Topic: How Did You Get Into the Stooges?

[Curly Q. Link]

Unlike most of you, I didnt start watching the stooges until I was older. The first time I saw them was on my 13th or 14th birthday, I was flipping though the channels and came across "N.Y.U.K" on AMC.  I cant really remember but, I think it was either DIZZY DETECTIVES or PARDON MY SCOTCH playing and it was one of the funniest things I ever saw.  From then on I was watching them every night, recording all the shorts I could. I've been obsessed ever since.

[jrvass]

It must have been in the late '60's on WKBD-TV (ch. 50) in Detroit. It was on after school and they showed "shortened" shorts. Maybe 3 in a half-hour, plus commercials. So basically you got the slapstick and not the comedy.

It wasn't until I saw the complete versions on cable that I became a fan/collector.

Moe to Curly: "Shave the ice!"

Curly to the block of ice:  "You have a very tough beard."

"So tell me, is it as warm in the country as it is in the summer?"
"Are you married or happy?"

Classic! I use the married or happy line whenever I'm asked the question "married or single?"

"I'm not married, I'm happy!"   

It just blows the questioner away for the rest of the interview/telemarketing quiz!

James

[ProfessorStooge]

When I saw the marathon the family Channel aired back in 1996. I was 14 at the time and soon became a Stoogephile.

[titmouse]

Started when i was 9 years old watching Channel 13 WLWI in indianapolis on the Harlow Hickenlooper show.....it was a kids show laced with stooges shorts.  He had a sidekick named Captain Starr....the guy looked like Kirk Douglas and Hickenlooper resembled one of the stooges foils...cy shindell.  It was 1964 and my dad took me down to one of the shows.  It was great. 

[strubachinkoscow]

Then when I was about 10 or 11, in 1965 or 1966 there was a kids show in the afternoon in Los Angeles called Billy Barty and The Three Stooges. That's when I really got to see them in action. Also, in the 1970's on channel 52 that used to show a whole hour of Three Stooges in the afternoon. They showed butchered versions of the shorts. Not until I saw them on cable that I saw the untampered versions.

Hey Wakkyjaky! Good old UHF channel 52 in Southern California. I have fond memories of sitting with my Banquet tv dinner at the 6 o'clock hour in my room watching the Stooges at age 12. That was my first cognitive exposure. As I recall, Ch 52 played Stooges at 4pm, followed by Little Rascals at 5pm then another round of Stooges at 6pm. Incredible memories..... I was an instant Shemp fan because he physically reminded me of my Uncle Willie. By the way, do you recall Ch 52's call letters?

Also do you remember Elliot Mintz? He had an interview show on that channel and he interviewed Moe and Stymie ( not at the same time ).

[McSnuff20]

I was about 6 years old in 1961 when The Three Stooges were brought to TV for a new audience.  I would sit with my sister and father every weekday morning around 7am before school and laugh uproariously.  I saw all the great old ones from the 30's and early 40's.  My favorite was Uncivil Warriors and Pardon My Scotch.  Great entertainment for young and old.  "Let's have a drink to the beautiful Mrs. Dodge." This is Major Filbert and he can smell a spy a mile away.  I'm glad he can't smell it any closer."

[Sr. Peedro Alvarez]

I grew up in the Detroit area in the mid 60's and they were shown on the Soupy Sales Show. Then I used to watch them after school at 4 pm on channel 50 in the early 70's (I was about 11 or 12). I rarely missed them.

Once, my father wanted to take me to Texas on his hunting trip, and of course I said no because I would be missing the Stooges for two whole weeks and that would be near impossible to live without them. Priorities, you know.

[jkrwild]

When I was about 5 years old my dad was watching The Stooges and he sat me down with him.  From that day on I was a Stooge Fan.


Jkrwild

[stoogesarepimp]

My dad started me on the stooges when I was about 9 or 10.  I rember the first short I saw was A Plumbing We Will Go.  After that I used to watch the stooges every morning untill they were taken off of AMC.  I'm glad that they are now on spike, but they are loaded with commercials and almost impossible to watch.

[Curleys_Girl_Suze]

I was about 6 years old in 1961 when The Three Stooges were brought to TV for a new audience.  I would sit with my sister and father every weekday morning around 7am before school and laugh uproariously.  I saw all the great old ones from the 30's and early 40's.  My favorite was Uncivil Warriors and Pardon My Scotch.  Great entertainment for young and old.  "Let's have a drink to the beautiful Mrs. Dodge." This is Major Filbert and he can smell a spy a mile away.  I'm glad he can't smell it any closer."

haha same here.

