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109-583: (Redirected from Naked Brothers Band ) The Naked Brothers Band may refer to: The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie , a 2005 film The Naked Brothers Band: Music from the Movie , the soundtrack The Naked Brothers Band (TV series) , 2007-09, a spin-off of the film The Naked Brothers Band (album) , 2007 soundtrack The Naked Brothers Band (video game) , 2008 See also [ edit ] Nat and Alex Wolff , music group who wrote and performed

218-423: A Bar Mitzvah ; and Mr. Wolff's girl friend rejects him after meeting his twin brother, Miles, who is a successful jazz pianist. In addition, the band starts prepping for their tour with several band rehearsals. Prior to leaving on their tour bus, the band members are conflicted with personal issues: Mr. Wolff is still coping from his break up with Betty, David is upset about leaving his dog, E.T. behind, and Rosalina

327-532: A Girl I Know". (In order of appearance): The series often features celebrities making cameo appearances, most of whom play themselves. Albie Hecht foreshadowed the success of the series after watching the film at the Hamptons International Film Festival. In an article, he told New York Times reporter Felicia R. Lee: "They're just real: real brothers, real friends; it's all the stuff kids do when they're hanging out on

436-514: A black boy, and the series ended after just one entry, The Pickaninny , was produced. Morrison's "Sunshine Sammy" instead became one of the foci of the new Our Gang series. Under the supervision of Charley Chase , work began on the first two-reel shorts in the new "kids-and-pets" series, to be called Hal Roach's Rascals , later that year. Director Fred C. Newmeyer helmed the first pilot film, entitled Our Gang , but Roach scrapped Newmeyer's work and had former fireman Robert F. McGowan reshoot

545-643: A brief suspension in McFarland's work permit, Our Gang went into a four-month hiatus, during which the series was revised to a format similar to its original style and German-born Gus Meins was hired as the new series director. Hi-Neighbor! , released in March 1934, ended the hiatus and was the first series entry directed by Meins, a veteran of the once-competing Buster Brown short subject series. Gordon Douglas served as Meins's assistant director, and Fred Newmeyer alternated directorial duties with Meins for

654-725: A career in features (he returned in 1939 for two shorts, Cousin Wilbur and Dog Daze ). Our Gang was very successful during the 1920s and the early 1930s. However, by 1934, many movie theater owners were increasingly dropping two-reel (20-minute) comedies like Our Gang and the Laurel & Hardy series from their bills and running double feature programs instead. The Laurel & Hardy series went from film shorts to features exclusively in mid 1935. By 1936, Hal Roach began debating plans to discontinue Our Gang until Louis B. Mayer , head of Roach's distributor MGM, persuaded Roach to keep

763-448: A film. The girl was, in his opinion, overly made up and overly rehearsed, and Roach waited for the audition to be over. After the girl and her mother left the office, Roach looked out of his window to a lumberyard across the street, where he saw some children having an argument. The children had all taken sticks from the lumberyard to play with, but the smallest child had the biggest stick, and the others were trying to force him to give it to

872-421: A group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach , also the producer of the Laurel and Hardy films, Our Gang shorts were produced from 1922 to 1944, spanning the silent film and early sound film periods of American cinema . Our Gang is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way; Roach and original director Robert F. McGowan worked to film

981-412: A handful of shorts. Meins's Our Gang shorts were less improvisational than McGowan's and featured a heavier reliance on dialogue. McGowan returned two years later to direct his Our Gang swan song, Divot Diggers , released in 1936. Retaining McFarland, Matthew Beard, Tommy Bond, and Jerry Tucker, the revised series added Scotty Beckett , Wally Albright , and Billie Thomas , who soon began playing

1090-458: A menagerie of animal characters, such as Dinah the Mule. Roach's distributor Pathé released One Terrible Day , the fourth short produced for the series, as the first Our Gang short on September 10, 1922; the pilot Our Gang was not released until November 5. The Our Gang series was a success from the start, with the children's naturalism, the funny animal actors, and McGowan's direction making

1199-523: A new distribution deal with to United Artists and left the short-subjects business. The final Roach-produced short in the Our Gang series, Hide and Shriek , was his final short-subject production. The Little Ranger was the first Our Gang short to be produced in-house at MGM. Gordon Douglas was loaned out from Hal Roach Studios to direct The Little Ranger and another early MGM short, Aladdin's Lantern , while MGM hired newcomer George Sidney as

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1308-480: A short-subject series which was essentially a teenaged version of Our Gang . Featuring Our Gang alumni Mickey Daniels and Mary Kornman among its cast, The Boy Friends was produced for two years, with fifteen installments in total. Jackie Cooper left Our Gang in early 1931 just before another wave of cast changes: Farina Hoskins, Chubby Chaney, and Mary Ann Jackson all departed a few months afterward. Our Gang entered another transitional period, similar to that of

1417-487: A skatepark. When the boys' father arrives back from his overnight vacation, he starts dating an estranged lady named Betty, who Cooper and Jesse initially hired to clean the mess in the Wolff family's apartment without much success. In addition to a " Battle of The Bands " between The Naked Brothers Band and The LA Surfers (the latter featuring 16-year-old singer Bobby Love, a manipulative con artist who tries to hit on Rosalina),

