#Where are the original little rascals series#

After a couple of false starts, he also found a director, Robert F. Real kids, Roach believed, would be a richer source of comedy than the painted and pampered stage children usually seen in the movies, and drawing on recommendations from friends and studio employees, he put together a first cast of mostly nonprofessionals.

#Where are the original little rascals series#

According to Leonard Maltin and Richard BannвЂ™s book, вЂњThe Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our GangвЂќ (Three Rivers Press, 1992), Roach conceived the series while watching a group of children argue over bits of wood theyвЂ™d taken from a lumberyard near his studio in Culver City, Calif. Roach (1892-1992) was a pioneering independent producer of short comedies who also started the careers of Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chase and the team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. (MGM continued to produce вЂњOur GangвЂќ shorts, with diminishing results, until 1944.) For the generation that grew up with them, these 80 shorts are the essence of the series, and watching them is a Proustian experience, yielding wave after wave of memories.Д«ut many of the вЂњOur GangвЂќ comedies are remarkable movies in their own right. This set consists of the 80 sound films produced by Hal Roach and released to television in the 1950s as вЂњThe Little RascalsвЂќ В— a name change made necessary because Roach had sold the вЂњOur GangвЂќ trademark to MGM in 1938. Some 220 shorts were produced between 19 starring the вЂњOur GangвЂќ kids and their assorted animal companions. Fields is said to have been the source of the show business maxim вЂњNever work with children or animals.вЂќ вЂњThe Little Rascals: The Complete Collection,вЂќ a boxed set of eight DVDs from Genius Entertainment, offers approximately 20 hoursвЂ™ worth of reasons Fields was right: nobody could compete.