Muggsy, Darla, Spanky, Alfalfa, Mickey and Buckwheat
Production Notes[]
Length: One Reel
Producer: Jack Chertok
Director: Edward Cahn and Bill Murray
Photography: Ralph Goldstein
Editor: Robert Planck
Titles:
Writer: Robert A. McGowan and Hal Law
Released: December 2, 1939
Studio: M-G-M
Main Cast[]
- Carl Switzer
- Darla Hood
- Darwood Kaye
- George McFarland
- Leonard Landy
- Robert Blake
- Shirley Coates
- Sidney Kibrick
- Valerie Lee
- William Thomas
Supporting Cast[]
- Betty Ann Muir - Freckle-Faced Girl
- Dickie Humphries - Pep Rally Kid
- Gerald Mackey - Pep Rally Kid
- Glenn Mickens - Pep Rally Kid
- Gloria Brown - Spanky's Dance Partner
- Harold Switzer - Slim
- Hugh Chapman - Pep Rally Kid
- James Gubitosi - Extra
- Jackie Horner (unconfirmed)
- Janice Hood - Extra
- Joan Blake (unconfirmed)
- Joe Geil - Corky
- Jo-Jo La Savio - Extra
- Larry Kert (unconfirmed)
- Paul Hilton - Alfalfa's Roommate
- Payne Johnson - Extra
- Priscilla Montgomery - Corky's dance partner
- Rae-Nell Laskey - Extra
- Sidney Kibrick - Sidney
- Si Wills - Alfalfa's Father
- Tommy McFarland - Tommie
The Short[]
Plot: Alfalfa wants nothing more than to play football with the gang, but his father informs him that without better grades, Alfalfa won't be able to get into college. Alfalfa thinks he can get a football scholarship, but his dad points out that without good grades, he'd lose that scholarship. Alfalfa then dreams that he is a student at "Hayle University" (a spoof of Harvard and Yale Universities) and that he is a big football star with poor grades. During his dream about future gridiron triumphs, Alfalfa is brought down to earth when he envisions himself being disqualified from the inevitable "big game" due to his lousy grades. Awakening from this nightmare, our hero vows to put football on the back burner in favor of cracking the books. When the gang shows up to play, Alfalfa can't play because he's too busy studying. However, his father lets him off to go play, as long as he makes the time to study.
Quotes:
- "Don't 'D' stand for Dandy?" - Alfalfa
- "Listen, gang, from now on we take time out for lessons." - Alfalfa
Notes/Trivia:
- This short basically has the same premise of The Andy Griffith Show episode called "Opie Flunks Arithmetic."
- Archive footage includes a shot of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
- This is the last appearance of Sidney Kibrick in the series. Ironically, he was initially a background character while his older brother Leonard played the gang bully. After his brother left the series, Sidney was teamed up with the new bully, Butch, played by Tommy Bond returning to the series, and Sidney became known as "The Woim." His last episode as Butch's sidekick had been Captain Spanky's Show Boat, but in this episode, he returns back to being a background character for his last appearance.
- This short is credited by Maltin and Bann as one of the "let's-teach-the-kids-a-lesson" shorts which "sealed the lid on the coffin of the series." The series continued to head downhill with one morality lesson after another with World War II propaganda as the subject of many Our Gang episodes.
Sequence[]
- Previous Short: Dad For A Day
- Next Short: Alfalfa's Double