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Post by antifrodis on May 6, 2013 8:50:36 GMT -5
Hey all, My 3 year old son occasionally watches a program on Disney Jr called "Rollie Pollie Ollie". I have noticed over the course of a few episodes that the soundtrack for the show is clearly inspired by the Hal Roach incidental music from Our Gang and Laurel and Hardy. While never exact, some of the music is so close to familiar Leroy Shield themes that it's uncanny. They just changed a few notes here and there. I think it's great that they found their inspiration from something so timeless. BTW, nobody's posting about the upcoming DVD releases of "The Mischief Makers" TV series. What gives?  |
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Post by mtw12055 on May 6, 2013 22:20:39 GMT -5
Great to hear from you again, Geoff!
It's been years since I've seen "Rollie Pollie Ollie", and I wasn't a fan of Roach comedies back then, so I never actually noticed that. Interesting little tidbit.
As for "The Mischief Makers" DVD's, who is the kid that keeps showing up on the front covers?
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Post by bamcam94 on May 8, 2013 12:52:45 GMT -5
Can someone let me know more about the upcoming Mischief Makers DVDs? I haven't heard about this before.Thanks
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Post by ymymeatemup on May 8, 2013 13:52:20 GMT -5
Can someone let me know more about the upcoming Mischief Makers DVDs? I haven't heard about this before.Thanks If you're not familiar, the Mischief Makers was a TV series that debuted in 1960 and featured edited versions of silent Our Gang shorts, plus a handful derived from rival series. The following information is derived from a list I've got of the Mischief Makers episodes. For most titles, the original source film is known, but not all. I'll also attempt to identify the small photos on the DVD covers, which seem to correspond quite well with the contents. Volume 1 The Big Fire - taken from "The Fourth Alarm" (no photo shown on cover) Sweet Revenge - taken from "Tired Business Men" (the upper left photo of Joe and Farina is from this) Ride 'Em Cowboy - taken from "War Feathers" (the photo of Joe as an Indian is taken from this) Mary's Dream - taken from "Mary, Queen Of Tots" (two photos: the one of open-mouthed Mary, and the one where she kisses Mickey) Football Rivals - this is almost certainly the Mickey McGuire episode shown in the photo near the bottom of the cover An Average Day - a hybrid containing bits of "Love My Dog," "Playin' Hookey," "Telling Whoppers" and "Ten Years Old" (I'm pretty sure the photo of Pete is from the "Playin' Hookey" portion) Volume 2 Little Red Schoolhouse - taken from "Commencement Day" (the photo of Joe is taken from this) Happy Holiday - taken from "Good Cheer" (the photo of David Durand under the sheet is taken from this) The Brave Chimp - I have no idea what this is, but it's near the bottom of the list where a lot of rival series episodes reside (Perhaps the photo of the goat is from this?) The Dog Catcher - taken from "Love My Dog" (no photo shown) Back To School - another mystery (probably corresponds to the Mickey McGuire photo at the bottom of the cover) The Music Lesson - taken from "Saturday Morning" (the photo of Mickey is from this) Volume 3 Little Heroes - taken from "Young Sherlocks" (no photo shown) County Fair - taken from "The Big Show" (two photos; the one with Mary with the Harold Lloyd character, and the one with the 'wild boy' behind bars) A Quiet Sunday - another mystery, but I suspect it's from "Sunday Calm" All Aboard - taken from "The Sun Down Limited" (the photo of Mickey is from this) Summer Daze - taken from a couple of Buster Brown shorts, which happen to rip off "The Champeen" and "The Cobbler" (at least two photos are from this: the fat boy in the boxing ring, and the black kid holding her nose; the dog near the bottom is the dog from this short, but it's possible that "A Quiet Sunday" is another Buster Brown short with the same dog) The Outing - taken from "One Terrible Day" (no photo shown) |
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Post by ymymeatemup on May 8, 2013 14:05:02 GMT -5
Just an added note:
I suspect that "Football Rivals" derives from "Mickey's Eleven," unless there was some other McGuire football comedy, and that "Back In School" derives from "Mickey In School." I also suspect that the boxing portion of "Summer Daze" is from "Knockout Buster."
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Post by bamcam94 on May 8, 2013 14:53:41 GMT -5
Thank you for the info.Can you tell me who will be selling these DVD's?
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Post by ymymeatemup on May 8, 2013 15:30:58 GMT -5
Televista is the company. I found the cover images on Amazon, which will be selling the DVDs next month.
