List of Crap 128, Top 50 Slapstick Comedians and Teams

[stethacantus]

Clappers had been around since the beginning of musical instruments, and were among the first to be invented. Castanets, for example.  A version of a clapper known as a slapstick, which was a large wooden board wit a second board attached via a hinge that when smacked on a post made a loud noise akin to the sound of a whip,  showed up in orchestras around the late 15th century where it was among the many tools of the percussionists.  Around the 16th century the slapstick made its way to street performers. Mainly the commedia dell'arte  performers of Italy who traveled from town to town in costumes performing as clowns. One of the performers, who's identity is long  forgotten, realized if he slapped a fellow performer with the slapstick, to the audience it would sound very painful, while in reality it didn't hurt he other performer at all. The audience didn't need to know the large wooden stick being used as a weapon were two hinged pieces of wood. When you hit your fellow human with a plank, it made a loud clapping sound. It soon became very popular for clowns to hit each other with sticks. Audiences laughed at the perceived violence. With the arrival of Music Halls and Vaudeville in the 19th century, slapstick acts moved from street performers and circus clowns to the stage. Visual comedians refined their physical comedy, but kept what the audiences loved, and that was the violence. Even as the slapstick itself was replaced with other implements the comedians hit each other with, someone always stood off stage with the slapstick, smacking it on their own hands to make the cracking sound whenever the comedians struck each other. Is it any wonder that genre of violent physical comedy became known as slapstick?

The beginning of the 20th Century saw the arrival of motion pictures. for the first three decades the technology didn't exist to synchronize sound to film, so motion pictures were silent. Sort of. Since there was no recorded sound,  any comedian who relied on verbal humor was useless. The first comedians to find a home on film were the slapstick comedians. By this time slapstick was frowned down upon by the other stage performers as the lowest form of comedy. Yet thanks to Edison failing to figure out how to combine synchronized sound to film, slapstick comedy dominated motion pictures. And as motion pictures became popular with the mainstream, so to did slapstick. Charlie Chaplin became the first movie star to be offered $1 million for a contract, all due to his enormous popularity as a performer of slapstick. And as I said, silent films were only sort of silent. The first films were distributed to be shown at circuses and were accompanied with a script  that the ringmaster was supposed to read out loud as the film played, narrating the events happening in the film. As motion picture theaters began opening all over the world,  they began hiring musicians to play along with the film. Each theater at the least had a pianist, and at the most an entire orchestra. And many also had sound effects men who stood off stage and supplied sound effects, such as slide whistles, horns and most notably the slapstick.

By the 1920s screen comedians began to refine their comedy. Where as the originally relied on violence,  they soon refined themselves to more subtle comedy. And just when they felt screen comedy had been perfected, somebody wen tan perfected sound film. Once Hollywood officially switched to sound productions in the late 20s, all those verbal comedians were suddenly in demand. It seemed as if slapstick comedy was to be phased out altogether. However, it held on throughput the 1930s. Even in the 1940s when the last of the original slapstick screen comedians were either dead or had returned to the stage, the new batch of screen comedians who were proficient in  verbal humor were handed scripts with slapstick scenes. Especially when it came to the film's climax where the writers felt the only proper ending  was to have a lot of action. Other comedians had so much respect for the great slapstick comedians that they decided to study and perform slapstick themselves.

The 1940s also saw the rise of television. And while Hollywood was still in fear of television stealing their audiences, and therefore refusing to contribute to their own demise by licensing their films for broadcast,  the old silent films that Hollywood had abandoned were mostly public domain. Not to mention that the independent studios that made the comedy shorts of the 1930s, like Hal Roach, were eager to license their shorts to television. And so, old slapstick comedians that for a couple of decades had been forgotten, were all introduced to a brand new generation. And as old slapstick comedies became a staple of television, the first sitcoms turned to slapstick.

