Our Gang, also known as
The Little Rascals or
Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American
comedyComedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
short films about a group of poor neighborhood
childBiologically, a child is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority...
ren and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer
Hal RoachHarold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director, and from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...
, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way, as Roach and original director
Robert F. McGowanRobert Francis McGowan was an American film director and producer, best known as the senior director of the Our Gang short subjects film series from 1922 until 1933.-Career:...
worked to film the unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular children rather than have them imitate adult acting styles.
In addition, Our Gang notably put boys, girls, whites and blacks together in a group as equals, something that "broke new ground," according to film historian
Leonard MaltinLeonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
. Such a thing had never been done before in cinema but has since been repeated after the success of Our Gang.
Our Gangs first production at the Roach studio was in 1922 as a silent short subject series. Roach changed distributors from
PathéPathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
to
Metro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
(MGM) in 1927, and converted the series to sound in 1929. Production continued at the Roach studio until the series was sold in 1938 to MGM, who continued producing the comedies until 1944. A total of 220 shorts and one feature film,
General SpankyGeneral Spanky is a 1936 American comedy film produced by Hal Roach. A spin-off of Roach's popular Our Gang short subjects, the film stars George "Spanky" McFarland, Phillips Holmes, Rosina Lawrence, Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer...
, were eventually produced, featuring over forty-one
child actorThe term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor...
s. In the mid-1950s, the 80 Roach-produced shorts with sound were syndicated for television under the title The Little Rascals, as MGM owned the rights to the Our Gang trademark. The series has remained in syndication since then, with periodic new productions based on the shorts surfacing over the years, including a 1994 Little Rascals feature film released by
Universal Pictures-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
.
About the series
Unlike many other motion pictures featuring children that are based in
fantasyFantasy in a psychological sense is broadly used to cover two different senses, conscious and unconscious. In the unconscious sense, it is sometimes spelled "phantasy".-Conscious fantasy:...
, producer/creator Hal Roach rooted Our Gang in real life: the majority of the children were poor, and the gang was often put at odds with snobbish "rich kids", officious adults and parents, and other such adversaries. The series was notable in that the gang included both African Americans and females in leading parts at a time when
discriminationDiscrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
against both groups was commonplace.
Directorial approach
Senior director
Robert F. McGowanRobert Francis McGowan was an American film director and producer, best known as the senior director of the Our Gang short subjects film series from 1922 until 1933.-Career:...
helmed most of the Our Gang shorts until 1933, assisted by his nephew
Anthony MackRobert Anthony McGowan was an American screenwriter and film director.-Biography:Born in Denver, Colorado, McGowan is best known as a junior director for the Our Gang short subjects film series from 1926 to 1930, and as the co-writer of the series during the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer period from 1938 to...
. McGowan worked hard to develop a style that allowed the children to be as natural as possible, downplaying the importance of the filmmaking equipment. Scripts were written for the shorts by the Hal Roach comedy writing staff, which included at various times
Leo McCareyThomas Leo McCarey was an American film director, screenwriter and producer. During his lifetime he was involved in nearly 200 movies, especially comedies...
,
Frank CapraFrank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
,
Walter LantzWalter Benjamin Lantz was an American cartoonist, animator, film producer, and director, best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker.-Early years and start in animation:...
and
Frank TashlinFrank Tashlin, born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, also known as Tish Tash or Frank Tash was an American animator, screenwriter, and film director.-Animator:...
, among others. The children, some of them too young to read, very 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
megaphoneA megaphone, speaking-trumpet, bullhorn, blowhorn, or loud hailer is a portable, usually hand-held, cone-shaped horn used to amplify a person’s voice or other sounds towards a targeted direction. This is accomplished by channelling the sound through the megaphone, which also serves to match the...
and encouraging
improvisationImprovisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
. Of course, when sound came in at the end of the 1920s, McGowan was forced to modify his approach slightly, but scripts were not adhered to until McGowan left the series. Later Our Gang directors such as
Gus MeinsGus Meins was a German-American film director. He was born in Frankfurt, Germany.-Career:...
and
Gordon DouglasGordon Douglas was an American film director, who directed many different genres of films over the course of a five-decade career in motion pictures. He was a native of New York City.-Hal Roach and Our Gang:...
used a more streamlined approach to McGowan's methods, in order to meet the demands of the increasingly sophisticated movie industry of the mid to late 1930s. Douglas in particular was forced to streamline his films, as he directed Our Gang after Roach was forced to halve the running times of the shorts from two reels (20 minutes) to one reel (10 minutes).
Finding and replacing the cast
As the children grew too old to be in the series, they were replaced by new children, usually from the Los Angeles area. Eventually, Our Gang talent scouting was done using large-scale national contests, where thousands of children (often at the behest of their parents) tried out for one open role. Norman "Chubby" Chaney (who replaced
Joe CobbJoe Frank Cobb was a former American child actor, most notable for appearing as the original "fat boy" in the Our Gang comedies from 1922 to 1929...
), Matthew "Stymie" Beard (who replaced Allen "Farina" Hoskins) and Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas (who replaced Stymie) all won major contests to become members of the gang. Even when there was not a massive talent search going on, the Roach studio was bombarded by requests from parents who were certain their children were perfect for the series. Among these were future child stars
Mickey RooneyMickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
,
Judy GarlandJudy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
and
Shirley TempleShirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
, none of whom made it past the audition stage.
African-American cast members
The Our Gang series is notable for being one of the first times in cinema history that blacks and whites were portrayed as equals. The four African-American child actors who held main-character roles in the series were
Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" MorrisonErnest Fredric "Ernie" Morrison was an American child actor who performed under the stage name "Sunshine Sammy"...
, Allen "Farina" Hoskins, Matthew "Stymie" Beard and Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas. Ernie Morrison was, in fact, the first African-American actor signed to a long-term contract in Hollywood history, and was the first major African-American star in Hollywood history as well. In the 1940s he was the only black cast member in the popular
East Side KidsThe East Side Kids were characters in a series of films released by Monogram Pictures from 1940 through 1945. Many of them were originally part of The Dead End Kids and The Little Tough Guys, and several of them later became members of The Bowery Boys....
film series.
In their adult years, Morrison, Beard and Thomas became some of Our Gang's staunchest defenders, maintaining that its integrated cast and innocent story lines were far from racist. They explained that the white children's 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." "We were just a group of kids who were having fun," Stymie Beard recalled. Ernie Morrison stated that "when it came to race, Hal Roach was color-blind". Other minorities, including
Asian AmericanAsian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
s (Sing Joy, Allen Tong, and Edward Zoo Hoo) and
Italian AmericanAn Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
s (
Mickey GubitosiRobert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...
), were also depicted in the series, with varying levels of stereotyping – commonplace in the stylized,
slapstickSlapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
comedy tradition in which the Our Gang films are firmly rooted.
History
Early years
According to Roach, the idea for Our Gang came to him in 1921, when he was auditioning a child actress to appear in one of his films. The girl was, in his opinion, overly made up and overly rehearsed, and Roach patiently waited for the audition to be over. After the girl and her mother left the office, Roach looked out of his window to a lumberyard across the street, where he saw a group of children having an argument. The children had all taken sticks from the lumberyard to play with, but the smallest child had taken the biggest stick, and the others were trying to force him to give it to the biggest child. 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.
Under the supervision of
Charley ChaseCharley Chase was an American comedian, actor, screenwriter and film director, best known for his work in Hal Roach short film comedies...
, work began on the first two-reel shorts in the new "kids-and-pets" series, which was to be called Hal Roach's Rascals, later that year. Director
Fred C. NewmeyerFred C. Newmeyer was an American actor and film director. A native of Central City, Colorado, he is best known for directing a handful of films in the Our Gang series and for directing Harold Lloyd movies The Freshman and Girl Shy. Newmeyer also had an extensive directing and acting resume in...
helmed the first version of the pilot film, entitled
Our GangOur Gang is a 1922 silent short film. It was the third of Hal Roach's Our Gang shorts to be released, although it was the first to enter production. The two-reel short was released to theaters in October 1922 by Pathé....
, but Roach scrapped Newmeyer's work and had former fireman Robert F. McGowan re-shoot the short. Roach tested it at various theaters around Hollywood. The attendees were very receptive, and the press clamored for "lots more of those 'Our Gang' comedies." 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..." 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.
The first cast of Our Gang was recruited primarily from children recommended to Roach by studio employees, including photographer Gene Kornman's daughter
Mary KornmanMary Kornman was an American child actress who was the leading female star of the Our Gang series during the Pathé silent era.-Our Gang:...
, their friends' son
Mickey DanielsRichard "Mickey" Daniels, Jr. was a juvenile actor. Signed by Hal Roach in 1923, he was, along with fat Joe Cobb, scruffy Jackie Condon, pretty Mary Kornman, and smiling "Sunshine Sammy" , a regular in the popular Our Gang comedies.-Biography:The red-haired, gap-toothed, freckled whipper snapper...
, Roach child actor
Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" MorrisonErnest Fredric "Ernie" Morrison was an American child actor who performed under the stage name "Sunshine Sammy"...
and family friends Allen "Farina" Hoskins,
Jack DavisJackie Davis , a native of Los Angeles, California, was an American child actor, notable for appearing in Hal Roach's Our Gang series. His sister Mildred Davis also acted; she appeared in Roach comedian Harold Lloyd's films as his leading lady...
