I'm probably not alone in this, but I'm still struggling with how to respond to Bill Cosby's work in the wake of his fall from grace. Of course I support his victims... But as a child of the sixties/seventies I grew up loving him and his multi-faceted comedic gifts, including his comedy albums, movies, TV series-- and this groundbreaking show. This Electric Company send-up of Hollywood director Otto Preminger (perhaps the wonderful Rita Moreno's best character on the show) remains my favorite, and Cos is hilarious as a befuddled leading man. Also love how Morgan Freeman loses it and starts cracking up toward the end. Classic magic.
Strong suspicion all lines but Rita's were improv. Sheer genius. Look at how Freeman finally loses it on the final take. No one on that set knew what to expect - and it worked.
I LOVED these "angry director" skits--they were always my favorite part of the EC episodes (and that was saying something). If I recall correctly Freeman's character, Marcello, came in for a great deal of ongoing abuse from Rita's director character as time went on. Falling-down funny stuff.
Was this shown in England "back then"? Because some of Benny Hill's "blooper" sketches had elements of these in them. (Like the "What's that in the road? A head?" or the dog food commercial where the actress said "2p off" in a way not intended.)
All For You & Nothing For Yourself! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣that was sick. Don't think I didn't notice Morgan Freeman laughing on the sideline. 😃😃That skit is hilarious The very first season! 👋👋👋
At the end of the day you'd be hearing from the Cos stuff like "All for for fun and nothing for free," "All for tea and nothing for crumpets" etc. while Otto the director would be having screaming tantrums.
I don't remember seeing this one, but I do remember the Green Giant sketch, where the Director can't get the actor to say the famous line, "From the valley of the Jolly (ho ho ho) Green Giant". He keeps saying a different color! Silly stuff, but a great memory! Watching Morgan Freeman lose it here is hysterical! Thanks for posting it.
That sketch was great, but I am afraid you are the one who said a different color. It was and was meant to be the "Jolly Orange Giant" in the sketch, as it was a takeoff on "Green Giant" canned veggies, which they would not have been able to name. What the actor in that one kept saying wrong was "hee hee hee,"" ha ha ha" and "hi hi hi" instead of "ho ho ho."
Another favorite Cosby sketch of mine is the "big bad bed" one, where he asks who is afraid of it, and he said, "not I," then the bed collapses when he gets on it. Sort of sung to the tune of that Disney wolf song in the Three Little Pigs cartoon.
Man, was I in love with Judy Graubart! It's a shame she didn't go on to do much else, only bit parts... Cosby, Freeman & Moreno went on to become huge stars!
Oh, God this is hilarious. But this must have been one of the first Otto the Director skits, because Morgan Freeman is not in character as the cringing, fearful Marcello who held the cue cards and often took the brunt of Otto's frustration. Here he's laid back and so amused you can hear his laughter at the end of the sketch.
1:55 Freeman loses right when Cosby pulls up his boots and more when Rita Moreno throws stuff down, hits and kicks him. God this was such a great show.
I have heard that Morgan's sudden breakout in laughter was not scripted. The Story goes, that they(in real life, not what we see here), were going to do aonther take on the "last take", but Freeman could'nt stop laughing, so it was left as it was. Makes it more funny to watch his character to start laughing hysterically when he had been all serious up to that point.
Even Rita sounds like she's laughing, even though she's supposed to be sad and frustrated. Say, does anyone have the full version, where Cosby exits to a sad slow version of the march, and Morgan's laugh becomes louder and louder that you can really hear it. Freeman must have been a fan of Cosby.
Morgan Freeman's burst into laugher was not, repeat NOT supposed to happen. It was completely unscripted. He started laughing uncontrollably and would not stop long enough for them to reshoot the scene. So this is the take they had to use.
I don't know if this is the first "Director" segment, but I believe it's the only one in which there are four takes, while most or all of the others have only three.
