The Story of Hal Roach and Our Gang

This is a documentary that's included with the Our Gang mega-set of eight DVDs. This in on disc eight--the Bonus disc. It's a relatively short film of under 30 minutes--which just isn't enough considering that the series went for for over 20 years (if you count the films later made by MGM after the series was sold by Hal Roach Studios). So, if you are interested in seeing about the later films and characters more familiar to many of us since they were the ones often shown on TV in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, then you'll be disappointed as the film is much more about the formation of the first films--mostly the silents. Yes, you hear about the later years but it's all much more rushed. As for me, it was well worth seeing but I sure would like to see a much longer film about the films--and would really appreciate it if it would also feature interviews with Leonard Maltin and Richard Bann, since they literally wrote the book on Our Gang. However, you do get to see a few of the old stars such as Dickie Moore and Jean Darling and there are lots of clips from the older films.

UPDATE: A few days after I watched this film, I found a copy of "The Our Gang Story". While not perfect, the documentary was MUCH more comprehensive and is well worth finding. It's far better than "The Story of Hal Roach and Our Gang", that's for sure.

What I'm reviewing here is one of the extras on Disc 8 of The Little Rascals: The Complete Collection which consisted of the entire talkie shorts of Our Gang for Hal Roach from 1929-38. The other extras are Rascals and Racial Issues and Catching Up with the Rascals which had interviews with surviving members Dickie Moore, Jean Darling who also introed on this particular disc, Jerry Tucker, and Annie Ross as well as one Rick Sapphire who recounted his memories of managing Spanky McFarland when they toured the college circuit during the '70s. What I'm commenting on now is the chronicle of how Hal Roach created the series as well as his conundrum of whether to have them grow up or replace with new youngsters when many passed a certain age. He obviously chose the latter which eventually led to the series peak when Spanky, Alfalfa, Darla, and Buckwheat joined. Great insights from all the above I mentioned as well as from Richard W. Bann, co-author of the book "The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang" and Richard Lewis Ward, author of "A History of The Hal Roach Studios". The other extras I mentioned were also insightful and entertaining. So I most definitely recommend them all.