,
Jackie CondonJohn Michael "Jackie" Condon was an American child actor who was a regular on the Our Gang short series during the Pathé silent era.-Career:...
and
Joe CobbJoe Frank Cobb was a former American child actor, most notable for appearing as the original "fat boy" in the Our Gang comedies from 1922 to 1929...
. Most of the early shorts were shot outdoors and on location, and also featured a menagerie of comic animal characters, such as Dinah the Mule.
Roach's distributor
PathéPathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
released One Terrible Day, the fourth short to be produced for the series, as the first Our Gang short on September 10, 1922; the pilot Our Gang was not released until November 5. The Our Gang series was a success from the start, with the children's naturalism, the funny animal actors, and McGowan's direction making a successful combination. The shorts did well at the box office, and by the end of the decade the Our Gang children were pictured on numerous product endorsements.
The biggest Our Gang stars in this period were Sunshine Sammy around whom the series was structured; Mickey Daniels; Mary Kornman; and little Farina who eventually became both the most popular member of the 1920s gang, and the most popular black child star of the 1920s. Mickey and Mary were also very popular, and were often paired in both Our Gang and a later teenaged version of the series called
The Boy FriendsThe Boy Friends was a short-lived series of fifteen American comedy short films released between 1930 and 1932. The series spun off from the much larger and well-known Our Gang series . Like the Our Gang shorts of the time, The Boy Friends films were two-reel short subjects produced by Hal Roach...
, which Roach produced from 1930 to 1932. Other early Our Gang children were
Eugene "Pineapple" JacksonEugene W. Jackson, II was an American former child actor who was a regular of the Our Gang short series during the silent Pathé era.-Career:...
, Scooter Lowry,
Andy SamuelAndy Samuel , a native of Los Angeles, California, was a child actor who appeared in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1923 to 1925.-External links:...
,
Johnny DownsJohnny Downs was an American actor. Son of a Naval aviator, he was taken to Hollywood in 1921 when his father was transferred to the San Diego naval base. He began his career as a child actor, most notably playing Johnny in the Our Gang short series from 1923 to 1926...
, and
Jay R. SmithJay Roger Smith was an American former child actor who replaced Mickey Daniels as the "freckle-faced kid" of the Our Gang series in 1925. He continued appearing in the shorts until 1929.-Our Gang:...
.
Changing distributors
After Sammy, Mickey and Mary left the series in the mid-1920s, the Our Gang series entered a transitional period. McGowan was often sick and unable to work on the series, leaving nephew
Robert A. McGowanRobert Anthony McGowan was an American screenwriter and film director.-Biography:Born in Denver, Colorado, McGowan is best known as a junior director for the Our Gang short subjects film series from 1926 to 1930, and as the co-writer of the series during the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer period from 1938 to...
(credited as Anthony Mack) to direct many of the shorts from this period. The Mack-directed shorts are considered to be among the lesser entries in the series. New faces included Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins,
Harry SpearHarry Spear was a former American child actor, notable for appearing in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1927 to 1929...
,
Jean DarlingJean Darling is a former American child actress who was a regular in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1927 to 1929. She remains the last surviving cast member from the silent era.-Career:...
and
Mary Ann JacksonMary Ann Jackson was an American former child actress who appeared in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1928 to 1931. She was a native of Los Angeles, California.-Career:...
, while stalwart Farina served as the series' anchor.
Also at this time, the Our Gang children acquired an
American Pit Bull TerrierThe American Pit Bull Terrier is a medium-sized, solidly built, short haired dog whose early ancestors came from England and Ireland...
with a ring around his eye; originally named "Pansy," the dog soon became known as
Pete the PupPete the Pup was a Pit Bull character in Hal Roach's Our Gang comedies during the 1920s and 1930s...
, the most famous Our Gang pet. During this period, Hal Roach ended his distribution arrangement with the Pathé company, instead releasing future products through newly formed
Metro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
. MGM released its first Our Gang comedy in September 1927. The move to MGM offered Roach larger budgets, and the chance to have his films packaged with MGM features to the Loews Theatres chain.
Some of the 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. These shorts marked the departure of
Jackie CondonJohn Michael "Jackie" Condon was an American child actor who was a regular on the Our Gang short series during the Pathé silent era.-Career:...
, who had been with the group from the beginning of the series.
The sound era
Starting in 1928, Our Gang comedies were distributed with
phonographic discsThe phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
that contained synchronized music-and-sound-effect tracks for the shorts. In spring 1929, the Roach sound stages were converted for sound recording, and Our Gang made its "
all-talkingA sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
" debut in April 1929 with the 25 minute
Small TalkSmall Talk is a 1929 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 86th entry in the Our Gang series to be released, and the first to be made with sound....
. It took a year for McGowan and the gang to fully adjust to talking pictures, during which time they lost Joe, Jean and Harry, and added Norman "Chubby" Chaney,
Dorothy DeBorbaDorothy Adelle DeBorba was an American former child actress who was a regular in the Our Gang series of short subjects as the leading lady from 1930 to 1933.-Early life:...
, Matthew "Stymie" Beard,
Donald HainesDonald Haines was an American child actor who had recurring appearances in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1929 to 1933.-Our Gang:...
and
Jackie CooperJackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination...
. Jackie proved to be the personality the series had been missing since Mickey left, and he was featured prominently in three 1930/1931 Our Gang films:
Teacher's PetTeacher's Pet is a 1930 two-reel comedy short; part of the Our Gang series. It was produced by Hal Roach, directed by Robert F. McGowan, and originally released to theatres by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on October 11, 1930. It was the 101st Our Gang short to be released.-Plot:It is the first day of...
,
School's OutSchool's Out is a 1930 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 102nd Our Gang short to be released.-Plot:...
, and
Love BusinessLove Business is a 1931 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 104th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
. These three shorts explored Jackie's crush on the new schoolteacher Miss Crabtree, played by
June MarloweJune Marlowe , was an American actress, who appeared in six Our Gang short subjects as the lovely schoolteacher Miss Crabtree.-Career:...
. Jackie soon won the lead role in
ParamountParamount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
's feature film
SkippySkippy is a film that was released in 1931. It was one of the first films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Don Marquis, Norman Z. McLeod, and Sam Mintz was based on the comic strip Skippy by Percy Crosby...
, and Roach sold Jackie's contract to MGM in 1931. Other Our Gang members appearing in the early sound shorts included
Buddy McDonaldThomas "Buddy"/"Bud" McDonald was an American child actor. He is perhaps best known as one of the Our Gang kids of the early sound period, and McDonald is prominently featured in the Our Gang shorts Teacher's Pet and School's Out...
,
Bobby "Bonedust" YoungRobert Howard "Clifton" Young was an American film actor.-Career:Born Robert H. Young, the child actor played "Bonedust" in nineteen Our Gang films from 1925 to 1931, his most notable film being School's Out...
, and
Shirley Jean RickertShirley Jean Rickert was an American child actress who was briefly the "blonde girl" for the Our Gang series in 1931, during the Hal Roach talkie period.-Career:...
. Many also appeared in a group
cameo appearanceA cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
in the all-star comedy short
The Stolen JoolsThe Stolen Jools is a short comedy film produced by the Masquers Club of Hollywood, featuring many cameo appearances by the film stars of the day...
(1931).
Musical scores
Beginning with
When the Wind BlowsWhen the Wind Blows is a 1930 Our Gang short comedy film directed by James W. Horne. It was the 97th Our Gang short to be released.-Plot:It is a windy spring night. A man tells Kennedy the cop that it is a fine night for a murder or robbery...
, background music scores were added to the soundtracks of most of the Our Gang films. Initially, the music consisted of orchestral versions of then popular tunes.
Marvin HatleyThomas Marvin Hatley , professionally known simply as Marvin Hatley, was an American film composer and musical director, best known for his work for the Hal Roach studio from 1929 until 1940....
had served as the music director of Hal Roach Studios since 1929, and
RCARCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
employee
Leroy ShieldLeroy Shield was an American film score and radio composer.-Career:A native of Waseca, Minnesota, Shield was an employee of RCA Victor's National Broadcasting Company, for which he composed and conducted on-air musical pieces...
joined the company as a part-time musical director in mid 1930. Hatley and Shield's
jazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
-influenced scores, first featured in Our Gang with 1930's
Pups is PupsPups Is Pups is a two-reel comedy short subject, part of the Our Gang series. It was produced and directed by Robert F. McGowan for Hal Roach, and originally released to theatres by M-G-M in 1930. It was the 100th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:Wheezer attempts to find his puppies after...
, became recognizable trademarks of Our Gang,
Laurel and HardyLaurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...
, and the other Roach series and films. Another 1930 short, Teacher's Pet marked the first use of the Our Gang theme song, "Good Old Days", composed by Leroy Shield and featuring a notable
saxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
solo. Shield and Hatley's scores would support Our Gang's on-screen action regularly through 1934, after which series entries with background scores became less frequent.