1526-412: A successful combination. The shorts did well at the box office, and by the end of the decade the Our Gang children were pictured on numerous product endorsements. The biggest Our Gang stars then were Ernie Morrison as Sunshine Sammy, Mickey Daniels, Mary Kornman, and Allen Hoskins as little Farina, who eventually became the most popular member of the 1920s gang and the most popular black child star of

1635-465: A video; Nat, who did not want to make out in the scene due to his crush Rosalina watching, mistakenly smooches her. He then explains to his mother that he was confused as to what the instructions were. The scene being filmed was that of the first season's ninth episode " First Kiss (On the Lips, That is) ", which was directed by Melanie Mayron. In another instance, during production for the fourth episode of

1744-409: Is 14, Qaasim is 13, and Thomas, David, and Cooper are 12. Guest stars for the season include syndicated cartoonist Jules Feiffer , musician Joel Madden , skateboarder Tony Hawk , George Lopez , Matt Pinfield , and musician Phil Collins . During the first half of the season, Daniel Raymont portrays Wing with Teala Dunn and Emily Richardson returning as Juanita and Patty Scoggins, respectively. When

1853-692: Is Pups , became recognizable trademarks of Our Gang , Laurel and Hardy , and the other Roach series and films. Another 1930 short, Teacher's Pet , marked the first use of the Our Gang theme song , "Good Old Days" . Originally composed by Shield for use in Laurel & Hardy's first feature, Pardon Us , "Good Old Days," featuring a notable saxophone solo, served as the series' theme until 1938. Shield and Hatley's scores supported Our Gang's on-screen action regularly through 1934, after which series entries with background scores became less frequent. In 1930, Roach began production on The Boy Friends ,

1962-447: Is [Nat] there? We just love him.' The only thing that's comforting is, they're pretty harmless at that age." "Former Thirtysomething star Polly Draper makes a convincing argument that her offspring actually do have talent with the whimsical new series The Naked Brothers Band ." Our Gang Our Gang (also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals ) is an American series of comedy short films chronicling

2071-605: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages The Naked Brothers Band (TV series) The series is a spin-off of Polly Draper's film of the same name that was picked up by the network, premiering in January 2007. Draper, known for her starring role in Thirtysomething , is the executive producer; she serves as showrunner , and often writer and director. Albie Hecht , former president of Nickelodeon and Spike TV ,

2180-423: Is that the group is recording their first studio album as well as starring in several music videos to promote it. In the first episode "VMAs", Alex is horrified by his horoscope Jesse reads to him, and the band's music video for their song "Banana Smoothie" wins an MTV Video Music Award at the end. In later episodes, Nat's initial attempts at stand-up comedy fails before receiving advice from George Lopez. Throughout

2289-484: Is the other executive producer, under his Worldwide Biggies tag. Michael Wolff , who led the band on The Arsenio Hall Show , serves as co-executive producer and music supervisor, with Draper's brother Tim as consulting producer. When the show debuted on the channel, it aired two episodes, garnering 3.7 million viewers. Viacom announced, the "series delivered Nickelodeon's highest-rated premiere in seven years" and it became favorable for children aged 6–11. Following

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2398-494: Is the stubborn director; he is later overthrown and replaced by Cooper, the producer of the movie. Christophe appears again in "The Premiere" when he steals the movie's metal film cassette. On the other hand, Rosalina temporarily leaves the band to travel on a worldwide cruise. During her trip, the band members read the newspaper and the front cover depicts Rosalina kissing a French man. When Rosalina returns to visit, she and Nat have an internal dispute and Rosalina subsequently quits

2507-407: Is worried about the possibility of not saying "good bye" to her father. Nonetheless, all of their concerns work themselves out: George Lopez advises Mr. Wolff to continue his passion for playing the accordion despite his break up, Tuffy ends up allowing David to bring his dog, and Rosalina's father makes it to the bus stop before the bus leaves. Following several concert performances (including one at

2616-523: The "He-Man Woman Haters Club" from Hearts Are Thumps and Mail and Female (both 1937), the Laurel and Hardy-ish interaction between Alfalfa and Spanky, and the comic tag-along team of Porky and Buckwheat. Roach produced the final two-reel Our Gang short, a high-budget musical special entitled Our Gang Follies of 1938 , in 1937 as a parody of MGM's Broadway Melody of 1938 . In Follies of 1938 , Alfalfa, who aspires to be an opera singer, falls asleep and dreams that his old pal Spanky has become

2725-513: The Our Gang shorts until 1933, assisted by his nephew Anthony Mack . McGowan worked to develop a style that allowed the children to be as natural as possible, downplaying the importance of the filmmaking equipment. Scripts were written for the shorts by the Hal Roach comedy writing staff, which included at various times Leo McCarey , Frank Capra , Walter Lantz , and Frank Tashlin , among others. The children, some too young to read, rarely saw

2834-574: The Our Gang trademark after buying the series, the Roach-produced Our Gang sound films were re-released to theaters and syndicated for television under the title The Little Rascals . The Roach-produced Little Rascals shorts (1929–1938) are currently owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment (through Halcyon Studios ), which manages the copyrights as well as theatrical and home video and streaming releases;

2943-484: The ProRes 422 codec , so we're cutting in a broadcast-quality format that we'll later output without having to recapture all the footage." According to Cobb, it is very difficult to coordinate the television's screen-framing: There are many issues to consider. If I were able to cut it 16:9, I would be able to keep an eye on the outside edges of the frame. Since I only cut it in 4:3, I don't get to see what's going on in

