The New 3 Stooges

Legendary and timeless as well as way ahead of their time, the Three Stooges and their movies took slapstick comedy to heights that have not been reached again, more than a half century later. Their fluid chemistry and uncanny sense of timing made their routines side-splittingly funny no matter how many times they were recycled.

However, "The New Three Stooges" is more like a last gasp than a new beginning for the Stooges. Granted, the two Stooge stalwarts Moe and Larry are present (which is more than can be said for "The New Adventures of Laurel and Hardy"), but Curly Joe is a poor substitute for the original Curly. His performance makes you long for Shemp or Joe Besser, who are sometimes overlooked in Stooge lore. Curly Joe is way too subdued in the show - too passive to be one of the manic Stooges.

The show's episodes were formulaic. They featured one live action segment, which introduced a typical Stooges conflict, then segued into a cartoon Stooges short. Then it was back to live action, where the comical conflict was resolved in a manner only the Stooges can fathom.

I feel fortunate to have two episodes of the show on low-quality tape, despite its many flaws. One such flaw being the production values. The live action segments have all the budget of the average film school student's final project, as does the animation. Props are extremely limited. The cartoon animation is stiff and lacks the detail and color of more well animated shorts of the time from companies such as Warner Bros.

As for the plots, they're typical Stooge fare from the episodes I've seen. The Stooges deal with mean bosses (like in the Western railroad episode) and tackle odd jobs (like being police officers). They're back to their old schemes again, such as prospecting for gold. Even some of their old routines are present - like mistaking something else for syrup, specifically glue in one episode. Unfortunately the one thing not recycled from the old days is much of the slapstick comedy. Sure Moe scowls plenty and the Stooges get their fair share of bumps and bruises in the cartoons, but the face-slapping, head thumping action of yesteryear is sadly kept to a bare minimum, possibly due to the Stooge's ages.

When you look at all the show's flaws though, it's amazing the Stooges were able to deal with second-rate cartoons and their increasing ages and still make people laugh. The bit in one episode where Moe and Larry duel it out Western-style over a "fair dame" (played by Curly Joe) is classic. The cheesy sound effects and campy cowboy getup, combined with some hilarious lines is the perfect recipe for a laugh-out-loud skit. Their innate aptitude for childish antics make for comedy that is simultaneously idiotic and brilliant. And at the core, it is that special knack for comedy is the reason why the Stooges have made and still make many laugh, even in this flawed production.

I'm very pleased these episodes can now be found on DVD. These have been continually appearing in 99 cent stores all over town. So far I've collected about 33 episodes on 3 different DVDs some of which (about 18 episodes) are without the live action skits.

I'm a fan of the classic stooges shorts but when I first discovered the cartoons years ago they also became a favorite of mine. I'm always on the look out for more cartoon stooges DVDs. Although it has been said that some of those episodes are lost, I'm going to try to find as many episodes as I can.

It's hard to believe that they were still doing comedy in 1965. Larry and Moe have been through so many third stooge partners its amazing they lasted so long.

I saw this show as a compilation called Funniest Moments 1 & 2, along with several other DVDs, mostly interesting documentaries. The box showed Moe, Larry, and Curly together so naturally I assumed it was some of their Columbia shorts work. I am a big fan of the Stooges from this era, and was more than a little disappointed when it turned out to be a collection of introductory "shorts" for their 1965 cartoon series.

These starred Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe DeRita, who was in my opinion a little bit better than the often despised Joe Besser. Although the shorts came about at the peak of their popularity, the Stooges by this time were really beginning to show their age. They were, however, still reasonably capable of performing slapstick comedy.

The main problem was in the quality of the show. The writing and overall production quality was not nearly as good as that from Columbia. The violence so typical of the trio was also severely and purposefully toned due to the fact that the market for the show was intended to be children. Perhaps most importantly, though, the trademark sound effects were absent, replaced by some that were apparently borrowed from another popular show of the time - The Flintstones.

The cartoons themselves were just not to my liking. I grew up with the Stooges in black and white, but with live action, and having them as cartoons just did not fit.

As for the live shorts, any Stooge fan should appreciate them. It gives us a rare glimpse of the boys in color. Many of the shorts include Emil Sitka, a supporting actor who has worked with the Stooges since his debut in the Columbia short "Half Wits Holiday," which was ironically Jerome "Curly" Howard's final short.

Hi Im 13 years old and I'm a big Three Stooges fan! The New Three Stooges is A Short Film Of Them! Then a Cartoon Version. The cartoon is good. I like them and the short live action from Moe,Larry,Curly Joe, they are good but I like the movies alot better plus the old shorts with Moe, Larry, Curly alot better! But The new Three Stooges is still good and funny though!

"The New 3 Stooges" is very little remembered today as a sixties classic animated series due to lasting only one year, and containing some of the cheapest animation in cartoon history. Like all the television animated series of that period, this is to be expected, but the simplistic art style and stiff, unmoving characters may not be for some people's taste. It's not a bad attempt however even despite this, and retains watchability for younger children and cartoon buffs through its simplicity.

The cartoons themselves are rather short even for that period in cartoon history, but this is to accommodate the extra addition of a sequence at the beginning and end of each episode starring the actual stooges. The viewer is first treated to watching the live-action clip, which is then cut in the middle so that "you can watch a cartoon while we figure our way outta this mess." After the animated part, which may or may not bear similar themes to the live-action, the stooges return at the end to finish their act. It is unfortunate that most DVDs that include episodes from the show exclude the live-action--to be able to pack more on the disc--and I can say I've only truly seen five complete episodes.

The cartoons are good and entertaining though cheap and lacking in real laughs. I myself have no problem with the way the stooges's routine is dumbed down, having only seen a couple of the trio's early shorts, but because of this change in dynamic fans may not like the show. The theme song is catchy, and I enjoy both parts of it--the live-action and cartoon, although it's not outstanding and awful from a technical point of view.