----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Shawn Levy writes: "Currently, comedy on TV is also closely tied to personalities -- Tim Allen, Paul Reiser, Roseanne, Fran Drescher, Seinfeld, etc. -- in a way that film comedy rarely manages to be. Right now, Jim Carrey is enjoying a run the likes of which hasn't been seen in years. But how many years of 3-$100-million-pictures can he realistically sustain? Movie actors who continually trot out the same personality wane at the boxoffice; the Golden Age studios knew this and cast for variety. Even Stallone and Arnie try new things. A comic doing the same shtick on the big screen tires . . . " In general, this is true of the current situation, but think of the number of comedic actors who traded on what was essentially the same persona from film to film throughout the "golden years" of Hollywoodd--W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, not to mention the Little Tramp! Many of these performers brought their personae to film from stage or (later) radio (and often crossed over more successfully than TV performers have--though never in giant hits). Like current actors, though, the schtick did get tired after a while--even Groucho tried to branch out in his later years. Bob Hope is perhaps the most egregious example of someone who outwore his welcome long before he quit (but he remained fairly popular, if I'm correct). For an interesting analysis of the transition from stage to film for Eddy Cantor, see Henry Jenkins III article on the making of WHOOPEE in CINMEA JOURNAL 29:3 (Spring 1980), 32-52. --Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN