Mischief Makers (TV series) facts for kids

Mischief Makers was a fun children's television series. It started in 1960 and was created by National Telepix. The show featured old silent films, mostly from the famous Our Gang series. It also showed films from other series like Mickey McGuire and Buster Brown. Sometimes, films with animals called the Dippy Doo Dads were included too. Each episode was about fifteen minutes long. The series stopped making new episodes in 1961. However, many local TV stations continued to show Mischief Makers well into the 1970s, and even in the 1980s in Latin America.

Show Overview

The Mischief Makers series mostly showed silent films from Hal Roach's Our Gang. But it also included films from other series. Each episode lasted about fifteen minutes. The main film in each episode was usually about twelve minutes long. The original silent films were much longer, about twenty minutes.

The films were given new, simple titles for the show. For example, Every Man For Himself became Shoeshine Shop. Most of the parts cut from the films were from the beginning. Sometimes, clips from different films were put together. These were called 'hybrid episodes'. They contained scenes from more than one short film. The original text cards (called inter-titles) that explained the story were usually removed. To make up for this, two kids named 'Bobby' and 'Bunny' narrated most episodes. Bunny often said "Skeedly Skeedly!". Fun, carnival-like music, composed by Jack Saunders, and sound effects were also added to the films.

Theme Song and Animation

The show had an animated opening and closing theme. The song was called "Hip, Hip, Hooray". It was written by Jack Saunders and Phyllis Brandell Saunders. An instrumental (music-only) version of this song was also played during the silent films.

The animation was created by Gene Deitch. It showed four cartoon characters in front of a picket fence. They were doing different activities. The characters included a chubby kid with a beanie hat, who looked like Joe Cobb. There was also a girl, probably meant to be Mary Kornman. A freckled-face boy looked like Mickey Daniels. And a dog with a ring around its eye was clearly meant to be Pete the Pup.

Episode Narration

Most episodes of Mischief Makers were narrated by two kids. They were known as 'Bobby' and 'Bunny'. The way they talked to each other made it seem like they were siblings. Bobby seemed to be the older one. When they narrated an episode, they talked almost constantly. Today, many fans of the Our Gang series find their narration a bit annoying.

The writers for the narration sometimes gave new names to the kids in the films. However, some famous Our Gang members kept their well-known names. These included Mickey, Mary, Ernie, Farina, Jackie, and Johnny. But Joe Cobb was called 'Joey'. Jack Davis was known as 'Rocky'. And Jay R. Smith was called 'Freckles'.

Episode List (Partial)

This is a partial list of episodes from Mischief Makers. [*] means it was a hybrid episode, using clips from more than one short film.

Comedy Capers Spin-off

After Mischief Makers ended, National Telepix created a new show called Comedy Capers. This was a spin-off series. It featured various comedy films made by Hal Roach and Mack Sennett. The most famous stars in Comedy Capers were Laurel and Hardy, Ben Turpin, Harry Langdon, Billy Bevan, and The Keystone Kops. Other films shown starred actors like Will Rogers, Charley Chase, Snub Pollard, and Mabel Normand.

The opening theme song for Comedy Capers immediately told viewers it was connected to Mischief Makers. The singers mentioned, "The Mischief Makers present...". Even though actual Our Gang films were not in Comedy Capers, the opening theme did show clips from Our Gang shorts like Official Officers and Playin' Hookey.