The Magic School Bus
Ups and Downs
TV Flash files “Ups and Downs” as the last listed hour of season 2 — The Magic School Bus (1994–1997) on PBS, season 2, episode 13, aired 1995-12-02, 25 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E13: listed hour 26 of 52 in the The Magic School Bus guide, last listed hour of season 2. It aired 1995-12-02 (25 min). The listed hour before it is “Cold Feet” (S02E12). Next is “In a Beehive (Honeybees)” (S03E01).
Viewer FAQ
Where does Ups and Downs sit in the The Magic School Bus guide?
S02E13 is listed hour 26 of 52 — last listed hour of season 2, season 2 episode 13.
When did The Magic School Bus S02E13 air?
Ups and Downs aired 1995-12-02 and is listed at 25 minutes.
Is it actually educational?
PBS gold-standard edutainment: science as adventure, curriculum hiding inside field trips that no waiver would allow.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Seatbelts, everyone: a class that shrinks, dives, and ignores every field-trip waiver ever written. PBS educational animation at gold-standard wattage — Lily Tomlin’s Frizzle, science as adventure, and curiosity treated as a personality. Kids’ TV that made organelles exciting and still the show teachers cite when they want entertainment to do homework without feeling like a worksheet.
The work, first: Ms. Frizzle shrinking, digging, and space-traveling her class through science concepts — seatbelts, everyone, field trips that ignore every waiver ever written. Based on the Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen books, the PBS series (1994–1997) made Lily Tomlin's Frizzle a style icon and curiosity a personality. Daniel DeSanto, Tara Meyer, and Danny Tamberelli among the class voices. Entertaining enough that kids forgot it was curriculum: organelles as adventure, gold-standard wattage educational…
Filed against
- Lily Tomlin as Ms. Frizzle
Lily Tomlin’s Laugh-In arrival was a second heat check — characters that outlive the timeslot in Rowan and Martin’s catchphrase factory. Telephone-operator cutaways, bikini-joke velocity, a Monday-night afterparty that sold rebellion…
- Daniel DeSanto as Carlos Ramon
Daniel DeSanto’s Carlos Ramon rode The Magic School Bus through every field-trip waiver — PBS educational animation, Lily Tomlin’s Frizzle, a class that shrinks and dives while curiosity stays a personality. Seatbelts, everyone. TV Flash…
- Tara Meyer as Dorothy Ann
Tara Meyer voiced Dorothy Ann on The Magic School Bus — seatbelts everyone, a class that shrinks and dives and ignores every field-trip waiver, PBS educational animation at gold-standard wattage. Science as adventure, curiosity as a…
- Danny Tamberelli as Arnold Perlstein
Danny Tamberelli’s Little Pete made The Adventures of Pete & Pete a suburb that behaved like an indie film — 1990s catalog Nickelodeon poetry, then The Magic School Bus keeping the kid voltage in a shrinking classroom. TV Flash files him…