The Little Rascals TV Series 1955 TV-G 30m IMDb RATING 8.1 /10 1.3K YOUR RATING Rate POPULARITY 3,050 134 Play trailer 2:25 5 Videos 77 Photos Comedy Family Television syndication package of the classic 1929-1938 shorts from the "Our Gang Comedies" movie series. In 1939, Mickey Gubitosi (later known by the stage name of Robert Blake) replaced Eugene "Porky" Lee, who had matured too quickly. Hopefully, this doesn't end wit. Some of the lines I had to say I didn't like, but I never look at it like that. We can all sleep peacefully tonight. [46] The two separate packages of Our Gang films competed with each other in syndication for three decades. The Little Rascals (1994) - User Reviews - IMDb The film is based on the "Our Gang" series of short films from the '20s, '30s, and '40s. [76] The television rights for the MGM Our Gang shorts belong to Warner Bros. Television Distribution, and the video rights to Warner Home Video. WHERE ARE THEY NOW: the Cast of 'the Little Racals' - Insider [19] Theater owners then were wary of booking shorts focused on a black boy,[19] and the series ended after just one entry, The Pickaninny, was produced. However, the dog ran off at some point, and either Stiltz or Switzer offered a reward for the return of the lost animal. Our Gang would be used by MGM as a training ground for future feature directors: Sidney, Edward Cahn and Cy Endfield all worked on Our Gang before moving on to features. dga trainee Ronald Chong . After Beard left the series at the tender age of 10, he went on to score some minor roles in such feature films as Captain Blood (1935) and The Return of Frank James (1940) with fellow child star and Our Gang alum Jackie Cooper. He appeared in bit parts and B movies as an adult, including the classic Its a Wonderful Life(1946). [8], The African-American characters have often been criticized as racial stereotypes. Other Our Gang members appearing in the early sound shorts included Buddy McDonald, Clifton Young, and Shirley Jean Rickert. In the late 1940s, he created a new film property in the Our Gang mold and forfeited his right to buy back the name Our Gang to obtain permission to produce two Cinecolor featurettes, Curley and Who Killed Doc Robbin. He is one of the most memorable and recognizable Little Rascals. "The Little Rascals" was released in August 1994. The film was directed by Alex Zamm, and starred Jet Jurgensmeyer as Spanky, Drew Justice as Alfalfa, Eden Wood as Darla, and Doris Roberts as the kids' adopted Grandma. There is evidence[54] that Our Gang-style productions were filmed in small towns and cities around the country using local children actors in the 1920s and 1930s. Like many child actors, the Our Gang children were typecast and had trouble outgrowing their Our Gang images. In the 1950s, home movie distributor Official Films released many of the Hal Roach talkies on 16 mm film. Get ready to dive into TV history and take a then-and-now look at the original Little Rascals. McFarlands Aunt Dottie responded to an ad from Hal Roach Studios requesting photographs of cute kids, and he was cast as Spanky. Spanky McFarland - Wikipedia Watch The Little Rascals | Netflix The Little Rascals 1994 | Maturity Rating: All | 1h 22m | Kids As Alfalfa tries to charm Darla, a group of pint-sized mischief-makers land in all sorts of antics. By the time he was in high school, he had retired from acting. At the same time, eight Little Rascals shorts were pulled from the King World television package altogether. "The Little Rascals" was released in August 1994. The Lee family traveled from Texas to Culver City, California. He won parts in a number of outside features, appeared in many of the now-numerous Our Gang product endorsements and spin-off merchandise items, and popularized the expressions "Okey-dokey!" Roach tested it at several theaters around Hollywood. The Our Gang Collection. Under its new name, The Little Rascals enjoyed renewed popularity on television, and new Little Rascals comic books, toys, and other licensed merchandise were produced. Doug Mosher Published: September 25, 2020. Several Our Gang alumni, among them Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Scotty Beckett, Norman "Chubby" Chaney, Billy "Froggy" Laughlin, Donald Haines, Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, Darla Hood, Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, and George "Spanky" McFarland, died before age 65, in most cases well earlier. [67] The first ClassicFlix release, The Little Rascals: The ClassicFlix Restorations, Volume 1, was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on June 1, 2021, featuring the first eleven "talking" short subjects in the series from 1929 and 1930. [68] Five further volumes followed through June 2022, comprising the rest of the Hal Roach era shorts through 1938 and also including new restorations of those shorts.