Great (Gene) Scott

In the late '70s with the emergence of cable television came a local Los Angeles sensation called Dr. Gene Scott.  He was a TV evangelist who appeared to be on live 20 hours a day.  19 of those hours were spent soliciting donations.   He was unique in that he didn't just ask, he used every sales pitch in the book.  He could cajole you, guilt you, resort to the soft sell, yell at you, or in some cases, just stare into the camera -- for an HOUR.  

As time went on and the FCC closed in on him for not showing his books he became loonier and loonier.  Originally, he wore a nice three-piece suit.  Towards the end he was wearing bizarre hats, leather jackets, and two (yes two) pairs of glasses. 

My writing partner, David Isaacs and I wrote an evening of one-act plays in 1980, all in different comic styles, and all basically LA-themed.   One was a monologue called 555-GIVE, which was modeled after Dr. Gene Scott. 

Today I thought I'd show you Dr. Scott in action, beating the shit out of his viewers, and our one-act.  John Erickson plays the title character and was terrific.  You might remember John as the sidekick on HONEY WEST.

Enjoy and give till it hurts.

The play starts :12 seconds in.