I sure would love to see the pbs network put back on the electric company, read along, reading rainbow and mister Rogers neighborhood again. Just saying it would be nice to watch them all over again. why wouldn't they, Apparently they still continue to show sesame Street. I just miss these other shows, they were great back when we were all kids. I don't care if I'm an adult, the shows are great and I think that they need to start showing them again for the younger generation.
Imagine if he said "All for one and every man for himself!". Something from The Three Stooges. The Three Stooges are probably pretty much the opposite of The Three Musketeers.
Here's something funny: Notice how the Muskeeteer sometimes enters with the sword wrong? The director doesn't cut the action. Guess that didn't bother her ass. "All for me and nothing for you." Sounds like George W. Bush.
There was another directors skit where Bill Cosby plays 'Super Guy' and the word on the cue card was 'crack'. If anyone has that, please upload it. That was a real hilarious one as well.
"Superguy... is a MEATBALL!" ""what did you mean by that CRACK?" But in my hazy memory, Morgan Freeman is playing Superguy, and one of his line flubs is to instead act genuinely insulted. "Hey who are you calling a meatball?" (to Otto) "Did you hear that man, he just called me a meatball!"
I've been looking for that one. I'm pretty sure it was two separate but related skits, the first where Skip got his supersuit back from the tailor, and discovered that it said "Supper" instead of "Super", while the second one showed him happy in his new role as the food delivery superhero, Supper Man. Bill Cosby only appears in the second part, as the skit's punchline.
I do love the director bits a lot. Have me tickled a lot over it!!! Some of my favorites are the I Do one and the confession one. Are there any more director bits that we can see?
Probably because Rita was beating on the cue card with her pointer and it hurt their hands. She said in an interview that Morgan's hands were all bruised and bandaged from her beating on the cue cards.
My favorite is the angry director trying to get the Jolly Green Giant to say HO HO HO. Instead he keeps saying HEE HEE HEE and HA HA HA. Where can I find that sketch on youtube?
I'll bet the show's production staff were ROFLing at Bill Cosby's entrances. I strongly suspect they told him to just flub the line, but never told him what exactly to say... which would have made Morgan and Judy's reactions at the end even more hilarious. Gotta give it to Rita Moreno for keeping her composure though. :)
@DLCOrganization No, the music worked with the idea of a musketeer in my opinion. It sounded like a brave march, which is what the character was supposed to do in his entrance.
Oh I dunno. Maybe how ridiculous the whole scenario must've been to Morgan? When Bill acted like he suddenly thought to make a quick costume adjustment during what was supposed to be the last-chance take, that apparently was enough to make Morgan finally crack.
Forty plus years, this STILL cracks me up!!! Glad to be a child of the 70's.
Me,too! Such great TV!
Right there with you!
I'm probably not alone in this, but I'm still struggling with how to respond to Bill Cosby's work in the wake of his fall from grace. Of course I support his victims... But as a child of the sixties/seventies I grew up loving him and his multi-faceted comedic gifts, including his comedy albums, movies, TV series-- and this groundbreaking show.
This Electric Company send-up of Hollywood director Otto Preminger (perhaps the wonderful Rita Moreno's best character on the show) remains my favorite, and Cos is hilarious as a befuddled leading man. Also love how Morgan Freeman loses it and starts cracking up toward the end. Classic magic.
"All for you! And nothing for yourself!" LMAO!
"All for you, and nothing for yourself!" Priceless humor from the Cos!
That line makes no sense.
The angry director sketches are all great! I loved all the cast. Great comedians and the show was so much fun.
"All for you and Nothing for yourself!"
We have been quoting that to each other for 30 years! Thank you.
Morgan Freeman crackin up over there. LOL!!!!!
Hilarious Rita Moreno putting the megaphone up at her ear!
LOL Morgan Freeman laughing at Bill Cosby at 2:00
Oh my lord I'd forgotten about the director! I used to get all anxious when she just lost it, hahaha
Out of the four of them, my favorite is "All for me and nothing for you."
"All for me and nothing for you!"
