Our Gang Collection, 80 shorts, Oct. 28 (1 Viewer)

[Brent S]

TVShowsonDVD reports that Genius Products and RHI are releasing a "Little Rascals Collection" DVD set on October 20, 2008.

80 shorts, i.e., the "talkie" era Hal Roach shorts (1929 - 1938) owned by RHI Entertainment will comprise the collection. Suggested retail is $89.98. Box artwork and a more detailed press release are pending.

 

[PaulP]

Sounds like a great set! Can't wait for the details.

 

[Larry Gelfand]

Between that set and the silent set, there's a lot of Our Gang coming.

Forthcoming Laughsmith silent collection

Laughsmith Entertainment - Motion Picture Preservation and Production

 

[Ruz-El]

sounds great! i remember the talkies from Early Sat morning TV showings

 

[Matthew H]

Ok, now where the hell is Laurel & Hardy????

 

[Eric Peterson]

AWESOME!!

I hope that they do it right and make it chronological.

I hate watching the old discs and videos that jump around haphazardly from a "pre-spanky" short to a short where Spanky is 10 and then back again.

 

[Charles Ellis]

A question here: I have the complete Cabin Fever set put out a few years back. Is there more to this new set that wasn't in the Cabin Fever DVDs? I mean, the other set had the Leonard Maltin intros. Also, will the new set include shorts not seen in the Cabin Fever releases?

 

[dana martin]

some days are just better than others, if the good lord gives you lemons make lemonade , and sale it for .02 cents, could have gotten .03 cents if the goat hadn't drank from it. LOL

8 disc average of ten shorts per disc, two reel shorts averaging 20 min per short, 200 min that does leave some room for extras.

i agree that this needs to be in order, and that number accounts for the Roach "talkie" period at MGM. Also most importantly is that these are unedited, restored whole and complete as the were first screened. I hope that they had the good sense to get Maltin, to come in and host, and also be involved in any special features. Great book by the way, i highly recommend it to anyone, but as Film Historians go he is a fan, and is also family friendly enough to give the disclaimer.

i hope that the laughsmith one would have covered the entire silent period and been in order as well, so how long before WB starts looking at the rest of the MGM, post roach ones for a set?

 

[Patrick McCart]

I'm hoping they're remastered. I was surprised by RHI's double feature of Robert Youngson films (The Golden Age of Comedy and When Comedy Was King). Both brand new sparkling progressive transfers, even.

This is a sure buy unless they use TV prints with missing footage.

(Count me in for wanting Laurel & Hardy... but only if they're fully restored and remastered. I'm happy with the R2 complete set otherwise).

 

[dana martin]

while i look forward to both of these , i wish that Laughsmith could be able to get ahold of all the silents, and do a huge set, , not that 4 disc is small but from 1922 - 1929 comes to 88 shorts, that would at least be an 8 disc set.

 

[ahollis]

I have always thought that there are 81 Roach talkie Little Rascals, from "Small Talk" to "Hide and Shriek." Where have I gone wrong? Is it wrong count or lost film?

I am so looking forward to this announced collection and the Laughsmith collection when that comes out. A slow year is quickly turning into an expensive year.

 

[Tony S]

I'm in for this. Will these 80 include all of the talkes up until the end of the Roach era? If not, which ones are left?

Now if only Warner would release the 52 post-Roach ones and General Spanky.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Holy shit! I can't believe I am reading this.

I own the Cabin Fever DVDs that were available for a year
way back in the late '90s (I think) before the company went
bankrupt.

I never thought we would see another compilation of these
shorts ever again with all the legal issues.

I do hope the same care is given to these shorts as Cabin Fever
had done.

Someone let me know when these are ready to order. I want to be
first on line.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I know there were 3 DVD sets released in the early-mid '90s
by Cabin Fever.

Best I can remember....

Cabin Fever released only one DVD set that contained most or all of VHS Sets 1 & 2

The third set, which contains the racy shorts were never released
on DVD since Cabin Fever went bankrupt.

 

[dana martin]

what you are counting is General Spanky, which is a feature film, owned by WB, was done during the shorts, so the number is 80 shorts

The Little Rascals- The Hal Roach M-G-M Talkies

 

[Michael Elliott]

Laughsmith have done a lot of great releases so I doubt they'll drop their quality on this set, which they've been working on for years now.

 

[ahollis]

Thanks, I knew there was something wrong and I missed seeing General Spanky on my list and I actually have the Laserdisc copy of the film so I should have known better.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I am very happy to hear this about Laughsmith.

However, for me personally, I am not interested in the silent shorts.

I'm more interested in all the "talkies" under Hal Roach. I hope
that Genius Products put some sincere effort into these releases.
Can't be that difficult as they have already been remastered from
the Cabin Fever days and I have seen those same transfers on other
scattered Rascals releases over the years.

 

[Michael Elliott]

I'm certainly going to wait for reviews on the sound set even though I'll probably buy them no matter what they look like. I'm guessing Genius is just doing the releasing as they have with other companies so the blame or praise will probably be aimed at RHI.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Wait a sec...

I just looked at the original Cabin Fever DVDs.

They indicate RHI on the label.

For that reason I am guessing we are in GREAT hands as these
will probably be the same superb transfers from the CF collection.