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Posts Archived Under Actors
Larry Fine looking stunned,
undoubtedly by some
unexpected turn of events |
People who work in comedy know the "Rule of Three." That is, when writing jokes or creating a comedic movie, TV show, play, or even a skit, writers know how to establish a situation, confirm it, and then overturn it. If you look for it, you'll see it all the time: "A priest, a minister, and a rabbi walk into a bar ..."; "an Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotsman were arguing ..."; "a genie grants a man three wishes ..."
With that rule so well-known, it makes us wonder why there are so few three-man comedy teams. There's the Ritz Brothers (who few remember nowadays), the Marx Brothers (who originally were a quartet), the Three Stooges -- and that’s about it.
We were reminded of this apparent paradox today in noting that October 5 marks the birthday of our favorite Stooge, Larry Fine. Every Stooge fan has his favorite. (We use the pronoun "his" deliberately here, since it's well known that women just don't get -- or even like the Stooges.) Some prefer the outright lunacy of Curly; some think Shemp is the ne plus ultra of wackiness; there are undoubtedly those who think the antics of Joe or Curly Joe cannot be bettered; and we're sure Moe brings delight to many for his attempts to bring order out of chaos.
But Larry is, for us, the essential Stooge. His "normalcy" (at least in terms of Stoogedom) provides the necessary grounding between Moe's masochism and Curly's flights of fancy. The Trinity of Stooges has been compared to Sigmund Freud's theory of the unconscious (no, honestly), what with Moe's controlling force representing the ego, Curly the uncontrollable id, and Larry, the superego that strives for organization and peace.
Larry Fine himself was an unassuming man. He was born Louis Feinberg in Philadelphia in 1902, and after a childhood accident (he burned his arm with acid), he took up the violin, a choice that led to a career in vaudeville, where a chance meeting with comedian Ted Healy (who had originally hired the Howard Brothers -- Moe, Shemp, and Curly -- to accompany him on stage) led him to join Healy's act as the third Stooge, a role he would hold for the next four decades, until a debilitating stroke forced him to retire.
Larry's contribution to the act is invaluable. He provides an entry point for the viewer, allowing us to put Moe's harshness and Curly's craziness into context. Without him, Stooge fanatics would be left only with an authoritarian beating up on a lunatic. And every so often, Larry will say or do something so off the wall that it confirms his own existence as a Stooge.
Director Peter Farrelly has been threatening to make a new "Three Stooges" movie for years. While this may not seem a good idea at first blush (Benicio Del Toro as Moe? Sean Penn as Larry?), his views on Mr. Fine give Larry-philes reason for hope (while also providing a fine epitaph): "Growing up, first you watched Curly, then Moe, and then your eyes got to Larry. He's the reactor, the most vulnerable. Five to fourteen, Curly; fourteen to twenty-one, Moe. Anyone out of college, if you're not looking at Larry, you don’t have a good brain."
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Directory categories:
Larry Fine, The Three Stooges, Comedy Teams, Comedy, Actors |
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Archived under: 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, Actors, Biographies, Birthdays, Comedians, Entertainment, Humor, Men, Movie History, Movies, Musicians, The Three Stooges, Vaudeville |
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Mystery, Inc. on the case |
A dark and stormy night. A shot rings out! A body falls, and soon two NYPD detectives are on the scene, cracking wise about a gruesome murder. Without warning, a colorful van screeches to a halt and out pop a ravenous slacker and a talking Great Dane. (Or should we say a "ralking Reat Rane?")
A fever dream? Perhaps. But we prefer to think of it as a crossover between two of our favorite television shows.
Those who don't believe that the universe has a plan will have to explain why both "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" and "Law & Order" both premiered on September 13 (granted, those premieres were 21 years apart, but still ...).
The possibilities of worlds colliding in this way are endless: Daphne Blake as Jack McCoy's newest A.D.A.; Fred Jones and Lennie Briscoe trading quips; and D.A. Adam Schiff ordering Scooby and Shaggy to get the hell out of his office.
