when did the original little rascals come out

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. Watch The Our Gang Collection: Game Winner, Watch The Our Gang Collection: Saving Alfalfa, Watch The Our Gang Collection: Football Romeo, This television package includes every sound Hal Roach-produced Our Gang comedy, except for. Who are the names of the Little Rascals? Due to the popularity of Our Gang, many similar kid comedy short film series were created by competing studios. From 2006 to 2009, Legend Films produced colorized versions of twenty-four Our Gang comedies (23 Roach entries, and the public domain MGM entry Waldo's Last Stand), which were released across five Little Rascals DVDs. An unsatisfied McGowan abruptly left after Wild Poses. Hallmark colorized a few Our Gang shorts and released them across 8 VHS tapes. He became an avid speaker about his days as a part of The Little Rascals. 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. [61][62] This set includes all 80 Hal Roach-produced Our Gang sound short films. The single was one of the earliest released in stereo, as 7-inch singles generally were in mono. Director Fred C. Newmeyer helmed the first pilot film, entitled Our Gang, but Roach scrapped Newmeyer's work and had former fireman Robert F. McGowan reshoot the short. A struggling novice syndication agent named Charles King purchased the television rights to The Little Rascals in the bankruptcy proceedings and returned the shorts to television. [9] In later years, many adults falsely claimed to have been members of Our Gang. He and his brother, Harold, became famous in their hometown for their musical talents. When did little rascals 2 come out? The Little Rascals was born by comedy producer Hal Roach in 1922 as silent comedy short films. The boy who played the only Black Little Rascal was Matthew Beard. Dorothy graduated high school and became a clerk. A smaller cast of Our Gang kidsMatthew Beard, Tommy Bond, Jerry Tucker, and Georgie Billingswere featured in supporting roles with reduced screen time. What is the Spanish language plot outline for The Little Rascals (1955)? 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. He died on August 20, 1970 in San Diego, California, USA. Beard maintained his sobriety, giving lectures on drug-abuse awareness. In 1994, Amblin Entertainment and Universal Pictures released The Little Rascals, a feature film based loosely on the series and featuring interpretations of classic Our Gang shorts, including Hearts are Thumps, Rushin' Ballet, and Hi'-Neighbor! After a stint in the Army, Blake returned to acting, making a name for himself in the television seriesBarettaas an undercover police officer. The Little Rascals - Aired Order - All Seasons - TheTVDB.com [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. McFarlands Aunt Dottie responded to an ad from Hal Roach Studios requesting photographs of cute kids, and he was cast as Spanky. [29] McGowan returned two years later to direct his Our Gang swan song, Divot Diggers, released in 1936. They would watch us shoot and we would watch them shoot. There he attended public school and attempted a life of normalcy. One early Our Gang short, Lodge Night (1924), revolves around the kids forming a parody club based on the Ku Klux Klan (though the Black children are still allowed to join). These new television prints made their debut on the American Movie Classics cable network in 2001 and ran until 2003. Scarcely two years old, she goes through each set like a wee, sombre shadow. The Little Rascals (1994) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. We went to school together, played together, laughed together. [30] Roach agreed, producing shorter, one-reel Our Gang comedies (ten minutes in length instead of twenty). His offspring inherited the role of Petey, though his eye circle mysteriously moved to the left side of his face. What Ever Happened To Those Adorable 'Little Rascals'? - DoYouRemember? Another director, Herbert Glazer, remained a second-unit director outside of his work on the series. She left the series in 1933 after making 24 pictures. 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. With these releases, Cabin Fever made all 80 Roach sound shorts, and four silents, available for purchase unedited with digitally restored picture and sound. What Happened To The Original Cast of The Little Rascals - DoYouRemember? One of the saddest lives among all the members of Our Gang was undoubtedly Norman Chaney, who was better known as Chubsy-Ubsy. THEN AND NOW: The cast of 'The Little Rascals,' 27 years later - Yahoo News 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 Path silents period) and Dorothy left the series as well. Some stations bought both packages and played them alongside each other under the Little Rascals show banner. The Little Rascals (1994) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDb Five-year-old Lee had a growth spurt in early 1939, outgrowing 10-year-old McFarland. the little rascals, originally known as Our Gang, have stirred up irresistible trouble ever since the short comedies debuted . Her mother introduced her to singing and dancing at an early age. These three shorts explored Jackie Cooper's crush on the new schoolteacher Miss Crabtree, played by June Marlowe. Coming out in early 1968, it was the group's first track released after shortening their name from the Young Rascals. The Little Rascals - The Our Gang Collection: Game Winner | IMDb He had a stroke on Jan. 3, 1981, sustained head injuries from falling down a flight of stairs, and succumbed to pneumonia five days later. Heartbreaking Details About Froggy From The Little Rascals "The Little Rascals" redirects here. Initially, the music consisted of orchestral versions of then-popular tunes. [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). Like the television prints, Blackhawk's Little Rascals reissues featured custom title cards in place of the original Our Gang logos, per MGM's 1949 arrangement with Hal Roach not to distribute the series under its original title. Blackhawk Films was acquired in 1983 by National Telefilm Associates, later renamed Republic Pictures. As Darla was reported as saying in aDYRprofile of her, I was born in a small town in Oklahoma and I guess my mother wanted to get out of there, because she took me to Oklahoma City and signed me up with a dancing teacher. The Rascal revival was on, and it continues this day. The Little Rascals (1994) - Clubhouse Fire Scene (3/10) | Movieclips. Many of these shorts include early appearances of Jerry Tucker and Wally Albright, who later became series regulars. 9. Financial data for negative costs, revenue, and profits/losses are provided for all 52 MGM, Mikkelson, Barbara and Mikkelson, David. Im a guy who likes to eat and I found I couldnt do it without working. 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. Scripts were written for the shorts by the Hal Roach comedy writing staff, which included at various times Leo McCarey, Frank Capra, Walter Lantz, and Frank Tashlin, among others. When I was a kid in the '70s (B.C.= Before Cable) they used to play THE LITTLE RASCALS on TV after school. 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. 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. The Little Rascals, which debuted on television in 1955, introduced a band of ragtag children to the world. He was buried with the famous derby hat he wore all his life, back from his Stymie days. Semi-regular actors, such as Jackie Lynn Taylor, Marianne Edwards, and Leonard Kibrick as the neighborhood bully, joined the series at this time. [48] The Little Rascals was a moderate success for Universal, bringing in $51,764,950 at the box office.[49]. Producer/creator Hal Roach re-bundled 79 of the shorts to make The Little RascalsTV series, which is still broadcast today. The film, directed by Penelope Spheeris, starred Travis Tedford as Spanky, Bug Hall as Alfalfa, and Ross Bagley as Buckwheat; with cameos by the Olsen twins, Whoopi Goldberg, Mel Brooks, Reba McEntire, Daryl Hannah, Donald Trump and Raven-Symon. He always said that was the spark that inspired the idea of having a series starring kids. Travis Tedford played Spanky, the president of the "He-Man Woman-Haters Club." then-and-now look at the original Little Rascals. Television syndication package of the classic 1929-1938 shorts from the "Our Gang Comedies" movie series. Two further Hallmark DVD collections featured ten shorts apiece and were released in 2003 and 2005, respectively. THE LITTLE RASCALS (OUR GANG) THEN AND NOW 2021 - YouTube While Harold would eventually be relegated to the role of a background player, Carl, nicknamed "Alfalfa," eventually replaced Scotty Beckett as Spanky's sidekick. 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. Some shorts around this time, particularly Spook Spoofing (1928, one of only two three-reelers in the Our Gang canon), contained extended scenes of the gang tormenting and teasing Farina, scenes which helped spur the claims of racism, which many other shorts did not warrant. This story may contain some links from which we may earn a small affiliate commission. Just like a family. 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. Exhibitors noticed the drop in quality, and often complained that the series was slipping. Scotty Beckett departed for a career in features (he returned in 1939 for two shorts, Cousin Wilbur and Dog Daze). September 10, 1922 Our Gang/First episode date Where can I watch the original Little Rascals? They were born from the 1922-1938 Our Gang shorts from MGM. "[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. Laughlins character Froggy was known for his strange, guttural voice, which sounded like a frogs croak thus a nickname was born. He was able to turn his life around, though, and after rehabilitating, he appeared as a guest star on Sanford and Son and The Jeffersons, and had a recurring role on Good Times as Monty. In 1978, he appeared in The Buddy Holly Story as a member of the backstage crew at the Apollo Theatre, wearing his trademark bowler hat. Jackie Cooper left Our Gang in early 1931 just before another wave of cast changes: Farina Hoskins, Chubby Chaney, and Mary Ann Jackson all departed a few months afterward. As to where Hal Roach came up with the concept for Our Gang,Do You Rememberturned to film historian Leonard Maltin, who also wrote the bookThe Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang. The film focused more on the adult leads (Phillips Holmes and Rosina Lawrence) than the children and was a box office disappointment. Is there a connection between the nightclub, a sinister religious group, and a dispersed bunch of radicals . [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. Carl Dean Switzer was born on Aug. 7, 1927, in Paris, Illinois. The original Petey