Not really, but my father was a fan.
Here’s their largest segment in that show.
Vonnegut was hesitant about the idea for the program but when they told him that Bob and Ray were going to be in it, he was all for it.
Love the “… time warp”/“Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum” recurring bit. Note that Ray is the “Wally” here.
I may or may not have played the Komodo Dragon routine quietly on my kindle at Disney’s Animal Kingdom while we gawked at the dragon.
A former co-worker ha s a kid who did a presentation on komodo dragons in school. I played the routine for him, he loved it, played it for his kid, who used it in his presentation.
My father always listened to them in college - the late 40s and early 50s at Champaign -Urbana - but I had never heard of them before the SNL special they did. I wish they would release that on DVD.
The first word of the OP was “East-coast”… I wonder if that was meant to be restrictive.
Hope not, this is fascinating. Bob & Ray, uniting the nation with absurdism!
I suppose Bob and Ray were around somewhere when I was growing up but I never listened to them (and when I heard their stuff later was not all that impressed).
Same here. Great storytelling and even a bit of literary discussion. I recall an interesting take on Sinclair Lewis’ “It Can’t Happen Here”. I had friends who were even more into it, to the point of scrawling “Flick Lives!” graffiti in the subway.
digs:
“The first word of the OP was “East-coast”… I wonder if that was meant to be restrictive.
Hope not, this is fascinating. Bob & Ray, uniting the nation with absurdism!”
My error–I didn’t know their radio pgms were syndicated–at least, it appears that some were, some of the time–
In the 1970s-80s, I’d see B+R occasionally on the Tonight Show, where Johnny+Ed obviously had great respect for them. I thought they were clever, understated, subtle, but had no idea of their range until NPR broadcast their soap-operas in the 1990s. I also read that they’d appear sometimes on the Mutual Radio Network, and NBC Monitor, which were national broadcasts.
Particularly in their younger years, Ray does a pretty good singing falsetto.
I Wish I Was a Cow in Switzerland
Bob and Ray wrote commercials for Millbrook Bread. The commercial slogan “Bread Baked to Music” completely baffled me when I was seven.
Ditto. “Slow Talkers of America” is my favorite bit.
And Chris Elliott (Late Night with David Letterman, Cabin Boy, Groundhog Day etc.) is Bob Elliott’s son.
Don’t forget the Piels Beer commercials.
Landon Walker’s Metro Rapid Transit Radio? I remember it well.
And I know I was aware of Bob and Ray from my youth (born 1954) tho I can’t pinpoint when or where I first heard/saw them. Always enjoyed their stuff.
And his daughter Abby Elliot is an actress/comedian who was on SNL for 4 years. (Her father was on it for only 1 season.) Another daughter Bridey is also in the family business.
Hmm - didn’t know that! This might be of interest: 'SNL' autopsy: What killed Abby Elliott?