While some may consider Detective John Munch to be one of the centers of the TV universe (after all, he's crossed over onto nine shows), we'll put our money on John Di Maggio, just about the only actor to appear on both shows. Ruh-roh!
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Directory categories:
Scooby-Doo, Law & Order, Animated TV Shows , TV Cop Shows, Animated Characters |
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Archived under: 1960s, 1990s, Actors, Animation, Anniversaries, Cartoons, Children´s TV, Coincidence, Crime, Criminals, Detectives, Entertainment, Hanna-Barbera, Law Enforcement, Mashups, Media, Mysteries, TV |
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To paraphrase Abraham
Lincoln, "People who don't like
this sort of thing will find this
isn't the sort of thing they like."
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Over the last two days, we've revealed the not-so-sordid secrets of many Yahoo!s by letting them publicly confess some of the things they're proud to have never done. We conclude those revelations today with a grab-bag of confessions that didn't fit into any other categories (or that came in late -- you know who you are ...). They mostly (and unsurpringly) deal with pop culture, but there are one or two surprises to be found.
Emily: I've never read any of the "Harry Potter" books, or seen any of the movies, and I don’t plan on changing that anytime soon. I’m just obstinate, and the fan fic/slash kind of creeps me out.
Heather: Somehow, despite all the random piercings and multi-colored dye-jobs my friends got as teenagers, I managed to make it through my youth without so much as having a needle held to my ear, or a bottle of hydrogen peroxide tingling on my scalp.
Richard: I’ve never seen a movie in which Melanie Griffith could act as a convincing human being. Never.
Mitzi: I've never seen "Eraserhead." I refuse to watch "Dancing with the Stars" (I don’t care how popular it is!). I've never seen "Citizen Kane" (I’ve rented it a few times, but never got around to seeing it). I've never read "1984." (I know!) And I've never seen the "Oprah" show (not even when I’m at home sick with the flu or something).
Adrianna: My bike was stolen before the training wheels were taken off, so I never learned how to ride a bike! I have tried as an adult, but every time I get on, the wobbly feeling makes me hop right off.
Jasmin: I’ve never been to a frat party. I attended a JC before transferring to a private women’s college. No boys equals no frat parties.
Mike: I’ve surely donned some trendy fashions in my day (pegged pants, flat top, MULLET!), but I never thought those wannabe-a-Spaceman sunglasses from Oakley were cool, and I certainly never owned a pair.
And to end this festival of soul-bearing, we present this following rant:
Brian: I’ve never created a MySpace or Facebook profile -- and never intend to. I've purposely stayed away from MySpace not because it's "addicting" (according to some people), but because I just don't have time -- or the need -- to look at a page that could give one a seizure. (MySpace users are the biggest offenders in this regard.) What makes MySpace intolerable is the plethora of choices one can pick from to create a page. It's like when a 5-year-old wants to cook something for the first time for his or her parents. What does the kid do? They grab every ingredient that looks appealing and dump it all into one bowl, which makes for the most inedible steaming pile of crap one could imagine. That’s what MySpace pages are: "Let's add an obnoxious background, and sprinkle it with some bright fonts which make reading the page impossible! And for good measure, let's add a music video and an audio clip to the mix so that the connection speed is like a 14.4 K modem!" Can you say "Geocities page, circa 1997?" Considering most people on MySpace are teens and have the most time to kill, it's understandable they dominate the population of the site. However, I remember when I was in high school, I kept in touch with my friends the old-fashioned way ... IN PERSON. I guess face-to-face contact can't compete nowadays with a quick message and an amusing photo pasted in a comment field of some random guy getting hit in the nuts, can it?
