Released: October 23, 1937
Director: Gordon Douglas
Episode length: 10:12 (21/34)
Alfalfa's screen time: 6:22 (10/34) 62% (5/34)
Lines of dialogue spoken by Alfalfa: 23 (22-t/34)
Song: None
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Skip episode synopsis and go directly to commentary

Alfalfa is greeted at the train depot by an enthusiastic crowd of kids. Spanky asks Alfalfa to make a speech about how he won the Colton game. Shortly after he begins, Alfalfa is drowned out by the high-pitched hiss of the locomotive steam whistle. He tries to shout over the noise to his legions of fans about how many touchdowns he scored, etc., but he can hardly be heard. The hissing stops abruptly just as Alfalfa finishes his tall tale. A beaming Alfalfa is then hoisted up by the kids on their shoulders (one of the kids is Harold Switzer) and as they all carry him off, we see off to the side two tough-looking kid dressed in football uniforms (one of them is Sid "Woim" Kibrick. Butch does not appear in "Pigskin Palooka"; perhaps he was attending an off-site for neighborhood bullies.)

Little does Alfalfa know he is being carried right onto the site of the "big game". Despite Alfalfa's protests (his excuse is that he didn't bring his uniform), the kids set him down and form a huddle around him. The scene "fasts forwards" to the same huddle. Having dressed Alfalfa in a uniform (number "0" in your scorecards), they break the huddle to reveal their nervous football hero. The crowd lets out "three cheers for Alfalfa".

Alfalfa devotes a significant amount of energy in trying to stay out of the game. At one point, drum majorette Darla then gets up and angrily shouts out: "Why don't they send Alfalfa in?" She leads a chant of "We want Alfalfa!" Alfalfa nervously tries to hush the crowd and squirms in terror on the bench. After the Tigers miss the extra point (that always seems to come back to haunt you, doesn't it, Boomer?) Buckwheat receives the ensuing kickoff. One of the Tigers strips him of the ball and carries it (and Buckwheat) in the opposite direction for another Tiger touchdown. After the play, an angry Buckwheat shouts to his teammates, "I thought some of you 's tryin' to help me!"


Collectible doll portraying
Buckwheat in "Pigskin
Palooka".

Finally, Alfalfa can no longer delay the inevitable and Spanky inserts him into the game. Darla leads the band and spectators in celebration as Alfalfa gets ready to go in. The Tigers razz Alfalfa mercilessly as he runs onto the field and tries out various helmets on for size (the helmets are actually lined up on the field near the goal line—a common practice in 1930's football?) As Alfalfa tosses one of the helmets up in the air because it doesn't fit, it knocks the extra point away from the goalpost, keeping the score at 12-0 (inexplicably, the Tigers don't seem to mind that their extra point has been blocked in this rather unorthodox manner.)

Alfalfa receives the next kickoff and in his terror at the oncharging Tiger special teams unit, he tosses a lateral to Spanky, who, with Buckwheat, runs down the field, lateralling the ball back and forth to evade the Tiger's defender until Buckwheat crosses the goal line for a touchdown (with the help of a crushing last-minute block by Spanky.) Again, Alfalfa is credited by Spanky for making the play possible, but Alfalfa just wants to skedaddle back to the sidelines. Meanwhile, Porky serves as signal caller on the point after. He gets plowed over as the ball is snapped and Spanky converts the extra point by first banking it right off Alfalfa's head. Alfalfa crumples to the ground from the blow. Spanky yells for the stretcher, and down on the ground, Alfalfa sneaks a quick smile, seen only by the viewer, to show he is not exactly devastated to come out of the game.

As Alfalfa is deposited on the sidelines, Spanky asks Darla to try and revive him as the action on the field continues. We then see a montage of game action silhouetted against the scoreboard time clock, which ticks down to the two minute warning as Darla continues patting the faking Alfalfa's hand feverishly to try and revive him.

