Theatrical shorts on TV

[johnbasalla]

The classics, as in seemingly most often used theatrical shorts from the 1930s, '40s and 1950s were Our Gang ("The Little Rascals") and The 3 Stooges. How many other series were syndicated, and did you see them on your local stations?

 

[MattParker]

Laurel and Hardy shorts and other comedy two-reelers were staples of early television - cheap, still funny and the right length to fit into a half hour format with room for commercials.

TCM frequently runs MGM and Warner Brothers shorts to fill time between feature films.

But the most-widely seen shorts, then and now, are theatrical cartoons...
Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies (Leon Schlesinger, Warner Brothers)
Popeye, Betty Boop, Superman, Out of the Inkwell (Max Fleischer, Paramount)
Tom and Jerry, Droopy (Tex Avery, Hannah-Barbera, MGM)
Silly Symphonies, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck (Walt Disney, United Artists)

 

[mleach]

Laurel and Hardy shorts and other comedy two-reelers were staples of early television - cheap, still funny and the right length to fit into a half hour format with room for commercials.

Which is somewhat ironic considering that neither Laurel or Hardy were fans of the films being shown on TV. Not that neither man were anti-TV, actually Laurel and Hardy had actually wanted to get more involved with television though sadly illness and Hardy's death would prevent that. The famous team just simply didn't like the way their films were edited for TV for the purpose of adding more commericals.

 

[Mr. Mike]

Laurel and Hardy shorts and other comedy two-reelers were staples of early television - cheap, still funny and the right length to fit into a half hour format with room for commercials.

By that same token, in St. Louis, The 3 Stooges two-reelers were also staples of KPLR-TV's early lineup and have been for much of the past fifty years. As a matter of fact it was when Channel 11 first took to the airwaves in April of 1959 that the Stooges made their St. Louis TV debut, when some 80 of their two-reelers that had been intially released to television began airing on a local kids show called "Captain 11's Showboat", hosted by former KMOX-AM radio announcer Harry Fender.

IIRC, the Stooges shorts were first syndicated to television in late 1958 nationwide. KPLR-TV first commenced broadcasts on April 28th, 1959. So it could be considered a case of serendipity that the Stooges became a St. Louis tradition.

 

[johnbasalla]

I think if there was any editing of Laurel and Hardy films, it would have been their feature films, not the shorts. The shorts may have been broken up with commercial breaks, but the whole thing would probably air.

 

[johnbasalla]

Yes. Cartoons would be the big winners. I was thinking live action, forgetting about the cartoons (my bad).
Of the live action films, one time, a station that for years had a locally hosted Saturday afternoon program that played two "3 Stooges" films in an hour, finally decided to freshen things up with some other content. They added the Leon Erroll shorts from the 1930s. Now they showe one of each. I thought that was a good move. Unfortunately, after running through the series two times, they dropped Mr. Erroll and went back to the tried-and-true Stooges. Me-thinks it was due to negative viewer feedback from people who were used to, and just wanted the same-old, same-old.

We know that Hal Roach studio series of "Our Gang"-renamed "The Little Rascals" and Laurel and Hardy were syndicated to local TV stations, but what about other Hal Roach studio series? Charley Chase? Thelma Todd/Sazu Pitts - Todd/Patsy Kelly shorts?

Columbia pictures made millions from The 3 Stooges on TV. I also know that they offered the 10 Buster Keaton comedies that he made from 1939-1941 because our local ABC affiliate ran them on Saturday mornings for a while. I never saw (and to this day have never seen) Andy Clyde, but he was with Columbia's short subjects department for almost as long as the 3 Stooges! Couple his Columbia output with shorts he made for other companies and you have the longest running short comedy star of all time.

 

[MattParker]

Other Roach shorts (and comedy shorts from other studios) weren't shown as much but some stations did carry them. The NBC station in Philadelphia used them under the heading "The Big Rascals" in a show including a local host and puppets.

Silent comedy shorts were a regular feature on Howdy Doody (with narration by Buffalo Bob).

