The crazy multiple sunglass donning, cigar chomping, kaiser-helmet wearing, FCC-bashing, horse racing, wind-up monkey beating TV preacher (“I sure as hell ain’t no televangelist!!”) has gone to the great pryamid/Atlantis/horse stable in the sky
The UHF band in Los Angeles will be a little bit emptier without him. While he had mellowed the last few times I stumbled across his show, I’ll always treasure the memories of his live televised freak out in the early 1980s. He would spend several hours a night pounding the crap out of toy monkeys, saying they represented the FCC bureaucrats who were trying to pull his TV station’s license. His running joke was he was the only TV preacher who believed in evolution, because the FCC types “they sure ain’t human. Must be the missing links”.
That guy was a couple bricks shy of a load. I used to watch him once in awhile for 10 minutes or so at a time just to see if I could figure out what the hell he was talking about. I never could. (Also to see how many pairs of glasses he’d have balanced on his nose.) He looked terrible in the last few months, but I guess he kept the show going right up to the end. Good for him.
I used to watch him in his early years. He would have times when he would, completely shamelessly, ask for donations and refuse to say a single word until he saw some donations coming in.
His main message seemed to be “Send me money and I’ll be rich.”
Then he’d refuse to speak until the phone lines started ringing and the viewers started to “pay tuitiion.” And blowero was right about the lessons. You’d be convinced this guy danced on the moon.
I remember stumbling across him on television several times as a kid. He confused me to no end because he didn’t fit any image of a preacher that I could conceive of–even a TV preacher. I credit him with (inadvertently) causing me to first start questioning my religion–and now I’m a happy atheist!
Thank you Dr. Gene Scott. You were truly one of a kind.
I remember him hawking satellite dishes, and helpfully pointing out that you didn’t have to use them just for watching him – you could get all your first-run movies and so on.
I didn’t see him much, but I don’t remember him actually preaching any Gospel.
I listened to his late-night show a few times, years ago. The sole reason was that the first time I happened on the show by accident, this great bluesy gospel vocal quartet was singing “Every Time I Feel The Spirit”. I’m usually not a fan of gospel music, but this group sounded like the Blind Boys Of Alabama. I kept listening for several more shows hoping I’d hear that song again, but never did.
Huh. Rumor around my high school was that one of the teachers in the history department was his brother. However, this guy had a different name and the obit doesn’t mention anything about if the good Doctor Scott took a different name, nor does it mention anything about his survivors besides his wife.
My dopey friends and I used to prank call his show during his live broadcasts in L.A. We were like 13 or 14, so it was hard to create a voice which would get through to the air. When we managed to get on, our tag line was always “Where does Dr.Gene buy his chalk?” (he used to scribble on a board during his talks). He actually laughed a couple of times. Seemed like a decent enough guy, albeit rather eccentric.
Ah, too bad, seemed like a “good nut.” One of several TV figures I remember from living in California and Washington in the early-mid-80s (others being Cal Worhtington and his dog, Spot, Fred Rated, and Wally… whatever his name was, the nutjob with the combover, some actresses’ dad).
I could use his channel to identify a C Band satellite. Saw him in front of a huge Spanish crowd with a white board completely covered with colored ink, and he continued to draw on it with out wiping it clean.
Over ten years ago, Mom & I visited my brother in Los Angeles & has to go to his church, the Los Angeles University Cathedral in downtown LA housed in the original United Artists theatre.
It was the weekend after Easter.
Best sermon on the Evidences of Jesus’s Resurrection I’ve ever heard.
God bless ya, Gene Scott, you were a money-grubbing old letch but you were at least forthright about it! And you could preach the Gospel from any topic (Pyramids, Stonehenge, Atlantis, etc.) and played a mean saxophone!
Among other things, he has been an official in the Assemblies of God, a professor at Oral Roberts University, and had a legit Ph.D. from Stanford.
There will never be another Dr. Gene Scott. The last few years, he’s been into this this ancient language kick, which got old quick. I miss the days of him sitting there with a cigar wearing a pimp hat, screaming “PICK UP THE PHONE!”
You never knew what hat he was going to wear. Sometimes it was a pith helmet. One time it was a fireman’s hat.
The first time I saw him was in the late 1970’s, I think. I was really high on some medication for headaches and I thought, " What hath God wrought?" He was fascinating! He was a a really smart man, but egotistical and uninhibited.
For a long time that gospel quartet sang the same song every night. Does anyone remember the name of it?
It was only about a year ago that I rediscovered him and was so pleased to see him again – even though we had both grown old. He was still smart, but more earnest I think. Still fascinating. Still a mystery.
