The New Electric Company: Lacking The Old Energy

By Tracie Egan Morrissey | January 20, 2009 | 12:00am

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Unless, of course, you like watching a bunch of musical theater dorks rapping to kids about how they have “mad skills,” in which case, yeah, it’s a little bit awesome.

The new version of the classic show debuted on PBS today, and while many of the same themes are incorporated — like sounding out words in song and male/female profiles — it just doesn’t have any of the inherent coolness of the original, mainly because it’s trying so hard to be “down”. It makes for some great cringing, though. Clip above.