3052-749: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio , as well as a state county fair), the TV movie "Polar Bears" depicts the ending of the band's tour in New Orleans, Louisiana , where they — along with their babysitter, Jesse — reunite with the siblings' father and old family friends of the Wolffs' who are victims of Hurricane Katrina . On the ride down there, Jesse inadvertently has Alex watch An Inconvenient Truth and, after viewing it, he becomes very concerned about

3161-403: The cinematographer —and his wife, Caron Rudner, own the filming studio, Kidzhouse Entertainment, which is another distributor for the show. Polly Draper and Melanie Mayron , both known for co-starring in Thirtysomething , directed the first season. During the second season, Jonathan Judge was added as a third director. The last episode Mayron directed for that season, and thus for

3270-418: The 16:9 frame . Nat and Alex sing, compose, and perform all of the show's music, with Nat's song "If That's Not Love" serving as the theme song. Their father contributes the underscore and supervises the music; he also produces it with Michael A. Levine . The series' music editor, John Davis coordinates the songs' musical numbers , and Amy Cervini and Russ Spiegel are the music instructors. The pilot

3379-764: The 1920s. A reviewer wrote of the Farina character — depicted as female though played by a male child — in Photoplay : "The honors go to a very young lady of color, billed as 'Little Farina.' Scarcely two years old, she goes through each set like a wee, sombre shadow." Daniels and Kornman were very popular and were often paired in Our Gang and a later teen version of the series called The Boy Friends , which Roach produced from 1930 to 1932. Other early Our Gang children were Eugene Jackson as Pineapple, Scooter Lowry , Andy Samuel , Johnny Downs , Winston and Weston Doty , and Jay R. Smith . After Ernie, Mickey and Mary left

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3488-682: The Bands " and one additional episode titled "Alien Clones" broadcast that following October. The first season features Nat and his younger brother Alex, who are 11 and 8 years old, respectively. David, Thomas, and Cooper are also 11. Qaasim is 12 and Rosalina is 13. Daniel Raymont plays the role of the music video director, and Tuffy Questall portrays Tuffy, the driver of the band's psychedelic bus. The first season also has guest appearances by TV personality Ryan Seacrest , radio host Matt Pinfield , rap artist Snoop Dogg , comedian George Lopez , and actor and musician Keli Price . The first season's premise

3597-509: The Bands ". By the third season, Mittenthal emerged as a senior writer, earning the title of co-executive producer. Albie Hecht is the other executive producer; his production company Worldwide Biggies distributes the series, in association with Nickelodeon Television . Michael Wolff, a jazz musician often noted for leading the band on The Arsenio Hall Show , also serves as co-executive producer, with Tim Draper as consulting producer. Production facilities producers Ken H. Keller—also

3706-469: The City , the show had a "larger cartoon element". However, Cobb considered the editing to be a challenge because he felt that a certain degree of unscripted "magic on set" existed that required more work. Because most of the children on the series are not professional actors—in addition to the music that was to be added—the editing process created a situation that was somewhat "messy". Nonetheless, Cobb believed

3815-485: The Los Angeles area. Eventually Our Gang talent scouting employed large-scale national contests in which thousands of children tried out for an open role. For example, Norman Chaney ("Chubby"), Matthew Beard ("Stymie"), and Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas all won contests to become members of the cast: Chaney replaced Joe Cobb , Beard replaced Allen Hoskins ("Farina"), and Thomas replaced Beard. Even when there

3924-487: The TV series music Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title The Naked Brothers Band . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Naked_Brothers_Band&oldid=1117566844 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

4033-492: The action, with each film often incorporating a moral, a civics lesson, or a patriotic theme. The series was given a permanent setting in the fictitious town of Greenpoint, and the mayhem caused by the Our Gang kids was toned down significantly. Exhibitors noticed the drop in quality, and often complained that the series was slipping. When six of the 13 shorts released between 1942 and 1943 sustained losses rather than turning profits, MGM discontinued Our Gang . The final short

4142-402: The approach to McGowan's methods to meet the demands of the increasingly sophisticated movie industry of the mid-to-late 1930s. Douglas, in particular, had to streamline his films, as he directed Our Gang after Roach halved the running times of the shorts from two reels (20 minutes) to one reel (10 minutes). As children aged out of their roles, they were replaced by new children, usually from

4251-580: The band ends up adding Rosalina and Cole Hawkins , reuniting as The Naked Brothers Band. Famous celebrities either acknowledge they are huge fans of the band or appear with other supporting roles; in real life, they have either worked or are friends with the Draper-Wolff family. These special guests are Cindy Blackman , Ann Curry , Arsenio Hall , Ricki Lake , Cyndi Lauper , Julianne Moore , Brent Popolizio, Tony Shalhoub , Lauper's husband David Thornton , Uma Thurman , jazz singer Nancy Wilson , and

4360-403: The band goes on tour, the tour driver Tuffy (Tuffy Questall) takes on more of a lead recurring role. The second season begins with a school masquerade party and prom. In later episodes, Nat, Alex, and Cooper have dates at a local movie theater; during a live talk show, the siblings, alongside Joel Madden and a girl, who is a critical news reporter, compose a song together at the piano; Cooper has

4469-494: The band. Because of this, the group must find a new bass player. Cooper calls for a "Naked Idol" contest and the outfit selects Kristina Reyes as their new bassist. However, Nat later makes up with Rosalina and she rejoins the band while retaining Kristina as well. "The Premiere" TV movie ends with them watching the Magical Mystery Girl Movie in the theaters as well as the band performing Nat's new song "Just