was an American Pit Bull Terriernamed Pal, the Wonder Dog. Yes the original came out in the 1930's. Arianne Bwa Kilo on Sep 6, 2014. But Buckwheat slowly morphed into a boy. Van der Valk (Original) | Little Rascals | Season 3 - PBS He reportedly married and divorced, and had one daughter, but died alone in a hotel room in 1970 while working as a taxi driver. Copy link. Mickey Daniels was born on October 11, 1914 in Rock Springs, Wyoming, USA. From main characters to minor roles and cameos, these characters are a big part of what made the film so great. Thomas initially played Buckwheat speech impediment and all as a girl dressed as the stereotypical African-American pickaninny. He wore bowed pigtails, a large hand-me-down sweater, and oversized boots. We had a lot of fun together. Actor | The Little Minister. And he realized after a while that hed been looking at them for a long, long time and that they had captured his attention. He had a habit of grabbing things and, in doing so, his mother warned, Spanky, mustnt touch! In later years, he was affectionately called Spank.. [13] Early in the existence of Our Gang, these theater owners complained to Path that Morrison and Hoskins had too much screen time and their prominence in the shorts would offend white audiences. [76] The television rights for the MGM Our Gang shorts belong to Warner Bros. Television Distribution, and the video rights to Warner Home Video. Syndication. Most early shorts were filmed outdoors and on location and featured a menagerie of animal characters, such as Dinah the Mule. 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. Retaining McFarland, Matthew Beard, Tommy Bond, and Jerry Tucker, the revised series added Scotty Beckett, Wally Albright, and Billie Thomas, who soon began playing the character of Stymie's sister "Buckwheat," though Thomas was a male. Sidney Kibrick, the younger brother of Leonard Kibrick, played Butch's crony, Woim. His contract was not renewed in 1931, so he and his family moved back to Baltimore. His final television performance was in 1993, playing himself in the opening of the Cheers episode Woody Gets An Election. He died shortly thereafter, in June of that year, of a heart attack. He was 16 as old as Billy Froggy Laughlin when he died. Beard reflected, I took to him from the start. 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. Meanwhile, the police are after a criminal named Red Mike, and the gang mistakenly thinks they're the ones being chased. 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]. In 2014, Universal Pictures released a direct-to-video film, The Little Rascals Save the Day. It first aired on ABC on September 25, 1982. He aged out of the gang at age 12. The murder of a comedian from the Red City Nightclub puts Van der Valk one step behind. [4] He was born October 18, 1914 in Cambridge, Maryland. [47] It starred the voices of Patty Maloney as Darla; Peter Cullen as Petey and Officer Ed; Scott Menville as Spanky; Julie McWhirter Dees as Alfalfa, Porky and The Woim; Shavar Ross as Buckwheat, and B.J. Ill see how this turns out. 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. During the making of what would be his final film,The Defiant Ones(1958), he told a newspaper, I look just like I did when I was a kid. We didn't care that it was black and white. 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. 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. 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. At the same time, eight Little Rascals shorts were pulled from the King World television package altogether. However, the dog ran off at some point, and either Stiltz or Switzer offered a reward for the return of the lost animal. All of us at DYR sincerely hope you enjoyed this walk down memory lane to check out the original cast of The Little Rascals! A Beautiful Morning - Wikipedia Blakes parents began a song-and-dance act in 1936 with his three siblings, billed as The Three Little Hillbillies. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1938, where the kids began working as movieextras. Yet, the story of Our Gang is no Hollywood fairy tale. For much more on Norman, please check out our profile of him. In 1977, Norman Lear tried to revive the Rascals franchise, taping three pilot episodes of The Little Rascals. Here are The (original) Little Rascals then and now. By all accounts available, none of the former child stars were ever paid a cent in residuals from this, despite the substantial profits netted. George Robert Phillips McFarland was born October 2, 1928, in Dallas. Currently, the rights to the Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts are divided. The Little Rascals Save the Day - Wikipedia [6], The Our Gang series produced during the Jim Crow-era is notable for being one of the first in cinema history in which African Americans and White Americans were portrayed as equals. His trademark was a bald head, crowned by an oversized derby hat. Eventually Our Gang talent scouting employed large-scale national contests in which thousands of children tried out for an open role. In 1930, Roach began production on The Boy Friends, a short-subject series which was essentially a teenaged version of Our Gang. [73] In 2022, ClassicFlix acquired the rights to the entire Hal Roach-era Our Gang catalogue (silent and sound) for home video release, and completed an extensive 4K restoration of all "sound-era" short