Top-rated
Wed, Oct 27, 1971
The third episode of The Electric Company starts out with the short vowel U as Morgan Freeman and assistant Stephen Gustafson spell out three words containing a U in the middle - fun, bun, and but. Rita Moreno then chimes in with four more - bus, bug, tug, and tub, all four of which she writes on a bus stop sign. She later sings the song "Unbutton Your Heart", a lovelorn rock song filled with "un" words like "unkind" and "unzip". Skip Hinnant's character Norman Neat, Man on the Street makes his very first appearance (his first four, in fact!) interviewing passersby about their favorite words. Another first: John and Faith Hubley's cartoon "True Blue Sue" makes its debut to introduce the topic UE to the show. Freeman shows up with another UE word: "glue", in big white letters which he glues to the wall. But perhaps he was a little careless with the glue - he winds up with his hands stuck to his workbench! Next, Freeman and Hinnant don sweaters with letters and recite a short poem about the letters Q and U. The QU sound returns in a game show setting - Wild Guess, featuring announcer Ken Kane (Bill Cosby) and host Bess West (Rita Moreno). Following that is more of the letter U, albeit its long sound, found in words like "dude" and "cute". You'll hear plenty of those kinds of words in the song "An E on the End", which introduces The Electric Company to one of its most popular topics - Silent E. While Tom Lehrer's famous song doesn't show up in this episode, two other famous animations do - one sees the Blond-Haired Cartoon Man (voiced by Mel Brooks) perform his "I am Cute Very" routine ("Who's the dummy writing this show?") and the other tells the story of a talking dog named Spot. Scanimate words include "pup" and "quake" and the last word is "quiet".
Thu, Nov 4, 1971
This show starts off with the short vowel A as gloved hands spell words like "ran" and "fan". The short A sound returns (to share the stage with the CT blend and the hidden word "act") as Bill Cosby and Morgan Freeman build a monster but find themselves in need of a fact book, a contact, and a reactor. Freeman works his magic on the TH blend and challenges an off-screen Rita Moreno to read the sentence "Thirty thirsty thinkers think through thick and thin". TH also starts the sight word of the day: "that". Mel Brooks' Blond-Haired Cartoon Man reads the sentence "That doesn't swing" but knocks the "that" with his hand, making it swing back and forth. "Perhaps I was wrong!" That's not all - next it's the ALL sound! Lee Chamberlin interviews baseball player Glue-Glove Smith (Freeman) during the All-Star Game, where the tall and the small play together. Next, Moreno plays one of her most famous characters - Otto the Director - bossing around her star actor Cosby, who can't seem to remember the line "All for one and one for all!" (Look out for Morgan Freeman laughing the fourth time he gets it wrong.) If there's one thing the Electric Company knows, it's that consonants can change the way a vowel sounds. The Short Circus demonstrates this in their "He Ho Hi" song, in which the titular three words become "hen", "hot", and "hit" with the application of an ending consonant. After that, it's right back to the A sound as Fargo North (Skip Hinnant) is visited by Pandora the Brat (Moreno), who needs help deciphering a coded message from her friend in which "candy" is replaced by "furpo". To close the show, Easy Reader (Freeman) reads sentences containing topics learned throughout the episode, with the help of his magic paper bag. The last word is "fall".
Mon, Nov 29, 1971
Topics of Show 26 include the consonant B, the BR blend, and OW as in brown. In this show, Millie the Helper learns about the word "bottle", Mel Mounds and J. Arthur Crank cross paths, Broadway Bob treads the vaudeville stage, and Winnie sings "How is Howard". "Love of Chair" sees the boy taking a step and the last word is "barber".
