Our Gang: The Little Rascals Tribute (with Mike Ensing & James Bruno)

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[00:00:10] Oh my God!

[00:02:11] That's perfect. Yeah, that is a dead on of the Hal Roach music. Three pieces of music. That's why I hope every generation sees these.

[00:02:39] I mean, it's literally following the beats of everything from a cartoon to any serial. This is like the intro music, then the dramatic music for the conflict, and then the outro. Well, the thing about The Little Rascals is, you know, I feel like when I was growing up as a kid,

[00:03:03] I grew up, when I watched them here in New York, it was Channel 5 and I think Channel 11 did it for a while. Channel 5 had it, and they ran the early ones from the 30s, when Spanky was just getting into it.

[00:03:26] So I got to see, you know, you know, Stiney, Farina, you know, don't call me Norman, call me Chabzy Ebzy. Jackie Cooper was in that. Oh, jeez. Jackie Cooper, who would play Perry White in the Superman movies. Jackie Moore was in those movies.

[00:03:52] Scottie, Scottie Beckett, who you might know from MST3K is Winky from... Yep. Yeah. Big time. Yeah. There's a lot of things like, like when we watched it when we were kids, and I wish my friend Randy was here, because he could talk to you about this too.

[00:04:12] Oh, trust me, we will. And I had so much fun looking up the trivia of this, like I had heard that there was one of them who was a real douche to everybody, but I had no idea it was who the one I was thinking. Alphalfa. Yeah. Alphalfa was an asshole. What the hell, dude? Why? Alphalfa thought he was the star of the show. And they did it. They did it. It's like the earliest ego that you can think of if you think about it real hard.

[00:04:41] Like, I mean, it's always been a thing, even probably as far back as Roman times when they were entertaining the dictators, but it's just like... Not dictators, but, you know, tyrants, but it's just like... The emperors, the emperors, yeah. The emperors is like, yeah, it's like freaking Carl Switzer is... Carl Switzer is basically like... For 20 years... Tommy Butch Bond talked about it. They were doing a thing about Hollywood scandals on E! Remember? Okay.

[00:05:11] So Tommy Butch Bond, who was the bully of the show, but never... But actually appeared in early ones before he kind of had a little bit of... Because he's the one who's saying, just friends! Yeah, I see. So Tommy Butch Bond was... In fact, the funny thing is, Tommy Butch Bond was the first Jimmy Olsen in the Superman series. Oh, shit! Before Jack Larson, yeah.

[00:05:38] So Tommy Butch Bond said that they were doing a thing for the kids, and the kids were on stage, and all of a sudden he's hearing like... Somebody say, don't you do that! Don't you do that! And Alfalfa was peeing on the stage lights. I did hear about a bit of that. Oh, God! It was just like... I was like... He's like, I'm just standing there, you know, doing my own business. You know, there's somebody yelling, and I'm like, Jesus Christ!

[00:06:08] He was apparently... He's like the... He basically became an adult much later in life. He was basically just always a kid. He starred in 61 shorts, but it is just amazing to me how, along with his boredom, when he wasn't playing pranks or refusing to say lines... Yeah. He would go to other sets and terrorize one of them, where they were filming the Tarzan serials.

[00:06:37] It's like, my goodness, dude. The only ones that I know that came out well were Spanky... He was best friends with Tommy. Tommy Bond. Yeah, they were... Butch. Butch and Tommy were best friends with Spanky. That's so loud. And... But you gotta think, where does that start up? It starts in 1922 with Silence. And I've seen the Silent Ones.

[00:07:05] They ran them on Turner a while back. Oh, is that? And the Silent Ones, it's kind of like... Much like early Laurel and Hardy. Yeah, it's like the early Laurel and Hardy movies. And you're just like... You're like, oh, okay, I get the jokes here, you know. But they do... But they do one with like, where they do Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the one guy is like... The one kid's in blackface. And you're just like... You're just like... Yikes. Okay, that ain't gonna...

[00:07:34] I mean, you're laughing, but you're... It's like that uncomfortable, holy shit, I can't believe they did this back then laughter. You know? And I get that many of the characters, you know, Buckwheat is a stereotype, and some people are not gonna want to watch it because of that association. But I still think everyone should watch this just to figure out this is what passed for comedy back then. You know, this is how we did comedy. Well, it's not only that, but you gotta realize Hal Roach was colorblind.

[00:08:04] He had black kids and white kids hanging out with each other. That's the great thing about the hour game comedy. In a way, he's a well-meaning progressive who happened to have one racial stereotype, you know? It's just like... Well, it was the writers who were doing that. Let's just put it. It was the writers doing that. It wasn't Hal Roach. It was the writers doing that, you know? And, you know, you have to realize, you know, that was how they wrote things, you know? Right. They wrote things like that back then. They didn't know any better.

[00:08:34] They were part of the... They didn't know any better. I mean, I would love to... I'd like to correct some people and be like, you know, back in the 40s and the 30s, you know, before Sidney Poitier and Harry Potter, you know, everybody, you know, kind of talked with that. You know, every black actor talked with that. There's actually... What's really saving my bacon on this? There's an Our Gang Wicca. Yeah. And... Yeah. I applaud anyone who updated this. Like, they dispelled all the rumors that Mickey Rooney and Shirley Temple

[00:09:04] were supposed to be rascals. Just like, nope. Just baseless rumors. Yeah. Yeah. And the funny thing is... But it wasn't for that particular Hal Roach project. No. It was something else altogether. There is one movie that they did when they were doing the... the Our Gang Comedy. That's General Spanky. Mmm. And that's the only movie they did at that time. And it didn't do too well from what I understand. Nice. But...

