The Red Hand Gang

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The Red Hand Gang
Format	Adventure
Starring	Matthew Laborteaux J.R. Miller Jolie Newman Johnny Brogna James Bond III
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	12
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 10, 1977^[1] – January 28, 1978^[1]
External links
IMDb profile

The Red Hand Gang was a live-action Saturday morning television series on NBC, first broadcast in 1977. The show featured five crime-solving pre-teens and their dog, who lived in the inner city:

Frankie, the leader - played by Matthew Laborteaux (later of Little House on the Prairie fame)
J.R. - J.R. Miller, the athlete
Doc - James Bond III (who would play in Spike Lee's School Daze a decade later), the brains
Joanne - Jolie Newman, the tomboy
Frankie's younger brother, Lil Bill - John Brogna
Their dog, Boomer, who would later have his own series, Here's Boomer.

The episodes of The Red Hand Gang, unlike those of other Saturday morning shows, were grouped into multiple shows: one of five parts, one of four, and one of three. Each episode ended in a cliffhanger.

The group was so named because its members left red hand prints on fences to mark where they had been.

The Red Hand Gang was cancelled in January, 1978 — not even halfway into the television season. Part of the reason was due to its 12:30PM ET time slot, when many key affiliates tend to pre-empt NBC programming after 12 Noon ET for their own programming, especially college football.

It has often been broadcast in the United Kingdom, where it is considerably better known than in its home country. If fact it is referenced in British comedy SPACED staring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson in an episode where the two main characters (Tim and Daisy), are robbed by a group of youngsters.^[2]