By that time slapstick had taken on a wider definition. Not just because the slapstick comedians who dominated early films had expanded and refined slapstick beyond just hitting and being hit,  allowing for a wider variety of gags, but that  heads of Hollywood studios changed screen comedy in the early sound era.   If their comedians were going to be in "Talking Pictures"  then they would need pre prepared scripts. Up to that point screen comedians provided their own material, which they either came up with themselves or was provided to them by their personal staff of gagmen. Ultimately screen comedians decided what gags they filmed would stay in the film, what gags didn't work and would be cut, and which gags should be reworked and reshot. But now that studios were putting out sound films, they wanted their comedians doing verbal comedy instead of physical comedy. They wanted them telling one liners instead of taking prat falls. And since one liners were not in the wheelhouse of most of their screen comedians, they hired a staff of comedy writers to write the studios comedies. These new gagmen came from radio, writing jokes for the various popular radio comedians. They had no experience writing for film, but the studios didn't care. They instructed these new writers on the formula they wanted each script to stick to. How they needed romance in the films, and if the comedian was deemed too goofy to be a believable leading man, that the comedian be turned into the supporting character who was a friend of the leading man and aided him in winning over the girl.  They would also go over the past films of the comedian and write in any routine they had done on film before. Screen comedians were handed these scripts, and being under contract, were given no alternative but to do them as written. Many put up a valiant fight to get their own material into the films they were supposed to be the stars of. But most gave in, allowed the studios to tank their careers, and ended their days in Hollywood as supporting characters. Hollywood studios sought verbal comedians, both from radio and from vaudeville. You would think sound films were perfect for these early stand up comedians. But they also faced being handed scripts that they didn't write. If they were lucky, the studio allowed them to throw in their own one liners here and there. But they were basically handed the same exact style of scripts that the visual comedians were. And were expected to do the same slapstick comedy as the visual comedians, even though they may have never performed visual comedy before.  The result was a wider form of slapstick which had very little actual slapstick and a lot of one liners. It was this hybrid form of slapstick which ultimately became the definition of the style. And was perfect for the early television sitcoms. But slapstick on sitcoms didn't last very long. It was already on it's way out by the late 50s, and gradually disappeared in the 60s with the exception to the occasional goofy next door neighbor character.

Still calling visual comedy slapstick made little sense as the slapstick itself was no longer used. When the sound era began, studios eagerly put goofy sound effects, including the slapstick, onto their comedies. This quickly ended as their foley artists also needed to layer natural sound into the films that the microphones didn't pick up, and didn't have the time to do both before the deadline. A few comedians, such as The Three Stooges, kept the goofy sound effects. Variants  of the slapstick sound continued every time Moe slapped a companion. But by the time television was using slapstick, the sound effect was gone. It did find another home. Chinese Martial arts films. The foley artists layering sound in the fight scenes used various slapsticks during fights. Smaller slapsticks for blows tat were blocked, and bigger slapsticks for blows that landed. How ironic that everything would go full circle when Jackie Chan, who was a huge fan of silent movie comedians, brought comedy to martial arts films. And so slapstick comedy was reborn in such classics as Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master.


No genre ever dies off completely, or is immune from revival. It has cropped up in major Hollywood films again and again, in It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, the Pink Panther films, The Mask, Home Alone, Jingle All The Way, the Earnest films, Brides Maids, and the Will Ferrell films are just a few examples. Of course just having any comedian do slapstick does not make him a master of slapstick. The comedians of early Hollywood honed their skills on stage in front of an audience who would eagerly pelt acts they didn't find funny with spoiled fruit and rotten eggs. And then again by previewing their comedies in front of audiences and counting the laughs to figure out which gags worked and which didn't. Very few comedians had the opportunity to develop physical comedy after the demise of vaudeville and music halls,  but a few theater groups like the Cambridge Footlights,  Second City, Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade gave young comedians the opportunity to develop visual comedy skills in front of an audience. As long as there is comedy, there will always be slapstick.   

