The Electric Company employed sketch comedy and other devices to provide an entertain
ing program to help children of elementary-school age develop their reading skills. It was intended for children who had graduated from CTW's flagship program, Sesame Street. Appropriately enough, the humor was also that much more mature than what was seen on Sesame Street as evidenced by one of the 'Mad Scientist' skits performed by Morgan Freeman (the Scientist) and Luis Avalos (Igor.)"Igor, I've created a fiend!"
"Hmmm, what's a fiend?"
"Well, it's sort of a monster...only it's more fiendish!"
"Oh, Master, what did you go and do an irresponsible thing like for?!"
"I've never created a fiend before. It's sort of kinky!"
Jim Boyd, who was strictly an off-camera voice actor and puppeteer in the first season, began appearing on-camera in season two, mostly in the role of J. Arthur Crank. Luis Avalos also joined the cast at that time.
Bill Cosby was a regular in season one, and occasionally appeared in new segments during season two, but afterward he left The Electric Company. Nevertheless, segments Cosby had taped in seasons one and two were repeatedly re-run in shows produced throughout the following four seasons, and Cosby was billed as a cast member throughout the show's entire run. Similarly, Lee Chamberlin also left after the second season, but many of her segments were also repeatedly reused. Consequently, Chamberlin was also billed as a cast member for the show’s entire run.
Added to the cast at the beginning of the third season was Hattie Winston, an actress and singer who later appeared on the show Becker. Beginning in the fourth season, Danny Seagren appeared in the role of Spider-Man.
Some of the regular sketches performed on The Electric Company included the following:
The Adventures of Letterman (John Hubley and Faith Hubley)—Segment featuring the work of animators John Hubley and Faith Hubley, wherein the title character, a young super hero who could fly and who wore a varsity sweater and a football helmet, foiled the mischief of the evil Spell Binder. Featured the vocal talents of Zero Mostel, Joan Rivers (who narrated the segments), and Gene Wilder (most of the time), the skit debuted during season two, and it was one of the most popular segments of the show. The Adventures of Letterman was parodied in season six as Litterman.
Blond-Haired Cartoon Man (Mel Brooks)—Voiced by Mel Brooks, he read words that appeared on the screen, but usually they did not show up in the right order, made no sense, or otherwise drove him to frustration. Example: "[reading] I am cute very. THAT'S IT! That's WRONG! I am cute very...who's the dummy writing this show?"
The Blue Beetle (Mel Brooks) —a bumbling super hero who would often make matters worse instead of better for people who he tried to help, unrelated to the DC Comics hero of the same name. He wore a mask, a hood with antennas, wings attached to his back, tennis shoes, boxer shorts, and a T-shirt with "Blue Beetle" written on it, all of which were all colored blue except for the letters U and E of the word “blue.” He was also often put up 
against Spider-Man, whom he was both jealous of and intimidated by. One of his favorite taglines was, "I would if I could, but I can't, so I won't."
The Blue Beetle bore a striking resemblance to El Chapulín Colorado, a now-classic Mexican television program that aired from 1970 to 1978.
Clayton—Introduced in season five but became a recurring character in season six, a Claymation character animated by Will Vinton who often commented on the previous skit or introduced a new concept.
The Corsican Twins—Twin brothers (Skip Hinnant and Jim Boyd) who would hurt each other by punching, biting, and kicking themselves while they reinforced sounds.
The Director—A hapless auteur named Otto (Rita Moreno), dressed as an old-style Hollywood film director, tried in vain to make her actors read the correct line as printed on an oversized cue card held by Marcello (Morgan Freeman), her terrified assistant. The director used her riding crop as a pointer to the cue card, but she usually ended up whacking the cue card in anger with the crop startling Marcello. Several flubbed takes were depicted before the director gave up in frustration. Common director lines included “Marcello!!!!!” “Aaaaanndd ROLL ’EM!!” and “Aaaaaction!” Moreno modeled the character after Otto Preminger.
Dr. Doolats—Parody of Doctor Dolittle and Groucho Marx (with a Harpo Marx wig) in which the title character (Luis Avalos) used words to cure his patients.
Easy Reader—"Easy Reader, that's my name, umm, umm-umm!"—Segments featured the title character, a smooth hipster (Morgan Freeman) who loved to read at every opportunity and every printed thing he saw, teaching words of the day. Often associated with Valerie the Librarian (Hattie Winston), and in earlier seasons with Vi (Lee Chamberlin) in her diner. His name was a pun on the title of the film Easy Rider.
