Eye-gouging, nose-tweaking, stomach-poking, ear-pulling, head-slapping, pie-throwing, and seltzer-spraying can only mean one thing. The classic comedy trio of Larry, Moe, and Curly are back doing what they do best. On October 30, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will launch its definitive new series of Three Stooges DVDs with The The Three Stooges Collection: Years 1-3. This first volume includes all 19 shorts from the boys' first three years at Columbia. The two-reelers are chronologically organized by their original release date and painstakingly restored from the original negatives for the very best picture and audio quality.

The DVD will be available in a two-disc package for the standard retail price of $24.96. The Three Stooges are one of the most significant screen comedy teams of the 20th century, on par with Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, and Martin and Lewis -- an inspiration to generations of comics that followed. The trio's film career began in the early 1930s, reached its slapstick peak during their tenure at Columbia (1934-1957), and lasted well into the 1950s. After their initial retirement, they were rediscovered by an enthusiastic new generation through the medium of television and have outstripped all their contemporaries in terms of lasting popularity. The Three Stooges Collection: Years 1-3 finally pays the Stooges their due by tracing the evolution and development of their craft by presenting the films in progressive order.

The Three Stooges Collection: Years 1-3 includes the following titles:

1934 - Woman Haters, Punch Drunks (only short actually written by the Stooges), the Oscar nominated Men in Black, and Three Little Pigskins (featuring a young Lucille Ball).

1935 - Horses' Collars (their first Western spoof), Restless Knights (first "triple-slap" in a Stooge short), Pop Goes the Easel (first film for frequent director Del Lord), Uncivil Warriors (set during the Civil War), Pardon My Scotch (first Stooge short to use "Listen to the Mockingbird" as its theme song), Hoi Polloi (remade as Half-Wits Holiday in 1947), and Three Little Beers.

1936 - Ants in the Pantry (features silent star Clara Kimball Young), Movie Maniacs (features Charlie Chaplin's first wife Mildred Harris), Half-Shot Shooters (first short in which the Stooges get killed), Disorder in the Court (features the famous "swearing in" scene with Curly), A Pain in the Pullman (the longest short of the series), False Alarms, Whoops, I'm an Indian, and Slippery Silks (featuring the first Stooges cream dessert fight).

Technical Specs:
- Run Time: 345 Minutes
- Rating: Not Rated