Little Rascals on DVD (1 Viewer)

[lasvidfil]

I know Cabin Fever had the rights to them in the 90's but you can't find those anymore and all i see now is one bootleg after another or $1.99 collections with 4 episodes. Anyone know who officially owns the rights to the little rascals and if they will ever be released properly? Did I see a new release coming in March with colorized episodes on Amazon??? Yikes!

 

[Eric Peterson]

As far as I know, Hallmark is still sitting on the rights to these.

There was some debate about a deal that was done with Lion's Gate (I think?) last year, but whether the Roach titles were included was not definitive. Either way, I consider this to be one of the biggest items missing on DVD to date. I finally broke down and purchased one of the bootlegs to tide me over until full releases, but I'm not holding my breathe.

 

[chas speed]

I had them all on laserdisc and copied them on to 14 DVD-R's. I don't know why they have been botched on dvd. They are wonderful shorts. The Three Stooges have been botched as well.

 

[Tory]

Also botched are Laurel & Hardy, Charley Chase, Taxi Boys, Boy Friends, Todd & Pitts/Kelly. We need serious attention paid to the short subjects.

 

[LaurenceGarvey]

Short subjects get a profound lack of respect in the DVD format. Warners is nice enough to throw them in as extras on various DVDs, but do not collect them. The wonderful RKO shorts with Edgar Kennedy or Leon Errol are MIA. Sony did a wonderful job with the Columbia Buster Keaton shorts, but the Three Stooges' history on DVD is appalling and the many other Columbia short comedies, including Andy Clyde, Vera Vague, Charley Chase, El Brendel and many others, are MIA. Lionsgate and their disrespect for the Hal Roach catalog is well documented and again appalling. Plus, nearly 300 movie serials were released in the sound era; a grand total of FIVE of them have been released on DVD by the companies that currently own most of them (Lionsgate, Warner, and Sony). Frustrating.

 

[Tory]

Who owns the RKO shorts library? Warner said in a previous HTF chat that did not. VCI released some Edgar Kennedy and Leon Errol short collections but something better is deserved. I believe that some of these will be appearing in a high quality PD Laurel & Hardy collection sometime later this year alongside some silent Rascals and Chase shorts. In terms of the public domain, I wonder what talkie shorts are pd as it seems that only Three Stooges, Little Rascals, and some animated shorts and serial episodes are the only thing paid any attention to but I am certain that there are some others. I believe that many Educational shorts are pd. Wasn't there a rival series to Little Rascals?

 

[LaurenceGarvey]

Yeah, unfortunately RKO sold off their shorts (hundreds and hundreds of 'em) separately from the sale of features, so Warners doesn't own the 2-reelers. Errol and Kennedy shorts were all over TV up through the 1970s; I don't know what's happened to them since then. I believe that all of the Educational shorts are PD, since the company went out of business long ago. From time to time there were series created to rival Our Gang, notably during the silent era. They're probably all in the PD now. Columbia, which generated a full slate of shorts from the early 1930s until the mid 1950s, probably has the best collection of unreleased comedy in the history of the medium; other than the aforementioned Keaton collection and the various Three Stooges releases, it's been locked away for decades.


www.inthebalcony.com

 

[David Deeb]

If they just sit in vaults, one has to wonder what these studios are waiting for.

I mean, if they aren't going to properly release them and sell them to us now, then their audience is going to literally die. The interest in these properties & their opportunities to sell them to us will continue to dwindle.

Why not just donate them to a historical or archival society and let the world enjoy them now?

 

[Brian-W]

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...little+rascals

ongoing thread already