If you went to elementary school way back in the in the 1970's, there were only a handful of things to do on rainy days when you had to stay in at recess.
There was the game where everyone stood on top of their desks and threw a ball to each other until someone dropped it (they they were out and had to sit down) or fell off their desk (then both the thrower and the catcher had to sit - this prevented people slamming the ball into each other).
Then there was Heads Up 7Up but that got old fast during the rainy season. So what was a teacher to do? I'll tell ya!
Unroll that ole reflective screen over the chalkboard and break out the projector! And what did we get to watch in that carefree Me decade? Well, a little Hemo the Magnificent, a little Apple Dumpling Gang but oh, oh kids nothing could compare to the buzz generated by the Holy Grail of elementary educational programming in the 1970’s…
Free To Be. . . You and Me!!!
First aired March 11, 1974 on ABC-TV, it earned an18.6 rating/27 share (that was really really good back then).
It starred Marlo Thomas, Alan Alda, Harry Belafonte, Mel Brooks, Rita Coolidge, Roberta Flack, Michael Jackson (perhaps the show’s most surreal moment is Jackson singing the song "When we Grow Up" – a song about accepting your looks just they way they are), Kris Kristofferson, The Smothers Brothers, Cicely Tyson, Carol Channing, Rosey Grier (big burly football player singing “It’s All Right to Cry”), Rafer Johnson, and Shirley Jones .
The theme song is best sung, like most grade school self esteem boosting anthems, at the top of ones lungs and from the bottom of ones heart. Here we go:
There's a land that I see
Where the children are free,
And I say it ain't far
To this land from where we are.
Take my hand, come with me,
Where the children are free
Come with me, take my hand, and we'll live...
In a land where the river runs free,
In a land through the green country,
In a land with a shining sea,
And you and me are free to be... you and me.
I see a land bright and clear
And the time's coming near,
When we'll live in this land
You and me, hand in hand.
Take my hand, come along,
Lend your voice to my song
Come along, take my hand, sing a song...
For a land where the river runs free,
For a land through the green country,
For a land to the shining sea,
For a land where the horses run free,
And you and me are free to be... you and me.
Every boy in this land
Grows to be his own man.
In this land, every girl
Grows to be her own woman
Take my hand, come with me,
Where the children are free
Come with me, take my hand, and we'll run....
To a land where the river runs free,
To a land through the green country,
To a land to a shining sea,
To a land where the horses run free,
To a land where the children are free,
And you and me are free to be
And you and me are free to be
And you and me are free to be... you and me.
You and me...
You and me..
You and me...
And you and me are free to be you and me.