Joe Cobb

The Little Rascals - The ClassicFlix Restorations, Volume 1 contains the first 11 Our Gang sound shorts produced by Roach at the dawn of the “talkie era": Small Talk to A Tough Winter—with each short newly scanned and restored from original Hal Roach 35mm film elements.

Featuring the most riotous Rascals of all. This hilarious comedy compilation spans more than twenty years of classic Our Gang comedies to tickle your funny bone and includes rarely seen silent footage. See Alfalfa sing "The Barber of Seville" at the "Our Gang Follies" and Chubby grease Wheezer with Limburger, plus a 1930s bicycle commercial starring Spanky and a 1950s reunion on "You Asked for It". Come join Spanky, Buckwheat, Jackie, Mickey, Farina, Darla, Froggy, Mary, Joe Cobb and many more for the marathon of mirthful moments with the Little Rascals, a must-have for your comedy collection.

Join all your favorites—Spanky, Buckwheat, Alfalfa, Darla, Butch, Froggy and more—in a jam-packed special covering more than twenty years and 200 episodes of Hal Roach's inimitable brand of childhood magic. This fascinating video offers insight into the Gang's personal lives, as rare footage follows each member's career through the joys and misfortunes that went along with being one of America's most beloved kids. See how the series began in 1922 and changed after the first all-talking release in 1929, why Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney never made the Gang, a fifteenth anniversary reunion, and clips from their only feature.

Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.

In this musical comedy, a motley band of musicians have only their extreme poverty in common. They end up writing a hit and getting a recording contract. The trouble is, the composer's works are never played without another band member doctoring them up to make them swingier. Fortunately, the composer isn't too averse to the changes as he has just won the heart of the beauty who sings his revamped songs.

A brash young American aristocrat attending Oxford University gets a chance to prove himself and win the heart of his antagonist's sister.

The "Our Gang" kids stage a production of "Romeo and Juliet," but the show is threatened when leading lady Darla walks out on star Alfalfa.

A truant officer spots the kids in an amusement park. They try to escape him.

The gang puts on a musical show at a reunion for some of the former Gang kids.

Harold Meadows is a shy, stuttering bachelor working in a tailor shop, who is writing a guidebook, The Secret of Making Love, for other bashful young men. Fate has him meet rich girl Mary, and they fall in love. But she is about to wed an already married man, so our hero embarks upon a hair-raising daredevil ride to prevent the wedding.

Farina and Joe fib to the gang that they've beaten up the neighborhood bully. Later, they hear he's been murdered and think they'll get the blame.

A young man visiting Hollywood on family business gets into trouble when he sees a bank robbery in progress, and thinks it is a movie scene.

Mr. and Mrs. Weedle are desperate to find two babies, for their rich uncle has sent them money for years thinking they have children. Now that he’s coming into town, the couple must find a pair of babies as soon as possible. The Our Gang kids are ready for the job, but a 27-year old midget is also in the running for the job and he doesn’t play fairly.

The Rascals have a boxing arena that could pack them in if they could find fighters who would actually mix it up. Harry and Farina notice a rivalry between two very large young kids, Joe and Chubby, that would fill the bill if only the two heavyweights would put aside their gentle natures. Farina gets an idea: tell each of the lads that the other will take a dive in the second round. So the fight begins and the stands are filled; but will the combatants actually throw a punch? Ernie has one more trick up his sleeve to get the fists flying and the crowd on its feet. Sweet science indeed.

This story revolves around an old man who feels alone in the world aside from the gang who keeps him company and his old horse. He runs a horse and buggy business, but he has new competition: an auto taxi. The gang helps him to maintain his job by sabotaging the other man's.

The gang wages war using old vegetables as munitions. Later, they ruin a movie in progress when they double-expose the film.

A hypnotist comes to town and puts the gang in animal-like trances. Now that the spell is off, the gang returns back to their usual roles. But then while at an afternoon tea social , the spell returned, ruining a perfectly good afternoon.

