Topic: What If Shemp Survived Into the 70's

[IFleecem]

I Think It Would Have Been Much Better Whatchall Think?

Signed I Fleecem,
President

P.S. To Me This Poll Answers Itself (Being A Shemp Loyalist) But It'll Be Nice To Hear What Everyone Thinks.

[Pilsner Panther]

Much better, no question about it. Just imagine all the later Columbia shorts and their feature films with Shemp in them instead of the two Joes! For one thing, the presence of Shemp would have made up a great deal for the lousy post-1955 production values; he would have kept the audiences laughing so much that they wouldn't have noticed.

Shemp was especially funny in Stooge Westerns, so if he'd been in "The Outlaws Is Coming," that film would have been a true Stooges classic instead of just the best of the features.

[IFleecem]

Not To Mention All the TV Appearances, (Ed Sullivan, Joey Bishop etc.)


Signed, I Fleecem,
President

[kinderscenen]

It would've been much better, if only for the fact that Moe and the Columbia powers that be let Shemp be Shemp.  He wasn't asked to imitate Curly, or some other Curly-ish character, but was allowed to be (to me) the funnier Stooge.

I'm not sure if the movies could've improved much, though--while Shemp wasn't a risque comic by any stretch of the imagination, the watered-down, child friendly Stooges of the 60s could've used Shemp's touch.  They certainly couldn't have been any worse!

Oddly enough, seeing that the Stooges were set to appear in an R-rated film, I wonder if we missed the chance to see the burlesque style Joe DeRita that Larry claimed was Curly, the fat lady at the opera, and Lou Costello rolled into one.

[Giff me dat fill-em!]

Oddly enough, seeing that the Stooges were set to appear in an R-rated film ...

This I'm not familiar with. Perhaps you could enlighten me as to the particulars of our boys "almost" appearing in an R rated film.

[IFleecem]

What About The Three Stooges Cartoons w/ Shemp?



Signed,  I Fleecem,
President

[Pilsner Panther]

Not To Mention All the TV Appearances, (Ed Sullivan, Joey Bishop etc.)

It's too bad that the "powers-that-were" in early TV didn't see fit to give the Stooges their own show in the early 50's. A great example of what could have been is Moe, Larry, and Shemp's appearance on the Ed Wynn Show (available on "Three Stooges, The Men Behind The Mayhem" from Laughsmith Entertainment/Mackinac Media).

Along with the "Niagara Falls" routine in "Gents Without Cents," we get a rare example of how the Stooges performed in front of a live audience rather than just the camera. As with the Marx Brothers, Abbott & Costello, and a few other comedy teams that came up in vaudeville, they'd honed their routines to perfection by then. That is, in terms of timing (the most important element in slapstick comedy), and also knowing what would make an audience laugh and what wouldn't, they were old veterans, and they could hold audiences in the palms of their hands.

A half-hour live Stooges program would have been the equal of the funniest American comedy show of the 50's, "The Honeymooners."

Well, there's another historical "what if..."

 

[kinderscenen]

This I'm not familiar with. Perhaps you could enlighten me as to the particulars of our boys "almost" appearing in an R rated film.

Blazing Stewardesses--a movie that seemed so bad that even the trailer stunk.  Makes me wonder what would've been worse: having that be their swan song or Kook's Tour.

[Bruckman]

I dunno, Shemp's comic energy would've diminished as he grew older, and so much of Shemp's humor lies in his outrageous "selling" of pain inflicted by Moe that I don't know if I would've laughed had they been doing this stuff as old men. However, he would've been preferable to either of the Joes; he'd been with the act for so long that even a change in tempo could've been accommodated.

But for some reason, I picture an elderly Shemp sitting in a box on "Hollywood Squares" or some other cheesy game show of the 70s. I think Shemp would've quit performing only when he breathed his last - the exact scenario in 1955 as it turned out.

[Gorilla Watson]

I'd have to assume he might have a relapse of his health problems in the 1950s and perhaps a relapse toward (if not an extension of) whatever did him in in 1955. He'd probably be an invalid, like Larry ended up. I'd hate for that to be the case, but it's arealistic scenario. Maybe he would still be able to Stoge around until the end of their Columbia contract in 1958, but that would probably be it.

[Danl57]

Hello Stooge Fans,
Without a doubt, the Stooge shorts and films would have been so much better with Shemp, if he had lived into the 1970's.  No matter what Shemp did, he was funny.  Last night I watch "African Screams" with Abbott & Costello.  Both Joe Besser and Shemp were in this movie.  Besser was his usual self and Shemp had a very minor role with few lines and he stole the movie.  He played a very near sighted hunter.  It was an echo of the gag with the glasses that he did on some Stooge shorts.  Even with a minor role, Shemp was great.  Shemp was born to be an actor/comedian and I would have loved it if he would have been able to continue with the Stooges in their later years.

Shemp: "Them's fightin' words in my country"
Icabod Slipp: "Ok, lets fight"
Shemp: "Were not in my country"
Take Care God Bless and Keep Watching
Danl