The Little Rascals appreciation thread

[James123457]

One of my favourite scenes



Our Gang (also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals) are a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way, as Roach and original director Robert F. McGowan worked to film the unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular children rather than have them imitate adult acting styles.
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 Maltin. Such a thing had never been done before in cinema but has since been repeated after the success of Our Gang.
The first production at the Roach studio in 1922 was a series of silent short subjects. When Roach changed distributors from Pathé to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1927, and converted the series to sound in 1929, the series took off even further. Production continued at the Roach studio until 1938, when the series was sold to MGM, who then continued producing the comedies until 1944. The Our Gang series includes a total of 220 shorts and one feature film, General Spanky, featuring over forty-one child actors. As MGM retained the rights to the Our Gang trademark following their purchase of the production rights, the 80 Roach-produced "talkies" were syndicated for television under the title The Little Rascals beginning in 1955. Both Roach's The Little Rascals package (now owned by CBS Television Distribution) and MGM's Our Gang package (now owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment) have since remained in syndication, with periodic new productions based on the shorts surfacing over the years, including a 1994 Little Rascals feature film released by Universal Pictures.

[Dave76]

Not a lot of people know this but Billie Thomas AKA "Buckwheat" started the first set of Crips in Compton Ca in 1971, and died in prison (Pelican Bay) of cancer while doing a 15 to life sentence for aggrivated manslaughter in 1992 !

Say it ain't so!!! Dang, he was my favorite.

[trymarine]

Say it ain't so!!! Dang, he was my favorite.

Damn shame! he was my favourite too.Watched them all the
time,as a kid.Just had a good chuckle watching the chimps antics.
Strange,but i watch stuff that's been made relatively recently,and even if it's funny,once or twice is enough,but the Rascals,Laurel and Hardy,Edgar Kennedy,Marx Bros,or the great
WC Fields,all that kind of stuff,i never ever get tired of watching. They make me howl with laughter,and i'm at peace with the world.

[Karl_Hungus]

Not a lot of people know this but Billie Thomas AKA "Buckwheat" started the first set of Crips in Compton Ca in 1971, and died in prison (Pelican Bay) of cancer while doing a 15 to life sentence for aggrivated manslaughter in 1992 !

And Alfalfa died from a gunshot wound to the balls. Ouch.

[StressMonkey]

I used to love watching Little Rascals reruns when I was a kid.

I was amazed at how many of these clips I remembered. It's been decades since I've seen them.

And Alfalfa died from a gunshot wound to the balls. Ouch.

Just spent 15 minutes looking at the bios of the gang. It's sad how many of them passed away young. That Alfalfa story is crazy.

[BabyNames]

Love them. But it's hard to watch knowing they were abused by the studio. Such a shame.

Would like to read a good bio on them . Or auto-bio!

[James123457]

Love them. But it's hard to watch knowing they were abused by the studio. Such a shame.

Would like to read a good bio on them . Or auto-bio!

www.fandango.com/littlerascals/biography/p42698

[V-240]

[beachguy498]

I used to love watching Little Rascals reruns when I was a kid.

I was amazed at how many of these clips I remembered. It's been decades since I've seen them.



Just spent 15 minutes looking at the bios of the gang. It's sad how many of them passed away young. That Alfalfa story is crazy.

Good one, "Thems brakes what is brakes." - Stymie

[Amstat]

Ohhh...I get it! This is the 85 and up section. I thought I was in the 35 and up section.

[ArchAngel'73]

Not a lot of people know this but Billie Thomas AKA "Buckwheat" started the first set of Crips in Compton Ca in 1971, and died in prison (Pelican Bay) of cancer while doing a 15 to life sentence for aggrivated manslaughter in 1992 !

What a crock of sh*t!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Thomas

[sromero]

tumblr_lxd5rjTgHV1r0h03zo1_400.jpg

Not a lot of people know this but Billie Thomas AKA "Buckwheat" started the first set of Crips in Compton Ca in 1971, and died in prison (Pelican Bay) of cancer while doing a 15 to life sentence for aggrivated manslaughter in 1992 !

Not a lot of people know it because it's not true. Tookie Williams started the Crips.

[cowboybiker]

Whats everyones problem?

You act like Oceanside would make sh!t up.

[James123457]

Robert Blake's part (Barreta) began appearing in MGM's Our Gang short subjects (a.k.a. The Little Rascals) under his real name, replacing Eugene "Porky" Lee. He appeared in 40 of the shorts between 1939 and 1944, eventually becoming the series' final lead character. James and Giovanna Gubitosi also made appearances in the series as extras.
In Our Gang, Gubitosi's character, Mickey, was often called upon to cry, for which he was criticized for being unconvincing. He was also criticized for being obnoxious and whiny. In 1942, he acquired the stage name Bobby Blake and his character in the series was renamed "Mickey Blake." In 1944, MGM discontinued Our Gang, releasing the final short in the series Dancing Romeo. In 1995, Blake was honored by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award for his role in Our Gang.

[Minotaur]

And Alfalfa died from a gunshot wound to the balls. Ouch.

It was said (may be just a smear campaign) that he was damn near impossible to work with... the typical temper tantrum-throwing brat.

[Minotaur]

One of my favorites was with the cranky old lady whose house they invaded. By the end of the episode they had her roller skating around the house, jumping fully clothed into her fish pond and in effect turned her into a kid-at-heart.

[phikappa]

Used to love to watch them. The blonde in the middle came to my school when I was a kid.









And, Petey was a pit bull! Imagine trying to make that show today. Not a chance!