- WHAT YEAR WAS THE ORIGINAL LITTLE RASCALS MADE MOVIE
- WHAT YEAR WAS THE ORIGINAL LITTLE RASCALS MADE SERIES
- WHAT YEAR WAS THE ORIGINAL LITTLE RASCALS MADE TV
In 22 years of producing “Little Rascals,” from its first appearances as silent films and then later as ‘talkies’ with sound, there were only a few African-American cast members. Other “Our Gang” shorts may have been pulled from programming allegedly because some people were uncomfortable with the depiction of the African-American members of the “Our Gang” cast. The shorts were also one of the few early depictions on film of white and black children playing together, Maltin said. “The fact that the film is really funny takes a back seat.” “There’s a knee-jerk reaction to certain images,” Maltin says, of “The Kid From Borneo.”
WHAT YEAR WAS THE ORIGINAL LITTLE RASCALS MADE MOVIE
“There are some that might make people uncomfortable and need to be introduced in the proper context before being shown – especially to children,” said “Entertainment Tonight” movie buff Leonard Maltin, who co-wrote “Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang” with Richard Bann.
Several classic short films such as “Our Gang in The Kid from Borneo” – in which the gang mistakenly thinks circus act escapee “Bumbo the Wild Man” (who’s black) is the uncle of young George “Spanky” McFarland (who is white) – were removed from programming.
WHAT YEAR WAS THE ORIGINAL LITTLE RASCALS MADE TV
The beloved black-and-white shorts, which follow the misadventures of a group of raggedy kids, were first shown in movie theaters under the “Our Gang” title and later on TV in the 1950s, ’60s and early ’70s as “The Little Rascals.”īut then “The Little Rascals” pretty much disappeared from TV because of racial controversy. 6, as part of a “Little Rascals” show hosted by “Malcolm in the Middle” star Frankie Muniz. And “Little Rascals” distributor, King World isn’t putting them up for sale to AMC, a spokeswoman said.ĪMC will begin airing the shorts weekdays at 6:30 a.m. appreciates in his foreword, Lee (a childhood fan herself) never forgets that.‘T HE Little Rascals” are getting censored – again.Ĭable’s American Movie Classics has bought the rights to 71 of the 221 “Our Gang” comedies that were made by early Hollywood movie mogul Hal Roach and later MGM from 1922 to 1944.īut AMC says it will not air any of the racially controversial shorts that have, except in rare instances, been kept off TV for about 20 years. But for kids, fun was always high on the agenda.
WHAT YEAR WAS THE ORIGINAL LITTLE RASCALS MADE SERIES
(Cluck Cluck Klams was the kids’ club.) Down the decades, the series continued to fuel, and flout, fantasies and anxieties as Americans wrestled with integration, multiculturalism, and post-racial hopes. Our Gang, born and bred in the Jim Crow era, played to pickaninny stereotypes, and also parodied the KKK. A professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, she relishes the deeply mixed messages embedded in, and extracted from, the films’ vision of racially integrated childhood. Re-edited versions and movie remakes followed.Īll along, the African American stars were making bigger mischief, too, as Julia Lee reveals in her agile and insightful cultural history. In the 1950s, the films were repackaged for TV. Winning over audiences of all colors and ages, they made the transition to talkies. How about a firecracker in a birthday cake?Ī succession of young actors took it from there. Bob McGowan, the avuncular director, made sure the crew never ran out of hijinks. Chubby and scrawny, bossy and sweet, black and white: The producer, Hal Roach, saw to it that his posse of children was motley. The little rascals, originally known as Our Gang, have stirred up irresistible trouble ever since the short comedies debuted on silent film in 1922.