When I was a kid in the '70s (B.C.= Before Cable) they used to play THE LITTLE RASCALS on TV after school. Me and my friends (Really- everyone in my class practically!) watched it. We didn't care if it was a show made in the '30s (I'm referring to what I like to call "The Spanky Years", as there are in fact OUR GANG shorts even older- so old that they aren't even "talkies!" Just "silent movies" accompanied with music and subtitles!) We didn't care that it was black and white. We didn't care that our folks -or even grandparents- had watched it. We didn't care that it showed an old fashioned simpler time we couldn't relate to. All we knew was that it featured an appealing bunch of kids and that it was funny as Hell! I remember always carrying a special torch in my heart for the show all through my teen years and early adulthood. I honestly believed that the show had in some way "shaped me" and made me a better person.
Now that I'm a grown up in my thirties -and a parent- I wondered if I had built the show up in my mind as being something bigger and better than what it actually was. I told my daughter about the show and she would say "Oh really?" without even looking at me, playing with her video game, listening to a CD and watching TV all at the same time.
I decided to fish around to see if The Rascals were out on DVD yet and was pleased to find they were.
With great anticipation I put the DVD on and then warned my daughter that this was gonna be sort of "old time" and that if she didn't dig it I would totally understand.
To my (pleasant) surprise we both totally loved it! Now she BEGS me to play the DVDs! There is some ageless,timeless quality to the show. "Kids Is Kids" is the way I imagine The Rascals would put it. There is something so totally appealing about seeing the world through the eyes of the child. Hal Roach knew it. I know it. Now my daughter knows it.
A weird thing about watching THE LITTLE RASCALS now is that there are characters we all know that have been tattooed on our brains: Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Porky, Darla, Stymie. Then there are lesser known characters (I remember as a little girl having a huge crush on Scotty! Now my daughter does!) like Scotty, Wheezer, Dorothy, Dickie, Wally, Uh-Huh ....within moments of seeing their faces again I remembered them again! It was like running into old friends I hadn't seen in years! There is no reason why this show shouldn't be playing on cable regularly. It is such a happy, funny, uplifting show. I recommend that anyone who remembers enjoying it as a kid get some of the DVDs for their children. You might be surprised to find out they love it just as much as you did/do.
Remarkable!
