables set to music because the kids could recite every rock lyric of the era. That led to Dorough’s classic first Schoolhouse Rock song, “Three Is a Magic Number,” which is remembered for its brilliant simplicity and sticky chorus that counted to 36 by threes, accompanied by animation.

That led to Schoolhouse Rock, a 1973-85 series of Saturday-morning shortform content...

Bob Dorough, the jazz musician who was instrumental in the 1970s educational cartoon series “Schoolhouse Rock!” died Monday in Mt. Bethel, Pennsylvania, a spokesperson for Dorough told TheWrap. He was 94.

During his run with “Schoolhouse Rock!” Dorough wrote and performed iconic numbers including “My Hero, Zero” and “Three Is a Magic Number.”

Dorough, born in Arkansas and raised in Texas, took to music early,joining his high school’s band and serving three years in a special services army band unit.

Also Read: Watch 'Schoolhouse Rock' TrumpCare Parody: 'I'm Just a Bill... If I Pass You'll Probably Die' (Video)

Dorough was a conductor, accompany player, arranger and conductor for a number of years before recording his first effort of his own, “Devil May Care,” in 1956 for the Bethlehem label. Among the artists Dorough worked with was Miles Davis, recording “Nothing Like You” and “Blue Xmas,” both of which Dorough composed, with Davis in 1962.

“In 1971 he received a commission to ‘set the multiplication tables to music.’ This led to a small industry, being the beginning of ABC-tv’s ‘Schoolhouse Rock,’ Saturday morning cartoons that entertained and instructed unsuspecting children during the years 1973-1985,” Dorough’s biography reads.

Also Read: Jimmy Kimmel Goes 'Schoolhouse Rock' to Teach Kids About Trump 'Lies' (Video)

The bio adds, “The impact of this media exposure was unpredictably immense. The show came back for another five years in the 90’s and is now enjoying its 40th anniversary with a DVD edition of the entire, five-subject series, for which Dorough worked as the Musical Director.”

In 1995, Dorough signed with the prestigious Blue Note Records label, recording three CDs — “Right on My Way Home,” “Too Much Coffee Man” and “Who’s On First” — for the label.

Read original story Bob Dorough, ‘Schoolhouse Rock!’ Performer and Writer, Dies at 94 At TheWrap...

Not to unduly shame the American education system, but chances are Bob Dorough has had more of an impact on grammar fluency than any other individual in the 20th century.

That's because Dorough, a Grammy-winning jazz pianist/vocalist/composer who played with Miles Davis (among others) was the composer behind the beloved Schoolhouse Rock, a short but incredibly influential series of educational cartoons from the 1970s and '80s.

And thanks to Great Big Story, you can meet the 92-year-old Dorough through this short video. Dorough is still playing and composing – he released a new album just last year – and...

Not to unduly shame the American education system, but chances are Bob Dorough has had more of an impact on grammar fluency than any other individual in the 20th century. That's because Dorough, a Grammy-winning jazz pianist/vocalist/composer who played with Miles Davis (among others) was the composer behind the beloved Schoolhouse Rock, a short but incredibly influential series of educational cartoons from the 1970s and '80s. And thanks to Great Big Story, you can meet the 92-year-old Dorough through this short video. Dorough is still playing and composing - he released a new album just last year...

Not to unduly shame the American education system, but chances are Bob Dorough has had more of an impact on grammar fluency than any other individual in the 20th century. That's because Dorough, a Grammy-winning jazz pianist/vocalist/composer who played with Miles Davis (among others) was the composer behind the beloved Schoolhouse Rock, a short but incredibly influential series of educational cartoons from the 1970s and '80s. And thanks to Great Big Story, you can meet the 92-year-old Dorough through this short video. Dorough is still playing and composing - he released a new album just last year...

