Unlike many motion pictures featuring children and based in fantasy, producer/creator Hal Roach rooted Our Gang in real life: most of the children were poor, and the gang was often at odds with snobbish "rich kids," officious adults, parents, and other such adversaries. [25] The first two entries of the season in fall 1933, Bedtime Worries and Wild Poses (which featured a cameo by Laurel and Hardy), focused on Spanky and his hapless parents, portrayed by Gay Seabrook and Emerson Treacy, in a family-oriented situation comedy format similar to the style later popular on television. After Ernie, Mickey and Mary left the series in the mid 1920s, the Our Gang series entered a transitional period. We were just a group of kids who were having fun. Amazingly, my Asian father loved these series when it was broadcasted in Singapore a few years back. Our Gang also had its roots in an aborted Roach short-subject series revolving around the adventures of a black boy called "Sunshine Sammy", played by Ernie Morrison. Cooper proved to be the personality the series had been missing since Mickey Daniels left and was featured prominently in three 1930/1931 Our Gang films: Teacher's Pet, School's Out, and Love Business. The band had no connection with the actual Our Gang series. The Little Rascals home video rights were then sold to Hallmark Entertainment in 1999, who released the DVDs without an official launch while cleaning out their warehouse in early 2000. Currently, the rights to the Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts are divided. Starting in 1928, Our Gang comedies were distributed with phonographic discs that contained synchronized music-and-sound-effect tracks for the shorts. He joined the cast of the Our Gang show in 1928 at the age of 14. NPR's Robert Siegel talks to author Julia Lee about her book Our Gang: A Racial History of The Little Rascals. Another was Robert Blake, who found great success in the 1960s and 1970s as an actor, with films like In Cold Blood (1967) and television shows like Baretta (1975–78), which netted him an Emmy Award. On August 26, 1997, a limited-edition volume, For Pete's Sake, was released in honor of the Rascals' 75th anniversary with an introduction from original cast member Tommy "Butch" Bond and "Petey," the dog from the 1994 feature. [55], Among notable Our Gang imposters is Jack Bothwell, who claimed to have portrayed a character named "Freckles",[55] going so far as to appear on the game show To Tell The Truth in the fall of 1957, perpetuating this fraud. View production, box office, & company info, ‘The Florida Project’ Director Sean Baker on His Modern-Day ‘Little Rascals’ and America’s Hidden Homeless, ‘D2: The Mighty Ducks’ still resonates after all these years, TV Oldies But Goodies late 1950s thru 1990s. The Little Rascals Spanky, Alfalfa, & Darla's Memorable Episodes in Color. [40] The strips in The Dandy ended three years after the demise of the Our Gang shorts, in 1947. Neither film was critically or financially successful, and Roach turned to re-releasing the original Our Gang comedies. By then, all but 11 of the Roach-era sound films were available on home video. Using a modified version of the series' original name, Roach repackaged 79 of the 80 sound Our Gang shorts as The Little Rascals. There is evidence[53] that Our Gang-style productions were filmed in small towns and cities around the country using local children actors in the 1920s and 1930s. [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. The Rascals ... See full summary ». Alfalfa has fallen in love with Darla, … [25] At the start of the 1933–34 season, the Our Gang series format was significantly altered to accommodate McGowan and persuade him to stay another year. [17], According to Roach, the idea for Our Gang came to him in 1921, when he was auditioning a child actress to appear in a film. Another director, Herbert Glazer, remained a second-unit director outside of his work on the series. In 2009, Warner Home Video released all 52 MGM Our Gang shorts in a compilation titled The Our Gang Collection: 1938–1942 (though it contains the 1943–44 shorts as well) for manufacture-on-demand (MOD) DVD and digital download. Following the broadcast, Spanky McFarland informed the media of the truth,[55] and in December, William Thomas, Jr. (son of Billie Thomas, the person who played Buckwheat) filed a lawsuit against ABC for negligence.[55]. 