My Feedback on The Little Rascals Animated Series

Well, to be fair, some of the original Gang (George McFarland, Carl Switzer, Darla Hood) were born in the South.

I'd have to check back to be sure, but I don't think the location of the boat is ever mentioned. I just assumed it was named after Mississippi.

I've noted Darla's off-model coloring on both the Our Gang Wikia Wiki and the TV Tropes Wiki. That's what you get from a studio producing weekly cartoons for all three networks.

As to your second point, I know that Darla was from Oklahoma and that Porky and Spanky were from Texas. Yet none of them spoke with a Southern accent that I could discern. Alfalfa seemed to speak with a Southern accent, though he was from Illinois. I really don't know where the town of Greenpoint was supposed to be.

I did notice something in common with all of the animated Little Rascals shorts. It's evident that the series did pretty good in the ratings, as all of the regular characters - Alfalfa, Darla, Spanky, Porky, Buckwheat and Pete - were present in all 35 of the 11-minute shorts. If the ratings were not that great, I think the final seasons would have had shorts without one or more of the regular characters (most likely Darla), as some of the voice actors would have had less exposure due to ratings being so low and lack of revenue. If I were to guess, had the series dragged on into 1985 or 1986, the final season probably would have seen the last appearance of Darla early in that season, and likely by moving away from Greenpoint due to her father taking a job in another city, leaving only the boys, and Alfalfa being saddened but coping well towards the finale.

That said, I think it was the lawsuit brought on by Eugene "Porky" Lee that resulted in the show's cancellation. If I were to guess, I think the lawsuit was likely filed sometime early in 1984. I think the series did pretty good in the ratings otherwise. I wonder how they managed to continue airing Season 2 reruns right through September 1984 despite the lawsuit?

I doubt it did incredibly well in the ratings (obviously, it did well enough to get a second season, though I'm wondering if the inclusion of "Pac-Man" and "Richie Rich" had anything to do with that). Especially considering it was up against far more popular shows (i.e. "Smurfs," "Looney Tunes"). Sorry, but I don't get your argument. The series had a small principal cast of six actors. I don't see how the exposure of characters/actors indicates what the ratings were like. And even if one was given less exposure later on, I doubt it would have been Darla. It probably would have been a less useful character, like Pete the Pup.

Thanks for sharing these Joe!

I have tried to share all the Rascals things I could fine with my kids. They loved the Cabin Fever releases. I have General Spanky from a Turner Classic Movies airing but have waited for my kids to be old enough to understand the storyline better.

These cartoons might help rekindle that love of all things Little Rascals. Thanks again!

One question I'd like to ask regarding the "Tiny Terror/Science Fair and Foul/Sea Song" episode...

The airdate for the second cycle shows as March 12, 1983. But I remember seeing that same particular episode air on June 17, 1983 during the third cycle. I know this because I had chipped my front tooth the day before. What I'd like to ask is, was there a pre-emption of the Saturday morning lineup on ABC between March 12, 1983 and June 17, 1983? And if there was a pre-emption in that gap of time, what was the reason for it? Was there something newsworthy that warranted a nationwide pre-emption?

Hey, gang. I've got good news and bad news.

The bad news is YouTube has gotten on my case again, and this time in regards to one of the Rascals/Richie Rich videos I posted. The video was deleted, and I'll more than likely delete the other myself.

The good news is I'm hoping to start a Google Drive and upload my videos to that. I'll let everyone know when it's all ready, and if you're interested in joining, shoot me an email ([email protected]) and I'll add you to it.

Funnily enough, the copyright claim came from CBS (confirming that they do indeed own the rights to the Rascals carton). What I don't understand is why CBS is complaining about me uploading these when they clearly have no plans to do anything with the series. They're simply letting them sit in the vaults. If CBS would actually release the cartoons, then I wouldn't have uploaded them.

Well, all I can say is, thank goodness I downloaded the episodes while I did. Those corporate giants are taking the fun out of viewing shows many grew up with by pulling them off of YouTube for the sake of money. I will miss seeing them on YouTube after just a short time.

It's no surprise that the episodes were going to be claimed by some corporation, though I would of expected it to be for Richie Rich.

Yeah, I thought it would have been for Richie as well. By the way, the copies I'm currently uploading to Google don't have my annoying channel logo on them, in case you'd care to download them again.

Most of the "Little Rascals" cast were female adult actresses (BJ Ward, Julie Dees, Patty Maloney) with the right high pitched voices to play children cartoon characters for long runs (witness "The Simpsons" with Nancy Cartwright still playing Bart Simpson and Pamela Hayden still playing Millhouse)...Scott Menville and Shavar Ross were younger child actors whose voices haven't matured and changed deeper at the time so they probably might have been replaced if the series continued on. Scott Menville still had that high-pitched tone enough to play Bingo Beaver's voice in 1984's "Get Along Gang", Jonny Quest in 1985, and young Fred Flintstone in "The Flintstones Kids" although his voice did sound deeper when he played Red Herring in "A Pup Named Scooby Doo."

