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Moe & Larry's haircuts in the Besser shorts
Dog Hambone:
--- Quote from: TXShemp on November 19, 2010, 09:55:01 PM ---Besser was no Stooge. Period. I'm not exactly sure what he was, but I know for sure he did not fit in this trio.
--- End quote ---
When I was young, I too didn't like the Joe Besser shorts much. But I have a better appreciation for him after seeing all of his shorts in Volume 8 of the Stooges collection.
To be fair, he had a couple of hard acts to follow. He has a distinctly different style. And he had an unenviable disadvantage in that many of his shorts were re-do's of earlier shorts that featured Curly or Shemp, sometimes with virtually the same script. I think anyone could have looked bad given those circumstances. The all original Besser shorts are not bad at all. Try buying Volume 8 & watching all the Besser shorts (well, you can skip SWEET & HOT) and watching them for what they are, not for what might have been.
xraffle:
--- Quote from: Dog Hambone on November 20, 2010, 11:16:57 AM --- The all original Besser shorts are not bad at all. Try buying Volume 8 & watching all the Besser shorts (well, you can skip SWEET & HOT) and watching them for what they are, not for what might have been.
--- End quote ---
Agreed! After buying Volume 8 and watching it, I give Besser more credit than I ever did before.
Sometimes I wonder, if there were no Curly, Shemp or DeRita and it was only Moe, Larry and Joe from the beginning until the end, would people still hate on Besser? Now remember! I'm now putting you in a world where Curly, Shemp and DeRita do not exist. From the 1930s to the 1970s, it's all Moe, Larry, and Joe.
JazzBill:
--- Quote from: TXShemp on November 20, 2010, 11:15:54 AM ---Now that I think about it, I have heard the rumor about Buddy Hackett. He was on the Dick Van Dyke show...? He didn't look that young to me, but I don't know any background on him. I don't recall reading any opinions from Moe on Mousie Garner. I had the opportunity to meet him at the '94 convention. He did a one-man piano show during the banquet. This is all I have ever actually seen of his work, but my family and I thought he was really funny.
--- End quote ---
Morey Amsterdam played Buddy on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
TXShemp:
Thats right. I was confusing Buddy's.
Desmond Of The Outer Sanctorum:
--- Quote from: xraffle on November 20, 2010, 11:54:43 AM ---Agreed! After buying Volume 8 and watching it, I give Besser more credit than I ever did before.
Sometimes I wonder, if there were no Curly, Shemp or DeRita and it was only Moe, Larry and Joe from the beginning until the end, would people still hate on Besser? Now remember! I'm now putting you in a world where Curly, Shemp and DeRita do not exist. From the 1930s to the 1970s, it's all Moe, Larry, and Joe.
--- End quote ---
No, I don't think people would be hating on Besser. But I don't think the Stooges would be quite as popular either.
Anyway, I agree that Joe doesn't get enough credit. He had so many disadvantages beyond his control -- like the budget cuts that had already affected Shemp shorts -- that to bash him is just pointless. At least he tried, and he didn't claim to be better than he was. Many of his era's scripts wouldn't have been much better with Curly or Shemp instead.
He definitely had his weaknesses as a Stooge. But if more scripts had used his strengths as well as A MERRY MIX UP did, his era might be assessed a little differently now.
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