 

[Tim L]

Of the live action films, one time, a station that for years had a locally hosted Saturday afternoon program that played two "3 Stooges" films in an hour, finally decided to freshen things up with some other content. They added the Leon Erroll shorts from the 1930s. Now they showe one of each. I thought that was a good move. Unfortunately, after running through the series two times, they dropped Mr. Erroll and went back to the tried-and-true Stooges. Me-thinks it was due to negative viewer feedback from people who were used to, and just wanted the same-old, same-old.

That would have been WUAB-43 and "Superhost". WEWS-5 ran both the Stooges and the Little Rascals from 1958-59 into the early 1970's first as stand-alone series, then as part of "Captain Penny"

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

The Laurel & Hardy two-reel films were terribly edited when they were shown on WCPO-TV, Channel 9 about 1957 or so. These were used during a one-hour children's show, which had several titiles ("Our Gang Clubhouse" "The Bean's Clubhouse", etc.) starring Bud Chase. Much was made of having Laurel & Hardy films on that show when they were first shown, but after a while, the same ones, with many cuts, were re-run over and over. While this was a good high-energy local show, seeing "Way Out West" cut up to fit 20 minutes or so for that program was a real shame. In the late 1950's, Channel 9 also presented an hour-long show on Saturdays featuring the same films un-cut. That provided the chance to see those films with minimal, if any, cuts.

 

[Ultimajock]

...although none of the Hollywood studio-produced shorts were used, the majority of motion pictures on The CBS Children's Film Festival were short subjects filmed in other countries, perhaps most famously the French Oscar-winner The Red Balloon...

 

[CrankyYankee]

Not sure if this will be exactly on-topic or more of a sidebar, but how about serials?
I recall seeing the Gene Autry serial "Phantom Empire" shown in it's chapter-by-chapter on channel 7 in Boston(then WNAC-TV). Once in a while, some serials had been edited into feature-length films such as "King of the Rocket Men."

 

[Hal Erickson]

In addition to the Stooges, in the spring of 1959 Screen Gems syndicated a package called "Hilarious Hundred" (which actually numbered between 162 and 200), containing Columbia's non-Stooge two-reelers with Andy Clyde, Buster Keaton, Hugh Herbert, El Brendel, Vera Vague, Sterling Holloway et. al. This package was seen in Cincinnati under such titles as "Million Laughs" and "Laff House Gang."
The RKO shorts with Leon Errol, Edgar Kennedy and others were distributed by Guild Films (the same people who handled the TV release of the Looney Tunes) under the blanket title "Big Rascals." This package began making the rounds in late 1958.
The Hal Roach shorts that didn't feature Laurel & Hardy or Our Gang were syndicated by Governor TV Films in the mid-1950s as "Hal Roach Lafftime Theater" (this package also include L&H's Berth Marks, which wasn't part of the Film Classics/Regal TV manifest).
The Educational two-reelers starring Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon and others were shipped out to TV as "Comedy Carnival" (I can't remember the distributor).
The Mack Sennett/Paramount shorts, and those produced by Paramount with Robert Benchley, Burns & Allen etc., were syndicated along with Paramount's non-Popeye cartoons by U.M.&M. Television in 1956; this package was quickly absorbed by NTA Films.
The silent "Our Gang" comedies were shown in their original form on several TV stations in the 1950s, including Los Angeles' KCOP and Cincinnati's WCPO; they were then re-edited and re-packaged as "Those Loveable Scalawags" and, more famously, National Telepix's "Mischief Makers" (1960). National Telepix also sent out a package of re-edited silent comedies as "Comedy Capers" in 1961; two years later, Weiss TV distributed a group of silents produced by the Weiss Bros. with Snub Pollard, Ben Turpin, Poodles Hanneford and "Hairbreadth Harry" as "The Chuckleheads"(some of these prints included a pre-recorded laugh track!) And in early 1961, California National Productions and New Merritt Enterprises syndicated 130 episodes of edited silents with new wraparounds featuring Cliff Norton under the title "Funny Manns." This series was written and produced by the same people responsible for the old "Howdy Doody" show.
MGM's TV division handled distribution of the MGM "Our Gangs", the Pete Smith shorts, "Passing Parades", Robert Benchleys and "Crime Does Not Pay" shorts beginning in 1958.

