MovieChat Forums > The Electric Company (1971) Discussion > Most underrated EC segment(s)?

Most underrated EC segment(s)?


What would any of you consider to be among the most underrated segments on TEC?

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I can think of one or two immediately:

First, and foremost was "THE BIG QUESTION" game show spoof. Skip Hinnant played the overzealous MC, and Luis Avalos was the hapless (and hopeless) contestant. I'm a little fuzzy on the dialogue, but I remember Skip really building up the fact that it was a BIIIIIIGGGGGGG QUUUUESTION (he'd go over to the sign and gesture each time he said it) with a lot of money at stake. Unfortunately for Avalos' character it WAS a big question involving Christopher Columbus' discovery of America, the ships involved, the number of days at sea...I began to lose track of the question early on as I remember. Unfortunately, so did Avalos' character, and the poor guy only was given 5 seconds to answer. I can still see Skip ticking off the seconds rapidly, and then cueing the buzzer. Avalos is then rushed off the stage by Skip, who's saying "Why don't you come back when you're a little bit smarte?".

The second one was the gunslinger who went into the saloon and ordered people to play. The gunslinger isn't happy until two of the customers (in a fit of desparation, I assume) start to clap hands together. The gunslinger is satisfied, the piano music resumes, skit ends. OK it's not brilliant comedy, but you gotta love the way the tension finally gets broken! It's that element of the unexpected.

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The thing about that one is that part two of the Big Question answered part one, part three answered part two, etc. If you kept up with what Skip was looking for (or if you could see the question) it would have been a breeze . . .

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The one that comes to mind for me is the "Love of Chair" serial...from the organ music, to the melodramatic announcer (the same one that did "Love of Life," apparently) to the very low key presentation, it worked both as a parody of the soap operas of the time, as well as an absurdist humor classic. Since the episodes don't seem to teach us anything except how to say "The boy is sitting," I still wonder whether it was just added on the whim of some writer and not necessarily to educate. Kudos to the Shout Factory DVD set for including the last LOC episode, where the boy finally speaks: "No, the boy is quitting!"

But what about Naomi???

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