In 1930, Roach began production on
The Boy FriendsThe Boy Friends was a short-lived series of fifteen American comedy short films released between 1930 and 1932. The series spun off from the much larger and well-known Our Gang series . Like the Our Gang shorts of the time, The Boy Friends films were two-reel short subjects produced by Hal Roach...
, a short-subject series which was essentially a teenaged version of Our Gang. Featuring Our Gang alumni Mickey Daniels and Mary Kornman among its cast, The Boy Friends was produced by Roach for two years, with fifteen installments in total.
Transition
Jackie Cooper left Our Gang in early 1931 at the cusp of another major shift in the lineup, as Farina, Chubby, and Mary Ann all departed a few months afterward. Our Gang entered another transitional period, similar to that of the mid-1920s. Stymie, Wheezer, and Dorothy carried the series during this period, aided by
Sherwood BaileySherwood Bailey was an American former child actor. His parents were non-professionals. He is most notable for appearing as the red-headed, freckle-faced bad boy and enemy of the gang, Spud in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1931 to 1932.Bailey's most notable appearance was that of the...
and a few months later by Kendall "Breezy Brisbane" McComas. Unlike the mid-20s period, McGowan was able to sustain the quality of the series with the help of the several regular children and the Roach writing staff. Many of these shorts include early appearances of
Jerry TuckerJerry Tucker is a former American child actor, most notable for appearing as the "rich kid" in the Our Gang short subjects series semi-regularly from 1931 to 1938....
and
Wally AlbrightWally Albright was an American former child actor.-Career:Albright was born Walton Algernon Albright, Jr. in Burbank, California. He appeared in a number of films during his career, and is notable for appearing in six Our Gang short subjects throughout the early 1930s...
, who later became series regulars.
New Roach discovery
George "Spanky" McFarlandGeorge Robert Phillips "Spanky" McFarland was an American actor most famous for his appearances as a child in the Our Gang series of short-subject comedies of the 1930s and 1940s...
joined the gang late in 1931 at the age of three and, excepting a brief hiatus during the summer of 1938, remained an Our Gang actor for the next eleven years. At first appearing as the tag-along toddler of the group, and later finding an accomplice in
Scotty BeckettScott Hastings "Scotty" Beckett was an American child actor. He starred in the Our Gang and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger series.-Early career:...
in 1934. Spanky quickly became Our Gangs biggest child star. 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!" and "Okey-doke!"
Dickie Moore, a veteran child actor, joined in the middle of 1932, and remained with the series for one year. Other members during these years included Mary Ann Jackson's brother Dickie Jackson,
John "Uh-huh" CollumJohn K. Collum was an American child actor of the 1930s.-Career:Born in Illinois, Collum was the son of Hal Roach's casting director, Joseph Collum, and appeared in twenty-six of Roach's Our Gang comedies from 1932 to 1938...
, and
Tommy BondThomas Ross "Tommy" Bond was an American actor. A native of Dallas, Texas, Bond was best known for his work as a child actor for two different nonconsecutive periods on Our Gang comedies, and also for being the first actor to portray the role of "Superman's pal" Jimmy Olsen on screen.-Early years...
. 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.
In late 1933, Robert McGowan, worn out from the stress of working on the children's comedies, left the series and the Roach studio, going over to direct features at Paramount. With the large turnover from the departures of Dickie, Wheezer, and Dorothy, McGowan's last two Our Gang comedies,
Bedtime WorriesBedtime Worries is a 1933 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 124th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
and
Wild PosesWild Poses is short subject in the Our Gang series.It was produced and directed by Robert F. McGowan for Hal Roach Studios and first released on October 28, 1933 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
, focused heavily on Spanky and his parents, played by
Gay Seabrook-Career:Seabrook was teamed with comedian Emerson Treacy to form the double-act Treacy and Seabrook. The team was very successful on radio and in theater during the early 1930s, with routines similar to those of real husband-and-wife team Burns and Allen....
and
Emerson Treacy-Career:Treacy was teamed with comedienne Gay Seabrook to form the double-act Treacy and Seabrook. The team was very successful on radio and in theater during the early 1930s, with routines similar to those of real husband-and-wife team Burns and Allen....
. After a four-month hiatus in production, German-born
Gus MeinsGus Meins was a German-American film director. He was born in Frankfurt, Germany.-Career:...
assumed directing duties starting with 1934's
Hi'-Neighbor!Hi'-Neighbor! is a 1934 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 126th Our Gang short to be released and Meins' first series entry as director.-Plot:...
.
Gordon DouglasGordon Douglas was an American film director, who directed many different genres of films over the course of a five-decade career in motion pictures. He was a native of New York City.-Hal Roach and Our Gang:...
served as Meins's assistant director, and Fred Newmeyer alternated directorial duties with Meins for a handful of shorts. Meins's Our Gang shorts were less improvisational than McGowan's, and featured a heavier reliance on dialogue.
Scotty BeckettScott Hastings "Scotty" Beckett was an American child actor. He starred in the Our Gang and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger series.-Early career:...
and
Wally AlbrightWally Albright was an American former child actor.-Career:Albright was born Walton Algernon Albright, Jr. in Burbank, California. He appeared in a number of films during his career, and is notable for appearing in six Our Gang short subjects throughout the early 1930s...
joined the gang at the start of Meins's tenure as director, as did Billie Thomas. Within a few months of joining the series, Thomas began playing the character of Stymie's sister "Buckwheat" (even though Thomas was a male). Buckwheat was first portrayed by Stymie's sister
Carlena BeardCarlena Beard was an American child actor, most famous for portraying several different minor characters in the Our Gang short films from 1930 to 1935. She was a native of Los Angeles, California...
for one short, and by Willie Mae Taylor in three others, before the part became Thomas's. Also, semi-regular actors such as
Jackie Lynn TaylorJackie Lynn Taylor is an American former child actress born in Compton, California. She is notable for appearing in five Our Gang short subjects in 1934–1935. She often portrayed the sister or girlfriend of one of the boys, usually Wally Albright.She joined KTTV in 1951 as the hostess of the...
,
Marianne EdwardsMarianne Edwards was a child actress who appeared in the Our Gang film series from 1934 to 1936. She also appeared in several feature films in the 30's, including Gold Diggers Of 1933, Babes In Toyland with Laurel & Hardy, Stand Up and Cheer! with Shirley Temple and The Wizard Of Oz.Edwards' most...
, and
Leonard KibrickLeonard Kibrick , was an American former child actor, most notable for appearing in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1934 to 1936, usually portraying the villain...
, as the neighborhood bully, joined the series at this time. Tommy Bond and Wally Albright left the gang in the middle of 1934; Jackie Lynn Taylor and Marriane Edwards would depart by 1935.
Early in 1935,
Carl SwitzerCarl Dean "Alfalfa" Switzer was an American child actor, professional dog breeder and hunting guide, most notable for appearing in the Our Gang short subjects series as Alfalfa, one of the series' most popular and best-remembered characters.-Early life and family:Switzer was born in Paris,...
and his brother Harold joined the gang after impressing Roach with an impromptu performance at the studio commissary, the Our Gang Cafe, which was open to the public. While Harold would eventually be relegated to the role of a background player, Carl, nicknamed "Alfalfa," eventually became Scotty Beckett's replacement as Spanky's sidekick. Stymie left shortly after, and the Buckwheat character morphed subtly into a male. The same year,
Darla HoodDarla Jean Hood was an American child actress, best known as the leading lady in the Our Gang series from 1935 to 1941. She was born in Leedey, Oklahoma, the only child of James Claude Hood and Elizabeth Davner...
and Eugene "Porky" Lee also joined the gang, as Scotty Beckett departed for a career in features.
The final Roach years
Our Gang was hugely successful during the 1920s and the early 1930s. However, by 1934, many movie theater owners were increasingly dropping two-reel (20-minute) comedies like Our Gang and the Laurel & Hardy series from their bills, and running
double featureThe double feature, also known as a double bill, was a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatre managers would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown.The double feature, also known as...
programs instead. The Laurel & Hardy series was switched from film shorts to features exclusively in mid-1935. By 1936, Hal Roach began debating plans to discontinue Our Gang until
Louis B. MayerLouis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
, head of Roach's distributor MGM, convinced Roach to keep the popular series in production. Roach agreed, and began producing shorter, one-reel Our Gang comedies (ten-minutes in length instead of twenty). The first one-reel Our Gang short,
Bored of EducationBored of Education is a 1936 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 146th entry in the Our Gang series to be released.-Plot:...
(1936), won the
Academy Award for Best Short Subject (One Reel)This name for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film was introduced in 1974. For the three preceding years it was known as "Short Subjects, Live Action Films." The term "Short Subjects, Live Action Subjects" was used from 1957 until 1970. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate...
in 1937. Bored of Education also marked the Our Gang directorial debut of former assistant director Gordon Douglas.
As part of the arrangement with MGM to continue Our Gang, Roach got the clearance to produce an Our Gang feature film,
General SpankyGeneral Spanky is a 1936 American comedy film produced by Hal Roach. A spin-off of Roach's popular Our Gang short subjects, the film stars George "Spanky" McFarland, Phillips Holmes, Rosina Lawrence, Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer...
