Welcome to the first installment of Mickey Mouse club Mouseka-Notes. Here in this retrospective, I will be taking a look at the three incarnations of this show, the 50's, 70's and '90s version and I will also be doing a special Music Fridays covering songs from each Mickey Mouse Club. Now unlike other specials series, I have done. This will be a weekly series and not daily. As gathering info for some of these shows, may take a little while longer. Since unlike most other shows that are given a retrospective, Mickey Mouse Club does not have an ongoing story arc as it is not that kind of show. For the '50s version it was a children's show with Serials. The '90s version felt more like a sketch comedy show and as for the '70s version, I cannot say because at the time of my writing this, I have never seen a full episode of the '70s version. Here is how this will be broken, I will start with a brief history of the show, talk about the logo for each version, the opening, the gear and then I will talk about notable Mousekteers and I will also talk about one to two serials/sketches. Then I will close it out with why the show ended and my finals thoughts. Let's begin.
A Breif History
The original 1950's Mickey Mouse Club was Walt Disney's second foray in the world of television behind his Disneyland anthology series Both of these shows were used to fiance and promote the building of the theme park that was to become The Happiest Place on Earth. With Walt being too busy to work on the show with other projects besides the building of Disneyland, he turned this venture to Bill Walsh. We have Bill Walsh to thank for giving us this wonderful children's variety show. Even though Walt was not involved behind the scenes too much with this show he still appeared on just about every episode because when this version came out, Walt was still providing the voice for Mickey.
The Opening
It's funny even thought I never grew up with the '50s Mickey Mouse Club, this version gets me the most nostalgic for some unexplained reason. Anyways, I love this opening, it's like they wanted to use every single Disney character that been created up until that point in one way or another. That is just awesome and it just feels like a parade of the coolest Disney characters around. As soon as you watch, you know your watching a show from Disney with all these characters. The song, oh the song. I love this song, it is just so much fun and personally my favorite part is the whole "Donald Duck" thing where Donald tries to insert his name into the song. I don't why but I always found that part funny.
Mouseketeer
Now since there are so many children that were Mouseketeers over the course of the show's 4 season run. Therefore, I have decided to narrow it down to just one Mouseketeer to cover for this particular entry.. Otherwise, this article would be longer than it already is.
Annette Funicello
Now I know that I have talked about Annette on A Look at Disney but I feel that I could not talk about Mickey Mouse Club without mentioing her again. This time however, I'll just focus on her time as a Mouseketeer. When Walt saw her in a performance of Swan Lake at age 12, he knew he wanted to be on his new show. Annette was the only cast member to be handpicked by Walt himself. By the end of the first season, she was receivng up to 6,000 fan letters a month. Annette appeared in a handful of the serials on the show such as Adventures in Dairyland and Walt Disney Persents: Annette. Anette quickly became the most popular member of the show.
Logo
There isn't much to say about the logo except for the fact that it has become very iconic and even if you have never seen an episode of Mickey Mouse Club, you may have seen this logo somewhere down the line. Be it on a t-shirt, or the Mouse Ears you can buy at the parks. You more than likely have seen this logo at least once in your life. It is just as iconic as Mickey himself. Yeah, it's simple. But in the words of Jim Henson, "Simple is Good."
Gear
Mouse Ears
The Mouse Ears were a staple of the show and they suggested by Roy Williams who was known as The Big Mooseketeer. All of the Mouseketeer. The ears became quite popular and part of that has to do with the show's own popularity. Alongside the Davey Crockett coonskin caps, the Mouse Ears are some of the most popular Disney head gear. This was another way of incorporating Mickey into the show and still have fun with it. It was also a way to make the Mouseketeers identifiable.
Serials
Here I will be focusing on two of the classic serials from Mickey Mouse Club.
The Hardy Boys
Now the first serial, I wish to cover is based on my favorite book series, I'm a big Hardy Boys fan and when I learned that Disney adapted this series for the first version of the Mickey Mouse Club. I thought that was pretty cool. However after looking around I could only find one video related to this serial and it had an awesome pirate song related to that serial. You'll have to wait and hear that song until we get to the Music Fridays for Mickey Mouse Club. According to some research, the serial did stray away from the book series. The biggest change they made were first in the very first serial was in the serial they made Frank and Joe, The Hardy Boys 11 to 12 years old. While in the first book they were already in their teens. I can understand why they did that as it was most likely a way to relate to the young audience watching the show. This is one of the few times that I wish Disney did not stray away from the source material. My fandom for Hardy Boys overrides my fandom for Disney in this rare instance.
