ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

DYK? According to Buddy Hackett during an interview on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, he was offered the opportunity to be a stooge in the Three Stooges comedy team, after Curly Howard fell ill.

[Bud Brewster]

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Perfection indeed, Captain Powers!

I'm sure there's a parallel universe somewhere which has a version of Mad 4 World like you described. And knowing how much you (and I) love this movie , I realize that you're not suggesting corrections you think should be made — you're just having fun with an alternate versions that fans like us would love to see. D)

That's the great thing about alternate versions in parallel universes; you can have your cake and eat an infinite number of them, too!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Interestingly, while Buddy never hitched his star to the Three Stooges comedy team, he did a marvelous job in playing comedian Lou Costello in the 1978 TV-movie "Bud and Lou" based upon the lives of Bud Abbott (Harvey Korman) & Lou Costello.

From what I've read, I felt it was fairly close to their actual lives and careers. Apparently, their families loathed the TV-movie and felt it made Bud & Lou look badly because it wasn't always flattering to them. Perhaps the movie wasn't 100% on-the-nose regarding their lives. I don't know. Then again, their families are not always coming from an objective place either. I did think Buddy & Harvey did a terrific job as Bud & Lou.

I was thinking the other day that we have 3 different TV-movies covering the careers of legendary comedy teams. The Three Stooges, Abbott & Costello, and Martin & Lewis. I've watched 'em all and enjoyed the backgrounds of these real life individuals. And I don't even like Martin & Lewis all that much. So far, no one has tackled my favorite comedy team of all time, the Marx Brothers in a TV-bio movie at this point. Maybe someday?

[Pow]

Let's see what writer Mark Evanier had to say regarding one of his all-time favorite (and mine) films.

Eddie Murphy says he wants to do a remake of my favorite movie, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. It appears he doesn't yet have any studio ready to put up the zillions of dollars it would take to make such a picture and I'm wondering if he's saying this just to see if any such backer comes forward.

It would probably take zillions for two reasons, one being that Mr. Murphy is, probably deservedly, a very highly-paid movie star . . . and if you were to pack the film with other stars of that caliber, they'd want Favored Nations or something close to it. You'd also have to spend a lot of money to make the chases and stunts and action scenes pretty damned spectacular . . . and I wonder if it would be anywhere near as effective?

Here's the thing: When my fave film was released in 1963, there was no such thing as CGI and audiences didn't know very much about camera trickery.

Along with Spencer Tracy, Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers and the rest, there was another kind of star in the movie: The stunt people. Audiences didn't think Buddy Hackett had actually flown an airplane through a billboard but they knew someone did---for real. Today it would be done with CGI. Or if you had someone actually do it, moviegoers would just assume it was CGI. Nobody today believes any stunts in any movies are real unless it's well-publicized that (for example) a Tom Cruise actually did some of his himself. (And you can find plenty of people on the Internet who think that's a lie. By the way, the man who flew the plane through the billboard---for real---was named Frank Tallman.)

So I'm not sure the action stuff would be as thrilling as it was in 1963 Cinerama and I'm not sure you could afford a comparable all-star lineup. Also, there are a lot of funny people around but with a few exceptions, they're not known for or experienced in physical comedy and they aren't "types." The moment Phil Silvers appeared on screen in the original film, audiences knew instantly the kind of person he was. He had decades of experience playing avaricious con men and so brought loads of characterization to the screen with him. Name a star today who has that kind of history. Or name one whose very appearance instantly denotes "prey" like when Don Knotts appears or "ineptness" when we see the Three Stooges dressed up as firefighters. Mad World had a cast of comic actors who went back to the days of silent pictures. A remake today would probably reach back as far as stars whose films came out on VHS.

This is not me thinking that a remake denotes some kind of disrespect for the original. A few years ago when they announced a new Three Stooges movie, some folks who for some reason thought the original Stooges could possibly be disgraced, denounced the whole idea. Well, the movie came and went and I didn't notice any lowering of reverence for Larry, Moe and the third Stooge of your choice. They were those loud knuckleheads then, they're those loud knuckleheads now. Their films are popular as ever.

I'm not saying that someone with the deepest of pockets couldn't assemble an all-star cast. I'm just saying it wouldn't be easy and it would only be a remake of my favorite flick in the slimmest of ways. And there's one more problem that I probably should mention: If they do make it, I'm unlikely to be eleven years old. Then again, others might be.

Mark's points are all valid. We have the sensational 1963 film and it stands the test of time magnificently. If Eddie Murphy wants to make an over-the-top epic comedy movie, fine. Do something original instead of copying a masterpiece.

[Bud Brewster]

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Mike, you are so right about this remake idea being incredibly dumb, for all the reasons you stated.

Today's audiences are very different from the folks who saw the original. Our culture has changed dramatically, and young people today just wouldn't respond to a remake the way we did to that one-of-a-kind comedy.

So, Hollywood would spend millions of dollars trying to remake a movie that was tailored for 1960s audiences — a car chase movie with wild stunts and a group of nice average people who suddenly act completely out character.

Nope, a remake of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World would fail spectacularly.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Just thought of one more lawsuit that could come out of Mad World. The owners of that Chinese laundry. They're gonna sue somebody for Melville Crump blowing a hole into their place of business . . . and while their were people working there.

[Captain Starlight]

I admire the way you ponder the real-world ramifications of the characters and their actions in this classic comedy.