, hoping that he could possibly move the series to features as he had done with Laurel & Hardy. Directed by Gordon Douglas and Fred Newmeyer, General Spanky featured Spanky, Buckwheat, and Alfalfa in a sentimental, Shirley Temple-esque story set during the
Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. The film focused more on its adult leads (Phillip Holmes and
Rosina LawrenceRosina Lawrence was a Canadian-born American actress, singer, and dancer. She was a native of Ottawa, Ontario.-Career:...
) than the children, and was a box office disappointment. No further Our Gang features were made.
After years of gradual cast changes, the troupe standardized in 1936 with the move to one-reel shorts. Most casual fans of Our Gang are particularly familiar with the 1936–1939 incarnation of the cast: Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Buckwheat, and Porky, with recurring characters such as neighborhood bullies Butch and Woim and bookworm Waldo.
Tommy BondThomas Ross "Tommy" Bond was an American actor. A native of Dallas, Texas, Bond was best known for his work as a child actor for two different nonconsecutive periods on Our Gang comedies, and also for being the first actor to portray the role of "Superman's pal" Jimmy Olsen on screen.-Early years...
, an off-and-on member of the gang since 1932, returned to the series as Butch beginning with the 1937 short
Glove TapsGlove Taps is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 151st Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
.
Sidney KibrickSidney Kibrick is an American former child actor, most notable for appearing in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1935 to 1939. From 1937 to 1939, he portrayed "The Woim", the sidekick of the neighborhood bully "Butch", played by Tommy Bond.He is the brother of the late Leonard Kibrick,...
played Butch's crony, The Woim. Glove Taps also featured the first appearance of Darwood Kaye as the bespectacled Waldo. In later shorts, both Butch and Waldo would become Alfalfa's main rivals in his pursuit of Darla's affections. Other familiar situations in these mid-to-late 1930s shorts include the "He-Man Woman Haters Club" from
Hearts Are ThumpsHearts Are Thumps is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 152nd Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
and
Mail and FemaleMail and Female is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Fred C. Newmeyer. It was the 160th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
(both 1937), the Laurel and Hardy-ish interaction between Alfalfa and Spanky, and the comic tag-along team of Porky and Buckwheat.
Roach produced one last two-reel Our Gang short, a high-budget musical special entitled
Our Gang Follies of 1938Our Gang Follies of 1938 is a 1937 American musical short subject, the 161st short subject entry in Hal Roach's Our Gang series...
, in 1937 as a
parodyA parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of MGM's
Broadway Melody of 1938Broadway Melody of 1938 is a 1937 musical film, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Roy Del Ruth. The film is essentially a backstage musical revue, featuring high-budget sets and cinematography in the MGM musical tradition...
. In Follies of 1938, Alfalfa, who aspires to be an
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer, falls asleep and dreams that his old pal Spanky has become the rich owner of a swanky
BroadwayBroadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
nightclub, where Darla and Buckwheat perform and make "hundreds and thousands of dollars."
As the profit margins continued to decline due to double features, Roach could no longer afford to continue producing Our Gang, and MGM, not wanting the series discontinued, agreed to take over production. 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 $ today). After delivering the Laurel & Hardy feature
Block-HeadsBlock-Heads is a 1938 comedy film starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, produced by Hal Roach Studios for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film, a reworking of elements from the Laurel and Hardy shorts We Faw Down and Unaccustomed As We Are , was Roach's final film for MGM, and is remembered as one of...
, Roach ended his distribution contract with MGM as well, moving to
United ArtistsUnited Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
and leaving the short subjects business. The final Roach-produced short in the Our Gang series,
Hide and ShriekHide and Shriek is a 1938 Our Gang short subject directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 168th Our Gang entry in the series, and the last to involve series creator Hal Roach.-Plot:...
, was also Roach's final short subject production.
The MGM era
Initially, the series appeared to continue where they left off at Hal Roach Studios. The first change was that the series would be set in a fictitious town called Greenpoint. There would be slightly more continuity in the flims as well. The entire unit would move there and Spanky would also return on the third episode, Aladan's Lantern. The early MGM-produced Our Gang shorts were considered well made but gradually they went downhill. Overall, they not as well-received as the Roach-produced shorts had been, due to both MGM's inexperience with the brand of slapstick comedy Our Gang was famous for and MGM's insistence on keeping Alfalfa, Spanky and Buckwheat in the series until they were in their early teens. On loan from the Roach studio, a frustrated Gordon Douglas completed only two Our Gang shorts for MGM before returning to his home studio. In replacing him, MGM began using Our Gang as a training ground for future feature directors.
George SidneyGeorge Sidney was an American film director and film producer who worked primarily at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-Career:...
, Edward Cahn and
Cy EndfieldCyril Raker Endfield was an American screenwriter, film director, theatre director, author, magician and inventor, based in Britain from 1953.- Biography :...
all worked on Our Gang before moving on to features; another director, Herbert Glazer, remained a
second-unitIn film, the second unit is a team that shoots subsidiary footage for a motion picture. Its work is distinct from that of the first unit, which shoots all scenes involving principal actors...
director outside of his work on the series. 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 the series' main director back at Roach, Robert F. McGowan). Robert A. McGowan was credited for these shorts as "Robert McGowan"; as a result, moviegoers have been confused for decades about whether this Robert McGowan and the senior director of the same name back at Roach were two separate people or not.
The Our Gang films produced by MGM are considered by many film historians, and even the Our Gang children themselves, to be lesser films than the Roach entries. The children's performances are often stilted, with the fully scripted dialogue now being recited stiffly instead of spoken naturally. The stories were more heavy-handed, with adult situations driving the action, and the films usually incorporated a moral, a civics lesson, or a patriotic theme.
Porky was replaced in 1939 by Mickey Gubitosi, later better known by the stage name of
Robert BlakeRobert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...
. Butch, Waldo, and Alfalfa all left the series in 1940, and Billy "Froggy" Laughlin (with his
PopeyePopeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
-esque trick voice) and
Janet BurstonJanet Burston was an American child actress who was the final leading lady in the Our Gang short subjects series, replacing Darla Hood in 1942.-Career:...
were added to the cast. By the end of 1941, Darla had also departed from the series, and Spanky followed her within a year. Buckwheat remained in the cast until the end of the series as the only holdover from the Roach era.
Exhibitors noticed the drop in quality, and often complained that the series was slipping. When six of the 13 shorts released between 1942 and 1943 sustained losses rather than turning profits, MGM discontinued Our Gang, releasing the final short,
Dancing RomeoDancing Romeo is a 1944 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Cyril Endfield. Produced and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 220th and final Our Gang short to be released.-Plot:...
, on April 29, 1944.
Since 1937, Our Gang had been featured as a licensed
comic stripA comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
in the UK
comicA comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
The DandyThe Dandy is a long running children's comic published in the United Kingdom by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. The first issue was printed in 1937 and it is the world's third longest running comic, after Detective Comics and Il Giornalino...
, drawn by
Dudley D. WatkinsDudley Dexter Watkins was a British cartoonist and illustrator. He is best known for his characters Oor Wullie and The Broons; comic strips featuring them have appeared in Scottish newspaper The Sunday Post since 1936, along with annual compilations...
. Starting in 1942, MGM licensed Our Gang to
Dell ComicsDell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium...
for the publication of Our Gang Comics, featuring the gang,
Barney BearBarney Bear was a series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. The titular character was an anthropomorphic cartoon character, a sluggish, sleepy bear who often is in pursuit of nothing but peace and quiet....
, and
Tom and JerryTom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
. The strips in The Dandy ended three years after the demise of the Our Gang shorts, in 1947. Our Gang Comics outlasted the series by five years, finally changing its name to Tom and Jerry Comics in 1949. In 2006,
Fantagraphics BooksFantagraphics Books is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, magazines, graphic novels, and the adult-oriented Eros Comix imprint...
began issuing a series of volumes reprinting the Our Gang stories, most of which were written and drawn by Pogo creator
Walt KellyWalter Crawford Kelly, Jr. , or Walt Kelly, was an American animator and cartoonist, best known for the comic strip, Pogo. He began his animation career in 1936 at Walt Disney Studios, contributing to Pinocchio and Fantasia. Kelly resigned in 1941 at the age of 28 to work at Post-Hall Syndicate,...
.
The Little Rascals television package
When Hal Roach sold Our Gang to MGM, he had retained the option to buy back the rights to the Our Gang trademark, provided he did not produce any more children's comedies in the Our Gang vein. In the mid-1940s, he decided that he wanted to create a new film property in the Our Gang mold, and forfeited his right to buy back the Our Gang name in order to produce two
CinecolorCinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two color film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and Alan M...
featurettes,
CurleyCurley is a 1947 film produced by Hal Roach and Robert F. McGowan as a re-imagining of their Our Gang series. The film was one of Roach's "streamlined" features of the 1940s, running 53 minutes and was designed as a b-movie...
and
Who Killed Doc RobbinWho Killed Doc Robbin is a film produced by Hal Roach and Robert F. McGowan as a reimagining of their Our Gang series.The film was one of "Hal Roach's Streamliners" features of the 1940s, running only 55 minutes, and was designed as a B-movie. Like most of Roach's latter-day output, Who Killed Doc...
. Neither film was critically or financially successful, and Roach instead turned his plans toward re-releasing the original Our Gang comedies.
