60 Fun Facts About Little Rascals

Under what name did the Little Rascals shorts play in cinemas from 1922 to 1944?

Our Gang stayed MGM's trademark when Hal Roach bought his old shorts back in 1949, so he had to reissue them under a new name, The Little Rascals.

Which Little Rascals short reached cinemas first, in 1922?

One Terrible Day was the fourth short filmed, yet it jumped the queue to open on 10 September, eight weeks before the pilot.

About how many Little Rascals shorts were made between 1922 and 1944?

220 shorts in 22 years meant constant recasting: as the children outgrew their parts, the studio replaced them with younger ones to keep the gang young.

Which company distributed the Little Rascals shorts before Hal Roach switched to MGM in 1927?

Pathé was also releasing the comedies of Roach's chief rival, Mack Sennett, so each cut into the other's business; MGM wanted a line of short comedies and offered a way out.

For how much did Hal Roach sell the entire Little Rascals unit to MGM in 1938?

$25,000 bought MGM the name and the cast and writer contracts; Roach was leaving short films behind, and MGM did not want the series to end.

Which former fireman directed most Little Rascals shorts until 1933 and encouraged the kids to improvise?

Robert F. McGowan knew some of the children were too young to read a script, so he explained each scene just before filming and coached them through a megaphone.

Which future film director wrote gags for the Little Rascals in 1924?

Frank Capra lasted only a brief stint as a gag writer on the kids' shorts before moving on to write for Harry Langdon at Mack Sennett's studio.

Which future child megastar auditioned for the Little Rascals but was turned down by the casting director?

Shirley Temple never got past her audition: the casting director saw nothing in her for the gang, and later joked, 'Who else but me would turn down Shirley Temple?'

Which original Little Rascal was billed as Sunshine Sammy?

Ernie Morrison, reportedly Hollywood's first Black actor on a long-term contract, was already on Roach's payroll: his own solo series stopped after one short, and he became a star of the gang instead.

How did Norman 'Chubby' Chaney get his place in the Little Rascals in 1929?

He won a nationwide contest, reportedly ahead of some 20,000 hopefuls, to replace Joe Cobb, who at twelve had outgrown his part in the gang.

Pete the Pup, the Little Rascals' ring-eyed dog, was which breed?

A pit bull terrier named Pal joined the series as Pete in 1927, and by 1930 the part had passed to his own son.

How was the partial ring round the eye of Pal, the first Pete, completed?

It was painted in: Pal was born with most of the ring and the gap was filled by hand, and when his son took over as Pete the ring turned up round the other eye.

Before playing Pete, the dog Pal the Wonder Dog played Tige in which rival kids' comedy series?

Roach later poached that series' director Gus Meins too; Pal also appeared in Harold Lloyd's The Freshman as a puppy.

What was the title of the first Little Rascals short made with sound?

Small Talk was shot in spring 1929, within days of sound equipment being installed at the Roach studio, and ran three reels instead of the usual two.

Which composer wrote the Little Rascals theme Good Old Days?

Leroy Shield's tune first opened a short in 1930; decades later a Dutch orchestra, the Beau Hunks, re-created his music by transcribing it from the films' soundtracks.

In the Little Rascals shorts Teacher's Pet and Love Business, Jackie Cooper has a crush on which teacher?

Miss Crabtree upends Jackie's plans: expecting a dried-up old hag, he plots to wreck her first class, then finds the new teacher, played by June Marlowe, young and kind.

Little Rascals alumnus Jackie Cooper is best known to later audiences for playing which character in the Superman films?

Perry White was a late break for Cooper: Keenan Wynn had been cast as the Daily Planet editor but fell ill before shooting his scenes, and Cooper stepped in at short notice.

Which Little Rascals bully later played Jimmy Olsen in two Superman serials?

Tommy Bond played the cub reporter opposite Kirk Alyn's Superman in 1948 and 1950, then quit acting for a long career in television production.

Where did Little Rascal Spanky McFarland's screen test end up?

In a short: the bug-hunting scene from the toddler's test was cut into the 1932 film named after him, Spanky, so audiences ended up watching his audition.

As a toddler, future Little Rascal Spanky McFarland modelled in advertisements for which product?

Wonder Bread gave him his break: an aunt sent his modelling pictures to Hal Roach's studio when it advertised for cute kids, and an invitation to audition followed.

In which state was Little Rascals star Spanky McFarland born?

Texas-born in Dallas, he reached Hollywood so young that, he later said, he was five or six before he realised not all kids were in the movies.

