television

Pretty Mary Sunlight

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I heard the other day that Jerry Reed, singer and actor, has passed away which made me a little sad. I grew up watching and loving Scooby Doo. Jerry Reed was a guest star on a New Scooby Doo Mysteries episode titled The Phantom of the Country Music Hall” and I fell in love with the song he played on the episode, a song called “Pretty Mary Sunlight.” He also played “Snowman” in the “Smokey and the Bandit” franchise but I was never that into it so to me, he was that guy on Scooby.
The episode’s plot was that Jerry was kidnapped and hidden somewhere within a music hall. The clue crew tried desperately to track him down all episode and did so by listening to him sing his song “Pretty Mary Sunlight” over and over and over again. All you saw of Jerry for about 50 minutes was him trapped in a room playing that damn song to try and get the kids to find him. Well, after an epic chase scene featuring a magical xylophone, Jerry is freed and all is well with the world.
So, why did this episode stick out compared to say, the Harlem Globetrotters, Phyllis Diller or other random celebs that were in these movies? Simply put its the song. The song is simple, catchy and insanly difficult to get out of our head once its in there. It is part of the fabric of my childhood and its not half bad either – check out the clip below.

Thanks Jerry.