The Three Stooges Collection

[Torgo]

I was curious whether or not I was the only one here collecting these. I know there's other fans around these parts (Mr. A? Phantom?), so who else is following the remastered release of the awsomness on DVD?

I remember picking up the first set last November and being in awe of the picture. I swear, I could just reach in and rub Curly's head. There are no extras, which is disappointing, but truth be told, I'm happier to potentially get a complete collection even more.

Volume 3 comes out tomarrow, and Volume 4 is scheduled for October 7th. If you haven't picked them up, I reccomend if, because they're also very cheap (less than $20 for more or less 20 shorts each. Yeah, I'd pay a dollar per short!).

[Captain Hygiene]

Wow, those look great! I didn't know they had them separated by years. I like the older Moe/Larry/Curly ones by far the best, so I might need to pick up a couple of these. Most of our Stooges collection is still on Beta videos, if that gives an indication of the quality I'm used to. These will probably blow my mind.

[Torgo]

I hope when they're done with the shorts they'll release the Sony distributed feature films in their own volume as well. I might as well commit suicide the day after, because then I'd have nothing else to live for.

[Frameous]

Major fan here, have been since childhood. My grandparents had multiple volumes on VHS, which kept us kids occupied time and again. I like Shemp and Curly equally, love Moe, and find myself appreciating Larry more and more as I get older. I really need to pick these up.

Some of my personal favorites include: Ants in the Pantry, Playing the Ponies, Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb, Three Sappy People, A Plumbing We Will Go, An Ache in Every Stake, In the Sweet Pie and Pie, Three Little Twirps, and If a Body Meets a Body.

[bobjohnson]

I have the first 2 sets, Always loved the stooges and am glad to see them put together chronologically!

[ometiklon]

I can't wait for the Shemp shorts to begin...
I think from 1947 to 1956..

[Torgo]

I found the release date info for Volume 5 just yesterday. Predictably, it was another three year set with the 25 shorts from 1946-48 (the fall of Curly, the rise of Shemp).

So I started putting these together for fun. It's a list of shorts to expect in each volume of Stooge awsomeness. It all should be as predicted until Volume 9, which will cut short with eight shorts. I'm not sure what Sony's planning for that, but if I were them, I'd beef the sets up with the feature films, putting two of them on Volume 9 (Have Rocket Will Travel hasn't even seen a DVD release yet), and the last four on a potential Volume 10 to round this collection to an even number.

Release dates for these sets have been wonky and unpredictable. The time frame kept cutting in half at first: between Volume 1 and 2 was six months, 2 and 3 was three months, and 3 and 4 was a month and a half, then the wait between 4 and 5 was nearly six months again. I've heard that this was because the sales figures were a lot higher than expected, and they've been trying to remaster and release as fast as possible, but I'm can't speak for Sony, so I don't know what the deal with the sudden production wait is. Perhaps they were just trying to decide how they could shift from Curly to Shemp smoothly, and decide how to market it (I'd use an image of Curly's cameo from Hold That Lion on the DVD cover, myself). Maybe they were hammering out a battle plan for the second half of their releases, because the lack of Curly and sudden short re-edits (including the infamous Fake Shemp shorts) later on could potentially dip the sales. I'm not going to put much effort into guessing when what set comes out when, but I will try and estimate when we should expect it.

There's also the fact that starting with Spooks in 1953, the Stooges went widescreen for their shorts, and two of them are in 3D. I don't know what Sony has up their sleeves for that. Looking back at Disney's Chronological Donald Volume 4 release, Disney used animorphic widescreen prints for all the toons presented in CinemaScope, but didn't release the 3D toons in their 3D format. I'm going to have to guess the same thing will happen for our trio here, since the fact that Sony is bothering to remaster these means it may actually care enough to present them in their correct aspect ratio, but they might not bother to go with 3D prints on the two selected shorts, most likely due to lack of space on the DVD because they might feel urged to include both 2D and 3D versions if they do. It should be noted, though, that the 3D process is not polorized, and is the traditional red and blue glasses type, meaning that it is easily replicated on DVD should they choose to include them.

