The New Three Stooges

The New Three Stooges
Created by	Norman Maurer Dick Brown
Directed by	Edward Bernds
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Joe DeRita Emil Sitka Jeff Maurer Peggy Brown Margaret Kerry Tiny Brauer Paul Frees
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	156 individual cartoons
Production
Producer(s)	Norman Maurer Lee Orgel
Running time	5 minutes
Production company(s)	Normandy Productions Cambria Studios Heritage Productions
Release
Original network	Syndicated
Original release	October 1965 – September 1966
Chronology
Preceded by	The Three Stooges
Followed by	The Robonic Stooges

The New Three Stooges is an American animated television series that ran from 1965 to 1966 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 "Curly Joe" DeRita, with actor and close friend Emil Sitka co-starring, as well as Margaret Kerry.

41 live action sequences were executively produced by cartoonist Norman Maurer, Moe's son-in-law, who was their film agent at this time. Edward Bernds, who had directed the team at Columbia Pictures from 1945 to 1952 during most of the Shemp era, was also hired to write and direct the series. Emil Sitka, who had appeared in many of the Stooges comedies over the years, was slated to appear in these wraparounds as straightman to the Stooges.

Cambria Studios produced 156 short Stooge cartoons under the supervision of Lee Orgel. Four cartoons were produced to correspond thematically with 40 of the live-action Stooge opening and closing sequences, so that one live-action sequence could serve as a wraparound for four different cartoons. Joe DeRita later commented that this presented something of a problem for viewers:

Most of the cartoons ended up with the trio fleeing a scene after accidentally causing havoc at their current jobs. The cartoons were unusual for Cambria in that they did not use Syncro-Vox, Cambria's patented technique which used filmed footage of the voice actors' mouths over top of still frames. The pilot cartoon, "That Little Old Bomb Maker," featured a unique live-action wrap around that was not reused on other cartoons.

Some of the cartoons featured a recurring character named Badman, a jerky supervillain with a Batman get-up who is actually a 5-year-old boy that is nice and kind. The boy can only transform to Badman if he ever hears or says the word "Bad", and for Badman, vice versa for "good". In the episode "Badman of the Briny", the two finally find out that they are the same person in several scenes.

To avoid any licensing problems, Cambria did not use any of the past Three Stooges theme songs, including "Three Blind Mice", or "Listen to the Mockingbird", even though both had lapsed into the public domain at the time. (Likewise, the on-screen title used a numeral 3 to avoid infringing on Columbia Pictures's trademark on the phrase "The Three Stooges.") Several of the musical pieces used on the show were also used for the Bozo's Big Top series in the 1960s and early 1970s.

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