One thing leads to another, and the news that Morgan Freeman was injured in a car accident last night — thoughts and prayers, etc. — prompted Karina Longworth to reminisce about one of Freeman’s earliest acting gigs today, which in turn prompted me to seek out a piece of my childhood on YouTube just now.
And here it is: Rita Moreno singing ‘It Only Rains Where I Am’ on the classic kids’ show The Electric Company (1971-1977):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBnfpSmMkyU
Click here if the video file above doesn’t play properly.
I don’t know what it says about me, but this song evidently made a much, much bigger impression on me when I was a child than just about anything else on The Electric Company; even as an adult, after all but the most famous elements of that show had faded from my memory, I would sometimes find myself singing a few lines from this song for no particular reason — though in my memory the song became ‘It Always Rains Where I Go’, which may be a slightly more accurate description of what happens here.
At any rate, when mp3s became all the rage several years ago, I made a point of searching the internet for a copy of this song — and I found it! But it was not until today that I actually watched this segment, for the first time since I was in grade school.
I actually cheered today when Freeman appeared at the end of the segment and spoke his punchline — which is not included in the mp3 that I found several years ago. The segment ends exactly the way I remember it, except I had forgotten that Freeman was playing someone so classy (note the cane, the suit, the accent). As one who often doubts his own memories, it was nice to know that I had gotten this detail right, at least, after all these years.
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