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4578-421: The biggest child. After realizing that he had been watching the children bicker for 15 minutes, Roach thought a short film series about children just being themselves might be a success. Our Gang also had its roots in an aborted Roach short-subject series revolving around the adventures of a black boy called "Sunshine Sammy", played by Ernie Morrison . Theater owners then were wary of booking shorts focused on

4687-522: The bookworm Waldo. Tommy Bond , an off-and-on member of the gang since 1932, returned to the series as Butch beginning with the 1937 short Glove Taps . Sidney Kibrick , the younger brother of Leonard Kibrick, played Butch's crony, Woim. Glove Taps also featured the first appearance of Darwood Kaye as the bespectacled, foppish Waldo. In later shorts, both Butch and Waldo were portrayed as Alfalfa's rivals in his pursuit of Darla's affections. Other popular elements in these mid-to-late-1930s shorts include

4796-422: The brothers were very young: they came out of the bathtub and said, "We're the naked brothers band!" Although Nat revised the band's title to The Silver Boulders in preschool, Polly Draper revived it as she felt it would be more suitable for the show. Nat's music, which he has been composing at the piano from the time he was 5, emboldens the scripts Draper writes for many of the episodes. She also acknowledges how

4905-416: The case of the silent entries) in a stereotypical " Negro dialect ", and several controversial gags revolved directly around their skin color: Matthew Beard's Stymie character sweating jet-black ink, Billie Thomas's Buckwheat character being given fake "white measles " instead of dark ones and supposedly turned into a monkey, and so forth. One early Our Gang short, Lodge Night (1924), revolves around

5014-446: The casting, manages the writers' room, edits scripts, and conveys storyline ideas for each episode. In addition to Draper serving as head writer , the other writers for the series have previously scripted other TV shows for Nickelodeon. They include Magda Liolis , Michael Rubiner and Bob Mittenthal, and Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi . McRobb and Viscardi only penned the script for the first season's two-part episode TV movie " Battle of

5123-505: The chance to have his films packaged with MGM features to the Loews Theatres chain. Some shorts around this time, particularly Spook Spoofing (1928, one of only two three-reelers in the Our Gang canon), contained extended scenes of the gang tormenting and teasing Farina, scenes which helped spur the claims of racism, which many other shorts did not warrant. These shorts marked the departure of Jackie Condon , who had been with

5232-499: The character of Stymie's sister "Buckwheat", though Thomas was a male. Semi-regular actors, such as Jackie Lynn Taylor , Marianne Edwards , and Leonard Kibrick as the neighborhood bully, joined the series at this time. Tommy Bond and Wally Albright left in the middle of 1934; Jackie Lynn Taylor and Marianne Edwards would depart by 1935. Early in 1935, new cast members Carl Switzer and his brother Harold joined Our Gang after impressing Roach with an impromptu musical performance at

5341-418: The children and was a box office disappointment. No further Our Gang features were made. After years of gradual cast changes, the troupe standardized in 1936 with the move to one-reel shorts. Most casual fans of Our Gang are particularly familiar with the 1936–1939 incarnation of the cast: Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, Buckwheat, and Porky, with recurring characters such as neighborhood bullies Butch and Woim and

5450-511: The clearance to produce an Our Gang feature film, General Spanky , hoping that he might move the series to features as was done with Laurel & Hardy. Directed by Gordon Douglas and Fred Newmeyer, General Spanky featured characters Spanky, Buckwheat, and Alfalfa in a sentimental, Shirley Temple-esque story set during the American Civil War . The film focused more on the adult leads ( Phillips Holmes and Rosina Lawrence ) than

5559-527: The combination of factors created a "magic" of its own "and it's what makes this show really shine". When an episode completed filming, Cobb edited on the Final Cut Pro application, which normally took four days to complete. Bertini—who spent the same amount of time editing—then converted unnecessary script and added sound effects . Cobb says, "The 16:9 SD workflow was the plan for the 2008 season, but that has changed. We're working in 4:3 SD with

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5668-494: The director of the new Magical Mystery Girl Movie . The new season depicts the band shooting their initial theatrical film called the Magical Mystery Girl Movie . Nat stars as Daniel, Rosalina as herself, Miranda Cosgrove as Daniel's girl friend, Alex as Oliver, Juanita as the girl in Oliver's new music video, with Mr. Wolff and Jesse playing themselves and Principle Schmoke and Tuffy portraying sumo wrestlers in diapers. Christophe

5777-405: The earlier shorts. Other minorities, including Asian Americans Sing Joy, Allen Tong (also known as Alan Dong), and Edward Soo Hoo, as well as Italian-American actor Mickey Gubitosi (later known as Robert Blake ), were depicted in the series with varying levels of stereotyping. According to Roach, the idea for Our Gang came to him in 1921, when he was auditioning a child actress to appear in

5886-538: The end of 1941, Darla Hood had departed from the series, and Spanky McFarland followed her within a year. Billie Thomas as Buckwheat remained in the cast until the end of the series as the sole holdover from the Roach era. Overall, the Our Gang films produced by MGM were not as well-received as the Roach-produced shorts had been, largely due to MGM's inexperience with the brand of slapstick comedy that Our Gang

