Laurel and Hardy (Flintstones Forever: The Bedrock Anomaly Part II)
This post was originally about Ollu and Buzsla, back when I was trying to incorporate elements of the Wold Newton Universe into the Television Crossover Universe. Later, when writing the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia, I decided to try a different, generational approach to certain comedy duos, which led to Flintstones Forever: The Bedrock Anomaly, which is found in Television Crossover Universe: Worlds and Mythology Volume I.
So originally, this post covered The Flintstones, Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, and the Honeymooners.
I've decided to split up the four subjects into separate posts. This post is now reworked as a Laurel and Hardy post, based on the timeline in Worlds and Mythology. The Abbott and Costello post is found here. Currently, it is only a quickie, but eventually, it will become a full chronology based on Worlds and Mythology. Soon, I will be creating a new, separate Honeymooners post based on Worlds and Mythology. As for the Flintstones, I am currently writing a new book, the Cartoon Crossover Encyclopedia, so I won't be making any new updates to any posts involving cartoons until after that book is released, tentatively in late 2016.
If you want to read the full chronology for Flintstones Forever, which covers the Flintstones, Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, the Honeymooners, the Three Stooges, the Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, and more, you can purchase it here. You can purchase the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia, which inspired the generational approach now used here. If you'd like to learn more about the upcoming Cartoon Crossover Encyclopedia, you can visit its Facebook discussion group here. And finally, if you miss Ollu and Buzsla, you can find Dennis E. Power's original chronology, Immortal Befuddled, here.
So, enough explanations, links, and promotion. On to talking about Laurel and Hardy...
Warning. This post has lots of wild theories.
Even if I'm using fictional theories, the crossovers themselves are real.
So, on to the explanation....
TIMELINE (TELEVISION CROSSOVER UNIVERSE)
So, let's get going on to the chronology…
Prehistory--FLYING ELEPHANTS--A generation after Oh becomes ruler of the tribe, a new leader has taken over the tribe, and two of Oh's children, Ztan and Ohlver, have no favor in the village. In fact, a new decree states that all men must marry or be banished, and Oh's children fight over the same girl.
Once Upon a Time--BABES IN TOYLAND--Meanwhile, the Ollie and Stan of this era know the real Bo Peep, from whom the later toy is based off of.
1400-1420--BOHEMIAN GIRL--The Ollie and Stan of this era are fake fortune tellers in Bohemia. Ollie's wife is having an affair with a scoundrel named Devil's Hoof. When Devil's Hoof is caught stealing from the palace, he is captured and whipped. As revenge, Ollie's wife steals Count Arnheim's infant daughter, and then passes her off to Ollie as their own daughter that he has previously been unaware of, because he's not too bright. Years later, when the girl is grown, she is arrested for allegedly stealing from the count, but before she can be punished, the locket she wears reveals her true identity.
1705--FRA DIAVOLO--The great great great grandfathers of Ollie Hardy Jr. and Stan Laurel Jr. became the henchmen of infamous villain Fra Diavolo.
1863--WAY OUT WEST--The grandfathers of Ollie and Stan are prospectors out west.
1917--PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES--Stan Senior and Ollie Senior are drafted when America enters the first World War.
March 1927--DUCK SOUP--Ollie and Stan are vagrants who flee from a sheriff gathering "volunteer" firefighters, and end up in a deserted mansion, where they try to pose as owner and staff.
July 1927--WHY GIRLS LOVE SAILORS--Stan's girlfriend is abducted by a sea captain, so Stan goes to the rescue. Ollie happens to be part of the captain's crew.
September 1927--SAILORS, BEWARE!--Stan is posing as cab driver Chester Chaste and Ollie is his boss, "Captain Cryder". Stan finds a baby left in his cab who is really a midget jewel thief on the lam, who pretends to be a baby so he can hide from the cops.
October 1927--SECOND HUNDRED YEARS--Stan and Ollie are in prison and trying to escape.
November 1927--DO DETECTIVES THINK?--Stan and Ollie are police officers assigned to guard a judge who just sentenced a murderer to death and fears retribution from his gang.
1928--THE GARRY MOORE SHOW--Stan and Ollie try to sell vacuum cleaners.
November 1928--TWO TARS--Stan and Ollie are U.S. Marines on shore leave.
December 1, 1928--HABEAS CORPUS--Ollie and Stan meet a mad scientist who is conducting experiments in moving brains from one body to another.
December 29, 1928--WE FAW DOWN--Stan and Ollie are married, and lie to their wives in order to attend a poker game, with disastrous results. Their marriages do not last.
