New Electric Company TV Show and DVD

[Ziffel]

Remember the "and" sandwich? This was a wild one. Jim Boyd is a worker at a deli and Rita Moreno comes in as a customer and orders an "and" sandwich. He holds it up and it is huge. She asks him to go through all the ingredients in it, so he lists a humongous amount of things. (,,,,,AND onions, AND lettuce, AND turkey, AND mayonaisse,....) After he says probably about 50 things she says, "What about salami?" He says, "We don't have salami." She replies, "No salami? Then forget it." She walks out of the store and Jim loses his balance with that huge sandwich and topples over!

 

[mikebennidict]

i remember it but couldn't exactly remember the whole thing till you mentioned it.

 

[Ziffel]

I'm not surprised you recall that one. It seems like one that would be pretty memorable.

How about an animated one where two guys are standing in front of each other yelling. One guy says, "You will!" The other says, "I won't!". They keep shouting this back and forth. Finally the other guy concedes and says, "Okay. I will." But the other guy says, "No you won't!" and hits him on the top of the head. Pretty brutal for TEC!

 

[mikebennidict]

Luis breaks the Law

Luis Avalos holds up the word law witch is wooden or something and he drops it and it breaks Freeman who's a cop comes by and says You're under arreat. why? Luis rplies, the cop, because you broke the law!

 

[Ziffel]

Thought of an animated sketch with two boys. One boy wants to call his teacher, Miss Jones, and wish her a happy birthday. But he's not sure what to say. The friend says, "How about 'Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you..." but he thinks that's too unoriginal. So the friend then suggests, "How about, roses are red, violets are blue..." Again he rejects the suggestion. "I want to think of something different to say." So he dials the number, her phone rings and she answers it. "Hello". The boy sings, "Happy birthday, Miss Jones! You sure have...nice...bones!" Then he hangs up the phone in disgust at himself. The friend says, "Well, that sure was different."

 

[mikebennidict]

Kind of disrespectful. wonder if any school kid might of seen that and had a teacher by the name of Jones? huum. what if the teachers last name was Getz? don't wanna think about that one. But yeah I remember.

 

[Censored]

Thought of an animated sketch with two boys. One boy wants to call his teacher, Miss Jones, and wish her a happy birthday. But he's not sure what to say. The friend says, "How about 'Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you..." but he thinks that's too unoriginal. So the friend then suggests, "How about, roses are red, violets are blue..." Again he rejects the suggestion. "I want to think of something different to say." So he dials the number, her phone rings and she answers it. "Hello". The boy sings, "Happy birthday, Miss Jones! You sure have...nice...bones!" Then he hangs up the phone in disgust at himself. The friend says, "Well, that sure was different."

That animated skit was an absolute riot! As funny as it reads, it's even better to see and hear it. The boys' mannerisms, voices, and tones made it a truly hilarious sketch.

I don't think it was disrespectful either; the humor was in that the boy was trying his best to honor his teacher, but wound up putting his foot in his mouth. We can laugh because we've all been there, trying too hard to make a good impression.

 

[mikebennidict]

It seems like Morgan Freeman was concerned he would be only known as "Easy Reader". But the fact that he remained on the show for the entire six year run makes me think he did enjoy being on the show. He did various other characters on the show too, as well as some isolated roles. So that probably served to alleviate that concern he had. I also thought it always looked like he was having a good time filming those sketches. And in any case, of course, he has gone on to do so many high quality movies that his initial concern is now completely the other way around (i.e. Most people know Morgan far better as a movie star than as "Easy Reader" or any other character on TEC. Quite a bit of people, actually, that I've told that Morgan Freeman was a regular on TEC have said, "Oh really?").
Thanks for both of those articles, Mike.

I've also wonder if Easy Reader today would of been considered to negative? he was probably simmaller to SS's Roosevelt Franklin and to he canned because of him being considered a negative sterio type and too rowdy. not that I saw either of them and that but I wonder.

 

[Censored]

Thought of an animated sketch with two boys. One boy wants to call his teacher, Miss Jones, and wish her a happy birthday. But he's not sure what to say. The friend says, "How about 'Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you..." but he thinks that's too unoriginal. So the friend then suggests, "How about, roses are red, violets are blue..." Again he rejects the suggestion. "I want to think of something different to say." So he dials the number, her phone rings and she answers it. "Hello". The boy sings, "Happy birthday, Miss Jones! You sure have...nice...bones!" Then he hangs up the phone in disgust at himself. The friend says, "Well, that sure was different."

Another funny thing about that cartoon was, like most EC skits, the underlying reason was to teach kids to read. So, you got to read out the rhyme, printed on top of the screen, a few seconds before the boy actually said it. And you're thinking and laughing, "What? Is he actually going to say THAT?" LOL

 

[Ziffel]

The boys' mannerisms, voices, and tones made it a truly hilarious sketch.

Absolutely! I clearly recall how each line was said, right up through the hilarious way he moaned after saying "bones"!

Another funny thing about that cartoon was, like most EC skits, the underlying reason was to teach kids to read. So, you got to read out the rhyme, printed on top of the screen, a few seconds before the boy actually said it. And you're thinking and laughing, "What? Is he actually going to say THAT?" LOL

Yeah! I also recall that we saw the word "bones" appear at the top of the screen just before he said it. I was kind of like, "Well as silly as the sentence he said is, he's kind of caught between a rock and a hard place because not much else ryhmes with Jones that would fit ("You sure have nice ... cones?" ..... "You sure have nice ... phones?" ..... "You sure have nice ... stones?") LOL