Spin & Marty
Our next serial is Spin and Marty. The serial is set at the Triple R ranch, it takes place during the summer. The main focus is on Marty Markhams, a rich orphan who is dropped off at the ranch on the first day of summer and he doesn't enjoy it there. That is until he meets Spin Evans, who is the most popular boy at the ranch. They qucikly become best freinds and go on many adventures. Just as with most other aspects of this show, Spin and Marty were merchandised like crazy. There were Spin & Marty comic books and they also released the theme for this serial along with many other Mickey Mouse Club songs on a vinyl record. I'm not sure but I also believe that alongside the Mouse Ears, Disney produced Triple R Ranch cowboy hats. Tim Considine actually had double duty as he played Spin here and Frank Hardy on The Hardy Boys serials. Now even though he was featured on these serials, he was not a Mouseketeer. Nor was Tommy Kirk who played Marty a Mouseketeer. However, Annette Funicello who was a Mouseketeer did appear on Spin and Marty. In 2006 both Tommy Kirk and Tim Considine were honored as Disney legends. In 2000, Spin and Marty was remade into a TV movie. I cannot comment on this film as I have never seen it. As for the series, I highly suggest you hunt it down. Both Spin & Marty and The Hardy Boys serials were released on DVD as part of the Walt Disney Treasures collection. I own the Spin and Marty collection and it is quite enjoyable. These DVD's cannot be found in stores. Your best bet would be to check either Amazon or E-Bay if you really want to find these DVD collections.
The End
Despite the show's popularity, ABC decided to cancel the show after its fourth season. There were many factors as to why the show was canceled. Sponsors were intrested in educational programming for children. The show needed many commercials were needed to pay for the show. The biggest one of all, Disney and ABC could not come to an agreement on terms of renewal. I find this rather funny as Disney now owns ABC. Go figure!
My Final Thoughts
This is a classic Disney show that any Disney are TV fan in general should watch at least once. Your more than likely going find enjoyable. While the complete sereis has never been released as a whole to my knowing, Disney did release a DVD set titled The Best of The Mickey Mouse Club. Which has a few episodes that are fun to watch and I bet if you showed them to some young kids today, they might get some enjoyment out of this show as well. It was also released as part of the Walt Disney Treasures collection and from my research, that set offers more content. I weould not know as I have only watched The Best of the Mickey Mouse Club DVD.
Join me, next week when we take a look at the '70s Mickey Mouse Club and boy am I dreading that oen already.
A Breif History
The original 1950's Mickey Mouse Club was Walt Disney's second foray in the world of television behind his Disneyland anthology series Both of these shows were used to fiance and promote the building of the theme park that was to become The Happiest Place on Earth. With Walt being too busy to work on the show with other projects besides the building of Disneyland, he turned this venture to Bill Walsh. We have Bill Walsh to thank for giving us this wonderful children's variety show. Even though Walt was not involved behind the scenes too much with this show he still appeared on just about every episode because when this version came out, Walt was still providing the voice for Mickey.
The Opening
It's funny even thought I never grew up with the '50s Mickey Mouse Club, this version gets me the most nostalgic for some unexplained reason. Anyways, I love this opening, it's like they wanted to use every single Disney character that been created up until that point in one way or another. That is just awesome and it just feels like a parade of the coolest Disney characters around. As soon as you watch, you know your watching a show from Disney with all these characters. The song, oh the song. I love this song, it is just so much fun and personally my favorite part is the whole "Donald Duck" thing where Donald tries to insert his name into the song. I don't why but I always found that part funny.
Mouseketeer
Now since there are so many children that were Mouseketeers over the course of the show's 4 season run. Therefore, I have decided to narrow it down to just one Mouseketeer to cover for this particular entry.. Otherwise, this article would be longer than it already is.
Annette Funicello
Now I know that I have talked about Annette on A Look at Disney but I feel that I could not talk about Mickey Mouse Club without mentioing her again. This time however, I'll just focus on her time as a Mouseketeer. When Walt saw her in a performance of Swan Lake at age 12, he knew he wanted to be on his new show. Annette was the only cast member to be handpicked by Walt himself. By the end of the first season, she was receivng up to 6,000 fan letters a month. Annette appeared in a handful of the serials on the show such as Adventures in Dairyland and Walt Disney Persents: Annette. Anette quickly became the most popular member of the show.