5995-544: The ensemble cast of Thirtysomething (particularly, Timothy Busfield , Draper, Mel Harris , Peter Horton , Melanie Mayron , Ken Olin , and Patricia Wettig ). It premiered as a TV movie special on January 27, 2007. The first season aired 13 episodes and 1 TV special. It debuted in February 2007 and originally concluded with the tenth episode, "The Song", in June; however, a two-part episode, television movie " Battle of

6104-423: The entire frame. Therefore, should an HD version be required, potentially a lot of adjustments will have to be made in the final edit. Occasionally, we've had to look at the 16:9 footage to reposition a couple of shots and I've seen light stands and such that will have to be removed somehow in a 16:9 version of the show. However, everything has been shot in 16:9 HD, so we will never have to stretch any images to fill

6213-485: The entries produced between 1922 and 1929 are in the public domain in the United States. Paramount Global (through King World Productions ) owns the television distribution rights to the 1929–1938 Roach-era shorts for broadcast and cable. Meanwhile, MGM's Our Gang series (1938–1944) is currently owned by Warner Bros. through Turner Entertainment Co. . New productions based on the shorts have been made over

6322-407: The expressions "Okey-dokey!" and "Okey-doke!" Dickie Moore , a veteran child actor, joined in the middle of 1932 and remained with the series for one year. Other members in these years included Mary Ann Jackson's brother Dickie Jackson, John "Uh-huh" Collum , and Tommy Bond . Upon Dickie Moore's departure in mid 1933, long-term Our Gang members such as Wheezer (who had been with Our Gang since

6431-486: The family that would interfere with the siblings' schooling. "None of this was calculated at all on any of our parts. What originally happened was that Nat and Alex had a band, and the idea evolved based on that. Spinal Tap meets The Little Rascals was my concept...I (also) wanted it to be very Beatle-ish, have that Help! or A Hard Day's Night kind of feeling." —Polly Draper, series creator and showrunner The series' title derived from an incident when

6540-410: The family to start working on the series, Draper and Wolff were initially reluctant to allow their children into the industry. The family later decided to proceed, however, under certain conditions, which Nickelodeon approved. "Having our life turned into a mockumentary wasn't as big a deal as some would think. We took all the friendships, Alex's one liners, and my music and put it into a storyline; it

6649-421: The family's apartment. Draper's brother Tim , a venture capitalist, invested in the shoot, and she and her husband Michael Wolff 's famous celebrity friends are featured making cameo appearances. "When Nickelodeon first asked us about doing a series, we said, 'How about a cartoon, so the kids can stay normal?' They said, 'No, we love your kids.' " —Polly Draper In late 2005, Draper and Wolff entered

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6758-622: The film at the Hamptons International Film Festival , where it received high applause from the audience. Albie Hecht , former president of film and television entertainment for Nickelodeon , attended the screening. He sold the film to Nickelodeon and proposed developing a television series based on it. The network was eager to buy the film after Hecht and his agent conducted market research by designing an animated video of Nat's song "Crazy Car" that revealed substantial success with children, but when urging

6867-549: The gang as Spanky late in 1931 at the age of three and remained an Our Gang actor for eleven years, except for a brief break in summer 1938. At first appearing as the tag-along toddler of the group, and later finding an accomplice in Scotty Beckett in 1934, Spanky quickly became Our Gang ' s biggest child star. He won parts in a number of outside features, appeared in many of the now-numerous Our Gang product endorsements and spin-off merchandise items, and popularized

6976-492: The gang to fully adjust to talking pictures, during which time they lost Joe Cobb, Jean Darling and Harry Spear and added Norman Chaney , Dorothy DeBorba , Matthew "Stymie" Beard , Donald Haines and Jackie Cooper . Cooper proved to be the personality the series had been missing since Mickey Daniels left and was featured prominently in three 1930/1931 Our Gang films: Teacher's Pet , School's Out , and Love Business . These three shorts explored Jackie Cooper's crush on

7085-458: The group from the beginning of the series. Starting in 1928, Our Gang comedies were distributed with phonographic discs that contained synchronized music-and-sound-effect tracks for the shorts. In spring 1929, the Roach sound stages were converted for sound recording, and Our Gang made its " all-talking " debut in April 1929 with the 25-minute film Small Talk . It took a year for McGowan and

7194-603: The kids forming a parody club based on the Ku Klux Klan (though the Black children are still allowed to join). In their adult years, actors Morrison, Beard, and Thomas defended the series, arguing that the white characters in the series were similarly stereotyped: the "freckle-faced kid", the "fat kid", the "neighborhood bully", the "pretty blond girl", and the "mischievous toddler". In an interview on Tom Snyder 's The Tomorrow Show in 1974, Matthew Beard said of his time in

7303-476: The late Pathé silents period) and Dorothy left the series as well. Robert McGowan, burned out from the stress of working with the child actors, had as early as 1931 tried to resign as producer/director of Our Gang . Lacking a replacement, Hal Roach persuaded him to stay on for another year. At the start of the 1933–34 season, the Our Gang series format was significantly altered to accommodate McGowan and persuade him to stay another year. The first two entries of

7412-448: The management at MGM and its parent company, Loews Inc. , which elected to end MGM's partnership with Roach. However, MGM did not want Our Gang discontinued and agreed to take over production. On May 31, 1938, Roach sold MGM the Our Gang unit, including the rights to the name and the contracts for the actors and writers, for $ 25,000 (equal to $ 541,135 today). After delivering the Laurel and Hardy feature Block-Heads , Roach started