[00:09:31] The thing I love is like, as you watch things go... Like the one I... There's all these ones that you love. Like they kind of kind of run into each other. You know, like... It's kind of like with... With our gang, it's kind of like... They kind of run into each other. Like how... Like I love the one with the kid who's got to do... Learn that poem. Learn that poem. Yes. If you remember that one, you know, that was the one. That's cool. He's like... He's like, I don't want to go to school. I want to be a streetcar conductor. And he's got to learn this poem. Right?

[00:10:01] So he gets thrown out of school. That's what I dug about it. Just all these... It's a mixture of poverty kids as well as other orphans and, you know, street gangs. It's like... It's not even orphans. It's just... It's just children of like middle class, maybe lower class families. Like, you know... Like... And then as time goes on, you know, they get a little bit better. You know, the depression is starting to get over and stuff like that. But, you know, it's like... It's fun to watch because it's like, you know, they go from...

[00:10:32] Like... Like... There's one episode where Spanky... The father accuses Spanky of... I was thinking of Choo Choo, I guess. That's what they... I was thinking of Choo Choo. That particular short where they're on the train ride. And that's what I was thinking. They... Switch places with a group of orphans. Okay? Yeah. But I... There's so many great gags that we knew as kids growing up. Like, you know... Don't drink the milk. It's spoiled. Don't drink the milk. It's spoiled. Don't drink the milk.

[00:11:02] And they make the cake. Rawr. Rawr. Rawr. And Spanky... They have like a radio murder mystery on the phone. And Spanky takes the thing off and... Um... The phone off and they think there's actually a murder in the house. Yeah. And then the one kid... The one kid's saying... Remarkable! Is that all you say? No? What else you say? Remarkable! You know?

[00:11:32] Spanky was like a natural comedian. He was... Spanky McFarlane. I didn't realize Elfalfa was also in It's a Wonderful Life as the kid who tries to dance with Mary. Yeah. Yeah. But... Spanky McFarlane is actually the one guy that I love watched because his career... He didn't do anything after the Our Gang comedy. He's so loud. He's just kind of like I'm done. But he was working for television and all this stuff. You know? But he was one of these kids.

[00:12:03] He was the leader when it became the Our Gang comedy. He's definitely the face I put with. He's the face. Yeah. I mean not Alfalfa. Alfalfa is always going to be the one that has the moments. But Spanky's the born leader. He's the supporting member of the gang who thinks he's in charge. But really he just gets the other ones in trouble. But it's really Spanky. Spanky's always the one that's going to be in there. I had a bunch of VHSs of these that had Lenar Moulton, you know,

[00:12:32] never introducing them. And I think that gave it the extra appeal because there's nothing better than having some acclaimed critic just giving his two cents, you know, much like the TCM treatment, but just seeing how he valued these shorts. And, you know, it was much like the old VHS of High Noon. You know, it's just that same kind of just making it, you know,

[00:13:01] 30 plus years later is like here's what we look at with these movies and here's what they mean to us. And it's this encapsulation of when America, you know, is, you know, in the 20s then we have the depression and then, you know, we come out of the depression then we have World War II. And our gang is like, you know, our gang, the Little Rascals, is kind of like this escape, you know.

[00:13:31] And the great thing about it was, was that it was kids. We could all relate to that. But we would watch our gang and we'd all be kind of like going, oh man, you know, like I remember as a teenager, I watched it. Right. And I was like thinking to myself, you know, I remember being like a little bit younger, running around with my friends. That's what it was like back then, you know. Well, we didn't have Uncle George, who was the wild man from Borno going, yum, yum, eat them up.

[00:14:00] You know, but we had those like great moments, you know, when we're kids, you know. And that's what it is. It's the innocence of it, you know. It's the innocence of how that time was, you know, before social media, before, you know, Facebook and, you know, computers and all that stuff. Yeah, that's what I miss about our gang. It's just, it was just so fun to watch, you know.

[00:14:33] And when, when Spanky died in 93. Yeah, that's what I saw. Yeah, I would have been, I would have been free years old. I can remember like, just feeling like just feeling like kind of down about it, you know, because, you know, he was the last. I think he's one of the, like, he's one of the last ones.

[00:14:54] You can't even begin to describe the kind of experience he would have had as a early generation kid actor in Hollywood, working with all these legends, working with one of the first comedy groups. Well, you know, he was there since he was like three. I think he leaves when he's about 12, 13. I don't know how long he was there for. But that's a good question.

[00:15:22] So Spanky age when he first started. Wow. And I think there's, I think there's a classic. Three years old. He's there. Born in Fort Worth, Texas. That's right. I always. Yeah, he was a Texas from Texas. And he didn't shoot anybody. So that's good. No.

[00:15:48] Three years old to like, I think maybe about. Well. Eleven. That's about right. Yeah. Because there was some point when they were doing the little rascals that remember Porky and Buckwheat were the little ones. Yes.

[00:16:09] And all of a sudden, all of a sudden, Porky got a little bit taller than, or was getting as tall as, as, you know, as, as, as Spanky at one point, you know, and then they brought in Froggy. And they brought in, you know, you know, you know, Bobby, Bobby Blake, Robert Blake. You know that, right? Robert Blake was one of the little rascals.

[00:16:40] Oh, shit. That's right. See. Yeah. I always think of him just as Roger Corman time and then working with him later after man from uncle. Yeah. No, Rob. No, that's Robert Vaughn. Oh, Robert Blake. Beretta. Robert. Oh, Robert Blake. Yeah. Oh, no. Why did I hear you say Vong when clearly? Oh, no. Oh, well, at least, at least Blake didn't shoot any kids. So that's good. Um, I'm sorry.

[00:17:09] At least, at least he didn't go to a restaurant, you know, what did you do? I shot somebody. Oh, no. You know, um, uh, I'm sorry. Oh, no. Can you imagine a South Park version of like, oh my God, you killed Alfalfa. Yeah. Oh, man. Did you see the Simpsons when they did the Simpsons? The Simpsons where you find out that Moe was one of the little rascals and he killed Alfalfa. Oh, my God.