 

[Al Timiter]

I enjoyed the Andy Clyde and Charley Chase two-reelers from Columbia Pictures. Not as popular as the Stooges, obviously, but quite good and very under-rated performers and films. I think some stations took them along with the Stooges for some variety.

 

[Tim L]

I meant to mention in my previous post that Laurel and Hardy shorts were shown in Cleveland on WJW-TV 8 in spring and summer 1963 under the title "Laurel, Ghoulardi and Hardy", at the time of Ghoulardi's (Ernie Anderson) first wave of popularity..Relplaced in the fall by Leave It To Beaver reruns. L&H shorts were later shown as time fillers after movies on Channel 8..

In the 70's and 80's L&H films were shown on Hoolihan and Big Chuck/Big Chuck and Lil' John at those times when a Friday Night fell near a holiday when a horror movie might have been inappropriate..

Funny Manns was part of Captain Penny's show on WEWS-TV 5..I have audio from May 1963 of a Captain Penny Noon Show on which there was a Funny Manns episode..

 

[johnbasalla]

I remember "Who's the funny man", and can still hear the theme song in my head. Even as a kid, I knew these were severely cut two-reelers and hated it because of that. The only thing worse, in that realm, were the 1980s "Laurel and Hardy Laugh-toons", taking maybe 3 minutes of one of their 20-minute 2-reel comedies. Despicable! Super Host used to run them in the Cleveland, Ohio market inbetween full 3 Stooges shorts. One time, however, as a time filler, WUAB showed a good chunk of one of L&H's silents by playing, back-to-back, the appropriate "Laurel and Hardy Laugh Toons". The first one was at the beginning of a tit-for-tat climax, the second one was the next part, the third... etc ... until the end.

I feel cheated that no local station picked up a lot of these packages that were syndicated. I really want to see other Columbia short subjects. I want to see Schilling and Lane, for example. Never saw them on TV here. Wasn't the Mickey McGuire series syndicated to TV? I've got a bunch of them on tape and DVD, and one of them has a police officer chasing the kids, and the policeman uses the N-word. Were the "Baby Burlesques" featuring Shirley Temple in the early 1930s available to TV? They're pretty lousy.

 

[anotherguyTN]

We know that Hal Roach studio series of "Our Gang"-renamed "The Little Rascals" and Laurel and Hardy were syndicated to local TV stations, but what about other Hal Roach studio series?  Charley Chase?  Thelma Todd/Sazu Pitts - Todd/Patsy Kelly shorts? 

TCM had shown some of the Charley Chase and Todd/Pitts/Kelly shorts when they first got the exclusive rights to most of the Hal Roach shorts, but in recent years they have gone to occasionally having marathons of the Little Rascals and Laurel and Hardy, like they did last month.

Not sure if this will be exactly on-topic or more of a sidebar, but how about serials?

TCM has sporadically shown serials on Saturday mornings. The main ones I can remember were some of the Superman and Zorro serials. They also had Cartoon Alley with classic WB and MGM cartoons until about the same time that Cartoon Network stopped showing Looney Tunes.

I've always thought that TCM should go to having a regular schedule of shorts, serials, and cartoons on Saturday and possibly Sunday mornings. (Didn't AMC do something like that in their early years?) They'll occasionally have something good, but not on a regular basis.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

I know we're discussing motion pictures (shorts, serials, etc.), but I am always taken by the great voices that were used for some of the characters in those.

Perhaps among the best known is that of Reed Hadley as Zorro in "Zorro's Fighting Legion". He would go on to be seen (and heard) in future motion pictures as well as in early TV.

In the serial, "The Masked Marvel", the distinct voice dubbed in for the "Marvel" was that of Gayle Whitman although he did not receive credit until many years later.

The other, and perhaps most haunting, is that of Billy Bletcher who does the voice of "Don Del Oro" the armor-covered villian in "Zorro's Fighting Legion". I remember that serial being shown on local TV in the early 1950's and even in that medium, the echoing voice coming from that character was chilling. I can only imagine how it came across to youngsters in a dark theatre when that serial first came out.

 

[Kurt Toy]

When I first heard of the L&H Laughtoons I thought the reference was to the IMO unfunny cartoons Larry Harmon did in the '60s. I've always wondered how Hal Roach felt about the Harmon-produced 'toons.