D Is for Disaster: Series Review

As many of us 80s kids know, the animated Little Rascals series did enjoy a two-year run on ABC.  And with that said, here is my review on each season of the series.

Season 1 was pretty darn good.  The episodes were far better quality, and more fun to watch.  Among what Season 1 had to offer, i enjoyed "Darla's Dream Dance", "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat", "Rock & Roll Rascals" and "The Irate Pirates" the most.  All in all, the first season deserves a grade of C+.

Then, Season 2 came, it all went downhill.  The show being reduced to one half hour, only one 11-minute cartoon per episode, and only nine new episodes produced, meaning four previously aired episodes from season 1 were rebroadcast at scattered times, most likely selected based on ratings.  The one good thing they did was adding a Latina character, Maria, to the cast, but that could have been done in the wake of the launch of the series Rubik the Amazing Cube, which lasted only one season, and was the first cartoon series to feature a cast of Latino characters.  It was good to add some diversity to Saturday mornings in 1983-84 after all.

But, in my opinion, while Season 2 was still watchable, the only thing i enjoyed about season 2 was the rebroadcast oF "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat" on the second-last episode oF that season.   In fact, the final three episodes of the season all had something in common.  They all had a dramatic rescue scene where at least one of the main characters' lives was in danger.  This may have been done as an attempt to reboost viewership in hopes of getting renewed for a third season, but to no avail.  Of the second season episodes, while they were not as good as any of the first season's episodes, i liked "The Zero Hero" the most.  For the first eleven weeks of that second season, my grade was a solid F.  When "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat" was rebroadcast during the 12th week, my grade did boost, even if only to a D.  But my grade did drop by the final week, but down to a well-deserved D-.

All in all, "D" meant disaster for Season 2, and it's no wonder the show went off the air in 1984.  At least my grade of D- was just me being nice, especially since Episode 12 was my all-time favorite.

Foot Focus

Memorial Day weekend in the U.S.  in 1984 had a lot of events going on.  Senior proms, picnics, baseball and TV specials, to name a few.  Some memoriable moments from that weekend are on YouTube, such as clips from Soul Train, Press Your Luck and The Price is Right, and some memorable commercials.  But one particular date was perhaps the best Saturday in 1984 for my TV viewership.

The date was May 26, 1984.  A time when many TV series were wrapping up their seasons.  Ronald Reagan was president.   Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was a box office smash that weekend.  The Los Angeles summer Olympics was just two months away.  The 40th anniversary of the D-Day invasion was ten days away.  Michael Jackson was, well, Michael Jackson.  Deniece Williams topped the charts with "Let's Hear it for the Boy", which was from the movie Footloose.  There was a lot of songs from Footloose on the top 40 that weekend.  But a certain character really was footloose on that spring day that was the highlight of my TV viewership.  And she wasn't dancing.  With the 32-year anniversary of that memorable Saturday approaching on Thursday, i thought I'd share this entry.

It was on the Little Rascals animated series.  The episode in question was "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat" (the seventh U.S. broadcast), which featured an infamous series of scenes where Darla's bare feet were shown, despite wearing her traditional pink dress.  However, I do admit, when I first saw the close-up of Darla's bare feet on a February 1983 broadcast of that episode, I apparently found such close-up disgusting, despite that the brushes strapped to her feet may be reminiscent of wearing sandals.  That was different times back then.  But just recently, on May 19, 2016, over 33 years later, I decided to "defeat the demons" and give that scene a second chance by viewing it on my downloaded copy.  Now, I have better feelings about it, and now I find Darla's bare feet very pretty and look almost realistic, unlike with other Hanna-Barbera properties such as Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones and Smurfs, to name a few.  Darla's barefootedness was apparently the inspiration for my avatar in a virtual world whose picture is shown in the sidebar under "The Darla" section.  Though the character's toes appear shorter, and my avatar's toes are long.  But then again, girls who are six years old do tend to have shorter toes than when they are older.

It is pretty clear that I hated seeing bare feet in general when I was much younger.  I was 10 years old when I first viewed that episode in February 1983.  Currently, in 2016, I am 43 years old, going on 44.  I still do hate seeing real life bare feet, though in cartoons it is acceptable, but I have no problem with female bare feet in real life, but only if she is wearing sandals or flip-flops.  I find it funny that it took 33 years for me to overcome my hatred for the close-up of Darla's bare feet, but better late than never.  Plus, one user commented on one of my works of art that barefoot is better and more healthier, and approves of Darla's barefoot look.

Darla's bare feet were rarely shown in the series.  In fact, aside from a brief time in "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat", Darla's bare feet were prevalent on only one other episode in the series - "The Irate PIrates" - which was set on a beach and not only was Darla barefoot for the entire 11 minutes, but that particular episode holds the distinction of being the only time Darla was donned in a bikini, and not seen in her traditional wardrobe for a full 11-minute cartoon in the series.  Viewers would be seeing Richie Rich  before Darla appeared in her traditional wardrobe that week.