Strong suspicion all lines but Rita's were improv. Sheer genius. Look at how Freeman finally loses it on the final take. No one on that set knew what to expect - and it worked.
Definitely from season 1! PBS had a real gem with this show.
I love it!!! At the end Morgan Freeman sat there laughing, and Judy Graubart had to turn her back to the camera ('cuz she was probably laughing, too!)
LMAO! On the floor! She hit and kicked Bill! Judy and Morgan were laughing so hard! Priceless!
2:00 The best part is Morgan Freeman cracking up.
"All for me, and NOTHING for you!"
Sounds good to me!
Morgan Freeman is back there just lauging.
I LOVED these "angry director" skits--they were always my favorite part of the EC episodes (and that was saying something). If I recall correctly Freeman's character, Marcello, came in for a great deal of ongoing abuse from Rita's director character as time went on. Falling-down funny stuff.
Was this shown in England "back then"? Because some of Benny Hill's "blooper" sketches had elements of these in them. (Like the "What's that in the road? A head?" or the dog food commercial where the actress said "2p off" in a way not intended.)
All For You & Nothing For Yourself! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣that was sick. Don't think I didn't notice Morgan Freeman laughing on the sideline. 😃😃That skit is hilarious The very first season! 👋👋👋
That doesn't even make any damn sense what he said, but who cares?
@@sha11235 Yes, that's the point; it just made phonetic sense in Cos's character's dunderhead, haha.
I miss the seventies and my childhood
Rita Moreno is fantastic as this Director character. Thank God we had such great TV in the 70s!
travisandlisa1 HEY YOU, GUYS!
I have loved this since I was a kid. Still funny.
ALL FOR EVERYONE AND NOTHING FOR NOBODY. You could go on all day with this.
At the end of the day you'd be hearing from the Cos stuff like "All for for fun and nothing for free," "All for tea and nothing for crumpets" etc. while Otto the director would be having screaming tantrums.
Morgan was the easiest person to crack up and drip to a puddle on the floor as Skip in a recent DVD I just bought.
I don't remember seeing this one, but I do remember the Green Giant sketch, where the Director can't get the actor to say the famous line, "From the valley of the Jolly (ho ho ho) Green Giant". He keeps saying a different color! Silly stuff, but a great memory! Watching Morgan Freeman lose it here is hysterical! Thanks for posting it.
That sketch was great, but I am afraid you are the one who said a different color. It was and was meant to be the "Jolly Orange Giant" in the sketch, as it was a takeoff on "Green Giant" canned veggies, which they would not have been able to name. What the actor in that one kept saying wrong was "hee hee hee,"" ha ha ha" and "hi hi hi" instead of "ho ho ho."
Morgan had a field day with that
All for a dollar and one for a quarter!!
One of my favorite unsurfaced director sketches had Cosby as Superguy and Skip as a bad guy flipping a coin, with "crack" on the cue card.
I forgot all about this one...that was hilarious.
Another favorite Cosby sketch of mine is the "big bad bed" one, where he asks who is afraid of it, and he said, "not I," then the bed collapses when he gets on it. Sort of sung to the tune of that Disney wolf song in the Three Little Pigs cartoon.
Man, was I in love with Judy Graubart! It's a shame she didn't go on to do much else, only bit parts... Cosby, Freeman & Moreno went on to become huge stars!
Hahahaha! She kicked him! How I miss those golden days of childrens television!
Out of all the Otto skits, this the most famous and best.
0:47 "All for me and nothing for you!" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
i remember watching this as a rerun on Noggin in 2000 i was 11 going on 12 this was funny
Oh, God this is hilarious. But this must have been one of the first Otto the Director skits, because Morgan Freeman is not in character as the cringing, fearful Marcello who held the cue cards and often took the brunt of Otto's frustration. Here he's laid back and so amused you can hear his laughter at the end of the sketch.
I think this was the original idea and then they retooled it for later sketches.
@@sha11235 Rita / Otto the director could whap the card harder if a guy / Morgan was holding it...and then he really did feel it in the fingers!