7521-509: The mid-1920s. Matthew Beard, Wheezer Hutchins, and Dorothy DeBorba carried the series during this period, aided by Sherwood Bailey and Kendall McComas , who would play Breezy Brisbane. Unlike the mid-1920s period, McGowan sustained the quality of the series with the help of the several regular cast members and the Roach writing staff. Many of these shorts include early appearances of Jerry Tucker and Wally Albright , who later became series regulars. New Roach discovery George McFarland joined

7630-491: The new schoolteacher Miss Crabtree, played by June Marlowe . Cooper soon won the lead role in Paramount 's feature film Skippy , and Roach sold his contract to MGM in 1931. Other Our Gang members appearing in the early sound shorts included Buddy McDonald , Clifton Young , and Shirley Jean Rickert . Many also appeared in a group cameo appearance in the all-star comedy short The Stolen Jools (1931). Beginning with

7739-502: The original characters—allowed her to contemplate her boys' fictional birth mother as deceased; her name is never revealed. However, in the show, the boys' father is infatuated with an estranged lady named Betty. Moreover, although portraying fictional characters, the ensemble cast —including Qaasim Middleton , as well as real-life friends David Levi , Joshua Kaye, Thomas Batuello , and Cooper Pillot—keep their full names on-screen. Nonetheless, Allie DiMeco plays Rosalina;

7848-561: The permanent series director. Our Gang would be used by MGM as a training ground for future feature directors: Sidney, Edward Cahn and Cy Endfield all worked on Our Gang before moving on to features. Another director, Herbert Glazer, remained a second-unit director outside of his work on the series. Nearly all of the 52 MGM-produced Our Gangs were written by former Roach director Hal Law and former junior director Robert A. McGowan (also known as Anthony Mack, nephew of former senior Our Gang director Robert F. McGowan). Robert A. McGowan

7957-421: The picture editor for the series; he was also the assistant editor for Sex and the City . Cobb worked with supervising sound editor Louis Bertini, who had been the editor for Sex and The City . Of the editing process, Bertini explains that editing the show was not much different from editing Sex and the City ; they brought a similar "approach and constriction to the audio elements", although unlike Sex in

8066-492: The playground. The idea that you're watching a documentary is so much fun. Then you put them into that fantasy of being a world-famous rock band, and that's the sauce that makes it work." Moreover, before the show's debut, "a fan recognized Nat and Alex in a Florida hotel. She sent them a note: 'Are you the Naked Brothers?' 'They were so excited,' Polly Draper recalled. 'The show hasn't even aired yet and now walking down

8175-423: The polar bears potentially becoming extinct due to global warming . During their visit, Mr. Wolff's friend's older daughter, as well as Nat, Qaasim, and Rosalina encounter misinterpretations over their romantic interests before they are resolved, and the band ends up donating the money raised from their performance at an elaborate-styled ballroom to a charity supporting climate change . The third season began with

8284-501: The popular series in production. Roach agreed, producing shorter, one-reel Our Gang comedies (ten minutes in length instead of twenty). The first one-reel Our Gang short, Bored of Education (1936), marked the Our Gang directorial debut of former assistant director Gordon Douglas and won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (One Reel) in 1937. As part of the arrangement with MGM to continue Our Gang , Roach received

8393-485: The rich owner of a swanky Broadway nightclub where Darla and Buckwheat perform, making "hundreds and thousands of dollars". As the profit margins continued to decline owing to double features, Roach could no longer afford to continue producing Our Gang . The lack of consistent success with Roach's concurrent program of feature output and an ultimately unsuccessful partnership with Vittorio Mussolini - son of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini - led to disagreements with

8502-455: The school principal. Jesse's sister and cousin have been added as recurring stars during the second season. They play Jesse's sisters named Tessy and Bessy who appear as the dancing girls in Alex's new music video. In addition, Qaasim's real-life mother, the actress and singer-songwriter Toni Seawright , as well as his younger brother Kahlil (also an actor and musician) appear as themselves during

8611-420: The scripts; instead, McGowan would explain the scene to be filmed to each child immediately before it was shot, directing the children using a megaphone and encouraging improvisation . When sound came in at the end of the 1920s, McGowan modified his approach slightly, but scripts were not adhered to until McGowan left the series. Later Our Gang directors, such as Gus Meins and Gordon Douglas , streamlined

8720-406: The season ends with Nat and his band performing at a charity event they put together for Juanita and her foster family. During the second season, 13 episodes and 2 TV specials aired, beginning with the two-part episode, TV movie "Sidekicks" in January 2008 before ending that following June with the three-part episode, TV movie " Polar Bears ". In the second season, Nat is 12 and Alex is 9. Rosalina

8829-529: The season in fall 1933, Bedtime Worries and Wild Poses (which featured a cameo by Laurel and Hardy), focused on Spanky and his hapless parents, portrayed by Gay Seabrook and Emerson Treacy , in a family-oriented situation comedy format similar to the style later popular on television . A smaller cast of Our Gang kids—Matthew Beard, Tommy Bond, Jerry Tucker, and Georgie Billings—were featured in supporting roles with reduced screen time. An unsatisfied McGowan abruptly left after Wild Poses . Coupled with

8938-430: The season, Nat does not like when David and Thomas ridicule his affection for Rosalina. Although neither admits their feelings for each other, it becomes quite obvious that Nat and Rosalina like each other. As time goes on, Rosalina kisses Nat on the lips in his dressing room. Moreover, Alex becomes mad and runs away when Jesse dates The Timmerman Brothers. Along the way, Alex becomes friends with an orphan named Juanita at

