Hook and Ladder

For decades this episode was just below my Top Ten in the Little Rascals canon, but a recent viewing fest has finally bumped it up to that hallowed spot.

This could lay fair claim as the series' most inventive episode. Gadgetry abounds. Stymie, Dickie and little brother Spanky are among the heads of the gang's own Fire Brigade, responding to a newspaper article pleading for more local firefighters. Dickie Moore, one of Hollywood's most in-demand child actors, makes his series debut here. Sadly, it was to be his last season as well. Spanky, who'd debuted half a season prior, has the very funniest scenes. Baby Spanky just slays me--whether he's rebelling at taking his half-hour medicine dosage, or whether he's dinkering with the makeshift intercom system by blowing dust onto Dorothy's head--accompanied by that incomparable nasty laugh. Stymie is simply in his greatest period here.

And there's that supporting cast of characters: dogs, cats, horses, goats are pressed into service, primarily to power the gang's three (four?) fire trucks. I especially like the little dog on the treadmill (was that Laughing Gravy from the Laurel & Hardy series?); his barks are dubbed in for extra loudness. And was Pete's offscreen yelp supposed to be the cat in the cage scratching him? And in case you hadn't noticed, the shot of the goat and mule sitting back down was really that same shot run backwards--the same comic device was later used in the episode "Honkey Donkey".