And now, what I think we should expect in the future:

Volume 5: 1946-48 (25 shorts), March 15th 2009
Beer Barrel Polecats
A Bird in the Head
Uncivil War Birds
The Three Troubledoers
Monkey Businessmen
Three Loan Wolves
G.I. Wanna Home
Rhythm and Weep
Three Little Pirates
Half-Wits Holiday (Final Curly)
Fright Night (First Shemp)
Out West
Hold That Lion!
Brideless Groom
Sing a Song of Six Pants
All Gummed Up
Shivering Sherlocks
Pardon My Clutch
Squareheads of the Round Table
Fiddlers Three
The Hot Scots
Heavenly Daze
I'm a Monkey's Uncle
Mummy's Dummies
Crime on Their Hands

Volume 6: 1949-51 (24 shorts), Summer 2009?
The Ghost Talks
Who Done It?
Hokus Pokus
Fuelin' Around
Malice in the Palace
Vagabond Loafers
Dunked in the Deep
Punchy Cowpunchers
Hugs and Mugs
Dopey Dicks
Love at First Bite
Self-Made Maids
Three Hams on Rye
Studio Stoops
Slaphappy Sleuths
A Snitch in Time
Three Arabian Nuts
Baby Sitters Jitters
Don't Throw That Knife
Scrambled Brains
Merry Mavericks
The Tooth Will Out
Hula-La-La
Pest Man Wins

Volume 7: 1952-54 (22 shorts), Fall 2009?
A Missed Fortune
Listen, Judge
Corny Casanovas
He Cooked His Goose
Gents in a Jam
Three Dark Horses
Cuckoo on a Choo Choo
Up in Daisy's Penthouse
Booty and the Beast
Loose Loot
Tricky Dicks
Spooks! (First widescreen short, originally in 3D)
Pardon My Backfire (Originally in 3D)
Rip, Sew and Stitch
Bubble Trouble
Goof on the Roof
Income Tax Sappy
Musty Musketeers
Pals and Gals
Knutzy Knights
Shot in the Frontier
Scotched in Scotland

Volume 8: 1955-1957 (24 shorts) Winter 2009/10?
Fling in the Ring
Of Cash and Hash
Gypped in the Penthouse
Bedlam in Paradise
Stone Age Romeos
Wham-Bam-Slam!
Hot Ice
Blunder Boys
Husbands Beware
Creeps
Flagpole Jitters
For Crimin' Out Loud (Final new Shemp footage)
Rumpus in the Harem (Fake Shemp)
Hot Stuff (Fake Shemp)
Scheming Schemers (Fake Shemp)
Commotion on the Ocean (Final Shemp, final Fake Shemp)
Hoofs and Goofs (First Joe)
Muscle Up a Little Closer
A Merry Mix Up
Space Ship Sappy
Guns a Poppin!
Horsing Around
Rusty Romeos
Outer Space Jitters

Volume 9 1958-1960 (8 shorts, 2 feature films), Spring 2010?
Quiz Whizz
Fifi Blows Her Top
Pies and Guys
Sweet and Hot
Flying Saucer Daffy
Oil's Well That Ends Well
Triple Crossed
Sappy Bull Fighters (Final Joe)
Have Rocket, Will Travel (First Curly-Joe, first feature film)
Stop, Look, and Laugh (Curly stock footage)

Volume 10: 1961-1965 (4 feature films), Summer 2010?
The Three Stooges Meet Hercules
The Three Stooges in Orbit
The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze
The Outlaws is Coming (Final Columbia Stooges film)

[Torgo]

Volume 5 has come and gone, and as much as I love Curly, after watching him non-stop as these were released, a good dose of Shemp was welcome.

Volume 6 is due out on June 16th, and that has me excited because it coincides with my vacation (the very end of it, but still). This is the last set before we get into re-edits, Fake Shemp, and Joe Besser, so it'll be one to cherish.