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Here is the results of the LoC.   A lot of you submitted comedians who don't really belong on a slapstick list, so don't blame me if a comedian that shouldn't be on this list is, and one who should be on this list isn't. Pretty much any comedian who has worked in film has done some sort of slapstick. It is in pretty much every comedy whenever the writers can't think of something else. Technically you could get away with having any actor on a slapstick list. Harrison Ford? There was a little slapstick in those Indiana Jones films. Sure, putting a lot of your favorite actors and comedians on a slapstick list because they did a little slapstick in their careers is a bit unfair to the comedians who really did do true screen slapstick.  But that is supposed to be the nature of these LoCs, isn't it? ( BTW, if someone ever does this topic again 100 LoCs from now, I suggest not using Wikipedia as a reference. I am guessing their list of slapstick comedians is where a lot of you came up with your lists. It should be remembered that Wikipedia allows anyone to submit content, and a lot of fans of various comedians end up editing that list. And a lot of times the Wikipedia staff end up pruning those lists of what doesn't really belong.  )

One final note: Ties were broken this way: Most number of lists a comedian appeared on. If that fails, which one got the highest ranking. And if that failed, and we had a tie that could not be broken, then it became editor's choice. So basically I evaluated both comedians to decide which one used slapstick more in his career. The one that was more of a slapstick artist got the higher ranking. The one that was more of a verbal comedian came in second.  That sounds fair, right? 

[stethacantus]

#50

Todd & Kelly

14 points, 1 list,  #12  George-2.0

AND...

#49

Pitts & Todd

15 points, 1 list, #11 George 2.0

Members Birth Dates:
ZaSu Pitts ( Birth Name: Eliza Pitts ): January 3, 1894 Parsons, Kansas, U.S.A.
Anita Garvin ( Birth Name: Anna Garvin ): February 11, 1906  New York City, U.S.A.
Lyda Roberti ( Birth Name: Lyda Pecjak ): May 20, 1906  Warsaw, Poland
Thelma Todd: July 29, 1906  Lawrence, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Pert Kelton: October 14, 1907  Great Falls, Montana, U.S.A.
Patsy Kelly ( Birth Name: Sarah Kelly ):   January 12, 1910  Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.
Marion Byron ( Birth Name: Miriam Bilenkin ): March 16, 1911  Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A.
Film Debut: first series December 8, 1928 - second film series (ZaSu through Kelly ) June 6, 1931

I am going to do somethin a little different here, and that is combine two of the entries into a single write-up. Three reasons. One is although they are both two different comedy teams, are both part of the same film series ( sort of the way Jefferson Airplane and Starship are the same band, ) and therefore if I did separate entries, then both would be exactly the same, as both teams would share the same history. You would basically be reading the same thing twice in a row. Second: When I calculated the list, both teams occupied the #50 and #49 slots, right next to each other with no comedian separating them. And that was too much of an omen. In fact, the team of Todd & Kelly came within 1 point of Deadpool knocking them off the top 50, so if he had been a notch higher up on someone else's list they would have been eliminated. Third: This cuts down on a lot of work if I can do one writeup for two teams.

Both teams owe their existence to Laurel & Hardy. When Laurel and Hardy became a box office success for Hal Roach, he wondered if he could repeat the magic by combining any of his other contract comedians into teams. In 1928 he decided he wanted to create a female version of Laurel and Hardy, The stars of this new experiment were Anita Garvin, an actress who he had picked up from Educational Pictures a couple of years earlier and had been a brilliant supporting player for his male comedians, and Marion Byron, a showgirl who Buster Keaton had cast earlier that year as his leading lady in Steamboat Bill Jr. ( 1928 ) and Roach had signed just because she had some sort of name recognition. The first Garvin & Byron film was Feed 'Em And Weep ( 1928 ), followed by Going Ga-Ga ( 1929 ) and   A Pair of Tights ( 1929 ).  Gavin & Byron wasn't winning over audiences, and with the studio being forced to convert to sound films in the next few months, Roach decided to break up the team and put both actresses back to work supporting the male comedians. Perhaps they would try again once the studio had fully converted to sound film production. But it would not be with Byron. She left Hal Roach Studios before the year was up. She continued to work for other studios, but gradually dropped from leading lady, to co star, to supporting player, and finally uncredited bit parts by the end of the 1930s. She retired from showbusiness in 1939 to raise a family, dying i on July 5, 1985. Around the time Roach decided to attempt another female Laurel & Hardy team, Anita was not interested. She had just been married and wanted to settle down as a housewife, only continuing to work until she ad fulfilled her contracts. She would remain out of the motion picture business until her good friend Stan Laurel coaxed her out of retirement in the late 30s. But after a brief return, retied again for good. She died July 7, 1994.

