Year: 2007

Morty Gunty – 3

funnycompany.gifThe Morty Gunty Show, WOR-TV, Channel 9, NYC

  • Monday, September 28, 1963 — Premiered as the “The Funny Company”
  • Monday, June 1, 1964 — Renamed “The Morty Gunty Show”
  • Friday, January 1, 1965 — Cancelled

Source: TV Party.com

New York TV had a lot of great kid shows. My favorite hosts were Soupy Sales, Chuck McCann and Morty Gunty. Sandy Becker was also great, and who could forget Sonny Fox’s show, Wonderama?

For some reason I particularly enjoyed watching Morty Gunty, who came on the air when I was only 8 years old. Gunty clowned around like Sales and McCann, but in a different way. I agree with the opinion on the TV Party.com link that Gunty didn’t seem to want to be a TV kid show host. And I guess maybe I liked that.

Towards the end of 1964 Morty offered free, autographed pictures of himself. Wow! Without delay I wrote a letter to the station, asking for my free autographed photo of Morty Gunty. And a week or two later it came!

The photo was on the front of an oversized postcard. That was fine with me. It was printed in blue ink, and that was all right, too. But the autograph was obviously only part of the printing process, and that wasn’t all right. I had expected Morty would sign his photo personally!

So I wrote back, expressing my disappointment. Keep in mind that I was all of 9 years old. I don’t remember exactly what I wrote, but I’m pretty sure I was nice about it. I was a huge Morty Gunty fan, and I was desperate for his autograph, so being nice about it was the only way to be.

Some weeks later, on a Friday, at the end of his show, Morty sat in front of the TV camera, looking rather quiet and somber. He said he wanted to read a letter he had received. It took only a few moments to realize it was my letter! I sat stunned, listening to my own words being read out loud by my idol, right on TV!

Then I sprang into action and ran to the stairs to call for my twin sister Jean to come downstairs. I remember yelling for her to hurry. When I got back to the TV I knew immediately that it was a bad idea to have left the set, because Morty had already finished reading my letter, and I had missed some of what he said. I don’t know if he gave my name over the air.

The gist of what I caught was Morty Gunty explaining that my letter had caused some trouble, and that day’s show would be his last. And it was. The Morty Gunty Show was gone forever from New York TV.

I don’t know where the postcard is. I’m pretty sure I kept it and didn’t return it with the letter, but I can’t find it amongst any of my childhood keepsakes.

After a few years, as I began to grow up, I wondered what had happened. Had I really been the cause of Morty Gunty losing his show, and being fired from WOR-TV? Then, after our family moved to Massachusetts, Morty confirmed that yes indeed, it had been my fault.

The story concludes in Part 4.

Papa Zappa Pop

Here is — no way! — what is absolutely the most influential song of the 1980’s. Taken, like totally, from vinyl, fer sure.

I heard reverberations of it today, while waiting for my physical therapy session and listening to the receptionists talking.

Somebody give that girl a cell phone!

Edit: I’ve remastered this sucker. It needed a bass boost, so it’s like up by 12 dB at 150 Hz, I’m sure.

Morty Gunty – 2

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/JAN07/MortyGunty.flv 400 300]

After starting his stint as a TV kid’s show host in New York, Morty Gunty got his big break. The one that every entertainer once dreamed of getting. The Ed Sullivan Show!

Morty seemed a little nervous at the start, and he probably should have cut his notorious mother-in-law chair joke to have extra time to slow down his delivery, but nothing Morty Gunty did or didn’t do that night mattered, because in the entire history of show business the circumstances couldn’t possibly have been worse. As you will see, Morty was the lead-in to an act that nobody would ever want to appear before, or after.

And then I went and got Morty fired from his day job.

Morty Gunty – 1

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/JAN07/HeadofFamily.flv 400 300]

Morty Gunty was a New York Jewish comedian in the grand, old tradition. Like so many others, he learned his craft by working the clubs in the Catskills.

Morty Gunty was in the original TV pilot for what later became “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” playing a nebbish. The part was reworked into Morey Amsterdam’s character. It was called “Head of the Family,” and the video has a little bit of it with Carl Reiner in the role that he would give to Van Dyke.

Morty Gunty. A name that shall haunt me forever. Why? I’ll get to that later, but first take note of the passage I’ve highlighted below in his obituary from The New York Times.

Published: July 17, 1984

Morty Gunty, the Brooklyn-born nightclub comic who played himself in the recent Woody Allen film, ”Broadway Danny Rose,” died of cancer yesterday in the Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn. He was 55 years old and lived in New City.

Mr. Gunty made his Broadway debut in 1967 in ”Love in E Flat.” He had his own local television show for children, ”The Funny Company,” and appeared in numerous benefits.

He is survived by his wife, Marilyn; two daughters, Sheryl Seiferas of Fort Lee, N.J., and Lori Gunty; a brother, Elliott Gunty of Spring Valley, and his parents, Belle and Abraham Gunty of Lauderhill, Fla.

Funeral services are scheduled for 11:30 A.M. today at the Riverside Memorial Chapel, Amsterdam Avenue and 76th Street, in Manhattan.