[00:17:39] No. That's great. Oh, oh, yeah. That's amazing. Now we got to find that clip and post it. You know, you know, there's a rumor that there's a curse of the of the little rascals. I have vaguely like what they died at and shit like that. And it's like, yeah, froggy. Froggy died. Froggy died. Um, when he was 15. He was riding a scooter with a friend of his.

[00:18:09] They were delivering papers. They got hit by a car. So this is what was invading Hollywood before all the awful stuff like the poltergeist rumors. And you're like, seriously, guys, it just happened. It's not cursed. No, like Bruce Lee. Just it was a mistake and someone screwed up, you know. But yeah, but I back. I mean, to watch those shorts when you're a kid.

[00:18:36] And, you know, you're watching it when you're like, just like cartoons like they are. It's like a live action cartoons. Like, I love the one where the kid gets the new fire truck and they build their own fire truck. And there were women in the gang, too. It was all in there were women in the gang. It was never, you know, it was just a bunch of wars, a little and, you know, and they were all charming. They were never just. Yeah. Let's follow these.

[00:19:05] Guys who are assholes, but they're funny, you know, that they don't have to. They don't have to have a redeeming arc. They're just kids have being kids. You know, the thing I love is how they would like just write something and it would be like. All right. Tommy and Butch find alfalfa and they don't beat them up, but they give them they give them a good lesson. Yeah, just the lessons. And it was never over overtly depressing or preachy.

[00:19:30] It was just a you know, it was written like a simple obstacle like you get in any comic book. Like, hey, I need to buy flowers for the girl I have a crush on, but I have to work that day or something. You know, just shit like that. Just like they would. Oh, I have a natural. I think if you had a crush on the girl, you would watch alfalfa go after Darla. You know, I did read how Shirley Jean played by Shirley Jean Rickett actually did become a burlesque dancer years later. Who?

[00:20:00] Shirley Jean. Really? Yeah, I had no idea. But she's first appears in helping grandma and her last short was fly my kite in 1931. So we're talking very early. I love the there's there's one where where they take the gang, the teacher takes the gang to the beach.

[00:20:24] And the the one, the one kid who was in the earlier episodes now a true officer. So he's like, Mary, you know, will you just give me one kiss? No. And there's Spanky lying down under an umbrella going, oh, for crying out loud, will you just kiss her already? He goes back to sleep. Breaking the silence. Oh, geez. I mean, Spanky was such a natural as an actor.

[00:20:51] Did you like these more or did you like leave it to Bieber kind of more? These were better. All right. No, I just I asked because Hugh Beaumont was a judge's aide and good bad boys. Yeah, no, I, I gotta say, I gotta say, you know, with with with with our gang, you know, it was it was, you know, it was funny to watch.

[00:21:16] And, you know, it's always good. The comedy was was so it was it could be visual and it could be wordy. It was like like Laurel and Hardy here watch Laurel and Hardy, the shorts they did. Yeah, I kind of like Hardy more. But get this. I watched Little Rascals way more. Yeah, it's always fun doing the what it is objectively better versus subjectively. What do you enjoy? But more, it's always a fun.

[00:21:43] Did you did you know there was a Little Rascals cartoon? I did hear about it. I don't know who animated it. I Darla. Darla Hood played the voice of Miss Crabtree. Wow. When they did the special in 79. Right before she passed away. And what happened was, was that later they put the Little Rascals. Oh, that's right. We did mention that in Hanna-Barbera. I'm so confused. Why did I forget that?

[00:22:13] I think Worky and the estate of Buckwheat basically sued them for, for trade for character infringement. Right. So they said, they said, okay. The ones who were living were like, that's okay. That's okay. But, yeah. Darla, Alfalfa, and Buckwheat had passed away and they were like, yeah, you can get away with that. But you get away with it. But, but, you know, you're going to put it on trading cards. And I can remember that show being on for like a year. And that's it.

[00:22:43] Well, Warner Brothers claim they, this prevents them still to this day from releasing on DVD back in a 2016 interview. And because of the lawsuit, they, they have not been able to syndicate it on Cartoon Network or Boomerang. So. No, but somebody uploaded it on YouTube. Yeah. Thank you. God. YouTube is the underdog, man. Just. I could not. Spanky got involved too.

[00:23:09] Spanky's like, look, you're putting my, my likeness as a child and I'm not getting any residuals for it. No, no, that's not how it works. Yeah. I can't blame them. It's just, it just makes you wonder who did the paperwork. Um, yeah. Or why they couldn't have just said, hey, you know, if I had any brains, I would have just pulled the comedy card and just had them be a spoof of rascals instead of just the little rascal cartoon that wasn't endorsed.

[00:23:35] Um, I don't know why Spanky's family lived in the same LA home as Michael Jackson. Uh, that this is so wild. Wait, wait, what happened? Uh, George McFarlane, uh, who played Spanky, uh, his family, um, uh, Michael Jackson's family lived in the same Los Angeles home that. Are you kidding me? I'm not kidding. Oh, and I would always hear that once in a while. And it was said so many times. I was like, okay, so this isn't tabloids anywhere. This is, this is legit.

[00:24:07] I love Spanky being on Cheers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, he's like, he's like, uh, you know, the guy at the end. Yeah. I think that's a Spanky McFarlane. And Annabelle Logan was a female villainous in Superman four. Oh my. Wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Annabelle Logan. Yeah. In Superman three or Superman four. Superman four.

[00:24:36] Who was she in Superman four? I'm getting it up. What is that? Oh, wait. Okay. So the Wikipedia is wrong, but it's Superman free as Vera. That's what it is. Okay. Oh my gosh. She was one of the little rascals. Apparently. Yeah. Holy shit. So crazy. She, her credits include episodes of the same. Even doing dubbing for blue beard. 72. Yeah. My God. Okay. Shit. Yeah. Okay. So yeah.