January 1929--LIBERTY--Out, but not for long, Stan and Ollie find themselves on the run from the cops.
February 1929--WRONG AGAIN--Ollie and Stan are stable hands who hear that a millionaire has lost his Blue Boy. They don't realize it's a painting, and think he's referring to a horse they have also called Blue Boy, so they attempt to return the horse for the reward.
June 1929--MEN O'WAR--Stan and Ollie are sailors on shore leave.
November 1929--HOOSEGOW--Ollie and Stan wind up in prison, though they had been innocent bystanders of a raid.
August 1931--PARDON US--Ollie and Stan try to sell homemade booze during the prohibition.
December 1931--BEAU HUNKS--Ollie and Stan join the French Foreign Legion. They don't learn a lesson.
March 1932--ANY OLD PORT--Stan and Ollie help out a girl being forced to marry against her will.
April 1932--THE MUSIC BOX--Ollie and Stan have started a moving company, and find themselves challenged by having to move a piano up a building's stairs.
May 1932--THE CHIMP--Stan and Ollie are working for a circus that folds, and as payment, Stan gets the flea circus and Ollie gets a chimp.
December 1932--TOWED IN A HOLE--Stan and Ollie are fish peddlers.
August 1933--MIDNIGHT PATROL--Stan and Ollie have become police officers.
November 1933--DIRTY WORK--Stan and Ollie meet a scientist who has come up with a formula that extends one's youth, which certainly explains how they are still relatively young in the 1990s. Perhaps they passed this onto their cousins as well.
December 1933--SONS OF THE DESERT--Stan and Ollie have married, and belong to a lodge. The lodge is having a convention in Chicago, but Ollie's wife won't allow it. So Ollie gets his friend who is a doctor to prescribe an ocean cruise, knowing his wife gets sea sick. While they are at the convention, the ship he's supposed to be on is lost at sea. Ollie's wife presumes the worst, until she sees a newsreel with footage of her husband at the convention. Their marriages do not last, as usual.
June 1934--HOLLYWOOD PARTY--Jimmy Durante gets the help of Baron Munchausen to boost his career, so in return, Durante throws him a huge party. The Three Stooges crash the party to get autographs. Attendees at the party are Laurel and Hardy, Mickey Mouse and the Big Bad Wolf (from the Looniverse, who were working in Hollywood at the time, using the portal at Toon Town to pass through dimensions), and many others.
December 1934--LIVE GHOST--Stan and Ollie are fish cleaners hired as crew for a haunted ship.
August 1935--BONNIE SCOTLAND--Stan inherits some land in Scotland, and Ollie accompanies him to claim it.
October 1936--OUR RELATIONS--Turns out that Stan Sr. had two children, twins Stan Jr. and Alf Laurel, while Oliver Sr. had Oliver Junior and Bert Hardy. Alf and Bert are heroic, while we know how Stan and Ollie are.
May 1938--SWISS MISS--Stan and Ollie are in Switzerland selling mouse traps, but when they can't pay their hotel bill, they end up forced to work there.
November 1939--FLYING DEUCES--Stan and Ollie end up in the French Foreign Legion. Again.
February 1940--CHUMP AT OXFORD--An accidental act of heroism gets Ollie and Stan scholarships at Oxford.
May 1940--SAPS AT SEA--Ollie and Stan get a job testing horns, which drives Ollie a little batty. For therapy, Stan and Ollie go out to sea, where they end up catching a killer.
October 1941--GREAT GUNS--Stan and Ollie also enlist, in order to look after their sickly friend who has been drafted.
August 7, 1942--A HAUNTING WE WILL GO--Ollie and Stan are vagrants again, who see an ad for a simple job: delivering a corpse. They are unaware the corpse is in fact very much alive, and a gangster is using this method to get out of town unnoticed.
June 11, 1943--JITTERBUGS--Stan and Ollie are musicians who are duped into helping a con man sell pills that turn water into gasoline.
December 1943--AIR RAID WARDENS--Ollie and Stan are air raid wardens.
October 1944--THE BIG NOISE--Ollie and Stan are janitors who take the job of guarding a new weapon.
May 1945--THE BULLFIGHTERS--Ollie and Stan are detectives in Mexico when a man they put away returns for revenge.
December 1951--ATOLL K--Ollie Hardy Jr and Stan Laurel Junior end up on an island where there are no laws and no taxes.
February 1972--THE NEW SCOOBY-DOO MOVIES--"Scooby-Doo Meets Laurel and Hardy (aka the Ghost of Bigfoot)"--The Mystery Inc. gang meets and works with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
1980s--BLOOM COUNTY--Stan and Ollie make an appearance.
