I knew that Darling was still around, and basically even out-lived virtually all of the younger, talkie-era Our Gang members. Not many connections left to the old Hal Roach studio. They produced some top-notch 2-reel comedies in the 1920s and 1930s... Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts. A lot of the humor tended to be more ‘situational’ than slapstick (like Mack Sennett), although there was still an ample amount of the latter. Hal Roach himself lived a long life. I nearly got to see him at a film festival one time, but he wasn’t feeling up to it, and cancelled out.
The early-talkie Our Gang shorts really capture that semi-rural americana vibe that was still hanging over from the pre-Roaring 20s time. Something you’re more apt to find in 1910s/early-1920s film fare. And that nice, lilting soundtrack that was so reflective of West Coast dance-bands of the time. Quite differenct from the harder-edged East Coast sound.
Roach sold the rights to Our Gang over to MGM around 1938, and the subsequent 1938-44 shorts (with Froggy and Robert Blake) are total crap.
This all may be so, I think I only saw mainly the newer shorts though, had an idea of the earlier ones.
The very first silents had lots of animal gags in them.