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Actor Robert Blake Dead at 89

Blake was also a member of MGM's "Little Rascals" comedies of the 1940's. He was not part of the original "Our Gang" series of the 20's and 30's.
 
Blake and Scott Wilson were excellent in "IN COLD BLOOD". They were unknown actors at the time. It's curious that Blake later in life beat the murder rap for his wife's killing...
 
vchimpanzee said:
To me, Alfalfa, Spanky, Darla and Buckwheat are the "Little Rascals". He joined the cast when most of them were still there.
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I'm going by memory here. The original Hal Roach gang got their "Our Gang" name from the title of the first short produced (1922 I think) and the name stuck. Roach sold off his series to MGM about 1938 where it ran until 1944. The name "Little Rascals" came about when the shorts were syndicated for TV in the early 50's. Blake joined the series in 1939 I believe so he didn't appear in the Roach series. The actors you mention above were in the 30's version (the non-silent shorts).
 
landtuna said:
I'm going by memory here. The original Hal Roach gang got their "Our Gang" name from the title of the first short produced (1922 I think) and the name stuck. Roach sold off his series to MGM about 1938 where it ran until 1944. The name "Little Rascals" came about when the shorts were syndicated for TV in the early 50's. Blake joined the series in 1939 I believe so he didn't appear in the Roach series. The actors you mention above were in the 30's version (the non-silent shorts).
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The actors I saw on TV, though, were mostly from the later years. Blake would still not have been in most of them.
 
Whether I saw Blake or not, I watched Fred Kirby's children's show on WBTV as a child. He was a singing cowboy who performed at Tweetsie Railroad, a tourist attraction where bad guys attacked the train toruists were riding in and the cowboys saved them.

The theme song had the words "I love the Little Rascals".

Later on I lived where there was an independent station that had The Little Rascals after school.
 
anotherguyTN said:
I don't remember seeing any of the MGM owned Little Rascals shorts until seeing some of them on TCM in recent years.
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They weren't nearly as popular as the Roach series. The kids from the Roach series were aging, the stories were very thin and the direction wasn't nearly as good. Alas, the novelty had worn off - at least for adults. TV made the series popular once again in the 50's.

Trivia: Hal Roach lived to 100 and 3/4 years of age dying in 1992 and managed to outlive most of his actors and staff.
 
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