Strike Three and Underline

Strike Three and Underline was a children's education television program about legislation editing. It was produced by WGBH for PBS, and it ran from August 25, 1991 to August 12, 1994. It featured Nathan Brown as Strike Three, with Underline as his sidekick, a green pipe cleaner with googly eyes. The name of the show is a play on words from the font settings strikethrough and underline, frequently used to edit legislation.
Conception
With the revival of statutory interpretation brought about by the jurisprudence of Antonin Scalia, groups such as The Heritage Foundation and the ACLU wanted to teach children about the basics of legislation in a fun way. Edwin Feulner, president of Heritage at the time, stated, "I'm Just a Bill is already 15 years old, and children's television has become far more sophisticated. If we want to raise a civics-savvy generation, we have to figure out how to talk to our youth about legislation in a way they will appreciate."
Format
Each episode featured an issue, sometimes out of a mailbag and sometimes for friends, that Strike Three and Underline would try to solve with legislation. Along the way, they would learn important facts about the subject before sitting down to create and then edit their legislation. Due to the name of the main character, many episodes had baseball themes. At the end of the episode, Strike Three and Underline would complete a bill draft and give it to Clara the Clerk, who would inspect the draft, call it complete, and wave goodbye to the viewers.
Critical reception
Strike Three and Underline was nominated for a George Foster Peabody Award in 1993 but lost the award to fellow PBS show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?.
Cancellation
With the Internet increasingly playing a role in legislation editing, methods of legislation editing became too diverse to ensure most children watching had easy access to put into practice what the show presented. As a result, funding ceased after the 1994 season.

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