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Directory categories:
Harry Potter Books, Piercing, Melanie Griffith, Oprah Winfrey Show, Social Networks |
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Archived under: 1984, Actors, Biking, Body Art, Books, Children´s Literature, Citizen Kane, College and Universities, Dancing With the Stars, David Lynch, Education, Entertainment, Fan Fiction, Hair, Harry Potter, In Character, Movies, MySpace, Oprah, Reality TV, Social Networking, Yahoo! |
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One of our favorite things to do at The Spark is to compare notes with our fellow Yahoo!s -- and you, our readers -- on things that we have in common. In the past, we've polled folks about things we hate or which celebrities we had our first teen crushes on.
In researching items for today’s Spark, though, we noted that August 31st marks the 35th anniversary of the last network airing of "The Partridge Family." Seeing this, I was reminded of the fact that I've never seen an episode of either "The Partridge Family" or "The Brady Bunch." Now, I like to think of myself as something of a maven on popular culture, so how have I dodged these particular bullets for nearly 40 years? Well, it hasn’t been easy, I'll admit. As a kid, I just thought they were stupid (I still do, for that matter) and after a while, because of their endless reruns, it became a challenge to avoid them, and a point of pride (not to mention a great conversational gambit) to say I’d never watched them.
With that fun fact in mind, I decided to ask my fellow Yahoo!s to detail things they had never done; the kind of thing that, when they would mention them, the average person would probably reply "really?"
Looking at the list, it's surprising to me how many of them revolve around television. For example:
Liz: I have never seen a full episode of either "Sex and the City or
"Desperate Housewives."
Chandra: I have never watched ""The Simpsons." Are those characters supposed to be funny? (Maybe we should keep this one anonymous ...)
Micaela: I've never actually watched a whole episode of "Lost." (I am a fan of "Heroes," though! (Editor's note: I've never watched "Heroes" myself.)
Brian: I've never watched a single episode of "Survivor," I think I should win something for that.
We're not just avoiders of television, though; there are other aspects of entertainment and pop culture of which we're blissfully aware:
Jasmin: I have never seen the original "Star Wars" movies, "The Big Lebowski," or "The Godfather." Thanks to my friends and family, who insist that I have thus far led an incomplete life, all of the aforementioned films are in my Netflix queue.
Richard: I've never danced the Macarena. I've also never seen Leo and Kate in "Titanic." Of these minor accomplishments, I am boastfully proud.
And just what are you blissfully proud of? Tell us, and we'll be back tomorrow with more Things We've Never Done.
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Directory categories:
The Partridge Family, The Brady Bunch, Television Comedies, Movies and Film, Television Shows |
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Archived under: 1970s, Actors, Anniversaries, Entertainment, In Character, Lost, Movies, Reality TV, Star Wars, Survivor, TV, The Simpsons, The Spark, Yahoo! |
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Groucho Marx in 1931 |
Thirty-two years ago this week, an icon of American entertainment died: a performer who was recognizable by his voice, his physicality, and his frequent appearances on television and in films. We refer, of course, to Julius Henry Marx -- better known as Groucho.
Groucho Marx died on August 19, 1977, but with all the fuss over Elvis Presley's death three days earlier, his passing was virtually overlooked by the media. But for those with a taste for a sharp tongue and terrible puns, Groucho lives on.
In a career that spanned almost all of the 20th century, Groucho and his brothers conquered vaudeville, Broadway, radio, the literary world, and motion pictures. After he retired from movies (more or less), Groucho hosted "You Bet Your Life," a game show that became known for Groucho's verbal byplay with civilian guests and its immortal catch phrase, "say the secret word and win $100."
He made a "comeback" at the age of 82 (though he'd never really left), packing concert halls with his one-man show.
While some may prefer the karate-chopping guy in the jumpsuit, we'll take the cigar-smoking con man in the greasepaint mustache waggling his eyebrows at the nearest blonde or trying to scam a wealthy dowager.
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Directory categories:
Groucho Marx, The Marx Brothers, Comedians, Comedy Films, Television Game Shows |
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Archived under: 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, Actors, Anniversaries, Authors, Biographies, Broadway, Celebrities, Comedians, Dead Celebrities, Entertainment, Game Shows, Humor, Movies, Musicals, TV, Vaudeville |
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