Annette

I grew up watching Mickey Mouse Club and loved the series. I would absolutely love to find it on DVD or VHS tape so that I could show my kids. It reminds me of the wonderfully simple life we had back then. It was my favorite of the series that they had on Mickey Mouse Club. I have told my friends about it but they don't remember seeing it and would love to share it with them. The song from the series was also one of my favorites and if they had that on a cd or lp I would definitely buy it. I have spent the last week searching the internet trying to get information on this and at last I found it. Annette was my favorite Mouseketeer because we share the name.To be able to see this again would just make me the happiest person on earth. It's the old moral of good winning over evil. It shows the good morals we grew up with and the manners and kindness we should not loose.

Absolutely love this serial. My mother introduced it to me when I was a child. I am in my early thirties. I was able to find a few episodes online at youtube. I use to have them all on tape, but lost the tape. I love the simple way of things. Not everything needs to be sexed up or violence. I like those shows, but sometimes you like a nice story. Love the fashion. And it is interesting to see how kids hung out back then. I remember seeing pictures of my mother back then and everyone was so manicured. Today we are not so in the mannerisms and fashion. Definitely suggest to people who liked Pleasantville, Dick van Dyke, My Three Sons, etc. Nice family programming. With some nice laughs.

This is now available (in the "Walt Disney Treasures" DVD series), which should be good news to many. "Annette" is one of those series from earlier days that remains fascinating even if one can't quite say why. I guess a big part of it is the energy and dedication that the talented (and mostly young) cast puts into this slightly odd show. This is a world where people send orphaned minors off to live with relatives who have no prior warning of the orphan's existence, let alone that she's coming to stay. A manipulative snob can apologize for just one example of her general bad attitude, and suddenly all is forgiven. Olmstead's "favorite record" is the blandest generic jitterbug tune I've ever heard. In any case, all this weirdness somehow seems to fit in a 50's serial for kids, and it adds to the charm of "Annette".

Walt Disney was always big on stories about orphaned kids and their predicaments; here, it's Annette Funicello's turn, playing Nebraskan farm girl Annette McCleod, who must go to live with her aunt and uncle in Small Town, U.S.A. after a family tragedy, immediately pitted against the wealthy teenage clique who look down on her rural past. Appealing TV serial (adapted from Janette Sebring Lowrey's 1950 book "Margaret") from the third and final year of "The Mickey Mouse Club", running 19 installments total and utilizing break-out star Funicello to good advantage (she's sweet and simple, sympathetic and not sappy). After making her first dress-up appearance at a teen party, Annette's understated elegance brings out the green-eyed demon in Laura Rogan, the town's slickest chick and ringleader. Rogan, played by Roberta "Jymme" Shore, is downright evil, dumping food on Annette and making fun of her singing. At one point, Annette decides to leave the shindig alone (with the viewer completely on her side), but she sticks it out and tries having fun--only to have Shore's Laura accuse her of stealing her necklace! Why the other girls don't stand up to Laura is left a little vague, but she's quite the temptress while ordering the duck-tailed boys around at whim. Not exactly high drama--teenage or otherwise--but convincingly played by a talented group of kids, which includes "Spin and Marty" themselves, Tim Considine and David Stollery, as well as Shelley Fabares pre-"The Donna Reed Show". Fun stuff from the Disney vaults!

I think it should be distributed on DVD there too many people that remember this feature and would like to share it with there families. Does anyone know how to get them to produce it into the market of today??? I am the directors ( Charles Lamont) daughter and I know how great all the kids were on the set . I have been asked lots of times why some of his movies haven't been released and I can't answer that question. Before he died all he wanted to see was Curtain Call at Cactus Creek but Universal never released it I even contacted the studio but they did nothing about it. Pretty sad huh! Well blessings to all. Tina