[69][70][71]. Also at this time, the Our Gang cast acquired an American Pit Bull Terrier with a ring around one eye, originally named Pansy but soon known as Pete the Pup, the most famous Our Gang pet. Dickie Moore, a veteran child actor, joined in the middle of 1932 and remained with the series for one year. [3] Together with the Doors "Hello, I Love You", it's credited with changing the industry standard of singles. Featuring Our Gang alumni Mickey Daniels and Mary Kornman among its cast, The Boy Friends was produced for two years, with fifteen installments in total. In the 1994 feature-film remake of The Little Rascals, Petey is an American Bulldog. Producer/creator Hal Roach re-bundled 79 of the shorts to make The Little Rascals TV series, which is still broadcast today. Hi-Neighbor!, released in March 1934, ended the hiatus and was the first series entry directed by Meins, a veteran of the once-competing Buster Brown short subject series. [25] At the start of the 193334 season, the Our Gang series format was significantly altered to accommodate McGowan and persuade him to stay another year. Our Gang (also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals) is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. 2:26. Even as an adult, I told none of my friends. Flashback Friday: The Little Rascals - WNBF News Radio 1290 On May 31, 1938, Roach sold MGM the Our Gang unit, including the rights to the name and the contracts for the actors and writers, for $25,000 (equal to $481,265 today). The Little Rascals was born by comedy producer Hal Roach in 1922 as silent comedy short films. Hallmark colorized a few Our Gang shorts and released them across 8 VHS tapes. That portrayal would be deemed quite controversial in the years to come. The result of a glandular problem, Chaney's weight continued to increase. Most of the collection uses the 1994 restorations, while 16 shorts are presented with older Blackhawk Films transfers as their remastered copies were lost or misplaced during preparations.[63][64]. William Robert Laughlin was born on July 5, 1932, in San Gabriel, California. Discovery through Turner Entertainment. "[15], Despite the stereotyping and racial gags, Our Gang's integrated cast caused it to be disliked by certain theater owners in the southern United States. After he left the film shorts, Thomas enlisted in the U.S. Army when he was just 23 years old. The films were otherwise offered unedited. Production continued at Roach until 1938, when the Our Gang production unit was sold to MGM, where production continued until 1944. Halcyon Studios/Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment (formerly known as Sonar Entertainment, RHI Entertainment, Cabin Fever Entertainment and Hallmark Entertainment)[72] owns the copyrights of and held the theatrical and home video rights to the Roach-produced Our Gang shorts. [9][10] The Black children spoke (or were indicated as speaking via text titles in the case of the silent entries) in a stereotypical "Negro dialect", and several controversial gags revolved directly around their skin color: Matthew Beard's Stymie character sweating jet-black ink,[11] Billie Thomas' Buckwheat character being given fake "white measles" instead of dark ones and supposedly turned into a monkey,[12] and so forth. and "Okey-doke!"[27]. A number of groups, companies, and entities have been inspired by or named after Our Gang. Cast of 'Little Rascals' Reunites 20 Years Later in Adorable Photoshoot When did the Little Rascals first come out? In 1934, the Switzers traveled to California to visit family and, as fate would have it, went on a sightseeing tour to Hal Roach Studios, where the Our Gang shorts were filmed. [34] Casting his replacement was delayed until after the move to MGM, at which point MGM rehired McFarland.