The Classic Electric Company Memories Thread

[fuzzygobo]

John Korty did another cartoon of a photographer taking a class picture.
"Cheese!", he says, trying to get 30 cutout heads to smile.
After a few false starts, the photographer builds up a huge sneeze, and when he finally lets go, his camera, tripod and lights all get blown away with him in the explosion.
"Sneeze!" says the class, flashing toothy grins.
Looks like South Park a generation early.

 

[fuzzygobo]

There was another skit featuring Morgan and Hattie as the geezer and the waitress.

Geezer: "I'd like a sandwich."
Waitress: "One sandwich. But what kind?"
Geezer: "A big sandwich."
Waitress: "One big sandwich. But what kind?"
Geezer: "A yummy sandwich."
Waitress: "One big yummy sandwich. But what kind?"
Geezer: "A lipsmacking sandwich."
Waitress: "One big yummy lipsmacking sandwich. But what kind?"
Geezer: "What kind?"
Waitress: "Yes! Do you want peanut butter, jelly, baloney, salami, tuna fish, cheese, meatloaf, liverwurst, ham, turkey, chicken, sardine, lettuce, tomato, Russian dressing?"
Geezer: "Yes, please."
And the waitress runs away screaming into the kitchen again. And once again the Geezer asks for a sweet roll.

In a similar skit, Rita is the customer in a sandwich shop. The special is an "and" sandwich, featuring every ingredient under the sun. It takes both Luis and Jim to lug it out (foam rubber gets heavy, you know). Rita looks the sandwich over and asks for the salami.
Jim (with toothpick hanging out of his mouth): "Lady, there ain't no salami!"
Rita: "Well, forget it!"
Meanwhile the sandwich falls on Jim and buries him.

 

[fuzzygobo]

Cullen, thanks for starting this thread. I'm digging reminiscing about all this great stuff. And other things I haven't thought about since these clips aired.

 

[Xerus]

Cullen, thanks for starting this thread. I'm digging reminiscing about all this great stuff. And other things I haven't thought about since these clips aired.

You're welcome. Besides Sesame Street, The Electric Company was the next show that brought me joy as a kid. And I love how Sesame Street animators like Cliff Roberts, Fred Garbers, John Korty, John and Faith Hubley, and many more also did stuff for TEC.

 

[Xerus]

I really loved this animation by Carmen D'Avino. About beautiful fire hydrants.

 

[fuzzygobo]

Do you know what we haven't touched on yet, but was so cool? Any skit in the haunted house.

Two of them Jim Boyd bookends nicely.
In Season 1, he appears like Thing from the Addams Family, just a hand reaching out of a box on a table, spelling words beginning with y.
Yes, Yet, Yell, and You.
When he spells out yell, he actually lets one out, same with you. It was supposed to be scary, but I loved it. Forever more when this clip aired, I always jumped out of my seat when the yelling started, but I wouldn't have it any other way. After "You!!!" (and he points his finger at you) he lets out this evil, sinister laugh, but I loved every nanosecond.

A few seasons later, same haunted house, same spooky organ, same thunder. Jim is in his Wolfman getup ( great makeup job!). Extreme closeup of his face. All around him are spooky noises. "Me scared?" A crash of thunder, "ME SCARED!!!" Then he runs panic-stricken for cover.

No matter how scared any of the grownups acted in these skits, I couldn't get enough of them.

 

[fuzzygobo]

Cullen, you just keep me digging up memories. This can get addictive.

Back at the restaurant, Bill Cosby is the customer and Rita Moreno is the waitress. She brings out a big plate of meat loaf and Jello (Cosby was a shill for Jello, pudding, and Pudding Pops for decades) which he wolfs down.
Meanwhile there's a sign on the wall, "Watch Your Hat And Coat". He's paying so much attention to the sign, he didn't notice someone swiped his table.

Stolen Jello gets you 5 years minimum in jail. Not even Rudy Giuliani can get you off.

 

[Xerus]

Do you know what we haven't touched on yet, but was so cool? Any skit in the haunted house.

Two of them Jim Boyd bookends nicely.
In Season 1, he appears like Thing from the Addams Family, just a hand reaching out of a box on a table, spelling words beginning with y.
Yes, Yet, Yell, and You.
When he spells out yell, he actually lets one out, same with you. It was supposed to be scary, but I loved it. Forever more when this clip aired, I always jumped out of my seat when the yelling started, but I wouldn't have it any other way. After "You!!!" (and he points his finger at you) he lets out this evil, sinister laugh, but I loved every nanosecond.

