Buddy and Jim question

[SesameMike]

In the first one or two seasons of Sesame Street there was this Laurel and Hardy-like sketch with two actors named Buddy and Jim. On Unpaved we got to watch two of these skits: an attempt to hang a picture (very first episode!) and where they made a "triple-decker" peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Does anyone remember a Buddy and Jim sketch where they were trying to replace a ceiling lightbulb? One of them stood on a box in order to reach the socket. But every time they switched the light on, the bulb somehow exploded. We heard a "BOOO-tish" sound as something resembling a liquid came from the bulb itself. This confused me as a child; anyone know what really happened here?

A few seasons later saw the introduction of Wally and Ralph, a bumbling duo remarkably similar to Buddy and Jim, except the camera angles were wider and the sets were slightly more sophisticated. Wally and Ralph actually reprised the PB&J sandwich routine, except when they tried to "collide" the sandwich together and missed, one of them ran off-camera and crashed into something, with loud, extended sound effects.

 

[Dantecat]

I Remember Buddy And Jim!

 

[Ziffel]

A few seasons later saw the introduction of Wally and Ralph, a bumbling duo remarkably similar to Buddy and Jim, except the camera angles were wider and the sets were slightly more sophisticated. Wally and Ralph actually reprised the PB&J sandwich routine, except when they tried to "collide" the sandwich together and missed, one of them ran off-camera and crashed into something, with loud, extended sound effects.

I don't remember Buddy and Jim, since I was only about 2 or 3 when they would have been on and I never got to see any Unpaved epsiodes from Noggin. But I do remember Ralph and Wally. I recall Wally as being tall and Ralph short with a balding head (and a mustache maybe?) I vaguely remember the sandwich one. I somewhat recall one where they put on each other's jackets without realizing it. Ralph said, "This jacket is very big on me." Wally said, "This jacket is very small on me." So Ralph says they better go get new jackets.
Also pretty clearly I remember the one where Wally comes home from the store and says he bought a picture of himself (it was a hand mirror). Ralph looks at it and says, "No, Wally. This is a picture of me." So Wally looked at it with Ralph still looking and Ralph then says, "It's a picture of both of us."
Then I think Wally goes to get something so they can fasten the "picture" of them to the wall. But then Ralph looks at it and sees only himself again and yells (in a troubled and confused voice) , "Hey Wally!"
One other one I remember closed with Ralph saying to Wally, "You better eat a lot of bananas 'till your belly gets big enough." I forgot the plot and the preceding lines but I vividly remember the hilarious way Ralph said that final line!
I also recall the closing music of their skits. 8 beats. DIH dih dih dih dih dih DIH ... bomp! (well, sort of )

 

[fuzzygobo]

The one Wally and Ralph skit that I remember the most is they were sitting at a table trying to play a board game. One of the table's legs was wobbly, and they needed something to prop underneath to hold it steady. They happened to have a brick, but after much deliberating they put the board game under the wobbly leg and played with the brick!

 

[MuppetDude]

SesameMike, the first five Unpaved shows (the 1969 shows) all feature a Buddy and Jim sketch.

Unfortunately none of them were the skit you described.

 

[SesameMike]

Wally and Ralph sketches

Here's the Wally and Ralph skits I remember:

-- Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, the only direct reprise of a Buddy and Jim that I know of.

-- It's raining, and they open several umbrellas but don't know to put it over their heads. One suggests that they take off the "wrapping" (the canvas) first, which they do, just as the rain stops, so they think it works.

-- one wants to read his newspaper but it keeps getting blown around by the incessant wind from the open window. He tries using a small rock to hold the paper down but it's no use. He has the other guy sit on it, but then he can't see the paper. He then uses a wooden stick (which was holding the window open in the first place) and it works!

-- One is about to go out for the evening, but it turns out to be raining. So the other tells him to carry his stuff in his pockets. These were HUGE pockets, mind you, which held a lot of stuff. He even put a bowling ball in there!

-- The mirror, described above. Each person thinks it's a picture of himself.

-- They bought a new waste paper basket. Then they try to decide what to do with the paper bag it came in.
"Just throw it away"
(he's fades back to literally throw it...)
"You'll make a mess on the floor. Put it somewhere, so it's not in your hands anymore."
(puts it in his pal's hands)

They quickly get the bright idea to put it in the new wastebasket. But the product appears to be defective: there's no hole in it. Investigation reveals that the hole is in the bottom instead of the top. They try to shove the paper underneath, but it keeps falling down. When they realize that they just had it inverted they said "Promise me we won't make the same mistake the next time we buy a waste paper basket?"

-- The buy a new large jar of glue. To ID the jar, they have a rectangle of paper that reads "GLUE", but they can't get it to stay near the jar. At one point they accidentally spill some glue, so one of them wipes up the glue with the label. They then decide to go out for pizza, and he says not to take the label with them. "Leave it here." So without thinking, he leaves the label at home... stuck right on the side of the jar.

-- They're about to eat some canned goods. The problem is that everytime they taste the stuff (namely the pictures on the labels), they complain that the product "tastes like... can."

There was one other sketch that I'm not sure if it was Buddy and Jim or Wally and Ralph. It's where one of the guys puts his shoes and socks on -- in THAT ORDER. "I'll put this shoe on this foot..." I always wondered why the catchphrase wasn't vice versa.

 

[MuppetDude]

The last one was a Buddy and Jim sketch. (I think it's from show #54.)

 

[Ziffel]

I just learned that the guy who played Wally (Joe Ponazecki) was also the guy who frequently appeared in the "baker falling down the stairs" number sketches. He was the guy who cautiously opened the little doors to see what was behind. Sometimes it was innocuous things like 4 goldfish, other times more dangerous things like when he freaked out with, "Three crocodiles?!" He was a pretty good actor.

 

[MuppetDude]

Wow, I didn't even notice that! Good eye!

 

[SesameMike]

Does anyone remember this sketch? Again, I'm not sure if it was Buddy and Jim or Wally and Ralph.

One of the guys appproaches the other, and notices that he is keeping his money on his forehead! (Actually, it's just four coins of different demoninations taped in line to his forehead.) The smarter guy suggests he put the money in a safer place, namely a (piggy?) bank that he happens to have. The bank may be opened with a key. After he takes the money off his forehead and deposits it into the bank, he ponders what to do with the key. Should he tape the key to his forehead? No, he should put it in a safe place. So, he merrily drops the key into the bank's coin slot.