Speaking of those two guys as I was a few days ago here: MeTV is rerunning The Abbott & Costello Show — 52 half-hours that Bud and Lou made in 1952 and 1953 utilizing every time-tested routine they'd used in their careers. I like these shows a lot more than most of the feature films they made. With one or two exceptions, the storylines in their movies were boring things you had to sit through to get to the comedy bits. Here, it's pretty much just the comedy bits…and they don't have the over-rehearsed, edited feel they have in some of the films.
I especially like two of their co-stars. Joe Besser — aka the Third Stooge between Shemp and Curly Joe — plays this demented little person named Stinky. Besser was 45 years old at the time and they dressed him in a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit and had him act like a bratty ten-year-old…and everyone treats him like he really is that age.
There's a famous Hollywood anecdote that allegedly occurred after Abbott and Costello made their early feature, Who Done It? Character actor William Bendix was in it and stole a couple of scenes. At the premiere, Costello supposedly threw a fit and screamed at his producers, "Don't you ever put anybody in one of our movies who's funnier than me again!" I don't think I believe that story but if it's true, Lou got over it by the time they did this series. Joe Besser is funnier than Costello…and just about anyone else.
I also really like watching a gent named Sidney Fields who plays Bud and Lou's landlord and many other roles in the TV series. Fields was one of the best straight men in burlesque and he later became a top radio writer who often appeared in sketches, usually as a character named Professor Melonhead. He wrote many episodes of The Abbott & Costello Show and later went on to work for Jackie Gleason.
Here's something interesting. You've all heard Mssrs. Abbott and Costello do their "Who's on First?" routine. Well here, from a 1944 radio special, we have a performance of it by the team of Fields and Costello. Abbott was ill so Sid Fields filled in. It's not the same and it makes you realize that Abbott did more in that routine than just set his partner up to be funny…
