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George Newall enrolled at Florida State University in 1955. He studied composition with John Boda, winning Florida Composers League awards in 1958, 1959, and 1960.
While Co-Creative Director of McCaffrey & McCall, Newall "invented" HaiKarate, an off-the-wall spoof of cliché after shave lotion advertising. Hai Karate became the most successful men's toiletry introduction of the sixties.
In 1970, Newall became the catalyst in the creation of ABC's Schoolhouse Rock. The McCaffrey & McCall President, David McCall, asked him to help develop the concept of setting rote learning to rock music. Newall found Bob Dorough, a composer of uniquely eccentric jazz tunes and lyrics and introduced him to McCall and Newall's creative partner, Art director cartoonist Tom Yohe. Later that year, the group took their educational idea to Disney CEO Michael Eisner, then Director of Children's Programming at the ABC Television Network. Eisner immediately bought the idea and in 1972, 3-minute Schoolhouse Rock! segments starting running on ABC seven times each weekend.
In 1978, Newall left McCaffrey & McCall with his Co-Creative Director, Tom Yohe, to start Newall & Yohe, Inc., intent on producing animated educational programs for commercial television. In addition to winning four Emmy s for Schoolhouse Rock!, Newall & Yohe also won an Emmy for Drawing Power, a Saturday morning educational series they created for NBC. Newall & Yohe won numerous other awards for its work, including Emmy nominations for its Nutrition Spots for ABC, The Metric Marvels for NBC, "When You Turn Off Your Set, Turn On a Book" for NBC, and an Action for Children's Television Act Award for: "Cartoons with a Conscience," animated segments in "Drawing Power," which prove that cartoons can be nonracist, nonsexist, informative... and funny."
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