WI: Three Stooges with Another Studio

In the OTL, the Three Stooges signed up with Columbia. The good was that they stayed with the studio well into the 1950s, by the point where every other studio had shut down short production due to the rise of television. The bad was that president Harry Cohn was a notorious tight wad and dirty dealer. He kept the Stooges on one year contracts throughout their career, and convinced them that the shorts department was in financial trouble and they were not turning a profit for the studio. The Stooges made concessions to keep their jobs. In reality, the Stooges were making the studio money hand over fist, and were extremely popular, and were the driving force funding the shorts department, and a lot of the rest of Columbia. Cohn was also the reason the Stooges did not go into feature films during their time at the studio, as their contemporaries all did. Cohn was also the reason the Stooges did not break into television in the 1950s, and he was the force that sabotaged a pilot that could have gone to series. Cohn was also the reason Curly did not get the rest he needed while his health was deteriorating, leading to a career debilitating stroke that removed him from the group forever, and leading to his untimely death some years later. This was a malicious move, and short sighted from a business stand point.

The Stooges would not get their second wind until after Columbia unceremoniously fired them. Their shorts were rebroadcast on television, drawing a new generation of fans, and leading them to produce a cartoon and a series of feature films.

What if the Three Stooges had signed up with a studio other than Columbia?
 
Well, with all due respect, you seem to have your answer in the description. By what you've written, it seems as though another studio might have let them into television (now I'm picturing the Three Stooges on The Jack Benny Show) and perhaps Curly might have stayed as part of the act.

Maybe you could have one of them go into politics? That sounds fun.
 
Well, with all due respect, you seem to have your answer in the description. By what you've written, it seems as though another studio might have let them into television (now I'm picturing the Three Stooges on The Jack Benny Show) and perhaps Curly might have stayed as part of the act.

Maybe you could have one of them go into politics? That sounds fun.

Well the devil is in the details. I'm not sure exactly how the other studios would run the group. Cohn was an infamous SOB, but I don't know the culture of the different studios at the time.

Here's the TV pilot, by the way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-kf0L6qJew
 
Hard to say for sure...

...of course, I've been wanting to see an AH about the Three Stooges such as WI Curly Howard lived. (CUE to all the writers out there!)
 
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