The New Three Stooges

The New Three Stooges
Created by	Norman Maurer Dick Brown
Directed by	Edward Bernds
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Joe DeRita Emil Sitka Jeff Maurer Peggy Brown Margaret Kerry Tiny Brauer Paul Frees
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	156 individual cartoons
Production
Producer(s)	Norman Maurer Lee Orgel
Running time	5 minutes
Production company(s)	Normandy Productions Cambria Studios Heritage Productions
Release
Original network	Syndicated
Original release	October 1965 – September 1966
Chronology
Preceded by	The Three Stooges
Followed by	The Robonic Stooges

The New Three Stooges is an American animated television series that ran from 1965 to 1966 starring the Three Stooges. The show follows the trio's antics both in live-action and animated segments. The cast consisted of Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Joe "Curly Joe" DeRita, with actor and close friend Emil Sitka co-starring, as well as Margaret Kerry.

Production

41 live action sequences were executively produced by cartoonist Norman Maurer, Moe's son-in-law, who was their film agent at this time. Edward Bernds, who had directed the team at Columbia Pictures from 1945 to 1952 during most of the Shemp era, was also hired to write and direct the series. Emil Sitka, who had appeared in many of the Stooges comedies over the years, was slated to appear in these wraparounds as straightman to the Stooges.^[1]

Cambria Studios produced 156 short Stooge cartoons under the supervision of Lee Orgel. Four cartoons were produced to correspond thematically with 40 of the live-action Stooge opening and closing sequences, so that one live-action sequence could serve as a wraparound for four different cartoons. Joe DeRita later commented that this presented something of a problem for viewers:

Most of the cartoons ended up with the trio fleeing a scene after accidentally causing havoc at their current jobs. The cartoons were unusual for Cambria in that they did not use Syncro-Vox, Cambria's patented technique which used filmed footage of the voice actors' mouths over top of still frames. The pilot cartoon, "That Little Old Bomb Maker," featured a unique live-action wrap around that was not reused on other cartoons.

Some of the cartoons featured a recurring character named Badman, a jerky supervillain with a Batman get-up who is actually a 5-year-old boy that is nice and kind. The boy can only transform to Badman if he ever hears or says the word "Bad", and for Badman, vice versa for "good". In the episode "Badman of the Briny", the two finally find out that they are the same person in several scenes.

To avoid any licensing problems, Cambria did not use any of the past Three Stooges theme songs, including "Three Blind Mice", or "Listen to the Mockingbird", even though both had lapsed into the public domain at the time. (Likewise, the on-screen title used a numeral 3 to avoid infringing on Columbia Pictures's trademark on the phrase "The Three Stooges.") Several of the musical pieces used on the show were also used for the Bozo's Big Top series in the 1960s and early 1970s.

This was actually not the first attempt at an animated version of "The Three Stooges", nor was it the last. During the late 1950s, Norman Maurer attempted to sell Stooge Time, a partially live action, partially rotoscope animation half-hour series to television. In 1960, Maurer and the Stooges filmed a pilot for a half-hour series The Three Stooges Scrapbook, which featured a five-minute Stooge cartoon. The Three Stooges would later return to animated form in two episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies and The Robonic Stooges.

Reception

The New Three Stooges was well received upon initial airings, despite the use of limited animation. However, the boys were visibly aging during this time (Moe was 68, and Larry was 63), so the slapstick was subdued in the live action segments. Orgel later stated that the Stooges' penchant for slapstick violence was kept to a minimum due to the concerns of parental groups.^[1][2] In addition, Larry's health was in decline, resulting in several lines of dialogue being slurred. This resulted in much of the comedy being divided between Moe and Curly Joe, with Larry only chiming in when necessary.^[3] The color television series lasted successfully from 1965 to 1966. Although animated portions of the show were last aired in syndication on WGN-TV in the Chicago area in the early 1980s (and later the early 1990s), repackaged and distributed at the time by Harmony Gold USA (then DiC Entertainment) and Jeffrey Scott Productions,^[4] it is occasionally seen on Boomerang and Me-TV. It also aired in Japan on TV Tokyo. Several episodes are currently available on VHS and DVD (often in cheap "dollar packages") because the majority of the series fell into the public domain. An example of an episode that is not in the public domain is "The Tree Nuts".

