The Magic School Bus franchise

The logo as of 2017.

The Magic School Bus is a fantasy educational entertainment media franchise owned by the Scholastic Corporation and created by Craig Walker, Joanna Cole, and Bruce Degen. It follows the escapades of an elementary school class, taught by one of the Frizzle sisters, on different educational field trips to otherwise impossible locations aboard the titular Magic School Bus.

The franchise has seen various marketing eras in its lifetime and includes various books, a trilogy of television series, and video games.

Since the Magic School Bus books and three television series present scientific facts in the form of stories in which fantastic things happen (for example, the bus turns into a spaceship, or the class shrink to the size of blood cells), each book has a page at the end detailing in a humorous manner which parts of the book represented scientific facts and which were fanciful storytelling. In the books' television adaptations, The Magic School Bus and The Magic School Bus Rides Again, at the end of each episode, a fact-check segment is utilized. The fourth wall is broken, and a segment happens in which the "producers", guest stars, or characters of the show (such as the Friz herself) receive(s) phone calls from kids complaining about how some things that happened on the show couldn't happen in real life.

Timeline[]

1986–1994: The franchise before television and the first five books[]

Craig Walker (for whom the setting of the franchise, the fictional town of Walkerville, is named), vice-president and senior editorial director at Scholastic, stated that the concept began with the idea of combining science with fictional stories, and Joanna Cole (who had written both science and humor before) and Bruce Degen were then approached with creating such a series; he also states that his own memories of school field trips and of a teacher he had once had served as further inspiration.^[1] In July 1986, Cole and Degen published the franchise's book introduction, The Magic School Bus At the Waterworks, which received various sequels throughout the remaining years of the 20th century.

1994–2014: The original TV series[]

*Note: This section discusses the MSB Classic era in the United States.

*Note: The show can sometimes be referred to as the original series or The Magic School Bus Classic (by 9Story) to differentiate it from Rides Again.

PBS (1994–1998)[]

In the 1990s, Craig Walker developed a concept for a Magic School Bus television project^[2] along Toronto-based animated studio. The franchise has received a television debut, as the second entry in the book series, The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth, received a Reading Rainbow recognition and was adapted into the first episode of the eighth season of Reading Rainbow, but narrated by the star of The Cosby Show. This aired on PBS in the United States on September 10, 1990.^[3] On that same day in 1994, the show's first episode, "Gets Lost in Space", aired on PTV Park (modern-day PBS Kids). The show received new episodes until 1997, when it aired its final episode. The series received reruns until late 1998, when PBS stopped airing it.

In 1995, KidVision, a Warner company, released the series on VHS video in the NTSC world. These were normally just one pre-season 4 episode, presented in its PBS broadcast version sans the PTV ident. The company would continue to release the show on home video until 2012, when New Video Group acquired the rights.

FOX Kids era (1998–2002)[]

The series moved to the now-defunct FOX Kids, a channel that only then recently started airing edutainment. On this network, the opening "Ride on the Magic School Bus" was shortened and Is This the Magic School Bus? was cut entirely due to time constraints.

NTSC VHS tapes during this era included a sticker that read "Original, Uncut Version of the Show!" on the reverse of the slipcase, indicating that viewers would be watching the PBS version with all segments. This era also saw the show's introduction on DVD in 2002.

TLC, Discovery, NBC, and qubo (2002-2012)[]

9Story Acquisition (2021)[]

In 2021, 9Story acquired the Classic series as with Rides Again. Here, it is recognized as The Magic School Bus Classic when separating it with Rides Again.

2014–2024: The Magic School Bus Rides Again (2017–2021)[]

Announcement as The Magic School Bus 360[]

First two seasons[]

In 2017, Netflix and 9Story released the sequel to the Emmy®-award winning TV show: Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Rides Again. It is set in the same canon as the original series, following the fourth season. Ms. Valerie Frizzle has gotten promoted to Professor Frizzle, a research professor, and leaves her sister, Fiona (voiced by the star of SNL), in charge of teaching the kids. Phoebe moved back to her old school, and a new student, Jyoti, moved to the Frizzle class.

Return (2020)[]

2024-present: Mighty Explorers era[]

The show was announced on March 22, 2024 in a KidScreen article.^[4] It’s set in a different universe with new characters and a major upgraded design for the Bus.

Characters[]

The Frizzle class was originally larger in the original books compared to the modern 8 (or 9 if Phoebe is counted). All of the 22 students (counting Phoebe and Jyoti) across both the books and TV series were Tim, Arnold, Ralph (changed to "Ralphie" later), Dorothy Ann, Wanda, Phoebe, Michael, Rachel, Amanda Jane, Florrie, Gregory, Shirley, Phil, Molly, Carmen, John, Alex, Carlos, Jyoti and Keesha. Phoebe was first introduced in the 1987 book, The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth, and Carlos and Keesha were added in the 1994 book, In the Time of the Dinosaurs. Jyoti was the only student who was never introduced in a book. Instead, she was introduced in the episode, Frizzle of the Future.

The modern eight students as of the Rides Again era are Arnold, Carlos, Dorothy Ann, Jyoti, Keesha, Ralphie, Tim, and Wanda. Phoebe was included in the 1994 television series and some spin-off books before Rides Again, but she was written out of Rides Again due to her leaving for her old school.