Writing about the original version of “The Electric Company” reminded me of one of my all-time favorite short films by John and Faith Hubley, who later went on to work on the “Letterman” segments of that show. It is the story of two little girls playing and it is called “Windy Day.”
When the Hubleys began making films, animation was very structured and scripted. Their great innovation was the use of improvised dialogue and impressionistic images and the result was fresh, natural, innovative, and remarkably touching. In “Windy Day,” the dialogue is the private conversation of the Hubley daughters as they were playing. I first saw and loved it when I was just past the ages of those girls myself, and I thought of it often as I listened in on my own children at play.

The Hubleys created many more wonderful films, including “Everybody Rides the Carousel,” based on the work of Erik Erikson about the psychological stages of development, and “The Hat” about two border guards (played by Dudley Moore and Dizzy Gillespie) who argue over what they should do when one’s hat blows into the other’s territory.