THE LITTLE RASCALS

THE LITTLE RASCALS

(ABC, September 25, 1982-December 2, 1983)

Hanna-Barbera Productions, King World Productions

MAIN CAST:

Julie McWhirter – Alfalfa, Porky, The Woim

Patty Maloney – Darla Hood

Scott Menville – Spanky

Shavar Ross – Buckwheat

B.J. Ward – Butch, Waldo                                   

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.

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 already under contract with Roach. Morrison had 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.

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.

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. 

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 than the actual Rascals and became a box office disappointment. Roach would continue the series until 1938 when 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.

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.

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 to television syndication in 1955.

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 with Rascals serving as the 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.

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.

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. 

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.

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 19^th. 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. The series was written by Tedd Anasti, Douglas Booth, Patsy Cameron, Rowby Goren and Earl Kress.

Meeting in the tree house.

            When Pac-Man was moved to his own half-hour, he was replaced in the block by The Monchhichis resulting in its being renamed The Monchhichis/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. Without Pac-Man, the block suffered low ratings. The Monchhichis was split off to its own half-hour with the other two remaining paired up as The Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show. Although each respective show would cease production by the end of 1983, they continued airing in reruns through 1984. 

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 9^th 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 ends up in a dog food commercial because of it.

“The Zero Hero” (12/2/83) – After Darla wins a date with a TV superhero, Alfalfa attempts to impress her by becoming one himself.

Originally posted in 2017. Updated in 2020.

WILD WEST C.O.W.-BOYS OF MOO MESA

WILD WEST C.O.W.-BOYS OF MOO MESA

(ABC, September 12, 1992-December 4, 1993)

Greengrass Productions, King World Productions, Gunther-Wahl Productions (season 1), Ruby-Spears Productions (season 2)

MAIN CAST:

Pat Fraley – Marshall Moo Montana
Jim Cummings – The Dakota Dude, Saddle Sore, Skull Duggery, Jack
Jeff Bennett – The Cowlorado Kid, Buffalo Bull
Michael Greer – Mayor Oscar Bulloney
Joe Piscopo – Sheriff Terrorbull/The Masked Bull
Charity James - Lily Bovine, Tewah
Kay Lenz - Cowlamity Kate Cudster
Troy Davidson - Cody “Calf-Pint” Calf
Danny Mann – Boot Hill Buzzard
Michael Horse – J.R.

           While a meteor may have killed the dinosaurs, the next one to hit Earth was a little more merciful.

The cast: Buffalo Bill, J.R., Cowlamity Kate, The Cowlorado Kid, The Dakota Dude, Calf-Pint, Marshal
Moo Montana, Miss Lily, Sheriff Terrorbull, Saddle Sore, Mayor Bulloney, Boot Hill Buzzard.

            With the powerhouse Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise in full swing, networks were hungry for their next big mutant hit resulting in a swell of similarly-themed shows. It just so happened that this particular iteration came from a member of the Ninja Turtles family. Comic book artist and writer Ryan Brown worked on Ninja Turtles comics for both Mirage Studios and Archie Comics and designed action figures for their toy line. Along the way, he conceived of Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, the product of a strange meteor crashing in the Old West of 19^th century America creating a massive and high-rising mesa and mutating all the nearby animal lifeforms (with the unexplained exception of horses). They all became human-like with the ability to speak, and created their own society based on the American West (filling in whatever gaps they didn’t know along the way) called Moo Mesa. 

A minor representation of Cow Town used as a background for a sticker playset.

            The idea actually began as a line of action figures, which were released in 1991 by Hasbro. Brown sold the idea to ABC where it was developed into a series by Bob Carrau with ABC’s Greengrass Productions and King World Productions. Animation production was handled by Gunther-Wahl, who used the figures as the base for their character models while making some alterations here and there, and the actual animation was done by A.D. Productions. The series centered primarily on Cow Town, making full use of its Western genre themes with liberal doses of steampunk thrown in. Adding to the Western flavor was a theme song performed by country singer Billy Dean, who also wrote it with Verlon Thompson. Although fairly faithful to the renderings of the Old West, cow elements found their way into things such as names or building designs (one building in Cow Town resembled a bull’s head, complete with horns). Other bizarre buildings included one shaped like a cowboy boot, one shaped like a high-heeled pump, a pharmacy shaped like an old-fashioned pill crusher, and the Sheriff’s office which resembled a covered wagon.

The lawcows confront a pair of bank robbers.

            Maintaining law and order on the Mesa were the C.O.W.-Boys: Marshal Moo Montana (Pat Fraley), deputy The Dakota Dude (Jim Cummings) and The Cowlorado Kid (Jeff Bennett). Moo was the unwavering leader of the lawcows, who had a strong sense of duty and lived by the Code of the West (incidentally what the “C.O.W.” in the title stood for), which he seemed to make up on the fly during a given situation. Moo’s usual battle cry was “Let’s rodeo!” Dakota was a bull of few words who was superhumanly strong, able to lift giant boulders and pull a sinking riverboat out of the water by himself (of course, his strength varied by episode). Cowlorado was the youngest and rashest of the bunch. A master with a lasso, he was desperate to earn his deputy star and often tried to prove himself to Moo, which often led him into deep trouble. Their primary transportation were their horses: Cyclone, Rebel and Jezebel, respectively. That’s right—humanoid bovines riding horses.

