The Classic Electric Company Memories Thread

[Cookie3001]

I never really watched The Electric Company, the only things that I can remember are The talking silhouettes and gorilla costumes

 

[Xerus]

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!

That one was a classic. Dracula sang how about how he loves to BITE necks and when he removes silent E, they get BIT.
Wolfman loves things that are nice and RIPE so he can RIP them apart.
And Frankenstein was grateful when he HID from the villagers and Silent E helped him to HIDE.

 

[fuzzygobo]

Two "i.e." sounds for the price of one

Judy: "Who stole my PIE?"
Skip: "I cannot tell a LIE.
It was your NIECE!"
Rita, with blueberry all over her face, smacks Skip with her teddy bear, and he falls to the floor.

But don't change out of those costumes just yet, folks! We have another skit offering two sounds for the price of one.

Rita again dressed up in her bows and blonde curls, is Betty Buttons, mixing BATTER.

Enter Morgan Freeman and Skip in their Little Lord Fauntleroy outfits, tasting her BATTER.

"Ugh! BITTER!!!"

Things improve when Morgan stirs in some butter, because BUTTER makes BETTY BUTTON'S BITTER BATTER BETTER!!!

Rita retaliates by pouring the batter in Skip's hat and sticking it on his head, while cracking eggs in Morgan's hand and shoving it in his face.

"That's what you get for sticking your fingers in my BATTER!"

Two sounds for the price of one . A deal you can't beat.

 

[Xerus]

MY CLASSIC ELECTRIC COMPANY MEMORIES: Letterman in: Getting her Goat. We see a woman in a clothing store trying on coats. The salesman let her try on a mink coat, and she replied, "This isn't me." The man offered her a bear skin coat, and she also replied, "This isn't me either. I want something different." The man puts a camel skin coat on her.
The Spellbinder was watching and had a sneaky idea. He changed the C in COAT into a G, turning the COAT into a GOAT. And the woman ended up with a live furry goat draped around her. She asked the salesman, "Is it washable?" "Well, I wouldn't put it in the dryer," said the man. "Did you say this was camel?" asked the woman sniffing the goat who let out a, "BAAAAH!" "I bet I got her goat!" laughed SB.
And Joan narrated, "Will the lady by the goat? Will she become a laughing stock? Where's Letterman?!" And in came Letterman and he removed the C from his sweater and turned GOAT back into COAT. And the woman found herself wearing a brown trenchcoat with lots of pockets. She replied, "This is me. I'll take it." "Very well," said the salesman. Then another woman came up and asked, "Is this where they sell goat coats?" And Joan replied, "That's fashion for you!" And it ended with the Spellbinder leaving the store pushing away a rack of coats.

 

[fuzzygobo]

Another skit pulled out of the depths of Season One.

Bill Cosby and Lee Chamberlin sitting at a table in a fancy restaurant. Lee in an elegant dress, Bill in his tuxedo and top hat, puffing on his ever-present cigar.

Cosby: "WAITER!!!"
Lee: "WALTER!!!"
Two or three more attempts of Cosby screaming for service.
Cosby finally pulls Skip over, and demands "WATER!!!"
Skip stops Morgan Freeman and explains, "WALTER wants WATER!"
The customer is always right, so Skip and Morgan pour pitchers of water on his head.

Even dripping wet, Bill's cigar is still lit.

 

[fuzzygobo]

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).

Here's a synopsis of Little Miss Muffet:

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet (actually a groovy bean bag chair).

Eating her curds and whey (in other words, cheese waste!).

Along came a spider and sat down beside her (one of those big fake Halloween spiders lowered on a string)

And said, "What the heck is curds and whey?!"

Muffet: "Beats me. Tastes kinda yucky. By the way, what's a tuffet anyway?"

The End
In old English, a tuffet could have been a pile of rags to sit on, since poor people didn't have furniture. But for convenience, they used that quintessential Seventies prop, the bean bag chair. I had one, ultra groovy!
Curds and whey, sour cheese residue, patently nasty.

 

[Xerus]

Here's a synopsis of Little Miss Muffet:

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet (actually a groovy bean bag chair).

Eating her curds and whey (in other words, cheese waste!).

Along came a spider and sat down beside her (one of those big fake Halloween spiders lowered on a string)

And said, "What the heck is curds and whey?!"

Muffet: "Beats me. Tastes kinda yucky. By the way, what's a tuffet anyway?"

The End
In old English, a tuffet could have been a pile of rags to sit on, since poor people didn't have furniture. But for convenience, they used that quintessential Seventies prop, the bean bag chair. I had one, ultra groovy!
Curds and whey, sour cheese residue, patently nasty.