In 1949, MGM sold Hal Roach the rights to the 1927–1938 Our Gang silent and talking shorts. MGM retained the rights to use the Our Gang name, the 52 Our Gang films it produced, and the rights to the feature General Spanky. As per 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", "Loews Incorporated", and Our Gang from the reissued film prints. Using a modified version of the series' original name, Roach packaged the 80 sound Our Gang shorts as The Little Rascals.
Monogram PicturesMonogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...
and its successor, Allied Artists, reissued the films to theaters beginning in 1951. Allied Artists' television department, Interstate Television, syndicated the films to TV in 1955.
Under its new name, The Little Rascals enjoyed renewed popularity on television, and new Little Rascals comic books, toys, and other licensed merchandise was made available for purchase. Seeing the potential of the property, MGM began distributing its own Our Gang shorts to television in 1956, and as a result, the two separate packages of Our Gang films competed with each other in
syndicationIn broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
for three decades. Some stations bought both packages and played them alongside each other under the Little Rascals show banner.
The television rights for the original silent
PathéPathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
Our Gang comedies were sold to National Telepix and other distributors, who distributed the films under titles such as The Mischief Makers and Those Lovable Scallawags with Their Gangs.
King World's acquisition and edits
In the 1960s a then-new distributor named King World Entertainment (now
CBS Television DistributionCBS Television Distribution is a global television distribution company, formed from the merger of CBS Corporation's two domestic television distribution arms CBS Paramount Domestic Television and King World Productions, including its home entertainment arm CBS Home Entertainment...
) returned the films to television, and the success of The Little Rascals paved the way for King World to become one of the biggest television syndicators in the world.
In 1971, because of controversy over some of the racial humor in the shorts, as well as other content deemed to be in bad taste, King World made significant edits to its Little Rascals TV prints. Many of the series entries were trimmed by two to four minutes, while several others (among them
SpankySpanky is a 1932 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 113th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
,
Bargain DayBargain Day is a 1931 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 106th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
,
The Pinch SingerThe Pinch Singer is a 1936 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Fred C. Newmeyer. It was the 142rd Our Gang short that was released, although it was produced before the short which followed it on the release schedule, Divot Diggers.-Plot:...
and
Mush and MilkMush and Milk is a comedy short subject; part of the Our Gang series. It was produced and directed by Robert F. McGowan for Hal Roach, and was originally released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on May 27, 1933...
) were cut down to nearly half of their original length.
At the same time, eight Little Rascals shorts were removed from the King World television package altogether.
Lazy DaysLazy Days is a 1929 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 89th Our Gang short to be released.-Synopsis:...
,
Moan and Groan, Inc.Moan and Groan, Inc. is a 1929 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 94th Our Gang short to be released.-Synopsis:...
, the
Stepin FetchitStepin Fetchit was the stage name of American comedian and film actor Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry....
-guest-starred
A Tough WinterA Tough Winter is a 1930 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 99th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
,
Little DaddyLittle Daddy is a 1931 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 105th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
,
A Lad an' a LampA Lad an' a Lamp is a 1932 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 119th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
,
The Kid From BorneoThe Kid From Borneo is a comedy short subject; part of the Our Gang series. It was produced and directed by Robert F. McGowan for Hal Roach, and was originally released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on April 15, 1933. It was the 122nd Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:Dickie, Dorothy,...
, and
Little SinnerLittle Sinner is a 1935 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. It was the 139th Our Gang short to be released.-Plot:Anxious to go fishing, Spanky skips out of Sunday school, despite the admonitions of his pals Alfalfa, Mildred, Sidney, and Marianne that "Something's going to happen to...
were all deleted from the syndication package because of perceived racism, while
Big EarsBig Ears is a 1931 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 108th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
was deleted for dealing with the subject of divorce. The early talkie
Railroadin'Railroadin' is a 1929 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 88th release in the Our Gang series...
was never part of the television package because its sound tracks (recorded on phonographic records) could not be found and were considered lost.
In the early 2000s, the 71 films in the King World package were re-edited, reinstating many (though not all) of the edits made in 1971 and the original Our Gang title cards. These new television prints made their debut on the American Movie Classics cable network in 2001.
New Little Rascals productions
In 1977,
Norman LearNorman Milton Lear is an American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude...
tried to revive the Rascals franchise, taping three pilot episodes of The Little Rascals. The pilots were not bought, but they were notable for giving an early start to
Gary ColemanGary Wayne Coleman was an American actor, known for his childhood role as Arnold Jackson in the American sitcom Diff'rent Strokes and for his small stature as an adult. He was described in the 1980s as "one of television's most promising stars". After a successful childhood acting career, Coleman...
.
1979 brought The Little Rascals Christmas Special, an animated
holidayChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
special produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, written by
Romeo MullerRomeo Muller, Jr. was an American screenwriter and actor most remembered for his screenplays such as for the 1964 TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.-Early years:...
and featuring voice work from Darla Hood (who died before the special aired) and Matthew "Stymie" Beard.
Hanna-BarberaHanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
brought the animated gang back from 1982 to 1984 in a series of Little Rascals television cartoons for
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
Saturday Mornings. Many producers, including Our Gang alumnus
Jackie CooperJackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination...
, made pilots for new Our Gang TV shows, but none of them ever went into production.
In 1994,
Amblin EntertainmentAmblin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1981. Amblin is only a production company, and has never distributed its own movies, nor has it fully financed its...
and
Universal Pictures-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
released The Little Rascals, a feature film based upon the series and featuring interpretations of classic Our Gang shorts, including Hearts are Thumps, Rushin' Ballet, and Hi'-Neighbor! The film, directed by
Penelope SpheerisPenelope Spheeris is an American director, producer and screenwriter. She is best known as a documentary film director whose works include the trilogy titled The Decline of Western Civilization...
, starred
Travis TedfordTravis William Tedford is an American actor. A child actor during the 1990s, he is best known for portraying Our Gang kid Spanky McFarland in the 1994 feature film The Little Rascals and for being the first Welch's "advertising-spokeskid" beginning in 1994 at age 5.-Biography:Tedford was born in...
as Spanky,
Bug HallBrandon "Bug" Hall is an American actor, acting teacher and musician.-Biography:Brandon Hall, nicknamed "Bug" by his family, was born in Fort Worth, Texas on February 4, 1985. He is the second oldest in his family...
as Alfalfa, and
Ross BagleyRoss Elliot Bagley is an American actor. Most popular as a child actor during the mid-1990s, he is best known for his role as Nicholas "Nicky" Banks the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 1994-1996.-Career:...
as Buckwheat; and featured cameos by the Olsen twins,
Whoopi GoldbergWhoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
,
Mel BrooksMel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
,
Reba McEntireReba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...
,
Daryl HannahDaryl Christine Hannah is an American film actress. After making her screen debut in 1978, Hannah starred in a number of Hollywood films throughout the 1980s, notably Blade Runner, Splash, Wall Street and Roxanne and Kill Bill.-Early life:Hannah was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Susan...
,
Donald TrumpDonald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...
, and
Raven-SymonéRaven-Symoné Christina Pearman , known professionally as Raven-Symoné , or simply Raven, is an American actress, singer, songwriter, comedian, dancer, television producer and model. Symoné launched her successful career in 1989 after appearing in The Cosby Show as Olivia...
. The Little Rascals was a moderate success for Universal, bringing in $51,764,950 at the
box officeA box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
.
Legacy and influence
The characters in this series became well-known cultural icons, and could often be identified solely by their first names. The characters of Alfalfa, Spanky, Buckwheat, Darla, and Froggy were especially well known. Like many child actors, the Our Gang children were subsequently
typecastIn TV, film, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups...
and had trouble outgrowing their Our Gang images.
Several Our Gang alumni, among them
Carl SwitzerCarl Dean "Alfalfa" Switzer was an American child actor, professional dog breeder and hunting guide, most notable for appearing in the Our Gang short subjects series as Alfalfa, one of the series' most popular and best-remembered characters.-Early life and family:Switzer was born in Paris,...
,
Scotty BeckettScott Hastings "Scotty" Beckett was an American child actor. He starred in the Our Gang and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger series.-Early career:...
, Norman Chaney,
Billy LaughlinWilliam Robert "Billy" Laughlin was an American child actor. He is best known for playing the character Froggy in the Our Gang short films in its final stretch, from 1940 to 1944.-Career:...
,
Donald HainesDonald Haines was an American child actor who had recurring appearances in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1929 to 1933.-Our Gang:...
and Bobby Hutchins, met with untimely deaths before the age of forty. This led to rumors that there was an Our Gang/Little Rascals "curse", a rumor popularized by a 2002
E! True Hollywood StoryE! True Hollywood Story is an American documentary series on E! that deals with famous Hollywood celebrities, movies, TV shows and well-known public figures...
documentary entitled The Curse of the Little Rascals. The Snopes.com website debunks the rumor that there is an Our Gang curse, stating that there was no evidence of a pattern of unusual deaths when taking all of the major Our Gang stars into account, despite the tragic deaths of a select few.
