The Classic Electric Company Memories Thread

[Ziffel]

Two skits from Season 1 featuring "sh" words.

Morgan Freeman and Lee Chamberlin are in bed (with night caps on) on a dark and stormy night. They see shadows of shapes on the wall.
A ship, shark, shovel, and sheep. One shadow gets bigger, is it a monster standing in the doorway? No, it's only Bill Cosby (in a Mets uniform, with a baseball mitt over his face). He's a shy shortstop! Asked why he was there, Cosby replied, "We got rained out!"
Getting rained out happened often at Shea Stadium.

I remember that one very well. Up to the shovel part. Never could recall what came next. The shy shortstop vaguely comes back, thank you!

I recall Morgan saying, "A ship?" And then rather alarmed saying, "A shark!" I'm thinking the shadowy shark closed its jaws and that there was a sound effect like a clap to frighten us little ones. Then Lee mentioned the sheep. And one of them said, "A shovel?" in a rather bewildered way. When I saw this skit as a child, and the ship and shark came, I thought it was the ocean right on their wall. But then when a sheep and a shovel came I was confused as to what those two things were doing out at sea, heh.

One Very Short Book I also can't remember the ending is the Pinocchio one. I remember Luis Avalos was Pinocchio and the woman narrator said, "Pinocchio told a lie". And the lie he said was, "I had an elephant sandwich for lunch." Then I think the next page had the narrator saying, "Pinocchio's nose grow." But the final funny twist at the end? Can't recall. Maybe you or Xerus can.

 

[Xerus]

I remember that one very well. Up to the shovel part. Never could recall what came next. The shy shortstop vaguely comes back, thank you!

I recall Morgan saying, "A ship?" And then rather alarmed saying, "A shark!" I'm thinking the shadowy shark closed its jaws and that there was a sound effect like a clap to frighten us little ones. Then Lee mentioned the sheep. And one of them said, "A shovel?" in a rather bewildered way. When I saw this skit as a child, and the ship and shark came, I thought it was the ocean right on their wall. But then when a sheep and a shovel came I was confused as to what those two things were doing out at sea, heh.

One Very Short Book I also can't remember the ending is the Pinocchio one. I remember Luis Avalos was Pinocchio and the woman narrator said, "Pinocchio told a lie". And the lie he said was, "I had an elephant sandwich for lunch." Then I think the next page had the narrator saying, "Pinocchio's nose grow." But the final funny twist at the end? Can't recall. Maybe you or Xerus can.

Pinocchio's nose didn't grow, instead the fairy's nose did. She looked at her long pointy nose and went, "BLECCH!"

 

[Ziffel]

Ahhh, thank you! It comes back to me a bit now. After Pinocchio said he had an elephant sandwich for lunch, the next page said, "Pinocchio's nose DIDN'T grow" (I'm picturing that perhaps Luis Avalos put his hand over his nose to feel if it grew at all) and then the final page said, "But the fairy's did!". I'm also picturing that the fairy crossed her eyes when she looked at her nose.

Maybe Pinocchio did have a sandwich (such as ham or bologna) for lunch and therefore was not penalized for telling a HALF truth, heh.

 

[Xerus]

Does anyone remember this skit? We see a wild west prospector, played by Jim Boyd, on a horse pulled wagon. His wife, Rita Moreno, came over to give him a picnic basket lunch, a bottle of lemonade, and two bags of gold. The prospector said, "I'm gonna sleep tonight, knowing this gold will be dropped off at the bank." He said goodbye to his wife and started off for the town. Just then, he was stopped by a bandit, played by Luis Avalos, who shouted, "HOLD IT! This is a HOLD UP! And I want you to give me all of your, uh, your, uh, I forget!" "Was it something to eat?" asked the prospector, "Give me all of your lunch?" "No," said the bandit, "It was something yellow." "Lemonade?" asked the prospector. "No, it was also something valuable," said the bandit. "You're not a horse thief, are you?" asked the prospector, "Give me all of your horsies?" Then the prospector offered to give the bandit a lift to the town and help him remember that thing. The prospector asked the bandit to hold his gold bags. The bandit had no idea what was in the bags, for he said he couldn't read. As they continued to ride, the prospector asked, "Was it bigger than a breadbox?" "Yes," said the bandit. "Was it bigger than a house?" asked the prospector. "No," said the bandit, "But you can buy a house with it."

