Kook's Tour

Infobox Film | name =Kook's Tour


caption = VHS cover for "Kook's Tour"
director = Norman Maurer
producer = Norman Maurer
writer = Norman Maurer
starring = Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Joe DeRita
Norman Maurer
Don Lamond
Joan Howard
Emil Sitka
Moose the Dog
cinematography = James T. Flocker
Michael Maurer
editing = Pat Somerset
distributor = A Normandy Production
released = flagicon|USFebruary 5, 1970
runtime = 51' 22"
country = USA
language = English
amg_id = 1:177679
imdb_id = 0211468
preceded_by = "The Outlaws Is Coming"

"Kook's Tour" is the title of an American short comedy film produced in late 1969 and early 1970. It was the final film to star the Three Stooges. The name is a pun on the term "Cook's Tour", which was popularized by the Thomas Cook travel company.

"Kook's Tour" was conceived by Moe Howard's son-in-law, frequent Three Stooges collaborator Norman Maurer, as a weekly television series that would have mixed the Stooges' brand of slapstick comedy with a documentary travelogue format. The concept of the series was that, after 50 years of comic mayhem, the Stooges (Moe, Larry Fine, and Curly Joe DeRita) have retired and are travelling the world with their motor home and motor boat (which is transported from place to place via a cargo plane).

The 50-minute pilot film for the series saw the Stooges exploring the wilderness of the western United States, including areas of Wyoming and Idaho. On January 9, 1970, Larry Fine suffered a severe stroke, paralyzing the left side of his body. When it became clear that Fine was not expected to recover fully from the stroke, production of the series was cancelled and the "Kook's Tour" pilot film was shelved.

The film remained unreleased for several years until Maurer arranged for it to be released to the Super 8 home movie market in the mid-1970s. When Super 8 was replaced by VHS, "Kook's Tour" disappeared from sight, later to reappear on DVD.

At the end of "Kook's Tour", Moe stated that the second episode (ultimately never produced) would have taken place in Japan.

Following Larry's stroke and the cancellation of "Kook's Tour", several attempts were made to revive the Stooges (with Emil Sitka replacing Larry), but no further films were produced before Larry's and Moe's deaths in 1975.

Further reading

*"Moe Howard and the Three Stooges"; by Moe Howard (Citadel Press, 1977).
*"The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion"; by Jon Solomon (Comedy III Productions, Inc., 2002).
*"The Three Stooges Scrapbook"; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg (Citadel Press, 1994).
*"The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons"; by Michael Fleming (Broadway Publishing, 2002).
*"One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures"; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).

External links

* [http://www.threestooges.com/filmography/details.asp?intFilmID=205 Official website] description