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Post by mtw12055 on May 8, 2013 20:47:30 GMT -5
Just an added note: I suspect that "Football Rivals" derives from "Mickey's Eleven," unless there was some other McGuire football comedy, and that "Back In School" derives from "Mickey In School." I also suspect that the boxing portion of "Summer Daze" is from "Knockout Buster." Your assumptions are correct. "Football Rivals" is "Mickey's Eleven", "Back to School" is "Mickey in School", and "Summer Daze" is "Knockout Buster". "The Brave Chimp" could be a Dippy Doo Dads short, but that's only a guess. I've put together a list of the series' known episodes on the Our Gang Wikia. I have most of the titles and production numbers down, but there's still a few mysteries on the list. ourgang.wikia.com/wiki/Mischief_Makers_(TV_series)Incidentally, I've posted the Scallawags print of "Mickey's Eleven" on my YouTube channel (you might recognize the music from Grapevine's print of "A Quiet Street") www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpI2eaEbkY4I've also posted a mostly complete print of "Mickey in School", which I pieced together from Reel Classic DVD's print and the "Back to School" print (I'd like to thank our own antifrodis for inspiring me to do this). www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sT6iviQxwgwww.youtube.com/watch?v=UOhhd3FHwEcI'll be posting several more McGuire comedies in the coming weeks, so if anybody enjoys these films, is interested in them, or enjoys playing "spot the Our Gang kid" (Breezy Brisbane is in most of the silents), keep an eye out for future uploads. As for Televista, from what I understand, they are a notorious bootleg company (they were previously called Jef Films - Jef released an Our Gang VHS of silents back in the late 90's - unfortunately, the owner of Jef died in a fire. All of his material went to Televista). The only reason why Televista's material shows up on Amazon is because the company manages to get ISBN number on their DVD's. Either way, I'm still considering buying these, mainly for the possibility of rare footage. |
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Post by antifrodis on May 8, 2013 21:07:07 GMT -5
As for Televista, from what I understand, they are a notorious bootleg company (they were previously called Jef Films - Jef released an Our Gang VHS of silents back in the late 90's - unfortunately, the owner of Jef died in a fire. All of his material went to Televista). The only reason why Televista's material shows up on Amazon is because the company manages to get ISBN number on their DVD's. Either way, I'm still considering buying these, mainly for the possibility of rare footage. The guy from Televista bought up several films that we originally had. Maybe he has used a few for these dvds. "A Quiet Sunday" is from "Sunday Calm". I have a transfer of the film, so I can confirm. |
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Post by mtw12055 on May 8, 2013 21:31:38 GMT -5
As for Televista, from what I understand, they are a notorious bootleg company (they were previously called Jef Films - Jef released an Our Gang VHS of silents back in the late 90's - unfortunately, the owner of Jef died in a fire. All of his material went to Televista). The only reason why Televista's material shows up on Amazon is because the company manages to get ISBN number on their DVD's. Either way, I'm still considering buying these, mainly for the possibility of rare footage. The guy from Televista bought up several films that we originally had. Maybe he has used a few for these dvds. Could be. Do you recall if your prints included the annoying narration? |
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Post by mtw12055 on May 11, 2013 1:38:29 GMT -5
The Brave Chimp - I have no idea what this is, but it's near the bottom of the list where a lot of rival series episodes reside (Perhaps the photo of the goat is from this?) I looked over some of the McGuire comedies I posted, and it turns out that the goat scene is from "Mickey in School". (it shows up at the 0:56 mark). www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOhhd3FHwEcI want to say that "The Brave Chimp" is a Dippy Doo Dads comedy, but that's just a guess. Interestingly, National Telepix's promotional material for "The Brave Chimp" featured a still from "The Holy Terror". This was no doubt an error, as "Terror" wasn't part of the Pathé series. |
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Post by Paul F. on May 15, 2013 20:53:44 GMT -5
The Mischief Makers episodes probably had their copyrights renewed; the same goes for the music written by Jack Saunders and Phyllis Brandell Saunders, if this website is correct: www.copyrightencyclopedia.com/hip-hip-hooray-from-our-gang-comedies-w-phyllis-brandell/Some of the later Our Gang films used in the series are themselves still under copyright. I do not know whether these DVDs are authorized, but given the company's past, I would doubt it. |
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Post by ymymeatemup on May 15, 2013 23:42:23 GMT -5
If I'm understanding the history of copyrights correctly, they wouldn't need to be renewed. Since they were copyrighted in 1960, the renewal wouldn't have happened until 1988. However, the law changed in the interim, eliminating the renewal process, and giving everything a copyright period of 75 years from the original date of copyright. This was later extended to 95 years, so none of those copyrights will expire until the end of 2055.
All this being said, I don't think the actual Our Gang content can be considered part of the 1960 copyrights. Most of the Pathe episodes were not renewed and were in the public domain by that time, while the small handful still under copyright will still expire once their 95 years are up (which will be way before 2055). If Televista removed the Mischief Makers titles and the music, they'd probably be in the clear for the majority of the episodes.
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