Yes, I remember that poem had words I never heard of. Like they were almost made up. Like something Dr. Seuss would create.

 

[Xerus]

Does anyone remember this skit? We see a cave with a witch, played by Rita Moreno. She had a ghoul wearing a brown robe locked in cage, played by Jim Boyd. The witch tells the ghoul, "So, you think you can take over my spot as the ruler of Halloween, heh? Well, I'm going to BOIL you in OIL!"
She went over and grabbed a bottle of oil and looked at it with a yucky face. "Oh no!" she groaned, "The oil is SPOILED! I left it out of the fridge too long!" The ghoul smiled and became relived. But the witch went to the phone and called the grocery store and asked if they can deliver some oil she can boil a ghoul in.
Then a delivery boy, played by Luis Avalos, came in with a grocery bag. "Sorry, ma'am," said the delivery boy, "The store ran out of oil, so we brought you the substitute." The witch wouldn't listen and scared the delivery boy away. But when the witch reached into the bag, she found a tub of cream cheese and scowled. "How do they expect me to boil a ghoul in cream cheese?!" The ghoul explained that in ghoulland, you can boil something in cream cheese with all sorts of ingredients like butter, sugar, salt, the hair of a baby rhinoceros. Like he was unknowingly planning his own demise.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

Willy Wonka Star Denise Nickerson, 62, Taken Off Life Support After Suffering Stroke

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory star Denise Nickerson has been taken off life support one year after suffering a severe stroke.

Her son, Josh Nickerson, and his wife, Jasmine, announced the actress, 62, had been removed from “all the equipment” Wednesday morning on Facebook.

“None of it was helping, but making her only more uncomfortable. We’re telling her it’s okay to let go,” the couple wrote on the page they created to provide updates on Nickerson’s health.

Nickerson, best known for playing the gum-chewing Violet Beauregarde in the 1971 film, suffered a “major medical emergency” on Monday, and was taken to the emergency room and eventually the ICU, Jasmine wrote.

“She’s had seizures this morning and is in pulmonary and respiratory distress. The doctors have found that she aspirated and has developed pneumonia,” she wrote. “They have upped her oxygen. She’s under a DNR order so they aren’t putting her on a ventilator or feeding tube.”

Her condition continued to worsen, and by Tuesday, she was unable to exhale on her own due to “weak” lung and brain activity, according to the post.

Jasmine wrote her mother-in-law was in a “coma-like state,” and that husband Josh was “not okay at all.”

“He’s never really experienced a major loss like this,” she wrote. “He is just coming to terms with the reality of the situation and doesn’t know how to process it. He says to me a few minutes ago that she won’t ever get to see or hold or know her granddaughter.”

Jasmine wrote in March that she and Josh were expecting a baby girl, and that Nickerson was “very excited” as the prospect of becoming a grandmother.

Nickerson was admitted to the ICU in June 2018 after suffering a severe stroke.

She had a pacemaker inserted shortly after, but was still at high risk for additional strokes and, according to Jasmine, would “likely require 24 hour care for the rest of her life.”

She entered a rehab facility in July 2018, and was able to go home in August, even welcoming her Willy Wonka costars Paris Themmen (Mike Teevee) and Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca Salt) for a visit one month later.

The actress was just 13 when she got her big break opposite Gene Wilder, though she told PEOPLE in August 2016 she didn’t actually meet the star until he was in character.

“We met him when we were first doing the factory scenes,” recalled Nickerson. “I remember sitting on the bleachers waiting for him to come out of the [chocolate] factory and rumor had gone around set that he was going to do the somersault – and he did and we all clapped. We got to know him a little more when we went in the room that got smaller and smaller [in the film], and when we sign the contract, but when we filmed in the chocolate room and he sang “Pure Imagination” that just, he stole my heart.”

She also appeared in the TV series The Electric Company as Allison, and an episode of The Brady Bunch in 1974. She left Hollywood in 1978.

Willy Wonka Star Denise Nickerson, 62, Taken Off Life Support After Suffering Severe Stroke

"We're telling her it's okay to let go," Denise Nickerson's family wrote on Facebook

people.com

'Willy Wonka' actress Denise Nickerson taken off life support 1 year after stroke

"Willy Wonka" actress Denise Nickerson has been taken off of life support one year after suffering a stroke.

www.foxnews.com

 

[fuzzygobo]

Dang. I knew she had the stroke last year, and I know they're hard to recover from.And when you get pulled off life support, it's only a matter of time.
Back during her one season on the Electric Company, 4 year old me had
the biggest crush on her.
She appeared at a number of conventions, but I'm sorry I never got to meet her.