So anyone else a big Three Stooges fan?
ABC is showing a made-for-TV movie about the Stooges, tonight at 8 PM EST. My VCR is set.
JMCJ
“Y’know, I would invite y’all to go feltch a dead goat, but that would be abuse of a perfectly good dead goat and an insult to all those who engage in that practice for fun.” -weirddave, set to maximum flame
I went to college with John Kassir, the guy who plays Shemp tonight—but I can’t tape or watch it, as I’m going to be on (local cable) TV myself, plugging my book! Bad timing. John also did the voice for the Crypt Keeper; nice guy (John, that is).
And his sister Diana takes all my author’s photos—brilliant photographer! Runs rings around that Liebovitz girl, for my money.
As am I.
BTW, for people who don’t know–the very first Stooges short was a musical, with Walter Brennan in an early role trying to sing.
Hey, Eve, if you want I’ll try and make you a copy and mail/deliver it to you (my sister keeps insisting that I have to visit up in the City some weekend; I keep insisting that I have to have a little more money saved up before I can come up, but I will come up at some point.)
Anyways, Tom Shales (T.V. critic for the Washington Post) had nothing but good things to say about Kassir’s performace.
JMCJ
“Y’know, I would invite y’all to go feltch a dead goat, but that would be abuse of a perfectly good dead goat and an insult to all those who engage in that practice for fun.” -weirddave, set to maximum flame
I’ve been a devoted Stooges fan since conception. I’m a firm believer that Curly is the funnier stooge (compared to Shemp, of course). Shemp may have been more of an actor, but Curly just hits that funny bone.
Jeremy…
Nobody ever calls me after they’ve done something smart.
Niagra Falls…
Slowly I turn, inch by inch…
No no Joe was the funny one. Not that fake Curly Joe. The real Joe Bessemer(SP??)
Love the Stooges? Soitenly! Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!
Actually, the TV movie was pretty good. I usually don’t have much good to say about network efforts in any genre, but I did enjoy this one.
I even gave myself a closer than normal haircut tonight in honor of Curly. Ten minutes with the clippers and I’m good to go!
I liked it, and since I knew very little about the Stooges off screen it was interesting (but I can’t vouch for its veracity). Only downside is that it probably was too much story to be told in a mere 2 hrs. Everything seemed a little too cursory, still entertaining. The actors were simply excellent in the roles.
Strong performance. Writing could be better.
Wasn’t that Abbott and Costello?
FTR, I watched the Stooges from about a half an hour into it and enjoyed it. I am not a huge fan of them since I (gasp) grew up, but as a kid thought they were hysterical. I thought considering these actors were playing out some of the most visible and memorable trio in history, they did an excellent job.
It was a Stooges routine, but I think it actually predates “Gents Without Cents” (where it became a classic), and probably goes back to vaudeville somewhere.
I have to post a response so I can fly in the face of conventional wisdom that men love the Stooges and women hate them. For years, I did not hate them, but I certainly did not care for them. That was because I had not had a proper chance to appreciate their work. Years ago, Wonderful Mate got me to watch a few during our early days together, and I saw the light. I have now become a definite fan.
Incidentally, I did not see the movie, and wouldn’t want to. I know that the Stooges’ characters were as separate from their real lives as any actors’ would be, and frankly, I don’t want to ruin the magic. The Stooges are one of the few remaining bastions of pure, simple, uncomplicated humor. I don’t want to watch a Stooges short and think about some personal tragedy or real-life problems Mo was going through at the time. That was their personal life. Their lives for me, the audience, were their characters on screen, and I want it to stay that way. I have deliberately avoided reading any of their biographies for that reason. Not denial - I know they were real and complex people like anyone else IRL. But I think their uncomplicated, unadulterated humor is what they were about as performers.
For better or for worse, professional life and personal life are very highly segregated in my thinking, both personally and abstractly.
MST3K: Best lil’ puppet show on the planet.
cygnus: Completely understandable. I’m reminded of a story George Burns used to tell- Jack Benny always felt a need to tip much higher than anyone else, if only to try and prove that Jack Benny the comedian was different from Jack Benny the character he played. One time he tipped a hat check girl $10, and the girl handed it back to him, saying, “Please, Mr. Benny, let me keep my illusions.”
Anyways, I thought the movie was very well done. I agree with Omni that it was way too brief; but two hours (less commercials) to cover fifty years means a lot of fast-forwarding.
And marxxx? Joe Besser? You must be insane.
JMCJ
“Y’know, I would invite y’all to go feltch a dead goat, but that would be abuse of a perfectly good dead goat and an insult to all those who engage in that practice for fun.” -weirddave, set to maximum flame
I am not a Stooges fan, but I am a fan of a book that was written about them, simply because it has one of the best book titles ever: “The Last of the Moe Haircuts.”
Couldn’t let this remark pass. The short you are talking about titled “Woman Haters” was an early one (1934) but not the first. “Plane Nuts” (1933) was the first. Others that predate it include:
Jailbirds of Paradise (1934)
Fugitive Lovers (1934)
Big Idea, The (1934)
Myrt and Marge (1934)
Roast-Beef and Movies (1934)
Dancing Lady (1933)
Beer and Pretzels (1933)
Hello Pop! (1933)
Meet the Baron (1933)
Nertsery Rhymes (1933)
In this world, you must be oh-so smart, or oh-so pleasant. For years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.
I saw it last night and I thought it was pretty good, and they got most of the facts right, AFAIK, not being a Stooge expert:
Ted Healey really was a drunken wife-cheater and cheap boss.
Cohen, the head of Columbia Pictures, really was as tight-fisted and intimidating as he was shown.
Shemp was, indeed the worry-wort of the group and did wet the bed; Moe really was the brains and boss of the outfit; Curly really did have the personal problems they showed, especially the relationship he had with his fans; Larry really did know how to play the violin and really was a gambler and ladies’ man.
And the Stooges really were cheated out of most of the money their films made. But then, so were most actors at the time. Only the MOST popular and powerful actors (Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, James Cagney, Garbo, et al) got the money they deserved.
But I read a different story about how the Stooges signed on with Columbia Pictures: The version I read was that they had broken up with Healey and went to several different studios to get work. Larry went to Columbia and Moe went to Universal. They BOTH got contracts on the same day. When they found this out, the studios checked the time-stamps on the contracts and found that Larry had signed the Columbia offer a mere forty minutes before Moe had signed Universal’s.
MUCH different from the version shown in that movie, huh? I wonder which is true?
Did you notice that Mel Gibson was one of the movie’s producers?
Sig Alert!
Eve said:
Who are you and what have you done with our Eve?
She would never make such a claim. She would be the first to expound on the comedic genius of the Stooges.
She’s probably writing a book about them as we speak.
but I am now, and have been ever since early college(!).
I don’t know why that is. But in addition to the obvious attraction of the main performers, I always felt there was
some inexplicable attraction of the films as a totality: the sets, the clothes, and the hopeless situations in which
the boys invariably found themselves.
Did you know that Lucille Ball was in one of their early
Columbia shorts?
Well, as usual, I never will behave like a mainstream female. I’ve loved the Stooges my whole life. Love the marathons they’ve been showing on cable lately. Love Dr. Zoidberg on Futurama going “Whoop, whoop, whoop.” By the way, cygnus, LOVE MST3K. Hubby and I just watched the pitiful “Phantom Menace,” and MST3K’d it all the way through.