Little Rascals Coming To AMC

[Nelson]

Jerry Beck just posted the anouncement that starting Aug, 6th, AMERICAN MOVIE CLASSICS has aquired 71 shorts of the Little Rascals.Two things I wonder....Will the films have their original titles? and will they be UNCUT!!!

STAYED TUNED

http://cartoonreresearch.com

[BobChief]

...they'd refer to MGM, to which in the absence of Mr Roach snr and jnr they would revert under the 75-year rule, right? (King World, much as Turner, only held limited TV rights)

[No, the Chief does NOT growl, he doesn't have the tonsils for it... :) ]

http://www.loc.gov/copyright/circs/circ1.html
Go to "How long copyright protection endures", then "Works originally created and published or registered before January 1st 1978"

[Nelson]

Some of the films that might not be included in the 71 films are as follows:

"Lazy Days"

"The Kid From Borneo"

"Moan & Groan Inc."

"A Tough Winter"

"Little Daddy"

But keep in mind, that AMC does show films with racial stereotypes...But this does surprise me that AMC has picked up the TV rights to these films, since Hallmark owns the entire Hal Roach film library and the cable channel Oddessy Channel (soon to become the Hallmark Channel in Aug)which showcased last summer, the Hal Roach two reel comedies including: Laurel & Hardy, Thelma Todd & Zasu Pitts, Charley Chase, Taxi Boys, and The Boyfriends shorts.Maybe the Hallmark channel will bring this show back in August, it was clearly Oddessy's best program.

[Garrett]

Originally posted by Nelson
Maybe the Hallmark channel will bring this show back in August, it was clearly Oddessy's best program.

Hallmark has a lot of stuff that could likely see the light of day if their network is going to have an overhaul. For one thing, they own the back library to Filmation Associates (excluding Star Trek and the shows based on the various DC superheroes), and Hallmark *has* been quite friendly to Lou Scheimer (one of Filmation's founders) and the online He-Man community. That means that I would presume that Hallmark would be willing to work with fans of the Little Rascals (who probably outstrip the fan base for the Most Powerful Man in the Universe by quite a bit). In fact, they may be moving shorts to AMC that the Hallmark Network will be unable/unwilling to show.

Garrett

P.S.-Thanks for the tidbit about the Odyssey Network's upcoming restructuring.

[PlopKat]

Nelson wrote:
AMERICAN MOVIE CLASSICS has aquired 71 shorts of the Little Rascals.Two things I wonder....Will the films have their original titles? and will they be UNCUT!!!

About the time of the feature film remake of the Little Rascals (1994), Cabin Fever Entertainment released 21 volumes of Our Gang comedies. There were four shorts on each video which meant that all 80 of the Hal Roach "talkies" were included, along with four silents.

Hopefully, the restored prints used on these videos will be utilized by American Movie Classics. They looked great, had the original titles (no MGM logo with the lion though), and were uncut. The only short that was missing any footage was "Washee Ironee." Interestingly, witht the exception of the hilarious "Kid From Borneo," the shorts with the most reliance on ethnic comedy were put on the last two volumes. These included the titles Nelson mentioned plus:

-- "A Lad an' A Lamp"
-- "Anniversary Trouble"
-- "Little Sinner"
-- "Big Ears"

"Big Ears" is the oddest one to include in this group; I think it was kept out of the 1970s syndication package for a scene where Wheezer eats soap & lard to make himself sick so his parents won't get a divorce.

Anyhow, the point of this post was to point out that only 71 of the available 80 shorts are being picked up. I wouldn't be surprised if the nine not included are from Nelson's & my lists. Too bad; "Kid From Borneo" and "Anniversary Trouble" are especially good.

BTW, Stepin Fetchit has a good-sized role in "A Tough Winter." According to Leonard Maltin & Richard Barr's book on the Little Rascals, it was a pilot film for a series of two-reelers for Stepin Fetchit.

Nelson also wrote:
Hallmark owns the entire Hal Roach film library and the cable channel Oddessy Channel (soon to become the Hallmark Channel in Aug)which showcased last summer, the Hal Roach two reel comedies including: Laurel & Hardy, Thelma Todd & Zasu Pitts, Charley Chase, Taxi Boys, and The Boyfriends shorts.Maybe the Hallmark channel will bring this show back in August, it was clearly Oddessy's best program.

Amen to that, Brother Hare! Do you recall if they ever showed any of the Harry Langdon shorts Roach produced? Though I haven't heard much good about them, I'd still like to see some.

-PlopKat

[Brent]

AMC's press release says something that disturbs me though. They are picking the shorts up via King Features. So, Hallmark is not distributing the package directly and appears to have contracted with KF. And since most of us are aware of the damage King Features did to these classics in past decades... what will they do this time?

[Nelson]

None of the early sound shorts that HARRY LANGDON did for ROACH/MGM was never shown on "Comedy Classics With Leonard Maltin"....

But makes me wonder about this whole story, is that the "Library Of Congress" spent about half a million dollars restoring the entire "Our Gang" two reel comedies, and it would be pretty sad if AMC use the old "King World" scratch wear and tear film prints. But my MAJOR concern is, will these shorts be UNCUT? AMC presents the "Three Stooges" films totally uncut and fully restored.

Will we see the same thing for "OUR GANG"? Stayed Tuned Folks!!!

[PorkyandDaffy]

Actually, there are several edited Three Stooges shorts airing on AMC, but that's Columbia's fault for giving them the edited copies. I also wonder when AMC's going to get the other 60 Stooge shorts that they don't have yet.

[DR. BELCH]

Originally posted by PorkyandDaffy :
I...wonder when AMC's going to get the other 60 Stooge shorts that they don't have yet. [/B]
2003, from what I'm told at www.threestooges.net. Although some of them are forgotten classics like "They Stooge To Conga", "G.I. Wanna Home", "Scrambled Brains", and "Cuckoo on a Choo-Choo", some of the other shorts are mediocre remakes, either with a sickly post-stroke Shemp or with Joe DePalma, or Besser shorts (the consensus is Besser was the worst Stooge, and some anti-Joe sentiments are acidic as hell).