9047-468: The second season, as the boys play restlessly on a purple sofa, their mother (who was not directing the episode) admonishes them over the loudspeaker by saying, "Both of you, try to smile more." According to New York Times author Felicia R. Lee, the siblings act "chatty, guileless, fun-loving", much as they do in their genuine lives. She also notes that, of the show's characters, "no one over 18 has much sense." Draper's role as creator —the developer of

9156-452: The second season, while Seawright reprises her role in the third season. Thomas' real-life younger brother, John, also reoccurs as himself during the second season. During a family interview in January 2008 by New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg, Nat notes the French bulldog E.T., who plays David Levi's dog in the show, belongs to the Draper-Wolff family in real life. Craig Cobb is

9265-415: The series differs from other children's shows in terms of not using a laugh track. "At first, we were intrigued by the idea, but we weren't sure that kids would understand the vague tongue-and-cheek of it. Then a bunch of us took [the film] home to our own children and they loved it." —Tom Aschiem, executive vice president and general manager for Nickelodeon Draper explains the events that precede

9374-408: The series entered its most popular period after converting to sound in 1929. Production continued at Roach until 1938, when the Our Gang production unit was sold to MGM, where production continued until 1944. Across 220 short films and a feature-film spin-off, General Spanky , the Our Gang series featured more than 41 child actors as regular members of its cast. As MGM retained the rights to

9483-512: The series in the mid-1920s, the Our Gang series entered a transitional period. The stress of directing child actors forced Robert McGowan to take doctor-mandated sabbaticals for exhaustion, leaving his nephew Robert A. McGowan (credited as Anthony Mack) to direct many shorts in this period. The Mack-directed shorts are considered among the lesser entries in the series. New faces included Bobby Hutchins as Wheezer, Harry Spear , Jean Darling and Mary Ann Jackson , while stalwart Farina served as

9592-446: The series that "I feel it was great. Some of the lines I had to say I didn't like, but I never look at it like that. I just try to look at it as mostly a fun thing. We were just a group of kids who were having fun." In a separate interview, Ernie Morrison stated, "When it came to race, Hal Roach was color-blind ." Despite the stereotyping and racial gags, Our Gang's integrated cast caused it to be disliked by certain theater owners in

9701-481: The series were Ernie Morrison , Eugene Jackson , Allen Hoskins , Matthew Beard and Billie Thomas . Ernie Morrison was, in fact, the first black actor signed to a long-term contract in Hollywood history and the first major black star in Hollywood history. The African-American characters have often been criticized as racial stereotypes. The Black children spoke (or were indicated as speaking via text titles in

9810-645: The series' anchor. Also at this time, the Our Gang cast acquired an American Pit Bull Terrier with a ring around one eye, originally named Pansy but soon known as Pete the Pup , the most famous Our Gang pet. In 1927, Roach ended his distribution arrangement with the Pathé company. He signed on to release future products through the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , which released its first Our Gang comedy in September 1927. The move to MGM offered Roach larger budgets and

9919-403: The series, featured her as an estranged fan on the radio, providing the voice over. By the third season, Draper and Judge directed every other TV movie, with Mark Salisbury directing the initial animated special, and Rosario Roveto, Jr. directing the concluding episode. Draper managed to also keep an eye on her two boys. For example, the cast was filming an episode that featured the band recording

10028-591: The short When the Wind Blows , in 1930 background music scores were added to the soundtracks of most of the Our Gang films. Initially, the music consisted of orchestral versions of then-popular tunes. Marvin Hatley had served as the music director of Hal Roach Studios since 1929, and RCA employee Leroy Shield joined the company as a part-time musical director in mid-1930. Hatley and Shield's jazz -influenced scores, first featured in Our Gang with 1930s Pups

10137-488: The short. Roach tested it at several theaters around Hollywood. The attendees were very receptive, and the press clamored for "lots more of those 'Our Gang' comedies." The colloquial usage of the term Our Gang led to its becoming the series' second (yet more popular) official title, with the title cards reading " Our Gang Comedies: Hal Roach presents His Rascals in..." The series was officially called both Our Gang and Hal Roach's Rascals until 1932, when Our Gang became

10246-491: The show's premiere, the band's song "Crazy Car" was placed on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and the first and second season soundtrack albums were on the top 200 Billboard charts. The Naked Brothers Band was nominated for several awards, earning a Broadcast Music, Inc. Award and one Writers Guild of America Award . The series concluded after three seasons because the network began placing high shooting demands on

10355-483: The show: "Nat decided he wanted to film his own sitcom, so we did a film called Don't Eat Off My Plate . I pretended to interview his friends and do a documentary." Following the home video, Draper had the idea of making a mockumentary film about the band; she decided to introduce them as music icons like the Beatles. Filmed in mid-2004, the movie was originally independent , and interior scenes were vastly filmed in

10464-526: The siblings' cousin Jesse Draper portrays Jesse Cook; and Michael Wolff plays the siblings' father, Sonny, the latter whom Draper notes she wrote similar to that of a child. The Timmerman Brothers—a band no longer famous—consists of three siblings, who in real life are Polly's nephews, Nat and Alex's cousins, and thus Jesse's brothers and cousin. In addition, Jesse's real-life father, Polly's brother, and thus Nat and Alex's uncle reoccurs as

