The Classic Electric Company Memories Thread

[YellowYahooey]

I learned an interesting fact about the actress who played Samantha from The Short Circus on TEC. She later joined the techno-dance group Technotronic (famous for their hit "Pump Up the Jam").

 

[Lucas Kablookas]

I like Electric Compant because it covers all the letters of the alphabet. Here they are, in order of frequency (so far)…
I has definitely been in the most episodes I‘ve seen so far.
G, O, R, and U aren’t far behind.
B, L, and Y come after that.
C, H, M, and T are somewhat rarer.
D, E, J, K, P, V, and W each have two episodes to their name.
A, F, N, S, and X each have one.
As for Q and Z, I haven’t seen any episodes about those letters, but I’ve definitely seen them appear in some sketches.

 

[Lucas Kablookas]

Let the Clown Be: We see a clown (Jim Boyd) dressed in a derby and hobo rags sitting on a stool. He reaches into his coat and pulls out a head of LETTUCE and a WALLET. Then he asks us if we see something special about these two words. Just then, a giant rabbit (Hattie Winston) hops in and takes the lettuce from the clown and says, "Thank you." and hops off. And a robber (Luis Avalos) steals the wallet from the clown and runs away.
The clown reaches into his coat again and pulls out a VIOLET and a BULLET. And he asks us the same question. Just then, Judy Graubart in a bridal gown comes in, takes the violet and says, "Thank you." And the Lone Ranger (Skip Hinnant) shouts, "Hi Ho Silver!" taking the bullet from the clown.
The frustrated clown reaches into his coat one more time and takes out a LETTER and a MALLET and asks the same question again. This time, a postwoman (Rita Moreno) takes the letter. And a millionaire playboy (Morgan Freeman) takes the mallet for he needed it for a croquet match.
The clown reached into his coat and found nothing else to show. Just then, the rabbit came back and gave the clown one last lettuce leaf and grumbled, "That was the worst lettuce I've ever eaten!" and leaves. The robber returns the wallet and said, "This is the emptiest wallet I've ever seen!" The bride came back crying and shouts, "The wedding is off!" and returns the violet. The Lone Ranger returns the bullet and said, "This bullet is plastic!" The postwoman gives back the letter saying that it doesn't have a stamp. And the millionaire playboy returns the mallet now with a broken handle complaining how fragile it was.
The now sad clown, sitting all alone with the returned stuff in his lap, looks up and sees the 6 words with certain letters highlighted and starts reading, "LETtuce, walLET, vioLET, bulLET, LETter, malLET." and he said, "There is something special about all of these words, but I'll LET you figure that out yourself." And he took off his hat revealing the word LET inside.

Hidden three-letter words popped up a lot in Season 3. "Can" was one, as the Short Circus sang about Candy Candles. "Win" was another, appearing inside such words as "window" and "winter". And let's not forget "sun" - remember when Hattie Winston sang about her love for ice cream sundaes?

 

[Lucas Kablookas]

I want it As Was!!

Remember seeing a female figure who looked suspiciously like Mel Brooks' blonde-haired cartoon man? Above her were the words "Who is that?"
She left, leaving "Who was that?" in her wake.

 

[Lucas Kablookas]

Two Spidey episodes that haven't resurfaced (yet) where the bad guys get away:

The Bookworm: Easy Reader and Valerie are at the library (where else?), where they find a bin full of books with holes in them. The Bookworm wreaked the havoc (a snake puppet with a forked tongue and googley eyes).
The real damage comes when he heads for the stacks (all those first editions!).
Spidey arrived on the scene, slings his web, but the Bookworm escapes.

All those Agatha Christie murder mysteries with the last page missing...

The Can Crusher: Jim Boyd as the villain, taking a sledgehammer and smashing cans of tomato soup (one splatters all over his costume, but he laughs it off).

Spidey shows up and wonders who could cause such mayhem.
He looks at the Can Crusher...
"You...YOU!"

As Spidey studies the crime scene, Crusher asks Spidey,
"Have you figured it out Web Walker? Wall Crawler? CHANDELIER STOMPER???!!!!"
A fight ensues, and Spidey gets knocked out cold.

Then we get the Crusher's backstory (this is hysterical):
"You see, when I was a little boy, my pet frog jumped into a vat of tomato soup. Now he's trapped inside a can. And I will search the whole world to set my froggy free!"

Spidey gets up from his stupor.
Meanwhile, the Can Crusher lives!!!!!

The last episode (along with Episode 8A) literally pitted Spidey against The Wall, a humanoid wall set out to ruin a baseball game by getting closer to the field and causing an unfair home run! But again, the web-slinger couldn't win - umpire Morgan Freeman shooed them both off the field. "Lucky I didn't slap him with a fifty-dollar fine. I can be pretty stupid if I need to," he remarked.

 

[Lucas Kablookas]

I really loved this animation by Carmen D'Avino. About beautiful fire hydrants.

She also animated the words "flower", "funny", "happy" "house", "library", and... hoo boy... "freak"!

 

[Lucas Kablookas]

It's also cool when TEC makes references to its own skits.

Early on was a cartoon voiced by Mel Brooks insisting "I am very cute!"
Then under his breath,"Boy, in order to get a compliment around here, you really have to work for it!"
Tough gig, Mel.

Cue a barbershop scene. Skip Hinnant's the barber, Morgan Freeman is getting a shave.
Halfway through, Morgan screams "Ow! I am very cut!"
At first we think it's a lesson on Silent E with Skip insisting, "No, you mean cute!"
"No, I mean cut!" argues Morgan.

To test the sharpness of his razor, Skip has a few balloons strung up with faces painted on them. He actually lathers one up with shaving cream, starts to shave it
"POP!!!!!" Gives us the thumbs up, "Sharp blade!" 8)
Gets back to Morgan, "Say, you really are cut, but you're still kinda cute!"
Morgan walks out, dripping blood. "Boy, in order to get a compliment around here, you really have to bleed!"

No tip for Skip.

They also re-did the "This is Mr. Smith Hat" animation with the words "Glenn hat". Glenn (Rita Moreno) wore those words on her head - they were her hat!

 

[YellowYahooey]

As for Q and Z, I haven’t seen any episodes about those letters, but I’ve definitely seen them appear in some sketches.

Q, as a standalone letter, was technically never used. If anything, letter Q segments on TEC were actually segments about QU. I know this, because I watched the reruns in the early 1980s. One QU sketch I remember seeing wais a song/cast sketch about the "Queen's Quartet". And I believe "Spidey Meets the Queen Bee" segment was in a cluster of QU segments on a Friday episode during the final season.

 

[ASD Mind]

I want it As Was!!

"That means you take it exactly the way you see it there right now, AS IS!"

 

[ASD Mind]

I thought Zero's lines were funny too. I had no idea SB was voiced by that guy I once saw on The Muppet Show.

I also liked in that cartoon how the man was sitting down with his hands on his ears. While in between the two apes who were covering their eyes and mouth. Creating a see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil scene.

If I have this right, Zero Mostel had a relative named Josh Mostel, who played King Herod in the movie version of Jesus Christ Superstar.