The Metric Marvels is a series of seven animated educational shorts featuring songs about meters, liters, Celsius, and grams, designed to teach American children how to use the metric system. They were produced by Newall & Yohe, the same advertising agency which produced ABC's popular Schoolhouse Rock! series, and first aired on the NBC television network in September 1978. Voices for the Metric Marvels shorts included Lynn Ahrens, Bob Dorough, Bob Kaliban, and Paul Winchell.
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On December 23, 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the Metric Conversion Act into law; this act gave official sanction for the United States to convert to the metric system of measurement. (Traditionally, the United States has used — and continues to prefer — the British Imperial system over metric measurements.) Ford's presidential successor, Jimmy Carter, began to implement this law in earnest, helping to set up the U.S. Metric Board as a task force to determine when and how the U.S. would convert to metrics. The USMB suggested that the transition ought to be voluntary and gradual, taking place over at least a ten-year period.
As part of this gradual transition, the USMB sponsored a number of public service announcements on radio and television. The Metric Marvels was one such television PSA, aired during NBC's Saturday morning cartoons. The shorts featured four animated metric superheroes: Liter Leader, Meter Man, Super Celsius, and Wonder Gram. Each superhero performed songs designed to teach children the difference between the old English system and the new metric system.
Ultimately, The Metric Marvels failed to convince Americans to convert to the metric system. Although it shared the animation style, song quality and voice actors of the more popular Schoolhouse Rock!, the series had many fewer episodes and was relatively short-lived. Americans largely ignored governmental attempts to push them in the direction of metrication, and the USMB was eventually disbanded in 1982.