The Adventures of Spin and Marty

I grew up on "The Mickey Mouse Club" repeats as a child, yet I have absolutely no recollection of watching this corny, but entertaining "serial" that played within them, and have only now "discvered" it through watching reruns again.

Listed as a "western,"which is a genre I don't usually like, this is actually a sort of charming little show about two friends who meet at a western-themed summer camp named, surprise surprise, Spin Evans(who would name their child SPIN?!), a fun-loving country boy and Marty Markham, a spoiled rich kid who takes his butler to camp with him and demands of everybody. At first Spin and Marty are enemies(very entertaining), but slowly their hatred dwindles and soon they are the best of pals, getting into lots of adventures at their camp with Mr. Perkins(Marty's butler), the camp counselor and their other friends Ambitious(ugh), Moochie(Kevin Corcoron, of just about every Disney project at the time) and gettting some girl friends like Annette and Darlene(the Mousketeers, who act...just like they do in the Mickey Mouse club.) The plots are usually simple(Moochie gets lost in the desert, Spin and Marty enter horse races, etc), but it is in a nice and relaxing way, and the acting, by Tim Considine(later to go onto "My Three Sons") and David Stollery is actually pretty good, considering. It's one of those dated little shows that would never sell with the wild, Pokemon obsessed kids of today, but it's kind of fun to watch and look back upon the olden days, when all entertainment was that simple and relaxed and "feel good." This is certainly a fun and feel good show alright. Swell.

Spin and Marty are better as very fond memories like Nancy Drew books and circus peanuts. I, too, ran home to watch the Mickey Mouse Club every afternoon and Spin and Marty were my favorites. Spin, was the first male I found "easy on the eyes". My cousin also had a crush on Marty, but when she discovered that Marty was a red-head, abandoned him. I think there may be a lot of women who discovered boys watching Spin and Marty. It was so much fun to follow the adventures of the two boys, a breed that the oldest daughter of three girls found to be from a different planet, but oh so interesting... But, like my opening line, it is better as a memory than as the real thing. Nancy Drew mysteries are not half as mysterious. Circus peanuts are sickeningly sweet. Spin and Marty shows are corny. But Spin is still a dream boat.

"The Adventures of Spin and Marty" title refers to the first season (1955-56) of the show; the second and third seasons were given a modified title. When originally broadcast the total running time of 275 minutes was broken into 25 episodes and shown as part of the first year "Mickey Mouse Club". The show was broadcast Monday-Friday from 5Pm-6PM. The serials were structured in a mild cliffhanger format with a teaser at the end enticing viewers to watch the next episode for a resolution. When they were shown a few years ago on "Vault Disney" the episodes were paired up to provide a 22-23 minute running time.

If you grew up with the original MMC you already know that serials like this were the most anticipated part of the show and that "Spin and Marty" was by far the most popular. The reason for their popularity was no mystery, they were the only kid's shows in those days that featured kids instead of puppets or animation.

If you were not around for the "Spin and Marty" phenomenon, think of it as a 1950's version of "The Saddle Club", both featured kids getting to spend all their time with horses. But instead of girls hanging out at the Pine Hollow stables, here it's boys living in bunk houses at "The Triple R", a dude ranch summer camp. And who wouldn't like spending an entire summer at a ranch, riding horses far away from parental supervision?

The first season's story was adapted from the novel "Marty Markham" by Lawrence Watkin. The show went rapidly downhill after the first season so it is no great tragedy that only season one is out on DVD. Mostly this was because the writers were never able to duplicate the charm of the first season's premise. But the show also fell victim to the Kevin Corcoran curse. Corcoran was a terminally precocious little actor that Disney tried to make a star by inserting him into this popular show at the start of the second season. Corcoran was an unbearably bad actor and the damage was compounded by Disney's insistence on manipulative showcasing of his terminal cuteness; an especially bad fit for a show whose first season appeal had been its naturalness and the understated performances of the cast.

Like "Saddle Club's" first season, it revolves around a new kid who has difficulty fitting in at the ranch. Marty Markham (David Stollery) is an overprotected orphaned rich kid who arrives in his grandmother's chauffeured limousine with his own butler (Perkins-J. Pat O'Malley-who is detailed to help the ranch's cook) and immediately manages to offend all the boys by calling the Triple-R Ranch "a smelly old farm".

A rivalry soon develops with Spin Evans (Tim Considine), a popular boy who has to work all year to pay the attendance costs. Marty is afraid of horses but lies about being a polo player. Considine and Stollery are both convincing although Stollery has the more difficult part. The supporting cast of boys have appropriate nicknames; the lazy "Ambitious", the freckled "Speckle" and the chunky "Russell the Muscle".

Special effects are a bit weak (like the woodchuck chase scene where you have to accept that a ball of fur pulled though the field on a string is a woodchuck) and the campfire scenes are obvious day for night shooting.

Harry Carey Jr. and Roy Barcroft provide sympathetic and concerned authority figures but my favorite is insightful horse trainer Ollie (Leonard Geer) who always seemed to have about nine days worth of stubble and repeatedly said: "Well I'll be a blue-nosed gopher".

Predictably Marty learns to love horses and to get along with the other boys. He breaks his arm but Perkins is able to keep the news from his grandmother so that he is not sent home early. There are all the great summer camp elements from bears to ghost stories.

The two-disc DVD set has a photo gallery, interviews, and a little feature called "The Return to the Triple-R"; which includes the adult Considine and Stollery visiting the ranch where most of the show was filmed.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Walt Disney used to come down alone to sit on the ranch set and chat with Harry Carey Jr. Everybody remembers the Davey Crockett craze and the coonskin hats but Disney told Carey that they got MUCH more mail for Spin and Marty and it was mostly little boys who longed to go to the Ranch that summer. I myself as a little boy would make my mom put on my official Triple R ranch t shirt on as I watched the show. As I sit and watch this, now in my sixties I STILL feel the lost dream of male belonging that has been crushed and misshapen and parodied to death.

Every day when I got out of school, I would race home as fast as possible to get my homework done so that I could sit down watch The Mickey Mouse Club and the serial that ran every day: Spin and Marty.

I loved the show. It was about a summer camp for boys that was a ranch. They had horses and swimming and mysteries and Marty, my first real crush. I don't think I would ever want to see any episodes again. Like Nancy Drew books and Hostess Twinkies, some things belong to the magic of the past.