| Creator: | Norman Maurer Dick Brown |
| Based On: | The Three Stooges |
| Story: | Pat Kearin Jack Kinney Cecil Beard Art Diamond David Detiege Lee Orgel Homer Brightman Nick George Barbara Chain Warren Tufts Jack Miller Sam Cornell |
| Director: | Eddie Bernds Sam Cornell David Detiege Eddie Rehberg |
| Starring: | Moe Howard Larry Fine Joe DeRita Emil Sitka Margaret Kerry Harold Brauer Jeffrey Scott Michael Maurer Eric Lamond Cary Brown Tina Brown Eileen Brown |
| Voices: | Moe Howard Larry Fine Joe DeRita Margaret Kerry Hal Smith Paul Frees Johnny Coons |
| Music: | Gordon Zahler Paul Horn |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 40 (live-action) 156 (animated cartoon) |
| Executive Producer: | Norman Maurer |
| Producer: | Norman Maurer Lee Orgel |
| Animator: | Kay Wright Bob Maxfield Chic Otterstrom |
| Editor: | William J. Faris George Probert |
| Camera: | Jerry Smith Edwin Gillette |
| Runtime: | 30:00 |
| Company: | Normandy Productions Cambria Studios Heritage Productions |
| Network: | Syndicated |
The New 3 Stooges is an American animated television series that ran during the 1965–66 television season starring the Three Stooges. The show follows the trio's antics both in live-action and animated segments. The cast consisted of Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Joe DeRita (as Curly-Joe), with actor and close friend Emil Sitka co-starring, as well as Margaret Kerry.[1] The stories took place in varied settings, including Newport Beach and sailing as buccaneers on the Spanish Main.[2]
Forty-one live-action sequences were executively overseen by cartoonist Norman Maurer, son-in-law of Moe Howard, serving as their film agent during this period. Additionally, Edward Bernds, who directed the team at Columbia Pictures from 1945 to 1952 (predominantly during the Shemp era), was enlisted to both script and direct the series. Emil Sitka, a familiar figure from numerous Stooges comedies, was slated to feature in these wraparound segments, assuming the role of a straight man to the Stooges.[3]
Under the auspices of Cambria Studios, 156 short Stooge cartoons were produced, under the supervision of Lee Orgel. Notably, four cartoons were meticulously crafted to thematically align with each of the 40 live-action Stooge opening and closing sequences. Consequently, a single live-action segment could seamlessly transition as a wraparound for four distinct cartoons. However, this format posed a challenge for viewers, as articulated by Joe DeRita:
The majority of the cartoons culminated with the trio fleeing into the horizon following inadvertent chaos at their various employments and ensuing predicaments. Remarkably, these cartoons diverged from Cambria's customary employment of Syncro-Vox, a patented technique involving filmed footage of voice actors' mouths over still frames. The inaugural cartoon, "That Little Old Bomb Maker", featured a distinctive live-action wraparound that remained exclusive to that particular cartoon.
A number of the cartoons featured recurring characters, such as Badman, a juvenile antagonist sporting a Batman-esque attire, who paradoxically is a benevolent 5-year-old boy. Another recurring character was the western outlaw named Getoutoftownbysundown Brown.
To preclude potential licensing entanglements, Cambria abstained from employing any of the Stooges' theme songs, including "Three Blind Mice" and "Listen to the Mockingbird", despite their lapse into the public domain. Similarly, the on-screen titling employed a numeral "3" to circumvent potential infringement on any trademark held by Columbia Pictures regarding the name "The Three Stooges".
The New 3 Stooges represented a subsequent endeavor at animating the trio. In the late 1950s, Norman Maurer sought to market "Stooge Time", a hybrid live-action/rotoscope animation half-hour series for television. In 1960, Maurer and the Stooges filmed a pilot for The Three Stooges Scrapbook, a half-hour series incorporating a five-minute Stooge cartoon. The Stooges later revisited animated form for Hanna-Barbera, contributing to two episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972–74) and the series The Robonic Stooges (1977–78), the latter developed posthumously following the demise of both Moe Howard and Larry Fine.
The series posed significant financial challenges for the Stooges. Per the terms of their contract, Cambria Studios' distributor was obligated to furnish quarterly financial statements to the trio, ensuring transparency regarding the show's earnings. However, Norman Maurer recalled receiving only one or two statements throughout a span of five years, precipitating legal action. In the ensuing lawsuit, the presiding judge, lacking substantial familiarity with the intricacies of the film and television industry, ruled in favor of Cambria.
Undeterred, the Stooges pursued an appeal in 1975, ultimately securing a favorable verdict. Nonetheless, this legal triumph failed to rectify the distributor's persistent failure to furnish requisite profit statements to Normandy Productions. By the time the litigation concluded, both Moe and Larry had passed away.[3]
List of live-action wraparounds and cartoons for The New 3 Stooges television series (1965–1966):
Several episodes are currently available on VHS and DVD (often in cheap "dollar packages" with the cartoons and live action sequences being in poor quality) as the majority of the series fell into the public domain.
Using the original 16mm acetates, Rhino Entertainment issued a restored version in 2002 of 28 live action segments, and 32 of the cartoons over two volumes. Each volume contains a Spanish audio option, and Volume one has a near 7 minute retrospective interview with Lee Orgel. During it, he mentions only 39 live action segments being produced which added confusion to some claims of there being 40 or 41.
In 2004, EastWest DVD released a slim case volume of episodes. In 2007 and 2008, Mill Creek Entertainment released a number of episodes as part of their Ultimate 150 Cartoon Festival, their Giant 600 Cartoon Collection and their 200 Classic Cartoons – Collector's Edition Label formats.
On October 15, 2013, Image Madacy Entertainment released The New 3 Stooges: Complete Cartoon Collection on DVD in Region 1 making it the first time a complete set was released. The five-disc set features all 156 cartoons and 39 live action sequences on four discs, with the bonus disc being an audio CD by the Stooges which combines tracks from two of their albums.
On October 17, 2017, Mill Creek Entertainment released all 156 cartoons and 40 live action segments as part of The Three Stooges: The Big Box of Nyuks box set.[4]
The New 3 Stooges was well received upon initial airings, despite the use of limited animation. However, the Stooges were visibly aging during this time (Moe was 68 and Larry was 63), so the team's patented slapstick routines were subdued in the live action segments. Orgel later stated that the Stooges' penchant for violence was kept to a minimum due to the concerns of parental groups.[3] [5] In addition, Larry's motor skills had become somewhat sluggish, resulting in occasional slurred dialogue. To compensate, most of the comedy being divided between Moe and Curly-Joe, with Larry only chiming in when necessary. In retrospect, this altered comedy dynamic was a throwback to the Stooges' prime years in the 1930s when Curly Howard dominated the team's films and Larry was relegated to an occasional line of dialogue.[6]
The New 3 Stooges lasted for a single season. Although animated portions of the show were last aired in syndication on WGN-TV in the Chicago area in the early 1980s and 1990s, repackaged, redubbed and distributed at the time by DIC Animation City and Jeffrey Scott Productions,[7] it is occasionally seen on Me-TV. It also aired in Japan on TV Tokyo.
The New 3 Stooges became the only regularly scheduled television series in the Stooges' history. Unlike other film shorts that aired on television like Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry and Popeye the Sailor, the Stooges' short films never had a regularly scheduled national television program to air in, neither on network nor syndicated; the film shorts, at roughly 20 minutes apiece, were of ideal size to be run as a stand-alone television series in and of themselves. When Columbia/Screen Gems licensed the film library to television beginning in 1958, local stations aired the shorts when they saw fit, either as late-night "filler" or marathon sessions.