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Post by Buppster on May 18, 2018 17:33:01 GMT -5
The post had already been made in another thread and it was me who suggested it might be better placed in 'The Little Rascal in Pop Culture' thread, so that's my fault. Original posting of the 'Darla' Irish advertThe idea of 'really' speaking to someone through a toy telephone was used in the 1980s movie Joey and also more famously in the 1961 Twilight Zone episode Long Distance Call in which Billy Mumy was talking to his dead grandmother on his toy telephone.
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Post by shirleymurphy on May 22, 2018 16:37:05 GMT -5
Sorry. I was just following Buppster's advice. You can easily see why the girl in the advert could be a Little Rascal. She was such a cute wee girl! I mean, look at her wee smile as she's dialing Santa’s number, with her golden hair nicely brushed and her jammies on: And the big phone in her wee hand (she's got lovely eyes)… And then her wee “Santa!” when you-know-who picks up, and the big smile!
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Post by mtw12055 on May 24, 2018 23:21:37 GMT -5
Just received my DVD copy of "The Misadventures of Biffle and Shooster," a series of really great, funny take-offs on old comedy shorts from the '30s and '40s. Definitely worth getting if you're a fan of any of that.
There are plenty of in-jokes to films of that era, including a few to 'Our Gang.'
There were at least four 'Our Gang' references made by the filmmaker.
In one short, "The Biffle Murder Case," a black bald butler is dubbed "Stymie" by a detective. "Imitation of a Wife," another short, uses Mr. Hood's "gluten bread" line from "Feed 'em and Weep." The phony production babies in the end credits for "Imitation of a Wife" are "Spanky," "Alfalfa," "Buckwheat," and "Darla." One of the production babies in "It's a Frame-Up!" is "Woim" (the other two are "Shemp" and "Zeppo").
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Post by Buppster on May 25, 2018 5:28:47 GMT -5
The newspaper cartoon panel series Out Our Way started its life in 1922, the same year as Our Gang, and in 1924 the gang got a mention.
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Post by rascalflats on Jul 18, 2018 8:49:55 GMT -5
I watched the game show Press Your Luck on the Canadian cable network GameTV this past Monday (Episode 011, originally aired on October 3, 1983), and I heard host Peter Tomarken refer to the monster called the Whammy as "the little rascal". There are episodes from later in 1983 that Peter uses "that little rascal" to describe the Whammy.
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Post by myhomeo on Aug 18, 2018 15:34:42 GMT -5
Another one: Just found SESAME STREET, OLD SCHOOL Volume 2, a collection of shows and skits from the classic PBS show in the Seventies. In one song sequence, I wish I could remember which one, a kid is wearing a Little Rascals shirt with a picture of Spanky and Alfalfa on the front.
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Post by mtw12055 on Aug 18, 2018 16:54:14 GMT -5
Another one: Just found SESAME STREET, OLD SCHOOL Volume 2, a collection of shows and skits from the classic PBS show in the Seventies. In one song sequence, I wish I could remember which one, a kid is wearing a Little Rascals shirt with a picture of Spanky and Alfalfa on the front. Thanks for mentioning that. I've got the Old School sets, but have mostly skimmed through them. I'll have to see if I can find that bit. I'm trying to compile a more comprehensive list of the Rascal pop culture references.
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Post by myhomeo on Aug 20, 2018 12:43:49 GMT -5
Another one: Just found SESAME STREET, OLD SCHOOL Volume 2, a collection of shows and skits from the classic PBS show in the Seventies. In one song sequence, I wish I could remember which one, a kid is wearing a Little Rascals shirt with a picture of Spanky and Alfalfa on the front. Thanks for mentioning that. I've got the Old School sets, but have mostly skimmed through them. I'll have to see if I can find that bit. I'm trying to compile a more comprehensive list of the Rascal pop culture references. I believe it's on the second disc. Oh, and the picture on the shirt is a still of Spanky and Alfalfa from, I believe, 'Bear Facts.' Wish I could help more.
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Post by mtw12055 on Aug 20, 2018 18:54:21 GMT -5
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Post by myhomeo on Sept 5, 2018 12:38:06 GMT -5
Another obscurity from a DVD set, in this case THE WEIRD AL SHOW. Yeah, Weird Al Yankovic had a kids show in the 90's, I think, that only lasted thirteen episodes, largely due to network interference and indifference.
Anyway, the DVD set includes commentary on all thirteen episodes by Al and the folks who worked with him on the show. During one episode, Al does a reaction and he refers to it on the commentary as his 'Alfalfa take,' going on to clarify he's referring to The Little Rascals.
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Post by Buppster on Sept 22, 2018 8:55:21 GMT -5
I just watched "You Don't Know Whatcha Got" by The Zots and they used a couple of little snippets from Our Gang in their video.
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Post by myhomeo on Sept 26, 2018 12:56:57 GMT -5
Another one, though it's more merchandising than anything else: Ben Cooper Costumes, one of the major marketers of those junky little trick-or-treat costumes you used to buy at the store with the vinyl poncho and the face held on by a rubber-band that would break after seven minutes, did a Little Rascals costume in, I think, the Seventies. Not a specific Rascal, just The Little Rascals in tandem. The photo I found indicates the mask was Pete The Pup and the poncho had images of Spanky, Buckwheat, and Alfalfa.
As you can imagine, they're quite rare now.
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Post by Buppster on Oct 3, 2018 5:19:30 GMT -5
From The Corner Of His Eye by Dean Koontz. Page 378. (Discussing the work of a black female painter at a Christmas party in the late 1960s) "Sure, I know her. Had some classes with her. She's nice enough, but kind of nerdy, especially for an Afro-American. I mean, they're never nerdy - am I right?" "You're right, except maybe for Buckwheat." "Who?" she shouted, though they were perched side by side on a black-leather love seat. Junior raised his voice even further: "In those old movies, the Little Rascals." "Me, I don't like anything old."
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Post by mtw12055 on Nov 11, 2018 18:18:29 GMT -5
Turns out that the Gang got a reference on Saturday Night Live before Eddie Murphy ever showed up.
In a segment called Celebrity Crackups, Jane Curtin interviews Robert Blake (John Belushi), Tony Orlando (Bill Murray), Richard Pryor (Garrett Morris), and Claudine Longet (Gilda Radner), who each talk about their troubled lives. Orlando talks a bit about the then recent death of Charlie Chaplin. Blake recalls how Chaplin used to visit the studio commissary back in the Our Gang days.
BLAKE: “There was Mr. Chaplin, Buckwheat, Alfalfa, Spanky, Darla, Butch, and me.” ORLANDO: “How about Stymie?” BLAKE: “Oh, Stymie, too. Yeah.” LONGET: “How about Petey, the dog with the little black circle around the eye?” BLAKE: “Naw, they wouldn’t let him into the commissary. It’s rough, man, you know. You make a few dineros, you get to be a hot cat on the lot, you can’t even take a dog to have lunch with you.”
A little later, Tony Orlando lists a series of famous people that were manic depressive: "Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Churchill, all painters and artists, Van Gogh, Buckwheat, Spanky, Butch, and me." BLAKE: “How about Stymie?” ORLANDO: “Oh yea — well, Stymie, too, yeah.” LONGET: “How about Petey, the dog with the little black circle around the eye?” ORLANDO: “No, some animals can be manic depressives, but I don’t think Petey was.”
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Post by malaria on Feb 27, 2019 21:23:05 GMT -5
The greatest scene (IMO) in Richard Price's excellent The Wanderers involves a hilarious allusion to a certain part of "Free Wheeling." (Didn't make the movie, though... sadly).
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