The Three Stooges Collection 1943-1945 Question (1 Viewer)

[Drew Salzan]

I just received mine and there is a strange problem. The disc freezes at the beginning of Dizzy Detectives (disc 1). That entire short is unplayable. The rest of the disc plays fine. The disc has no scratches, etc. Has anybody else encountered this? I'm wondering if replacing the disc would make any difference.

 

[TravisR]

It sounds like a bad disc. I'd return it to the store and try a new copy.

 

[Ockeghem]

Drew,

Mine plays fine as well. But I've had discs with no scratches or marks of any kind and had the disc not play. I would try to return it or get another copy. I don't think it's an issue (en masse) problem.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Isn't it interesting how all of a sudden there's no future date for the next volume, when we're going to start getting the Shemp shorts? I figured as much. :frowning:

 

[Drew Salzan]

The disc it seems freezes in other places as well. On disc 2 also. Plays fine on my computer, however. Very strange.

 

[Robert13]

It might be your player. I had a Phillips player that would do this on certain discs but then in other players would play perfectly fine.

I also find it annoying how they were churning out the dvd sets and now stopped as we come to the Shemp shorts. Can one damn company release a collection to completion??? I have started so many sets that have been abandoned (Hart to Hart, The Facts Of Life, Hazel, All in the Family...)

 

[WadeM]

Remember there were 7 months between volume 1 and volume 2.

 

[WadeM]

I think I've only had 1 DVD disc stop in the middle of playing that wasn't fixed by cleaning it with a good cleaning kit, even right out of the box. Many of the discs looked fine visually.

 

[Ockeghem]

Drew,

As Robert said, it might be your player. Our son's xbox plays every DVD I've ever put in it. Oddly, our $200 player (from years ago) does not play all DVDs; in fact, the $35 cheapie we picked up a few months ago does a better job with discs that seem to freeze than does the $200 player.

Joe,

I don't think The Three Stooges collections have necessarily stopped. They will be coming out soon. That's a guarantee.

 

[David Deeb]

I wonder if Sony's slowing down to coincide future releases with the new Farrally Brother's Three Stooges film coming out next year. Studios like to piggy back publicity.

But hopefully they won't wait that long. This series is selling well, and holding off could hurt momentum. I'm hopful we'll see another volume in early spring.

 

[PaulP]

After the first few came out so rapid-fire I thought we'd see each new volume at this speed. I guess not. But didn't they say by 2009 all the volumes will be out?

This is what I don't understand. Are they all restored or are they releasing them as they're restoring them? I'd just put them all out at the same time, if they're all done. The collectors would snatch each one up right away, and the more casual fans would pick them each eventually, but they'd all be out there for anyone who wanted them. Why these arbitrary wait times between volumes?

 

[TravisR]

My guess is that they sped the releases up so they could avoid the crowded fall release schedule. I don't know if Sony has announced their slate for March yet but I would think we'll see something in the spring.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

I hope Sony will prove me wrong in my thinking that they feel Shemp isn't worth the same attention as Curly.

 

[WadeM]

As much as I like Shemp, I'm pretty sure his fanbase is significantly lower than Curly's. It's bad enough that titles in a given series usually drop in sales as each volume is released, but now we have the added decrease in that it's going to Shemp. As far as I'm concerned, they could just release all of the remaining shorts (Shemp & Joe) in one big box and charge $100. That'd be the same price as buying them individually, and it'll at least sell more than Fox's Murnau's set (I think).

 

[Joe Karlosi]

That's why I still think my original plan for these releases was best:

Volume 1: The 1930s - An easy seller, because everyone can have their precious Curly shorts.

Volume 2: The 1940s - Those who disrespect Shemp would have no choice but to buy this, because it's the only way they'd be able to get all the 1940's Curly films. (Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk)

Volume 3: The 1950s - This would only have Shemp and Joe Besser shorts and would likely be the weakest seller (though it's the one I'd personally be most excited about), but maybe Sony could have saved their extras and bells and whistles for this set, to boost sales.

Three Stooges Features Collection - The Joe De Rita films.

Don't get me wrong --- I think Sony has done an OUTSTANDING and PHENOMENAL job presenting the first several chronological volumes for these releases.. but it's rather suspect at this point, as I feared.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

You'd think they'd at least give one Shemp set a chance to see what happens.

I'd like to see the actual sales figures as to how far sales drop with the first "all Shemp" set (which would be the one after the next one). 50%? 75% 90%?

Personally, Curly is my favorite, but I just like The Three Stooges, all the way to the end, even though Joe DeRita wasn't as good as Joe Besser who wasn't as good as Shemp who wasn't as good as Curly.

 

[Xenia Stathakopoulou]

I cant beleive people are saying that there not giving shemp a chance, yet they havent even finished off the curleys !!!!!!! Dont get me wrong, im looking forward to shemp as well , but theyve still got 10 curleys or something like that left, if im not mistaken.If we dont hear something in the next 2 weeks on volume 5 , im getting worried.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I am certain all of you realize that the studios are reading your
comments and I was asked to post the following on their behalf....

There is a plan to release all the shorts in chronological order, as has been stated.
Each volume will be just like the first four, in three-year increments. So, Volume 5, which
will be announced in the near future, will have 1946-1948. It is the same pattern for every
volume regardless of who is in them. It would be difficult to release these on a specific schedule
(say, one volume every four months) for a variety of reasons, including just that other titles need
to be released, as well. But, one of those reasons has been speculated on and that is they are indeed
being restored and remastered in sequence just like the releases. Because the team doing this wants
to maintain the high quality that has been exhibited in the first volumes, that means some titles/years
might take longer than others. Depends on element condition, lab capacity and so forth. It is a lot of work,
but they think it better to do that than just rush these out to market. But the fans should rest assured that
these are all planned out.

This will not be an ongoing Q&A between forum members and the
studio. In other words, please do not expect further responses on
this subject.

 

[Xenia Stathakopoulou]

That was really nice of them, to let us know that they havent given up on future volumes.Ill give it a guess on the release date for volume 5 !!!! Im guessing sometime in March, because alot of Sony stuff has already been annonced for Febuary.

 

[TravisR]

Thanks for the clarification, Ron (and Sony). It's great to hear that they're doing them right rather than just getting them out the door.