when did the original little rascals come out

In 2014, Universal Pictures released a direct-to-video film, The Little Rascals Save the Day. List ranges from Waldo's Dad to Twin #1 and more. The girl was, in his opinion, overly made up and overly rehearsed, and Roach waited for the audition to be over. When Our Gang stopped production in 1944, Laughlin appeared in Johnny Doesnt Live Here Anymore (1944), then left show business to enjoy his teenage years. The Little Rascals. December 31, 1922. Me and my friends (Really- everyone in my class practically!) Semi-regular actors, such as Jackie Lynn Taylor, Marianne Edwards, and Leonard Kibrick as the neighborhood bully, joined the series at this time. 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. The franchise began in 1922 as a silent short subject series produced by the Roach studio and released by Path Exchange. (The Los Angeles Times claims that it was Stiltz who offered the reward.) Yes the original came out in the 1930's. Arianne Bwa Kilo on Sep 6, 2014. Before he joined Our Gang, McFarland modeled childrens clothing for a Dallas department store. 1:57. It regards a group of children who hang out at a club house with a strict rule against girls. A new book offers a different perspective on the feisty crew of kids. Although its been called the first series to feature kids as the stars the original members were not household names. Roach tested it at several theaters around Hollywood. Paramount Global subsidiary CBS Media Ventures, through King World Productions, owns the rights to the Little Rascals trademark and has all other media rights to the 1929-1938 Roach shorts, which constitute The Little Rascals television package, with certain territory exclusions controlled by Cinematographische Commerz-Anstalt. We had a lot of fun together. [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. My wife knew of my background, otherwise I was happy to conceal the Porky tag until the last few years.. Even though it was a job, we had a pretty good time making those comedies. He also was famously seen on Dallas highway billboards and in print advertisements for Wonder Bread. [56], Among notable Our Gang imposters is Jack Bothwell, who claimed to have portrayed a character named "Freckles",[56] going so far as to appear on the game show To Tell the Truth in the fall of 1957, perpetuating this fraud. [48] The Little Rascals was a moderate success for Universal, bringing in $51,764,950 at the box office.[49]. 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. RHI Entertainment and Genius Products released an eight-disc DVD set, The Little Rascals the Complete Collection, on October 28, 2008. He was 64. These three shorts explored Jackie Cooper's crush on the new schoolteacher Miss Crabtree, played by June Marlowe. 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.". Starting in 1922, the Our Gang shorts (also known as The Little Rascals) were an iconic part of the early days of film. I just try to look at it as mostly a fun thing. The Our Gang Collection: Saving Alfalfa. After he left the film shorts, Thomas enlisted in the U.S. Army when he was just 23 years old. This led to rumors of an Our Gang/Little Rascals "curse", rumors further popularized by a 2002 E! In 1971, because of controversy over some dated racial humor in the shorts and other content deemed to be in bad taste, King World made significant edits to Little Rascals TV prints. To learn much more about George Spanky McFarland as told by a close friend, please click here. [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. [46] The two separate packages of Our Gang films competed with each other in syndication for three decades. In 1939, Mickey Gubitosi (later known by the stage name of Robert Blake) replaced Eugene "Porky" Lee, who had matured too quickly. Pal got his start as Tige in theBuster Brownseries in the 1920s. 9. Marvin Hatley had served as the music director of Hal Roach Studios since 1929, and RCA employee Leroy Shield joined the company as a part-time musical director in mid-1930. [40] The strips in The Dandy ended three years after the demise of the Our Gang shorts, in 1947. Unfortunately, Daniels career never took off after the shorts. The Buckwheat character was originally a female, portrayed by Matthew Stymie Beards younger sister, Carlena. In later shorts, both Butch and Waldo were portrayed as Alfalfa's rivals in his pursuit of Darla's affections. Im a guy who likes to eat and I found I couldnt do it without working. Blake got his break at 9 years old when he began playing Mickey in Our Gang, after replacing Porky. Created by film producer Hal Roach, also the producer of the Laurel and Hardy films, Our Gang shorts were produced from 1922 to 1944, spanning the silent film and early sound film periods of American cinema. In the 1950s, home movie distributor Official Films released many of the Hal Roach talkies on 16 mm film. 