Mickey Mouse Club

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The Mickey Mouse Club

1950s Mickey Mouse club logo
Genre Children's variety show
Running time 30 or 60 minutes
Creator(s) Bill Walsh, Hal Adelquist, Walt Disney (1950s series)
Starring several different casts - see below
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
Original channel ABC, syndicated, Disney Channel
Original run October 3, 1955 (first series)–March 7, 1996 (last series)
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Mickey Mouse Club was a long-running American variety television series that began in the 1950s, produced and televised by Walt Disney Productions and featuring a regular but ever-changing cast of teenage performers. Like many Classic Disney franchises, Mickey Mouse Club was created by Walt Disney. The series has been revived, reformatted and reimagined several times since its initial 1955-1959 run on ABC. Even the original series has been repackaged and rerun several times over the decades.

Contents

[edit] The 1950s series

Head Mouseketeer Jimmie Dodd on The Mickey Mouse Club.
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Head Mouseketeer Jimmie Dodd on The Mickey Mouse Club.

The first series was one of Walt Disney's first two ventures into producing a television series, the other being the Disney anthology television series, initially titled Disneyland. Disney used both shows to help finance and promote the building of the Disneyland theme park. Being busy with these projects and others, Walt Disney turned The Mickey Mouse Club over to Bill Walsh to create and develop the format, initially aided by Hal Adelquist.

The result was essentially a variety show for children, with such regular features as a newsreel, a cartoon, and a serial, as well as music, talent and comedy segments. Each day of the week had a specific theme, such as "Fun with Music Day." In the serials, teens faced challenges in everyday situations, often overcome by their common sense or through recourse to the advice of respected elders.

The series ran an hour each weekday in the 1955-1956 and 1956-1957 seasons, and only a half-hour weekdays in the 1957-1958 and 1958-1959 seasons. The cancellation in 1959, was due to several factors: The Disney studios did not make a profit on the merchandise, the sponsors were uninterested in educational programming for children, and that there had to be so many commercials in order to pay for the show. Walt Disney filed a lawsuit against ABC, and won the damages in a settlement, however, he had to agree that both the "Mickey Mouse Club", as well as "Zorro", could not be aired on any major network, leaving "Disney's Wonderful World of Color", (Later changed to the "Wonderful World of Disney",) as the only show left on prime time until 1972, when the "Mouse Factory" went on the air. However, in response to continuing audience demand, it went into syndicated reruns from 1962 to 1965, with some new features such as "Fun with Science" and "Marvelous Marvin" in the 1964-1965 season. In response to an upsurge in demand from baby boomers entering adulthood, the show again went into syndicated reruns from January 20, 1975 until January 14, 1977. It has since been rerun on cable specialty channels Disney in the US and Family in Canada.

Mickey Mouse Club was hosted by Jimmie Dodd, a songwriter and the "Head Mouseketeer", who provided leadership both on and off screen. In addition to his other contributions, he often provided short segments encouraging young viewers to make the right moral choices. These little homilies became known as "Doddisms". Roy Williams, a staff artist at Disney, also appeared in the show as the "Big Mooseketeer".

The main cast members were called "Mouseketeers," and they performed in a variety of musical and dance numbers, as well as some informational segments. The most popular of the Mouseketeers constituted the so-called "Red Team," which consisted of:

Annette Funicello on The Mickey Mouse Club
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Annette Funicello on The Mickey Mouse Club

(Cubby and Karen were initially "Meeseketeers".)

The remaining Mouseketeers were Nancy Abbate, Don Agrati (later known as Don Grady when starring as "Robbie" on the long running sitcom My Three Sons), Sherry Alberoni, Billie Jean Beanblossom, Johnny Crawford, Dennis Day, Eileen Diamond, Dickie Dodd, Mary Espinosa, Bonnie Lynn Fields, Judy Harriet, Linda Hughes, Dallas Johann, John Lee Johann, Bonni Lou Kern, Charlie Laney, Larry Larsen, Paul Petersen, Lynn Ready, Mickey Rooney Jr., Tim Rooney, Mary Lynn Sartori, Bronson Scott, Michael Smith, Jay-Jay Solari, Margene Storey, Ronnie Steiner, Mark Sutherland and Don Underhill. Dennis Day was a Mouseketeer for two seasons; the others served for shorter periods. Larry Larsen, on only for the 1956-57 season, was the oldest Mouseketeer, being born in 1939.

Other notable non-Mouseketeer performers appeared in various dramatic segments:

These non-Mouseketeers primarily appeared in numerous original serials filmed for the series, only some of which have appeared in reruns. Certain Mouseketeers were also featured in some of the serials, particularly Annette Funicello and Darlene Gillespie.

Major Serials included:

  • Spin and Marty (three serials, starring Tim Considine and David Stollery in the title roles)
  • Hardy Boys (two serials, starring Tim Considine and Tommy Kirk)
  • Corky and White Shadow, starring Darlene Gillespie
  • Walt Disney presents Annette, starring Annette Funicello
  • Adventures in Dairyland, also called An Adventure in Dairyland, featuring Funicello and Sammy Ogg, and introducing Kevin Corcoran as Moochie

Almost all of the original Mouseketeers were reunited for a TV special in 1980, which aired on Disney's Wonderful World in November of that year.