1998--THE ALL NEW ADVENTURES OF LAUREL & HARDY: FOR LOVE OR MUMMY--The nephews of Stan and Ollie have an encounter with a mummy.
I don't expect everyone to agree with this. And sure there will be some errors. And at some points I may have been too comprehensive. But I hate to leave things out. It took me years to write this, but it's finally done. Hopefully the next subject I choose isn't as grand a subject.
I know that this wasn't completely complete. Some of that was intentional, other things might not be, so feel free to comment on what I might have missed on our Television Crossover Universe website or our Facebook discussion group.
And here I thought the Doctor Who post would make my head spin! Some imaginative stuff there, but how do you account for the visualization of some of these people where there are marked differences? Is the TVCU all a universe of the mind? (It's something that I have trouble with when it comes to the WNU as well.)
ReplyDeleteA lot of work in there, Robert - I could never do it and accomplish the school workload you have!
BCnU in the TVCU!
I don't believe the actors look like the characters. For instance, note that the events of Seinfeld occur during the time when Jerry Seinfeld was just an up and coming comic, and the events of the show end just as the show "Seinfeld" was starting to air on NBC. I should have mentioned that the original "Jerry" cast got replaced by the guy from Airheads, the guy from Pretty Woman, and that girl who was on Saturday Night Live. The fact is that the events we see on TV are accurate (except when Dennis says they aren't, in this exception to the rule I make here), but the actors don't look like the characters, but they do resemble them very closely. Thus notice how closely those characters all look alike.
ReplyDeleteHi again, I just posted your link for thios page on my blog. I still say that fifty thousand years old is way too old for events that Power plainly states to be going on during the last days of the Ice Age, during the glacial recession.
ReplyDeleteI have a few more additions to the scheme and my own blog is just started. For example the page:
http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/2011/09/in-25th-century-and-beyond.html
And unlike you, I do not adhere to the "What you see is what you get" point of view so much as "Everybody has something to hide, everybody changes everything in the retelling, so we're all liars anyway" stance. Which makes life harder but you get so much more leeway to say "X says this but HE'S WRONG"
And you get that in almost any real-life research you come across anyway.
Best Wishes, Dale D.
Hi again, just another note: I have a complete episodes guide for The Flintstones up on my cedar-and-Willow blog, but there was too much junk html from imdb and I am still weeding it out. Also I decided that since the second Flintstones movie depicted Ollu and Buzsla more nearly the same height (instead of the nearly-universal "Short Buzsla" version otherwise), then that movie was probably the one that showed them more nearly as they realistically would have looked. "Rock Vegas" would have represented a vwery wealthy city=state in then-Spain, and a notorious place for gambling: the movie would have taken liberties with the decor but the plot would still hold up as pretty nearly correct. Oh, and it seems that Wilma's mother (represented asa Liz Taylor in the first movie and Joan Collins in the second) got swapped for Betty's mother by the moviemakers.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for the identification of Ollu and Buzsla as Salmoneous and Joxer; I believe they were also depicted in the cartoon The Roman Holidays, where Ollu had managed to make himself landlord of the tenement where Buzsla and family were then living.
Best Wishes, Dale D.
Latest two entries up on the blog also involve Ollu and Buzsla (or at least Ollu) directly, and they are on A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Happy Days and Charlie's angels. Being the latest ones, they will be the first to show up if you use the direct link. Cheers and Best Wishes, Dale D.
ReplyDeleteIn my essay "Corrupted Lines: An Investigation Into A Dissipated Branch Of The Wold Newton Family", I posit (with the kind permission of Dennis) that in 1977, the Immortals were working as roadies for a popular rock group, and were responsible for fathering three young men: One grew up to become Garth, the sidekick on a cult favorite public access show in Illinois. The others (including Garth's twin brother Jason) inspired Mike Judge to create the characters of "Beavis and Butthead", and later had their adventures told by writer/director Kevin Smith as Jay and "Silent" Bob.
ReplyDeleteA couple more amendments: the early 1970s cartoon series Where's Huddles? and The Roman Holidays both seem to be slight variations on The Flintstones:
ReplyDeletehttp://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/2011/10/wheres-huddles-and-roman-holidays.html
And, yes, I also saw your essay on "Corrupted Lines", statichaos!
Best Wishes, Dale D.
PS, The Roman Holidays would be some centuries after A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. I also mentioned the Ollu and Buzsla appearance in the Prince Valiant Sunday newspaper comic strip along the way.