Topic: Three Stooges Collection Poll

[shemps#1]

It's been almost a year since the final volume of the Three Stooges Collection was released and I was curious as to the buying preferences of my fellow hardcore Stooge fans. Naturally I would guess that "I own them all" gets the most votes, but you never know. The last option is up there because I hit "add option" too many times and couldn't find away to subtract an option. Options two and three are for people who dislike Shemp and Joe to the point where they only want the volumes with the Curlys or they do not want the Bessers.

Be honest, it's not a test of true fandom or anything.

[Dog Hambone]

I own all eight, having bought each of them on their release date. I got them all through Amazon where I found the best price.

My motivation was to replace my collection of VHS tapes which were all taped from teevee. I was missing several. Most of them had been edited to make more time for commercials, & the quality was fading fast.

[Stooges#1]

I own all eight volumes, too.

Whoa, it's been a long time since I've been down this neck of the woods. Hope everyone is alright.

[Curly4444]

I own all 8. I'm a collector, so getting them all was a must. Now i just need the movies. Get with it Sony!!!

[shemps#1]

All of the movies have been released on DVD with the exception of Have Rocket, Will Travel. I'm just glad they did a great service to the fans with the shorts: offering them in chronological volumes at a great price (and all 190 of them to boot).

<in my best Robert Plant imitation>
Does anyone remember the Missing 60?

[xraffle]

I have all 8 as well.

LOL! I wonder if anyone will pick the last option.

[shemps#1]

I own all eight, having bought each of them on their release date. I got them all through Amazon where I found the best price.

For fiduciary reasons I wasn't able to buy them until recently and found the price difference between Amazon and the FYE at the local mall to be negligible: and that's before adding in shipping costs.

[metaldams]

<in my best Robert Plant imitation>
Does anyone remember the Missing 60?

At the end of volume 8, does anybody remember laughter?

Missing 60?  Well, I remember, and it's strange to think two of the N.Y.U.K. alumni are now dead.

<in my best Jack Bruce impersonation>
Those were the days

I have all 8 volumes, probably one of my last big purchases in my last big spending days.  Now I'm trying to be more responsible with my money and get excited when I buy two packages of chicken nuggets for $4.99.  Growing up sucks.

Me and my brother watched some shorts together the old fashioned way tonight...on television.  These shorts really are funnier when you watch them with somebody else who appreciates them.  When Victor Travers took the mashed potatoes in the face in CRASH GOES THE HASH there was uncontrollable laughter.

[Curly4444]

LOL! I wonder if anyone will pick the last option.

Someone might, just to be funny. 

[xraffle]

For fiduciary reasons I wasn't able to buy them until recently and found the price difference between Amazon and the FYE at the local mall to be negligible: and that's before adding in shipping costs.

That's unusual. I always found FYE's prices to be outrageous. It's gotten to the point where I never bothered walking into their stores anymore. Either their prices have dropped since I last walked into their store (which was several years ago) or they had some sort of special sale.

[shemps#1]

I went from last to first because I saw volume 8 at Walmart for $15. I had already nefariously downloaded the entire set but when I saw volume 8 sitting there for so cheap I said to myself "I love the Stooges and if I will make any "extravagant" (for lack of a better word at 3:53 AM EST) purchases (by that I mean buying something that is purely for my entertainment and not essential) I should buy the Three Stooges set. After all Sony finally got it right and I should support them for doing so after all of this time and it's so cheap".

Now granted quality-wise volume 8 is by far the worst of the set, but I thought Sony did as well as they could by including a wider time span and thusly more shorts to overcome the difference. It doesn't make up the difference between it and the others (which range from damn near perfect to "have some weaknesses but the good far outweighs the bad) but it was well appreciated. Completists (like myself and seemingly everyone who has voted so far as all votes have gone to "I have them all" at the time of this post) get all 190 shorts and we didn't get raked over the coals by Sony trying to stretch a "volume 9" from a selection of shorts (other than Blunder Boys and 1 or 2 of the more interesting Shemp remakes) that are mostly terrible. All worries that they would stop short of all 190 were put to rest and even at at the MSRP of $25 it's a good deal for almost 10 hrs of Stooge programming. Let's not forget that they used to hose fans over by offering far less for the same price.

Wow, I sure as fuck went off on a tangent! At any rate, back to you X and FYE: I had originally planned on ordering them off of Amazon as I saw them there at a very good discount: anywhere from $15-$18 with volume 3 at $20. However, before I was able to purchase them the price went up to $20 for each except for volume one which remained at $18. It was then that I decided to go to Suncoast in the mall. This just goes to show how much I LOATHE going to the mall as much to my surprise Suncoast no longer exists having been bought by FYE.