On a side note, Earl Kress, who worked on the Little Rascals animated series and other Hanna=Barbera series (and sadly passed away in 2011), claimed in May 2008 that he didn't like the character art from that particular series, which was credited to Iwao Takimoto.  Contrary to Earl Kress's lack of appreciation for the artwork in the animated Little Rascals series, which he found extremely complex and very difficult to design, I think the artwork was far better than any other Hanna-Barbera series,  Also, one thing to take into consideration, the artwork may have been designed in Asia, possibly South Korea, and it may be possible that Asian character designs are more advanced and look a lot better.  I would take Darla Hood's bare feet over Daphne Blake's any day.  Despite the artwork being far better, the series didn't get the respect it deserved, and was cancelled in 1984 after a short run of two years.  It's a shame, because that was my most favorite animated series of all time.

And despite my hatred for barefoot close-ups prior to 2001, they did rebroadcast "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat" during the second season of the series in 1983-1984, and the episode had appeared on various sites since July 2014.  For some reason, something about that particular episode must have drove the ratings up, even for just the times that particular episode had aired.  But still, that episode is the most vivid memory I have of the entire series.

EDIT: On the site where the episode exists, it has reached a milestone as of this edit (May 21, 2016).  The episode had reached 500 views.  As Buckwheat would say at one point in the episode, "Not bad if I do say so myself."

Is there a Surgeon in the House?

There is a thread on the Little Rascals forum at ProBoards suggesting possible theories as to why the so-called animated episode, “The Surgeon”, never aired on ABC. One speculation suggested that it may have been scheduled to air late in Season 2, but due to content not deemed appropriate for Saturday morning audiences as per ABC standards, the episode was replaced with a repeat of the Season 1 episode “Cap’n Spanky’s Showboat”.

Another user claims that it may have been just a 30-second vignette, as was listed in the vignettes section on a website called Wingnut.

But I do have a new speculation that now suggests that “The Surgeon” may have been the title of a pilot episode supposedly produced as late as 1981 or early in 1982, to see if a number of ABC affiliates were interested in airing the Little Rascals animated series. While nobody knows what happened during that particular episode, there must have been something about the episode that sparked an interest in the series. If true, the animated spin-off would pass the pilot stage, ABC ordered 26 episodes each of 11 minutes, and 13 skits of 30 seconds each, for the 1982-83 season. The series premiere was supposedly scheduled for September 11, 1982; but unfortunately, that series premiere, along with ABC’s 1982-83 Saturday morning lineup in general, was delayed two weeks possibly because of an animators’ strike.

As for the content in “The Surgeon”, there are speculations on the interwebs and on Facebook that suggest that a character may have been injured or have accidentally swallowed an object (the latter of which may be a callback to the Our Gang theatrical short “Bored of Education”), and had to have surgery as a result. But while no confirmation is revealed, maybe only the ABC affiliates know something that we do not know. Unless a DVD set miraculously sees the light of day (and sadly, Warner Archive posted on Facebook in April 2016 that the series is not cleared for a DVD release), we will never know what went on in that episode.

Those Animated Rascals

For those not in the know, I happen to be a die-hard fan of the animated Little Rascals series, and I must say, it was a very memorable two years of my childhood worth waking up on Saturday mornings to from 1982 to 1984, despite having aired on the Always Being Cancelled network.

The show was co-produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and KingWorld Productions, the latter of which were the owners of the Little Rascals branding until 2006 or 2007, after which CBS Television Distribution took over the ownership rights after KingWorld folded.

The animated series did air pretty much on ABC non-stop, maybe except for one nationwide pre-emption due to planned news coverage, or the Tournament of Roses Parade coverage.  Other than that, nothing would stop the show before its demise, not even the Sarajevo Olympics nor the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 1984.

However, the really sad thing about the show, is that after ABC cancelled the series in 1984, no home video release ever saw the light of day, nor did Cartoon Network, Boomerang or USA Network's Cartoon Express block air reruns of the series.  It's sad, but there must be a valid reason why.  There are two possible reasons as to why the series will never see the light of day in the U.S. ever again.  One of the possible reasons points to ownership conflict between CBS Television Distribution and other companies who share the ownership of the series.  If all parties agreed to release the animated series on DVD, that may make for one hell of an expensive DVD set, as each of the owners would have to receive a certain portion of the profits, plus each of the real life actors' estates (since all but one are deceased) and/or the surviving real life actors (the actor who played Woim is the only character whose original real life actor is still alive as of this post) would have to clear their character's appearances.

Which brings us to the second possible reason:  The original character who played Porky filed a lawsuit against Hanna-Barbera Studios for using his likeliness without his consent at some point possibly during the second season, which, along with low ratings, may have been the reason for this series' demise.  It's a pity, because it was a great cartoon show, and I was a die-hard fan of the series, even if I was part of the minority.

The series did, however, air in various countries since ABC cancelled the series, particularly in Europe.  As of this post, the series has been airing on Boomerang in Germany since October 2011, and it did air on other German networks in years past.  The series also enjoyed a seven-year run on Cartoon Network UK & Ireland from 1993 to 2000, and over the years, it also aired in Latin America, Atlantic Canada, France, Singapore, and on Australia's Seven Network.  But the sad thing about it is, in virtually all of those countries, they only aired on one network, and never seen again.  Who knows where the animated Rascals will travel to next on their world travels.

And you can forget about a DVD release.  Warner Archive confirmed in April 2016 that the series is not cleared for a home video release.  So it looks like our only hope is for episodes to appear on YouTube or any site eventually.