THE
LITTLE RASCALS
(ABC, September 25, 1982-December 2, 1983)
Hanna-Barbera Productions, King World Productions
MAIN CAST:
Peter Cullen – Pete the Pup, Officer Ed
While
working on a film in 1921, comedy producer Hal Roach found himself watching
an argument by some kids in the lot across the street over some sticks they
wanted to play with. After realizing just how long he had been watching them,
he figured that a series of theatrical shorts about kids just being themselves
could be a success.
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The original Our Gang cast. |
Our
Gang, initially known as Our Gang
Comedies: Hal Roach Presents His Rascals In…, focused on a group of young
kids just being kids. The original cast of Rascals were children recommended to
Roach by his studio employees, with the exception of Ernie Morrison, who was under
contract with Roach. Morrison had previously been the star of Roach’s previous
shorts series as “Sunshine
Sammy” until theater owners became wary of running shorts based entirely
around a black boy. The Our Gang shorts
were originally helmed by director Robert
F. McGowan who worked around his stars’ inabilities to read by describing
situations for them from the scripts and letting them improvise. Roach
previewed the first short in several theaters around Hollywood and the audience
clamored for more. The self-titled
debut short was released on November 5, 1922.
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Title card featuring the MGM logo. |
Our
Gang became a staple in theaters, traversing the changing landscape of
cinema from silent pictures to sound. The Rascals line-up continually shifted
as the actors began to grow too old for their roles or left, but one notable
thing about those line-ups were the fact that white and non-white characters
were interacting with each other as equals; something virtually unheard of at
the time. There were also some transitions behind the scenes, as McGowan had
grown increasingly stressed out having to work with children and left the
series. One of his first replacements was his nephew, Robert A. McGowan (credited
as Anthony Mack). Roach also ceased distributing through the Pathe company and went with the newly-formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in order to have the shorts
shown with MGM’s features in the Loew’s
Theatres chain.
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Alfalfa, Darla, Porky, Buckwheat and Spanky. |
1936 introduced the most well-known
line-up of Rascals: George
“Spanky” McFarland, the breakout star of the series who became the central
lead; Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer,
who was most identifiable by his perpetual cowlick and bad singing; Billie “Buckwheat” Thomas, one
of the younger members of the group who often performed errands for the older
kids; Darla Hood, a gifted
singer with a crush on Alfalfa; Eugene
“Porky” Lee, Spanky’s little brother and Buckwheat’s best friend who tagged
along as the older kids’ sidekick; Darwood
“Waldo” Kaye, the Anti-Rascal who was studious, well-behaved, and came from
a privileged background; Gary
“Junior” Jasgur, Darla’s little brother; Henry “Spike” Lee, the
sergeant-of-arms of their He-Man
Woman-Hater’s Club; Leonard
Landy, Junior’s red-headed friend who always wore a farmer’s hat and
overalls; Shirley “Muggsy” Coates,
Darla’s close friend and primary competition for Alfalfa’s affections; Patsy May, Spanky and Porky’s
baby sister; Harold Switzer,
Carl’s older brother who was a background player in all of his appearances; and
Peter the Pup, the gang’s pet dog. Tommy
Bond, who had been one of the Rascals from 1931-33 before leaving to return
to public school, rejoined the cast as neighborhood bully “Butch.” Sidney Kibrick, brother of Leonard Kibrick who had become a
rascal in 1935, joined the group in late 1935 but was renamed “The Woim”,
Butch’s sidekick. Butch and Waldo would eventually become rivals with Alfalfa for
the affections of Darla.
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General Spanky poster. |
While Our
Gang was popular during the 1920s and 30s, many theaters began dropping
20-minute comedy shorts in favor of running double feature programs. Roach had
considered ending the series in 1936, but MGM head Louis B. Mayer convinced him to
continue it. Roach shortened the Our Gang
shorts to 10 minutes and produced a feature film, General Spanky,
in an effort to have the series transition to that format. However, the
film focused more on the adult characters featured than the actual Rascals and
became a box office disappointment. Roach would continue the series until 1938.