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. A smaller cast of Our Gang kids—Matthew Beard, Tommy Bond, Jerry Tucker, and Georgie Billings—were featured in supporting roles with reduced screen time. A number of groups, companies, and entities have been inspired by or named after Our Gang. Search for "The Little Rascals" on Amazon.com, Title: A Disney-produced anthology covering many different genres. Under the terms of the sale, Roach was required to remove the MGM Lion studio logo and all instances of the names or logos "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer", "Loew's Incorporated", and Our Gang from the reissued film prints. The Little Rascals (TV Series 1955) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. The cases of a pair of teen detective brothers and a teen girl amateur sleuth. [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. The Little Rascals Travis Tedford Bug Hall Brittany Ashton Holmes (1994) For wooing Darla (Brittany Ashton Holmes), Alfalfa (Bug Hall) has a falling out with Spanky (Travis Tedford) and … The other Our Gang recruits included Roach photographer Gene Kornman's daughter Mary Kornman, their friends' son Mickey Daniels, and family friends Allen Hoskins, Jack Davis, Jackie Condon, and Joe Cobb. Later that year, the first 10 Cabin Fever volumes were re-released on VHS with new packaging, and the first two volumes were released on DVD as The Little Rascals: Volumes 1–2. In 1993, Republic Pictures Home Video sold the home video rights for the 80 sound Roach shorts and some available silent shorts to Cabin Fever Entertainment. Most early shorts were filmed outdoors and on location and featured a menagerie of animal characters, such as Dinah the Mule. The films were created by studio executive Hal Roach, who was best known as the man behind the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. 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", Itinerant Filmmakers and Amateur Casts: A Homemade, 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", "WarnerBros.com | General Spanky | Movies", "Qintex Entertainment to Sell Virtually All of Its Assets", Warner Bros. to Run Most of Turner's Entertainment Units, "Our Gang. Matthew Beard as Stymie left the cast soon after, and the Buckwheat character morphed subtly into a male. In 1963, Hal Roach Studios, by then run by Roach's son Hal Jr, filed for bankruptcy. Meins's Our Gang shorts were less improvisational than McGowan's and featured a heavier reliance on dialogue. [57][58] Each tape contained four shorts, as well as newly-produced introductions by film historian Leonard Maltin. In 2011, Legend Films released black and white versions of Little Rascals DVDs. … Adult situations often drove the action, with each film often incorporating a moral, a civics lesson, or a patriotic theme. TMDb Score. Jackie Cooper left Our Gang in early 1931 at the cusp of another major shift in the lineup, as Farina Hoskins, Chubby Chaney, and Mary Ann Jackson all departed a few months afterward. 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. As part of a month-long tribute to Hal Roach Studios, Turner Classic Movies televised a 24-hour marathon of Roach Our Gang shorts - both sound films and silents – on January 4–5, 2011. Like many child actors, the Our Gang children were typecast and had trouble outgrowing their Our Gang images. The first cast of Our Gang was recruited primarily of children recommended to Roach by studio employees, with the exception of Ernie Morrison, under contract to Roach. 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 $454,078 today). The film, with a screenplay by Paul Guay, Stephen Mazur, and Penelope Spheeris– who also directed – presents sever… CBS offers original black-and-white and colorized prints for syndication. The Little Ranger was the first Our Gang short to be produced in-house at MGM. 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. 1936 | CC. A series of shorts illustrating various songs that teach multiplication tables, grammar, science, American history, computers, economics, and environmentalism. Upon Dickie Moore's departure in mid 1933, long-term Our Gang members such as Wheezer (who had been with Our Gang since the late Pathé silents period) and Dorothy left the series as well. The following is a listing of selected Our Gang comedies, considered by Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann (in their book The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang) to be among the best and most important in the series. A bus driver and his sewer worker friend struggle to strike it rich while their wives look on with weary patience. As part of the arrangement with MGM to continue Our Gang, Roach received the clearance to produce an Our Gang feature film, General Spanky, hoping that he might move the series to features as was done with Laurel & Hardy. With these releases, Cabin Fever made all 80 Roach sound shorts, and four silents, available for purchase unedited with digitally restored picture and sound. The Mack-directed shorts are considered to be among the lesser entries in the series. Use the HTML below. "[14] In a separate interview, Ernie Morrison stated, "When it came to race, Hal Roach was color-blind. Their new adventures begin at an emergency meeting of the "He-Man Womun Haters Club." [60][61] This set includes all 80 Hal Roach-produced Our Gang sound short films. [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. An unsatisfied McGowan abruptly left after Wild Poses. The last few of the Roach comedies featured Alfalfa Switzer as the lead character; Spanky McFarland had departed from the series just before its sale to MGM. If it doesn't rub off on you after a while, then it's not for you. I bought the Little Rascals DVD collection from a BEST