Date: 09 Jul 95 15:07:08 EDT From: Winslow Yerxa <76450.32~ompuserve.com> Subject: Twilight Zone. Dr. Who
TO: internet:harp~kuvx1.wku.edu SUBJ: Twilight Zone, Dr Who
Someone commented last week about Twilight Zone episondes with harmonica.
LA-based sessions harmonica ace Tommy Morgan penned the scores for several original TZ eposides under the name "Tom Morgan." Some used harmonica, some didn't. I've seen the Andy Devine episode mentioned, which is great. Another I saw had a fight scene where every time one guy took a swing at his opponent, you'd hear a -ZIP- made by a fast chromatic scale on a polyphonia-type instrument. This is a specialty instrument where each hole - blow or draw or both - is tunes a semitone higher than the last, so you can play a chromatic scale just by blowing across the holes.
If some video archive-minded harmonica player could get a list of TZ episodes, with score credits, they might be able to dig out several other harmonica-using episodes from the ones Morgan scored. Of course, other composers might have used harmonica too, but maybe not in such hip ways.
On Friday night, I saw a 1988 Dr. Who episode title "The Happiness patrol" that featured a blues harp player as a character in the story.
The Seventh Doctor (the Doctor is a Time Lord who periodically regenerates into a new, progressively younger body; he usually has a female sidekick) and Ace, the teenage incendiary bomb enthusiast, materialize on an earth colony ruled by the maniacal Helen A., who desperately wants everyone to be HAPPY at all costs, and pumps muzak everywhere. Anyone caught expressing a sad thought is immediately branded a killjoy and arrested by the Happiness Patrol, a gang of miniskirted, bazooka-wielding, white pancake-makeup wearing barbie dolls. Punishment appears to be death by firing squad, but the squad backs off at the last minute, and the momentarily relieved victim is instead drowned in strawberry syrup (Fondant Surprise). No, I'm not making this up.
The Doctor meets up with Earl Sigma (off-planet visitors are sur-tggged with Sigma, a Greek letter contrasting with the regular latin alphabetical sur-letters of regular residents). Earl is a tall, nattily-attired young black man in a broad brimmed fedora, a psychology student stranded on the planet and playing harp on the street. He plays mean second-position single-note blues licks, but when the Happiness Patrol comes along, he segues immediately into sunny, chordal straight-harp ditties. He's given to saying things like, "Sounds like schizophrenic obsession to me," then playing a blues lick. His harp comes in useful when the Doctor wants a hanging glob of crystallized syrup in an underground tunnel to crash down on a pursuer, and enlists Earl's harmonica to play a note at the glob's resonant frequency.
The actor playing Earl was named Richard something (Smith? it was late, and no, the VCR wasn't running) but he was not actually playing; no credit was given for the harmonica player.