A few seasons later, same haunted house, same spooky organ, same thunder. Jim is in his Wolfman getup ( great makeup job!). Extreme closeup of his face. All around him are spooky noises. "Me scared?" A crash of thunder, "ME SCARED!!!" Then he runs panic-stricken for cover.

No matter how scared any of the grownups acted in these skits, I couldn't get enough of them.

I remember those ones. Actually, in the "Me Scared," clip, Jim was dressed as a hairy caveman holding a bone. But he was still in the haunter house.

And there was another skit with the spooky hand. We see the haunted house and Lee Chamberlain's voice going, "It's so scary in here!" Then it showed the same hand coming out of the box and Lee cried, "Mommy!" The hand brings out a letter V. Then started spelling out words like VERY, VISIT, and VELVET, while Lee read them. Then she asks, "Say, who are you?" The hand points, ducks back down, and takes out the last word showing it was a VAMPIRE. Lee cries, "VAMPIRE?! AAAAAAH!" and we hear footsteps running away while the hand waves goodbye.

 

[Xerus]

DON'T BRING THOSE THINGS: We see a classroom with students and Rita Moreno playing the teacher and she noticed all the stuff in the room like a chimney, a parrot, a and a phone. She was telling her students about bringing crazy stuff to school. Rita opened the door and it showed a big live elephant, which one of her students brought in. And she started to sing....
"There are certain things you shouldn't bring to school.
Like elephants, that's the golden rule.
Don't bring those things. Don't bring those things!"
"I didn't mind the day you brought your chimney.
I didn't mind the day you brought your phone.
But there was the day you scared me, by Jiminy!
When you brought in a man made out of bone!"
Rita went into the closest and took out a skeleton on a hook and returned it to one of her students. Then continued to sing....
"There are certain things to school you shouldn't bring. Like pillow cases filled with balls of string.
Don't bring those things. Don't bring those things!"
"I didn't mind the day you brought your front door.
I didn't mind the day you brought your bird.
But why did you have to bring your daddy's lawnmower?
Mowing grass in class is just absurd!"
Rita took out a lawnmower and returned it to another student and started to sing again....
"There are certain things you shouldn't bring to school.
Like window panes, electric trains, or jewels.
Don't bring those things. Don't bring those things.
DON'T BRING THOSE THINGS!" she ended in a loud voice.
The students understood and apologized. And they said to make it up to her, they brought her a pet.
"Oh, how sweet," smiled Rita. "You saved up your allowances to get me a pet." But the pet turned out to be Paul the Gorilla. "I don't think I was really clear about my teaching." said Rita horrified.

 

[Xerus]

Cullen, you just keep me digging up memories. This can get addictive.

Back at the restaurant, Bill Cosby is the customer and Rita Moreno is the waitress. She brings out a big plate of meat loaf and Jello (Cosby was a shill for Jello, pudding, and Pudding Pops for decades) which he wolfs down.
Meanwhile there's a sign on the wall, "Watch Your Hat And Coat". He's paying so much attention to the sign, he didn't notice someone swiped his table.

Stolen Jello gets you 5 years minimum in jail. Not even Rudy Giuliani can get you off.

I remember there was also a cartoon version of this. A man goes to a restaurant and sees a sign that says, "WATCH YOUR HAT!" It even whispered it to the man. The man hung his hat on a hook under the sign. Then sat down at a table while the waiter brought him some soup. Then the man saw the hat fall off the hook, while the sign whispered, "WATCH YOUR HAT!" The man got up and hung it back on the hook. But he didn't see that a hand reached out from under the table and stole his soup. The man found his soup gone. And as his back was turned, the WATCH YOUR HAT sign opened up like a door, and it showed a robber wearing a mask stealing his hat. The sign whispered, "WATCH YOUR HAT!" again and the man found his hat missing. As he stood there puzzled, the hand from the table returned the soup. The man turned around and was surprised to see his soup back. Then the sign opened up again and the robber returned the hat to the hook. The man turned around and found his hat back. Then realized he had to watch both his hat and soup. He poured the soup into his hat and started eating it like that, for he found a way to watch both his hat and his soup at the same time.