Poor Rita. She didn't deserve this! But I loved her "director" character! So comically angry!
I remember this. I had no idea it was Bill Cosby.
1:55 Freeman loses right when Cosby pulls up his boots and more when Rita Moreno throws stuff down, hits and kicks him. God this was such a great show.
These sketches were so funny. And Morgan Freeman was a cutie.
HAHAHAHAHAH. RITA IS IT! I miss her so much in this character, which she portrayed with such gusto and conviction! hahahaha- Manila, Philippines
classic Bill Cosby
REGARDLESS of the things Mr. Cosby may have done in recent years, to me, he is still, and always will be a comedy legend!
1:20 Whelp, Otto, he said what you told him to say: "all" at the beginning, "all at the end"!
CLASSIC!!!
All for Chang and nothing for Dennis!!
this was on the DVD!!
I have heard that Morgan's sudden breakout in laughter was not scripted.
The Story goes, that they(in real life, not what we see here), were going to do aonther take on the "last take", but Freeman could'nt stop laughing, so it was left as it was. Makes it more funny to watch his character to start laughing hysterically when he had been all serious up to that point.
Imagine if he said "All for you and that's all you will ever going get".
Poor Rita Moreno is getting frustrated w/ Bill Cosby as he messes up his lines! Judy kept it together holding up the cue cards!
Well, the all cue card is supposed to be a tip off for him to remember the line, but he can't.
There was no objection to him coming out on take 3 with him putting the sword away then taking it out.
It's interesting how they changed the casting after Bill left.. with Morgan becoming the cue card guy and Judy as the actress...
I stand corrected. This was from season one.
Even Rita sounds like she's laughing, even though she's supposed to be sad and frustrated. Say, does anyone have the full version, where Cosby exits to a sad slow version of the march, and Morgan's laugh becomes louder and louder that you can really hear it. Freeman must have been a fan of Cosby.
ROLL EVERYTHING!!!
1:30 lol Dir:"Its already past midnight" - cos agrees: "Its late ..."
he cant stop cracking up
OMG I LMAO when Rita Moreno ends up kicking Bill Cosby crying "I don't deserve this, I don't deserve this!!!"
Well, she did tell him "all in the beginning and all at the end".
Judy and Morgan both crack-up, but Morgan is worse at hiding it.
I remember these from so long ago, gosh, I feel like a dinosaur.
Usually Morgan was the one holding the cue card in these and rita would smack it so hard, he'd shriek with terror. lol.
Morgan Freeman's burst into laugher was not, repeat NOT supposed to happen. It was completely unscripted.
He started laughing uncontrollably and would not stop long enough for them to reshoot the scene. So this is the take they had to use.
Judy had to turn her back as she probably lost it! 🤣
@@kennethoats2322 Same with Rita, she's trying not to laugh by pretending to cry in frustration, but I ain't fooled.😀😀
I read his laughter was why they could not extend the scene with one more last chance for the fumbling Cos character.
Morgan Freeman and Judy Graubart were laughing at the end.
Couldn't keep it in too much longer by this point!
I don't know if this is the first "Director" segment, but I believe it's the only one in which there are four takes, while most or all of the others have only three.
I remember that on the last season
If Rita ever actually directed, do you think everyone would be scared to fuck up their lines?
Yep, then after a while, the three somewhat constants were Otto, Marcello (Freeman) and the slate lady (Hattie Winston).
I sure would love to see the pbs network put back on the electric company, read along, reading rainbow and mister Rogers neighborhood again. Just saying it would be nice to watch them all over again. why wouldn't they,
Apparently they still continue to show sesame Street. I just miss these other shows, they were great back when we were all kids. I don't care if I'm an adult, the shows are great and I think that they need to start showing them again for the younger generation.
Imagine if he said "All for one and every man for himself!". Something from The Three Stooges. The Three Stooges are probably pretty much the opposite of The Three Musketeers.