In a preemptive deal that knocked it out of the Toronto premieres line-up, Lionsgate has acquired North American rights to apocalyptic thiller Maggie. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator and Expendables franchises, Total Recall, Batman And Robin), Oscar-nominated Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine, Ender’s Game) and Joely Richardson (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Tudors, Nip/Tuck), Maggie tells the story of a deadly zombie virus that has put a plague on the world. When Maggie, a vivacious young woman becomes infected, her father brings her home to let her be with their family. As Maggie’s condition worsens, the relationship between father and daughter is tested. Henry Hobson is directing from the Black List script by John Scott 3. Bill Johnson and Ara Keshishian produced alongside Colin Bates, Joey Tufaro, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, Matthew Baer and Schwarzenegger. Claudia Blumhuber and Jim Seibel are exec producers. Silver Reel and Gold Star Films...

Savannah, Ga. — Musician Ben Tucker performed with stars from Quincy Jones to Peggy Lee before he settled in the 1970s in Savannah, where the jazz bassist became one of the Georgia city's best-known working musicians.

He was killed in a car crash Tuesday at age 82.

Tucker was driving a golf cart across a road on Hutchinson Island when a car slammed into him at high speed, said Savannah-Chatham County police spokesman Julian Miller. Tucker was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The driver of the car that struck him was charged with vehicular homicide and other criminal counts.

The news stunned musicians and jazz enthusiasts in Savannah, where Tucker had been a musical fixture for roughly four decades. Tucker made his living playing upright bass – an instrument he'd named Bertha and claimed was 240 years old – in all sorts of settings from jazz festivals to wedding receptions, from nightclub gigs to bar mitzvahs.

There aren't many weeks when new releases feature the end of the world, indie darling Greta Gerwig, an arrow-shooting princess, vampires and Abe Lincoln (the latter two in the same movie), so don't accuse film distributors of offering the same old thing this week. (You are, however, welcome to accuse film distributors of many other things.)

If alternative versions of presidential history or Gerwig's mystifying appeal (don't get me started) aren't your thing, may I suggest a Hitchcock film or two? The Paramount Summer Classic Film Series is screening The 39 Steps, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North by Northwest (pictured above) and Strangers on a Train this weekend. Check the Paramount and Stateside calendar for details.

In the mood for a foreign film? Check out Vaho (Becloud), a Mexican drama about the lives of three young men and the fate of an orphaned infant rescued from the Mexican desert...

Today goes to eleven in all the ways that it can, and so it must be Nigel Tufnel Day. Here are some things you can do to honor Nigel on his day: 1. Take a trip down memory lane to the time when you were an 11-week fetus: suck your thumb for 11 minutes. 2. Saw the last inch off a foot-long ruler so that it goes only to 11. 3. Stage a recreation of the Battle of the Lupia River, in which Roman forces defeated the Germanic Sicambri tribe in 11Bc. 4. Put 11 ounces of salt -- sodium: atomic number 11 -- on all your meals today. 5. Watch an episode of Doctor Who starring Matt “Eleventh Doctor” Smith. 6. Stop a war somewhere in the world in remembrance of Armistice Day, 11/11/1918, which ended World War I. 7. If you are Neil Armstrong, remember how you took humankind’s first step on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.

American jazz singer Blossom Dearie has died, aged 82.Dearie, a singer, pianist and songwriter, died of natural causes in her sleep on Saturday at her Manhattan, New York apartment, her manager and representative Donald Schaffer has confirmed.

She was a fixture during her career in cabarets in London and New York, where she moved in the mid-1940s, and has been a featured singer on film soundtracks, including Kissing Jessica Stein, My Life Without Me, The Squid and the Whale and The Adventures of Felix.

Dearie has also recorded with various musicians, including Bob Dorough and Lyle Lovett.

Her first six albums, released with Paris' Verve Records from 1956 to 1960 after moving to the city, are today remembered as cult classics.

After recording more albums in London, Dearie returned to the U.S. and established her own label, Daffodil Records, in 1974. She released her last album Blossom's Planet with the company in 2000.

Dearie is survived by an older brother, Barney, a nephew and a niece.