The continuing decline of theatrical shorts increasingly diminished the profit Our Gang was generating, meaning Roach
could no longer afford to keep producing them. MGM wanted the series to
continue and offered to take over production. Roach sold the rights to Our Gang, the entire production crew,
and the actors’ contracts to MGM for
$25,000 (roughly more than $430 million today) and joined United Artists. Hide and Shriek marked
the final Roach-produced Our Gang short,
and his final short in general.
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Title card to the first entry in the MGM-era. |
MGM’s series debuted on August 6,
1938 with The Little Ranger, directed
by Hal
Roach Studios’ Gordon Douglas.
George Sidney became MGM’s
permanent director for the series for the remainder of MGM’s 52 entries. The
MGM era was largely considered inferior to the Roach era by fans, critics and
cast members alike. MGM couldn’t grasp the brand of slapstick comedy the series
had become famous for, the cast’s performance was criticized as being stilted
and stiff, the mayhem caused by the kids was significantly toned down, adult
situations became the driving force behind most of the action, and MGM insisted
on keeping on Alfalfa, Spanky and Buckwheat well into their teen years. After
suffering losses on six of the shorts, MGM finally ended Our Gang with Dancing Romeo on
April 29, 1944.
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The new name for Our Gang. |
A term of Roach’s sale to MGM gave
him the option to buy the rights to the Our
Gang trademark provided he didn’t create any children’s comedies. Roach
forfeited those rights when he produced the films Curley in
1947 and Who Killed Doc Robbin in
1948. Both films performed poorly, and Roach turned his studio away from
feature productions to focus solely on the budding medium known as television.
In 1949, MGM sold Roach back the rights to the Our Gang shorts from 1927-38 with the stipulation that all
references to the title, MGM and Loew’s be removed from the reissued film
prints. Roach used a modified version of the series’ original name and
rechristened it The Little Rascals. Monogram Pictures
and Allied
Artists reissued the shorts to theaters in 1951 and Allied Artists to
television syndication in 1955.
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The Rascals in Claymation. |
The
Little Rascals enjoyed a renewed popularity, spawning a new wave of
merchandising. MGM was inspired to release the shorts they retained to
television as well, having the Rascals and
Our Gang competing against each other
for decades to come. Some stations bought both packages and ran them together
on the Rascals blanket title. The
silent films were sold to various distributors and they began airing on
television under titles such as The
Mischief Makers and Those Lovable
Scallawags with Their Gangs. When Hal Roach Studios filed for bankruptcy in
1963, struggling syndication agent Charles King purchased the rights to The Little Rascals and their success led
to his company, King
World Productions, being able to grow into one of the largest television
syndicators in the world. British studio Bura &
Hardwick also recreated several of the shorts in Claymation form.
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Stymie, Porky, Spanky, Darla and Alfalfa in the Christmas Special. |
Over the years, many people tried to
bring The Little Rascals back into
production; former Rascal Jackie
Cooper even produced a pilot himself. The most successful attempt came in
1979 when Murakami-Wolf-Swenson
produced the animated The Little Rascals Christmas
Special. The special featured the voice work of Hood (who died before it
aired) and Matthew “Stymie” Beard,
who was a Rascal from 1930-35. This version of Rascals would be used for a series of 156 Public Service
Announcements.
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Alfalfa, Spanky, Darla, Porky, Buckwheat and Pete. |
Three years later, Hanna-Barbera Productions
would acquire the rights to produce a new animated series based on The Little Rascals. The series largely
drew inspiration from the 1936 incarnation of the Our Gang series, with the characters of Alfalfa, Porky (both Julie
McWhirter), Darla (Patty Maloney), Spanky (Scott Menville), Buckwheat (Shavar
Ross), Waldo, Butch (both B.J. Ward), The Woim (also McWhirter) and Pete the
Pup (Peter Cullen). Iwao Takamoto
and Bob Singer designed the
characters by tracing over photographs of the original characters and then
simplified their appearances for animation.
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Character model sheet featuring the kids' swim wear. |
While the series would continue to focus
on the antics of the kids, it took some liberties with the source material.