Is there any more of the "director" sketches?
All for Gusto and Nothing for Chang!! Ha Cha Cha!!!
Here's something funny: Notice how the Muskeeteer sometimes enters with the sword wrong? The director doesn't cut the action. Guess that didn't bother her ass.
"All for me and nothing for you." Sounds like George W. Bush.
There was another directors skit where Bill Cosby plays 'Super Guy' and the word on the cue card was 'crack'. If anyone has that, please upload it. That was a real hilarious one as well.
"Superguy... is a MEATBALL!"
""what did you mean by that CRACK?"
But in my hazy memory, Morgan Freeman is playing Superguy, and one of his line flubs is to instead act genuinely insulted. "Hey who are you calling a meatball?" (to Otto) "Did you hear that man, he just called me a meatball!"
How about Skip Hinant as Superman & Bill Cosby as the superintendent? What do you think about that?!
I've been looking for that one. I'm pretty sure it was two separate but related skits, the first where Skip got his supersuit back from the tailor, and discovered that it said "Supper" instead of "Super", while the second one showed him happy in his new role as the food delivery superhero, Supper Man. Bill Cosby only appears in the second part, as the skit's punchline.
speeta It wasn't Morgan Freeman, it was Bill Cosby.
I remember the tough guy saying Superguy was a meatball. Of course, if he was someone like General Zod, he'd have kicked his tough ass.
Marcello got a different job on this shoot!
This might've been the first one they did and then when they did more, they decided to have Morgan play this cue card guy that was a scared y cat.
I do love the director bits a lot. Have me tickled a lot over it!!!
Some of my favorites are the I Do one and the confession one. Are there any more director bits that we can see?
Probably because Rita was beating on the cue card with her pointer and it hurt their hands. She said in an interview that Morgan's hands were all bruised and bandaged from her beating on the cue cards.
My favorite is the angry director trying to get the Jolly Green Giant to say HO HO HO. Instead he keeps saying HEE HEE HEE and HA HA HA. Where can I find that sketch on youtube?
I'll bet the show's production staff were ROFLing at Bill Cosby's entrances. I strongly suspect they told him to just flub the line, but never told him what exactly to say... which would have made Morgan and Judy's reactions at the end even more hilarious. Gotta give it to Rita Moreno for keeping her composure though. :)
Rita was an absolute longtime professional, and her staying in character was essential for the sketch...and was why Morgan lost his character, haha.
HAH HAH, this is great
This could have been a Sesame Street skit, and the word of the day could have been "STUPIDITY".
1:20 Well, THAT didn't pan out!
Wonderful!!!
Now I understand why I'm neurotic.
still cant believe morgan freeman was on this show. wow what a treat
SniffyPoo And Bill Cosby too!
Jabari Nyela - Don't forget Irene Cara who was featured in the first season of the Electric Company as a member of the singing group Short Circus!
Rita Moreno always rocked as that director. Poor dear, she never won.
@DLCOrganization No, the music worked with the idea of a musketeer in my opinion. It sounded like a brave march, which is what the character was supposed to do in his entrance.
Episode 73
Season 1 (1972)
Rita played Goron's mom on Law & Order Criminal Intent
She's had a long career before and after this show.
What was so funny to Morgan when Bill pulled the trousers up?
Oh I dunno. Maybe how ridiculous the whole scenario must've been to Morgan? When Bill acted like he suddenly thought to make a quick costume adjustment during what was supposed to be the last-chance take, that apparently was enough to make Morgan finally crack.
@@Sam-for-Dyce And the director didn't mind any of that, just that the dummy couldn't get his line right.
Oh man, I remember that. Wow, no actor could ever get the lines right.
rita is 81 today
Judy Graubary looks so much like She could be Rita Moreno's little sister
2:02 I miss when the most problematic thing about Bill was his preachiness.
Does this director even screen test these actors so they know how to perform?
Sadly it's 'All for prison and nothing for free!'
He says he's got it, what bullshit!
Is that all?!