The kids are playing baseball when a man dressed in Middle-Eastern clothing comes out and tells them to be quiet. They join Mary, Farina, and Scooter in the gang's hide-out while Mary is reading ghost stories. While on the other side of the wall, the Arab-looking man is cheating people out of their money by staging a fake séance using state-of-the-art special effects. The cave entrance for the gang's hide-out collapses, so they light candles and dig into the wall, entering into the house. The "suckers" find out they are being cheated and run to get the cops to book the guys. The guys find out that the kids are in the house, and one dresses up in a ghost costume and chases the kids throughout the house.

The gang is trying just about anything to pass the time during their summer vacation. As usual, Mickey and Jack are trying to win the affections of Mary. In the interim, the village blacksmith, "Dad" Anderson, receives a lucrative contract to produce a creation of his: a sail-propelled scooter. The gang is lucky enough to get a hold of a few of these scooters, and happily sail down the city streets.

A young boy, determined to make money enough to buy his mother a birthday present, finds a variety of odd jobs and finally starts up a makeshift circus.

Chicken Feed is a 1927 American short silent comedy film directed by Robert A. McGowan. It was the 66th Our Gang short subject released. The kids go to a magic show and decides to try a little magic of their own.

Author Fawn Ochletree stages a charity performance of her latest play, a Romanesque epic. The gang and other neighborhood kids are forced into starring in the play, much to the chagrin of the gang. They are completely unable to remember their lines, and struggle with maintaing their composure during the more serious moments of the melodrama. Finally, Jackie sets off a slew of firecrackers as the finale, scaring all involved.

Habitually mistreated at the deceptively named Happyland Home Orphanage, the Our Gang kids find a loyal and kindhearted friend in the form of a black grownup named Uncle Tom. Alas, Tom's own children -- including real-life siblings Allen "Farina" Hoskins and Jannie "Mango" Hoskins -- are carted off to Happyland by the cold-hearted county officials. Farina, Mango, and the other kids escape the cruel orphanage in the dead of night, while Uncle Tom, preparing for their return, "borrows" food, clothes, and furnishings from various merchants.

One of a handful of currently unavailable Hal Roach/MGM “Our Gang” silent films, School Begins was a series of gags built around the unenviable ritual of returning to school during the first week of September. School begins and some gang members are forging notes from their mother wanting out. Then too-young Wheezer parades by the school with escaped circus seals following him, causing a disturbance.

In this Our Gang film, James Finlayson plays the gang's schoolteacher who takes the kids to Europe after winning a local contest. He takes them on a tour of Naples, Pompeii, Rome, the Vatican, Venice, London, and finally Paris, where problems arise on top of the Eiffel Tower.

This Our Gang short has the group playing pirates and building a ship to sail in. Once the ship hits water it sinks but they end up on another boat when the dog unties the rope and the kids head off to sea where they must be rescued by the Navy.

The gang are all orphans, hoping to be adopted by nice families where "spinach is not on the menu". Wheezer, the youngest child, gets adopted by a wealthy couple, while his older sister Mary Ann does not. The gang all comes to visit Wheezer in his new home, setting off an alarm that causes the police and the fire department to come over. At that time, Wheezer's new mother and father decide to adopt Mary Ann as well. The couple's friends all each adopt a child as well; even Farina is adopted by the maid at Wheezer's new home.

Farina, Joe, and friends use dogs to power their "roadsters," but following a lesson from the head of the Be Kind to Animals Society, they make it their cause to rescue animals from bad treatment. Joe even manages to find patience for a nagging flea that persists in biting him. Meanwhile, Wheezer, who has been tormenting animals with his games, dreams that the animals have turned the tables on him.

Your Own Back Yard is a 1925 American short silent comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 43rd Our Gang short subject released. Farina is having a very bad day, especially by his friends-very cruel playing nasty tricks, etc. Heeding his mother's advice to stay "in your own back yard," he does just that, feeding jumping beans to his chickens.

The kids from Our Gang have to attend a wedding, and they bring along their flea collection--which gets loose.

