Topic: Besser unused 1976 interview footage

[falsealarms]

Here's a TV interview (short) that Besser did - now I recognize some of it from
the 1976 NBC
piece on the Stooges, but all of this wasn't included in the segment I saw.

[youtube=425,350]0LESeae_4Pg[/youtube]

BeAStooge says: NBC news footage (unused), acquired by GoodTimes Video in the
late '90s. GoodTimes went out of business in 2005, and Legend bought
their film/video library.

The youtube clip is copied from Legend Films "The Three Stooges:
Extreme Rarities" DVD, released earlier this year.

[IFleecem]

Wow I wondered what happened to GoodTimes Videos, always looked thru em to find some cool stuff that was inexpensive, Gotta look at the Legend Films now. Thanks for the heads up.

Robin

[Desmond Of The Outer Sanctorum]

A few things I find interesting about this...

- The "positive spin" put on Joe's debut short in Variety
- The poster for live Stooge performances featuring Joe
- The trailer for "Fun-O-Rama"

And even though the actual interview part here is very short, it shows me one significant thing: Even though his stint with the Stooges seems to have been absolutely terrible for Joe's long-run reputation, it seems that he always viewed his Stooges experience very positively. Compare that to, say, Curly-Joe's view of his own Stooge experience. No wonder that, of the two, I like Besser better.

[IFleecem]

Totally Agree....I've ALWAYS preferred Joe Besser To Joe DeRita.  Always knew JB had his own style and never tried to be Curly, unlike JD. who not only was called Curly Joe but resembled him as well. Which I'm sure was the intention when he was picked to replace JB when he couldn't carry on due to his wifes illness.

I always wondered what It would have been like if JB had been able to continue in the 3rd Stooge role into the 60's. Although as I stated here last year or so, I'd have preferred that Shemp had survived and made it into the 70's with Moe And Larry.

Even though that was not to be, JB had his own talent and I don't think he deserves the backlash he has received for his brief stint as a Stooge.  Two reelers were on their way out by the time he joined and much smaller budgets and stock footage really carried most of the shorts.

This is just my valueless opinion but I think it has merit and I don't believe I'm the only one for feels this way about him and his contribution to the Stooging World.


Robin

Umpire: Don't you know where to put your foot?
Shemp: If I did you wouldnt be able to sit down for a week.
(Dizzy And Daffy)

[JazzBill]

Hee-Hee...... He said "do-do"..

[Desmond Of The Outer Sanctorum]

JB had his own talent and I don't think he deserves the backlash he has received for his brief stint as a Stooge.  Two reelers were on their way out by the time he joined and much smaller budgets and stock footage really carried most of the shorts.

I'm with you there. If one watches the Stooge shorts in chronological order it's easy to see that the biggest problems with the Besser era started several years before, right about the time Columbia started re-making fairly recent Shemp shorts.

If there had been bigger budgets, better scripts or consistent "Merry Mix Up"-level standards of how Joe was utilized, the Besser era would be looked upon very differently today.

[busybuddy]

The thing that makes me the maddest is the fact that Curly-Joe actually admitted he didn't think the Stooges were funny. It's in the Three Stooges Scrapbook. I think that may be why he was the least funny of the Stooges. He just didn't get it and he made no attempt to.

I just watched Triple Crossed last week and as a good example of overly-used stock footage, Moe has no new scenes until 13 minutes in! But another problem that I see with the Joe shorts is that they are no longer complete morons. When one of them says a joke, they realize its a joke. When Joe uses the "Fine For Hunting" jokes in Guns-A-Poppin', Larry scoffs afterward, instead of agreeing with him like he did with Curly. Also in that same short, Joe says Moe is nuts for eating his eggs sunny-side down, and for eating spaghetti for breakfast. In the earlier years, thise were just Stooge-isms. In these shorts, they seem more like eccentric old men rather than stooges.

[RICO987]

I believe I am in agreement with most of what was said about JB in this topic recently.  I also wish that JB instead of Curly Joe had continued on into the 60s and even 70s.  I never knew that CJ did not believe the Stooges were funny – no wonder he was not funny in any of the movies the Stooges did in the 60s. 

What this topic brings to mind is the subject of Moe and/or the producers of the 60s movies attitudes toward Stooge antics.  I mean, what made The Three Stooges stooges were the classic slaps, pokes and other mayhem, along with the appropriate sound effects that I suspect attracted most of us to the Stooges in the first place.  I cannot remember the movie name, but I remember Moe going out of character, turning toward the camera and saying something to the effect about how violence was out for the Stooges as of that movie. 

I always wondered if Moe grit his teeth to say that, or had he just given up with studio execs who were obviously caving in to parents groups with the “No Violence” policy.  That policy ruined the 60s movies for me – I bet Moe and Larry would have still been funny had that policy not been in effect.  Ah, what could have been…

[Desmond Of The Outer Sanctorum]

I bet the Stooges could have been funny even with Curly-Joe if they had made shorts with proper Stooge mayhem instead of full-length movies where they were watered down.

[RICO987]

I bet the Stooges could have been funny even with Curly-Joe if they had made shorts with proper Stooge mayhem instead of full-length movies where they were watered down.

I would have to agree.