[35]. I honestly believed that the show had in some way "shaped me" and made me a better person. The attendees were very receptive, and the press clamored for "lots more of those 'Our Gang' comedies." Scarcely two years old, she goes through each set like a wee, sombre shadow. Even though it was a job, we had a pretty good time making those comedies. By all accounts available, none of the former child stars were ever paid a cent in residuals from this, despite the substantial profits netted. The MGM Our Gangs today appear periodically on the Turner Classic Movies cable network. However, in 2005 Blake became much more famous for his personal life when he was tried and acquitted of the 2001 murder of his second wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley. Five-year-old Lee had a growth spurt in early 1939, outgrowing 10-year-old McFarland. What Happened To The Original Cast of The Little Rascals - DoYouRemember? He died on Aug. 31, 1948. [66], An Indiegogo fundraiser campaign was launched to finance extensive restorations of the shorts from original 35mm nitrate film sources. That same year, Darla Hood, Patsy May, and Eugene Lee as Porky joined the gang. [2], As children aged out of their roles, they were replaced by new children, usually from the Los Angeles area. Many series entries were trimmed by two to four minutes, while others (among them Spanky, Bargain Day, The Pinch Singer and Mush and Milk) were cut to nearly half of their original length. Cooper soon won the lead role in Paramount's feature film Skippy, and Roach sold his contract to MGM in 1931. However, MGM did not want the series discontinued and agreed to take over production. After outgrowing Our Gang, Hood continued her education in high school, where she organized a vocal group called the Enchanters. When I was a kid in the '70s (B.C.= Before Cable) they used to play THE LITTLE RASCALS on TV after school. In the early 2000s, the 71 films in the King World package were re-edited, reinstating many (though not all) edits made in 1971 and the original Our Gang title cards. The short film series, also sometimes referred to as The Little Rascals, was created by Hal Roach (the producer and studio executive behind Laurel & Hardy) in 1922 and spurred 220 shorts. Before he joined Our Gang, McFarland modeled childrens clothing for a Dallas department store. 235236. [30] Directed by Gordon Douglas and Fred Newmeyer, General Spanky featured characters Spanky, Buckwheat, and Alfalfa in a sentimental, Shirley Temple-esque story set during the American Civil War. Who Said "Otay"? Porky or Buckwheat? | Who Said "Otay - Facebook [2] The children, some too young to read, rarely saw the scripts; instead, McGowan would explain the scene to be filmed to each child immediately before it was shot, directing the children using a megaphone and encouraging improvisation. Most casual fans of Our Gang are particularly familiar with the 19361939 incarnation of the cast: Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Buckwheat, and Porky, with recurring characters such as neighborhood bullies Butch and Woim and the bookworm Waldo. The sound discs for Railroadin' had been lost since the 1940s, and a silent print was available for home movie release until 1982, when the film's sound discs were located in the MGM vault and the short was restored with sound. Van der Valk (Original) | Little Rascals | Season 3 - PBS The Dark Secrets and Somber Fates of 'The Little Rascals' - History 101 (The Los Angeles Times claims that it was Stiltz who offered the reward.) The implication is that Tateh will go on to produce the Our Gang series.[53]. [citation needed]. His trademark was a bald head, crowned by an oversized derby hat. The original Petey was an American Pit Bull Terriernamed Pal, the Wonder Dog. The first twelve volumes of Cabin Fever's The Little Rascals VHS set were released on July 6, 1994, followed by nine more on July 11, 1995, coinciding with the theatrical and home video releases of Universal's 1994 feature. Exhibitors noticed the drop in quality, and often complained that the series was slipping. They are grouped by the era during which they joined the series. [37] The children's performances were criticized as stilted and stiff, their dialogue being recited instead of spoken naturally. The Little Rascals television show, which debuted in 1955, introduced a band of ragtag children to the world. But he says he was looking out his office window one day and watched some kids fighting over a stick they were going to use for a game they were going to play. Mickey Daniels was one of the most Rascals to appear most frequently in Hal Roachs original Our Gang shorts, with between 70 and 80 appearances spanning 1932 to 