In 1990, which TV newsmagazine was fooled by a man falsely claiming to have played Buckwheat in the Little Rascals?

20/20 presented an Arizona grocery bagger as the grown-up Buckwheat, until Spanky McFarland told reporters that the real actor had died ten years earlier.

In 1993, months before his death, Little Rascals star Spanky McFarland played himself in which sitcom?

Cheers put him in the opening scene of 'Woody Gets an Election', filmed early in 1993; it proved the last television role of a man who had left acting as a teenager.

In the Little Rascals short Hearts Are Thumps, what floats from Alfalfa's mouth as he sings after Spanky's prank?

Soap bubbles pour out because Spanky has slipped soap into his lunch, punishing him for deserting the boys to swap valentines with Darla.

Where were future Little Rascals Carl and Harold Switzer performing when Hal Roach discovered them?

In the studio's public cafeteria, after a tour, the sightseeing Illinois brothers burst into an impromptu act, and Roach signed them both.

Which hit does Alfalfa croon on the radio in the Little Rascals short The Pinch Singer?

I'm in the Mood for Love was meant for Darla, the club's chosen singer; when she fails to turn up at the station, Alfalfa takes her place at the microphone.

Which Little Rascal trailed the bully Butch as his sidekick?

Woim is at Butch's side in 1937's Glove Taps, the bully's first short; Butch himself was played by a returning actor who had earlier been one of the gang's ordinary kids.

In which Christmas classic does former Little Rascal Carl Switzer flirt with the heroine at a high-school dance?

It's a Wonderful Life casts him as Freddie, who tries his luck with Mary at the dance where the gym floor slides open to reveal a swimming pool.

Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer of the Little Rascals was shot dead in 1959 on the same day which famous director died?

Cecil B. DeMille died after a heart attack that same 21 January; Switzer, only 31, was killed in a quarrel over a $50 debt connected with a lost hunting dog.

Which Little Rascals catchphrase, forever linked to Buckwheat, was first uttered by his sidekick Porky?

O-tay! began as Porky's line, but the two tag-alongs shared it as their rallying cry against the big kids, and it stuck to Buckwheat for good.

Which actor, who played Buckwheat, was the only Roach-era Little Rascal still in the cast at the 1944 finale?

Billie Thomas was twelve when the last short, Dancing Romeo, was filmed in 1943; he later left acting behind for a long career as a film laboratory technician.

When Buckwheat first appeared in the Little Rascals in 1934, how was the character written?

As a girl: Buckwheat began as Stymie's little sister, first played by the real sister of Stymie's actor, and only gradually turned into a boy.

Which comedian's Saturday Night Live impression of Buckwheat did Spanky McFarland condemn as a stereotype?

Eddie Murphy 'did a very poor imitation', McFarland told the Chicago Tribune in 1993, and did it at the expense of his old castmate's surviving family.

In which state was Little Rascals leading lady Darla Hood born?

Oklahoma kept her only briefly: her Oklahoma City dance teacher took her to New York, where a talent scout for Hal Roach spotted her and a screen test followed.

On a 1962 TV spoof of the Little Rascals, Darla Hood appeared opposite which comedian playing Alfalfa?

Jack Benny played Alfalfa in the sketch on his own programme; by then Hood was a singer whose voice sold Campbell's soup and Chicken of the Sea tuna in commercials.

Which future Emmy-winning actor joined the Little Rascals in 1939, billed as Mickey Gubitosi?

Robert Blake took over from Porky, whose actor had shot up several inches and looked too old for the part; decades later he won his Emmy as the detective Baretta.

Little Rascals character Froggy was known for a croaky trick voice modelled on which cartoon character?

Popeye was an impression Billy Laughlin already did for his friends, so he produced Froggy's gravelly voice himself, with no dubbing.

MGM moved the Little Rascals out of Los Angeles into which fictional town?

Greenpoint replaced the scruffy backstreets, and the shorts changed with it: the mayhem was toned down in favour of morals, civics lessons and wartime patriotism.

Which one-reel short won the Little Rascals an Academy Award in 1937?

Bored of Education was the first short made after Roach halved running times to ten minutes, because cinemas were dropping two-reel comedies for double features.

The 1936 Little Rascals feature General Spanky was a sentimental story set during which conflict?

The American Civil War story was meant to launch the gang in features, as Roach had done with Laurel and Hardy, but its adult leads took over and no second feature followed.

What do the boys call their girl-free group in Hearts Are Thumps and the 1994 film The Little Rascals?

