What makes it different from others?

Touches You

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

The big serial for the Mickey Mouse Club in its final year was Annette, starring of course Annette Funicello. The young men of America watched Annette have a rather public puberty so Walt Disney no doubt figured in the last season of the club it was altogether fitting and proper to recognize this.Funicello plays a role somewhat akin to something Janet Gaynor might have done back in her day. Gaynor was always a girl fresh off the farm who comes to the big city and wins the heart of whomever the leading man was. She was always down to earth and full of common sense.And that's exactly what Funicello plays in Annette. She's lived in a rural background until her teens when she's orphaned. Her rich uncle Richard Deacon and aunt Sylvia Field take her in. These people are pretty rich, but Annette doesn't gravitate at first to the kids in her aunt and uncle's economic class. She likes young Judy Nugent who delivers milk and eggs from her farm and young David Stollery who has to work after school. Gradually though she not only becomes accepted with the cool kids, but they actually start developing some nice values of their own.Except for one that is, Roberta Shore who played a lot of teen queen roles that Annette didn't get is the villain of the piece. She gets insanely jealous of this country bumpkin's new found popularity and schemes for her downfall.This series ran 19 episodes and granted they're only 15 minutes in length each chapter, still it's one of the longest if not the longest serial Disney had on the Mickey Mouse Club. It was a picture of the Fifties and the values we had at the time. Note the lack of any minority faces in Annette.Still it wasn't a bad show. Annette Funicello was launched on her way to teen and adult stardom. She established her image that carries on right up to today in Annette. And it's not a bad image for a very brave lady to have.

Walt Disney usually had good production standards, talented performers, and good production groups (directors, etc.). In the last year of the Mickey Mouse Club he had this 19 week serial centered around his most attractive and talented Mousequetier, Annette Funicello. She plays a newly orphaned girl who moves in to the home of a wealthy aunt and uncle, and tries to adjust to a new town. But she has lived on a farm, so the clique of rich kids at the top of the school are likely to look down at her. In particular, the typical "rich bitch" character Roberta Shore (as Laura Rogan), who dislikes Annette as a basically decent person who is her rival.There was music and nice settings in the episodes, such as a hay ride where (I believe) Annette sang a tune I recall, "How do I know my love? How do I know my darling?". The real crux of the conflict occurs when Annette is invited to a party at Shore's home and the latter's necklace vanishes. Shore of course jumps to the conclusion that Annette took it, which she finally denounces as untrue. It was in the middle of the series of episodes, and only at the tail end did it blow up in Shore's face.SPOILER: The kids (including Annette and Shore) had been around the grand piano in the mansion's living room. Shore took her necklace off to basically wave it in the face of Annette. But she puts it down poorly and it falls into the piano. Now about five months pass with the necklace lost, but although Shore claims they looked apparently nobody looked in the piano. So when in the last episode someone playing the piano finds it sounds out of tune, and discovers the necklace was in the harp, they naturally think Shore knew and lied. It smashes her reputation.Still I do remember the show and series. It was fine for kids from 5 to 11.

This was a lovely series which I loved even if it was completely uninteresting for my brothers. It had a couple of lovely, simple songs-- "Lonely Guitar," "How Will I Know My Love?" and "Meetin' at the Malt Shop after School." And it's probably the best single program to show why girls loved Annette just as much as or even more than their brothers. Her character's simple sweetness and honesty was what we aspired to. I never saw this since it was on the original Mickey Mouse Club in the 50s. But some scenes are still vivid in my memory--Annette walking into town with a pretty but old-fashioned be-ribboned hat and a pretty but too-fancy dress and carrying a suitcase and her guitar; Annette singing with Tim Considine (who I had a SERIOUS crush on!); the missing necklace turning up inside the piano. It was a simple, sweet soap opera-ish story in a world that never really existed, but it worked and I'd love to see the whole thing again.Disney really should put this whole series out on DVD, in the same kind of set that they released the Hardy Boys and Spin and Marty series. The perfect release for Annette would happen just in time for Mother's Day.

I love the serial. It reflects a time in the '50s when many families moved from the country to the city. Country kids versus City Kids. A reverse of "Footloose". The challenges of teens in their social scene at school. Annette plays a country girl adapting to the City High School Crowd, relevent to the times. It takes us to a time past of Spin the Bottle, Poodle skirts (worn by Roberta Shaw), can can slips, boy's hyped up Model T's, the high school malt shop, Smallville USA, affordable maids, and streets named after trees like Elm Street. My daughter of 19 enjoyed the reflection of a different time and different society. Fun to see Annette, Tim Considine, Roberta Shaw, Shelley Fabre, and many more. I wish it were available for purchase. On the Mickey Mouse Club show at night, they leave out the main scenes in the country where Jet confronts Laura.. It was the best scene. The serial is excellent