60 Fun Facts About Little Rascals

Which producer, also behind Laurel and Hardy, created the series after watching kids argue over sticks?

He had just auditioned a child actress he thought was over-rehearsed and over-made-up, and decided a series of kids being themselves would work better.

In which year was the first short in the series released?

One Terrible Day, actually the fourth short made, reached theatres first on 10 September; the pilot titled Our Gang followed in November.

How many short films were made over the series' 22-year run?

There was also one feature spin-off, General Spanky, and more than 41 children served as regular cast members over the years.

Which company distributed the silent shorts before Roach switched to MGM in 1927?

The MGM deal brought bigger budgets and packaging with MGM features for the Loews theatre chain.

For how much did Roach sell the whole production unit, name and contracts to MGM in May 1938?

MGM did not want the series to end when it split with Roach, so it bought the property outright and kept making shorts until 1944.

Which former fireman directed most of the shorts until 1933, encouraging the kids to improvise?

The children rarely saw scripts; he explained each scene just before shooting and gave directions through a megaphone.

Which future director of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington wrote for Roach's comedy shorts?

Leo McCarey, Walter Lantz and Frank Tashlin also passed through the writing room at various times.

Which two future child megastars auditioned for the series but never got past the audition stage?

Rooney went on to star in the rival Mickey McGuire shorts, the series' main competitor.

Which cast member, billed as Sunshine Sammy, was Hollywood's first Black long-term contract actor?

A solo series about his character was cancelled after one short because theatre owners were wary, and he became a focus of the new gang instead.

How were the actors who played Chubby, Stymie and Buckwheat all recruited?

Thousands of children auditioned in national contests as older cast members aged out; each of the three replaced a departing regular.

What was the gang's famous ring-eyed dog originally named when he joined the cast?

He was an American Pit Bull Terrier who soon became known as Pete the Pup, the series' most famous pet.

Which Hollywood makeup artist is credited with applying the ring around Pete the Pup's eye?

The first dog, Pal, was born with a ring three-quarters of the way round one eye; later dogs needed the whole thing painted on.

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 series' first sound short, released in April 1929?

It ran 25 minutes, and it took McGowan and the kids about a year to fully adjust to talking pictures.

Leroy Shield originally composed the theme 'Good Old Days' for which Laurel and Hardy feature?

With its saxophone solo it served as the series' theme from 1930 until 1938.

In Teacher's Pet, School's Out and Love Business, Jackie Cooper's character has a crush on which teacher?

June Marlowe played her; Cooper soon left to star in Paramount's Skippy and Roach sold his contract to MGM.

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

He also directed episodes of M*A*S*H and Superboy and pursued a parallel career as a U.S. Navy officer.

Which gang bully later played Jimmy Olsen in two 1940s Superman serials?

He was an intermittent gang member from 1932 and returned as the bully in the 1937 short Glove Taps.

How old was George McFarland when he joined the gang as Spanky late in 1931?

He stayed 11 years, becoming the series' biggest star and popularising 'Okey-dokey!'

As a toddler, George McFarland appeared on hometown billboards advertising what?

He also modelled children's clothing for a department store, so he was used to cameras before he ever met Roach.

In which state was Spanky McFarland born?

He was born in Dallas in 1928, and a cenotaph for him has been approved at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.

According to McFarland himself, who actually gave him the nickname Spanky?

The popular story about his mother threatening a spanking in Roach's office is one he flatly contradicted.

Spanky McFarland's final television appearance in 1993 was a cameo in the cold open of which sitcom?

The episode was 'Woody Gets an Election'; he died that June, and a Walk of Fame star followed posthumously in January 1994.

Which two alumni are the only ones to have received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?

McFarland's came posthumously in 1994; most of the children got nothing beyond their weekly salaries.

Where were brothers Carl and Harold Switzer performing when Roach discovered them in 1934?

The Illinois family were sightseeing; after the tour, the boys launched an impromptu act in the Our Gang Café and Roach signed both.

Carl Switzer was actually an experienced singer. How was Alfalfa's squeaky, off-key singing achieved?

He was usually handed Bing Crosby and Pinky Tomlin numbers and made to strain for the high notes.

Which on-screen nemesis was Carl Switzer's best friend among the cast off camera?

The two got on, he said, because 'neither of us could replace the other'; it was their fathers who feuded over screen time and pay.

In which 1946 classic does Carl Switzer appear as Donna Reed's date at a high-school dance?

He was typecast after the series, appearing mostly in bit parts and B-movies before becoming a dog breeder and hunting guide.

Carl Switzer's 1959 death got little coverage because he died the same day as which director?

Switzer had appeared uncredited as a slave in one of the director's last films, The Ten Commandments.

What garbled catchphrase, first uttered by Porky, became the trademark of the gang's 'little kids' team?

Both boys had speech impediments as small children, and their tag-along team regularly outsmarted the big kids.