Cowlamity Kate wrangles a desperado outside of The Tumbleweed.

            Decent citizens of Cow Town included Miss Lily Bovine (Charity James), who owned and ran the local saloon, The Tumbleweed (whose building was shaped as a beer mug). She was Moo’s primary love interest, but often found herself taking a backseat to his first love: the law. Cowlamity Kate Cudster (Kay Lenz) was a tomboy rancher who owned and ran the Golden Cud Mine. She could give Cowlorado a run for his money with a lasso and had a relationship with Dakota. Cody Calf, nicknamed “Calf-Pint” by Moo, was a young boy who lived and worked at The Tumbleweed. He idolized Moo and often tried to help the lawcows, but usually wound up in trouble. Also featured were scientific inventor Indian buffalo J.R. (Michael Horse) and blacksmith Buffalo Bull (Bennett), who occasionally helped the lawcows.

Mayor Bulloney plots with Sheriff Terrorbull.

            But, what good are lawcows without desperados to fight? Living right in their home town was the crooked Mayor Oscar Bulloney (Michael Greer). Bulloney lived up to his name and did everything he could to lie, cheat and steal from his constituents. However, whenever an outside force threatened his operations he backed the lawcows 100% in their stopping the new villains. Working with Bulloney was the equally-crooked Sheriff Terrorbull (Joe Piscopo), who doubled as the masked desperado The Masked Bull. Terrorbull’s henchmen were Saddle Sore (Cummings), a comically inept scorpion, and Boot Hill Buzzard (Danny Mann), an even more inept buzzard (as the name implied).

Ad for the show.

            Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa debuted on September 12, 1992. Episode titles (and sometimes plots) were often parodies of Western movies and books using frequent cow puns. To decrease the threat of the violence on the show, the guns featured didn’t fire bullets or look real. Instead, they often fired ammunition indicative of the shooter’s theme or the gun design. For instance, Moo’s gun was a golden revolver that fired Marshal Stars, which he always used to disarm and incapacitate with trick shots. The writers for the season included Cliff Roberts, Marilyn Webber, Elana Lesser, Cliff Ruby, David Benavente, Michael J. Benevente, Jack Enyart, Francis Moss and Ted Pedersen, with Ruby and Lesser serving as story editors. The music was composed by Gordon Goodwin.

The show performed well-enough in the ratings to gain a second season. However, there was a falling out between Gunther-Wahl and ABC, which caused them to leave the project. Animation duties were handed over to Ruby-Spears Productions who managed to keep the look and feel of the show consistent, despite some minor changes in the animation style and character movements. Wang Film Productions took over as the new overseas animation facility. New writers for the season included Rich Fogel, Tony Marino, Mark Jones, Buzz Dixon and Mark Seidenberg, with Fogel and Seidenberg taking over as story editors. Lisa Goodwin and Dan Savant took over scoring duties along with Goodwin.

Moo Montana coloring book page.

            Several other changes happened within the show itself. The intro was revised to insert shots of the various villains and a few episode clips in between the remaining shots from the original intro. Terrorbull was removed as the primary threat in the season’s first episode; exiled to another town after losing a bet to Moo where he took up residency as its sheriff. Dakota also became more verbose; cracking jokes and having full conversations. Ultimately, the series didn’t return for a third season although ABC kept it on the network until the fall of 1994. Reruns of the show returned in 1998 on Toon Disney, running until 2001. To commemorate this, Kid Stuff manufactured new Moo Mesa items such as 3-inch articulated figures, plastic cups, place mats, sticker activity set and a small poster with a frame.

Character select screen from the arcade game.

            While the cartoon was in development, Brown entered into talks with Konami to produce an arcade game based on the concept. It was a run-and-gun style shoot-‘em-up built on the engine from their 1991 release, Sunset Riders. The player had to rescue Miss Lily from The Masked Bull and his cronies through several levels, which a player could select to play in any order. The player could choose from the three main lawcows and Buffalo Bull, who was added to complete the four character line-up. The lawcows used their firearms and horns in charging attacks, as well as gained power-ups by shooting chickens flying overhead. The game was released in 1992 in two and four-player versions.

The first issue of Archie Comics' Moo Mesa series.

            After the first season ended, Archie released two Moo Mesa comic series of thee issues each; the first beginning that December and the second that following March. The very first issue featured a pull-out wanted poster. Along with Hasbro’s figures, a line of story books, coloring books and VHS tapes were produced by Random House. Collegeville/Imagineering LP released vinyl Halloween costumes based on Moo and Cowlorado. Farley Candy produced Moo Mesa-themed fruit snacks, and to fight the cavities those gave kids Tsumura International Inc. produced a line of personal hygiene products including bubble bath, a shaving kit, and toothbrushes. Character watches, Moo Mesa-themed clothing, backpacks and a Moo mask were also available. Betras Plastic released a dinnerware set including a dish, bowl and glass.