Logo
There isn't much to say about the logo except for the fact that it has become very iconic and even if you have never seen an episode of Mickey Mouse Club, you may have seen this logo somewhere down the line. Be it on a t-shirt, or the Mouse Ears you can buy at the parks. You more than likely have seen this logo at least once in your life. It is just as iconic as Mickey himself. Yeah, it's simple. But in the words of Jim Henson, "Simple is Good."
Gear
Mouse Ears
The Mouse Ears were a staple of the show and they suggested by Roy Williams who was known as The Big Mooseketeer. All of the Mouseketeer. The ears became quite popular and part of that has to do with the show's own popularity. Alongside the Davey Crockett coonskin caps, the Mouse Ears are some of the most popular Disney head gear. This was another way of incorporating Mickey into the show and still have fun with it. It was also a way to make the Mouseketeers identifiable.
Serials
Here I will be focusing on two of the classic serials from Mickey Mouse Club.
The Hardy Boys
Now the first serial, I wish to cover is based on my favorite book series, I'm a big Hardy Boys fan and when I learned that Disney adapted this series for the first version of the Mickey Mouse Club. I thought that was pretty cool. However after looking around I could only find one video related to this serial and it had an awesome pirate song related to that serial. You'll have to wait and hear that song until we get to the Music Fridays for Mickey Mouse Club. According to some research, the serial did stray away from the book series. The biggest change they made were first in the very first serial was in the serial they made Frank and Joe, The Hardy Boys 11 to 12 years old. While in the first book they were already in their teens. I can understand why they did that as it was most likely a way to relate to the young audience watching the show. This is one of the few times that I wish Disney did not stray away from the source material. My fandom for Hardy Boys overrides my fandom for Disney in this rare instance.
Spin & Marty
Our next serial is Spin and Marty. The serial is set at the Triple R ranch, it takes place during the summer. The main focus is on Marty Markhams, a rich orphan who is dropped off at the ranch on the first day of summer and he doesn't enjoy it there. That is until he meets Spin Evans, who is the most popular boy at the ranch. They qucikly become best freinds and go on many adventures. Just as with most other aspects of this show, Spin and Marty were merchandised like crazy. There were Spin & Marty comic books and they also released the theme for this serial along with many other Mickey Mouse Club songs on a vinyl record. I'm not sure but I also believe that alongside the Mouse Ears, Disney produced Triple R Ranch cowboy hats. Tim Considine actually had double duty as he played Spin here and Frank Hardy on The Hardy Boys serials. Now even though he was featured on these serials, he was not a Mouseketeer. Nor was Tommy Kirk who played Marty a Mouseketeer. However, Annette Funicello who was a Mouseketeer did appear on Spin and Marty. In 2006 both Tommy Kirk and Tim Considine were honored as Disney legends. In 2000, Spin and Marty was remade into a TV movie. I cannot comment on this film as I have never seen it. As for the series, I highly suggest you hunt it down. Both Spin & Marty and The Hardy Boys serials were released on DVD as part of the Walt Disney Treasures collection. I own the Spin and Marty collection and it is quite enjoyable. These DVD's cannot be found in stores. Your best bet would be to check either Amazon or E-Bay if you really want to find these DVD collections.
The End
Despite the show's popularity, ABC decided to cancel the show after its fourth season. There were many factors as to why the show was canceled. Sponsors were intrested in educational programming for children. The show needed many commercials were needed to pay for the show. The biggest one of all, Disney and ABC could not come to an agreement on terms of renewal. I find this rather funny as Disney now owns ABC. Go figure!
My Final Thoughts
This is a classic Disney show that any Disney are TV fan in general should watch at least once. Your more than likely going find enjoyable. While the complete sereis has never been released as a whole to my knowing, Disney did release a DVD set titled The Best of The Mickey Mouse Club. Which has a few episodes that are fun to watch and I bet if you showed them to some young kids today, they might get some enjoyment out of this show as well. It was also released as part of the Walt Disney Treasures collection and from my research, that set offers more content. I weould not know as I have only watched The Best of the Mickey Mouse Club DVD.
Join me, next week when we take a look at the '70s Mickey Mouse Club and boy am I dreading that oen already.
I like you was raised on the Hardy Boys and Spin & Marty, I can't believe you don't see any evidence in the parks. I would think a permanent loop on the TV's in the Prime Time Cafe would be appropiate at least. Those shows and Jiminy Cricket are as memorable to me as Mickey himself. Miska-Mouska-Mousketeer
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