The comedian Roach wanted Garvin to team up with was ZaSu Pitts. ZaSu had initially risen to fame making two reel comedies for Universal, but switced to drama when Erich von Stroheim cast her in [his epic i]Greed[/i] ( 1924 ), Stroheim would often proclaim Pitts as the greatest dramatic actress working in motion pictures. Throughout the 1920s she alternated between comedies and dramas. Her career took a tumble with the advent of sound films as producers didn't like her voice. The lowest point in her career happened when she was edited out of the sound version of All Quiet on the Western Front ( 1930 ) after preview audiences laughed whenever she talked during what was supposed to be dramatic scenes. She eventually ended up at Hal Roach Studios where Hal saw great potential in her as part of a comedy team. All he needed was the other team member, so picked Thelma Todd. Thelma had been discovered in a beauty pageant by a scout for Paramount Pictures, resulting in her being signed and flying out to California. But there she only received bit parts. Once her contract with Paramount was up, she sought employment at other studios, ending up at Hal Roach just as he was converting to sound. She was cast in her first film for the studio, Unaccustomed As We Are ( 1929 ), only because the script called for a beautiful next door neighbor. As most of the role called for Todd to be hiding in a trunk, it really didn't give her anything to do. However, with what little screen time she had, she was able to deliver a performance that impressed everyone at the studio. They soon gave her other prominent roles. On June 6, 1931 the Pitts & Todd team was officially launched with their first short Let's Do Things. The team was a success, which would last for t two years and 17 shorts

Both Pitts and Todd soon became popular screen comedians. Realizing they had made a mistake not developing her career, Paramount tried to get Thelma Todd back. Instead they had to settle for Roach lending her out, as he did with other studios. ZaSu was also gaining popularity, and was once again getting offers from other studios for leading roles. She decided to leave Hal Roach Studios once her contract was up.

Roach had a problem. He had pre-sold the Pitts & Todd series to M.G.M. and needed a replacement to continue the series. He chose Patsy Kelly, a comedian who had made a strong debut in a Warner Bros. short a couple of years earlier, but incredibly had not been cast in a film since. Roach hired Kelly specifically to be Thelma Todd's new partner. The new title of the series was now called Todd & Kelly. The new team was just as popular as the former Pitts & Todd team, and just as with that one, Kelly began to grow popular. In 1935 Hal Roach announced he would do something that would have wrecked most of his popular shorts. Something called The Hardy Family. Quite possibly he had no intention of making such a film series, and only press released an announcement it was coming to intimidate  Stan Laurel. At the time Hal and Stan were not getting along. Hal would often threaten Stan by saying he would break up Laurel and Hardy and force the comedians to work in different films.  In 1935 Roach announced he was discontinuing making any more Laurel and Hardy films as he wanted to put Hardy in his own series where he would be married to Patsy Kelly, and their son would be played by Spanky McFarland. This would have been a disaster for the studio as it would not only have broken up it's most popular team Laurel and Hardy, but would have also discontinued their popular Todd & Kelly series, and taken the most popular member out of the Our Gang series. However, it probably wasn't very likely to happen. Theaters had stopped booking shorts in favor of double features. The only theaters left showing a full bill of one feature film and four or five shorts were the studio owned theater chains, Hal Roach's shorts were still being shown in M.G.M. theaters, but barely anywhere else. So he had decided to move his comedians into feature films . He had already done so with Laurel and Hardy, discontinuing their shorts series that same year. It was very unlikely he was going to launch another short series. Which didn't happen as whatever conflict he had with Stan Laurel was resolved and Laurel and Hardy were working on their next feature for the studio.