Familiar bovines appear on Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward.

            In 2006, Brown returned home and rejoined Mirage’s Turtles franchise. His second debut on the second volume of Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (he was principally involved with the first volume) brought a crossover with the C.O.W.-Boys in issue #21. The C.O.W.-Boys would again appear in #s 32, 52 and 58. #32 also featured an exclusive variant cover that was made available at an event at the Wayne Center for the Arts. In August of 2006, robotic versions of the C.O.W.-Boys made an appearance on the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode “Home Invasion”. Renditions of Moo, Cowlorado, Dakota, Terrorbull and Boot Hill were featured, amongst several original characters. In 2008, artist Tristan Jones was slated to write a new comic mini-series with art by Fernando León González, Jr., but the series never materialized.

EPISODE GUIDE:

Season 1:

“Bang’em High” (9/12/92) – Bulloney plans to have The Masked Bull get rid of Moo with explosives.

“A Snake in Cow’s Clothing” (9/19/92) – Moo and Dakota become suspicious of a new bull in town who drives the women crazy when Lily is robbed.

“Bulls of a Feather” (9/26/92) – Puma discovers that Terrorbull is The Masked Bull, leading Terrorbull to break his brother Horribull out of jail to protect his identity.

“School Days” (10/3/92) – Buzzard disguises himself as a schoolmarm to trick the kids into helping The Masked Bull’s latest crime.

“A Sheepful of Dollars” (10/10/92) – Cowlorado volunteers for Lily’s cattle drive, discovering he’s actually driving bad-tempered sheep.

“Thoroughly Moodern Lily” (10/17/92) – Bulloney gets Lily’s rival Sadie Wowcow to run her out of town in order to get to a secret buried under the Tumbleweed.

“Wetward, Whoa” (10/24/92) – Bulloney corners the water market when the town dries up, but Cody discovers the cause of the drought.

“Wedding Bull Blues” (10/31/92) – Kate plans to marry Dakota in order to inherit her father’s ranch before Bulloney gets his hands on it.

“Legend of Skull Duggery” (11/7/92) – Cody, Carly and Jake follow a treasure map they found in Kate’s attic.

“Stolen on the River” (11/14/92) – In order to prove himself Cowlorado goes undercover in order to catch Five Card Cud and retrieve a stolen ring.

“Dances with Bulls” (11/21/92) – Moo and Terrorbull end up in trouble when they both go after the Gila Gang.

“The Big Cow Wow” (11/28/92) – Cody and Tejua help the C.O.W.-Boys stop the Hole in the Ground Gang before they disrupt the Pueblo’s annual Cow-Wow.

“Another Fine Mesa” (12/5/92) – When everyone seems to forget Moo’s 10^th anniversary as marshal, he considers taking a sheriff job in his hometown of Miller Glen.

Season 2:

“No Face To Hide” (9/11/93) – Terrorbull challenges Moo to see who can bring down a train thief first, and the loser has to leave Cow Town forever.

“The Down Under Gang” (9/18/93) – A gang offers the use of their underground hideout for a cut of stolen goods.

“Cow Pirates of Swampy Cove” (9/25/93) – The C.O.W.-Boys head to Newportleans in order to track down Longhorn Silver and his pirate band.

“The Cacklin Kid” (10/2/93) – Lily’s uncle ends up trapped on a treasure hunt and she sets out to save him before the Cacklin Kid and his gang find him, and the treasure, first.

“Skull Duggery Rides Again” (10/9/93) – Skull Duggery comes to Cow Town and uses a rapid-aging gas on the citizenry.

“Billy the Kidder” (10/16/93) – Moo has to get Billy to jail but his gang kidnaps Cowlorado in order to get Billy back and discover the location of their stolen gold.

“How the West was Shrunk” (10/23/93) – A scientist turns a piece of found meteorite into a shrink ray.

“Circus Daze” (10/30/93) – A crooked ringmaster plans to hypnotize the town in order to steal their valuables.

“No Way to Treat a Lady” (11/6/93) – The C.O.W.-Boys find themselves up against a bandit gang comprised of women.

“Night of the Cowgoyle” (11/13/93) – The C.O.W.-Boys have to stop a hideous flying beast from terrorizing stagecoaches.

“Boom Town or Bust” (11/20/93) – When gold is found in Cow Town, Bulloney and bandits try to cash in on the following rush.

“The Fastest Filly in the West” (11/27/93) – Outlaws steal a fast horse in order to rob the Pony Express.

“The Wild Wild Pest” (12/4/93) – An airship captain kidnaps a convention of scientists in order to force them to make him a weapon that will allow him to conquer the mesa.

Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2020.