Fri 17 Feb 2006
I don’t remember enjoying The Electric Company that much as a child, perhaps because I already knew how to read by the time I started watching that show. I was only allowed half an hour of TV a day, and I always picked 3-2-1 Contact (in-your-head sing-along time: CONTACT. Is the REASON. Is the ANSWER. Why everything happens.) . Singing the 321 Contact song now makes me realize how lamely simplistic those lyrics are, but didn’t it have a great opening sequence? Water drops falling in slow motion and stuff?
But 3-2-1 Contact is not available on DVD, and Electric Company is. I have to say it’s pretty good the second time around. Bill Cosby actually smoking cigars and talking sort of drunkenly. Somebody else writing a list of insults on a chalkboard for the TV audience to sound out. A few dresses that fall into the mini-mini-mini category– children’s television could never get away with it these days. Best of all is Morgan Freeman, who looks about 20 years old and 120 pounds in the first season episodes from 1971.
He has two characters that are especially cool. One is Easy Reader, who asks to borrow a book of matches even though he don’t smoke. Because if he got a itch, he scratches. He reads the matchbook aloud. Then he sings and dances in a cool-cat manner:
“Easy Reader, that’s my name. Uhn, Uhn, Uhn (insert head twitch and shoulder shrug here). Readin’ words, that’s my game. Uhn, Uhn, Uhn.”
His other character is a radio disc jockey where he is even more, um, psychedelic, if you will. He lets you listen to songs about punctuation that are “righteous and outta sighteous.”
Finally, a fun take-home activity for you: Talking Electric Company. For every word, you say the first sound, then the second sound, then the whole word together. Like so:
Ih. tss. It’s. Fruh. iday. Friday. Make sure you prounounce each part with verve. To really mix it up you can do it with another person and have them invent the last half of the word.
February 17th, 2006 at 10:51 am
i remember they used to show comics on electric company.
and a woman in a diner sitting at the counter next to a man telling him “sip your soup. don’t slurp it.”
but i used to loooooove 3-2-1 contact. the bloodhound gang was my favorite.
February 17th, 2006 at 11:57 am
I just found out on allmovie.com that Morgan Freeman was actually 34 years old when Electric Company started.
Since I’m only 31 do you think that if I tried really hard that I could land a role like Easy Reader on a children’s television show by the time I reach 34?
Punc punc punc punctuation
Punc punc punc punctuation
They are the little marks that use their influence
To help a sentence make more sense
February 17th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
I was terrified of the Electric Company; I even used to turn off the TV before the end of the Sesame Street theme song (which I loved) because the Electric Company was coming next. It freaked me out that Spider-Man had no mouth.
February 17th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Oops–Sorry, that last one was mine.
February 17th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
heatherfeather: I guess you can learn manners as well as phonics on th Electric Company. And The Bloodhound Gang is one of those things that will occasionally creep into my head on insomnia nights. I will think about the mysteries and re-solve them.
Gary: Definitely! I think that’s a good 2nd career option for you. As opposed to figure skating. I’ll help you practice ad-libbing rhymes about nutrition and growth spurts anytime. Just say the word.
Tara: Now that you mention it, a guy with big buggy eyes and no mouth is sort of scary. I don’t know though, it would be cool to be able to talk out of any part of your head that you felt like talking out of. Like, winking at someone and have your voice come out of the corner of your eye.
February 18th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
I was in love with the Electric Company especially a skit they would do with cave man costumes. I am buying the DVD for my kids!
February 20th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
Plus, spiderman has spidey sense!
I must’ve had less responsible parents because I remember watching Sesame Street, Electric Company AND 3*2*1 Contact all in a row, almost every day…
February 21st, 2006 at 12:41 am
Nate, me too!
February 21st, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Amy, I hope I have something to do with your decision to get The Electric Company DVD. I want to start telling people that I helped introduce three innocent young children to sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
February 22nd, 2006 at 2:22 am
there was only one show good enough for me when i was a tot, and that was spiderman. best show on television, then OR now. Spiderman.
let’s review:
spiderMAN, SPIDERman, does whatever a spider can.
i think you know where i’m coming from.
February 22nd, 2006 at 2:43 pm
Erik,
That explains why you now make it your mission to save the world from evildoers, while I just sit around reading the back of the toothpaste tube. Good call.
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:54 am
I definitely had a creepy feeling about The E.C., too. Much preferred Sesame Street as a wee bean. I don’t recall why, though. I think probably because I preferred the puppets to real people… I had no use for real people on T.V. yet.