The Magnificent Six and 1/2

Last updated

The Magnificent Six and 1/2 was a British comedy film series for the Children's Film Foundation. Based on Hal Roach's popular Our Gang series of shorts, "Six and 1/2" followed a group of seven children on their fun misadventures. Created by Harry Booth and Roy Simpson, the series ran in cinemas from 1968 to 1972, with three series and eighteen half-hour episodes in all. Following the first two series, Booth and Simpson decided to bring their children's series to television, eventually creating a very similar series called Here Come the Double Deckers! . The final "Six and 1/2" series was produced by a different company and featured an entirely new group of children in the cast.

Contents

Series One (1968)

The first series of The Magnificent Six and 1/2 starred Len Jones as the group's leader, Steve, Brinsley Forde as prankster Toby, Suzanne Togni as tomboy Liz, Ian Ellis as rather large Dumbo, Michael Audreson as the clever Whizz, Lionel Hawkes as the always hungry Stodger, and Kim Tallmadge as tag-a-long Peewee (the "1/2" in the serial's title). In the first episode, "Ghosts and Ghoulies", the rest of the gang meet Whizz and his little sister Peewee for the first time. Whizz and Peewee are allowed to join the gang if they spend the night in a haunted house. Produced by Century Films with Roy Simpson and directed by Harry Booth, the series debuted in February 1968.

Episodes

Cast

Series Two (1969)

The second series was very similar to the first series, with the only noticeable difference being a small change in the cast. Len Jones was unavailable at the time, resulting in Robin Davies taking over for the part of "Steve". Brinsley Forde was absent from a few of the episodes (A Good Deed in Time and The Astronoughts), though his name still appeared in the closing credits. This would be the last series to feature the original characters. The series premiered in August 1969.

Episodes

Cast

Series Three (1972)

The final series was produced by a different company, Lion Pacesetter, and directed by Peter Graham Scott. A completely different cast was brought in, as well as a mostly new set of characters (the one exception being the character Liz). Despite being different characters from the previous two series, the new group of kids had individual personalities very similar to those of their predecessors. The cast consisted of Paul Griffiths as the group's leader, Andy, Jody Lynn Schaller as Genie, the group's resident genius, Kay Skinner as chubby Podge, James C. Baxter as Larry, Robert Richardson as Sam, Jane Coster as Liz (a character used in the two previous series), and Steven Wallen as tag-a-long Scruff.

Episodes

Cast

Here Come the Double Deckers!

Around 1969, Magnificent Six and 1/2 creators Harry Booth and Roy Simpson decided to bring their series to television. The two pitched the idea to the British Broadcasting Corporation, who wound up turning down the series. Eventually, American studio 20th Century Fox agreed to produce the series, which eventually became known as Here Come the Double Deckers! . The series had a very similar format to its predecessor, following the adventures of seven children (with very similar personalities to the "Six and 1/2" group) who used a double decker bus as their clubhouse. However, unlike "Six and 1/2", the television series was produced on a much higher budget, and often contained musical numbers.

20th Century Fox wanted a completely different cast for the television series, rather than the same cast from the "Six and 1/2" series, but nevertheless, both Brinsley Forde and Michael Audreson starred in the series. The Double Deckers made its American premiere on 12 September 1970, and its United Kingdom premiere on 8 January 1971. The series lasted a total of seventeen episodes.

Later showings

Six of the shorts were syndicated to television as part of CBS Children's Film Festival. Three of the shorts were shown as part of this series in 1969, and three more in 1973. Among the films shown were "Ghosts and Ghoulies", "When Knights Were Bold" and "Peewee's Pianola".

The first two series were syndicated to television in West Germany beginning on 8 November 1970. In Germany, the series was known as Sechs Wilde und ein Krümel.

In 1987, Cineplex-Odeon Home Video and MCA edited together all of the shorts from the first series into a feature film, The Adventures of the Magnificent Six and 12. They released the feature on VHS in Canada in 1989.

In 2002, eight of the shorts were released as bonus features on a series of four DVDs, known as Saturday Morning Pictures. These DVDs were dedicated to the Children's Film Foundation, and each release consisted of two CFF feature films and two Six and 1/2 shorts (two of the DVDs also featured promotional trailers for the Children's Film Foundation, one of which featured a clip from "Kontiki Kids". These releases were also offered on VHS, although the Six and 1/2 shorts were not included. Volume 1 featured "Ghosts and Ghoulies" and "Kontiki Kids", Volume 2 featured "Bob a Job" and "Peewee's Pianola", Volume 3 featured "The Astronaughts" and "A Good Deed in Time", and Volume 4 featured "It's Not Cricket" and "Peewee Had A Little Ape".

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Lillard</span> American actor (born 1970)

Matthew Lyn Lillard is an American actor. His film work includes Chip Sutphin in Serial Mom (1994), Emmanuel "Cereal Killer" Goldstein in Hackers (1995), Stu Macher in Scream (1996), Stevo in SLC Punk! (1998), Brock Hudson in She's All That (1999), Dennis Rafkin in Thirteen Ghosts (2001), and Jerry Conlaine in Without a Paddle (2004). He is perhaps best known for his role as Shaggy Rogers in the live-action movies Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004) as well as in certain animated releases, with the actor serving as the voice of Shaggy since Casey Kasem retired from the role in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas</span> American child actor (1931–1980)

William "Billie" Thomas Jr. was an American child actor best remembered for portraying the character of Buckwheat in the Our Gang short films from 1934 until the series' end in 1944. He was a native of Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Haines</span> American actor (1919–1943)

Donald Haines was an American child actor who had recurring appearances in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1930 to 1933. He appeared in Our Gang during the early sound days along with Norman "Chubby" Chaney, Allen "Farina" Hoskins, Jackie Cooper, Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, and Dorothy DeBorba.