The Gang stages their own revisionist version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in Mickey's barn. But Joe's mother thinks the back yard needs cleaning, and there are several interruptions when they lose a leading character. Mickey plays Simon Legree; Mary as Eva; Joe as Uncle Tom; and Farina essays the role of Topsy.

Joe Cobb is suffering through a toothache as well as having to babysit his little brother Rupert who won't stop crying. Every effort to calm Rupert is undone by an immediate commotion to wake him up. Joe rocks him to sleep, but then the neighbor starts playing his bass fiddle. Joe then rocks the cradle so hard it falls apart, and he trips and stumbles moving Rupert to the baby carriage, which subsequently rolls down hill through traffic with Rupert and a neighbor's monkey enjoying the ride.

Wheezer gets excited watching his dog Pansy attack and rip apart the chickens and furniture in the back yard. His mother is upset, and his father takes his rifle to shoot the dog. Meanwhile, Joe Cobb has taught Pansy to play dead, and after the deed is done, he hides the dog at Farina's house.

Adults have the Pike and Coney Island amusement parks, so the rascals put up their own rides in a large vacant lot. Mickey's got big plans for expansion when surveyors show up to begin work on a factory. The gang travels by donkey cart to the office of Henry Mills, President of Pan American Export Company, to protest. Henry, in his 60s, is still a boy at heart: he has his chauffeur stop the car so he can join a sandlot game. He bails on a meeting with his board of directors, going with the kids to the factory site where he stops the workers and helps our gang add more rides. The directors follow him, and they get put to work. Will they ever have their meeting?

While the world watches the Olympic Games in Stockholm, the Rascals gather at the flats for their own games. Whether it's the shot put, the hurdles, the pole vault, or the high jump, not much goes right. There's a deep mud hole that catches several of the kids, and someone out there keeps giving them the razzberry. It's young Wheezer hiding out of sight with his dog Punch, but the kids think it's another boy, so every time they hear the Bronx cheer, they chase the innocent lad and give him a thumping.

The boys are showing off their dogs to each other when little rich girl Mary Kornman rides by in her pony-drawn cart. When the pony shies and runs away, Mickey comes to the rescue with his dog. In gratitude, Mary invites all the boys and their dogs to her party, much to the chagrin of her wealthy mother.

The gang creates their own railroad after being chased from a local railyard, and competes with Toughie.

After the gang goes to the horse races, they decide to have a derby of their own.

Mary Ann is becoming a serious problem to the other gang members and Joe was given the job of training and controlling her behavior.

The gang decided to go into the movie-making business, using all kinds of sets and props. There were problems as those not involved are trying to ruin their business by playing pranks and even insisting the police to close them down.

While on a cross-country train trip, the Our Gang kids drive the rest of the passengers crazy with a never-ending game of cowboys and Indians. During a stopover in the sleepy town of Red Dog, the kids disembark in hopes of savoring a taste of genuine Western life. They get more than they bargained for when a trio of bandits rides into town for a showdown with the local sherff.

Many of the "Our Gang" kids are in their secret clubhouse - so secret that some wannabe members have troubles trying to find the tunnel entrance - planning their next game, which will be a Wild West shootout. They run into some obstacles in playing the game, including objections from parents, and as such they decide to postpone it until the wee hours of the next morning and play it in the streets of the neighborhood. As it begins to rain during the middle of their shootout that morning, they decide to take refuge in a neighborhood house. What they are unaware of is that the house belongs to inventor W.R. Jones, who rigged it to be a "magnetic house", a demonstration for a possible amusement park attraction. Not knowing about the house's rigged contraptions leads to a lot of misadventures for the gang not related to shooting Indians as they try to figure out what's happening around them.

The rascals once again, now as a plumbers.

Poor Pete the Pup. He wants to hang himself because his master, Joe, has given up playing with him and going fishing for the love of a girl. A dog friend of Pete's stops him in the nick of time, and in flashback Pete tells him of his sorrows; Pete becomes a drunkard and is chased away by Joe. The last straw comes when another dog knocks Joe's sweetheart into a lake and Pete is blamed for it. Will Pete carry through with his suicide or will Joe apologize?

