Topic: Am I the only one who feels this way about the Joe Besser episodes?

[Woe-ee-Woe-Woe80]

Or if Harry Cohn had the good judgement to give Jules his walking papers and kept McCollum and Bernds.

True that, Harry Cohn did seem to show more favoritism towards Jules White over Hugh McCollum and Edward Bernds, I know the Stooges themselves (especially Shemp) preferred Bernds over White as director.

[GreenCanaries]

While very much an interesting thought in terms of taste, especially considering how Jules' direction got later, Jules was the one with tenure, who started the department and stuck with it. I doubt it would have ever played out otherwise unless Jules desired to leave on his own accord.

[Paul Pain]

Jules White was the head of the shorts department.  Its very breath came from Jules.

The problem with Jules, besides his hamfisted directing, is that he sincerely believed that, if a joke was funny once, it would be funny 20 times.  All his material, even outside the Stooges, has the exact same flavor, particularly in the 1950s.

[metaldams]

Even if hypothetically Jules left and McCollum and Bernds stayed, the lower budgets, necessitating stock footage films, probably would have made for rough sailing either way.  I view the Bernds directed Bowery Boys features as a continuation of his Stooge work and the kind of films The Stooges themselves should have been making at the time.

But yes, the shorts department was going to end with Jules and no one else.

[Paul Pain]

Even if hypothetically Jules left and McCollum and Bernds stayed, the lower budgets, necessitating stock footage films, probably would have made for rough sailing either way.  I view the Bernds directed Bowery Boys features as a continuation of his Stooge work and the kind of films The Stooges themselves should have been making at the time.

But yes, the shorts department was going to end with Jules and no one else.

Bernds and McCollum, knowing their work, would likely have indeed been the same.  I would see the only difference being which shorts were remade.

[Curly Van Dyke]

I've mellowed a bit on Besser. I still like him better with Abbott and Costello and love the 2 shorts with Hawthorne-That team had potential.
"Outer Space Jitters","Flying Saucer Daffy" and "Quiz Whizz" are pretty good-the rest are fair to terrible.
I don't blame Besser-he did the best he could but didn't really have the right style for Moe and Larry to play off.

[Steveb]

When I was a little Kid, the Bessers were my favorites because they were "the new ones"

[Dr. Mabuse]

A talented comedian in his own right, Besser was simply miscast as a Stooge.  The lack of chemistry between Moe, Larry and Joe was painfully obvious . . . and painfully unfunny. Joe gave it his best shot, but I find those 1957-59 shorts unwatchable. In fact, my Three Stooges collection ends with the 1949-51 DVD set — before the stock footage really hit the fan. 

[Woe-ee-Woe-Woe80]

A talented comedian in his own right, Besser was simply miscast as a Stooge.  The lack of chemistry between Moe, Larry and Joe was painfully obvious . . . and painfully unfunny. Joe gave it his best shot, but I find those 1957-59 shorts unwatchable. In fact, my Three Stooges collection ends with the 1949-51 DVD set — before the stock footage really hit the fan.

I do agree Moe & Larry didn't have the same chemistry with Joe like they did with Curly & Shemp, I agree the 1949-51 was the last truly great volume of the DVD sets, I do enjoy the 1952 stooge shorts a lot although I find "He Cooked His Goose" to be the only clunker short of that year, to me the last strong year for the stooge shorts is 1952.