The Classic Electric Company Memories Thread

[Lucas Kablookas]

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.

You want two sounds for the price of one? How about the letters OW? Judy and Skip can testify to that...

Well, whaddaya know?
It's time for the show
The audience is waiting for us, row after row
We're ready, and how
So give them a bow
And let's get on with the show!

They repeat this twice, then, on the third time, they replace the last line with, "And that's the end of the show!" to the audience's chagrin.

 

[Lucas Kablookas]

P&L for Plain.
Speaking of P&L, three witches were brewing a potion. The youngest one wanted to try her own recipe.
With P&L, you can throw in Plots, Plugs, and Please. The other two hate the idea, so the young witch takes the cauldron
with her.
"Too many witches spoil the soup!!"

And from there we go to the B&L as Skip times Bayn Johnson and Melanie Henderson on how fast they can say, "Bleached Blonde Blanche blinked in the blinding blizzard." Melanie has the shorter time... until an audience member claiming to be from Mars (Morgan Freeman) volunteers to say it. And... "BleachedBlondeBlancheblinkedintheblindingblizzard." One and a half seconds!

 

[Lucas Kablookas]

It's neat how Morgan played both sides of the law. He was a model cop, but equally at home being a hustler, crook, or shady wise guy.

Once he offers Jim Boyd a free box of chalk, but Jim is having his own problems crossing the street, as the "Walk/Don't Walk" sign keeps changing on him.

He finally makes it across the street, but a cop (Luis Avalos) busts him.

"You're under arrest! For making fun of me (there's a chalk drawing of Luis on a wall), and defacing public property. Let's go to the station house!"

Jim: "Oh, we can't, Officer!"
Luis: "Why not?"
Jim: (Pointing to the street sign) "Don't Walk!"
Luis: (Ready to burst into tears) "I feel so silly!"
Jim: (Patting him on the head) "Aww, don't feel like that!"

As a burglar, he and Luis Avalos were once sneaking and snooping around a house at night. Luis admired the snazzy curtains and almost botched the heist by sneezing! Eventually, they reached a safe in the house, took some sandwiches out of the safe, and had a snack.

 

[Lucas Kablookas]

Okay, does anyone remember this sketch? I've seen the beginning but not the end.

An animated pianist sings, "My dog has fleas, my dog has fleas." The animal by his side quips, "I'm not a dog, I'm a sheep." Now, I don't know how it ends, BUT I have a feeling I know one word involved in there - it sounds like "fleas" but a sheep has it all over its body.

 

[YellowYahooey]

There is one musical segment that I like, and that involves a woman singing an opera-style song about Frederick Finch and Deborah Dench, and involves words with the CH sound. Is there an episode on YouTube that has such segment?

EDIT: I couldn't find it anywhere on YouTube, but I did download it quite some time ago and it's on my external hard drive.

 

[YellowYahooey]

And from there we go to the B&L as Skip times Bayn Johnson and Melanie Henderson on how fast they can say, "Bleached Blonde Blanche blinked in the blinding blizzard." Melanie has the shorter time... until an audience member claiming to be from Mars (Morgan Freeman) volunteers to say it. And... "BleachedBlondeBlancheblinkedintheblindingblizzard." One and a half seconds!

That was from Episode 18A (Season 5), and while it is no longer on YouTube, I did download it while I had the chance.

Also, the segment after that had Grover (not the Sesame Street character) show his wife his new camera which develops instant photographs, and after he takes a picture of her, he takes three attempts - each of which starts with a blank, and then displays on each respective attempt a blimp, a blob, and Bleached Blonde Blanche - the latter of which was a callback to the previous segment.

 

[Lucas Kablookas]

It’s on episode 131, which I’ll upload to YouTube in a few minutes.

 

[Lucas Kablookas]

That was from Episode 18A (Season 5), and while it is no longer on YouTube, I did download it while I had the chance.

Also, the segment after that had Grover (not the Sesame Street character) show his wife his new camera which develops instant photographs, and after he takes a picture of her, he takes three attempts - each of which starts with a blank, and then displays on each respective attempt a blimp, a blob, and Bleached Blonde Blanche - the latter of which was a callback to the previous segment.

You still have 18A? Wow! I have 37B downloaded to mine and 69B is available via the Internet Archive. Do you have any other “lost” or otherwise unavailable episodes on your computer?

 

[Lucas Kablookas]

Skip Hinnant walks down the neighborhood and sees a black round bomb in the middle of the street with a long fuse. And the bomb had the words, FOR YOU, on it. Skip did not want the bomb and tries to give it to the next person he meets. Soon, the whole Electric Company cast was passing around the bomb saying it's for them, while the fuse was getting shorter. Finally, Luis Avalos was the last one to get the bomb while everyone else ran off. Then the bomb exploded. When the smoke cleared, we see Luis sitting on the sidewalk with the top half of the bomb on his head while he was enjoying the candy that was inside the bomb all along. Then the whole gang came back and demanded Luis give them the candy for they said it was, for them.

"For" and "You" are two frequent sight words on The Electric Company, and they do go well together. Remember the animated segment featuring an opera singer belting out this song? His mouth became the O in the words "for" and "you" when he sang them.

For you my arms are yearning,
for you my heart is burning.
For you my world is turning,
for you, for you, for you, for YOOOOUUUU!

At which point the pianist accompanying him asked, "For me?!"

 

[Lucas Kablookas]

Another gem from season 1:
Skip, Morgan, and Bill dressed in sweats.
Off screen, Rita says "Kick". Skip takes a football and kicks it to the rafters. "Kicked".
Morgan does the same. But Cosby fumbles big time. "Missed".

Next the guys pick up a spring puller (haven't seen these in years!)
"Pull".
Skip stretches out the springs (this will give you a workout).
"Pulled".
Morgan repeats the exercise.
Cosby gets up but only stretches the springs an inch.
"Pulled!"
Rita: "A little".

Next drill, barbells.
"Lift".
Skip manages to get the weights over his head.
"Lifted".
Same with Morgan.
Cosby struggles even as the other two spot him.
"Lifted!"
Rita: "Lifted?" And she laughs her head off.
Cosby tells the others
"Get away! I'll do it myself!"
They step back, and Cosby and the barbells crash to the floor.

Rita: "Finished".

The funny part was, at Temple University, Cosby was a Physical Ed. major, lettered in football and track, and here he is playing a 90 pound weakling.

Speaking of ED, here's another ED skit. Skip, Rita, Morgan, and Judy were paratroopers. Skip ordered Rita and Morgan to "Jump!" and they did. "Jumped," remarked Skip both times. Judy, however, misunderstood Skip's order to "Jump!" and jumped rope. Skip threw the rope off the plane and repeated, "Jump! JUMP!" So she jumped... into his arms. He'd had it up to here - he yelled, "JUMP! JUUUMMP!" and jumped off the plane! "Hey, you forgot something!" called Judy, holding Skip's parachute. "He'll be back..."