1935. Gordon Douglas was loaned out from Hal Roach Studios to direct The Little Ranger and another early MGM short, Aladdin's Lantern, while MGM hired newcomer George Sidney as the permanent series director. The Rascals - Wikipedia During the 1980s and 1990s, MGM released several non-comprehensive VHS tapes of its shorts, and a VHS of the feature General Spanky. Beard was cast as a baby in many films before signing a five-year contract to play Stymie in Our Gang. A new kid moves into town and is soon bullying little Jackie. Tommy Bond, an off-and-on member of the gang since 1932, returned to the series as Butch beginning with the 1937 short Glove Taps. A new book offers a different perspective on the feisty crew of kids. Initially, the music consisted of orchestral versions of then-popular tunes. By 1936, Hal Roach began debating plans to discontinue Our Gang until Louis B. Mayer, head of Roach's distributor MGM, persuaded Roach to keep the popular series in production. the little rascals, originally known as Our Gang, have stirred up irresistible trouble ever since the short comedies debuted . Darla Hood - IMDb It regards a group of children who hang out at a club house with a strict rule against girls. Television broadcast", "WAUGH and On and On #1: Neither Fish Nor Fowl", "Monogram Will Enter Short Subjects Field with 39 Reissues Made by M-G-M", "Same Client, Same Vidpix On Second Go-Around", "Metro Readies Short Subjects Bundles for TV", Business Data for The Little Rascals (1994), Urban Legends References Page: 'Our Gang' Curse, "Complete National Film Registry Listing - National Film Preservation Board - Programs - Library of Congress", Joyce Haber, a Gossip Columnist Known for Barbed Commentaries, "Former child actress Mollie Barron dies", "The Little Rascals DVD news: Little Rascals Box Set Announced", "The Little Rascals DVD news: Box Art for The Little Rascals The Complete Collection", "DVD Talk Review: The Little Rascals: The Complete Collection", "Laurel & Hardy Vivendi Press Release Addenda", "WarnerBros.com | General Spanky | Movies", "ClassicFlix's Little Rascals Preservation & Restoration Project For Blu-ray", "Update: The Little Rascals - The ClassicFlix Restorations, Vol. CBS offers original black-and-white and colorized prints for syndication. If youve ever wondered what happened personally and professionally to the actors fromThe Little Rascals,the wait is over. They were born from the 1922-1938 Our Gang shorts from MGM. Well, here's the answer. There are many unofficial Our Gang and Little Rascals home video collections available from several other distributors, comprising shorts (both silent and sound) which have fallen into the public domain. A Beautiful Morning - Wikipedia Ms. He signed on to release future products through the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which released its first Our Gang comedy in September 1927. In January 1958, it was reported that while he was getting into his car in Studio City, someone fired a bullet at him, which crashed through the window and hit him in the right arm. Alfalfa is the Little Rascal who had his hair sticking up. The Little Rascals (1994) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDb In the mid-1950s, when the Our Gang comedies were syndicated on television as The Little Rascals, McFarland hosted an afternoon children's show, The Spanky Show, on KOTV television in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Little Rascals (1994) - Clubhouse Fire Scene (3/10) | Movieclips. Starting in 1928, Our Gang comedies were distributed with phonographic discs that contained synchronized music-and-sound-effect tracks for the shorts. [36] The series was given a permanent setting in the fictitious town of Greenpoint, and the mayhem caused by the Our Gang kids was toned down significantly. A cover of the song "Good Lovin '" was used in 1988 the film Salsa. Roach produced the final two-reel Our Gang short, a high-budget musical special entitled Our Gang Follies of 1938, in 1937 as a parody of MGM's Broadway Melody of 1938. The company's licensing only lasted for a short period. On Oct. 16, 2005, at the age of 71, he lost his battle with lung and brain cancer. " Groovin' " is a single released in 1967 by American rock band the Young Rascals that became a number-one hit and one of the group's signature songs. The Little Rascals - Aired Order - All Seasons - TheTVDB.com Syndication. After the tour, 8-year-old Harold and 6-year-old