[00:25:05] When Billy is one of the red cross ladies and yanks. I had no idea. Holy Christ. Yeah. Billy. Yeah, man. There's a great one. It's not like the Stooges where they pop up in exploitation films or. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's one I'm trying to watch. I'm watching here.

[00:25:31] Uh, Gene Reynolds and Jackie Cooper, famous directors, both got their start acting. And that, that's what I really took away from it is, is like, I know Tony Dow from Leave it to Beaver, his mother also worked on these. So I was like, see, acting just runs in everyone's family. Yeah. I saw that Ron Howard had tried to do a TV show back when he first got started, but it never took off. Same thing with Norman Lair, where he was trying to cast Gary Coleman. But that's okay. Oh, wow. Yeah.

[00:26:01] He was gonna. Coleman would have played Stymie and it was an on sold. Rascal spinoff. Yeah. So I think it was crisis averted. It would have been just too soon. And. Well, and like anything we see. You know, it's just unfortunately you'll always be a remake, even if you're good. If you try remaking it is like, it's better to just be inspired. Like. Kids in the hall are great, for instance, because they're doing their own thing. While it's similar.

[00:26:29] They're clearly inspired by Monty Python. You know, that's. That would be a different story had a bunch of these Canadian comedians decided, hey, let's do Python. The next generation. You know. Would have been probably disastrous because we just had too much. I didn't notice that. When they did a sons of the desert in 1980 sons of the desert was the Laurel and Hardy. Fan club, but they would do the little rascals.

[00:26:57] It was something for something for the little rats. It was the Hal Roach thing. Right. They said that. I see they still have an operating fan clubs. That's cool. Yeah. They. George McFarlane, Dorothy Deborah and Joe Cobb and Tommy Bond were brought out when Thomas was brought out. Buckwheat. He received a spontaneous standing ovation. That's how much he was loved.

[00:27:26] But I think I didn't know this. He worked with. He worked at Technicolor. He worked at Technicolor. He was. He was a film lab tech there and he was. Wow. Negative film reels for jaws from and for Metro color processing Logan's run. So he. He was basically he was learning about film editing cutting. Yeah. Yeah, man. Yeah.

[00:27:55] Uh, there were some other interesting crew members. Fred C. Neumeier originally directed the first our gang film, but most of his work was scrapped and Fred McGowan took over. They liked his directing style better. Uh, the first our gang short though is presumed lost apart from a surviving fragment. Yeah, I've I heard about. I'm trying to looking for a lot of these shorts for years and it seems like you got they've done a good job of just kind of preventing them.

[00:28:23] They just insist you buy the DVD collection. Oh, geez, but I know I so you'll have this Ellen Corby was a script gore for the hell road studios and she married Francis Corby the famous photographer and she went on to become a character actress, but she's best known as Grandma on the Walton. Grandma Walton. Yeah, there you go. This is like what Dorothy Dandridge appeared in teachers bow from 35.

[00:28:54] So I'm like man the famous, you know, one of the first black actresses got their start here. Oh, I mean and it's so ironic how. There's many of our favorite actors who become famous for playing other. You know, actual actors, you know that Dorothy Dandridge that was a big like Emmy hit for Holly Berry back in the day when she portrayed her in that. I remember when she did that. Yeah, it's like see that's that's a labor of love.

[00:29:23] That's that's very hard to do to portray all these troubled real life icons. You know when they were talking they were talking about. I'm reading about Spanky is that he did he did he did only one role. General Spanky and they were getting to move and then he was in a trail.

[00:29:46] Yeah, but butch was also related to Grant Grant. And a grandmama on the Addams Family. Oh, yeah, I forgot. And so that's why many people would think oh, they're they're on both. I'm like, well, kind of. So butch's mom was played by Mary Blake, a singer of singing actress Jeanette

[00:30:15] McDonald, who became Blossom Rock and then became grandmama on the Addams Family. And yeah, Mary would appear as Alfalfa's aunt and Eugene Jackson, who played Pineapple, actually appeared in the 98 Addams Family movie. So I'm like, OK, so it's a little cryptic. You got to do something funny. If you watch the if you watch the Buddy Holly story from 78.

[00:30:45] Oh, with Gary Busey. Gary Busey. Stiney is the guy in the back with the guy who books the acts for the Apollo. Oh, and as a tribute, he's got his little he's got the Derby on my dad's going. Hey, that's Stiney from the Little Rascals. I'm like, yeah, yeah. I was like, yeah, he's got his little bowler hat on, you know, I love it like him and Dickie Moore. They're eating breakfast. He's like, you sure know how to cook eggs. Yeah. And that ham looks good, too.

[00:31:14] Give me a slice of that ham. You know, because you're like when you're a kid, you're just like you're a lot. You don't care about the race. You just you're the way the way Stiney's just going. They had good eggs. I mean, you know, yeah. So was that the same hat as what Laurel or Hardy were wearing? Or is that? No, no, no. It was just it was just a hat that you wore. I don't know. Just that's sweet. Great.

[00:31:37] Very, very neat that but that kudos, you know, if most of them can be well liked and still hardworking, you know that because it's just so sad when you see so many of them have like a Marilyn Monroe type tragedy where you're like, good grief, you know, and well, I heard about like, you know, like you hear about darling and she died after an appendectomy. Hmm. But, you know, you hear about they didn't have an answer for those kind of diseases back then.

[00:32:07] Yeah, no, no, no. It's just she just had a really bad she but spanky McFarlane said. You know, he said that she actually died of a broken heart, you know, because her husband had died. Hmm. Hmm. But I think the one thing I'm just looking at right now is. Uh, was the one I was was someone I was looking at before.

