The Magic School Bus: In the Haunted House

The Magic School Bus: In the Haunted House
PBS Kids
October 29, 1994
Children's, Fantasy
DVD
C

While it's cool to hear the voices of Little Richard (theme song), the now-recently-deceased Carol Channing (as a guest star), and of course Lily Tomlin as Ms. Valerie Frizzle, I feel like the writing was weak.  I've read a few of the books over the years and I'm familiar with the general concept, but this episode didn't make me want to watch more.  I feel like, even though there are only eight kids in the class, that's too many to get enough attention, other than Carlos here and presumably other kids on other episodes.  I knew Arnold was a coward but it looks like Ralphie and maybe one of the girls is, too, but the characters are mostly not well enough defined.  Half as many kids would've made for a stronger episode.  (Although I do appreciate the racial diversity.)  Furthermore, I thought that the bus was supposed to be, you know, magical, and take them places they couldn't ordinarily go (like outer space or inside the human body), but here they just go to a local haunted house, which is also a museum of sound.  Even the educational aspect of the show didn't really kick in until about two-thirds of the episode.  It's not a bad series, but I'd rather watch Reading Rainbow, where the few kids each get a moment to shine and there's information and entertainment throughout.  (And RRainbow is only scoring C+s and B-s so far, so it's not like it's my favorite kids' show on PBS ever.  That would probably be Square One because of the Mathnet sequences.  And, yes, I was a grown-ass adult by then.)