On December 16, 1935 Thelma was found dead in the front seat of her car, in her garage with the motor running. Suicide was quickly ruled out ( no suicide note, was in good spirits, had just signed a 7 year contract with Roach ), and police settled on the theory that Thelma had locked herself out of her house, got into her car to warm up, and accidentally asphyxiated herself on the car's exhaust fumes. Her close friends believed that Thelma had been murdered by gangster Lucky Luciano after she had him kicked out of a restaurant she owned. Supposedly Luciano was pressuring her to use it as a front for an illegal backroom casino. She was midway through filming Laurel and Hardy's Bohemian Girl. Although it broke his heart, Roach was forced to cut her scenes from the film because the resolution to her characters story wasn't filmed. He also needed to deal with the Todd & Kelly series which he owed M.G.M. three more shorts. He had under contract Pert Kelton, who had previously had a career as a popular character actress and had signed with Roach for a chance at leading roles. But the paring did not work as both actresses played the same style of loud wisecracking character and therefore didn't compliment each other. After just one film the team of Kelly & Kelton was no more.

Instead Kelly was paired with Lydia Roberti. Lydia came from a family of circus performers, and having spent years mostly as a trapeze artist, switched to performing at vaudeville before making the move to motion pictures. Much like Kelly, Lydia was signed by Roach specifically to be in the female Laurel & Hardy series. After the final two shorts were made under the team of Kelly & Roberti, Roach decide to continue the team in feature films. Their first  and only Kelly & Roberti feature was Nobody's Baby ( 1937 ). Shortly after Lydia began to feel ill, and her health declined. She soon announced she needed to retire from making movies.  A couple of months into her retirement, on March 12, 1938, Lydia bent down to tie a shoelace and never got back up. She was dead from a heart attack. The female Laurel & Hardy team was no more. That is until 1941 when Hal Roach was making the feature film Broadway Limited, had the opportunity to cast ZaSu Pitts in the film, and decided to ( sort of ) team her up with Patsy Kelly.  It was a one shot thing, and despite the novelty of both of Thelma Todd's former partners being teamed up, did not result an any further ZaSu & Kelly films. By that time ZaSu's film career was on the decline, so she began working in radio and television. Her final film role was in It's A Mad. Mad. Mad, Mad World ( 1963 ) which was released posthumously. She died of cancer on June 7, 1963. In the late 30s Pert Kelton decided to give up Hollywood for acting in theater. She eventually began working on radio and television. She was cast as Alice Kramden by Jackie Gleason in the Honeymooners sketches he made for the Du-Mont Network that were shown during Jackie's variety show. However, she was one of the actresses added to the blacklist, and the network ordered Gleason to fire her. Gleason replaced her with Audrey Meadows, who remained with the role through the more familiar Honeymooners sitcom. She returned to film in 1963 in The Music Man. Se died of a hear attack on October 30, 1958.  In the early 40s Patsy Kelly's film career began to decline and she ended up at the poverty row studio PRC. She eventually gave up on the film business to work in radio, however began working again in film and  in television in the 1960s, having memorable supporting roles in Rosemary's Baby ( 1968 ) and the original Freaky Friday ( 1976 ). Her final role was a recurring character on the series The Love Boat before developing cancer, which she died of on September 24, 1981.

[George-2.0]

Great write-up - I didn't think I'd see either on the 50, but I'm glad they made the grade - I rated them high based on their personalities and the chemistry they had together - they weren't as slick as L&H, but they were so much fun to watch and listen too. Pitts was kind of an Olive Oyl type, Kelly more of a smart ass, both a superb physical comedian and one with a vocal delivery that cracks me up (even when she's not saying anything funny, it sounds funny coming out of her mouth). I've read that one reason for her struggles in the 40s was due to her coming out as gay in an interview.

Pert had little personality and zero chemistry with Kelly, Lyda was better, very energetic, I liked her in her Tarzan garb in one short she did with Pasty. But Todd was the Queen, and so tragic a death (for both she and Lyda to die that young was very sad indeed).

