appreciates in his foreword, Lee (a childhood fan herself) never forgets that. But for kids, fun was always high on the agenda.
(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 Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows.The little rascals, originally known as Our Gang, have stirred up irresistible trouble ever since the short comedies debuted on silent film in 1922. “Little Rascals in ’90s World”īrooks, Tim and Earle Marsh. In Bill Cosby’s case, the connection is a little stronger: Cosby was one of prominent names who campaigned to pressure CBS into withdrawing Amos ‘N’ Andy from syndication back in the 1960s.Īnderson, John. The connections are obvious: Bill Cosby is black, Ted Turner is from Atlanta hence their alleged interest in protecting the reputations of the groups these programs supposedly besmirch. (The series is currently syndicated on TNN.) Neither rumor seems to have been based on anything more than a story concocted to explain the long absence of a favorite series from the TV screen, and perhaps a desire to poke a little fun at the “political correctness” movement. This rumor is similar to another claim that circulated in the mid-1990s: that Ted Turner had bought up the rights to the TV show The Dukes of Hazzard to keep it off of television because of its demeaning portrayal of Southerners. The series has been syndicated to television many times and the video rights to some episodes were licensed to Cabin Fever Entertainment in 1997, but Bill Cosby has never owned any part of the rights to The Little Rascals. This rumor has nothing to it, of course: King World Productions has owned and licensed the rights to The Little Rascals for over thirty years.
The Little Rascals episodes for the express purpose of keeping them off of television because of their demeaning portrayal of blacks. The Little Rascals: Spanky/Feed Em And Weep (VHS) from Republic Pictures Home Video Released May 10, 1990. The original footage totals 19:11, but the original soundtrack lasts an additional 0:18. Nonetheless, old episodes of Amos ‘N’ Andy continued to run successfully in syndication for many years until another round of protests during the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960s finally prompted CBS to permanently withdraw it from syndication (and attempt to destroy the negatives) in 1966.Īround 1989, the rumor began circulating that entertainer Bill Cosby had bought up the rights to The opening title and crew credits are remade, but the end title is original. When CBS brought the long-running and immensely popular radio program Amos ‘N’ Andy to television in 1951, the series lasted only two seasons, due in part to pressure from groups (primarily the NAACP) who objected to its portrayals of blacks. Buckwheat, in particular, spoke and acted in a manner considered stereotypical of blacks, and in time the Our Gang comedies joined a long list of film works considered “racist” by some for containing such portrayals. The depiction of black characters in these films was generally standard for its time.