Annette

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.

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.

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

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!

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".