Unlike the Christmas Special that was
set during Depression-era
America, Hanna-Barbera’s series updated the setting to contemporary times and
included things like computers and televisions. Buckwheat became an inventor
and created a variety of devices for the gang. Darla’s underwear-revealing
miniskirts were replaced by a knee-length dress and was given a modern
hairstyle (her hair was also a lighter brown and her eyes blue instead of hazel,
but as the shorts were in black and white those changes wouldn’t be known by
casual audiences). Porky was given an obsession with food and a speech
impediment that often resulted in his statements needing translation by
Buckwheat. Though he didn’t talk, Pete was given human-like mannerisms and
often attempted feats that resulted in slapstick disaster. Waldo’s family was
heavily implied to be wealthy; a fact that was carried over to future Rascals productions. Their primary
hangout became a treehouse, and they got around town on a cobbled-together cart
that resembled a 1920’s car pulled by Pete. The show also used an entirely new
theme composed by Hoyt Curtin.
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Pencil drawing of their "car". |
The
Little Rascals began airing on ABC on
September 25, 1982 after its premier was delayed by two weeks due to an
animator’s strike. However, the first episode actually aired was the segment
“Beauty Queen for a Day” as part of The Pac Preview Party special
hosted by Dick Clark on
September 19th. The show was broadcast as part of The Pac-Man/Little
Rascals/Richie Rich Show 90-minute programming block. The Rascals episodes were broken up into two
11-minute segments aired at the start and the middle of the block, with a
30-second vignette immediately following the second segment. Although largely
original stories, episodes would feature callbacks to the various shorts and
even the feature film through actions and wardrobe choices.
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Meeting in the tree house. |
When Pac-Man was moved to his own half-hour, he was replaced in the
block by The Monchichis resulting in
its being renamed The Monchichis/Little
Rascals/Richie Rich Show. A second season of The Little Rascals was ordered, but only nine 11-minute segments
were produced with four from the previous season being used to round out the
broadcast package. Although each respective show would cease production by the
end of 1983, they continued airing through 1984. The low ratings prompted The Monchichis to be split off to its
own half-hour with the other two remaining paired up as The Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show.
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Darla checking to see the result of the lawsuit, no doubt. |
In March of 1984, Eugene Lee filed
a lawsuit against Hanna-Barbera over the use of his likeness
for Porky. Lee’s lawyers, Mike Burg and Scott Eldredge,
wrangled up the remaining surviving Rascals and proceeded to pursue action that
would net them adequate compensation from the cartoon. Ultimately a discrepancy
was discovered in the contracts that didn’t allow Hanna-Barbera to use the
likenesses of the actors, and King World had to pay out all of the profits
(which weren’t vast due to the show’s poor performance in ratings) to the
actors in a settlement. Burg documented the particulars of the case in his 2016
book Trial
by Fire: One Man’s Battle to End Corporate Greed and Save Lives. Before
that point, none of the actors had received any kind of compensation for their
work in the series outside of their original salaries.
![]() |
It's hard to find the Rascals on TV. |
King World repackaged the series
into 17 episodes; each containing two 11-minute segments and one of the
vignettes. “The Zero Hour” was omitted from this package. The series was
rebroadcast across Europe as late as 2014. The French version even received its
own theme song. In North America, however, after its initial airing reruns of
the show were never seen, nor have there been any home video releases likely as
a result of the fallout from the lawsuit. While the various shorts continued to
be shown sporadically on retro stations, the Rascals franchise continued on in two films by Universal Pictures: the 1994
theatrical feature The Little Rascals, which
was a moderate success, and the 2014 direct-to-video feature The Little Rascals Save the
Day.
EPISODE GUIDE:
Season 1:
“Rascal’s
Revenge / Yachtsa Luck / Fish Fright” (9/25/82) – Butch and Woim lure the
Rascals to a haunted house. / The Rascals try to retrieve Waldo’s treasure from
crooks. / Spanky and Alfalfa go fishing.
“Grin
and Bear It / Beauty Queen for a Day / The Serenade” (10/2/82) – While camping,
Porky is abducted by the Phantom Lumberjack. / Darla enters a beauty pageant
after the boys fall for a new girl in town. / Alfalfa serenades Darla and his
singing scares Pete away.
