The Monchhichis/Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show was a 60-minute block that ran on ABC Saturday mornings in the 1983/84 season. This series featured the final seasons for The Little Rascals spinoff and Richie Rich cartoon series.
Overview[]
Only nine new segments each of The Little Rascals and Richie Rich were produced for this season, and the Riches, Gems, and Treasure Chest segments were discontinued, leaving only Zillion Dollar Adventures segments. In fact, there was a slight increase in the number of Zillion Dollar Adventures segments as opposed to each of the previous two seasons which had only eight such segments produced. The 30-second Rascals skits were also dropped. Because of delays in producing some of the newer segments, four segments from the previous seasons of each of the Rascals and Richie Rich, and sometimes an episode of Monchhichis from earlier in the season were rebroadcast as placeholders. It is believed that the selection of The Little Rascals and Richie Rich episodes that were rebroadcast was likely determined by ratings from the previous season.
Although Monchhichis was billed first in the umbrella title, their segment was reserved for the latter half hour until January 1984, when the block was split up into two separate shows: Monchhichis would air one hour earlier at 8:00 a.m. ET replacing reruns of pre-1979 Scooby-Doo series, and the remainder would be downgraded to a half-hour package show retitled The Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show, retaining its 8:30 a.m. ET slot. While the background remained the same, the title card was updated to remove Monchhichis from the title, since it was considered redundant. Monchhichis was replaced in its former time slot by The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show. The reason for the change is likely lower-than-expected ratings for Monchhichis due to tough competition against the highly successful Smurfs on NBC.
The show aired for the last time 1 September 1984, and was replaced the following week by Superfriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show on 8 September 1984.
The closing credits for Monchhichis were separate from those for The Little Rascals and Richie Rich.
Ownership[]
Because the animated series of The Little Rascals was a co-production between Hanna-Barbera and King World, its ownership is disputed between Warner Bros. and CBS Media Ventures, precluding any U.S. cable reruns or home video releases. Warner Archive announced on Facebook in April 2016 that The Little Rascals is not cleared for a DVD release.
Monchhichis and Richie Rich have been incorporated into the Warner Bros. animation library due to corporate changes involving Hanna-Barbera. A DVD set of Monchhichis was officially released in April 2017, while many of the Richie Rich segments in this 60-minute block were released between two VHS compilations: Richie Rich: A Dog's Best Friend and Richie Rich: Priceless Toys, both released in April 1995. All of the Richie Rich segments in this series are currently available for viewing on Boomerang's website.
Segments[]
This is the order of the segments per week, until January 1984:
- The Little Rascals (11-minute segment)
- Richie Rich Zillion Dollar Adventures (11-minute segment)
- Monchhichis (22-minute segment)
Trivia[]
- Advertisements for ABC's 1983-84 Saturday morning lineup published in comic books in August and/or September 1983 listed The Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show and Monchhichis separately in chronological order. They were actually not aired as separate half-hour shows until January 1984.