Truant Officer Mr. Smithers
Bio[]
Mr. Smithers is the truant officer in Greenpoint when Spanky and Alfalfa are in the third grade. He is seen shadowing the boys on Arbor Day as Spanky tries to cut school and later confusing and dragging to school two midgets from Murphy's Traveling Sideshow who he thinks are children. After the two midgets do a swinging Vaudeville number for the shocked parents, Smothers is fired by Principal Cass for the embarrassment to the school.
Mr. Smithers was played by actor George Guhl.
Notes/Trivia[]
- Truant officers were local officers connected to the school system assigned to pick up and stop kids from truancy {skipping school). Along with Mr. Jones, they feature in several Our Gang shorts, most notably Fish Hooky, which reunited the original team of Little Rascals and featured Mickey Daniels as the truant officer. The position has now been phased out in most states with the police dealing with truancy instead.
- He is the only villain in the series to not antagonized the gang.