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Mystery Science Theater 3000 / Re: The Mads are Back live shows
« Last post by majorjoe23 on Today at 09:40:32 AM »The Feb 9 riff will be The Choppers, directed by Arch Hall Sr of Eegah, starring Arch Hall Jr of “Sorry About My Face.”
Recent Posts
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General (Off-Topic) Discussion / Re: List of Crap 128, Top 50 Slapstick Comedians and Teams
« Last post by George-2.0 on Today at 08:30:10 AM »I prefer silent era Chase to talkie Chase (and that might be based on a few roles where he played loud and obnoxious characters, they stuck out like sore thumbs) - but silent Chase was really funny. He reminds me a bit of John Cleese, tall, refined. A look of exasperation often cracks those reserved features. Even though he wasn’t known as an innovator in style or technique as his highly rated contemporaries (Keaton, Chaplin, Lloyd), for me, in terms of the laughter he provided, was one of the funniest folks in silent comedy. (and it didn't hurt having Leo McCarey direct several shorts)
A few of my favorites...
Isn’t Life Terrible (7/5/1925) - (fun scene... Charlie is trying to sell a pen to a woman, and it keeps shooting ink in his face - which caused the actress, 17-year old Fay Wray (King Kong) to crack up... and it’s obvious that her laughter is spontaneous.)
His Wooden Wedding (12/20/1925) | Dog Shy (4/4/1926) | Mighty Like A Moose (7/18/1926) | Fluttering Hearts (6/19/1927) | Forgotten Sweeties (1927)
A few of my favorites...
Isn’t Life Terrible (7/5/1925) - (fun scene... Charlie is trying to sell a pen to a woman, and it keeps shooting ink in his face - which caused the actress, 17-year old Fay Wray (King Kong) to crack up... and it’s obvious that her laughter is spontaneous.)
His Wooden Wedding (12/20/1925) | Dog Shy (4/4/1926) | Mighty Like A Moose (7/18/1926) | Fluttering Hearts (6/19/1927) | Forgotten Sweeties (1927)
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General (Off-Topic) Discussion / Re: List of Crap 128, Top 50 Slapstick Comedians and Teams
« Last post by stethacantus on Today at 07:09:54 AM »#46
Charlie Chase
17 points, 1 list, #9 George-2.0
Born: October 20, 1893 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.
Birth Name: Charles Parott
Stage Name: Charlie Chase
Stage Debut: 1906
Film Debut: March 23, 1914
Charles Parott knew he wanted to be in show business from an early age, and by ten years old was performing on street corners for donations. He and two other friends formed an act which they were able to convince a theater owner to include in a vaudeville bill. His two friends eventually dropped out of the act, but Charles continued to pursue his career.. The theater owner eventually hired him to lead the audience during the sing along. This took place during breaks between acts where the audience was entertained by the house band playing a tune and the lyrics being projected onto a screen. Charles' job was to encourage the audience to sing along with him and point to the lyrics with a stick. He developed this into an act which included original humorous songs he had written and funny banter between the songs, and by 1909 at age 16 was touring the Vaudeville circuit with his act. In 1910 he teamed up with Harry Bernard to form a duo act, and the pair made their way across the county to California where they decided to stay ant attempt to enter the motion picture business. In 1912 Charles got his first steady studio job at Christie Studio doing mostly behind the scenes work and writing gags for their comedians. He used this experience to get a job at Keystone Studios in 1913 where once again he worked behind the scenes, but also got to be extras in the films wherever a crowd scene was needed. He began to work his way up the ranks at Keystone, finally getting screen credit as a director in 1914, and his first bit player role in the one reel Ford Sterling comedy Across The Hall. By the end of 1914 he had graduated to major roles, and at the end of the year was filming his first starring role in a short. He encouraged his younger brother James to join the film business, although James ended up working for rival Hal Roach instead.
In 1918 Charles was offered a lucrative job at L-KO Studios as a comedy director with the possibility of eventually starring him in his own series of short. However, after directing just a few films, the L-KO Studio was hit by the Spanish Flu pandemic causing almost everyone there to be infected. The health department shut the studio down, and the owners decided to cut their losses and not reopen. Charlie sought work at Hal Roach Studios where his brother James was now one of the feature players, and was soon a supervising director on the Our Gang comedies, moving up to director of the Lloyd Hamilton comedies soon after. By 1921 Charles was named the studio's director general, with the only films not under his control the ones being made by Harold Lloyd. In 1923 Harold Lloyd left Hal Roach Studios, so Roach decided he needed to reshuffle his talent to find a replacement for Lloyd. Charles adopted a new screen name Charlie Chase, and was once again the star of his own films. In the meantime, James, who had starred in a number of his own films, was asked to replace Charlie as a studio director.