[00:32:38] Jackie Cooper, I can remember. Hmm. He was he was he was. Please, mister. Don't shoot my dog. Um, I remember he was they would have some intense moments, but it never got to the point where you're like, I wouldn't want to show this to. Oh, I still I still laugh a little bit when you know, um, you know, I just laugh a little

[00:33:06] bit because like, you know, he was he he was always with Wallace Beery and Wallace Beery hated hated kids. Yeah, you know, but I can remember. I can remember the one, you know, well, they always had Miss Crabtree in it. Right. Mm hmm. And this Crabtree was like, you know, the one that, you know, they've always you know, they're they always would have it where, you know, Miss McGillocuddy, you know, well, the one of the one plot is always they'd be like to be like, I'm not going to school today.

[00:33:36] Me neither. And they'd be like, let's get okay, everybody. Let's get measles. So, you know, everybody has measles that cuts over to Buckwheat. Everybody's got like a dark measles marks. Buckwheat has white measles marks on his face, you know, and you know, they're like, this is the way. Yeah. Yeah. So it cuts to the oh, the kids know they didn't have class. They all had ice cream that day and they missed out on it, you know. So, I mean, you know, Robert Klein used to do a great bit about the.

[00:34:07] Great. But I'm just so underrated like dudes like I think he scored real high. I am like some intelligence test or something like that. That's so witty. I think Robert Klein. Yeah, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I think the one thing that is. I think the thing I love is. Like if you watch the. The documentary.

[00:34:37] No, if you watch if you watch the. A lot of those movies, a lot of the early ones before Spanky and. So what's the one I'm trying to look for? OK, Mary, me was a crush. Jack Chubby. OK, so this is the one. This is the one I love. I used to have a cat named Chubby. It was called Love Business. It was in 1931. It's called Love Business, right? Love Business. Jackie's hopefully is in love with Miss Crabtree at the same time.

[00:35:05] His sister, Mary, tells her mother that Jackie is in love with Miss Crabtree. Jackie runs off to school without eating breakfast meal. Miss Crabtree comes aboard Jackie's home and moves in later that day. Chubby is also in love with Miss Crabtree. And practice kissing her on an oversized cardboard statue of Greta Garbo. I remember this. At school, Weezer tells Jackie, Mary and Chubby Farina that Miss Crabtree is moving into their house. Jackie has mixed emotions about this. That evening, Jack, Miss Crabtree has dinner with Jackie, Mary and Weezer and the mother.

[00:35:34] The mothballs fell into the soup earlier, giving the soup a very bitter taste. Later, Chubby stops in to see Miss Crabtree. She says some very romantic poetry. Miss Crabtree asks Chubby whether he got all this stuff. He says from Weezer who got it for his mother-old's love letters. Mother hears about this and is about to give Weezer a spanking but decides not in the end. Okay, so these are the lines that are said in the movie. Now, Chubby was Norman Chaney. Norman Chaney was...

[00:36:05] Let's see, I gotta think. He had a glandular disease. And Chubby was the one and then he got replaced by... He was only 3'11 and weighed about 311 pounds. So... No, I'm sorry, 130. He was 3'11 and weighed... He weighed 113 pounds. So, Joe Cobb would come in later and replace him. Joe Cobb...

[00:36:34] So, when Chubby left, he... He gained... He eventually topped 300 pounds. Although he never grew beyond 4'7". Holy shit. Holy crap. So, he had a glandular... He... So, he went in... He went to John Hopkins. Dropped over 300 pounds to less than 140 pounds. He got myocarditis...

[00:37:05] Myocarditis... What is that? That's basically a heart disease. Hmm... And he was 21. He weighed 110 pounds. He was the first of the Outgang alumni to die. Hmm... His grave remained on mark... Because his mother cannot afford a marker for him. You never see anyone... Wow. Yeah, shit. Holy crap, but... So, yeah, Annie Samuel was the oldest. Ernie Morrison was the second oldest.

[00:37:33] George Sonny was the third. And then Kendall... Was the fourth. And... Wait, I gotta... I gotta find this. Okay. So, this is the... Weezer. I hated Weezer. These were such a dick. Weezer was a dick. I'm sorry. Yeah. Alan Farina Hopkins. Bob Weezer. Yeah, she's Marianne Jackson. Yeah, I remember.

[00:38:01] Those are featured background people. No, she was the one... She was always the one who had like the... Like, she was always like, Oh, I'm gonna get you in trouble, you know. The snitch. Yeah. But, you know, she... She's kind of like the Pamela Ferdin of her day. Oh, dear. Alan Hoskins. Don't call me... That's the famous... Don't call me Norman. Call me Chubzy Ebzy. Well... So... Well, it has the soup.

[00:38:30] Oh, it's delicious, but I'm afraid it's a little too rich for me. Oh, I'm sorry. Tastes like mothballs. Ooh. I swallowed it. Tastes like Paz Dress Soup. Like Paz Dress Soup smells. Yeah, and he says, I swallowed it too. Tastes more like axle grease. Wow. Keep putting... What's the one? Ah, shit. I'm trying to look for it. Ah, well. That's... Yeah. Yeah, you can't blow your nose at the table. That's not etiquette. And a cat? Who ate a cat? I wouldn't eat no cat.

[00:39:02] What's the matter with you? Oh, I couldn't sleep at all last night. Couldn't sleep. Why? Ah, Jackie kept hugging me and kissing me all night. He did yet. He kept saying, I love you. I love you, my darling. I love you. I love you. Yeah. Hey, don't try to kiss me. I'll kiss you with my fist in a minute. But what's the one I'm looking for? Wait, I'm trying to look for... I'm trying to get... Oh, Miss Crabtree. Oh, oh, my darling. Can you hear my pleas and whispers? Darling, I hear your pleas and whispers.