The children's work in the series went largely unrewarded in later years, although Spanky McFarland received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of FameThe Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
posthumously in 1994. Neither he nor any of the other Our Gang children ever received any
residualsA residual is a payment made to the creator of performance art for subsequent showings or screenings of the work. A typical use is in the payment of residuals for television reruns. The word is often used in the plural form.-Radio and television:The residual system started in U.S. network radio...
or
royaltiesRoyalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
from
rerunA rerun or repeat is a re-airing of an episode of a radio or television broadcast. The invention of the rerun is generally credited to Desi Arnaz. There are two types of reruns—those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Reruns can also be, as the...
s of the shorts or licensed products with their likenesses. The only remittances they received were their weekly salaries during their time in the gang, which ranged from $40 a week for newcomers to $200 or more a week for stars like Farina, Spanky, and Alfalfa.
One notable exception is
Jackie CooperJackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination...
, who was later nominated for an Academy Award and had a full career as an adult actor. Cooper is known today for portraying
Perry WhitePerry White is a fictional character who appears in the Superman comics. White is the Editor-in-Chief of the Metropolis newspaper the Daily Planet.White maintains very high ethical and journalistic standards...
in the
SupermanSuperman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
movies starring
Christopher ReeveChristopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...
, as well as for directing episodes of TV series such as M*A*S*H and
SuperboySuperboy is a half-hour live-action television series based on the fictional DC Comics comic book character Kal-El's early years as Superboy. The show ran from 1988–1992 in syndication...
.
The 1930 Our Gang short
Pups is PupsPups Is Pups is a two-reel comedy short subject, part of the Our Gang series. It was produced and directed by Robert F. McGowan for Hal Roach, and originally released to theatres by M-G-M in 1930. It was the 100th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:Wheezer attempts to find his puppies after...
was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, and selected for preservation in the
National Film RegistryThe National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
in 2004.
Imitators, followers, and frauds
Due to the popularity of Our Gang, a number of imitation kid
comedyComedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
short film series were created by competing studios. Among the most notable of these are The Kiddie Troupers, featuring future comedian
Eddie BrackenEdward Vincent "Eddie" Bracken was an American actor.-Life and career:Bracken was born in Astoria, New York, the son of Catherine and Joseph L. Bracken. Bracken performed in vaudeville at the age of nine and gained fame with the Broadway musical Too Many Girls in a role he reprised for the 1940...
;
Baby BurlesksBaby Burlesks is the collective series title of eight thematically unrelated one-reeler films produced by Jack Hays and directed by Charles Lamont for Educational Pictures in 1932 and 1933. The eight films are satires on major motion pictures, film stars, celebrities, and current events, and are...
, featuring
Shirley TempleShirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
; the
Buster BrownBuster Brown was a comic strip character created in 1902 by Richard Felton Outcault who was known for his association with the Brown Shoe Company. This mischievous young boy was loosely based on a boy near Outcault's home in Flushing, New York...
comedies (from which Our Gang received
Pete the PupPete the Pup was a Pit Bull character in Hal Roach's Our Gang comedies during the 1920s and 1930s...
and director
Gus MeinsGus Meins was a German-American film director. He was born in Frankfurt, Germany.-Career:...
); and Our Gang's most successful competitor, the Toonerville Trolley-based
Mickey McGuireMickey McGuire was an American comedy series of short subjects from 1927 to 1934. The series was notable for essentially launching the careers of Mickey Rooney and Billy Barty. The series was based on Fontaine Fox's popular comic strip series, Toonerville Trolley. The series was very popular in its...
series starring
Mickey RooneyMickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
. Some less notable imitations series include The McDougall Alley Gang (
Bray ProductionsBray Productions was the dominant animation studio based in the United States in the years before World War I.- History :The studio was founded in December 1914 by J. R. Bray, perhaps the first studio entirely devoted to animation, and series animation at that...
, 1927–1928), The Us Bunch and Our Kids. There is also evidence that Our Gang-style productions were filmed in small towns and cities around the country using local children as actors during the 1920s and 1930s. These productions did not appear to be affiliated with Hal Roach, but often used storylines from the shorts of the period, and sometimes even went so far as to identify themselves as being Our Gang productions.
In later years, a large number of adults falsely claimed to have been members of Our Gang. A long list of people, including persons famous in other capacities such as
Nanette FabrayNanette Fabray is an American actress, comedienne, singer, dancer, and activist. She began her career performing in vaudeville as a child and then became a musical theatre actress during the 1940s and 1950s, winning a Tony Award in 1949 for her performance in Love Life...
,
Eddie BrackenEdward Vincent "Eddie" Bracken was an American actor.-Life and career:Bracken was born in Astoria, New York, the son of Catherine and Joseph L. Bracken. Bracken performed in vaudeville at the age of nine and gained fame with the Broadway musical Too Many Girls in a role he reprised for the 1940...
, and gossip columnist Joyce Haber have all claimed to be or have been publicly called former Our Gang children. Bracken's official biography was once altered to state that he appeared in Our Gang instead of The Kiddie Troupers, although he himself had no knowledge of the change.
Among the most notable Our Gang impostors is Jack Bothwell, who claimed to have portrayed a character named "Freckles", and went so far as to appear on the game show
To Tell The TruthTo Tell the Truth is an American television panel game show created by Bob Stewart and produced by Goodson-Todman Productions that has aired in various forms since 1956 both on networks and in syndication...
in the fall of 1957 perpetuating this
fraudIn criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
. In 2008, a Darla Hood impostor, Mollie Barron, died claiming to be one of the "Darla" actresses cast in the Our Gang series. Her AP obituary reported her as an Our Gang cast member. Another is Bill English, a
grocery storeA grocery store is a store that retails food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells these "groceries" to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are...
employee who appeared on the October 5, 1990, episode of the
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
investigative television
newsmagazineA news magazine is a typed, printed, and published piece of paper, magazine or a radio or television program, usually weekly, featuring articles or segments on current events...
20/20 claiming to have been Buckwheat. Following the broadcast, Spanky McFarland informed the media of the truth, and in December, William Thomas, Jr. (son of Billie Thomas, the actual actor who played Buckwheat) filed a
lawsuitA lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
against ABC for negligence.
Another child actor of the era who claimed to have portrayed a character named "Freckles" in Our Gang was
Wesley BarryWesley Barry was an American child actor in silent motion pictures. He later became a producer and director of both film and television. As a director, he was sometimes billed as Wesley E...
. In the 1979 book Behind Japanese Lines: With the OSS in Burma, author Richard Dunlop, a former OSS member, made this statement about then-OSS member Wes "Berry." Barry was, in fact, a child actor of the time who acted in films similar to the Our Gang shorts, and was particularly known for his freckles. While it does appear likely that Barry did serve in the OSS in Burma in 1944, there is no evidence that he appeared in the Our Gang movies apart from this source.
Persons and entities named after Our Gang
A number of other groups, companies, and entities have been inspired by or named after Our Gang. The folk-rock group
Spanky and Our GangSpanky and Our Gang was an American 1960s folk-rock band led by Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane. The band derives its name from Hal Roach's popular Our Gang comedies of the 1930s...
was named in honor of the troupe, but had no other connection with it. In addition, there are a number of (unauthorized) Little Rascals and Our Gang
restaurantA restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
s and
day care centerChild care or day care is care of a child during the day by a person other than the child's legal guardians, typically performed by someone outside the child's immediate family...
s in various locations throughout the United States. Ren and Stimpy, the animated stars of
NickelodeonNickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
's
The Ren and Stimpy ShowThe Ren & Stimpy Show, often simply referred to as Ren & Stimpy, is an American animated television series, created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. The series focuses on the titular characters: Ren Höek, a psychotic chihuahua, and Stimpson J. Cat, a good-natured, dimwitted cat...
, were first created as supporting characters on a proposed cartoon show called Your Gang about a group of children.
16 mm, VHS, and DVD releases
For many years, Blackhawk Films released 79 of the 80 Roach talkies on
16 mm film16 mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film...
. The sound discs for Railroading' had been lost since the 1940s, and a silent print was made 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. Like the television prints,
Blackhawk's Little Rascals reissues featured custom-created title cards in place of the original Our Gang logos, as per MGM's 1949 arrangement with Hal Roach not to distribute the series under its original title. The only edits made to the films were the replacements of the original Our Gang title cards with Little Rascals titles.
In 1983, with the VHS home video market growing, Blackhawk began distributing Little Rascals VHS tapes available through catalogue only, with three shorts per tape. Blackhawk Films was acquired in 1983 by
National Telefilm AssociatesNational Telefilm Associates was an independent distribution company that handled reissues of American film libraries, including much of Paramount Pictures' animated and short-subjects library.-History:...
, later renamed
Republic PicturesRepublic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
. Republic would release Little Rascals VHS volumes for retail purchase in various, non-comprehensive collections through the rest of the 1980s and early 1990s. By this point, all but 11 of the Roach-era sound films were available on home video.
Cabin Fever/Hallmark releases
In 1993, Republic sold the home video rights to the 80 sound Roach shorts and some of the available silent shorts to Cabin Fever Entertainment. Cabin Fever also acquired the rights to use the original Our Gang title cards and MGM logos, and for the first time in over 50 years, the Roach sound Our Gang comedies could be commercially exhibited in their original format. Twenty-one VHS volumes were released between 1994 and 1995, hosted by
Leonard MaltinLeonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
. With four shorts per tape, Cabin Fever made all 80 Roach sound shorts, and four silents, available for purchase, uncut and with digitally restored picture and sound.