Gotta love "Officer" Joe Bolton..."Kids, don't try this at home..."

[Rutentuten]

When I was about 10 years old I received a small TV for Christmas to put in my room.  It took me about a week to discover that WBAP - Ch. 11 in Dallas, TX showed 2 stooge shorts every weekday morning as a part of "Slam Bang Theatre".  From that point until I moved away to go to college I started every weekday morning by watching my heroes on Slam Bang Theatre - from about 1967 to 1975.  I have watched them ever since on all the well-known venues, AMC, Spike, WTBS, WGN, etc., etc.

May they live forever!

[ShempThePimp]

I got into The Three Stooges when i got a VHS tape on my first birth day that had the 2 Shemp shorts on MALICE IN THE PALACE and SING A SONG OF SIX PANTS.

 Read his posts... 'nuff said.

[Pilsner Panther]

I got into The Three Stooges when i got a VHS tape on my first birth day that had the 2 Shemp shorts on MALICE IN THE PALACE and SING A SONG OF SIX PANTS.

If you try to be "cute" by doing things like changing your screen name to defeat the warning, it won't work. You'll notice that the warning is still there... but as of now, you're not, because I've just banned you for being a sneaky jackass ("it's not a bad word").

[Curlington]

I first saw the Three Stooges on Channel 11 in Dallas, Texas on a show called Slam Bang Theater with Icky Twerp. That was way back in the early 1960's.

[Shemoeley Fine]

I am sure my first view of the Stooges is quite unique. I saw it in 1957 as a 6 year old in Santiago, Cuba Desi ArnAz, not ArnEz's home town too. I saw it in Spanish, the Stooges are called Los 3 Chiflados whuch actually translates to silly ones, regardless I was instanly hooked. In Spanish the Stooges or Chiflados lose most of their verbal humour as the Stooges jokes lose quite a bit in translation but their physical humour is universal. I can't recall for sure which 2-reeler i saw perhaps, it was Loco Boy Makes Good or Calling All Curs.  A few weeks later I went back to the movies and saw another short, Dizzy Doctors......

About a year after seeing my first Stooges, my family moved to the USA and settled in New York City in the summer of 1958 and wham bam about a month later I saw the Stooges on WPIX TV channel 11 in the afternoons in English and i was hooked. I went to the first run movies of the late 50's and earl;y 60's, the full length films with Joe DeRita, although they weren't nearly as funny I was still a follower and my curiosity led me to read about them and learn that Curley had died before I ever saw the Stooges, I learned that Shemp, Moe and Curley were brothers  Over the years I have gone to hundreds of Film Festivals for the Stooges including several in the late 70's where Moe's daughter Jean Maurer showed home movies 

Many of the shorts seen on TV have been butchered, many deleted scenes in order to have two shorts aired in a 1/2 hour show, the movies versions were uncut as the ones shown currently on Spike TV although they should show them w/o commercials and then play the ads in between two reelers.

I am in my mid-50's and still enjoy the Stooges and have come to admire them fortheir vocal humour as they were fabulous satirsts, I leanred the English language and I appreciate them more, I also know of the state of US society in the 30's 40's and 50's which add humour to the ir verbal tirades and sight puns. The Stooges and their writers had a good command of the language to make funnies with their choice of words. Alhtough Stooges appeal overwhelmingly to males, my daughter and 2 grandkids enjoy atching the Stooges because of me, my youngest even has a mean woooooooooooooo  booooooooo woooooooo

See you down the online


client  What's behind the drapes?
store owner Curley The back of the drapes.

Moe    Are you sure?
Curley  I'm positive!
Moe    only A fool is positive.
Curley  Are you sure?
Moe    I'm positive

[moe-jo]

i got into it on New Year's Eve in Massachusetts this past year 2007.  Just flipping channels and I got to channel 14 and I was like "Hmmm...these guys look familiar...HEY, IT'S THE THREE STOOGES!"

[Double Deal Decker]

Like others here, I grew up w/The Stooges by watching them everyday after school. I must have been around 8 or 9 when I first started to watch them faithfully.

[moe-jo]

wow...and there I was, coming home everyday after school in New Hampshire, grabbing an apple, and watching soccer...