[00:39:31] Oh, my darling. Oh, if love is like a rose, I will pick my rose in the bud. If love is like a rose, I will stick my nose in the mud. Oh. My heart is filled with joy. I want to trip and dance. My heart is filled with joy. I want to rip my pants. Oh, Miss Crabtree. There's something heavy on my heart. I want to ask you something. Oh, Chubsy, there's going to be something heavy on your nose. Oh, God. These are so fucking hilarious. They're pretty dirty. No, no. It's not that they're dirty. They're just good.

[00:40:00] Yeah, wait a minute, fellas. Well, it's on your nose. Yeah. Whatever he's describing. No, no. No, his fist. His fist. Oh. He's going to punch me up. Oh, God. Slightly awkward. Oh, Jesus Christ. Farina, excluding cameos, appeared in 105 shorts. Spanky appeared in 95. Buck Week appeared in 92. Joe Cobb appeared in 85. And Jackie appeared in 78.

[00:40:28] So, like, those are the top five. Top guys, yeah. Most appearances by each member. I never thought to even do the math. Like, there's just so many of them. I don't know. Like, where do you even start? There's one they do where they go on. Like, they're, I think it's like one of the early spanking ones, which is just about to. And they do it where they have the International Silver String Submarine Band. And they go on the radio show. And it's, you know, it's them. They're like, hey, hey, Stine, give me a C. Here you go.

[00:40:59] Bang. So the whole time they're playing the, the flying, the man on the flying trapeze. And every time they hit something, the engineer's hair goes up in the air because it's like, he's blowing a fuse all the time. You have to watch this. It's, it's one of those things you watch when you're a kid, you're hysterical laughing. When you get older, you're watching your hysterical laughing. So. Oh, Dully. I mean, and there's so much crossover.

[00:41:24] The Stolen Jewels shorts has an appearance by Edward G. Robinson as a thief and Buster Keaton plays one of the cops. Yep. Gary Cooper. Yeah, could be able to work at MGM at the time. And Joan Crawford. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Joan Crawford slaps the kids. Someone and Laurel and Hardy were cops in a vehicle. Yeah. Yeah. We'll return after these messages.

[00:41:53] If you like small town mystery, crazy news and wild history, then the Florida men on Florida man podcast is for you. Each week, Josh Mills and Wayne McCarty bring you the absolute best Florida has to offer. So if you're looking for a show that's safe for the family, but funny enough to help you escape everyday life, then listen to the Florida men on Florida man podcast. That's Florida men plural on Florida man podcast. Hey, it's Brent Pope, the host of breakfast with Brent Pope.

[00:42:23] You've seen me on some of your favorite TV shows saying things like give it up, Jimmy. You got to sink this put to win on breakfast with Brent Pope. I sit down with guests for the entertainment world and we do it all over breakfast. Or should I say breakfast every week on breakfast? You get inside Hollywood info and tips, great breakfast recs and booty debates. Most of all, you get the most delightful 30 minutes of your week. So dig in. It's Brent this time. Listen at Brent this dot com, Apple podcasts or wherever fine podcasts are found.

[00:42:49] What it lo and behold, Mike's joining us. Hi, Mike. Mike. Mike. Mike. Mike. Mike lives. Mike lives. So we've been going to trivia city looking at the best gags skits. And just the lesser known stuff about the, our gang. And. Well, and behold. Okay.

[00:43:21] I actually just watched one of those. Um, as an extra on a Mark's brothers DVD. Oh yeah. Oh, was there a crossover with Mark's? Well, I think they ran, they put like stuff you'd see in the shorts before the movies back then. Well, it had to be an MGM one because MGM took over for Hal Roach by then. Gotcha. Cause yeah, I saw that some of those were distributed by Paramount. So.

[00:43:48] Oh, and I got to say, I went through all the Mark's brothers movies. Love happy. Doesn't work very well. No, no, it does not. No. Oh, is it because of their, what? Can you better explain that? Like I'm not sure. I'm not familiar with that one. Well, Harper can't carry a film for one thing. Yeah. Oh, we're, we're talking. Okay. Yeah. We're talking later. Okay. Yeah. Well, they made one more movie, but they weren't in it. I thought we were talking rascal. I thought we had.

[00:44:17] I just jumped in and just started talking. Well, it's okay. Love happy. Love happy is the, is the one I always say the last one they did was a night in Casablanca. Yeah. That's the last, that's the last one for me. I've watched love happy like about five times in my life. Yeah. It doesn't work because of two things. Number one, the three of them aren't on the screen together. No, it's just, it's just.

[00:44:46] Groucho doing, Groucho doing like a Greek chorus as a detective Sam Grunion. Yeah. And then you've got, you've got Chico and Harpo. And then you've got, you know, them working together. And you know, Harpo is trying to be like Charlie Chaplin. Hmm. And he. Yeah.

[00:45:08] When you hear the background of the movie and I'm sure you, you know about this, Mike, he went to Sam Lowe, who's the producer and said, look, I want to do a movie. He says, well, the only way we're going to finance the movie is if you get Chico and Groucho in it. He goes, Chico needs the money. No. So. So. So what they said was, okay. So they wrote it and the end part, it's like sight gags galore, you know?

[00:45:38] Mm-hmm. And I'm like, you know, you're kind of like, wow, this is. This doesn't work good for me. I mean, it didn't work. It didn't work. No, and all the big. And it's a shame because he often. That's an irony though, because I mean, he really can still the show at times in the other skits. But when the camera is only on him, I guess the pressure was on. Yeah. Oh, he's around all these big. It's one of the first movies to have product placement. But I still feel sorry for any comedian.