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. 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. Later that year, the first 10 Cabin Fever volumes were re-released on VHS with new packaging, and the first two volumes were also released on DVD as The Little Rascals: Volumes 1–2. Two further Hallmark collections featured ten shorts apiece, and were released in 2003 and 2005, respectively.
In 2006,
Legend FilmsLegend Films, a San Diego-based company, was founded in August 2001. The company specializes in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalog titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film format utilizing proprietary technology and software...
released colorized versions of fifteen Our Gang comedies (14 Roach entries, and the public domain MGM entry
Waldo's Last StandWaldo's Last Stand is a 1940 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Edward Cahn. It was the 193rd Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
), which were released across three Little Rascals DVDs.
RHI EntertainmentRHI Entertainment , formerly known as Hallmark Entertainment, is an American producer of television movies and miniseries, founded in 1979 by Robert Halmi Jr. and Robert Halmi Sr. as Robert Halmi Incorporated....
and
Genius ProductsGenius Products was an entertainment company based in Santa Monica, California, United States.On December 5, 2005, Genius Products, Inc. announced a distribution joint venture with The Weinstein Company called Genius Products, LLC, with Weinstein holding a 70% stake...
released an eight-disc DVD set, The Little Rascals – the Complete Collection, on October 28, 2008. This set includes all 80 Hal Roach-produced Our Gang sound short films. Most of the collection uses the Cabin Fever restorations, while 16 of the shorts are presented with older Blackhawk Films transfers.
On June 14, 2011,
Vivendi EntertainmentVivendi Entertainment is an independent film, television, DVD and digital distribution company operating in the United States and Canada. It is also a distribution partner for independent content providers....
re-released 7 of the 8 DVD's from RHI/Genius Products' The Little Rascals - The Entire Collection. This would include all 79 episodes but would exclude the disc featuring the extras. Each of the volumes would be in chronological order and sold individually. Unlike the box set, these discs featured all of the Cabin Fever MGM restorations, eliminating the older Blackhawk Films transfers. Each featured about 10 episodes, while the 7th disc featured more episodes due to the fact the later episodes were shorter.
MGM/Warner Bros. releases
Meanwhile, MGM has released several non-comprehensive VHS tapes of its shorts, as well as the feature General Spanky. Four of the MGM Our Gang shorts have also appeared as bonus features on Warner Bros.-issued classic film DVD releases. There are many other 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 domainWorks are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
.
On September 1, 2009,
Warner Home VideoWarner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
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 DVD and digital download. The set is available by mail order only as part of the Warner Archive Collection.
Status of ownership
Currently, the rights to the Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts are scattered.
RHI EntertainmentRHI Entertainment , formerly known as Hallmark Entertainment, is an American producer of television movies and miniseries, founded in 1979 by Robert Halmi Jr. and Robert Halmi Sr. as Robert Halmi Incorporated....
(successor-in-interest to Hallmark Entertainment) owns the copyrights of and holds the theatrical and home video rights to the Roach-produced Our Gang shorts. RHI acquired these after absorbing Hal Roach Studios, Roach's estate, and Cabin Fever Entertainment in the late 1990s.
CBS Television DistributionCBS Television Distribution is a global television distribution company, formed from the merger of CBS Corporation's two domestic television distribution arms CBS Paramount Domestic Television and King World Productions, including its home entertainment arm CBS Home Entertainment...
, formed by the merger of King World Entertainment with
CBS Paramount Domestic TelevisionCBS Paramount Domestic Television was an American television distribution company/production that was formed on January 17, 2006 and owned by CBS Corporation...
, owns the rights to the Little Rascals trademark and the Little Rascals television package. CBS offers both original black-and-white and
colorizedFilm colorization is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia or monochrome moving-picture images. It may be done as a special effect, or to modernize black-and-white films, or to restore color films...
prints for syndication. The King World/CBS Little Rascals package was featured as exclusive programming (in the United States) for the American Movie Classics network from August 2001 to December 2003, with
Frankie MunizFrancisco "Frankie" Muniz IV is an American actor, musician, writer, producer, and racecar driver. He is known primarily as the star of the FOX television family sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. In 2003, he was considered "one of Hollywood's most bankable teens". In 2008, he put his acting career...
as the host. 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.
The MGM-produced Our Gang shorts,
General SpankyGeneral Spanky is a 1936 American comedy film produced by Hal Roach. A spin-off of Roach's popular Our Gang short subjects, the film stars George "Spanky" McFarland, Phillips Holmes, Rosina Lawrence, Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer...
, and the rights to the Our Gang name became the property of Turner Entertainment in 1986 when its founder Ted Turner bought the classic MGM library. Today, the MGM Our Gang shorts are distributed for Turner by
Warner Bros. Television DistributionWarner Bros. Television Distribution is an American television distribution arm of Warner Bros. Television, itself a part of Time Warner formed circa 1960. In 1989, the studio formed Warner Bros...
. Turner made a deal with King World in the early 1990s to jointly market the Little Rascals and Our Gang films and properties, instead of competing with one another. The MGM Our Gangs now appear regularly on the
AmericanLife TV NetworkYoutoo TV, formerly known as American Life TV Network , GoodLife TV Network, and Nostalgia Television, is an American cable-television channel launched on May 1, 1985. It now claims over 15 million subscribers throughout the U.S...
, and periodically on the
Turner Classic MoviesTurner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
cable network. Thirty-three of the MGM Our Gangs were also available for viewing online at
AOLAOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
's
In2TVIn2TV was a website offering ad-supported streaming video of classic TV shows in the USA only .The main appeal of the service was that it made available numerous old shows which were rarely, if ever, aired on broadcast television...
website during the mid-2000s.
The widely circulated rumor that entertainer
Bill CosbyWilliam Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
bought up the rights to Our Gang to keep the racial stereotypes off of television is false. Cosby has never owned any rights to the series at any time.
Our Gang child actors, pets, and personnel
For a detailed listing of the Our Gang child actors, recurring adult actors, directors, and writers, see
Our Gang personnelThis page is a listing of the significant cast and crew for Hal Roach's Our Gang short subjects series, which ran in movie theatres from 1922 to 1944.-Our Gang kids :...
.
The following is a listing of the main child actors in the Our Gang comedies. They are grouped by the era during which they joined the series.
Roach silent period
- Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison
Ernest Fredric "Ernie" Morrison was an American child actor who performed under the stage name "Sunshine Sammy"...
(1922–1924)
- Mickey Daniels
Richard "Mickey" Daniels, Jr. was a juvenile actor. Signed by Hal Roach in 1923, he was, along with fat Joe Cobb, scruffy Jackie Condon, pretty Mary Kornman, and smiling "Sunshine Sammy" , a regular in the popular Our Gang comedies.-Biography:The red-haired, gap-toothed, freckled whipper snapper...
(1922–1926)
- Mary Kornman
Mary Kornman was an American child actress who was the leading female star of the Our Gang series during the Pathé silent era.-Our Gang:...
(1922–1926)
- Jackie Condon
John Michael "Jackie" Condon was an American child actor who was a regular on the Our Gang short series during the Pathé silent era.-Career:...
(1922–1928)
- Allen "Farina" Hoskins (1922–1931)
- Joe Cobb
Joe Frank Cobb was a former American child actor, most notable for appearing as the original "fat boy" in the Our Gang comedies from 1922 to 1929...
(1922–1929)
- Eugene "Pineapple" Jackson
Eugene W. Jackson, II was an American former child actor who was a regular of the Our Gang short series during the silent Pathé era.-Career:...
(1924–1925)
- Jay R. Smith
Jay Roger Smith was an American former child actor who replaced Mickey Daniels as the "freckle-faced kid" of the Our Gang series in 1925. He continued appearing in the shorts until 1929.-Our Gang:...
(1926–1929)
- Jean Darling
Jean Darling is a former American child actress who was a regular in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1927 to 1929. She remains the last surviving cast member from the silent era.-Career:...
(1926–1929)
- Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins (1926–1933)
- Mary Ann Jackson
Mary Ann Jackson was an American former child actress who appeared in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1928 to 1931. She was a native of Los Angeles, California.-Career:...
(1927–1931)
- Pete the Pup
Pete the Pup was a Pit Bull character in Hal Roach's Our Gang comedies during the 1920s and 1930s...
(1930–1938)
Roach talkie period
- Norman "Chubby" Chaney (1929–1931)
- Jackie Cooper
Jackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination...
(1929–1931)
- Donald Haines
Donald Haines was an American child actor who had recurring appearances in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1929 to 1933.-Our Gang:...
(1929–1933)
- Dorothy DeBorba
Dorothy Adelle DeBorba was an American former child actress who was a regular in the Our Gang series of short subjects as the leading lady from 1930 to 1933.-Early life:...
(1930–1933)
- Matthew "Stymie" Beard (1930–1935)
- Jerry Tucker
Jerry Tucker is a former American child actor, most notable for appearing as the "rich kid" in the Our Gang short subjects series semi-regularly from 1931 to 1938....