He-Man Woman Haters Club loyalty lasts minutes in the 1937 short: founder Spanky watches Alfalfa desert as soon as Darla winks at him.

Which 1933 Little Rascals short features a brief cameo by Laurel and Hardy?

Wild Poses shows Laurel and Hardy for a few seconds as babies, and Hal Roach himself took credit for the idea of slipping the pair into the kids' film.

Which British comic ran a licensed Little Rascals strip from 1937, drawn by Dudley D. Watkins?

The Dandy carried the strip for almost ten years, until 1947, outlasting the films themselves, yet the gang never once appeared in the comic's annuals.

Dell's comic pairing the Little Rascals with MGM cartoon characters was retitled after which of them in 1949?

Tom and Jerry took over the title five years after the films ended; most of the gang's own stories in it had been written and drawn by Walt Kelly, the creator of Pogo.

Which 1930 Little Rascals short was added to the National Film Registry in 2004?

Pups Is Pups sends Wheezer chasing his puppies across the city, because they bolt towards any bell they hear, expecting dinner.

What did the Little Rascals child actors earn from decades of television reruns?

No residuals ever reached them: their contracts covered only a weekly studio salary, and paying film actors for television repeats was not yet the custom.

In 1971, King World let which organisation supervise edits removing racist material from the Little Rascals TV package?

The NAACP had campaigned to get the shorts off the air, and some stations had dropped them, so King World agreed to cut scenes and withdraw several films entirely.

Which city's censors banned Curley, Hal Roach's 1947 Little Rascals successor, for showing Black and white children in class together?

Memphis censor chief Lloyd Binford wrote that the South did not recognise social equality between the races, even in children; one local cinema defied the ban and showed the film anyway.

Norman Lear's unsold 1977 Little Rascals revival pilots are remembered for featuring which child star?

Gary Coleman played Stymie, and although no series followed, the pilot got him noticed by a producer who cast him as Arnold in Diff'rent Strokes.

The 1982 Little Rascals cartoon shared an ABC Saturday-morning show with Richie Rich and which video-game character?

Pac-Man headlined the 90-minute block for a single season; from autumn 1983 the Rascals and Richie Rich carried on in a new package without him.

Who directed the 1994 feature film The Little Rascals?

Penelope Spheeris came to it straight from Wayne's World and The Beverly Hillbillies, though she has said she would rather be remembered for her punk documentaries.

In the 1994 film The Little Rascals, what is the name of the club's prize-winning go-kart?

The Blur is stolen by the neighbourhood bullies before the big race, so the boys have to build a replacement, which they name The Blur 2: The Sequel.

In the 1994 film The Little Rascals, Spanky is stunned to discover that his racing hero A.J. Ferguson is what?

A woman, played by country star Reba McEntire, hands over the trophy; moments later the girl-shunning Spanky admits he was wrong and apologises to Darla.

The 1994 film The Little Rascals has cameos by Mel Brooks, Reba McEntire and which future US president?

Donald Trump turns up as the father of the rich kid, Waldo, one of the adult cameos that Variety's review picked out as a clever touch.

The 1994 film The Little Rascals opened fourth behind Clear and Present Danger, The Mask and which other hit?

Forrest Gump was already in its fifth week yet still outdrew the newcomer, which took $10 million over its opening weekend.

Which Everybody Loves Raymond actress plays the grandmother in the 2014 sequel The Little Rascals Save the Day?

Doris Roberts plays the kids' adopted grandmother, who stands to lose her bakery over a $10,000 bank debt, so the gang take jobs to try to save it.

Which E. L. Doctorow novel ends with an immigrant filmmaker imagining a series just like the Little Rascals?

Ragtime follows Tateh from a tenement street corner, where he cuts paper silhouettes to scrape a living, to wealth as a film-maker who dreams up a band of mischievous kids.

Hal Roach conceived the Little Rascals after watching children argue over what?

Sticks from a lumberyard: by Roach's own account he watched the kids squabble from his office window and decided that children simply being themselves could carry a series.

Which Hal Roach series of 1930 to 1932 reunited Little Rascals alumni Mickey Daniels and Mary Kornman as teenagers?

The Boy Friends was conceived as an adolescent version of the kids' shorts and ran into a second season before Roach replaced it with The Taxi Boys.

Which young MGM shorts director became the Little Rascals' permanent director when the studio bought the series in 1938?

George Sidney, who liked to say he was only seven years older than the oldest kid, took over while Gordon Douglas was only on loan to MGM, directing just two of the early shorts.