We were out hunting Little Nicky, the biting mule.

But we hadn't lost him--he had floundered ashore somehow and came walking along the river-bank, leading Little Nicky by his lead rope.

Harry would have liked to continue the tradition with Little Nicky, but Scarfo wanted a weekly tribute as opposed to a yearly cut and lip service.

By 1985 Little Nicky was a target of the New Jersey State Police in a major gambling investigation.

So Little Nicky demoted Tommy Del to the rank of soldier and gave Faffy all the responsibility of captain of that crew.

In an extreme act of contrition, Shaye even apologized for "Little Nicky" at a Time Warner executive meeting in New York in late December.

The song "School of Hard Knocks" was featured on the soundtrack for Little Nicky while both "Southtown" and "Rock the Party" appeared in the movie.

The biggest flop was probably "Little Nicky," a pre-Thanksgiving release that decisively broke the comedian Adam Sandler's box-office winning streak.

According to interviews, Smigel helped punch up the scripts for Little Nicky and the Wedding Singer.

But in January, after a difficult stretch at the box office for New Line, including the flop of Adam Sandler's "Little Nicky," Mr. DeLuca was fired.