Maid in Hollywood was my fave from Todd and Kelly.

I've not been able to track down any of the Garvin & Byron shorts. (2 are in fragments)

[stethacantus]

#48

Bebe Daniels

16 points, 1 list, #10 George-2.0

Born: January 14, 1901 Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.
Birth Name: Phyllis Daniels
Stage Name :Bebe Daniels
Stage Debut: 1901 at 10 weeks old
Film Debut: January 20, 1910
Radio Debut: 1939
Television Debut: February 11, 1955

She starred in 230 films, half of which are lost or incomplete. Phyllis Daniels was born to theatrical parents. Her father was a stage manager and her mother an actress, At the age of ten month old her father carried her on stage despite there being no infants written in the scene. This was the beginning of her stage career. By the age of four she was acting in productions of The Squaw Man and Richard III, going on to play roles for children in other stage productions. In 1910 at the age of 9 she moved into films, which included ( probably ) the role of Dorothy Gale in the first film production of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. By then she was using her nickname Bebe as her stage name. A couple of years later she was hired by the brand new Rolin Film Company, a studio founded by Hal Roach and Harold Lloyd. For the next two years she worked at the studio starring in Lloyds Lonesome Luke films . As she grew older she graduated to  the romantic lead of his films, as she an Lloyd became a couple in real life. However, in 1919 Daniels wished to move on to drama, something Hal Roach didn't produce. So she left the studio.

She began working in dramas for Cecil B DeMille, however once under contract at paramount was once again being asked to do comedies. She remained one of the top comedic actresses of the silent era, starring in mostly romantic comedies. With the arrival of sound film Paramount unceremoniously cancelled her contract, thinking her voice was a liability. RKO Pictures hired her and starred her in a number of successful musicals.  Because of her association with musicals, RCA Victor signed her to record records. She fell in love with actor Ben Lyon and the two were married. But despite being one of Hollywood's to actresses, RKO, who thought the musical was on it's way out,  decided not to renew her contract. Warner Bros. immediately signed her, where she starred in a number of successful films including the musical 42nd Street. Around this time Bebe was being staked by a deranged fan named Albert F Holland, who despite being arrested and committed to asylums on multiple occasions, kept breaking out and accosting her again and again. In 1934 Holland was finally put on trial after sending Bebe over 150 letters threatening her life. Holland insisted on acting as his own attorney, claiming he could prove that he was in fact Bebe's husband, and that they had been married in Mexico in 1925. This included forcing Bebe's real husband Ben Lyon to be crossed examined by Holland who spent hours trying to get Lyon to admit he wasn't married to her.  The judge ended up ruling that Holland was insane and ordered him committed to an asylum instead of sentenced to a prison. Fearing the deranged Holland would once again escape, Bebe and her husband decided to move to England to get away from him.

By that time Daniels was ready to leave Hollywood. Even though she was still one of the industries top actresses, she still couldn't get a long term contract. She did some films for British studios, but when film production came to a halt during the Second World War began working in radio as well as some stage work. After the war Daniels briefly returned to Hollywood to work as a producer, but ended up returning to England to continue working on radio. In 1950 Bebe and her husband along with their children began a radio sitcom for the BBC loosely based on their family called  Life With the Lyons It became extremely popular, eventually being turned into a successful television sitcom in 1954, as well as two theatrical films. Both the radio show and television series ended in 1961. In 1963 Bebe had a stroke and decided to retire from showbusiness. She had another stroke in December of 1971. A few month later on March 16, 1971 she died of a cerebral hemorrhage.  Her death was eight days after the death of Harold Lloyd.

[George-2.0]

Yay, Bebe (3 in a row, I rock!) Jobyna was Lloyd's best romantic partner, but Bebe was plucky, with an independent spirit that made her part of a great comedy trio with Harold and Snub - and I love her in the movie "Feel My Pulse"

Steve Masa said of her... "As Harold's leading lady, Bebe was not a conventional shrinking and demure heroine - but instead a scrappy tomboy who gave back as good as she got in shorts like Lonesome Luke Messenger (1917), All Aboard (1918), and Take a Chance (1919)

Oh, BTW - Those Life With the Lyon's movies were produced by Hammer films and directed by Val Guest - a year later Guest would direct the sci-fi/horror picture, The Quatermass Xperiment which would change the course of the studio, make it a horror powerhouse.