I wasn't even sure I would find them there, but I figured if most of them were $20 it would be worth it just to get them there and not have to deal with shipping. Sure enough 5 of them were at $20 and 4 and 7 were $25. So I gradually went backwards: picked up 7 & 6, then 5, 4, 3, and finally 2 & 1 to finish it off. I could have saved a little more if I went through amazon (not factoring shipping) but I still got them at a great price.

Hell, Amazon currently offers 1-8 together at $174.95 (before shipping) and when you combine all of the prices I paid at Walmart & FYE for the volumes and add Virginia's 5% sales tax I paid $173.25.

[shemps#1]

At the end of volume 8, does anybody remember laughter?

Missing 60?  Well, I remember, and it's strange to think two of the N.Y.U.K. alumni are now dead.
......

Me and my brother watched some shorts together the old fashioned way tonight...on television.  These shorts really are funnier when you watch them with somebody else who appreciates them.  When Victor Travers took the mashed potatoes in the face in CRASH GOES THE HASH there was uncontrollable laughter.

It took me awhile to remember that Anna Nicole Smith was on N.Y.U.K. I started wondering if Dan Lauria had died and I missed it.

It's funny that you mention watching with your brother as I have been watching the DVDs with mine. Being the older brother and a complete dickhead I actually had him watch Sweet and Hot AND both Hoofs and Goofs and Horsing Around in one painful sitting.

[shemps#1]

Being unable to sleep I have been reading about 2010 appeals ruling C3 ENTERTAINMENT v. COLUMBIA PICTURES TELEVISION. Certain parts are legalese which goes over my head, but if I'm reading this right Brent does this mean that the Benjamins are comparatively making scant pennies off of the TV rights and home video releases?

[Dog Hambone]

For fiduciary reasons I wasn't able to buy them until recently and found the price difference between Amazon and the FYE at the local mall to be negligible: and that's before adding in shipping costs.

I'm not familiar with FYE. They must not have any stores in the Denver area.

If I recall correctly, each Stooge set was about $17.99. As for shipping costs, if you spend $25+ at Amazon, you can choose "Free Super Saver Shipping". There's always something else like a book or an old SciFi movie that I'd like to have, so I buy it, too, & it always puts me over $25. 

[BeAStooge]

Being unable to sleep I have been reading about 2010 appeals ruling C3 ENTERTAINMENT v. COLUMBIA PICTURES TELEVISION. Certain parts are legalese which goes over my head, but if I'm reading this right Brent does this mean that the Benjamins are comparatively making scant pennies off of the TV rights and home video releases?

C3 receives a piece of the revenue for the post-1960 Columbia features, per the 1960 settlement reached over STOP! LOOK! AND LAUGH (1960). They are due nothing for the short subject home videos.

C3 only shares in the 1/2-hour syndicated "Playhouse" episodes... the one with commercial breaks and phony/gag commercials, e.g., "Curly chia pets."  C3 management received Exec. Producer credit on those episodes.

In very brief summary, C3's two litigation complaints (which they lost) were...
 - Putting two or more shorts on a home video constituted a new feature film, and they wanted a piece of the pie, retroactive to some [unknown] period.
 - They claimed Sony undersold "Playhouse" to TV stations; and, leasing the shorts (vs. "Playhouse") to AMC and Spike was a breach of contract.

[Curly4444]

If I recall correctly, each Stooge set was about $17.99. As for shipping costs, if you spend $25+ at Amazon, you can choose "Free Super Saver Shipping". There's always something else like a book or an old SciFi movie that I'd like to have, so I buy it, too, & it always puts me over $25. 

I think amazon is scamming us. I also always buy stuff to put me over the $25 mark. Just recently they had the movie 300(Blu-ray) so cheap. Since it was only 11.99, i needed 13.01. So i got The Dark Knight and some other horror movie which put me over.

[Dunrobin]

I bought all 8 volumes, of course, largely thanks to those of you who purchase stuff from Amazon through this site.  I was able to buy each one using the Amazon gift certificates that I got for the commissions from your purchases.  

[Lefty]

As Voter #18, I ordered all 8 volumes from Amazon, and there was always something else to buy to get to the magic $25 mark.  I continue to watch the episodes in order.  It's great to be able to see all of the scenes I had missed for several decades due to TV channels' slashing -- excuse me -- editing the shorts.

[shemps#1]

C3 receives a piece of the revenue for the post-1960 Columbia features, per the 1960 settlement reached over STOP! LOOK! AND LAUGH (1960). They are due nothing for the short subject home videos.

C3 only shares in the 1/2-hour syndicated "Playhouse" episodes... the one with commercial breaks and phony/gag commercials, e.g., "Curly chia pets."  C3 management received Exec. Producer credit on those episodes.

