Mon, Dec 25, 1972
Morgan Freeman, Judy Graubart, and Rita Moreno take the stage to introduce the toe-tapping letter T as the first topic of this second-season episode, after which Jimmy Boyd and Lee Chamberlin perform the famous Silhouette Blends routine (with visible faces!) to blend words ending with T, like "let". There's a packaging dilemma as a smartly-dressed Freeman accidentally receives the pot top meant for Skip Hinnant, who has to resort to preparing soup in the top hat he gets. Next comes the NT blend, found at the end of words like "giant" - which will hopefully save the Message Man from a very giant person! The EA team follows, as Otto the Director (Moreno) strives to get her star actress (Graubart) to deliver a good scream. The Very Short Book of the day is The Princess and the Pea, in which the story takes on a surprise ending - the princess (Graubart) doesn't even feel the pea because it's squashed flat under all those mattresses! Making one of his return appearances in this episode is Bill Cosby, introducing the "alk" sound ending in words like "talk". Moreno, in a fedora and red turtleneck, stars as a teacher at Burglars' University, in which she teaches potential sneak thieves to stalk, talk, and walk like a burglar - and then arrests them because she's an undercover cop. Next, Chamberlin drags a giant white "walk" on a leash; she's taking a "walk" to the doctor's. Next is the long I sound, taught by popular new arrival J. Arthur Crank (Boyd), who struggles to teach a constantly booing and cheering crowd what happens when an E is added to the end of "kit" and "glid". Jennifer of the Jungle (Graubart) has much less trouble translating for her simian friend Paul (Boyd) with the help of the last topic, quotation marks. Scanimate words include "peace" and "went".
