Interplanet Janet is a song from Science Rock first aired on November 18, 1978.
Science Rock[]
This song teaches about our solar system, as explored by the titular character, an extraterrestrial character with a rocket tail, wings and a humanoid head who explores the solar system, meant to represent a comet.
Lyrics[]
They say our solar system is centered 'round the sun,
Nine planets, large and small, parading by.
But somewhere out in space,
There's another shining face
That you might see some night up in the sky.
Interplanet Janet, she's a galaxy girl,
A solar system Ms. from a future world,
She travels like a rocket with her comet team
And there's never been a planet Janet hasn't seen,
No, there's never been a planet Janet hasn't seen.
She's been to the Sun, it's a lot of fun,
It's a hot-spot, it's a gas!
Hydrogen and helium in a big, bright, glowing mass.
It's a star, it's a star! So Janet got an autograph!
Mercury was near the Sun, so Janet stopped by,
But the mercury on Mercury was much too high,
So Janet split for Venus, but on Venus she found
She couldn't see a thing for all the clouds around.
Earth looked exciting, kind of green and inviting,
So Janet thought she'd give it a go.
But the creatures on that planet looked so very weird to Janet,
She didn't even dare to say hello.
It's a bird!
It's a plane!
Why, it must be a UFO!
But it was:
Interplanet Janet, she's a galaxy girl,
A solar system Ms. from a future world,
She travels like a rocket with her comet team
And there's never been a planet Janet hasn't seen,
No, there's never been a planet Janet hasn't seen.
Mars is red and Jupiter's big
And Saturn shows off its rings.
Uranus is built on a funny tilt
And Neptune is its twin,
And Pluto, little Pluto,
Is the farthest planet from our Sun.
They say our solar system is not alone in space.
The Universe has endless mystery.
Some future astronaut
May find out that what he'd thought
Was a shooting star
Instead turned out to be...
Interplanet Janet, she's a galaxy girl,
A solar system Ms. from a future world,
She travels like a rocket with her comet team
And there's never been a planet Janet hasn't seen,
No, there's never been a planet Janet hasn't seen.
Schoolhouse Rock: Math Rock (Constellation cameo appearance)[]
- Interplanet Janet appears as a constellation.
Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks Cover[]
It is on track 12 of Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks. It is sung by Man or Astroman, and is one side of a single, shared with Pavement's cover of "No More Kings." It is made to include spacy sound effects and astronaut chattering at certain points.
Trivia[]
At the time of Interplanet Janet's release, Pluto was classified as one of the "nine" planets that were sung about, but shortly after (and even years later), it was classified as a "dwarf planet" (or, not a planet anymore like the other eight). Later versions of the episode aired on TV are said (by fans) to have tried to fix it, but no known versions from/before 2002 (i.e. "The Best of Schoolhouse Rock" and the DVD, which included every episode, that released around the same time) or after 2002 (the version included on Disney+) have altered the episode with a fitting re-recorded line (by Lynn Ahrens) to instead say "Eight planets, large and small..." instead of the normal "Nine planets, large and small..." and not making mention of Pluto at all. However, later versions of Schoolhouse Rock Live! instead say "And Pluto, little Pluto was a planet when this song was wrote..." or something along those lines to set the record straight. (The episode itself, as of early 2023, is strangely unaffected. The fix described above could work since the voice of Interplanet Janet (Lynn Ahrens) was (and is, at the time of writing) still alive at the time of the launch of Disney+ (though Schoolhouse Rock wasn't added until a few years later), so why Disney didn't fix an inaccuracy so minor (yet still important) there is unknown.) Somebody really needs to let Lynn Ahrens know about this.