A desperate Spanky comes over to the sidelines and instructs Darla to apply a chunk of ice to Alfalfa's forehead. The ice slips down the front of Alfalfa's football pants and he jumps up yelping. As he gets up, he tips over the bench on which
little Junior has been depositing his banana peels throughout the course of the game. The banana peels spill into the back of Alfalfa's pants. Darla calls out onto the field to Spanky that Alfalfa is alright again. Hearing this, Woim and the
tough kid from the Tigers stick some ABC gum onto the side of the ball so Alfalfa is unable to properly throw any passes.

On the next play from scrimmage, Spanky throws a screen pass in the flat to Alfalfa, whose immediate reaction is to toss the ball back from whence it came. But the gum that has been placed on the ball sticks it to Alfalfa's hand, so he has no choice but to run for it. As Alfalfa runs down the field, he trails the banana peels from his pants, on which the Tigers' defenders slip and fall, one by one. This allows a petrified Alfalfa to somehow make it across the goal line for a last-minute touchdown that wins the game for the All-Stars, 13-12. Alfalfa's Kellen Winslow-like heroics having secured the victory, the All Stars and their fans rush onto the field to hoist him on their shoulders.

Darla strikes up the marching band, and, in a slightly elevated shot, we see Alfalfa being carried off while looking up directly at the camera, displaying a wide grin as the episode fades to black.

Commentary
As mentioned elsewhere in this Internet appreciation, we viewers and fans often take for granted the substantial skill which was required to craft a 10-minute Little Rascals episode. "Pigskin Palooka" is a prime example. In barely over ten minutes, director Gordon Douglas and the Little Rascals writers had to establish a dramatic structure (Alfalfa exaggerating his football prowess and getting in hot water because of it), and then stage a shorthand version of a football game, create a comedic "payoff", and bring the film to a satisfying conclusion. And they had to figure out a way to make the game of football—this game, anyway—at least understandable by all viewers who might not know a quarterback from a cornerback. Not a second could be wasted, and in "Pigskin Palooka", not a second is wasted.

Alfalfa has nobody but himself to blame for his predicament, but we still feel empathy for him when it is obvious he is in way over his head. Again, there must have been scores of athletically-challenged young boys who watched this episode at home and identified with the lengths Alfalfa goes to so he can avoid being sent in and have his foolishness exposed—a scenario probably repeated in thousands of grammar school gym classes over the years.

Among the highlights of this episode: Buckwheat's angry reaction ("I thought some of you's tryin' to help me!") when he is stripped of the ball and literally carried in the opposite direction during an opponent's touchdown run; Porky's indecipherable and hapless snap count, after which he immediately gets plowed over by the other players (also check out Alfalfa's emotionless, quizzical look while Porky is conducting the snap count); and Alfalfa's sly grin when, after being knocked out (allegedly) by a kick that bounces off his head, Spanky says Alfalfa has to be removed from the game.

But the highlight of the proceedings is the game's final play. The opposing team has stuck a wad of pre-chewed bubble gum on one side of the football to prevent Alfalfa or his teammates from being able to pass the ball on their final possession. Sure enough, when Alfalfa tries to lateral the opening kickoff back to Spanky to escape the Tigers' on-charging special team, the ball sticks to his hand because of the sticky gum. Alfalfa has no choice but to run for his life. His distress while running downfield, while obviously exaggerated for comic effect, is nonetheless very nicely performed (he seems to be half-screaming, half-sobbing all the way downfield).

Thanks to some fortuitously-dropped banana peels, Alfalfa is able to score and win the game for the All-Stars, thereby turning out to be a football hero after all. While he is being carried off the field on the shoulders of his teammates and fans, we see Alfalfa smiling broadly as he looks toward the camera, a genuine expression of satisfaction and accomplishment not often seen from the cowlicked one.

"Pigskin Palooka" is reminiscent of "Washee Ironee" from three years earlier. Even though "Palooka" was produced near the tail end of the Hal Roach dynasty, it has a nostalgic early-thirties quality to it because of the rustic-looking field and rare outdoors setting so familiar in those earlier films. It is a fast-moving, carefully choreographed, and satisfying effort to which 4alfalfa.com awards

4 cowlicks (out of a possible 5)

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