Writers of the Purple Prose

**"WRITERS OF THE PURPLE PROSE"** is the thirty-second episode of *Histeria!*.

## Summary

The Histerians meet famous writers Samuel Butler and William Shakespeare and see *Mary Had A Little Lamb 2000* including Billy and Blaze between 1936 and 1970.

## Sketches

### Act 1

1. A Word from the Wise - William Shakespeare (1600) (1A) / Gorgous Shakespeare (1600) (1B)
2. Theme - Histeria Nite Live (2A) / Theme - Line From Burbank California (A-Team parody) (2B)
3. Important Message from Leo Tolstoy and Father Time (French Invasion of Russia)
4. Of Mice, Men, and Dogs (3A) / The French Invasion of Russia (1812) (4B)
5. Pepper Mills Jingle
6. The Third Degree with Lydia Karaoke: Chit's Notes (5A) / Strange Coincidences: Misery (1987) (6B)

### Act 2

1. Writers of the Purple Prose Bumper #1
2. Toast Jingle (Home Improvement parody)
3. Dictionary Pitch (3A) / Ask Me If I Care: Gottfried August Bürger (1774) (3B)
4. That's the Story That's Told By the Bard (song) (4A) / The Legend of T.H. White (song) (4B)

### Act 3

1. Writers of the Purple Prose Bumper #2
2. Pepepr Mills Jingle
3. Those Wacky Words! with Mr. Smartypants: Going Berserk (3A) / Pepper Mills Returns to Camelot (14th Century) (3B)
4. Today's Spanish Lesson (4A) / Sir Thomas Malory Knows About That (4B)
5. A Tribute to Samuel Butler (5A) / Charles Perrault is Not Professor Tinkerputt (5B)
6. William Blake's "The Lamb" (1757) (Original version) (6A) / Mikhail Bulgakov's Big Surprise (1938) (6B)
7. Mary Had a Little Lamb 2000 (7A) / Billy and Blaze (1936/1970) (7B)

### Act 4

1. Old Man in the Acres (1951)
2. Crime and Punishment (1866)

### Act 5

1. MacBeth (1040)
2. William Blake's "The Lamb" (1757) (Revised version)
3. The End

### Bonus Act

1. And Now Our Bonus Presentation
2. Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

### Unknown Acts

1. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
2. Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky
3. The Romeo and Juliet Acres
4. MacBeth
5. King Richard II of England
6. Coriolanus, Hero Without A Country
7. Antony and Cleopatra

## Voice Cast:

1. Cody Ruegger as Loud Kiddington
2. Maurice LaMarche as William Shakespeare
3. Luke Ruegger as Big Fat Baby and Billy the Kid
4. Candi Milo as Charity Bazaar
5. Jim Cummings as Fyodor Dostoevsky
6. Nora Dunn as Lydia Karaoke
7. Corey Burton as Thomas Jefferson
8. Billy West as Chit Chatterson and Sir Thomas Malory
9. Debi Derryberry as Pepper Mills
10. Tress MacNeille as Toast
11. Frank Welker as Father Time
12. Nathan Ruegger as Froggo
13. Cree Summer as Aka Pella
14. Mr. Lawrence as Marc Antony
15. Thurl Ravenscroft as T.H. White
16. Laraine Newman as Miss Information and Joan of Arc
17. Harry Shearer as Gottfried August Burger
18. Jeff Bennett as Lucky Bob
19. Tim Curry as Long John Silver
20. Jerry Orbach as Napoleon Bonaparte and Lumiere
21. Scott Innes as C.W. Anderson
22. Seth MacFarlane as Marc Antony
23. Tony Jay as Singing Richard Nixon, Leo Tolstoy and Laurence Sherman Kutler
24. Sherm Cohen as Karl Marx
25. Andre Sogliuzzo as King Arthur
26. Rob Paulsen as Mr. SmartyPants
27. John Cleese as Charles Perrault and Robert Louis Stevenson
28. Donal Gibson as Mikhail Bulgakov

## Special Guest Stars

1. Adam West as Ernest Hemingway
2. Harry Shearer as Gottfried August Burger
3. Ernest Borgnine as Mermaid Man
4. Tim Conway as Barnacle Boy
5. Don Novello as Leonardo Da Vinci
6. Mark Hamill as The Wright Brothers
7. Matt Groening as Himself
8. Stephen Hillenburg as Himself
9. Frank Thomas as Himself
10. Ollie Johnston as Himself

## Trivia

* The song "That's the Story That's Told By the Bard" is also one of the four songs of *Histeria!* performed by Randy Rogel and Rob Paulsen in their *Animaniacs Live! (or Animaniacs in Concert)* touring shows, along with "The Invasion Song" (from *Great Heroes of France*), "People Wanted Pepper on their Food" (from *Histeria! Around the World*), and "I Can't Believe You Stabbed Me in the Back" (from *Return to Rome*). If sometimes accompanied by an orchestra, they optionally sing these four songs with Steve and Julie Bernstein (two of the show's composers and the vocalists for the Histeria Kid Chorus respectively).
* The final shot of the episode (after the characters sign off) is a dictionary meaning of the phrase "The End", similar to the very first scene of the 1994 crime film *Pulp Fiction*.