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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 25, 2018 9:47:25 GMT -5
I remember seeing a movie about Abbott and Costello that chronicled their history. It turns out that when they split as a team, Abbott fell on hard times and was forced to beg for money on TV. Costello held a grudge against him for years of being the butt of the joke in their act. It was pretty sad to see that. What are your recollections of Comedy teams and do you know how did they ended up ?
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Post by Prince Hal on Jun 25, 2018 10:29:42 GMT -5
I loved A and C when I was a kid and still enjoy many of their old routines, which they recycled on their TV show and throughout their movies. That show and several of their movies were highlights of my early TV watching. ("A and C Meet Frankenstein" and "Hold That Ghost" in particular.) We also used to watch the late genius Chuck McCann, who showed Laurel and Hardy films, imitated them both and even used L and H puppets at times. (My favorite of theirs is probably "The Piano Box.") And, of course, we loved the Three Stooges shorts, especially those with Curly and Shemp, which, like L and H and A and C, also were a staple of afternoon kids' shows on WPIX, Channel 11 in NYC. Officer Joe Bolton was the Stooges' presenter, and he often reminded us that the Stooges weren't really hitting each other with hammers or sawing each other's noses off and that they weren't fighting real gorillas, just in case we got an idea to imitate them or the movies were too scary... We loved the piefights and watching society matrons stripped to their bodices and slips when the Stooges stepped on the trains of their evening gowns. Pressed for time now, but I shall return, Icctrombone. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 25, 2018 10:57:34 GMT -5
I loved A and C when I was a kid and still enjoy many of their old routines, which they recycled on their TV show and throughout their movies. That show and several of their movies were highlights of my early TV watching. ("A and C Meet Frankenstein" and "Hold That Ghost" in particular.) We also used to watch the late genius Chuck McCann, who showed Laurel and Hardy films, imitated them both and even used L and H puppets at times. (My favorite of theirs is probably "The Piano Box.") And, of course, we loved the Three Stooges shorts, especially those with Curly and Shemp, which, like L and H and A and C, also were a staple of afternoon kids' shows on WPIX, Channel 11 in NYC. Officer Joe Bolton was the Stooges' presenter, and he often reminded us that the Stooges weren't really hitting each other with hammers or sawing each other's noses off and that they weren't fighting real gorillas, just in case we got an idea to imitate them or the movies were too scary... We loved the piefights and watching society matrons stripped to their bodices and slips when the Stooges stepped on the trains of their evening gowns. Pressed for time now, but I shall return, Icctrombone . I remember an awesome cameo by the Three Stooges in the movie It's a Mad mad world. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2018 12:31:47 GMT -5
Same as Prince Hal. Abbott & Costello. Three Stooges (both Shemp & Curly). I also liked the Little Rascals/Our Gang shorts. Wasn't really into Laurel & Hardy or the Marx Bros. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2018 12:48:59 GMT -5
I find that all of these teams are legendary - to me, the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, and the Three Stooges were my favorites. I feel that Laurel and Hardy were top of their game -- but I feel that I didn't see much of them at all. But, in my mind -- Charlie Chaplin had a line-up of leading ladies and these are the gems back then.
Georgia Hale in Gold Rush
Edna Purviance co-starred with him in 34 films
Paulette Goddard - in Modern Times and Great Dictator -- should be noted.
Personally, I think Georgia Hale and Edna Purviance should be noteworthy -- I have problems with Paulette for some reasons that I can't explain. But, with Gold Rush a trio of Hale, Swain, and Chaplin were legendary, very legendary that every friend that I've talked to saying that the Gold Rush that Charlie Chaplin did back in 1925 -- the trio was so much talked about that this team should be noteworthy. Chaplin and Swain along with Hale should be mentioned in the same breath as the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, The Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, and others.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 25, 2018 13:29:49 GMT -5
This was a surprise to me but the most financially successful comedy team of the 1950s was Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall. They owned 50% of the production company that made their Bowery Boys movies. Gorcey had 40% and Hall 10%, and neither of them had to work ever again unless they felt like it. Quitting the studio-owned Eastside Kids movies and setting up that production company has to rank among the most successful "power plays" by Hollywood stars ever.
Other comedy teams I recall:
Rowan & Martin I remember from before Laugh-In; they worked together since 1952.
Burns & Schreiber came together in the mid-60s and had a pretty good run. Earlier, Jack Burns worked with a different partner - a fellow named George Carlin.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jun 25, 2018 16:07:21 GMT -5
Same as Prince Hal . Abbott & Costello. Three Stooges (both Shemp & Curly). I also liked the Little Rascals/Our Gang shorts. Wasn't really into Laurel & Hardy or the Marx Bros. Loved the Little Rascals! |
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Post by beccabear67 on Jun 25, 2018 17:11:49 GMT -5
I like all the Hal Roach productions so I'd rate Laurel & Hardy as the best team, from silents to talkies! George Burns & Gracie Allen have to be up there too, was lucky a specialty channel began re-running their old shows along with Jack Benny. In a weird way Beavis & Butthead were a great team, the epitome of Jackass generation comedy? Cheech & Chong? I didn't like the Marx Brothers as a kid but I like them a lot now, plus Groucho on his own is always good I think. How about Zasu Pitts & Thelma Todd... too obscure? Youtube them!  As for how they end up, I thought Jerome 'Curly' Howard of the Stooges had the saddest story.  |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 25, 2018 17:55:14 GMT -5
What happened to curly ?