 

[Ziffel]

I don't remember that one at all, but wow Luis sure did play a dumb robber a lot.

The "Pinocchio" Very Short Book I mentioned I had forgotten the ending to. Well with the "Little Miss Muffet" one, it's the opposite. I remember the ending but not what was before it!

Lee Chamberlain was Little Miss Muffet. I imagine it began as normal, like they all do, with "Little Miss Muffet, sat on a tuffet". Then probably said, "Eating her curds and whey." Then I don't remember if a spider came along and, if so, was someone in a spider costume. I just remember the final words being Lee saying, "What's a tuffet anyway?" In any case she was a bit annoyed and was NOT frightened away by the spider (if it came).

As a child I did not know what a tuffet was either (other than something you sit on, from the context of the nursery rhyme I had heard many times). For that matter I didn't know what curds and whey were WHEY back then either, heh.

And I don't think I ever once heard anyone ever say that word (besides when reciting the nursery rhyme), whether in real life or on tv or the movies. Never think I've heard anyone say, "You can sit down there on that tuffet if you like", "I'll get a tuffet for you to rest your feet on", etc.

Curds and whey? Don't know if I can say I've ever heard anyone speak those words either (again, aside from the nursery rhyme).

 

[Katzi428]

Two shout-outs for the current Grinch movie:

Skip is blindfolded, and various cast members bring him various things to identify. All "gr" words
Grapes, Grain, Gravel, so far so good. Things get messy (and gross) when he sticks his hands in Gravy. Yuck!
Things get worse when his hands get covered in Grease.

In comes Judy dressed as an old lady. Skip gets his greasy fingers all over her dirtying up her face. He is stumped and takes off his blindfold.

Skip: "Granny!!!!"
Judy: "Gregory!!!!"
The two hug, spreading more grease.
Skip: "How's Grandpa?"
Judy: "Oh, great!"
Skip: "Ew, you're a mess!"
Just: "Oh, you're delicious!"

In a short companion piece, we have a great grape and a grumpy grape. The great grape was groovy, all smiles, while the grumpy grape had a permanent scowl.

And while the great grape remained great, the grumpy grape shriveled up into a raisin.

As a parting shot, the grumpy grape blows us a Bronx cheer.
"PTPTPTPT!!!!!" 8)

Oh good...I was hoping that someone would remember the "gr" sketch" where "Skip" was blindfolded & had to guess all the things that began all the things that began w/"gr" I remember that grape sketch too

 

[Xerus]

Here's that Christmas themed Electric Company skit, Same Old Santa. Merry Christmas!

 

[Xerus]

I'LL BREAK THIS BRONCO: Does anyone remember this classic Electric Company cartoon? We see a cowboy in the wild west, and a horse bounces right next to him. "I'll BREAK this BRONCO!" shouts the cowboy as he climbs on the horse. But the cowboy couldn't hold on and he crashes into a brick wall. The horse smiles at the cowboy covered in bricks and says, "You BROKE the BRICKS." Once again, the cowboy shouts that he'll break this bronco. But the horse ended up knocking him off again and the cowboy flies into a bridge smashing it. The horse replied, "You BROKE the BRIDGE." Later, the cowboy started dusting himself off and the horse says, "Hop on, I'll give you a ride home." "No, thank you!" says the grumpy cowboy, "I'm just gonna walk." The horse smiled and said, "Well in that case, you can give me a ride home." And he jumped on the cowboys back. And the cowboy shouted, "Spoiled BRAT!" The horse was so heavy, that the cowboy lost his balance and crashed somewhere, while a vulture on a cactus looked surprised.

 

[fuzzygobo]

I was getting concerned this thread disappeared! Hooray it's back.
One of my favorite songs was three monsters singing about silent e. Morgan Freeman as Dracula, Jim Boyd as Wolfman, (both appeared numerous times before), and Skip Hinnant as the shortest Frankenstein in history.
In between each verse, the trio of monsters do a number of vaudeville dances (Skip really cuts a mean rug!) before bringing it home with a chorus line and waving straw hats.

"Silent e, whoaaaa, silent eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"
Thank you, boys!

 

[Katzi428]

Creepy Creature (There's a line in there that says "Show it to your teacher!" So little 7 year old me took this literally & showed this weird dance to my 2nd grade teacher. She must have thought I was CRAZY!)