10573-503: The sole title of the series. The first cast of Our Gang was recruited primarily of children recommended to Roach by studio employees, with the exception of Ernie Morrison, who was already under contract to Roach. The other Our Gang recruits included Roach photographer Gene Kornman's daughter Mary Kornman , their friends' son Mickey Daniels , and family friends Allen Hoskins , Jack Davis , Jackie Condon , and Joe Cobb . Most early shorts were filmed outdoors and on location and featured

10682-472: The southern United States. Early in the existence of Our Gang , these theater owners complained to Pathé that Morrison and Hoskins had too much screen time and their prominence in the shorts would offend white audiences. A later Our Gang spin-off film, Curley (1947), was banned by the Memphis, Tennessee censor board for showing black and white children in school together, a characteristic common to even

10791-614: The streets kids are calling out their names. They can't believe it.' " According to Nat, "After the show came on, people began to really treat us like huge rock stars. They'd scream on the street, and we'd look behind us to see what they were screaming about, because we didn't realize it was us." The family encountered an incident in the past; they had to delist and change their phone number in Lower Manhattan because fans worldwide were calling their apartment relentlessly. Draper recalls, "Little girls would call and say, 'Helloooo,

10900-460: The studio commissary. While Harold would eventually be relegated to the role of a background player, Carl, nicknamed "Alfalfa", eventually replaced Scotty Beckett as Spanky's sidekick. Matthew Beard as Stymie left the cast soon after, and the Buckwheat character morphed subtly into a male. That same year, Darla Hood , Patsy May, and Eugene Lee as Porky joined the gang. Scotty Beckett departed for

11009-982: The television movie " Mystery Girl ", which premiered in October 2008. It also aired 3 other TV movies, 1 animated TV special, 1 special webisode, and 3 other episodes, concluding with "No School's Fools Day" in June 2009. In this season, Nat, Thomas, David, and Cooper are 13 with Qaasim being 14, while Alex is 10 and Rosalina is 15. The season features an array of celebrities making cameo appearances, including actresses Miranda Cosgrove and Whoopi Goldberg , singer Natasha Bedingfield , and musicians David Desrosiers and Simon Kirke . Other celebrity appearances include musicians Tobin Esperance and Questlove , actor and musician Leon Thomas , actress Victoria Justice , and talk show host Dave Attell . Daniel Raymont, Tuffy Questall, Teala Dunn, Catherine Curtin, and Matt Pinfield all return, with Andrew Keenan-Bolger portraying Christophe,

11118-538: The unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular children, rather than have them imitate adult acting styles. The series also broke new ground by portraying white and black children interacting as equals during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation in the United States . The franchise began in 1922 as a silent short subject series produced by the Roach studio and released by Pathé Exchange . Roach changed distributors from Pathé to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1927, and

11227-431: The years, including the 1994 feature film The Little Rascals , released by Universal Pictures . Unlike many motion pictures featuring children and based in fantasy , producer/creator Hal Roach rooted Our Gang in real life: most of the children were poor, and the gang was often at odds with snobbish "rich kids", officious adults, parents, and other such adversaries. Senior director Robert F. McGowan helmed most of

11336-473: Was a heightened reality..." —Nat Wolff, star, singer, and composer Principal photography takes place at Kidzhouse Entertainment, the stage one division of Broadway Stages in Brooklyn, New York over the summer and early fall. That way, the boys are able to continue attending private school throughout most of the year. Being the showrunner —or leading executive producer , Polly Draper oversees

11445-400: Was credited for these shorts as "Robert McGowan"; as a result, moviegoers have been confused for decades about whether this Robert McGowan and the senior director of the same name at Roach were two separate people. The last few of the Roach comedies featured Alfalfa Switzer as the lead character; Spanky McFarland had departed from the series just before its sale to MGM. Casting his replacement

11554-405: Was delayed until after the move to MGM, at which point MGM rehired McFarland. In 1939, Mickey Gubitosi (later known by the stage name of Robert Blake ) replaced Eugene "Porky" Lee, who had matured too quickly. Tommy Bond, Darwood Kaye, and Alfalfa Switzer all left the series in 1940, and Billy "Froggy" Laughlin (with his Popeye -esque trick voice) and Janet Burston were added to the cast. By

11663-411: Was famous for, and to MGM's insistence on keeping Alfalfa, Spanky, and Buckwheat in the series as they became teens. The MGM entries are considered by many film historians, and the Our Gang children themselves, to be lesser films than the Roach entries. The children's performances were criticized as stilted and stiff, their dialogue being recited instead of spoken naturally. Adult situations often drove

11772-495: Was no talent search, the studio was bombarded by requests from parents who were sure their children were perfect for the series. Among them were the future child stars Mickey Rooney and Shirley Temple , neither of whom made it past the audition. The Our Gang series, produced during the Jim Crow era, is notable for being one of the first in cinema history in which African Americans and White Americans were portrayed as equals. The five black child actors who held main roles in

11881-412: Was originally an independent film shot in mid-2004 depicting Nat and Alex Wolff when they were nine and six years old respectively, along with Nat's friends and the other band members Joshua Kaye, David Levi, Thomas Batuello, and Cooper Pillot. They film a documentary about their world-renowned band, The Silver Boulders, as they fracture due to Nat's song about a girl named Rosalina (Allie DiMeco). Later on,

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