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Post by beccabear67 on Jun 25, 2018 21:21:43 GMT -5
Curly had to leave the Three Stooges after a massive stroke, and, after several more strokes, he died four years later at age 48. There were also stories of his unhappiness that fans would come up to him in the street and poke him or hit him and other things like that from the Stooges shorts. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curly_HowardHe was a very good looking guy actually and started out as a dancer and athlete.   |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 25, 2018 23:27:06 GMT -5
Burns & Schreiber were a duo I saw, in the early 70s (they hosted the ABC Saturday Preview, when the first Super Friends series debuted, as well as Rick Springfield, in Mission Magic). Good team, though they kind of went their separate ways by the mid to late 70s. Schreiber passed away; but, Burns is still going. You wouldn't think, to look at him and his comedy character; but, he was a Marine.
Mike Nichols and Elaine May were fantastic, but rather unknown to later generations, as they focused more on writing and directing, rather than performing.
Love the Marx Brothers. Harpo Speaks was one of the funniest books I ever read and Groucho's letters, aside from his own books are a scream. He got into a war of words with Warner Bros., over A Night in Casablanca. WB tried to claim infringement on the Bogart movie and Groucho responded by claiming title on "brothers and that they were brothers before the Warners. After a couple of silly exchanges Jack Warner surrendered. This was also a man who called TS Elliot, Tom. Harpo was buddies with the Algonquin Round Table crowd, especially Alexander Wolcott.
Burns and Allen were a unique pair.
In the modern realm, you can't beat the British duos of Fry & Laurie and French & Saunders. Major powers in British comedy in the 80s and 90s and still prominent figures in British entertainment and society today. Thanks to QI and the Harry Potter audios, Fry is like a god, or at least a favorite uncle. In that realm, you can add The Two Ronnies (Barker and Corbett), Morecambe & Wise, and Rik Mayall & Adrian Edmondson.
I'm a big fan of Laurel & Hardy (and Chaplin) thanks to our old local Shakey's Pizza Parlor, which used to show the old shorts, while you dined. The one where they try to move a piano is still a gut-busting classic.
Loved the Little Rascals, though there is a lot of darkness there. Jackie Cooper was horribly treated by directors in other films, with one threatening to shoot his dog to get him to cry on camera. Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer was killed in self defense when he attacked a friend, with a knife, in an argument. He had a history of a violent temper. Of course, there is also Robert Blake, though he got off the murder charge.
For my money, though, the best comedy duo was Bugs and Daffy.
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Post by beccabear67 on Jun 26, 2018 1:49:52 GMT -5
And how could I forget Peter Cook & Dudley Moore... just love all the old 'Not Only But Also'! Peter Cook on his own as The Misty Mr. Wisty and other characters is a real howl even after all this time.
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Post by comicsandwho on Jun 26, 2018 2:05:08 GMT -5
I'm old enough to remember watching 'The Three Stooges' on TV, just a few years before they disappeared from syndication in the '80s. I wasn't really old enough to appraeciate it as something greater than what it looked like(three guys hitting each other), yet I still found them entertaining('Our Gang', not as much; my local station sometimes ran a Stooge short paired with the 'Little Rascals' to fill the half hour).
I never really dived into the 'slapstick comedy teams' of the 30s, so no real connection, beyond the most famous routines, to A & C ('Who's on First?'), Laurel and Hardy('The Music Box'..although I did also like 'Sons of the Desert') or the Marx Brothers(I actually prefer 'older' Groucho, in 'You Bet Your Life', and in '60s TV guest shots which are now all over Youtube).
I definitely agree that George Burns and Gracie Allen were unforgettable(and as good as George was without Gracie, even he admitted that she made the act, and made him the star he eventually 'aged' into being).
Never part of a 'comedy team' as such, Jack Benny, and his radio show, had one of the earliest, and greatest, examples of the 'ensemble comedy', which would be a role model for so many later sitcoms. The likes of Phil Harris, Mel Blanc, Dennis Day, Don Wilson, and Frank Nelson, all had their moments away from Benny's show, but there was a certain 'magic' when they were all together(the fact that the whole cast rarely appeared together on Jack's TV shows takes just a bit of the luster off).
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 26, 2018 10:50:50 GMT -5
Burns & Schreiber were a duo I saw, [...] Schreiber passed away; but, Burns is still going. You wouldn't think, to look at him and his comedy character; but, he was a Marine. Jack Burns was also the guy who changed George Carlin's politics from right to left, which surprised me when I read about it here: blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2008/08/the-early-georg.html'After Carlin was discharged he found a job at Radio WEZE, Boston. The station's newsman was Jack Burns. He would inform Carlin's entire life perspective. "At that time George was fairly conservative," said Jack Burns. "I always had a progressive agenda. I thought it was the duty of an artist to fight bigotry and intolerance. We had long, interesting, conversations, good political discussions." "I kind of learned my politics and liberalism from him," said Carlin. "My mother was part of the Joe McCarthy, Westbrook Pegler, William Randolph Hearst, Francis Cardinal Spellman axis of conservative Catholicism. I was probably more centrist. But when I watched the Army-McCarthy hearings, I probably rooted for his side. I bought all that because I didn't hear a coherent counterargument anywhere."' Jack is now 84; his most recent IMDB credit is from 2015. |
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Post by comicsandwho on Jun 26, 2018 13:37:49 GMT -5
As much as I loved Carlin's 'classic era' comedy, I was kind of turned off by the raging, aggressively cynical, 'F**K YOU, and F**K EVERYTHING!' attitude of his later years. He became a very bitter old man.
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