Fargo North, Decoder—An Inspector Clouseau-type detective (Skip Hinnant) tried to decode scrambled word messages and phrases. His name was a pun based on Fargo, North Dakota. Sesame Street 's Big Bird appears in one segment, asking him to help decode a message. It is also a reference to the decoding style of reading education.
Five Seconds—Midway point of the show where viewers were challenged to read a word within a 5-second time limit. From 1973 to 1975, in a spoof of Mission: Impossible, the word would self-destruct in a Scanimate animation sequence after the time limit expired. ("The word you see here will self-destruct in five seconds. Can you read it before it does?") After 1975, the viewers had to read the word before a cast member (often a member of the Short Circus) did.
Giggles, Goggles—Two friends (usually Rita Moreno and Judy Graubart) conversed when one of them misused a word (e.g., "flack" as in "flap," when the other was talking about something with the word "flap"). Several words, similarly tied by prefix or suffix, were humorously misused until they get back to the original word. "That's what I was trying to tell you!" remarked one of the characters, after which the other fumed in frustration.
Here's Cooking at You—Send-up of Julia Child, with Judy Graubart playing Julia Grown-Up.
J. Arthur Crank—Jim Boyd's plaid-wearing character who often interrupted sketches to complain when spellings or pronunciations confused him. In early episodes, he was just a voice on the phone, much like an irate viewer on a radio call-in show. In one sketch he sang a song devoted to his spiritual cousin Oscar the Grouch. Crank is named after British film mogul J. Arthur Rank and refers to what would be later known as crank calling.
Jennifer of the Jungle—George of the Jungle send-up with (Judy Graubart) and Paul the Gorilla (Jim Boyd). Usually opened with Jennifer swinging on Viney the vine, yelling "Oy-oy-oy-oy...!" a pun on the Yiddish-language expression.
The Last Word—Always came at the end of the show; featured in season one instead of the next-show teasers from later seasons. The camera would show a barely lit incandescent bulb on a pull-chain switch hanging from a wire. The voice of Ken Roberts would state "And now, the last word" gravely. A single word would appear, usually one that had been featured earlier in the episode. An unseen cast member would read the word aloud, reach his/her arm into the shot, and turn the light off by tugging the pull chain. Sometimes more creative exits were employed (i.e. the hand would snip the pull chain with a pair of scissors).
Love of Chair—Spoof of the soap opera Love of Life about a boy (Skip Hinnant) sitting on a chair. Announcer Ken Roberts (who, appropriately enough, also announced for Love of Life) read the day's story, told in the style of the old Dick and Jane primers, with questions asked at the end in a dramatic tone. The last question asked was always "And...what about Naomi?" This would be followed by "For the answer to these and other questions" at which point a cast member would be shown briefly on-screen uttering a completely unrelated non-sequitur such as "What time is it?" Seen primarily during the first season. A shot of the boy sitting on the chair was used for the Friday closing credits during the first season as well.
Mad Scientist—Another monster-based parody, this time with an evil scientist (Morgan Freeman) and his assistant, Igor (Luis Avalos), who tried to read words that grew out of their experiments.
Mel Mounds—A disc jockey (Morgan Freeman) who introduced songs, usually by the Short Circus. Known for the phrase "Sounds righteous, delightious, and out-of-sighteous! Heavy, heavy [*finger snap*], heavy! Ha-ah!"
Millie the Helper—An eager but point-missing trainee played by Rita Moreno who worked in various professions. Millie's bellowed catchphrase "Hey, you guys!" soon became a part of the show's opening. Named for the character Millie Helper from The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Monolith—An animated short, set in outer space, used to introduce segments discussing a sound cluster. A huge Washington Monument-type structure began to collapse to the strains of the Richard Strauss composition "Also sprach Zarathustra" (also the theme of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey), and the appropriate sound cluster would be chisled from the structure (such as "alk," "oo," "ow," "all," "ee"). A skit based on a scene from the film 2001 was usually built around this segment, while the characters always cowered in fear and awe as the music began.
Pandora—Rita Moreno's bratty but lovable curly-headed blonde girl, who tried to outwit the "adults" around her. The character's look and behavior was probably inspired by the Fanny Brice creation, Baby Snooks.
Pedro's Plant Place -- Luis Avalos as a garden-shop proprietor who incorporated reading words into his planting tips, accompanied by the unpredictable plant-language-speaking plant Maurice (Jim Boyd).
Phyllis & The Pharaohs—A 1950s doo-wop group with Rita Moreno on lead vocals. Its hits included "Phantom of Love," "Grease," and "Is It Love?"