[00:46:05] I mean, we can imagine being comedians now is like, okay, if it doesn't work, I just go home and sulk. But I can't imagine failing and getting better as a comedian in the 20s or 30s where people are throwing shit at you. There is no double standards, you know? Yeah. When we did Love Happy in 1949, that was the last movie we did together. And then we did this funnest story of mankind. Right.

[00:46:35] When they did Love Happy, there's two things there. Number one, Raymond Burr is in it. Yeah. It's very bizarre. Yeah. Yeah. What the hell, Raymond? And then, isn't it true? And then you've got... Ironside. Then you've got Marilyn Monroe doing a walk-on, which is one of the best walk-ons I've ever seen. She says, Mr. Cruddy? Yes?

[00:47:05] Some men are following me. She walks up and says, really? I can't see the reason why. Is it like James Dean appearing in that one Ed Wood film? No, no, no, no. It's just... It's just... It's just kind of like... She does this walk-on and she was... She wasn't Marilyn yet. I mean, she's going to be Marilyn Monroe. Yeah. But she wasn't Marilyn Monroe yet, you know?

[00:47:34] So, I don't know if that's her first movie or Scudahoo Scudahay. I think she's in a canoe. Scudahoo Scudahay was the first one, I think. Yeah. Or she has a big role in it. And I think they also filmed that movie and released it later. Love Happy was like two years in development. I don't know. Yeah. It was... There's always the thing about like, when did Love Happy come out? Was it 49? Mm-hmm. 48? Something like that. 49? 50? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:48:03] I mean, also, they always had absurdity in their movies, but the credibility level... I mean, they put Harpo on a washing machine at one point and run it on site. It's like he'd have been dead, you know? It's just... Yeah. It's a strange movie. Yeah. It is fun to watch Raymond Burr. He's starting to crack up several times because he's... Yeah. ...and laughing at the whole absurdity of it.

[00:48:30] But yeah, it was not a fine finish for those guys. That's true. No, it's kind of like... It's kind of like... I always say it's like the let it be for the March brothers. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So I'm sorry. Where were we on the Little Rascals? Oh, we're talking about the Little Rascals. Kind of near the end of the tunnel, but I mean... Feel free. You know? Uh... Like, we were pretty much...

[00:48:59] I only have like a bit of trivia left and that's that. Yeah. Uh... Three of them... Well, one of them was just a roach character actor, but two of them were in The Wizard of Oz as dwarves. And those were... Munchkins, you mean? Munchkins? Yes. Sorry. I didn't know how we wanted to phrase it. Um... Yeah. Uh... But... Yeah. So those people were...

[00:49:27] Those actors, not people. Um... Uh... Okay. So here we go. Um... Priscilla Montgomery, who of course, for those who don't know, played Priscilla, and Evely Cooney, who was credited in Little Papa, uh, short from 35, uh, they were... Uh... Yeah.

[00:49:50] They were playing, uh, two of the Munchkins, and Billy Bletcher, who would often be like a bailiff or just factory worker or... And even played Wally's father in the first round-up short. He was just a recurring actor playing various roles on Howl Roach Productions. He actually, uh, was reported to have dubbed the voice of the Munchkin mayor in post. So... That's called it ever last. Okay. Okay. Wayne Brady does a perfect imitation on his line.

[00:50:20] There's always a line in The Wizard of Oz that's intrigued me. All the Muppets and all their descendants, if any... It sounds so foreboding, like they're gonna get wiped out or something, but I think they had some... I researched it a little bit. That has something to do with a tax form of the day. Um... Yeah, under the depression. Well, Wizard of Oz was also just...

[00:50:50] That's basically Jim Henson's mind. Like that's... If you were to open up his... His cranium, like that's basically all it is. I'm living in The Wizard of Oz every day. Yeah. Um... It's... It's hard to remember. Apparently, one particular one. It's...

[00:51:20] It's the one where Moe... You find out Moe killed Alfalfa. Oh, I think I... Yeah, I think I remember that. He's like, oh, my Aggie! He's the shit out of the Alpha. He's like, yeah, there was like five kids. They were all Alfalfa. You know? Oh, wow. It's almost a I am Spartacus kind of thing. No, I'm Alfalfa. No, I'm not. I do remember they did the land of the jockeys. They live underground or something on The Simpsons. That's basically the rascals. Yeah.

[00:51:49] Did you ever hear the story about how Alfalfa died? Mm-hmm. Oh, wasn't it... Wasn't he shot? Wasn't... Okay. He was shot. What happened was that there was a lost dog... Carl Switzer, for those keeping up. Yeah. Carl Switzer. There was a lost dog, right? Okay. And he found the dog, and the dog was a hunting dog. Mm-hmm.

[00:52:17] So he brought it back to the guy, and the guy was like, I'll pay you when I get the chance. So, supposedly Alfalfa Switzer kept coming back every like, you know, two weeks or something. Hey, where's my money? I brought the dog back. And he's like, he's like, look, I'm... Look, I'll pay you. I'll pay you. So, it got violent one time, and I think Alfalfa pulled a knife and the guy pulled a gun out and shot him. Mm-hmm. I'm seeing it now. I think that was January 21st, 1959. Yeah.

[00:52:47] I can imagine... It's just a kid. He wasn't a kid. He was a... Pretty young adult. How old was he? How old was he? Well, the... 31. Wow. He's a young adult. Oh, there's... They talk about a young rascal's... Our gang curse, too, that bad things happen.

[00:53:16] Yeah, we've put that up before. See, it's just so wild, though, how everyone's gotta add a curse when it's just bad misfortunes, you know? Yeah, and it's... There were that many people involved in the show. Always insensitive, unfortunately. Wasn't Robert Blake in our gang at one point? Yes. Yep. And he's named... This is before he shot someone. Yeah. So, his name was Mickey... Mickey Gatopski or something like that. Okay. He went by that name.