subjects, by re-scanning from original 35mm master prints, and completing further restoration, image stabilization, and overall digital picture cleanup. Pal got his start as Tige in theBuster Brownseries in the 1920s. Mickey was the first to go in Thundering Fleas, followed shortly behind by Mary in The Fourth Alarm and Johnny Downs in Chicken Feed after a long absence. Here's what the cast, including Raven-Symon, the Olsen twins, and Blake McIver Ewing, are up to now. The Little Rascals. CBS offers original black-and-white and colorized prints for syndication. The girl was, in his opinion, overly made up and overly rehearsed, and Roach waited for the audition to be over. Good Lovin' - Wikipedia The films were otherwise offered unedited. They were born from the 1922-1938 'Our Gang' shorts from MGM. I remember always carrying a special torch in my heart for the show all through my teen years and early adulthood. 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. The Little Rascals (Our Gang) TV 1955 - YouTube Just "silent movies" accompanied with music and subtitles!) She didnt make it and died suddenly of heart failure on June 13, 1979, at age 47. This led to rumors of an Our Gang/Little Rascals "curse", rumors further popularized by a 2002 E! Ms. 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. Loads more TV Themes at: http://teeveesgreatest.webs.com/Our Gang (also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals) is a series of American comedy sh. After Ernie, Mickey and Mary left the series in the mid-1920s, the Our Gang series entered a transitional period. When he was recruited to appear in theOur Gangcomedies later that year,Hal Roachsimply left it on, creating one of the most recognized dogs in film history. Roach changed distributors from Path to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1927, and the series entered its most popular period after converting to sound in 1929. The Little Rascals (1994) - User Reviews - IMDb On May 29, 1936, when he was only 21, Norman died of myocarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart muscle. Roach just happened to be there and was so impressed that he signed them both on the spot. . The five black child actors who held main roles in the series were Ernie Morrison, Allen Hoskins, Eugene Jackson, Matthew Beard and Billie Thomas. The MGM limousine stops coming to your house, he recounted, and you wonder why the world has ceased loving you so suddenly at age seven. In school he was teased by other students, causing him to note, Kids can be mean. In many of his other roles as an adult, he was cast as a Native American or Latino character, despite being an Italian from New Jersey. 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. Glove Taps also featured the first appearance of Darwood Kaye as the bespectacled, foppish Waldo. For years afterward, Blackhawk Films released 79 of the 80 Roach talkies on 8mm and 16 mm film. Little Rascals shorts were also shown. Blake got his break at 9 years old when he began playing Mickey in Our Gang, after replacing Porky. He was replaced by Mickey Gubitosi, better known asRobert Blake. [41] Allied Artists' television department, Interstate Television, syndicated the films to TV in 1954.[42][43][44]. The Our Gang Collection. Cabin Fever began pressing DVD versions of their first 12 Little Rascals VHS volumes, with the contents of two VHS volumes included on each DVD, but went out of business in 1998 before their release. second assistant director (as Ronnie Chong) Art Department . When did the TV show Little Rascals come out? - Quick-Advice.com Nearly all of the 52 MGM-produced Our Gangs were written by former Roach director Hal Law and former junior director Robert A. McGowan (also known as Anthony Mack, nephew of former senior Our Gang director Robert F. McGowan). [57] 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. A new kid moves into town and is soon bullying little Jackie. Turner Entertainment acquired the classic MGM library in 1986, and the 193844 MGM-produced Our Gang shorts were shown on Turner's TBS and TNT cable networks for many years as early-morning programming filler, with a regular slot on Sundays at 6am ET on TNT. 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. We didn't care that our folks -or even grandparents- had watched it. I honestly believed that the show had in some way "shaped me" and made me a better person. December 31, 1922. Alfalfa is the Little Rascal who had his hair sticking up. Until its closure in 2018, the MGM Our Gangs were available for streaming via the subscription-based Warner Archive Instant streaming video service.[77]. 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. 235236. When did the original alfalfa from the. [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. In January 1959, Switzer met an untimely end as he was fatally shot during a fight over $50 and a hunting dog. [56] In 2008, a Darla Hood impostor, Mollie Barron, died claiming to have appeared as Darla in Our Gang. 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. Carl was dubbed Alfalfa and, over the course of the films, he became best friends with Spanky and, of course, was always pursuing Darla. [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. Ernie Morrison was, in fact, the first black actor signed to a long-term contract in Hollywood history[7] and the first major black star in Hollywood history.