In very brief summary, C3's two litigation complaints (which they lost) were...
 - Putting two or more shorts on a home video constituted a new feature film, and they wanted a piece of the pie, retroactive to some [unknown] period.
 - They claimed Sony undersold "Playhouse" to TV stations; and, leasing the shorts (vs. "Playhouse") to AMC and Spike was a breach of contract.

So the stuff about having to sell over "150,000 units to make more than the minimum $150,000" pertained only to the post-1960 features. Is this part or all of the reason why Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959) hasn't been released to DVD? If I recall correctly all of the post-1960 Columbia features saw somewhat speedy DVD releases. On a related note, do you know if C3 sees anything from Fox in regards to Snow White and The Three Stooges?

Also, is C3 sharing in the "Playhouse" episode a big reason why AMC went to the N.Y.U.K. format? There was something in the document about C3 being "paid with commercials"; was that for "Playhouse", N.Y.U.K. or both?

[BeAStooge]

So the stuff about having to sell over "150,000 units to make more than the minimum $150,000" pertained only to the post-1960 features. Is this part or all of the reason why Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959) hasn't been released to DVD? If I recall correctly all of the post-1960 Columbia features saw somewhat speedy DVD releases. On a related note, do you know if C3 sees anything from Fox in regards to Snow White and The Three Stooges?

$150,000 is the guarantee due C3 for "Playhouse."  The reference to 150,000 units was some crazy-ass argument that C3 and its co-counsel made, that if Sony did not generate enough business from selling "Playhouse" into TV syndication, it had an obligation to package "Playhouse" onto the retail DVDs, instead of the shorts.

As far as I know, C3 is due nothing for SNOW WHITE.

HAVE ROCKET did not make it to DVD due to bad timing. Sony decided to launch the colorized shorts, and when that brainstorm bombed, they finally listened to the fans and went forward with the chronological volumes. After this latest nuisance litigation, there are some in Sony who don't particularly want to do C3 any favors by marketing the '60s features; but business is business, and at some point I expect we'll see a volume of all the Columbia features.

is C3 sharing in the "Playhouse" episode a big reason why AMC went to the N.Y.U.K. format? There was something in the document about C3 being "paid with commercials"; was that for "Playhouse", N.Y.U.K. or both?

AMC went to its own N.Y.U.K. format because they had no interest in the commercialized format of "Playhouse." At that time, 2000-2001, AMC was still showing films uncut, without commercial breaks.

C3 was "paid with commercials" at the close of each AMC short, after the Sony Pictures Television logo/fanfare, with C3's logo and website address onscreen; and around the 2000 Holiday season, there was a C3-produced commercial with Dave Knight that promoted their catalog/online store.

[shemps#1]

Wow, so C3 wouldn't have cared if the consumer was presented with Three Stooges products even worse than the colorized DVDs. That's understandable from their POV considering that they want every penny they can squeeze out of "Playhouse", but sometimes you just have to realize that your product is awful (I remember the catching the syndicated "Playhouse" once and couldn't get through one short) and cut your losses. The way I see it is that if Sony were to have released "Playhouse" DVDs what little money C3 would have received would not have compared to the further damage the Three Stooges brand would have received.

The brand was already damaged by Sony's mishandling of the DVD retail market in previous releases, probably to a point to where immediate sales of the early volumes might have been hurt or slowed due to consumer apprehension; of course this is speculation on my part.

[pipboytaylor]

Yeah, I agree with the guy that said Amazon is scamming us. Like you fellows, I always buy another cheap fav film to put me over the $25 limit for the free shipping but have you noticed how often with your first purchase or two, how close you get to $25 without going over? Many many times its five cents and under. I think the prices are geared to cause this.

[Liz]

Just 1 and 2 over here.  I need a job so I can make money and buy the rest.

[Dunrobin]

How the hell are they "scamming" you guys?  The deal is plain and clear, and no one is making you buy anything that you don't want.  You could just pay for the shipping yourself (I usually did on the collection, since I'd pre-order them by themselves as they became available on Amazon.) 

If you are getting items that you wanted for a price that you are willing to pay, how are you being scammed?  Or do you think that Amazon should just give you free shipping?

[BeAStooge]

I think amazon is scamming us. I also always buy stuff to put me over the $25 mark. Just recently they had the movie 300(Blu-ray) so cheap. Since it was only 11.99, i needed 13.01. So i got The Dark Knight and some other horror movie which put me over.

Yeah, I agree with the guy that said Amazon is scamming us. Like you fellows, I always buy another cheap fav film to put me over the $25 limit for the free shipping but have you noticed how often with your first purchase or two, how close you get to $25 without going over? Many many times its five cents and under. I think the prices are geared to cause this.

 -  A more than reasonable threshold of $25, that allows Amazon's profit to absorb free shipping
 -  Clearly listed prices
 -  An assumption that anyone with a grade school education can add up to $25.00

Yep, looks like scam to me.