A couple makes dolls modeled on neighborhood kids. A gardener at a mansion buys four of them for Mary, the girl of the house. He's her only friend: her parents neglect her for work and card games and her governess is humorless. Mary loves the dolls and dreams of them during her nap. While Mary sleeps, the governess throws the dolls in the dust bin. Mary wakes and goes searching - outside she runs into the very same four kids who were the dolls' models, and she thinks she's still dreaming...

On Christmas Eve, the Gang copes with hardships, helps capture a gang of thieves, and learns that Santa Claus really exists for those who wish fervently enough.

The gang has a taxi, consisting of an old Model T with no engine, pushed by a horse. When the owner takes his horse back, they must rely on motorists to tow them to the top of the hill so they can coast down. Little Farina borrows the car and it runs out of control all over town, causing mayhem everywhere it goes.

The gang is playing around the railroad station, and Joe and Chubby's father, an engineer, lectures against the kids playing in such a dangerous area. True to his word, after Joe and Chubby's father leaves, a crazy man starts a train with most of the kids on it, save for Farina who is nearly run over several times. Once Farina manages to climb aboard himself, the kids attempt to stop the runaway locomotive, but have no luck until the engine crashes into a grocery truck. As it turns out, however, the entire incident is revealed to be a dream Farina had as Joe and Chubby's father lectured the kids about rail-yard safety.

Ten Years Old is a 1927 American short silent comedy film directed by Robert A. McGowan. It was the 58th Our Gang short subject released. It was remade as Birthday Blues in 1932. Nobody comes to Joe's birthday party so he goes to the rich kid's party with his own special cake.

While the other kids and animals find things to do on the farm, Farina becomes single-minded in his quest to do nothing at all.

The circus is in town and for one day only. By pretending to be sick some of the gang members were able to play hooky from school so as to attend the festivities.

Living in an orphanage, the gang has to deal with Amanda, a child-hating spinster. To receive a bequest from a rich uncle, she must acquire a child. Thinking suspicion, the gang causes all kinds of havoc toward her including a mud battle.

Crazy House is a 1928 Our Gang short silent comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 76th Our Gang short that was released. It was the final appearance of Jackie Condon, who was with the gang since the pilot episode of Our Gang in 1922.

The Rascals take their homemade boat on a search for treasure and crash a movie set.

A kindly old schoolteacher helps the gang escape from a cruel boarding school, but they wind up in a bootlegger's booby-trapped house.

The kids pretend to be hunting a variety of animals when they're invited to a farm where they try to capture real game. This gets boring after a while so they decide to try and track a bear. Soon the bear is stalking them!

Farina Hoskins discovers a stray dog. Joe Cobb suggests that he and Farina take the dog to the gang's dog show. In the middle of the show, the dogcatchers crack down on picking up all unlicensed strays to control a hydrophobia epidemic; the injection to control the disease costs five dollars.

The gang play inside a railroad box car which suddenly closes, trapping them inside. The next morning they find themselves in New York City. After seeing some of the sites on foot, they steal a 5th Avenue Bus, and are caught by the police.

The kids in the tenements have no place to play except in streets where traffic is a hazard. Mickey gets the idea of building barricades to give our gang space to play at an intersection, but a beat cop, the nasty "Hard-Boiled" McManus, puts a quick end to that. A sympathetic constable and a detective who has kids of his own give our gang a chance to help law enforcement. The little rascals wear uniforms and keep an eye on things: Joe, for instance, eyes the bananas at Tony's fruit stand. When the now-fired McManus returns and seeks revenge, the junior police force and their adult colleagues are put to the test.

Little Mother is a 1929 Our Gang short silent comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Little Mother was the 87th Our Gang short to be released. A silent film, it followed Our Gang's first sound film, Small Talk, on the release schedule.