The best-known cast members, Carl (Alfalfa) Switzer, Darla Hood, William (Buckwheat) Thomas and George (Spanky) McFarland, have died. The list of Gang graduates includes the famous-actors Jackie Cooper and Robert Blake-and other players who long ago gave up show business. As a result, Satterfield’s group maintains an extensive network of contacts with the surviving Gangsters. “I’d say they were a little ticked off, especially since it’s a group that’s been so faithful to the memory of the original films.”īecause Hal Roach produced Laurel and Hardy as well as the Gang, the child actors were used in the comedy team’s films. “None of the original Rascals were included,” says Bob Satterfield, a former Grand Sheik of the Sons of the Desert, a group of Laurel and Hardy film buffs. The omission is doubly hurtful, the surviving cast members say, because the new film was directed by Penelope Spheeris, who made such a point in her last film, “The Beverly Hillbillies,” of including TV-show star Buddy Ebsen in the film.

However, it’s their nickel, they can do what they want to do.” “He contacted (the studio) and was invited down to visit the set, but he felt they didn’t want us involved. (son of the late Bill (Buckwheat) Thomas), who’s a police officer in Los Angeles,” Bond says. Bond is also known for his role as Jimmy Olson in two late ‘40s Superman serials, before leaving acting for production. Bond, now 68 and a retired television production executive living in Madeira, Calif., is currently touring for his newly published book of memoirs, “Darn Right It’s Butch,” and publicizing Cabin Fever Home Video’s release of 48 restored “Our Gang” episodes.

Names of the original little rascals