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Gimme that old time comedy
Jul. 15th, 2004 11:08 amHaving recently read Gerald Nachman's book on comedy which discussed old favorites Bill Cosby and Bob & Ray, and seeing Cosby's name in the news lately, I brought out some of his early albums and gave them a nostalgic listening. Their quality has faded a little with time, but the skits on his childhood are still priceless. I vote for "Revenge" from the album of the same title ("July. Not a snowball in sight.") as the funniest sketch he ever did.
Cosby also talks a lot about filming I Spy with Robert Culp in various exotic locales, which reminded me that I'd never seen any episodes of I Spy, which came to mind again when I saw a collection of DVDs of it sitting at the public library. OK, so I took a couple of them home.
I'm glad I didn't buy them. I'd watched some other shows like that at the time, and I'd forgotten how terrible 60s tv drama could be. Amazing how much time was spent on showing establishing shots of vehicles, and people getting into or out of them. The banter between Cosby and Culp can be amusing, but it's not as funny as a Cosby album, and it's not worth wading through the ridiculous plots for. And no matter what exotic and colorful city our heroes are in, they always find their way down into the same unfurnished secret basement.
Watching one episode set in San Francisco (a young woman they meet in a Chinatown kitsch shop just happens to be the secretly exiled dethroned Empress of China), I was amused to see again landmarks that have since been torn down, like the Embarcadero Freeway and Monkey Island (assuming you can tell them apart). It was also fun watching Cosby pretend that his character knows Chinese. This scene takes place in the unfurnished secret basement, and comes out something like this:
Soft-spoken Bob was the President of this organization, who goes through his lines with extreme doggedness; and louder, gruffer Ray was the interviewer who gets more and more impatient as the interview goes on, particularly (and this was the visual part) because he desperately needs to go to the bathroom. It winds up with the interviewer trying to finish his subject's sentences:
Cosby also talks a lot about filming I Spy with Robert Culp in various exotic locales, which reminded me that I'd never seen any episodes of I Spy, which came to mind again when I saw a collection of DVDs of it sitting at the public library. OK, so I took a couple of them home.
I'm glad I didn't buy them. I'd watched some other shows like that at the time, and I'd forgotten how terrible 60s tv drama could be. Amazing how much time was spent on showing establishing shots of vehicles, and people getting into or out of them. The banter between Cosby and Culp can be amusing, but it's not as funny as a Cosby album, and it's not worth wading through the ridiculous plots for. And no matter what exotic and colorful city our heroes are in, they always find their way down into the same unfurnished secret basement.
Watching one episode set in San Francisco (a young woman they meet in a Chinatown kitsch shop just happens to be the secretly exiled dethroned Empress of China), I was amused to see again landmarks that have since been torn down, like the Embarcadero Freeway and Monkey Island (assuming you can tell them apart). It was also fun watching Cosby pretend that his character knows Chinese. This scene takes place in the unfurnished secret basement, and comes out something like this:
OLD CHINESE MAN from Central Casting, sporting a Manchu mustache, wearing long robes, and carrying a Siamese cat in his arms: [long greeting in Chinese].I don't have any Bob and Ray recordings, so I don't know if they ever recorded my favorite sketch of theirs. I only encountered it on stage when I attended a live performance they gave many years ago, and part of the humor was visual anyway. It was an interview with the President of the Slow Talkers of America.
TRANSLATOR, nondescript young Chinese man in Western clothes: "Honorable General apologizes for having no English."
COSBY [in English, sounding like he knows he's lying]: "I speak Chinese."
OLD CHINESE MAN: [nods sagely, as if he understands this].
TRANSLATOR: [conveniently disappears, so that the producers don't have to pay him any more speaking fees].
OLD CHINESE MAN: [speaks long sentence in Chinese, while gesturing urgently in one direction, and simultaneously trying to keep the cat from jumping down].
COSBY [to Culp]: "He wants us to go over there."
CULP: [gives Cosby a "no shit, Sherlock" look].
Soft-spoken Bob was the President of this organization, who goes through his lines with extreme doggedness; and louder, gruffer Ray was the interviewer who gets more and more impatient as the interview goes on, particularly (and this was the visual part) because he desperately needs to go to the bathroom. It winds up with the interviewer trying to finish his subject's sentences:
BOB [continuing]: ... of ... my ... office ... as ... President ... of ... the ...
RAY: SlowTalkersofAmerica!
BOB: ... Slow ...
RAY: TalkersofAmerica!
BOB: ... Talkers ...
RAY: ofAmerica!
BOB: ... of ...
RAY: America!
BOB: ... ... America.
