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Post by wheezer on Jun 5, 2016 8:53:20 GMT -5
Another one: I'd get child services on James (Wheezer's dad) Hutchins' tail. I'd second this, especially if "NO one ever attempted to intervene on the children's behalf" is true.
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Post by mtw12055 on Jun 5, 2016 9:29:17 GMT -5
They could also have asked Jackie Condon appear in Fish Hooky. He should have been fishing with Joe and Farina and get a couple lines. Instead that fits in with the lack of lead roles the long-running character had, and to me that is an injustice. I agree that FISH HOOKY would have been a nice spot for Jackie. Also, while he was a bit too young to be in The Boyfriends series, it's too bad he couldn't have stuck around for the first 'Our Gang' talkie, SMALL TALK, and especially the follow up RAILROADIN', which borrowed some its sight gags from THE SUNDOWN LIMITED, which of course, did feature Jackie Condon. Also tantalizing is a photo taken of Jackie Condon with 'Our Gang' alumni Allen "Farina' Hoskins, Mary Kornman, Johnny Downs, and Joe Cobb, which looks to have been taken around the time the 1937 one reeler REUNION IN RHYTHM was shot, so it wasn't as though Jackie couldn't have conceivably been casted to appear in REUNION IN RHYTHM, though dialogue in that short wouldn't have been a given, either! This photo appears in the 1992 Edition of THE LITTLE RASCALS: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF OUR GANG. It's also worth noting that Jackie Condon's 78 'Our Gang' appearances, is by far the highest total for an 'Our Gang' member that didn't appear in so much as a single talkie, his YOU ASKED FOR IT television guest appearance in the early 1950's, notwithstanding! CHEERS! P.S. Here is the YOU ASKED FOR IT clip, which I believe represents the only recording of Jackie Condon's voice: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlMFHTYdG4E There's newsreel footage from that 1936/37 reunion. It was in honor of the Gang's 15th anniversary. IIRC, Mickey, Sunshine Sammy, and Jack Davis were also invited, but had prior engagements. m.youtube.com/watch?v=f1aHri6Vtr0There's actually behind the scenes footage of this newsreel out there, so that may mean more footage of Jackie Condon speaking. Unfortunately, it's in private hands, but it has been screened at some of those classic comedy film festivals in the past.
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Post by tboneator64 on Jun 5, 2016 21:09:09 GMT -5
I was just thinking that at least one 'Our Gang' short with John "Uh Huh" Collum and Dickie De Nuet paired up might have been interesting. CHEERS!
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Post by sandro on Jun 9, 2016 21:23:17 GMT -5
that Mr. Hal Roach had never sold the series to MGM. that all regular characters had more lines. and had a great meeting gathering all the generations of our gang.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2018 12:11:26 GMT -5
I wish that they would have given William Thomas Jr a bigger role in the Our Gang shorts (Eugene Lee as well). Matthew Beard, Allen Hoskins and Ernie Morrisons has had pretty important roles in some of the shorts, why not William? Maybe in some shorts, Buckwheat and Porky could be front and centre instead of Alfalfa and Spanky.
Maybe they shouldn't have had Carl Switzer sing badly all the time so that when he left Our Gang, people would want Carl Switzer, not Alfalfa. Alfalfa (the character) should have remained with Our Gang and not carried over into other unrelated films.
Another thing I would change; I would've tried to involve some of the older former Rascals more in the later shorts. Maybe some kind of "older rascals vs younger rascals" thing. I would've liked to see Ernie Morrison or Jackie Condon in later shorts, as well as some of the other older rascals, especially from the silent era.
Instead of selling the series, maybe Hal Roach could have hired another producer to produce the Our Gang shorts, while he goes to work on movies or other projects.
As for feature films; General Spanky should've been scrapped from the start. Spanky may be the popular Rascal, but he's not the only one. Also, a comedy (with not much comedy) movie set in the civil war isn't the best idea. Plus, it's not much of an Our Gang movie when you only have two of them, and Alfalfa not showing up until half-way through the movie.
If they HAD to have Robert Blake in the shorts, at least don't make him into a whiny crybaby in nearly every Our Gang film. He's not a baby or even a toddler, he doesn't need to cry so much. Make sure all the actors receive a decent diet, or just enough to eat, and also to interact with each other so that they can at least stand each other. That includes not starving Robert Hutchins or keeping him from socializing with the other children.
If a crew member is being inappropriate with a child, parent or other crew members, kick them out and shut the door. Depending on what the crewmember did, let the police know. Not sure if it's the parent mistreating their child though, firing the child could probably make things worse. Also, Carl Switzer used to play pranks and got worse when Hal Roach sold Our Gang to MGM. Maybe they should either get Carl's parents to actually discipline their child or they'll fire him. I would've had more than one teacher on set.
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Post by Buppster on Mar 1, 2018 11:05:34 GMT -5
Well he certainly said "Neither have I" (twice) in a very nicely modulated tone. Personally I'd have liked to have heard him recite The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll or Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven.
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Post by Buppster on Mar 1, 2018 11:11:55 GMT -5
If I could have changed one thing about Our Gang I'd have had Hal Roach take one look at Gus Miens and say, "There's something about that guy that I don't like, he makes my skin crawl. No, I don't want him working for my studio, especially around kids." Just maybe if that had happened the lives of Scotty Beckett, Carl Dean Switzer and others might have turned out a little differently. Perhaps Wally Albright might even have stayed with the series a little longer too.