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. Currently, Paramount Global, King World's latest successor, handles distribution rights. watched it. Exhibitors noticed the drop in quality, and often complained that the series was slipping. Beard was cast as a baby in many films before signing a five-year contract to play Stymie in Our Gang. [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. After leaving the series in 1940, he was the victim of typecasting and struggled to find roles. We didn't care that it showed an old fashioned simpler time we couldn't relate to. Due to the popularity of Our Gang, many similar kid comedy short film series were created by competing studios. She had fond memories of her days being a little rascal and died of a heart attack in 2003. 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. She didnt make it and died suddenly of heart failure on June 13, 1979, at age 47. 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. I used to follow him around the lot, hed buy me ice cream and one day he said, Well, give this kid a derby. Thats why it never fit me; it belonged to Stan Laurel.. Television syndication package of the classic 1929-1938 shorts from the "Our Gang Comedies" movie series.Television syndication package of the classic 1929-1938 shorts from the "Our Gang Comedies" movie series.Television syndication package of the classic 1929-1938 shorts from the "Our Gang Comedies" movie series. 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. [22] A reviewer wrote of the Farina character depicted as female though played by a male child[23] in Photoplay: "The honors go to a very young lady of color, billed as 'Little Farina.' On Nov. 18, 2005, he was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death. When he was 31 years old he met a tragic death. While she was busy organizing the 1980 Little Rascals reunion for the Los Angeles chapter of the Sons of the Desert, she underwent an appendectomy. 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. The boy who played the only Black Little Rascal was Matthew Beard. 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. Hopefully, this doesn't end wit. He was born October 18, 1914 in Cambridge, Maryland. A MOD release of General Spanky on DVD was also released by Warner Archive in 2016.[65]. He was very proud of that series, says Maltin in that exclusive interview. 30. The film focused more on the adult leads (Phillips Holmes and Rosina Lawrence) than the children and was a box office disappointment. A spin-off based on the live-action Our Gang comedy shorts, it was broadcast as part of The Pac-Man/Little Rascals . When he first started making the shorts way back in 1921, they were shown in theaters ahead of the main picture. Ill see how this turns out. Matthew Beard, Wheezer Hutchins, and Dorothy DeBorba carried the series during this period, aided by Sherwood Bailey and Kendall McComas, who would play Breezy Brisbane. See the article on, Maltin & Bann, pp. The children had all taken sticks from the lumberyard to play with, but the smallest child had the biggest stick, and the others were trying to force him to give it to the biggest child. MGM prepared to distribute its own Our Gang shorts to television in 1957,[45] and offers for the shorts to stations began to be made in 1958. 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. Starting in 1928, Our Gang comedies were distributed with phonographic discs that contained synchronized music-and-sound-effect tracks for the shorts. 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. She had two children and later died of emphysema in 2010. After Lucenay (the dogs owner) was fired from Our Gang, he retired to Atlantic City. 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!" 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. As a kid I had most everything I wanted and we had a good life. The Rascals' "Good Lovin '" was used in 1983 the film The Big Chill. All we knew was that it featured an appealing bunch of kids and that it was funny as Hell! The Laurel & Hardy series went from film shorts to features exclusively in mid 1935. Sadly, though, that life was short-lived. So I learned to disown Porky. 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 colloquial usage of the term Our Gang led to its becoming the series' second (yet more popular) official title, with the title cards reading "Our Gang Comedies: Hal Roach presents His Rascals in"[20] The series was officially called both Our Gang and Hal Roach's Rascals until 1932, when Our Gang became the sole title of the series. Get ready to dive into TV history and take a then-and-now look at the original Little Rascals. Republic would release Little Rascals VHS volumes for retail purchase in non-comprehensive collections through the rest of the 1980s and early 1990s. Like many child actors, the Our Gang children were typecast and had trouble outgrowing their Our Gang images. 