Line #56 WesternAnimation/TheLittleRascals


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rascals-small_6585.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"Sit down, Alfalfa, and enjoy the ride!"]]
3
4	Creator/HannaBarbera and King World co-produced this SaturdayMorningCartoon for Creator/{{ABC}}, based on the live-action theatrical shorts series [[Film/TheLittleRascals of the same name]], as part of a 90-minute omnibus with ''WesternAnimation/PacMan'' and ''WesternAnimation/RichieRich1980''. Its voice cast included Creator/PeterCullen, Creator/PattyMaloney, [[Creator/JulieMcWhirter Julie McWhirter Dees]], Creator/ScottMenville, Creator/ShavarRoss and Creator/BJWard.
5
6	Hanna-Barbera artists Iwao Takamoto and Bob Singer created the character models by tracing photographs of the actual ''Our Gang'' child actors. This technique was previously used for the studio's animated spin-offs of ''WesternAnimation/TheHarlemGlobetrotters'' and ''Series/HappyDays''.
7	----
8	!!Tropes:
9
10	* AccidentalMisnaming: In "The Zero Hero", when Darla finally goes on the date she won with her favorite TV superhero, Captain Muscles:
11	-->'''Captain Muscles:''' And so I saved the universe once again. I'm pretty terrific, eh, Delilah?
12	-->'''Darla:''' ''[no longer impressed]'' The name is Darla!
13	* AdaptationDyeJob: Instead of black hair and hazel eyes, Darla has brown hair and blue eyes.
14	* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The French dub has one, sung by a chorus of children over a montage of clips from both the theatrical shorts and Hanna-Barbera's animated shorts.
15	* AmbiguousTimePeriod[=/=]AnachronismStew: The cartoon is supposedly set in [[TheGreatDepression the late 1930s]], but it includes microcomputers and commercial television. "Pete's Big Break" features a black man who directs TV commercials (it was his daughter whose puppy Pete rescued), and in "The Zero Hero", Spanky and Buckwheat mention push-button traffic controls. Wikipedia considers it a SettingUpdate. Also, "Rock & Roll Rascals" had references to rock music.
16	* BabysittingEpisode: "Tiny Terror" has Butch leave his baby brother, Spike, with the Rascals so he [Butch] can go fishing. Among other things, the baby escapes the treehouse, crawls onto a nearby tree limb, and bombards Alfalfa and Spanky with apples. Then after Darla leaves for her piano lesson, Spike flees in one of Buckwheat's contraptions and leads the boys on a chase through the city, onto a construction site and to a drawbridge over the river. The boys think Spike landed on a ship bound for China. [[spoiler:By the end of the cartoon, Spike has crawled back into his carriage as if nothing happened.]]
17	* BambooTechnology: Used in Buckwheat's HomemadeInventions.
18	* BarelyChangedDubName: In the German dub, ''Die kleinen Strolche'', Darla appears to have been renamed Karla. Her English name is still displayed in "Yachtsa' Luck"[[note]]as a desk nameplate[[/note]], "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat"[[note]]on a poster behind Spanky[[/note]] and "Rock & Roll Rascals"[[note]]again as a desk nameplate, near her typewriter[[/note]].
19	* BeachEpisode: "The Irate Pirates". As viewers might expect, Darla wears a bikini here, not so much for fanservice as because it was easier to animate than a one-piece swimsuit.
20	* BeastInTheBuilding: In the short "Trash Can Treasures", while Alfalfa and Spanky return stolen money to the bank, the other Rascals wait outside on Darla's horse. Frightened by the traffic, the horse gallops into the bank, with Darla, Buckwheat, and Porky still on it.
21	* BigEater: Porky, although Pete often intercepts his food the way Franchise/ScoobyDoo does with Shaggy.
22	* BindleStick: Darla carries one in "Beauty Queen for a Day", and Porky carries one in "King of the Hobos".
23	* BizarreTasteInFood: In "Beauty Queen for a Day", Porky offers Dolly Van Dumpling a mayonnaise and pickle sandwich. After she refuses, Porky eats the sandwich himself.
24	%%* BlackAndNerdy: Buckwheat
25	%%** Positive Discrimination: Considering the original "Our Gang" shorts, I guess it evens out.
26	%%* BrandPlacement: In "Porky-O and Julie-Et", Porky hands Julie Jamm a jar of H&B Jam. Buckwheat later fetches a box of H&B Detergent. This may be a reference to Hanna-Barbera.
27	* BlindingCameraFlash: Alfalfa gets one in "All the Loot That's Fit to Print" when, as photographer for the ''Neighborhood Bugle'', he tries to photograph Darla and Waldo, but mistakenly turns the flash toward himself.
28	** He also receives one in "Darla's Dream Dance" when Alfalfa got into the picture of Darla and Waldo sitting on a crescent moon prop at the school dance.
29	* CircusEpisode: In "Big Top Rascals", the kids are denied entry to a traveling circus because they don't have any money to buy tickets. So they put on their own circus, charging the neighborhood kids 10 cents each, but Butch and Woim take unfair advantage of their free admission. Unknown to the Rascals, the circus lion has escaped and is wandering around the city.
30	* ComplainingAboutThingsYouHaventPaidFor: In "Big Top Rascals", Butch complains about the makeshift circus and asks for a refund. When Spanky says, "But we let you in for free," Butch suggests that everyone's money be refunded.
31	* CowboyEpisode: "Showdown at the Rascal Corral" wasn't set in the Old West as such, but Alfalfa did play cowboy.
32	* CreepyOldFashionedDivingSuit: In the first episode, Butch wears one of Captain Mildew's diving suits to scare Darla and the boys out of the abandoned house.
33	%%* DelayedDebut: The series debut was supposedly delayed two weeks due to an animators' strike.
34	* DraggedIntoDrag: In "Just Desserts", Darla has fallen ill just before the big baking contest, so Alfalfa has to dress like a girl and take her place. Spanky doesn't care that Alfalfa doesn't resemble Darla at all, since the judges have not met her.
35	* ElectionDayEpisode: In "Alfalfa for President", Alfalfa and Waldo run competing campaigns for class president at their school.
36	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Butch is a bully, but in "Tiny Terror", he is fiercely protective of his baby brother.
37	* EveryoneLovesBlondes: In "Beauty Queen for a Day", the boys compete for the affections of their new neighbor, Dolly Van Dumpling, all but forgetting about Darla.
38	* FaintInShock: In the short "The Zero Hero", Alfalfa faints after Darla tells him that the bank robbers are not his disguised friends.
39	%%* ForgottenFamily: None of the Rascals' parents are seen in the series, but Darla's uncle appears in "Big City Rascals". In [[Recap/TheLittleRascalsS1E9 "Case of the Puzzled Pals"]], Spanky mentions his mother, from whom Alfalfa reveals a note.
40	* FreeRangeChildren:
41	** In "Grin and Bear It", the Rascals are hiking and camping in the wilderness without adult supervision.
42	** Also, in "The Irate Pirates", Spanky discovered a treasure map while swimming. Later in the same short, the Rascals were operating a rowboat to an island. Both these events were done without adult supervision.
43	** During a repair task in "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat", just before Darla was seen barefoot, Alfalfa was seen climbing a ladder with no adult watching.
44	** In [[Recap/TheLittleRascalsS1E9 "Case of the Puzzled Pals"]], at Alfalfa's surprise birthday party in the treehouse, there was a cake with lit candles, which implies they were lit by one of the Rascals and not an adult.
45	* GadgeteerGenius: Buckwheat
46	* GirlsLikeMusicians: In "Rock & Roll Rascals", Darla asks the boys to get her an autograph from a rock 'n' roll singer.
47	* {{Hammerspace}}: In "Rascals' Revenge", as the Rascals are about to enter the abandoned house at night, Buckwheat pulls a firefly-powered flashlight out of his shirt.
