The Classic Electric Company Memories Thread

[fuzzygobo]

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.

Really? I could swear he was the Wolfman. Still can't hold a candle to Morgan Freeman's Dracula.

 

[fuzzygobo]

I also loved the 30 second shorts from the first season of Rita, loaded down with shopping bags, getting various foods from various vendors.
Through Noggin, YouTube, and the DVD sets, they covered just about them all.

Great Raposo scores, slapstick comedy, and the occasional innuendo.

Fruits- Rita gets apples, oranges, and bananas. She asks for one more banana, but has no room to carry it, so in her mouth it goes.

Same with ice cream and hot dogs.
Freud would have a field day.

"If It Swims We Have It", she picks up a fish.

Heroes- two assistants carry out a 6 foot sub. Around the country, you might call it a sub, hoagie, or grinder, but the Noo Yawker in me will always stand by heroes.

One that has yet to resurface is PIZZA! Rita's eyes light up at the sight of a pie. A mechanical man is holding a whole pie in each hand . She takes a pie, folds it up, and takes a huge bite while taking it with her.
There are a few places (notably Lombardi's, in business since 1905) that only sell whole pies, you can't buy slices.

That's why there's a Famous Ray's on every corner.

 

[Xerus]

Another popular cartoon series on TEC was the monolith series. Where we see constant monoliths in space, and they crumble revealing the sound of the day.

 

[Xerus]

LEMON AND LIME: Does anyone remember this skit? We see an ice cream parlor run by Jim Boyd. Then Lee Chamberlain comes in and asks for a lemon and lime cone. Jim scoops out a lime cone and hands it to Lee saying, "Here's your lime." Then Jim scoops out a lemon cone and gives it to Lee saying, "Here's your lemon." Lee looks at both cones in her hands saying, "I think you misunderstood, I wanted lemon and lime" "Did I give you a lime and lemon?" asked Jim and he switched the cones in her hands so it would look like lemon and lime in her view. "No," said Lee, "I wanted one lemon and lime cone." Jim took the lime cone and placed it on top of the lemon making it a double dip cone with the second cone still on top. "No," said Lee, "I wanted one cone with the lemon and lime mixed together." Jim got the idea, sort of, as he took both cones and put them on the dirty counter and started squishing the ice cream together with his bare hands until it was one messy blob. Then he put the blob back on a cone and gave it to Lee. A horrified Lee goes, "That is not lemon and lime. THAT'S DISGUSTING!" And she threw the cone in the trashcan and rushed out the door. Then Morgan Freeman came in wanting a lemon and lime cone. Jim went into the trashcan and retrieved the messy cone, picked off the bits of dirt and trash from it, and offered it to Morgan. Morgan looked silently at the cone with disgust and left. Jim decided to eat the cone himself, not caring how it was made or where it had just been, and just replied, "Lemon and Lime."

 

[fuzzygobo]

Another time, Jim was dressed like a thug, with a toothpick hanging out his mouth, hat on sideways, just begging for trouble.
He goes into a butcher shop (Luis is behind the counter), where the special today is chops.
After Luis shows him lamb chops, veal chops, and pork chops (they all look like stringy strands of fat and gristle) Jim threatens to beat him up if he doesn't see more chops.
Luis raises his arm like a Samurai warrior and splits the counter in half.
Luis: "I forgot, the karate chops came in on Tuesday!"
Jim beats a hasty retreat, and Jackie Chan would be proud of Luis.