“Big
City Rascals / Alfalfakazam! / Scoop Dupes*” (10/9/82) – The Rascals visit
Darla’s uncle’s farm. / Alfalfa appears to be turned into a rabbit during a
magic show. / Porky’s ice cream cone ends up larger than the others’.
*This segment was delayed and aired during the reruns of
this episode. “Sea Song” aired originally in its place.
“Showdown
at the Rascal Corral / Poached Pooch / Ice Escapades” (10/16/82) – While
playing cowboy, Alfalfa is arrested for singing in a no-singing zone. / Butch
and Woim steal Pete’s license. / The Rascals figure out a creative way to go
ice skating during a heat wave.
“Porky-O
and Julie-Et / Just Deserts / No Hit Wit” (10/23/82) – Porky falls for the
daughter of a man involved in ice cream. / The boys attempt to make Darla’s
entry for a baking contest when she gets ill, but they can’t read her recipe
card. / NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Alfalfa
for President / Rock and Roll Rascals / A Swimming We Will Go” (10/30/82) –
Alfalfa and Waldo run for class president. / Darla wants to get an autograph
from a famous musician. / Officer Ed finds the boy swimming in a prohibited
pond.
“The
Irate Pirates / All the Loot That’s Fit to Print / The Spare” (11/6/82) – The
Rascals deal with two bullies playing pirate. / The Rascals start their own
newspaper and Alfalfa unknowingly spends some phony money. / NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE.
“Alfalfa’s
Athlete Feat / Darla’s Dream Dance / Fiscal Fitness” (11/13/82) – Butch
challenges Alfalfa to a pentathlon. / Darla organizes the school dance. / NO
SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Cap’n
Spanky’s Showboat / Case of the Puzzled Pals / Go Cart Go” (11/20/82) – The Rascals
clean up an old steamboat. / Alfalfa sets out to find Darla’s doll. / Butch
rides Buckwheat’s go cart.
“Falling
Heir / Flim Flam Film Fans / Do or Diet” (11/27/82) – Spanky inherits a haunted
castle. / When a director comes to town, Darla ends up tied to a railroad gate.
/ Darla wants to know how many meals Porky eats a day.
“Trash
Can Treasures / King of the Hobos / Out on a Limb” (12/4/82) – Darla adopts a
horse while the Rascals find a lamp. / After eating all their food, Porky runs
away and befriends a hobo. / Alfalfa gets distracted by Darla while pushing
Spanky in a swing.
“Tiny
Terror / Science Fair and Foul / Sea Song*” (12/11/82) – Butch has the Rascals
babysit his brother. / Buckwheat builds a robot. / Alfalfa decides to serenade
his friends as they swim.
*Originally aired on
October 9th in place of “Scoop Dupes”.
“Big
Top Rascals / Class Act / He Who Runs Away” (12/18/82) – Unable to attend a
real one, the Rascals start their own circus. / The Rascals enter Pete into a
dog show and he ends up kidnapped. / NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
Season 2:
“Wash
and Werewolf” (9/10/83) – After seeing a horror movie, Alfalfa believes he’s a
werewolf.
“Save
Our Treehouse!” (9/17/83) – A used car dealer has his sights set on the
Rascal’s treehouse.
“Horse
Sense” (9/24/83) – Waldo challenges Alfalfa to a horse race for Darla, but
Alfalfa doesn’t know how to ride.
“After
Hours” (10/1/83) – The Rascals get a job in a warehouse.
“Not
so Buenos Dias” (10/15/83) – Alfalfa doesn’t trust Darla’s friend Maria.
“Fright
Night” (10/29/83) – The Rascals go trick-or-treating.
“The
Big Sneeze” (11/12/83) – Alfalfa is allergic to the goat the Rascals meet.
“Pete’s
Big Break” (11/19/83) – Pete saves a dog from drowning and that ends up getting
him put into a dog food commercial.
“The
Zero Hero” (12/2/83) – After Darla wins a date with a TV superhero, Alfalfa
attempts to impress her by becoming one himself.
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