Rita Moreno Remembers Affect of ‘Electrical Firm’ Catchphrase (Unique)

Rita Moreno remembers her days in The Electrical Firm fondly — and so do the present’s viewers.

Whereas chatting with PEOPLE forward of her visitor look on Mayan and George Lopez’s sitcom Lopez vs Lopez, the 92-year-old actress recalled her six-year stint on the tutorial program of the Seventies. 

As a forged member, Moreno participated in sketches to assist elementary faculty college students develop their studying and grammar abilities. Certainly one of her recurring characters, Millie the Helper, turned identified for the present’s iconic catchphrase, “Hey, you guys!” — which was later integrated into the opening credit.

Millie’s well-known yell was ultimately heard in schoolyards throughout the nation. Moreno tells PEOPLE that when the sequence started, “children could be yelling that up and down the varsity halls.”

“All of the principals of public colleges wished to kill me,” she quips. 

The Electrical Firm is considered one of Moreno’s many roles that she’s usually acknowledged for in public. When she walks to her desk at a restaurant, somebody on the bar would possibly shout Millie’s catchphrase, which “tickles” her to at the present time, she provides.

“We had been a bunch of immensely gifted individuals who put their careers apart, in a method, to assist younger kids learn to learn,” says Moreno, who gained a Grammy for greatest kids’s album with The Electrical Firm soundtrack. 

What she and the opposite forged members — together with Morgan Freeman — didn’t count on was that the present would attain extra than simply kids.

“Quite a lot of grown-ups would watch it who did not know learn how to learn in English,” the West Aspect Story star says. “That was a facet impact that none of us had even deliberate on, however it was thrilling.”

The completed actress additionally partook in different kids’s applications all through her profession, making visitor appearances in The Magic Faculty Bus and Disney’s Elena of Avalor. Most notably, she voiced worldwide thief Carmen Sandiego within the ‘90s sequence The place within the World Is Carmen Sandiego?.

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Moreno’s iconic 70-year profession consists of two Emmy Awards, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony, making her considered one of 27 individuals to attain EGOT standing. 

As for which award means essentially the most to her, the actress hasan speedy reply: “It must be the primary one, which was the Oscar for Pete’s sake. I imply, how are you going to not, proper? How blasé are you able to be?”