BUY store a few years ago and I had the most fun time watching the episodes. ", Academy Award for Best Short Subject (One Reel), The Pac-Man/Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show, "Life & Times (Interview with Donald Bogle). As of April 1, 2021[update], the following notable cast members are confirmed as still living. Other early Our Gang children were Eugene Jackson as Pineapple, Scooter Lowry, Andy Samuel, Johnny Downs, Winston and Weston Doty, and Jay R. Smith. The full episode, "Sprucin' Up" from a Cabin Fever VHS (The Little Rascals, Remastered and Unedited, Volume 4" from 1994. [13] Early in existence of Our Gang, these theater owners complained to Pathé that Morisson and Hoskins had too much screen time and their prominence in the shorts would offend white audiences. [36] The MGM entries are considered by many film historians, and the Our Gang children themselves, to be lesser films than the Roach entries. and "Okey-doke!"[27]. [34] Casting his replacement was delayed until after the move to MGM, at which point MGM rehired McFarland.[35]. 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. 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. Less notable imitations series include The McDougall Alley Gang (Bray Productions, 1927–1928), The Us Bunch and Our Kids. Lazy Days, Moan and Groan, Inc., the Stepin Fetchit-guest-starred A Tough Winter, Little Daddy, A Lad an' a Lamp, The Kid From Borneo, and Little Sinner were deleted from the syndication package because of perceived racism, while Big Ears was deleted for its depiction of carelessly ingesting an assortment of drugs out of a medicine cabinet. Sonar acquired these after absorbing Hal Roach Studios in 1988, and both Roach's estate and Cabin Fever Entertainment in the late 1990s.[66]. 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.". [26] New faces included Bobby Hutchins as Wheezer, Harry Spear, Jean Darling and Mary Ann Jackson, while stalwart Farina served as the series' anchor. Scotty Beckett departed for a career in features (he returned in 1939 for two shorts, Cousin Wilbur and Dog Daze). 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. They are grouped by the era during which they joined the series. Also at this time, the Our Gang cast acquired an American Bulldog with a ring around one eye, originally named Pansy but soon known as Pete the Pup, the most famous Our Gang pet. In 1954, the Our Gang shorts, repackaged as The Little Rascals, appeared on television for the first time, introducing a new generation of fans to the antics of America's favorite kiddie comedians. 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. [3][4][5], Even when there was no talent search, the studio was bombarded by requests from parents who were sure their children were perfect for the series. Producer/creator Hal Roach re-bundled 79 of the shorts to make The Little Rascals TV series, which is still broadcast today. [6], The Our Gang series is notable for being one of the first in cinema history in which African Americans and White Americans were portrayed as equals. Television syndication package of the classic 1929-1938 shorts from the "Our Gang Comedies" movie series. The series broke new ground by portraying white and black children interacting as equals.[1]. 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. The film focused more on the adult leads (Phillips Holmes and Rosina Lawrence) than the children and was a box office disappointment. Across 220 short films and a feature-film spin-off, General Spanky, the Our Gang series featured over 41 child actors as regular members of cast. This was a second film loosely based on the series and featuring interpretations of classic Our Gang shorts, including Helping Grandma, Mike Fright, and Birthday Blues. [56] Another is Bill English, a grocery store employee who appeared on the October 5, 1990, episode of the ABC investigative television newsmagazine 20/20 claiming to have been Buckwheat. The Little Rascals is one of those childhood films that you can easily forget about because the film isn't memorable or a classic. Other members in these years included Mary Ann Jackson's brother Dickie Jackson, John "Uh-huh" Collum, and Tommy Bond. Early in 1935, new cast members Carl Switzer and his brother Harold joined Our Gang after impressing Roach with an impromptu musical performance at the studio commissary. In later shorts, both Butch and Waldo were portrayed as Alfalfa's rivals in his pursuit of Darla's affections. After realizing that he had been watching the children bicker for 15 minutes, Roach thought a short film series about children just being themselves might be a success.