Charlie Chase went on to become one of the studios biggest stars, continuing to star in comedy shorts through the sound era. By that time Hal Roach was phasing out shorts from his studio. Theaters stopped booking shorts in favor of booking two full length features for a double feature bill. MGM owned theaters still showed shorts, but they were too few. While MGM could afford to make their own shorts and recoup the costs with the feature film, Roach was beginning to loose money. He had discontinued making Laurel and Hardy shorts, and by 1936 the only shorts Roach Studios were still making were Charlie Chase and Our Gang. A Charlie Chase feature film called Monarias ( 1931 ) which was made by combining a couple of shorts was released in Mexico and Spain, but did poorly at their box offices. A final attempt at a feature film with the working title Bank Night wound up never being completed due to production problems. Inevitably Roach decided to cancel his contract with Chase. On The Wrong Trek was to be Chase's final short for the studio. Wanting to pay tribute to their friend, Laurel and Hardy took a break in shooting Our Relations to shoot a cameo in Chase's final short, where they are both briefly seen hitchhiking. It ended up not being his final short as footage from Bank Night was edited into a 20 minute film called Neighborhood House, becoming the final Hal Roach produced Charlie Chase short. He immediately found work at Columbia Pictures, starring in shorts for the studio up until 1940.
Charlie's downfall came via his brother James, who had become a non functioning alcoholic and drug addict at Hal Roach Studios. No longer reliable enough to direct, Hal allowed him to stay on as a gag writer. His health continue to deteriorate, and on May 10th, 1939 he was found dead. While publicly James' cause of death was natural causes due to poor health, friends began to insist it was suicide. Charley took his Brother's death really hard. Charley had cut him off completely, hoping his tough love approach would force him to clean up, and because of that, blamed himself for his death. Charley himself was a functional alcoholic, but after his brother's death, became a heavy drinker. He died less than a year later from a heart attack, which doctors said was a result of his drinking. Chase was 46 at the time of his death.
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General (Off-Topic) Discussion / Re: List of Crap 128, Top 50 Slapstick Comedians and Teams
« Last post by stethacantus on Today at 06:39:50 AM »
Oops, should read Pitts & Todd
Mistake fixed
#47
Melissa McCarthy
16 points, 2 list, #11 ColeStratton
Born: August 26, 1970 Plainfield, Illinois, U.S.A.
Birth and Stage Name: Melissa McCarthy
Stage Debut: early 90s
Television Debut: April 2, 1997
Film Debut: April 9, 1999
Jenny McCarthy is a former Playboy Playmate who was hired by MTV to co-host the dating game show Singled Out. She was shrill and annoying, but the mostly male audience forgave tat as she was attractive, had a great body, and wore hot outfits. In fact, the viewers like her so much that MTV decided to give McCarthy her own show, called The Jenny McCarthy Show. It was a sketch comedy show that did little more than prove that Jenny had no comedic talent whatsoever. No matter what skit she was in, what costume she was wearing, or what character she was suppose to be playing, she acted like the same annoying person she was on the gameshow. The Jenny McCartney Show had a talented group of writers including Bob Odenkirk, Will Forte and Jon Glaser, and a talented cast of comedians including future voice of Archer H. Jon Benjamin, but who what talent worked on the show. Every week Jenny McCartney ruined it. But the male audience loved looking at Jenny wearing the occasional sexy outfit, so it still did well for MTV, who decided to give the untalented McCarthy her own network sitcom. MTV had a deal with NBC to produce sitcoms and convinced them that Jenny McCarthy was a big enough star to carry her own sitcom. And they insisted it air on Sunday night. Mike Judge had left MTV, which more or less ended Beavis & Butt-Head, so he could make King of the Hill for FOX. MTV executives wanted revenge and though programming Jenny McCarthy in a sitcom against it would at the least steal away the viewers from MTV, and very possibly win the coveted male 18-49 demographic, insuring that King of the Hill lost enough viewers to be cancelled. However, what they didn't count on was that NBC, CBS and ABC had a long standing agreement between them that they would only program G rated programming on Sunday nights between 7pm and 9pm. FOX was the only network ignoring this agreement. But it meant the sitcom Jenny could not tell any lewd jokes, nor could allow McCarthy to wear any sexy outfits. To her credit Jenny McCarthy showed she had some talent at acting when prevented from doing her annoying character. But she wasn't funny. and she was conservatively dressed for the entire series. For example, an episode where Jenny goes to the beach had her and all the other girls in the scene dressed in a one piece bathing suit with a skirt. So, with Jenny McCarthy on a sitcom where she was not allowed to act or look like Jenny McCarthy, the show tanked in the ratings and was soon cancelled, while King of the Hill went on to be one of FOX's hit shows.