[00:53:46] Was he part of the art gang or part of the side characters, the bad kids they didn't like or something? Yeah, Butch and Wayne. Okay, yeah. The one that I saw in the Marx Brothers movie was Butch was running for... A kid could be a mayor for a day or something, and he was up against Elfalfa. Yeah. Yeah. And then this... It turns out some kid got it because the mayor knew somebody and it was all rigged or something. It was kind of a political statement for that. For that time, you know.

[00:54:16] I hated Waldo. Remember Waldo? And this is years before where's Waldo? Yeah. Waldo, the rich kid. Okay. I'll see. That might have been the kid that got the mayor jump. If anything, he's a representation of that rich prick who we meet in elementary school who everyone wants to trip just because they're so snotty to everybody. Yeah. My dad can kick your dad's ass.

[00:54:42] I just think the best thing I've ever seen in my life is some guy had a shirt that said the He-Man Woman Haters Club. Yeah. Oh, my God. Mike, we brought up the one where the kid has to learn the poem and he doesn't want to go to school and he wants to be a streetcar driver. And he keeps saying... He just keeps repeating during the short, learn that poem. Learn that poem. Learn that poem. Learn that poem. Wow. Did you talk about the Robert Klein routine about the...

[00:55:12] Yes. Yeah. Oh, my God. Well, yeah, it's classic. Only three... Have any other standup comedians mentioned them? Made it part of their gags? Well, Andy Murphy. Yeah. No, we're good. But I can remember like Klein... I have the album he did then on Child of the 50s. Yeah. That's a great record. And I was literally like my... I was literally like... I had it. I was laughing because I was like, oh, my God, he's right.

[00:55:41] There was only like three pieces of music that were used throughout the whole little rashes and go... Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. You know? And they could remember lines. You mentioned that in there too. Yeah. So there's one line of dialogue for like half hour music. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and it was seamless, I guess, since you go from being a silent film to a series to a live action series with sound.

[00:56:11] But like you say, now they got to just give only a few of them something to do in a few of them lines. So, yeah. I liked that bit in that routine too, where he says everybody in the 30s always said, say, say, what are you kids doing? Yeah. What are you kids doing? And it was always just wacky lines they give whatever adult is catching them doing something where they shouldn't. Yeah. It was always some adult who like, say, what are you kids doing here? Scrap, see?

[00:56:38] Which one of them, was one of them a thief at times doing what dumb kids do? I don't know. All right. I can be misremembering. Okay. It seemed like they were often just running around. Yeah. Oh, that's another thing about Love Happy. Um, Harpo is basically a crook. Okay. He's still in it. The whole movie is still in food for the theater group and everything.

[00:57:06] And he's got like a big jacket full of food that he swipes cans of food and the running gang was, you know, then they'd start emptying the pockets and there's all kinds of stuff in them. But it was just, I don't know. It was just a bizarre movie. Yeah. The tone was off compared to something like horse feathers or duck soup, you know? But it feels like, it feels like, you know, it feels like when you watch love happy, it feels like you're watching a movie where they just got together and said, you know, we'll give Harpo a movie.

[00:57:34] We'll get Chico in there and Chico doesn't even do that much from what I remember. Yeah. I don't recall him doing anything in it. And then, and then we'll put Groucho in and Groucho doesn't have the grease paint mustache. He's got the mustache on like the regular, like a regular mustache. Yeah. That was all putting too. Yeah. You know? And I just, you know, I just remember they would film those. It's like they said, all right, put, okay, but we'll put Groucho scenes in, you know,

[00:58:01] well, he's basically, we'll keep giving them the movie and narrates it here and there. We'll give them beautiful co-stars. Yeah. That's not really funny. I think all three appear together for maybe 10 seconds. I think up on the roof, he shows up. Yes. Yes. You're right. Yeah. But it's real quick. And even then it, I'm not even sure they're in the same shot. It might've been shot separately. So. Wow. We were shooting the roof. It just kind of ends.

[00:58:28] Uh, Harpal has the jewels and he wanders off and he was never seen again. It was just, yeah. They didn't know how to end the movie. Yeah. That was another problem. Yep. That's a problem for many movies, you know? How do we end the movie? How do we end the movie guys? Uh, he just walks off. Don't worry about it. And the whole movie has been running around with the jewels and getting away. And so that's how they ended it. It's like, okay. He's broke, man. He's broke. Just go for broke. Yeah. Anyway. He says this year in the jewels to Shiko.

[00:58:59] Cause Shiko needs the jewels. Cause he needs no money. No, I guess. Now, did Harpal actually play the harp or was that dubbed by somebody else? No, he actually played it. He actually played the harp. He didn't actually play it. Cause he always looks so serious. He did, but he had it. When he's playing the harp. He's totally different character when he plays it. Yeah. But he had it strung differently. Okay. And what happened was his technique.

[00:59:28] Somebody said he was using the wrong technique, but it was so, it was, it was good. It's like, it's like saying, okay, you're playing the guitar, not like this, but you're playing like this, but you, you have the way it's supposed to be, you know, you've got the, you've got the, the, the technique down. Yeah. Cause he wasn't, I don't think he was a trained harpist. I think he just learned on his own. Okay. Um, how? And you know, he, here's something funny.

[00:59:58] I found out that when he went to Russia in 1937, when he went to Russia, he actually, he actually was a spy for the United States. He actually brought in documents. Our hero. Like, yeah. And what he did was he hit him in the harp. Like, man, you know, I hit you in the harp, man. It happened.

[01:00:28] Oh man. I like Chico's piano style with that. Pointing the finger. Like he's shooting the gun. You're right. Very unique. Anyway. Anyway. Just a very unusual.

[01:00:58] way to play. Follow us on the web on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The podcast is available on Podbean, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Anchor, Apple, and anywhere else podcasts are available. Feel free to review our show and leave comments on any of those sites. Thanks a million for listening.