[edit] 1970s Revival

In the 1970s, Walt Disney Productions revived the concept but modernized the show cosmetically, with a disco re-recording of the theme song and minority cast members. The sets, though colored, were simplistic, lacking the fine artwork of the original. Like the original, nearly each day's episode included a vintage cartoon, though usually color ones from the late 30s and onward. Serials were merely old Disney movies, cut into segments for twice-weekly inclusion.

(Movies included Third Man on the Mountain, The Monkey's Uncle with Tommy Kirk, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones also starring Tommy Kirk, Emil and the Detectives, retitled The Three Skrinks, Comanche, and Horse Without a Head [a toy horse].)

The series debuted on January 17, 1977, on only 38 television stations, and by June, when the unsuccessful series was discontinued, only about 70 stations in total had picked up the series. Additional stations picked up the canceled program, which continued to run until January 12, 1979; 130 new episodes, with much of the original material repackaged and a bit of new footage added, and a shortened version of the theme song, were produced to start airing January 16, 1978. The series has not had more than token reruns, unlike its '50s predecessor, and while both the '50s and '90s series have DVD releases in July 2005, the '70s series seems forgotten except by that short generation of youthful viewers for whom it defined "the club".

The show's most notable alumna was Lisa Whelchel, who later starred in the TV sitcom, The Facts of Life before becoming a well-known Christian author. Mouseketeer Julie Piekarski also appeared for several seasons on The Facts of Life. Mouseketeer Kelly Parsons went on to become a beauty queen and runner-up to Miss USA. Mouseketeer Shawnte Northcutte appeared once on Facts of Life. Billy 'Pop' Attmore appeared in a few movies before and after the series, a fifth-season episode of The Brady Bunch ("Kelly's Kids"), and as a streetwise hood in the short-lived Eischied crime drama.

Other Mouseketeers from the '70s show:

  • Scott Craig — born in Van Nuys, CA, in 1964; lived in Las Vegas, died 30 Dec 2003.
  • Nita DiGiampaolo — born in Long Beach, CA, 1966
  • Mindy Feldman — born in Burbank, CA, 1968, and sister of Corey Feldman
  • Angel Florez — born in Stockton, CA, 1963; died 25 Apr 1995.
  • Allison Fonte — born in Anaheim, CA, 1964
  • Todd Turquand — born in Hollywood, CA, 1964
  • Curtis Wong — born in Vancouver, BC, 1962

Lisa Whelchel was born in Littlefield, TX in 1963, but grew up near Fort Worth. Julie Piekarski was born in St. Louis, MO, in 1964. Kelly Parsons was born in Coral Gables, FL, Shawnte Northcutte was born in Los Angeles, CA, and Pop Attmore was born in Landstuhl, Germany (USAF base), all three of them in 1965.

The lyrics of the Mickey Mouse Club March theme song were slightly different from the original:

Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?
M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E!
Hey there, hi there, ho there, you're as welcome as can be.
M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E!
Mickey Mouse! (Donald Duck!) Mickey Mouse! (Donald Duck!)
Forever let us hold his banner high, high, HIGH, HIGH!!
Come along and sing the song and join the jamboree.
M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E!
(cut short here starting in 1978)
He's our favorite Mouseketeer, we know you will agree.
M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E!
Take some fun and mix in love, our happy recipe.
M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E!
M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E!

[edit] 1990s Revival

In 1989, the Disney Channel revived the show with a different format, which was very similar to other popular shows of the time like You Can't Do That on Television or Saturday Night Live. The long version of the new show's title was The All New Mickey Mouse Club, but it was more commonly called MMC. Recorded before a studio audience at Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, it featured teens from all races. The show was a mix of live skits, recorded comedy and songs. The Mouseketeers did their own versions of popular songs live and in music videos. "Emerald Cove" was a recurring soap opera type segment starring Mouseketeers that aired once a week for 10 minutes. The show premiered Monday, April 24, 1989 and ran until Thursday, March 7, 1996. Seasons 3, 5 and 7 had the most episodes. Seasons 4 and 6 were shorter, having about 35 episodes each.

Five members of the show (Damon Pampolina, Tiffini Hale, Chase Hampton, Albert Fields and Deedee Magno) broke off and formed the musical group "The Party" and released four full length albums, The Party, In The Meantime, In Between Time, Free, and The Party's Over, Thanks For Coming. They had a radio hit with the Dokken cover of "In My Dreams".

The sixth and seventh seasons of the show would be the starting point for several American pop superstars and actors. Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Keri Russell and Ryan Gosling were all on the show and had future stardom. Jessica Simpson, Countess Vaughn, & Matt Damon were finalists but did not make it onto the show. Austin St. John, and Alyson Kiperman also auditioned.

In 1990 as part of season two, six former Mouseketeers Tommy Cole, Sharon Baird, Sherry Alberoni, Bobby Burgess, Don Grady and Annette Funicello made a special appearance, actually participating in some skits and a couple of musical numbers. They were presented with 1990's MMC jackets. Annette thanked everyone very much and told the new Mouseketeers that "the Club is in good hands because of all of you."

The only Mouseketeers who remained on the show until its cancellation in 1994 were Lindsey Alley, Jennifer McGill and Josh Ackerman, and with Tiffini Hale and Chasen Hampton back for the final season.


Full Cast of 1990s Mousketeers:

[edit] References

The Wonderful World of Disney Television by Bill Cotter, ISBN 0-7868-6359-5

[edit] External links

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