Bored Of Education

Production Notes[]

Length: One Reel
Producer: Hal Roach
Director: Gordon Douglas
Photography: Art Lloyd
Editor: William Randall
Titles: None
Writer:
Released: April 20, 1936
Studio: M-G-M

Main Cast[]

Supporting Cast[]

Dickie De Nuet
Donald Proffitt (actor)
Dorian Johnson
Harold Switzer
Jack Egan - Ice Cream Attendant
John Collum
Joe Geil
Sidney Kibrick
Patsy Mae Dittemore
Robert Lentz
Rosina Lawrence - Miss Jones/Miss Lawrence

The Short[]

Plot: Summer is over, and it's time for the kids to give up their fun and freedom to return to school. They're also getting a new teacher who is likely to be an old crab. Spanky schemes to rig a toothache for Alfalfa for them to skip school by blowing up a balloon in his cheek. They are completely unaware their new teacher Miss Lawrence has overheard them and plans to go along with the act to teach them a lesson. When she notices Alfalfa not singing "Good morning," she asks him what's wrong and he confesses to the toothache. Spanky then immediately volunteers to help him home, but as they head out, they cross paths with the ice cream vendor who is taking ice cream to the school for a First Day of School party. Now the two fakers have to get back into school. Spanky quickly pops the balloon, but Alfalfa has swallowed the stopper, now lodged in his throat. Spanky rushes back to acknowledge Alfalfa's miraculous if not extraordinarily timely recovery, but Miss Lawrence still wants to hear Alfalfa sing. He launches into a tune of "Of All Those Endearing Young Charms," the balloon stopper making a whistling from his throat on his deep breaths for a very surreal and mysterious closer.
Quotes:

"With vacation over, thousands of happy, smiling kids return to school." - Opening Title
"All that's nothing, I swallowed lots of things when I was a kid!" - Spanky
"Something tells me that something's wrong!" - Spanky

Notes/Trivia:

This short is a loose remake of Teacher's Pet.
Through most of her appearances, Rosina Lawrence played Miss Jones, the kids' school teacher, but in this short and Arbor Day (her first appearance), she's known by her real name.
At the time this was made, Rosina Lawrence was dating former Rascal Johnny Downs, sort of making her a Rascal herself by association.
This short was almost never made. After Arbor Day, Hal Roach Studios was starting to focus more and more on on feature films and shorts were gradually getting phased out, but instead of discontinuing the highly popular Our Gang series, M-G-M had the studio shorten them to single-reel comedies. Following this, Bored of Education won the series its only Academy Award for Best Short Subject of 1936.
Although he had other credits in the series, this was the first short directed by Gordon Douglas in the series.
In the script for this short, Spanky originally called the new teacher an owl, but these references were added out. However, the footage of his illustration of the new teacher as an owl is still intact in the short.

Sequence[]

Previous Short: Arbor Day
Next Short: Two Too Young