Carl went for a meal at the Our Gang cafe and began an impromptu performance. In 2023, ClassicFlix will restore the "silent-era" Our Gang catalogue, with any available elements (some from this era are considered lost films)[74]. Darla is mostly remembered for her coquettishness, as she often was the object of affection for Alfalfa, Butch, and Waldo. Among the most notable are The Kiddie Troupers, featuring future comedian Eddie Bracken; Baby Burlesks, featuring Shirley Temple; the Buster Brown comedies (from which Our Gang received Pete the Pup and director Gus Meins); and Our Gang's main competitor, the Toonerville Trolley-based Mickey McGuire series starring Mickey Rooney. The franchise began in 1922 as a silent short subject series produced by the Roach studio and released by Path Exchange. The band had no connection with the actual Our Gang series. Many of these shorts include early appearances of Jerry Tucker and Wally Albright, who later became series regulars. Inspired by Hal Roach's "Our Gang" series. December 31, 1922. And he realized after a while that hed been looking at them for a long, long time and that they had captured his attention. We were just a group of kids who were having fun. Another 1930 short, Teacher's Pet, marked the first use of the Our Gang theme song, "Good Old Days", composed by Shield and featuring a notable saxophone solo. Stymie enjoyed making the films and, more importantly, the sense of equality that Roach insisted on when it came to his productions. [75] Some of the silent Our Gangs (such as Mary, Queen of Tots and Thundering Fleas) resurfaced on TCM at this time with new music scores in stereo sound; these silent Path Our Gangs are now being syndicated by Mckinaw Media. then-and-now look at the original Little Rascals. The final Roach-produced short in the Our Gang series, Hide and Shriek, was his final short-subject production. He tended to tell the same handful of anecdotes whenever he was interviewed, and there was one he always told and it could be true, it could be apocryphal, it could be a mild exaggeration of the truth, but it doesnt sound improbable. We had a lot of fun together. [13], In their adult years, actors Morrison, Beard, and Thomas defended the series, arguing that the white characters in the series were similarly stereotyped: the "freckle-faced kid", the "fat kid", the "neighborhood bully", the "pretty blond girl", and the "mischievous toddler". The kids in the original Little Rascals were between 4 and 9 years old. In fact, with friend and manager Rick Saphire, he embarked on a college tour to do just that. My dancing teacher talked my mother into letting me go to New York City, where I wound up leading the band at the Edison Hotel and caught the eye of theOur Gangcasting director. She was also the voice of the mermaid in the "Chicken Of The Sea" TV commercials. Carl's death. Gordon Douglas served as Meins's assistant director, and Fred Newmeyer alternated directorial duties with Meins for a handful of shorts. He was very proud of that series, says Maltin in that exclusive interview. Before surgery, he weighed 300 pounds while standing only 4 feet, 7 inches tall. [40] The strips in The Dandy ended three years after the demise of the Our Gang shorts, in 1947. [52], E. L. Doctorow's 1975 novel Ragtime ends with the character of Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe, having a vision of the kind of film he wants to make: "A bunch of children who were pals, white black, fat thin, rich poor, all kinds, mischievous little urchins who would have funny adventures in their own neighborhood, a society of ragamuffins, like all of us, a gang, getting into trouble and getting out again." In Follies of 1938, Alfalfa, who aspires to be an opera singer, falls asleep and dreams that his old pal Spanky has become the rich owner of a swanky Broadway nightclub where Darla and Buckwheat perform, making "hundreds and thousands of dollars.". Producer/creator Hal Roach re-bundled 79 of the shorts to make The Little Rascals TV series, which is still broadcast today. Following the broadcast, Spanky McFarland informed the media of the truth,[56] and in December, William Thomas, Jr. (son of Billie Thomas, the person who played Buckwheat) filed a lawsuit against ABC for negligence.