Education: Making Music Leap to Life

PBS presents Beethoven and the Beach Boys

The bass guitars of a hard-rock group twang as psychedelic colors splash on the screen. An enraged housewife looms before the viewer, curlers in her hair and hands over her ears. "Turn that noise down!" she bellows, and the insistent pounding fades.

A buxom diva trills in a concert hall. Suddenly—zap!—she loses the melody and desperately summons the "Melody Doctor." Enter a Groucho Marx double, complete with cigar and leer. To the tune of outrageous one-liners, he re-creates the missing melody, placing huge notes on a blackboard.

Such skits add an engaging beat to Music, the...

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