Which Roach-era cast member stayed with the series to its 1944 end, appearing in all 52 MGM shorts?

He was twelve when the final short, Dancing Romeo, wrapped, and later chose the Army over a return to Hollywood.

When Buckwheat first appeared in 1934–35, how was the character written?

The character only became definitively a 'he' in 1936's The Pinch Singer, and the pigtails were dropped for overalls in Pay as You Exit.

Which comedian's SNL Buckwheat sketches did Spanky McFarland say he 'didn't care for a bit'?

McFarland felt the impression made Buckwheat into a stereotype he never was, at the expense of the actor's surviving family.

In which state was Darla Hood born?

She was the only child of a music teacher and a banker in the small town of Leedey.

On a 1962 TV spoof of the shorts, Darla Hood reprised Darla opposite which comedian playing Alfalfa?

As an adult she developed a deep, rich singing voice, toured nightclubs and was a leading lady in ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's act.

Which future star of Baretta and In Cold Blood joined the gang in 1939 under the name Mickey Gubitosi?

He replaced Porky, who had 'matured too quickly', and later won an Emmy for Baretta.

Billy Laughlin's character Froggy was known for a trick voice in the style of which cartoon character?

He and Janet Burston joined in 1940 as Alfalfa and Waldo departed.

MGM moved the series out of gritty Los Angeles into which fictional town?

The MGM shorts added morals, civics lessons and wartime patriotism, and the mayhem was toned right down.

Which one-reel short, the first of its shorter length, won the series an Academy Award in 1937?

It was also Gordon Douglas's directing debut on the series, after Roach halved running times to ten minutes.

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

It focused more on the adult leads than the kids, flopped at the box office, and no further features were attempted.

What was the name of the boys' club that barred girls in Hearts Are Thumps and the 1994 film?

In the movie the sign is amended to 'Women Welcome' after Darla saves the day.

Which 1933 short featured a cameo by Laurel and Hardy?

It was McGowan's last before he quit; the series then paused for four months and returned under Gus Meins.

Which British comic ran a licensed strip of the gang from 1937, drawn by Dudley D. Watkins?

The strip outlived the films by three years, ending in 1947.

Dell's comic pairing the gang with MGM cartoon characters was renamed after which duo in 1949?

Most of the gang's stories were written and drawn by Pogo creator Walt Kelly and were reprinted by Fantagraphics in 2006.

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

It was also the first short to carry the jazzy Hatley and Shield scores that became a Roach trademark.

How much did the child actors receive in residuals from decades of television reruns?

Their only pay was the weekly salary during filming, from about $40 for newcomers to $200 or more for the stars.

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

Eight shorts were dropped entirely and others cut by minutes; many edits were reversed for new prints shown on AMC in 2001.

Which city's censors banned Roach's 1947 Curley for showing Black and white children in school together?

That integration had been a feature of the shorts since the 1920s, when southern theatre owners had complained to the distributor.

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

Two years later an animated Christmas special featured the voices of Darla Hood and Stymie Beard.

The 1982 Hanna-Barbera cartoon shared an ABC hour with Richie Rich and which game character?

Peter Cullen, later the voice of Optimus Prime, voiced Petey and Officer Ed.

Who directed the 1994 feature film The Little Rascals?

She had just made Wayne's World and The Beverly Hillbillies, and co-wrote the script with the future writers of Liar Liar.

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

After bullies steal it, the boys build The Blur 2: The Sequel and win by a hair, literally Alfalfa's cowlick.

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

The reveal comes at the trophy presentation, right before he apologises to Alfalfa and Darla.

The 1994 film's cameos included Mel Brooks, Reba McEntire and which future US president?

The Olsen twins, Whoopi Goldberg, Daryl Hannah and Raven-Symoné also turned up.

The 1994 film opened in fourth place behind Clear and Present Danger, The Mask and which other film?

It took $10 million that weekend and about $67 million worldwide, a moderate success for Universal.

Which Everybody Loves Raymond actress plays the grandmother in the 2014 direct-to-video sequel?

The Little Rascals Save the Day reworked classic shorts including Helping Grandma and Mike Fright.

Which E. L. Doctorow novel ends with an immigrant character imagining a film series just like the gang's?

Tateh pictures 'a society of ragamuffins... getting into trouble and getting out again', implying he will go on to produce it.

To what age did the series' creator live?

A week after his 100th birthday he did a hula demonstration on The Tonight Show, and he outlived many of the children who starred in his films.

Which teen spin-off series, produced by Roach from 1930 to 1932, reunited alumni Mickey Daniels and Mary Kornman?

The series ran for two years and 15 installments.

Which MGM shorts-department director was assigned as the permanent series director after Roach sold the gang?

Gordon Douglas was only loaned out to direct the first two MGM shorts, The Little Ranger and Aladdin's Lantern.