[56]. Billie Thomas as Buckwheat remained in the cast until the end of the series as the sole holdover from the Roach era. For example, Norman Chaney ("Chubby"), Matthew Beard ("Stymie"), and Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas all won contests to become members of the gang: Chaney replaced Joe Cobb, Beard replaced Allen Hoskins ("Farina"), and Thomas replaced Beard. He was replaced by Mickey Gubitosi, better known asRobert Blake. [25] Lacking a replacement, Hal Roach persuaded him to stay on for another year. Coupled with a brief suspension in McFarland's work permit,[28] Our Gang went into a four-month hiatus, during which the series was revised to a format similar to its original style and German-born Gus Meins was hired as the new series director.[25]. [13] A later Our Gang spin-off film, Curley (1947), was banned by the Memphis, Tennessee, censor board for showing black and white children in school together, a characteristic common to even the earlier shorts. After the girl and her mother left the office, Roach looked out of his window to a lumberyard across the street, where he saw some children having an argument. This story may contain some links from which we may earn a small affiliate commission. [2] Douglas, in particular, had to streamline his films, as he directed Our Gang after Roach halved the running times of the shorts from two reels (20 minutes) to one reel (10 minutes). For years afterward, Blackhawk Films released 79 of the 80 Roach talkies on 8mm and 16 mm film. [48] The Little Rascals was a moderate success for Universal, bringing in $51,764,950 at the box office.[49]. For other uses, see, For a detailed listing of the Our Gang child actors, recurring adult actors, directors, and writers, see, 19261929: New faces and new distributors, 19932011: Cabin Fever/Hallmark VHS and DVD releases, 20212022: ClassicFlix restorations and releases, Maltin & Bann, p. 119. After video rights for the classic MGM library reverted to their new owners, Turner Entertainment/Warner Bros., in the late 1990s, four of the MGM Our Gang shorts appeared as bonus features on Warner Bros.-issued classic film DVD releases. In spring 1929, the Roach sound stages were converted for sound recording, and Our Gang made its "all-talking" debut in April 1929 with the 25-minute film Small Talk. List ranges from Waldo's Dad to Twin #1 and more. [2], When sound came in at the end of the 1920s, McGowan modified his approach slightly, but scripts were not adhered to until McGowan left the series. More Details Watch offline Starring: Travis Tedford, Bug Hall, Brittany Ashton Holmes Watch all you want. As he explained in 1953, Dont get me wrong. Permalink. "The Little Rascals" redirects here. The Little Rascals: Carl Alfalfa Switzer Was the Target of a Shooting a Year Before His Murder, The Little Rascals: By 1959, Much of Our Gang Was Running into Tough Sometimes Deadly Times, The Little Rascals: Norman Chaney, Who Preferred Chubsy-Ubsy, Had a Short and Sad Life. Starting in 1928, Our Gang comedies were distributed with phonographic discs that contained synchronized music-and-sound-effect tracks for the shorts. The single was one of the earliest released in stereo, as 7-inch singles generally were in mono. Until its closure in 2018, the MGM Our Gangs were available for streaming via the subscription-based Warner Archive Instant streaming video service.[77]. We didn't care that our folks -or even grandparents- had watched it. The hat was gifted to him by comedian Stan Laurel, who had also worked under Our Gang creator Hal Roach in shorts and films in which he teamed up with Oliver Hardy (hence Laurel & Hardy). Beginning with the short When the Wind Blows, in 1930 background music scores were added to the soundtracks of most of the Our Gang films. Our Gang is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way; Roach and original director Robert F. McGowan worked to film the unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular children, rather than have them imitate adult acting styles. The MGM-produced Our Gang shorts, General Spanky, and the rights to the Our Gang name are owned by Warner Bros. With these releases, Cabin Fever made all 80 Roach sound shorts, and four silents, available for purchase unedited with digitally restored picture and sound. In later shorts, both Butch and Waldo were portrayed as Alfalfa's rivals in his pursuit of Darla's affections. The names of the actors and actresses who portrayed each character are included below as well, so use this The Little Rascals character list to find out who played your favorite role.

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