[George-2.0]

#49
Pitts & Kelly

Oops, should read Pitts & Todd

[Cyrusso]

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.

[stethacantus]

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.

Meanwhile,  her cousin married one of the members of New Kids on the Block.

[stethacantus]

#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.

[George-2.0]

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)

[stethacantus]

#45

Martin Short

17 points, 2 lists, #15 RVR II

Born: March 26, 1960  Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Stage Debut: 1972
Television Debut: 1972
Film Debut: July 13, 1979

I guess you could say the comic who created Ed Grimley belongs in a slapstick countdown. Short made his stage debut in a Canadian production of Godspell 1n 1972 along with his girlfriend at the time,  Gilda Radner. Also in that production were  Eugene Levy,  Andrea Martin,   Paul Shaffer and  Dave Thomas.     Levy and Thomas would later invite Short to join them in the Second City comedy troupe. When the Troup created Second City Television, they invited Short to join them there as well, but he was already working on American sitcoms. He eventually had the time in 1981. In the fall of 1984 Saturday Night Live was entering it's 10th season. It had been struggling in the ratings ever since it's original producer Lorne Michaels and original cast had left. It lucked out when Eddie Murphy joined the cast, but at the end of the 9th season he left the show. Producer Dick Ebersol came up with the idea of building a new cast made up of familiar faces from other sketch comedy shows. The new cast includes  Pamela Stephenson from Not The 9'Oclock News,  former SNL cast member  Harry Shearer, Fridays cast member  Rich Hall and sitcom star  Billy Crystal. Ebersol also looked to raid Second City Television for cast members, but by that time most of them were pursuing careers in motion pictures. But Martin Short was available. Ebersol's gambit was successful and the ratings went up. However, the season was cut short after 17 episodes due to writers strike.  NBC decided to rehire Lorne Michaels, and Lorne wanted to bring in his own cast. So the entire successful Season 10 cast was out . Lorne  decided to do the same thing that Ebersol had done, by bringing in a cast of ringers. In this case they were mostly teenage movie actors including Robert Downey Jr.,  Joan Cusack,   Randy Quade  and   Anthony Michael Hall. Season 11,  known as the Brat Pack season, failed in the ratings, and with exception to Jon Lovitz, who was the only real comedian on the show, the entire cast was fired.

The movie The Three Amigos ( 1986 ) had been in production hell for years. It was originally to star Steve Martin, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Once Belushi died, Aykroyd was out. The movie then went through several cast changes and different directors, all the time keeping Steve Martin. They had finally settled on a cast that included John Candy, but at the time Candy was too overweight to ride a horse. So he suggested Martin Short for his replacement.  The Three Amigos was a success, and Short was cast in many other films including Innerspace ( 1987 ), Three Fugitives ( 1989 ), Pure Luck ( 1991 ) and Captain Ron ( 1992 ). In 1994 he got his own NBC sitcom, The Martin Short Show which was cancelled after 8 episodes, not to be confused with The Martin Short Show which was his 1999 syndicated talk show that was cancelled after 63 episodes. The talk show introduced another one of Short's characters, Jiminy Glick, who a year later had his own talk show on Comedy Central,  Primetime Glick where the fictitious character interviewed celebrities. Primetime Glick lasted 3 seasons. Short's other series include the second season of Damages, a FOX sitcom Mulaney which lasted for 13 episodes, and the animated  educational kids series  The Cat In The Hat Knows That on PBS which ran for three seasons.

[linszoid]

[CJones]

Martin Short... Yeah, that would have been a better idea than some of the stuff I did come up with 

[stansimpson]

Martin Short was only on 2 lists? So, RVR and me, huh? Haha. Mine was ranked much, much lower though.

[Pak-Man]

Can't believe I didn't think of Martin Short.