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 (197578), which netted him an Emmy Award. [1], Senior director Robert F. McGowan helmed most of the Our Gang shorts until 1933, assisted by his nephew Anthony Mack. Blake, now 85, has maintained a low profile since his acquittal, filing for bankruptcy with debts of $3 million for unpaid legal fees and taxes. When did the original alfalfa from the. Television syndication package of the classic 1929-1938 shorts from the "Our Gang Comedies" movie series. A slightly different version was later released on their third studio album, Groovin' . 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. A smaller cast of Our Gang kidsMatthew Beard, Tommy Bond, Jerry Tucker, and Georgie Billingswere featured in supporting roles with reduced screen time. These were released as "Famous Kid Comedies," as Official could not use "Our Gang". William Robert Laughlin was born on July 5, 1932, in San Gabriel, California. [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. For her third birthday they went to New York to seek fame and fortune in the arts. the little rascals, originally known as Our Gang, have stirred up irresistible trouble ever since the short comedies debuted . The scooter was given to Laughlin by his parents only two weeks prior to the accident. For more of these throwback videos, check out our YouTube Channel! Some stations bought both packages and played them alongside each other under the Little Rascals show banner. Watch on. Copy link. Coming out in early 1968, it was the group's first track released after shortening their name from the Young Rascals. Other Our Gang members appearing in the early sound shorts included Buddy McDonald, Clifton Young, and Shirley Jean Rickert. They were born from the 1922-1938 Our Gang shorts from MGM. Alfalfa was played by Carl Switzer in many of the shorts from 1934-40. "The Little Rascals" redirects here. 1 - ClassicFlix", "Little Rascals: The ClassicFlix Restorations Volume 1, The (Blu-ray Review)", "The Little Rascals: The ClassicFlix Restorations, Volume 4 (1933-1935)", "In the Heat of the Night hits 4K on 4/19, plus The Untouchables, The Sleeper Must Awaken, Peter Robbins RIP & more", "ClassicFlix: First Look at New Restoration of The Little Rascals Volume 6", "Qintex Entertainment to Sell Virtually All of Its Assets", "The Little Rascals - The Complete Collection (Centennial Edition) Blu-ray - ClassicFlix", "Warner Bros. to Run Most of Turner's Entertainment Units", "Our Gang. Other popular elements in these mid-to-late-1930s shorts include the "He-Man Woman Haters Club" from Hearts Are Thumps and Mail and Female (both 1937), the Laurel and Hardy-ish interaction between Alfalfa and Spanky, and the comic tag-along team of Porky and Buckwheat. Sidney Kibrick, the younger brother of Leonard Kibrick, played Butch's crony, Woim. He was honorably discharged from active duty, receiving a National Defense Service Medal and a Good Conduct Medal. 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. I wouldnt take a million dollars for the experience, and I wouldnt take a penny to do it again.. 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. Her mother introduced her to singing and dancing at an early age. He was 56. She was also the voice of the mermaid in the "Chicken Of The Sea" TV commercials. 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. I remember always carrying a special torch in my heart for the show all through my teen years and early adulthood. Most early shorts were filmed outdoors and on location and featured a menagerie of animal characters, such as Dinah the Mule. As MGM retained the rights to the Our Gang trademark after buying the series, the Roach-produced sound Our Gang films were re-released to theaters and syndicated for television under the title The Little Rascals. Beard reflected, I took to him from the start. He was only 16, the youngest to die of any of the Our Gang actors. All About ThemIncluding Farina", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Our_Gang&oldid=1151917965, This page was last edited on 27 April 2023, at 01:42. The character was originally named Hercules until Our Gang director Robert McGowan renamed him Stymie, as he was always stymied by little Beards curious wanderings around the studio. Even the big stars had to chase around and audition; it seemed like a rat race to me, with no security. Of being part of The Little Rascals, he added, I enjoyed it. Financial data for negative costs, revenue, and profits/losses are provided for all 52 MGM, Mikkelson, Barbara and Mikkelson, David. 