Our Gang

:"The Little Rascals" redirects here. For other uses of the title "The Little Rascals", see The Little Rascals (disambiguation).

Post-history (The Little Rascals)

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 kids' 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 Cinecolor featurettes, Curley and Who Killed Doc Robbin. Neither film was critically or financially successful, and Roach instead turned his plans towards re-releasing the original Our Gang comedies.

Related Topics:
Cinecolor - Curley - Who Killed Doc Robbin

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In 1949, MGM allowed Roach to buy back the rights to the 1927–1938 Our Gang shorts, while retaining the rights to both the Our Gang films it produced and General Spanky. As per the terms agreed during 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, and had Monogram Pictures distribute the shorts, first to theaters starting in 1951, and then to television in 1955.

Related Topics:
1949 - MGM Lion - Monogram Pictures - 1951 - Television - 1955

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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 their Our Gang shorts to television in 1956, and as a result, the two separate packages of Our Gang films competed with each other in syndication for three decades.

Related Topics:
1956 - Syndication

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The television rights for the original silent Pathé Our Gang comedies were sold to National Telepix and other distributors, who distributed the films under titles such as The Mischief Makers and Those Loveable Scallawags with Their Gangs.

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King World's acquisition and edits

The television rights to The Little Rascals were sold to Interstate TV in the late 1950s. In 1964, they were sold again to a then-new distributor named King World Entertainment, and the success of The Little Rascals paved the way for King World to become one of the biggest television syndicators in the world; distributing, along with the Rascals, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune. In 1971, because of controversy over their presumably racist content 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 Spanky, Bargain Day, 'The Pinch Singer Mush & Milk, and Three Smart Guys) were cut down to nearly half of their original length, and removing others.

Related Topics:
1950s - 1964 - King World Entertainment - The Oprah Winfrey Show - Jeopardy - Wheel of Fortune

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Eight Little Rascals shorts were removed from the King World television package altogether in 1971. Lazy Days (1929), Moan & Groan, Inc. (1929), the Stepin Fetchit-guest-starred A Tough Winter (1930), Little Daddy (1931), A Lad An' A Lamp (1933), The Kid From Borneo (1933), and Little Sinner (1935) were all deleted from the syndication package because of percieved racial insensitivity, while Big Ears (1931) was deleted for dealing with the subject of divorce. The early talkie Railroadin (1929) was never part of the television package, not because of potentially offensive content, but because its sound tracks (recorded on phonographic records) could not be found and were considered lost.

Related Topics:
Stepin Fetchit - Divorce

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When King World repackaged The Little Rascals in the early 2000s, the seventy-one films in the King World package were re-edited, restoring many 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.

Related Topics:
2000s - 1971 - American Movie Classics - 2001

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New Little Rascals productions

1979 brought The Little Rascals Christmas Special, an animated holiday special based on the gang and featuring voice work from Matthew "Stymie" Beard and Darla Hood. Hanna-Barbera brought the animated gang back from 1982 to 1984 in a series of Little Rascals television cartoons for ABC Saturday Mornings. Many producers, including Our Gang alumnus Jackie Cooper, made pilots for new Our Gang TV shows, but none of them ever went into production.

Related Topics:
1979 - Holiday - Hanna-Barbera - 1982 - 1984 - Little Rascals - ABC - Jackie Cooper

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In 1994, Amblin Entertainment and Universal Pictures 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 Spheeris, starred Travis Tedford as Spanky, Bug Hall as Alfalfa, and Ross Bagley as Buckwheat; and featured cameos by the Olsen twins, Whoopi Goldberg, Mel Brooks, Reba McEntire, Donald Trump, and Raven-Symoné. The Little Rascals was a moderate success for Universal, bringing in $51,764,950 at the box office {{ref|IMDBBoxOfficeTakings}}

Related Topics:
1994 - Amblin Entertainment - Universal Pictures - The Little Rascals - Penelope Spheeris - Travis Tedford - Bug Hall - Ross Bagley - The Olsen twins - Whoopi Goldberg - Mel Brooks - Reba McEntire - Donald Trump - Raven-Symoné - Box office

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