(1931–1938)
- Kendall McComas (1932)
- George "Spanky" McFarland
George Robert Phillips "Spanky" McFarland was an American actor most famous for his appearances as a child in the Our Gang series of short-subject comedies of the 1930s and 1940s...
(1932–1942)
- Dickie Moore (1932–1933)
- Tommy Bond
Thomas Ross "Tommy" Bond was an American actor. A native of Dallas, Texas, Bond was best known for his work as a child actor for two different nonconsecutive periods on Our Gang comedies, and also for being the first actor to portray the role of "Superman's pal" Jimmy Olsen on screen.-Early years...
(1932–1934 as Tommy, 1937–1940 as "Butch")
- Scotty Beckett
Scott Hastings "Scotty" Beckett was an American child actor. He starred in the Our Gang and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger series.-Early career:...
(1934–1935)
- Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas (1934–1944)
- Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer
Carl Dean "Alfalfa" Switzer was an American child actor, professional dog breeder and hunting guide, most notable for appearing in the Our Gang short subjects series as Alfalfa, one of the series' most popular and best-remembered characters.-Early life and family:Switzer was born in Paris,...
(1935–1940)
- Darla Hood
Darla Jean Hood was an American child actress, best known as the leading lady in the Our Gang series from 1935 to 1941. She was born in Leedey, Oklahoma, the only child of James Claude Hood and Elizabeth Davner...
(1935–1941)
- Eugene "Porky" Lee (1935–1939)
- Darwood "Waldo" Kaye (1937–1940)
MGM period
- Mickey Gubitosi (Robert Blake)
Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...
(1939–1944)
- Billy "Froggy" Laughlin (1940–1944)
- Janet Burston
Janet Burston was an American child actress who was the final leading lady in the Our Gang short subjects series, replacing Darla Hood in 1942.-Career:...
(1940–1944)
As of May 2011, surviving cast members include Dickie Moore,
Marianne EdwardsMarianne Edwards was a child actress who appeared in the Our Gang film series from 1934 to 1936. She also appeared in several feature films in the 30's, including Gold Diggers Of 1933, Babes In Toyland with Laurel & Hardy, Stand Up and Cheer! with Shirley Temple and The Wizard Of Oz.Edwards' most...
, Jean Darling, Mildred Kornman, Robert Blake, Jerry Tucker,
Sidney KibrickSidney Kibrick is an American former child actor, most notable for appearing in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1935 to 1939. From 1937 to 1939, he portrayed "The Woim", the sidekick of the neighborhood bully "Butch", played by Tommy Bond.He is the brother of the late Leonard Kibrick,...
and
Jackie Lynn TaylorJackie Lynn Taylor is an American former child actress born in Compton, California. She is notable for appearing in five Our Gang short subjects in 1934–1935. She often portrayed the sister or girlfriend of one of the boys, usually Wally Albright.She joined KTTV in 1951 as the hostess of the...
.
Notable Our Gang comedies
For a complete filmography, see
Our Gang filmographyThe following is a complete list of the 220 Our Gang short films produced by Hal Roach Studios and/or Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer between 1922 and 1944, in order of release.----...
.
The following is a listing of selected Our Gang comedies, considered by
Leonard MaltinLeonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
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.
- 1923: The Champeen
The Champeen is the seventh Our Gang short subject comedy released. The Our Gang series was created by Hal Roach in 1922, and continued production until 1944.-Plot:...
, Derby DayDerby Day is a 1923 short silent comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 19th Our Gang short subject released.-Plot:The gang sneaks in to see a horse race, where Mary’s father is one of the horse owners, and is very impressed...
- 1924: High Society
High Society is a 1924 short silent comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 29th Our Gang short subject released.-Cast:* Mickey Daniels - Mickey Kelly* Jackie Condon - Percival 'Percy' Kelly* Mary Kornman - Mary...
- 1925: Your Own Back Yard
Your Own Back Yard is a 1925 short silent comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 43rd Our Gang short subject released.-Cast:* Allen Hoskins - Farina* Mary Kornman - Mary* Joe Cobb - Joe* Jackie Condon - Jackie...
, One Wild RideOne Wild Ride is a 1925 short silent comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 45th Our Gang short subject released.-Synopsis:...
- 1929: Cat, Dog & Co.
Cat, Dog & Co. is a 1929 Our Gang short silent comedy film directed by Robert A. McGowan under the pseudonym "Anthony Mack".Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 91st Our Gang short that was released...
, Small TalkSmall Talk is a 1929 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 86th entry in the Our Gang series to be released, and the first to be made with sound....
- 1930: The First Seven Years
The First Seven Years is a 1930 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 96th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
, Pups Is PupsPups Is Pups is a two-reel comedy short subject, part of the Our Gang series. It was produced and directed by Robert F. McGowan for Hal Roach, and originally released to theatres by M-G-M in 1930. It was the 100th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:Wheezer attempts to find his puppies after...
, Teacher's PetTeacher's Pet is a 1930 two-reel comedy short; part of the Our Gang series. It was produced by Hal Roach, directed by Robert F. McGowan, and originally released to theatres by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on October 11, 1930. It was the 101st Our Gang short to be released.-Plot:It is the first day of...
, School's OutSchool's Out is a 1930 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 102nd Our Gang short to be released.-Plot:...
- 1931: Love Business
Love Business is a 1931 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 104th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
, Little DaddyLittle Daddy is a 1931 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 105th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
, Fly My KiteFly My Kite is a 1931 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 107th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
, Dogs Is DogsDogs Is Dogs is a 1931 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 110th Our Gang short to be released.-Plot:...
- 1932: Readin' and Writin'
Readin' and Writin' is a 1932 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 111th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
, The PoochThe Pooch is a 1932 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 115th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:Cheerful vagrant Stymie tries to get back in the good graces of the gang after stealing their pies...
, Hook And LadderHook and Ladder is a 1932 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 116th Our Gang short that was released.-Synopsis:...
, Free WheelingFree Wheeling is a 1932 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 117th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
, Birthday BluesBirthday Blues is a 1932 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 118th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
- 1933: The Kid From Borneo
The Kid From Borneo is a comedy short subject; part of the Our Gang series. It was produced and directed by Robert F. McGowan for Hal Roach, and was originally released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on April 15, 1933. It was the 122nd Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:Dickie, Dorothy,...
, Mush and MilkMush and Milk is a comedy short subject; part of the Our Gang series. It was produced and directed by Robert F. McGowan for Hal Roach, and was originally released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on May 27, 1933...
, Bedtime WorriesBedtime Worries is a 1933 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 124th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
- 1934: Hi'-Neighbor!
Hi'-Neighbor! is a 1934 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 126th Our Gang short to be released and Meins' first series entry as director.-Plot:...
, Mama's Little PirateMama's Little Pirate is a 1934 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. It was the 132nd Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
- 1935: Beginner's Luck
Beginner's Luck is a 1935 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. It was the 135th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
, Our Gang Follies of 1936Our Gang Follies of 1936 is a 1935 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 140st Our Gang short to be released and the first of several musical entries in the series.-Plot:The gang stages a big musical revue...
- 1936: Divot Diggers
Divot Diggers is a 1936 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan; It was the 142nd Our Gang short to be released.-Plot:...
, Bored of EducationBored of Education is a 1936 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 146th entry in the Our Gang series to be released.-Plot:...
, General SpankyGeneral Spanky is a 1936 American comedy film produced by Hal Roach. A spin-off of Roach's popular Our Gang short subjects, the film stars George "Spanky" McFarland, Phillips Holmes, Rosina Lawrence, Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer...
- 1937: Reunion in Rhythm
Reunion in Rhythm is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 150th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
, Glove TapsGlove Taps is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 151st Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
, Hearts Are ThumpsHearts Are Thumps is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 152nd Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
, Rushin' BalletRushin' Ballet is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 154th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
, Night 'n' GalesNight 'n' Gales is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 156th Our Gang short Night 'n' Gales is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 156th Our Gang short Night 'n' Gales is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon...
, Mail and FemaleMail and Female is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Fred C. Newmeyer. It was the 160th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
, Our Gang Follies of 1938Our Gang Follies of 1938 is a 1937 American musical short subject, the 161st short subject entry in Hal Roach's Our Gang series...
- 1938: Three Men in a Tub
Three Men in a Tub is a 1938 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Nate Watt. It was the 164th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
, Hide and ShriekHide and Shriek is a 1938 Our Gang short subject directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 168th Our Gang entry in the series, and the last to involve series creator Hal Roach.-Plot:...
- 1939: Alfalfa's Aunt
Alfalfa's Aunt is a 1939 comedy short subject, the 176th entry in the Our Gang series originally created by Hal Roach. Produced by Jack Chertok for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by George Sidney, the one-reel short was released to theaters in January 1939 by MGM...
, Cousin WilburCousin Wilbur is a 1939 Our Gang short comedy film directed by George Sidney. It was the 179th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
- 1940: Goin' Fishin'
Goin' Fishin' is a 1940 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Edward Cahn. It was the 191st Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
, Kiddie KureKiddie Kure is a 1940 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Edward Cahn. It was the 194th Our Gang short that was released.-Plot:...
- 1942: Going to Press
Going to Press is a 1942 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Edward Cahn. It was the 204th Our Gang short that was released.-Synopsis:...
External links