Road Runner—New segments of the Looney Tunes character and his pursuer, Wile E. Coyote, produced and directed by Chuck Jones. These segments reinforced reading skills and, unlike the classic Warner Bros. shorts, were completely devoid of sound, save for vocal effects such as laughing and sound effects such as the switching of a traffic light or the bouncing on a trampoline.
Sign Sing-Along—Sometimes the last sketch on a Friday episode, filmed segments were married to a sing-along type song (e.g., "I like fish food; you do, too/Don't look now, your hair is blue"), with filmed snippets of a sign with said words. Sung once through, after which the viewers were expected to supply the lyrics the second time around ("All right, now we'll be quiet, and you sing it!") while a wah-wah-muted trumpet and bassoon duo played the melody of the words. Alternate: vignettes depicting literal translations of road signs (for example, slow-motion action of children playing for a Slow Children sign).
The Six-Dollar and Thirty-Nine Cent Man—a spoof of The Six Million Dollar Man with Jim Boyd as Steve Awesome, who had far more bionic features than his more serious counterpart. Introduced in season five and became a recurring sketch in season six.
Slow Reader—Originally a set of animated shorts, but at least one live-action sketch was shot based on the same characters and theme. A bald-headed slow reader was given a message to read by a delivery man and had trouble sounding out the words. Each message was advice that he needed to follow (such as "Do not bother this giant person," "Go away," "Duck!" "Keep off the grass"), but wound up not understanding the words or the meaning until it was too late. In later years, however, a few of the original sketches were slightly rewritten and reanimated with a much smarter slow reader who did not fall victim to any impending dangers.
Soft-Shoe Silhouettes—Two cast members appeared in silhouette, one giving the prefix of the word, the other the suffix, to form a new word (e.g., "th-" and "-ing" to form "thing"). Most notable for the soft-shoe-type music that played during the segment. Done twice through, sometimes with the viewer trying to read the word the second time through. The song usually ended with the two saying a soft "yeah!"Parodies of this skit have aired on the following:
Family Guy - In the episode "Mr. Saturday Knight," where Peter was one of the silhouetted characters reading the words. He quickly became frustrated at his inability to keep up with the other character, and attacked him.
MADtv - Part of a larger Sesame Street parody that depicted Big Bird catching and spreading avian flu on the street. The silhouetted characters sounded out the words "flu," "fever," and "fatal."
Saturday Night Live (Weekend Update) In the late 1970s, there was a writer's strike for some kids' shows; The Electric Company was one of them. The Weekend Update anchors Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd did a skit about the situation with a parody of the Soft-Shoe Silhouettes, with the last one being sc-ab, scab, for those who cross picket lines. The last joke was by Curtin: "Don't pick...it might get infected."
Saturday Night Live (Miranda Richardson hosted)—In a short film called "Dieter's Dream." The silhouettes alternated with the words "whore" and "nun" to make the nonsense word "whorenun," whic described Miranda Richardson's character in the film.
Nike Athletic Wear’s Boom television advertisement campaign from the late 1990s.
Avenue Q (Broadway musical adult parody of Sesame Street) - Between two scenes, a male silhouette appeared who said the word "come," followed by a female silhouette who said the word "mitment." The two alternated until the female took over, who said the word "commitment."
Spidey Super Stories—Short pieces that featured the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man (which was provided to CTW free of charge) and cast members from the show. Stories involved the web-masked super hero (Danny Seagren) foiling mischievous characters involved in petty criminal activities (such as burglary or assault). Interestingly, Spider-Man spoke only in cartoon word balloons appearing over his head, which were accompanied by electronic punctuation sounds for emphasis when the appeared on-screen. Also, unlike in the pages of Marvel Comics, he was never seen out of costume as his alter-ego, Peter Parker. Debuted during season four and was the basis for a spin-off comic book. The segment's theme song also claimed, “Spider-Man, where are you coming from? Spider-Man, nobody knows who you are.”
Vaudeville Revue (also called The Stage)—Skits and songs were 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 an episode in which a very short story was read by a member of the cast. Based on nursery rhymes or fairy tales and had a humorous ending. Always finished with the words "The End."
Vi's Diner—Customers tried to read simple menus to place their order at proprietor Vi's (Lee Chamberlin) eatery. Grover from Sesame Street made a guest appearance in a season-two skit because he was lost and in tears, and he needed the help of Vi and J. Arthur Crank to get back home.
Vincent the Vegetable Vampire—Send-up of the Bram Stoker literary character Dracula, played by Morgan Freeman. He was often seen with Frankenstein's monster (Skip Hinnant) and the Wolfman
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