Nyuk-free 'Stooges' come to TV

Paul Ben-Victor, Michael Chiklis and Evan Handler, left to right, portray Curly, Larry and Moe in ABC's made-for-TV movie "The Three Stooges"

TV movie takes serious look at slapstick trio

April 24, 2000
Web posted at: 4:52 p.m. EST (2052 GMT)

In this story: Many movies, little pay Based on the book RELATED STORIES, SITES

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Who hasn't seen the slapstick escapades of the Three Stooges? For 50 years, their eyepokes, pratfalls and pie fights have entertained theatergoers and TV watchers.

All those twisted noses, chase scenes and conks on the head helped the trio make a living -- but barely.

Life on-screen may have been funny for Larry, Curly, Shemp and Moe; off-screen, it was a different story. "The Three Stooges," airing Monday on ABC, brings to the small screen the real and often sad lives of the comedians who made generations laugh.

In the two-hour film, Michael Chiklis plays Curly Howard, Paul Ben-Victor is his brother Moe and Evan Handler is Larry Fine. The drama covers the group's humble beginnings in New York's vaudeville scene through their meteoric rise in Hollywood.

"I would bill it as the incredible, rich, full life of the Three Stooges," Chiklis says. "They had some personal tragedies along the way. They were mistreated by the business, as well as the critics."

Many movies, little pay

Among the worst offenders, insiders say, was Harry Cohn, the Columbia Pictures honcho who won a Hollywood bidding war to get the comedians into his studio stables. He kept them on a tight economic rein.

Under contract, Cohn never paid the Stooges more than $20,000 a year, though they made nearly 100 films in their first decade at Columbia. In 1933 alone, for example, "Plane Nuts," "Nertsery Rhymes," "Meet the Baron," "Hello Pop!" and "Beer and Pretzels" were released.

Moe, at least, tried to save his share -- not his cohorts, though. Larry and his wife liked the horses. "(They) had some pretty serious cash-flow problems," says Handler. "It went out as fast as it came in. They were really serious gamblers."

Curly "was very introverted and he drank a lot, and that's when he would come out -- either that, or in a performance," says Chiklis. "But he would hang with his stray dogs. And he was a big womanizer. I think it was overcompensation for being bald and heavy, and acting like a buffoon. He wanted to feel attractive."

A series of strokes ended Curly's career in the late 1940s. Shemp, his brother, stepped in, reprising the character he played as an original Stooge in the group's vaudeville days. He did so reluctantly.

"He didn't want to travel like the others," says Chiklis. "He had a career as a working actor in Los Angeles."

Based on the book

The film, based on Michael Fleming's "From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons: The Three Stooges," is told from Moe's point of view. It focuses on his relationship with his two brothers, Shemp and Curly, and long-time friend Larry.

Mel Gibson, the executive producer, brought the story to TV.

"He oversaw the production from a distance. He had casting approval, and script approval," says Chiklis. "So he acted as the big man on the mountain."

A big man makes a big target, too. In the grand tradition of the three knuckleheads, Gibson recently took a pie to the kisser to promote his project.

Three Stooges still fans crazy for Shemp
March 16, 1997

ABC
ABC Primetime: 'The Three Stooges'

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