Sparky Marcus's voice as Richie Rich deepened in the series' final network season but he continued in the role. Sparky Marcus' played Nick in "Challenge of the Gobots", Montgomery Moose in "The Get Along Gang", and Dexter in the "Space Ace" segments of "Saturday Supercade" in his post-voice changing roles.

Dick Beals, who played Reggie Van Dough and played Speedy Alka Seltzer's voice in the 1950s commercials, had a hormonal condition in which his voice never changed and he never grew in height or grew facial hair...I believe he was in his 60s when he played Reggie's voice. Walter Tetley (Sherman in the "Mr. Peabody" cartoons) and Gary Coleman ("Diff'rent Strokes") had the same hormonal condition to play children into adult age...and unfortunately suffered from serious health issues related to that condition.

Two seasons are a healthy run for an average cartoon show.

So far, I have two of the three full length Pac/Rascals/Richie shows I previously had on YouTube. The entire 90 minute block is included in both videos, as is a bonus SuperFriends episode.


In order to easily keep people up to date with my latest uploads, I've created a Facebook page that will be updated once a new video is online.
Please give the page a like!
Lost Treasures | Facebook

I am not on Facebook but wanted to say thank you again for sharing these videos. My family and myself were able to catch the YouTube posts on this site before the videos were taken down. It was fun for me to be able to sit down and watch something old but new again with them. Making memories is priceless these days. Thank you!

Thank you to others as well for keeping older videos available. My hope is new generations will some day appreciate these classics as much as past generations.

To the best of my knowledge, many of the shorts from the 80s Little Rascals run have "Story by" credits in the title card, but "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat", as far as we know, held the distinction of being the only known short with no "Story by" credit in the title card. Is it possible that the lack of "Story by" credits for that short has something to do with a paraphrasing of the B&W short "Captain Spanky's Show Boat" and the writers didn't want to be credited to avoid getting into trouble for using the B&W episode title, even if slightly altered?

And I don't know how it managed to get rebroadcast during the second season, despite any altering of the B&W short title. Maybe it was one of the highest-rated shorts during the first season, and if so, I wonder what could be to blame for its unusually high ratings? Darla being barefoot and wearing a dress, maybe? I can see a pattern: Abnormalities may drive the ratings up.

If that is true, then shouldn't "The Irate Pirates" also have been rerun in the second season? In that short, Darla wore a bikini and Porky didn't wear a shirt.

I also wonder why Hanna-Barbera produced an odd number of Little Rascals cartoons, since off-network syndication would require two cartoons per half hour. Was a 10th short planned for the second season, but not actually produced for broadcast?

Maybe there was a tenth short planed for the second season, and if true, it may have been dropped after it was screened by Saturday morning watchdogs and discovered controversial content. I can see a likelihood why "The Surgeon" (which I think may have been the so-called tenth short) never made it to the airwaves and I think it may have been replaced with a repeat of "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat". Maybe that could explain why The Little Rascals animated series never appeared on Cartoon Network or Boomerang in the U.S., but made it to air in other parts of the world.

As far as I know, there have been cases where episodes of TV series were produced but never aired on the original network, but did get aired on other cable networks. If I recall, there was an episode of the game show Password Plus where George Peppard made his infamous rant about NBC programming - NBC didn't air it for obvious reasons, but Game Show Network did air it. And there was one episode of the game show Press Your Luck - a Back-to-School Week episode originally intended to air in August 1985 - that was produced, but never made it to air on CBS, and again, Game Show Network did air it. Some speculate that it has to do with the first two players being out of the game, and the last remaining player gambling and winning his spins, risking the possibility of being the first episode with no winners, as everybody would have been out of the game.

September 25, 1982 airings re-uploaded:

Morelostreasures - Dailymotion

Thank you for sharing these old airings again. I enjoyed watching them the first time.

Funny thing was life was very busy at the time and when things settled down, I started to miss watching the episodes you posted. I guess a case of not appreciating something till it is gone. Re-watching with the Pac-Man episodes included has been a real treat. Seeing the Superfriends as well. I feel like a kid again. Pretty Cool!!!

Thank You!

Maybe it's because the series is airing in another country at this time (right now, it's airing in Germany)? Maybe plans for a future DVD set (I think I read someone's post that some media company has the DVD rights to the series)? If a DVD set happens, I may consider buying it on eBay or somewhere. Chances are, it may not be released in North America, but maybe elsewhere in the world, and if so, chances are it will be on eBay or Amazon.

And ThinIce: if, by chance the episodes no longer exist, don't worry, I'd be happy to help.

It would be great to see a DVD release.

Thanks for the info RascalsFan84.

"Grin and Bear It", "Beauty Queen for a Day" (regular broadcast) and "The Serenade" - all from Episode #02 of the first season - are now up, along with the Richie Rich and other segments.