[archiezappa]

The first time I remember watching the Three Stooges I was 4 years old.  It was 1979.  "The Ghost Talks" is the first one I remember seeing.  I remember asking my mother a lot of questions about what was going on.  I've basically been a fan for over 28 years and I'm only 32.  Nearly my whole life.  Who know?  I may have watched the Three Stooges after I got home from the hospital.  I don't remember.  I was born awfully young.  I was born in a hospital, because I wanted to be near my mother.  But I digress...

[moe-jo]

it's really interesting how we all come from different backgrounds and we all like the same thing.

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

I never saw their shorts or movies when I was a child, apart from a few snippets. I had a vague impression of what they looked like and some idea of what they did (such as the eye-poke and the block with the blade of the hand), and I had heard of their names, but I did not know which name went with which face, let alone what the character of each was. I did not even know that they used their real names as characters in the shorts. In fact, I did not even have a clear idea of what medium they appeared in, whether short subjects, features, or television shows. I don't think I was ever steered away from watching them on television. I think it more likely that I was simply not interested. Why should I want to watch some old black-and-white movies of three guys being stupid and violent?

I am not sorry for the Stoogelessness of my boyhood, as it meant that I could make first acquaintance with their shorts in my adulthood, when I could better appreciate their attractions. I can't recall what led me to start watching them, but I do recall that during the long period of my life that I spent as a graduate student, I sought relief from the ponderousness of my studies in vulgar comedy. References to the routines and catch phrases of the Stooges made by friends and associates may have been the precipitating factor. Whatever the cause, I eventually started watching their shorts on television. Despite all that I found stupid or boring in them, the best bits---the ritualized and exaggerated yet consequence-free violence, made hilarious by the accompanying sound effects---charmed me utterly. Now I have all the shorts on DVDs, and I watch them frequently. I have made my way through the lot once and am now making my second tour of it.

[Stooge-Adam]

I watched them as a kid on a Saturday morning local show called "Super Host." He was a guy in a Superman looking outfit. Each program contained a Stooge short, a Looney Tunes cartoon and finally another Stooge short. As a kid, I prefered Curly but always loved it when a Joe came on, just because those were so rare, not because they were all that great.

Eventually I started buying tapes of the shorts. I had a pretty nice collection since the early 90s found Sony releasing a bunch of volumes. I also watched the boys on TBS at 6:05 in the morning.

When AMC started airing the Stooges (before they showed commercials during them), I recorded them and at one point, thanks to my professional copies and the AMC ones I had all 97 Curly shorts on tape. I had about maybe 50 or so Shemps and around 6 Joes.

Then DVDs came and I started that collection. I was thrilled when they started releasing the volumes of chronological shorts.

Now I prefer Shemp (which I take some verbal abuse for at work by a Curly fan) and I have all 190 shorts on DVD. Plus a few documentaries and pretty much any DVD I can find - including the cartoon and the Curly-Joe films (come on Sony, release Have Rocket, Will Travel).

[Desmond Of The Outer Sanctorum]

I had heard of them at various times during my life, and once I started getting on the Internet I read up on their history. What got me started on actually watching their stuff was my curiosity about the Besser era and whether or not it was as bad as everyone said! (BTW, I've concluded that only parts of it were.)

So I'm probably one of the very few Stooge fans to be brought in by Joe!

[Dog Hambone]

I " got into" The Three Stooges when i was little because I would go over to my gramma's house and she would be watching the Stooges on TBS. She saw that I liked then so she started taping them for me. I still have the tapes. So I guess you could say I sort of grew up with the Stooges..........WOW!  That sounds kind of pathetic!

No, that doesn't sound pathetic at all. I couldn't tell you what television station it was (probably several because my family moved a number of times when I was young). I just remember that I "sort of grew up with the Stooges", as you did. I'm too old for TBS; the Stooges were just being shown during the daytime by one of the local tv stations (in those days, you only had 3 local stations, affiliated with NBC, CBS, or ABC and, if you were lucky, a UHF or PBS station). In college, the local show was hosted by "Bungles the Clown" & came on at 4:30 pm. I used to get together with several friends nearly every day at that time & watch them while smoking a bunch of loco weed. How I ever graduated from college I'll never know. But as the tee shirt says, "Everything I needed to know, I learned from the Three Stooges".

[Shemp_Diesel]

I started watching them at a very young age, about 3 or 4, when I think TBS was airing the shorts. But I didn't become a hardcore nut about them until rediscovering the boys on the Family Channel's "Stooge TV", even though the shorts were butchered to fit 3 inside one hour.
I remember that We Want Our Mummy really got the scissors put to it. Oh, well...