So would Chuck Norris. 8)

 

[fuzzygobo]

LEMON AND LIME: Does anyone remember this skit? We see an ice cream parlor run by Jim Boyd. Then Lee Chamberlain comes in and asks for a lemon and lime cone. Jim scoops out a lime cone and hands it to Lee saying, "Here's your lime." Then Jim scoops out a lemon cone and gives it to Lee saying, "Here's your lemon." Lee looks at both cones in her hands saying, "I think you misunderstood, I wanted lemon and lime" "Did I give you a lime and lemon?" asked Jim and he switched the cones in her hands so it would look like lemon and lime in her view. "No," said Lee, "I wanted one lemon and lime cone." Jim took the lime cone and placed it on top of the lemon making it a double dip cone with the second cone still on top. "No," said Lee, "I wanted one cone with the lemon and lime mixed together." Jim got the idea, sort of, as he took both cones and put them on the dirty counter and started squishing the ice cream together with his bare hands until it was one messy blob. Then he put the blob back on a cone and gave it to Lee. A horrified Lee goes, "That is not lemon and lime. THAT'S DISGUSTING!" And she threw the cone in the trashcan and rushed out the door. Then Morgan Freeman came in wanting a lemon and lime cone. Jim went into the trashcan and retrieved the messy cone, picked off the bits of dirt and trash from it, and offered it to Morgan. Morgan looked silently at the cone with disgust and left. Jim decided to eat the cone himself, not caring how it was made or where it had just been, and just replied, "Lemon and Lime."

During the first season, Jim's face was not seen on camera (except for one split second when he punched a time clock).
He voiced Lorelei the Chicken and Paul the Gorilla, but his hands got a lot of exposure.
Thanks to the magic of chroma-key, where other cast members looked tiny as a giant pair of hands moved various letters and objects around. It looks like it might be Jim's hand (or maybe Morgan's) squishing a sundae on top of a sundae in Hattie's song.

 

[fuzzygobo]

It took a lot for any TEC skit to freak me out (Sesame Street, with many Muppet skits with Beautiful Day Monster, compensated for that) but one did.
Morgan Freeman dressed up as Christopher Columbus deploring the problems facing the world in the 1970's (smog, air pollution, noise pollution, etc.).
There's a sign on a brick wall,
"Don't Fall Off The Edge Of The Earth". Morgan walks past the wall, and takes one step too far and plummets to his doom, screaming his head off.
On his way down, he passes the smiling sun from the Sesame Street "Un family- SUN" skit.

A century later, I wonder if the same thing happened to Galileo.

 

[minor muppetz]

I was looking at some of the old Muppetzine articles (archived at Tough Pigs), and noticed in the news section of issue 7 (from 1994), it was said that there were plans to release four Electric Company videos as well as maybe get it rerun again.

Anybody know if those home video releases came out back then? I'm guessing they didn't but I could be wrong (I recently did a google search for "electric company vhs" but don't think I found any info).

 

[fuzzygobo]

Cullen, I'll share something with you that's been dormant for 47 years.
During the first season, Judy and Skip were often paired together. Morgan and Lee were often paired together.
Even Bill Cosby and Rita were paired together quite often.
So my 3-year-old brain used to think everybody in these pairs were married to each other. How great is it this kids show had three couples working together to teach us to read?

Some things only make sense when you're three.

 

[Xerus]

It took a lot for any TEC skit to freak me out (Sesame Street, with many Muppet skits with Beautiful Day Monster, compensated for that) but one did.
Morgan Freeman dressed up as Christopher Columbus deploring the problems facing the world in the 1970's (smog, air pollution, noise pollution, etc.).
There's a sign on a brick wall,
"Don't Fall Off The Edge Of The Earth". Morgan walks past the wall, and takes one step too far and plummets to his doom, screaming his head off.
On his way down, he passes the smiling sun from the Sesame Street "Un family- SUN" skit.

A century later, I wonder if the same thing happened to Galileo.

Yeah, that was pretty intense. I remember after that skit, we see Crank in his apartment holding a globe. He was telling us not to worry, for that skit was just meant to be funny. The Earth is actually round like a globe and there is no edge to fall off of. Then Christopher Columbus steps into Crank's home and told him how he fell off the edge just now, but Crank just assured him there's no edge of the Earth. Christopher felt relieved, but then stepped through an invisible hole on the floor and started screaming again. While Crank looked puzzled at the normal looking floor.