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. 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. He died on Aug. 31, 1948. Turner Entertainment acquired these assets in 1986 when its founder, Ted Turner, purchased the pre-May 1986 MGM library; Turner merged with the former Time Warner in 1996. When the gang finds this out, they beat up on the kid, only to discover that his father is a cop. 2:26. Other early Our Gang children were Eugene Jackson as Pineapple, Scooter Lowry, Andy Samuel, Johnny Downs, Winston and Weston Doty, and Jay R. Smith. 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. 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). The Little Rascals. They were born from the 1922-1938 'Our Gang' shorts from MGM. Even though it's been off the air for years, Our Gang or The Little Rascals holds a special place in many American's hearts. During the 1980s and 1990s, MGM released several non-comprehensive VHS tapes of its shorts, and a VHS of the feature General Spanky. 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. Roach just happened to be there and was so impressed that he signed them both on the spot. 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 45, 2011. This story may contain some links from which we may earn a small affiliate commission. Less notable imitations series include The McDougall Alley Gang (Bray Productions, 19271928), The Us Bunch and Our Kids. Additionally, theres her mischievous nature and her ability to mimic other characters lines in a humorous way, which gave her the nickname Echo.. Rounding out the popular Our Gang favorites were Spanky, Buckwheat, Stymie, and of course Petey, the dog. The films were otherwise offered unedited. "[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. The only remittances were their weekly salaries during their time in the gang, ranging from $40 a week for newcomers to $200 or more weekly for stars like Farina, Spanky, and Alfalfa.[21]. It first aired on ABC on September 25, 1982. The show included a studio audience and appearances by other celebrities such as James Arness. 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. 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.. He died of a heart attack in his Los Angeles apartment on Oct. 10, 1980, 46 years to the day after his mother brought him to audition at Hal Roach Studios. In later years, she gave up acting and spent her time working in department stores and going out to parties with her sister. CBS offers original black-and-white and colorized prints for syndication. Producer/creator Hal Roach re-bundled 79 of the shorts to make The Little RascalsTV series, which is still broadcast today. Appearing under the official name of Chubby, he starred in a total of 19 short films over the course of two years, but his time in the cast was cut short by the fact that he was continually putting on more weight despite his attempts not to do so. It took a year for McGowan and the gang to fully adjust to talking pictures, during which time they lost Joe Cobb, Jean Darling and Harry Spear and added Norman Chaney, Dorothy DeBorba, Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Donald Haines and Jackie Cooper. [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. Mickey Daniels. Ive never played a part over 19. 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! The video contained three previously released shorts and the previously unreleased silent short Dog Heaven; the VHS tape was also available in a gift set with a Pete plush doll.[60]. 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. Beard maintained his sobriety, giving lectures on drug-abuse awareness. "Our Gang" shorts were in earlier years and a majority of them are silent. These shorts marked the departure of Jackie Condon, who had been with the group from the beginning of the series. Appeared as a celebrity contestant on Groucho Marx 's Tell It to Groucho (1961) game show on CBS-TV in 1962. Our Gang entered another transitional period, similar to that of the mid-1920s. 235236. Starting in 1928, Our Gang comedies were distributed with phonographic discs that contained synchronized music-and-sound-effect tracks for the shorts. [29] McGowan returned two years later to direct his Our Gang swan song, Divot Diggers, released in 1936. [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. The Our Gang Collection. The company's licensing only lasted for a short period. He did undergo surgery, after which he dropped down to 140 pounds and then 110, but the end result was disastrous. But Buckwheat slowly morphed into a boy.

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