Our Gang (aka The Little Rascals) (1 Viewer)

[Nuno_Jason]

Ok, there are a few discs out by Brentwood that showcases some of the most popular episodes. They are unedited, which is good, but this show is a classic if there ever was a classic! These shorts are amazing time pieces and are full of a charm that cannot be duplicated today or ever again! They really need to be preserved (especially the non-talkies!) and the whole goshdarn catalogue of shorts (those that still exist!)need to be released in a complete set! (If they are owned by the same studio, that is) The silents from 1922 all the way to the MGM's of 1945(?) C'mon, who's with me on this? Take us back in time!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Nuno,
I feel your pain.
You should have had a DVD player 3 years ago. It
was at that time that a company called Cabin Fever
released a boxed set of approximately 24 Little Rascals
shorts, all hosted by Leonard Maltin. The set was
available out of Canada.
If you are familiar with the 2 VHS boxed sets that
were available in the mid-90s, this DVD boxed set
was an exact duplicate of that material.
The only problem is, before Cabin Fever could
release the 2nd boxed set on DVD, the company went
belly-up.
So, some of us were lucky to get that first DVD
boxed set, whose quality is absolutely gorgeous.
Now...
I had high hopes for GoodTimes Video which
just released a 8-DVD set of Our Gang shorts -- but
after buying it, I am very disappointed. The entire
set is badly organized from listing of titles to
easy menu access to particular shorts. The quality
of the material falls short of the Cabin Fever
versions.
Hallmark has 2 volumes of Little Rascals shorts which
they released a few years back. You can find them here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...525527-6279912
The quality of those shorts are quitre good.
If you are really desparate, go ahead and order the
GoodTimes Our Gang boxed set. It's not that
great, but it's the only thing available to us now.

 

[BrianP]

If you are interested in the box set it can be found at the following link for $19.99. Also included a link of a discussion of the deal at DVDTalk. I wish they would release all episodes of these classics on DVD.
http://www.musicgraveyard.com/litras12vols.html
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...5&pagenumber=1

 

[Eugene Esterly]

But does the 8-DVD collection from Goodtimes contain all of the Our Gang shorts? According to the site at http://www.ramseyltd.com/rascals/lrfilmog.html , Our Gang has 221 made from 1922-1945.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Guys,

If this Music Graveyard is legit, I urge you
to buy these DVDs.

They are a rarity because I don't think they
are being manufactured anymore.

These are the original unedited versions
from Cabin Fever, meticulously remastered, and
hosted by Leonard Maltin.

The Hallmark and GoodTimes versions are crap in
comparance.

 

[Steve Phillips]

Ron,

The Hallmark DVDs are exactly the same as the initial Cabin Fever releases. They include the Leonard Maltin intros also.

I recommend the Canadian set. The packaging isn't great, but the discs are uncut and look nice. Basically the content duplicates two of the four box sets released on laserdisc.

I've kept all four laserdisc sets, but I'd like to have at least the contents of the other two on DVD. I think all of the sound shorts produced by Hal Roach are included, with a few of the earlier silent ones thrown in as well.

After Hal Roach sold the rights to the series to MGM in 1938, there was an immediate and very noticable drop in quality. The MGM shorts are almost all awful, and embarrasing and painful to watch. Even as a kid I rejected those. If those are the only ones you've seen, you've never really seen what the series was all about. The early sound shorts are the best, I think. Even the Hal Roach ones started to get stale around 1936.

In all its incarnations, the series ran for 22 years (1922-1944). The sound shorts started in mid 1929.

 

[BrianP]

I already owned a set before this deal was posted at the DVDTalk forum. So I cannot comment personally about them or their quality. But it is cheaper than what I paid.

 

[Steven_J_H]

I picked up the same set here.
http://www.videoflicks.com/titles/99...AREXCTTGURUUUU

 

[Jeff Adkins]

These are the original unedited versions
from Cabin Fever, meticulously remastered, and
hosted by Leonard Maltin.
The Hallmark and GoodTimes versions are crap in
comparance.

Cabin Fever's library was bought out by Hallmark/Artisan. The Hallmark/Artisan disc of Volume 1 is from the exact same transfers from the Canadian Cabin Fever set. Even the Maltin introductions are included. Actually, the Hallmark disc even uses a much higher bit rate than the Cabin Fever disc, but they look the same to me.
OK, Artisan...where are the remaining volumes????
Jeff

 

[Jim Douglas]

I ordered the set from the music graveyard site which goes through Yahoo shopping so I should know in another week or so. Showed in stock when I placed the order so I'll keep my fingers crossed. Thanks for the heads up.
Jim

 

[Eugene Esterly]

What I would love to see is a DVD collection which contains all of the Our Gang shorts (I would definatly purchase a collection which contains all of the Our Gang shorts.)

 

[Jim Douglas]

I received my set today from Music Graveyard. I was surprised to see it so soon. They just threw the discs in a bubblewrap bag. One disc was sliding around inside it's case but a soft cotton rag cleaned off all the marks and it plays fine. These are the Cabin Fever discs and I watched a couple of episodes on the scratched disc just to make sure it played ok. Very nice discs of these old classics. I'm very happy to add these to my collection. Thanks again for the heads up on a place to find these. Like Ron said for 20 bucks these were hard to pass up on.
Thanks
Jim

 

[Steve Meskell]

I got in on the Music graveyard deal and when I received my package I was quite surprised
In my opinion they seem to be copies...fuzzy inserts and crappy printing on the disc and no upc codes on 4 of the discs

That being said they are still good to have