[18]. The characters in this series are well-known cultural icons, and identified solely by their first names. Check out our gallery of the 2021 Oscar nominees in the leading and supporting acting categories, as the characters they so brilliantly played and in real life. [55] In 2008, a Darla Hood impostor, Mollie Barron, died claiming to have appeared as Darla in Our Gang. The folk-rock group Spanky and Our Gang was named for the troupe because lead singer Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane's last name was similar to that of George "Spanky" McFarland. On June 14, 2011, Vivendi Entertainment re-released seven of the eight DVD's from RHI/Genius Products' The Little Rascals – The Complete Collection as individual releases. These productions did not appear to be affiliated with Hal Roach, but often used storylines from the shorts of the period, and sometimes went so far as to identify themselves as being Our Gang productions. At that point in time, he was only 3’11” and weighed approximately 113lb. "[24] Daniels and Kornman were very popular and were often paired in Our Gang and a later teen version of the series called The Boy Friends, which Roach produced from 1930 to 1932. There are some great Our Gang moments here, with many scenes resurrecting those hilarious physical comedy gags of the original series. They're all here! The company's licensing only lasted for a short period. McGowan worked to develop a style that allowed the children to be as natural as possible, downplaying the importance of the filmmaking equipment. 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. 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. Rather than being given lines to speak, the kids were told what was to happen in a scene, and the kids would ad-lib … New Roach discovery George McFarland joined the gang as Spanky late in 1931 at the age of three and, excepting a brief hiatus during the summer of 1938, remained an Our Gang actor for eleven years. The Little Rascals is a 1994 American family comedy film produced by Amblin Entertainment, and released by Universal Pictures on August 5, 1994. At the same time, eight Little Rascals shorts were pulled from the King World television package altogether. Neither film was critically or financially successful, and Roach turned to re-releasing the original Our Gang comedies. The Little Rascals is a 1994 American family comedy film produced by Amblin Entertainment, and released by Universal Pictures on August 5, 1994. 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. The Little Rascals are back in an all-new movie! By all accounts available, none of the former child stars were ever paid a cent in residuals from this, despite the substantial profits netted. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. In the early shorts, the kids in the films were just kids acting like kids. RHI Entertainment and Genius Products released an eight-disc DVD set, The Little Rascals – the Complete Collection, on October 28, 2008. In 1930, Roach began production on The Boy Friends, a short-subject series which was essentially a teenaged version of Our Gang. The stress of directing child actors forced Robert McGowan to take doctor-mandated sabbaticals for exhaustion,[25] leaving his nephew Robert A. McGowan (credited as Anthony Mack) to direct many shorts in this period. 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. Take a trip back into time with The Little Rascals The Complete Collection. 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. Other Our Gang members appearing in the early sound shorts included Buddy McDonald, Clifton Young, and Shirley Jean Rickert. Sonar Entertainment (formerly known as RHI Entertainment, Cabin Fever Entertainment and Hallmark Entertainment)[65] owns the copyrights of and holds the theatrical and home video rights to the Roach-produced Our Gang shorts. With Wally Albright, Sherwood Bailey, Bobbie 'Cotton' Beard, Matthew 'Stymie' Beard. the little rascals, originally known as Our Gang, have stirred up irresistible trouble ever since the short comedies debuted on silent film in 1922. Two further Hallmark DVD collections featured ten shorts apiece and were released in 2003 and 2005, respectively. 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. These three shorts explored Jackie Cooper's crush on the new schoolteacher Miss Crabtree, played by June Marlowe. Theatrical Trailer to the Penelope Speeris' film "The Little Rascals". Yet, the story of Our Gang is no Hollywood fairy tale. She chronicles the story of the African-American actors in the films. The early talkie Railroadin' was never part of the television package because its soundtrack (recorded on phonographic records) was considered lost, although it was later found and restored to the film. This includes the 80 shorts – replacing the Blackhawk transfers on the previous set with their respective 1994 restorations – but excludes the disc featuring the extras. With Eugene 'Porky' Lee, George 'Spanky' McFarland, Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer, Billie 'Buckwheat' Thomas. [29] McGowan returned two years later to direct his Our Gang swan song, Divot Diggers, released in 1936. , Hide and Shriek, was his final short-subject production made when Hal Roach persuaded him to on. Mostly a fun thing several non-comprehensive VHS tapes Gang series, Hide and Shriek, was final! With sound and bundled them together Hollywood story documentary entitled `` the curse of the or. 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