The New Three Stooges became the only regularly scheduled television series in the Stooges' history. Unlike other film shorts that aired on television like Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry and Popeye, the Stooges' short films never had a regularly scheduled national television program to air in, neither on network nor syndicated; the film shorts, at roughly 20 minutes apiece, were of ideal size to be run as a stand-alone television series in and of themselves. When Columbia/Screen Gems licensed the film library to television beginning in 1958, local station aired the shorts when they saw fit, either as late-night "filler" or marathon sessions.

DVD releases

Using the original 16mm acetates, Rhino Entertainment issued a restored version of the majority of the series on DVD in 2002.^[2] In 2004, EastWest DVD released a slim case volume of episodes. In 2007 and 2008, Mill Creek Entertainment released a number of episodes as part their Ultimate 150 Cartoon Festival, also their Giant 600 Cartoon Collection and their 200 Classic Cartoons - Collector's Edition Label formats.

On October 15, 2013, Image Madacy Entertainment released The New Three Stooges: Complete Cartoon Collection on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time.^[5] The 5-disc set features all 156 cartoons and 40 live action sequences on 4 discs and the bonus disc is a CD by the Stooges.

Lawsuit

The series proved to be a financial headache for the Stooges. In accordance with their contract, Cambria Studios' distributor was supposed to forward quarterly statements to the trio to keep them abreast of the show's profits. Norman Maurer recalled receiving only one or two statements over a five-year period, ultimately leading to a lawsuit. Ironically, the judge presiding over the case knew little about the film or television industry and ruled in favor of Cambria. The Stooges would appeal the decision in 1975, leading to a victory in their favor. However, it changed nothing in regard to the distributor's failure to provide the necessary profit statements to Normandy Productions, and by the time the case was decided, both Larry and Moe had died.^[1]

Episodes

List of live-action wraparounds and cartoons for The New Three Stooges television series (1963–1973):

Live-action wraparounds for Three Stooges episodes

New Three Stooges cartoons

Program credits

• A Cambria-Normandy Production
• Executive Producer - Dick Brown
• Associate Producer - David Detiege
• Executive Producer - Live Action - Norman Maurer
• Supervisor of Production - Lee Orgel
• Stories and Storyboards - Jack Miller, Sam Cornell, Art Diamond, Warren Tufts, Cecil Beard, Lee Orgel, Dave Detiege, Barbara Chain, Jack Kinney, Nick George, Pat Kearin, Homer Brightman
• Direction - Eddie Bernds, Eddie Rehberg, Sam Cornell, Dave Detiege
• Animation - Chick Otterstrom, Kay Wright, Bob Maxfield
• Layouts - Dan Noonan, Hi Mankin, Nick Panesis, Lee Mishkin
• Backgrounds - Gloria Woods, Bob Inman, Bill Butler
• Production Managers - Fred Darley, Cliff Selkirk
• Music department - Paul Horn (original music); Darrell Calker, Walter Greene, Al Sack, Hans J. Salter, Lee Zahler (stock music); Gordon Zahler (supervisor)
• Painting - Connie Crawley
• Camera - Jerry Smith, Ed Gillette
• Editing - William J. Faris, George Probert
• Cast (Live Action) - Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Joe DeRita, Emil Sitka, Margaret Kerry (aka Mrs. Dick Brown), Jeffrey Maurer, Cary Brown, Tina Brown, Eileen Brown, and Bill Brauer ("Soldiers" only)
• Cast (Voices) - Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Joe DeRita, Margaret Kerry, Hal Smith, Johnny Coons, and Paul Frees ("That Little Old Bomb Maker" only)

See also

• The Three Stooges Scrapbook
• The Robonic Stooges
• The New Scooby-Doo Movies
• Laurel and Hardy (animated series)
• The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show
• Hoppity Hooper

External links

• The New Three Stooges at the Internet Movie Database
• The New Three Stooges at TV.com

References