<i>Flying Wild</i> 1941 film

Flying Wild is a 1941 American comedy thriller film directed by William Beaudine under the pseudonym "William West" as the fifth installment of the East Side Kids series which eventually totalled 22 films. The film is the team's first one in the spy film genre. The supporting cast includes Joan Barclay, Dave O'Brien and Herbert Rawlinson. It was distributed by Monogram Pictures.

The following is a complete list of the 220 Our Gang short films produced by Hal Roach Studios and/or Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer between 1922 and 1944, numbered by order of release along with production order.

The Little Tough Guys were a group of actors who made a series of films and serials released by Universal Studios from 1938 through 1943. Many of them were originally part of The Dead End Kids, and several of them later became members of The East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys.

<i>Our Gang</i> American series of comedy short films

Our Gang is an American series of comedy short films chronicling 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 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.

<i>Here Come the Double Deckers!</i> 1971 British childrens TV series

Here Come the Double Deckers! is a 17-part British children's television series originally broadcast in 1971 on BBC1, revolving around the adventures of seven children whose den was an old red double-decker London bus in a scrap yard. The programme made its US debut on 12 September 1970 at 10:30 am ET on ABC. The entire series was released on DVD in the UK on 1 November 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brinsley Forde</span> English singer and actor (born 1953)

Brinsley Forde MBE is a British singer and actor of Guyanese parentage who is best known as the founder member of the reggae band Aswad and as a child actor in the children's television series Here Come the Double Deckers! (1970–71).

<i>Spooks Run Wild</i> 1941 film by Phil Rosen

Spooks Run Wild is a 1941 American horror comedy film and the seventh film in the East Side Kids series. It stars Bela Lugosi with Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan and Huntz Hall. It is directed by Phil Rosen, in his first and only outing in the series, and produced by Sam Katzman. The original script is by Carl Foreman and Charles R. Marion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Gorcey</span> American actor

David Gorcey was an American actor and the younger brother of actor Leo Gorcey. Gorcey is best known for portraying "Chuck Anderson" in Monogram Pictures' film series The Bowery Boys, and "Pee Wee" in its antecedent The East Side Kids.

Michael Audreson is a British actor who appeared in films and television shows in the 1960s. He was in the 12-episode Children's Film Foundation series The Magnificent Six and a Half before playing the bespectacled "Brains" in Here Come the Double Deckers (1970–71). In the film Young Winston (1971) he played Winston Churchill as a schoolboy.

<i>Hi-Neighbor!</i> 1934 Our Gang short film

Hi'-Neighbor! is a 1934 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 126th Our Gang short to be released and Meins' first series entry as director.

<i>Our Gang Follies of 1936</i> 1935 film

Our Gang Follies of 1936 is a 1935 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 140th Our Gang short to be released and the first of several musical entries in the series.

<i>Shorts</i> (2009 film) 2009 American film

Shorts is a 2009 fantasy comedy film written and directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring Jon Cryer, William H. Macy, Leslie Mann, James Spader, Jimmy Bennett, Kat Dennings, and introducing Jolie Vanier in her film debut, with Jake Short, Devon Gearhart, Leo Howard, Trevor Gagnon, and Rebel Rodriguez in supporting roles. It tells the story of a rainbow wishing rock that ends up in the possession of different people where the wishes have various results for those who make the wishes in a "series of shorts".

<i>Three Orphan Kittens</i> 1935 American film

Three Orphan Kittens is a 1935 animated short film in the Silly Symphonies series produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was the winner of the 1935 Oscar for Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons). It was followed in 1936 by a sequel, More Kittens.

Kerry Remsen is an American actress. She is the daughter of actor Bert Remsen and casting director Barbara Joyce Dodd, sister of Ann Remsen Manners and has been married to Ron Cates since 2006. She attended the U.S. Grant High School in Van Nuys, California. She has appeared in well over twenty different films and television programs. She was a regular and prominent cast member of Leah Laiman's 1990s soap opera, Tribes. She is also most remembered by horror fans for her small part in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, and supporting and co-starring roles in Pumpkinhead and Ghoulies II.

Mickey McGuire is an American comedy series of short subjects from 1927 to 1934. Produced by Larry Darmour, the series was notable for essentially launching the careers of Mickey Rooney and Billy Barty.

The East Side Kids were characters in a series of 22 films released by Monogram Pictures from 1940 through 1945. The series was a low-budget imitation of the Dead End Kids, a successful film franchise of the late 1930s.

<i>The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse</i> Disney+ continuation of Mickey Mouse

The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation for Disney+. The series is a continuation and revival of the Emmy Award-winning 2013 Mickey Mouse shorts, uses the same style, and has many of the same cast and crew, with the exception of the late Russi Taylor, who was replaced by Kaitlyn Robrock in the role of Minnie Mouse. The series premiered on November 18, 2020 to coincide with Mickey's 92nd birthday. The animation is provided by Mercury Filmworks.