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Post by Buppster on Jun 8, 2018 8:05:07 GMT -5
MGM were definitely not the best thing that ever happened to Our Gang but their initial shorts were in the main fairly amusing and watchable. I think that the first mistake that I can pinpoint, in which they definitely deviated from Hal Roach's approach, was when they rehired Spanky after Roach had already let him go. The shorts in which Spanky didn't appear were all fairly reasonably and to be honest his presence wasn't missed. MGM brought him back, even though he was getting too old anyway, and then after the initial few shorts they basically gave him nothing to do. If they thought that the Our Gang line up was lacking without Spanky then they should have hired a replacement for him, someone different who could have brought something new to the series.
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Post by Buppster on Jun 8, 2018 8:18:45 GMT -5
And another thing that I'd have changed is Beginner's Luck, in particular the ending, I'd have removed the scene in which Spanky's mother... well you all know the rest because some guy with multiple member accounts has mentioned it often enough. It would be like a Sarah Connor moment, remove that one scene from one short in 1935 and the knock on effect would be that this forum would have had half a dozen less 'members' and no nausea inducing, cringeworthy posts about that particular short.
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Post by farinastymie on Jun 8, 2018 11:22:50 GMT -5
I would have had Farina make more appearances beyond his cameo in Fish Hooky. Would have loved to see him interact with a older Spanky and Buckwheat.
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Post by RJH on Jun 9, 2018 0:09:43 GMT -5
MGM were definitely not the best thing that ever happened to Our Gang but their initial shorts were in the main fairly amusing and watchable. I think that the first mistake that I can pinpoint, in which they definitely deviated from Hal Roach's approach, was when they rehired Spanky after Roach had already let him go. The shorts in which Spank didn't appear were all fairly reasonably and to be honest his presence wasn't missed. MGM brought him back, even though he was getting too old anyway, and then after the initial few shorts they basically gave him nothing to do. If they thought that the Our Gang line up was lacking without Spanky then they should have hired a replacement for him, someone different who could have brought something new to the series. This is an interesting observation. The Roach-era Spanky was excellent, and the MGM-era version not so much. Had Spanky not been brought back, he would only be remembered for all the better performances. The series did fine in his absence, and then he returns as the bossy type. Imagine if they went back to what worked so well around 1923-27 or 28. Alfalfa and Darla would be the leads until they grew out of their roles, like Mickey Daniels and Mary Kornman. Porky needed to be kept on, and he and Buckwheat could grow and eventually become leads like Joe Cobb and Farina. Leonard Landy's role should have been greatly amplified and developed, and could be Jackie Condon's analog. Froggy could come along when he did, and there would be no need for Mickey G. One problem is that we need a better replacement for Darla than Janet. The other problem was Roach employees didn't last long into the MGM years, and MGM types could mess up all the best ideas.
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Post by Buppster on Jun 9, 2018 5:08:51 GMT -5
I'm inclined to agree that your projected outline for how the series might have continued is basically how Roach would have proceeded. He was definitely a guy who stuck with tried and tested successes, and attempted to repeat them, so resurrecting the essence of the Mickey Daniels and Mary Kornman partnership seems like just the sort of thing that he would have done. I think that you're right about the other roles too. There'd have been no need for Mickey Gubitosi at all and that might have been a good thing. On the plus side he was an agreeable and pleasant enough little lad but he was also pretty much a blank canvas, he had no real defining characteristics of his own, other than those two immensely disagreeable ones that the MGM writer landed him with, namely whining and sobbing. As for Janet, anyone else would have been an improvement and that includes Mickey Gubitosi wearing a dress.
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Post by fanofalfalfa1 on Jun 28, 2018 21:46:27 GMT -5
Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer never being shot and killed at age 31. He is my all-time favorite actor, and if he had lived longer, he could have and would have starred in many more movies, I believe.
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Post by Buppster on Jun 29, 2018 4:55:55 GMT -5
Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer never being shot and killed at age 31. He is my all-time favorite actor, and if he had lived longer, he could have and would have starred in many more movies, I believe. That's not really a part of Our Gang history as such though, as it happened around 15 years after he left Our Gang. Although I like Carl Switzer immensely, being realistic, even if he'd lived until a ripe old age he'd never had landed any more starring roles. He had half a dozen or so reasonable roles immediately after he left Our Gang, including his role in 'Regl'ar Fellers,' but by the time he'd reached his early twenties the roles were getting smaller and less frequent. Oh sure, the studios did try to cash in on his former popularity as 'Alfalfa' by reviving that character in the 'Gas House Kids' movies but they were low cost B movie productions and they weren't very successful. By the time that he'd reached his thirties Carl's time as a star of Our Gang was all but forgotten by the general public, so it probably didn't help him to land many acting jobs. Carl was also no longer the cute freckly boy with a cowlick that he'd been in his hey day. Carl's later movie roles were probably landed more as a result of his friendship with the likes of James Stewart and Roy Rogers, who were also fellow Masons, than by anything else.
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Post by myhomeo on Jul 10, 2018 13:56:59 GMT -5
He may not have landed any starring roles but he seemed to be building a career as a character actor. You might not get famous doing that stuff, but you can make a very good living.
As for his past as Alfalfa, it more likely hurt him as far as landing acting jobs went. One friend of his commented on how casting directors would demand, "Hey, Alfalfa! Sing off-key for us!" and how much Carl hated it.
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