I just spent a little time — more than it deserved — watching The Yahoo Democratic Debate Mashup or whatever they're calling it. The word "debate" is in there and it shouldn't be because there's no debating whatsoever in it. It's just candidates being asked the same questions they've been asked many times, and then they're allowed to give their stock replies with an occasional follow-up softball from Charlie Rose. Some of the questions were posed by Bill Maher and the thing might have been interesting if Maher (or someone) had been able to ask real follow-ups...but of course, that never happens. Candidates like to sell us on the idea of how tough they are but when was the last time you saw one of them sit down for an hour of questioning by someone who was really prepared to challenge them on the issues? Rudy Giuliani wants us to think he's brave enough to take on Osama Bin Laden but he wouldn't even consent to an hour with Keith Olbermann.
We have often mentioned a voice actor named Dick Beals on this site. Here's a recent article about him. And while we're at it, here's an interview from not long ago.
The above photo may be too small to appreciate so you can see a larger version of it by clicking here. And now let me explain what you're looking at.
As you all know by now, I feed a steady stream of cats, possums and raccoons in my backyard...but mostly cats. About an hour ago, I was downstairs and I heard a symphony of Friskies-crunching that told me not only was a raccoon out there but probably a herd of them. When I went to look though, I saw evidence that such a group had just been there — a lot of wet coonprints around a near-empty supper dish...but I saw no raccoons. I stepped outside to refill the dish and suddenly noticed a tree next to the dish was swaying a bit.
I looked up and there, clinging to the highest branch of the tree (about fifteen feet up) were four small raccoons...or maybe five. Guess they heard me coming and fled to up there. I ran in, grabbed the camera, snapped some pics, replenished the dish and then went back inside so they could climb down and eat. They looked pretty scared up there so I didn't take a lot of photos but this one, I thought, gave a good idea of the scene. I know how they feel. There have been days when I felt like hiding up there.
Around 1960, a company called National Telepix acquired the rights to the silent Our Gang comedies and released them to television. These were the pre-Spanky and Alfalfa ones and the National Telepix folks sliced them all down — without a lot of care — into short segments to which they added funny music and sound effects and inane narration. They then sent these chopped-up, hoked-up comedies into the world under two series names. One, which was briefly on Los Angeles television, was called The Mischief Makers. The other one I don't recall ever seeing but it had the catchy title, Those Lovable Scallawags with Their Gangs. Both series also included some segments from an ancient series of short comedies called The Dippy Doo-Dads which featured monkeys in odd costuming.
The Mischief Makers at least had a catchy animated title sequence — created by the great animation director, Gene Deitch — and this is it. Or rather, this is one of them. I am quite certain there was another version of this opening in which they sang the same tune but the lyrics mentioned Our Gang. I vividly recall the kids chorus singing, "Skiddely, skiddely, bang bang bang / Don't forget to watch Our Gang."
And what occurs to me — and this is theory on my part — is that the films aired initially with that song and that whoever then owned the rights to Our Gang (M.G.M., I believe) made them change those lyrics to the ones in our clip today. What is certain though is that at one point, the 22 year body of work that was Our Gang was being marketed to television in four packages: National Telepix had the silents in their two series, Hal Roach's company was selling the 1927-1938 talkies under the title, The Little Rascals and M.G.M. was hawking the 1938-1944 films under the Our Gang title.
Here's the opening and closing to The Mischief Makers...
September 17, 2007
