The Three Stooges are motion picture comedy icons. No argument on that one. Their Columbia two-reelers spanned from the 1930’s to the late 1950’s, and their popularity increased with repeated television broadcasts. The Stooges also made several full-length motion pictures, including Have Rocket Will Travel, The Three Stooges In Orbit, and The Outlaws IS Coming.
But try as they might, the Stooges could not successfully build a weekly live television series. With the exception of a syndicated live action / hybrid program called The New 3 Stooges in the mid-1960’s, the Stooges had three television pilots that, if they were picked up, could have evolved into weekly television shows.
The first pilot, filmed in the early 1950’s, is colloquially referred to as Jerks of All Trades. It features the lineup of Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Shemp Howard as handymen who eventually try to wallpaper a client’s house. The pilot was shot on videotape, with whole scenes captured in one take. Any mistakes? Too bad. Any props that didn’t play nice? Deal with it.
Keep an eye out for Stooge foil Emil Sitka, he appears in this pilot.
The second pilot is called Three Stooges Scrapbook. In it, the lineup of Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly-Joe DeRita are three bachelors who host a children’s animated series. Well, the first half of the episode features the trio trying to cook food in their studio apartment (and running afoul of the landlady who does not allow cooking in her building), and then dealing with a few scenes of a “haunted house with creepy ghouls” plotline, before finally arriving at the studio and introducing a cartoon.
For many years, the only copies of Three Stooges Scrapbook were either worn-out black and white prints, or clips that were repurposed for the film The Three Stooges in Orbit. But what you see here is the cleanest restored color footage of Three Stooges Scrapbook. And it’s a doozy.
And keep an eye out for Emil Sitka, he appears in this pilot.
The final pilot, filmed in 1970, is called Kook’s Tour, and features what appear to be the Stooges in retirement. The idea for this pilot was to have the Stooges – the lineup of Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly-Joe DeRita – leave the knockabout world of slapstick comedy, and travel around the country in an RV.
Unfortunately, during the filming of this pilot, Larry Fine suffered a debilitating stroke and was unable to complete the project. Director Norman Maurer (Moe Howard’s son-in-law) was able to finish the pilot, and hoped to pitch the show as a TV special, but no network picked it up. The few surviving copies of Kook’s Tour were printed on unstable film stock, which over the decades has reddened and faded over time.
But it’s still a treat to see the Stooges in what appears to be their final ride off to the sunset.
Watching these three pilots, I can see where the Stooges were going with each one – and I can also see what hindered each pilot from graduating to a full series.
Chuck The Writer 