48	* HandyFeet: In "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat", Darla and Buckwheat have brushes and sponges attached to their respective bare feet, and use them like skates to efficiently clean the deck of the ''Mississippi Queen''.
49	%%* InventorInspiration: In "Fright Night", Buckwheat dresses as George Washington Carver, an African-American inventor. It could be inferred that Carver may have been Buckwheat's inspiration.
50	* ItRunsOnNonsensoleum: In at least three shorts ("Yachtsa' Luck", "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat" and "Tiny Terror"), Pete is shown as a passenger in the Rascals' wooden car, rather than being hitched in front. It isn't stated what propels the car in these instances.
51	* KidsDrivingCars: As shown in the page image, Spanky almost always drives the gang's wooden car.
52	* LimitedWardrobe: With a few exceptions, the Rascals seldom change their clothes. This comes into play early in "Yachtsa' Luck", when Darla freaks out over a ketchup stain on her dress, and Waldo offers to buy her a new dress. The next time we see Darla, she's wearing the same dress as before, with no ketchup stain.
53	* LoopholeAbuse: In "Science Fair and Foul", Buckwheat makes the other boys promise not to peek at his science fair project before the fair is held. But since ''Darla'' wasn't in on that promise, Spanky decides that they, Alfalfa and Porky can inspect Buckwheat's project on the sly.
54	%%* MagicGate: In "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat", as the Rascals enter the gate that barred off the dock, Spanky and Darla had briefly become invisible due to a goof.
55	* MeetTheCelebrityContest: Part of the plot of "The Zero Hero" concerns Darla being selected for a date with the actor who plays [[SupermanSubstitute Captain Muscles]], her favorite TV superhero.
56	* MilesGloriosus: Captain Muscles in "The Zero Hero" turns out to be this after one of the bank robbers deflates his costume. Later Alfalfa, who faints after Darla tells him that the bank robbers are not his disguised friends.
57	* MirrorRoutine: Butch does it to Alfalfa in "Rascals' Revenge".
58	* MotivationOnAStick: Their wooden car usually had Pete hitched in front, with a bone suspended above him.
59	%%* NightOwls: In "After Hours", the Rascals are working at a department store warehouse in the middle of the night, when they should be in bed asleep.
60	* PajamaCladHero: Alfalfa as Alpha-Man in "The Zero Hero":
61	-->'''María:''' Why are you wearing your pajamas in the daytime, and outside?
62	-->'''Alfalfa:''' Uh, well … ''[blushing]'' My regular clothes are in the wash.
63	* PomPomGirl: At the start of "Rascals' Revenge", Darla provided the original image for that page, as the cheerleader in Alfalfa and Spanky's informal football game.
64	%%* ProtestEpisode: In "Save Our Treehouse!", the gang protest against a used car dealer's decision on destroying the treehouse to build a used car lot. The Rascals hold signs as if unionized workers were on strike.
65	* QuarterHourShort: Each of the cartoons ran slightly over 11 minutes.
66	* RandomlyReversedLetters: In "Beauty Queen for a Day", a "No Girls Allowed" sign with a reversed ''S'' has been taped to the treehouse window.
67	** In "Rock & Roll Rascals", Alfalfa forges Greg Groove's autograph to Darla, using a reversed ''D'' in her name.
68	* RecycledPremise: [[Recap/TheLittleRascalsS1E9 "Case of the Puzzled Pals"]] has Alfalfa, Buckwheat, and Porky as amateur detectives, similar to the final Roach theatrical short, "Hide and Shriek".
69	* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: In "Science Fair and Foul", it's implied that Buckwheat has built a fully functional voice-activated robot in just a few hours.
70	* ScareDare: This starts the plot of "Rascals' Revenge": Butch kicks the gang's football into an abandoned house, and dares them to go retrieve it, despite Officer Ed telling the Rascals that the old house is private property.
71	* ScoobyDooHoax: In "Grin and Bear It", even though the Rascals didn't know about him at first, the Phantom Lumberjack is revealed to be a bank robber who stashed the stolen money in a cave.