But this is not about Jenny McCarthy, but her far more talented cousin Melissa, who made her television debut in a bit part in one of the episodes of Jenny. Unlike her cousin Jenny who was handed a comedy skit show and a sitcom just because she was naked in Playboy, Melissa learned to be funny by rising up the ranks as a stand up comedian, as well as performing at Groundlings. After her appearance on a sitcom no one was watching, Melissa continued to rise up the ranks of the stand up circuit throughout the 90s. Beginning with the movie Go ( 1999 ) she began acting in small parts in films, including Charlie's Angles ( 2000 ), Drowning Mona ( 2000 ) and The Kid ( 2000 ), eventually finding more success on television where, along with a number of guest starring roles, she was cast as Snookie St James on The Gilmore Girls and Dena on the sitcom Samantha Who?. In 2010 she was offered a starring role as Molly Flynn in the sitcom Mike & Molly which went on to be a hit series that lasted for six seasons. Her stardom continued to rise when she co-starred in the hit comedy Bridesmaids ( 2011 ), which lead to her becoming a leading screen comedian in other films including Identity Thief ( 2013 ), The Heat ( 2013 ), Tammy ( 2014 ), Spy ( 2015 ), Life of the Party ( 2018 ) and The Happytime Murders ( 2018 ). She was also one of the stars of the all female reboot of Ghostbusters ( 2016 ), and has recently taken on dramatic roles in such films as Can You Ever Forgive Me? ( 2018 ) and The Kitchen ( 2019 ). In 2017 she starred in her first Super Bowl commercial where she takes on several environmental causes, but each time is attacked by animals. It was a brilliant commercial, but I have no idea what it was trying to promote.
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Sports Talk! / Re: The 2020 NFL Season Thread! CoronaVirus or Not
« Last post by RVR II on Today at 03:45:45 AM »If Mahomes has a concussion he may not be allowed to play next week 
I believe the NFL makes you wait over 10 days to clear concussion protocol.
I believe the NFL makes you wait over 10 days to clear concussion protocol.
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Movie Talk / Re: What was the last movie you watched?
« Last post by Russoguru on January 17, 2021, 11:39:01 PM »Licence To Kill ( 1989 )At the time, it was easily the most violent James Bond movie. I would even dare say it was the most violent entry in the entire series until Casino Royale in 2006.
Like I said, my all time favorite James Bond film. Eon had finally worked out a deal that allowed them to make Bond films that were not adaptions of the books. You can tell that it was heavily influenced by Die Hard ( 1988 )
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General (Off-Topic) Discussion / Re: List of Crap 128, Top 50 Slapstick Comedians and Teams
« Last post by Russoguru on January 17, 2021, 11:37:36 PM »I apologize for not turning in a list, I just couldn't find enough inhabitants for it. I just got kind of discouraged and gave up.
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Television aka TV discussion / Re: RVR II's Star Trek thread.. Cause it's sure to veer off course!
« Last post by Russoguru on January 17, 2021, 11:35:20 PM »Garak alone is worth watching all of DS9 for.
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General (Off-Topic) Discussion / Re: List of Crap 128, Top 50 Slapstick Comedians and Teams
« Last post by George-2.0 on January 17, 2021, 11:09:49 PM »#49
Pitts & Kelly
Oops, should read Pitts & Todd
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Movie Talk / Re: What was the last movie you watched?
« Last post by stethacantus on January 17, 2021, 08:14:29 PM »Monkey King 3 ( 2018 )
The Monkey King trilogy ends with this excellent film. My understanding is tat the stories picked for the three movies are the most popular chapters from the novel. But it makes no sense to end on a trilogy that does not cover the conclusion of the epic story it is telling. A couple of other complaints. The previous film ended on a sort of cliffhanger with the Buddhist monk the Monkey King was escorting to the West turned to stone in a sort of cliffhanger. This movie picks up several chapters later, so no explanation as to how the cliffhanger was resolved, or why the monk is once again flesh and blood. My other complaint is that in this film the Monk is the center of the story while the Monkey King is relegated to supporting character. Otherwise, a thrilling CGI adventure.
Licence To Kill ( 1989 )
Like I said, my all time favorite James Bond film. Eon had finally worked out a deal that allowed them to make Bond films that were not adaptions of the books. You can tell that it was heavily influenced by Die Hard ( 1988 )
The Monkey King trilogy ends with this excellent film. My understanding is tat the stories picked for the three movies are the most popular chapters from the novel. But it makes no sense to end on a trilogy that does not cover the conclusion of the epic story it is telling. A couple of other complaints. The previous film ended on a sort of cliffhanger with the Buddhist monk the Monkey King was escorting to the West turned to stone in a sort of cliffhanger. This movie picks up several chapters later, so no explanation as to how the cliffhanger was resolved, or why the monk is once again flesh and blood. My other complaint is that in this film the Monk is the center of the story while the Monkey King is relegated to supporting character. Otherwise, a thrilling CGI adventure.
Licence To Kill ( 1989 )
Like I said, my all time favorite James Bond film. Eon had finally worked out a deal that allowed them to make Bond films that were not adaptions of the books. You can tell that it was heavily influenced by Die Hard ( 1988 )