Kate McKinnon Boards the ‘Magic School Bus’ Netflix Series

Netflix has found the voice of Miss Frizzle for its upcoming Magic School Bus revival series. Entertainment Weekly reported that Kate McKinnon, known for her comedy chops on Saturday Night Live and Ghostbusters, will be the voice of The Frizz in the upcoming Netflix show.

The revival series, currently entitled The Magic School Bus Rides Again, doesn’t have a premiere date, but with McKinnon on board to play everyone’s favorite school teacher, production and progress on the show is likely to start moving along soon.

The character of Miss Frizzle was extremely popular, both with her students and with fans of the show. She doubled as a teacher and as a bus driver of a magic school bus, which would transport her students all over the place, from outer space to inside a student’s body to study the germs that’s making him sick.

Some of the actors who voiced characters in the original show, which aired on PBS for four seasons from 1994 to 1997, are expected to voice characters in the revival, though they’re likely to be voicing different characters. Lily Tomlin, who originally voiced Miss Frizzle in the PBS series, is unlikely to reprise her role as she’s working on Netflix’s Grace and Frankie.

McKinnon, meanwhile, is known for her celebrity and political impressions she does weekly on Saturday Night Live, some of which include Hillary Clinton, Kellyanne Conway, Betsy DeVos, Justin Bieber and Ellen DeGeneres. In a recurring sketch, she plays one of three people who have been abducted by aliens and has a completely different experience than the other two people who were also abducted. She picked up an Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series in 2016 for her work on SNL.

News of the revival first broke in 2014 as a way to increase the children’s programming on the streaming giant. When the deal was first announced, the show would reportedly have 26 episodes in a first season, with each episode being 30 minutes in length.

To relive any childhood memories, the original Magic School Bus is available for streaming on Netflix.

Lauren Fitz: Lauren is a graduating senior at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, who is majoring in multiplatform journalism and is minoring in popular culture. She has been a member of the mxdwn Television team since February 2016 and was promoted to editor in October 2016. In addition to being part of the mxdwn team, she is a columnist and general entertainment reporter for her college's student-run paper, The BG News. In her free time, Lauren likes to read, watch TV and meet up with friends over coffee, where she will inevitably end up talking about TV. You can reach out to Lauren by email: lauren@mxdwn.com.
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