72	* SerenadeYourLover: Alfalfa does it to Darla in one of the 30-second cartoons. Alfalfa's off-key singing scares Pete away.
73	* SkintoneSclerae: All characters have them, except Buckwheat and Darla.
74	* StageMagician: Spanky is this in "Alfalfakazam!".
75	* StolenGoodReturnedBetter: This happened to Darla's doll in [[Recap/TheLittleRascalsS1E9 "Case of the Puzzled Pals"]].
76	-->'''Darla:''' Jennifer! And she's wearing a new dress!
77	-->'''Spanky:''' I needed the doll to get her measurements.
78	* SuperheroEpisode: In "The Zero Hero", Alfalfa becomes Alpha-Man in hope of persuading Darla to cancel her date with Captain Muscles.
79	-->'''Alfalfa:''' So, Darla, now that I'm a superhero, too, you can cancel your date with Captain Muscles today.
80	-->'''Darla:''' I'm not giving up my chance to meet a ''real'' superhero!
81	-->'''Alfalfa:''' I'm a broken man.
82	* ToonPhysics: In [[Recap/TheLittleRascalsS1E9 "Case of the Puzzled Pals"]], Butch leaves Alfalfa suspended in midair for about a second, after which Alfalfa lands gently on his feet.
83	* TotemPoleTrench: Used in three episodes.
84	** In "Yachtsa' Luck", Alfalfa and Spanky don a nautical jacket with cap and eyepatch to pose as "Too-Tall Smith" in order to recover Waldo's gold coins from a pair of pirates at a tavern. Their cover is blown when the collar of the jacket snags on a low-hanging hook on Waldo's yacht, and Spanky walks out from under a dangling Alfalfa.
85	** In "Alfalfakazam!", Buckwheat and Porky are revealed to have done this in Spanky's SawAWomanInHalf variant.
86	** Buckwheat and Porky do it again in "Poached Pooch", to hide Pete (whose collar Butch had stolen) from the dogcatcher.
87	* TranslatorBuddy: Buckwheat is this to Porky.
88	* TreehouseOfFun: The Rascals often gather in their treehouse.
89	* TVHeadRobot: Buckwheat built one in "Science Fair and Foul", which later became a merry-go-round.
90	* TheUnintelligible: Nobody could understand what Porky is saying... unless Buckwheat was around to translate. In "Science Fair and Foul", Porky's speech impediment causes the destruction of Buckwheat's voice-activated robot, so Spanky and Alfalfa end up operating the robot from inside.
91	* UnroboticReveal: This happens in "Science Fair and Foul" after Alfalfa, in the lower part of the robot disguise, lands on an ant farm exhibit.
92	* WasJustLeaving: In [[Recap/TheLittleRascalsS1E9 "Case of the Puzzled Pals"]], Spanky tells the other Rascals that they weren't supposed to be in the treehouse. Alfalfa then falls from the ceiling and discovers that Darla and the other boys are there. To avoid any questioning, Darla says that they were just about to go.
93	-->'''Alfalfa:''' W-What do you mean, Spanky? We--yipes! ''[falls from ceiling]''
94	-->'''Darla:''' We were just leaving.
95	-->'''Buckwheat:''' Yeah, to the scene of the crime!
96	* WealthyYachtOwner: In "Yachtsa' Luck", Waldo states that his family owns a fleet of yachts.
97	-->'''Darla:''' Waldo, dear, how big is your beautiful, big, wonderful, big yacht?
98	-->'''Waldo:''' The yacht is sizable enough to accommodate well over 100 guests.
99	-->''[Darla does an AsideGlance]''
100	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In "Rascals' Revenge", the Rascals were scared so badly by the disguised Butch that they forgot about retrieving their football.
101	* WritingIndentationClue: In [[Recap/TheLittleRascalsS1E9 "Case of the Puzzled Pals"]], Alfalfa and Darla find one via pencil rubbing on the notepad Spanky used in taking a call from his mother.

Context WesternAnimation / TheLittleRascals