The Electric Company

:This article is about a American television program. For electric utilities, see electric company.

Regular sketches

Some of the regular sketches performed on Electric Company included:

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• Love Of Chair — Spoof of the soap opera Love of Life about a boy sitting on a chair. Announcer Ken Roberts read the day's story, told in the style of the old "Dick and Jane" primers. Seen primarily during the 1971-1972 season.
• Fargo North, Decoder — A detective (Skip Hinnant) tries to decode scrambled word messages and phrases. His name is a pun based on Fargo, North Dakota.
• Letterman — Superhero spoof that was a favorite of many viewers. The villainous Spell Binder creates havoc by changing a key letter in a word (e.g., "custard" to "mustard"). After the humorous results are depicted and Spell Binder revels in his fun, the heroic Letterman replaces the incorrect letter with a more appropriate one from his sweater. The title character was voiced by Gene Wilder and the narrator was voiced by Joan Rivers. First seen during the 1972-1973 season.
• Five Seconds — Midway point of the show where viewers are challenged to read a word within a five-second time limit. From 1973-1975, in a spoof of "," the word would "self-destruct" after the time limit expired. After 1975, viewers had to read the word before a cast member (often from a featured skit) did.
• Spidey Super Stories — short pieces featuring the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man (Danny Seagren) who communicates only in word balloons (much like in the comics) and would always be wearing his mask and costume (he would never appear in his secret identity of Peter Parker). Stories involved the web-masked superhero foiling mischievous characters who were involved in petty criminal activities (such as burglary or assault); cast members filled the supporting roles. One of the best-remembered and loved features, Spidey Super Stories premiered during the 1974-1975 season.
• The Director — A hapless director (Rita Moreno) tries in vain to make her actors read the correct line as printed on an oversized cue card. Several flubbed takes are depicted before the director gives up in frustration.
• Tandem bicycle — Two friends (usually Rita Moreno and Judy Graubart) conversing when one of them misuses a word (e.g., "flack" as in "flackjacks," when the other was talking about something with the word "flap"). Several words, similarly tied by prefix or suffix, are humorously misused until they get back to the original word. "That's what I was trying to tell you," remarks one of the characters, after which the other fumes in frustration.
• Old Soft Shoe — Two cast members appear in silhouette, one giving the prefix of the word, the other the suffix, to form a new word (e.g., "th-" "-ing" to form "thing"). Most notable for the "old soft shoe"-type music that plays during the segment. Done twice through, sometimes with the viewer trying to read the word the second time through.
• Dr. Doo-lats — Parody of Dr. Doolittle where the title character (Luis Avalos) uses words to cure his patients.
• Vi's Diner— Customers try to read simple menus to place their order at proprieter Vi's (Lee Chamberlin) eatery.
• Easy Reader — Segments featuring the title character, played by Morgan Freeman, teaching words of the day. Often associated with Val the librarian (Hattie Winston) after 1973). His name is a pun based on Easy rider.
• Jennifer Of The Jungle — Tarzan send-up with Jane-like character (Judy Graubart) and gorilla Paul (Jim Boyd).
• Count Dracula — Send-up of the Bram Stoker literary character, played by Morgan Freeman. Sometimes, he is seen with Frankenstein's monster (Skip Hinnant) and the Wolfman (Jim Boyd).
• Dr. Frankenstein — Another monster-based parody, this time with an evil scientist (Morgan Freeman) and his assistant, Igor (Luis Avalos) trying to read words.
• Slow Reader — A slow reader is given a message to read by his friend, and has trouble sounding out the words. Each message is advice he needs to follow (e.g., "Do not bother this giant person"), but winds up not understanding the words or meaning until it is too late.
• "Here's Cooking at You" — Send-up of Julia Child, with Judy Graubart playing "Julia Grown-Up."
• Road Runner — New segments of the Looney Tunes character and his pursuer, Wile E. Coyote, produced by Chuck Jones. These segments reinforced reading skills.
• Clayton — During the 1976-1977 season, a Claymation character who often commented on the previous skit or introduced a new concept.
• Monolith — An animated short, set in outer space, used to introduce segments discussing a sound cluster. A huge Washington Monument-type structure begins to collapse ? to the strains of the Richard Strauss composition "Also sprach Zarathustra" (the theme of the film "") ? and the appropriate sound cluster would be chisled from the structure. A skit was usually built around this segment (everyone always cowering in fear and awe as the music begins).
• The Corsican Twins — Twin brothers (Skip Hinnant and Jim Boyd) who could hurt each other by punching, biting, kicking, etc., himself, all while reinforcing sounds.
• Mel Mounds — The disc jockey (Morgan Freeman) who introduced songs, usually by the Short Circus.
• Vaudeville Revue (aka The Stage) — Skits and songs are presented - variety show-style - "on stage," with music fanfare and canned applause to introduce and end each segment.
• A Very Short Book— Typically the last sketch of the episode in which a very short story is read. Usually based on nursery rhymes or fairy tales and having a humorous ending.
• Sign Sing Along — Sometimes the last sketch on a Friday episode, filmed segments married to a sing-along type song (e.g., "I like fish food you do too"), with filmed snippets of a sign with said words. Sung once through, after which the viewers are expected to supply the lyrics the second time around. Alternate: vignettes depicting literal translations of road signs (e.g., slow-motion action of children playing for a "Slow Children" sign).
• The Blue Beetle — a bumbling superhero (Jim Boyd) who would often make matters worse instead of better for people who he tried to help. He wore a mask, a hood with antennas, wings attached to his back, tennis shoes, boxer shorts and a T-shirt with his name "Blue Beetle" on it and they were all colored blue.