Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Getting Schooled: The Mouse Factory (1972)

I regret that I never got to see The Mouse Factory when it first ran in syndication from 1972-4. The series didn't find a home in my home area, and the closest affiliate was, IIRC, WNBC in New York. 43 episodes were produced over the 2 seasons. Why Disney chose 1st run syndication over perhaps selling it to NBC as a companion to The Wonderful World of Disney, I'll never know.

Each episode covered a specific topic, illustrated in the form of edited shorts and narration by a celebrity guest, billed as a friend of Mickey Mouse. Guests included Charles Nelson Reilly (ex-Lidsville, Ghost & Mrs. Muir), Wally Cox (Hollywood Squares, ex-Underdog), Jim Backus (ex-Gilligan's Island), Jonathan Winters, Jo Anne Worley (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), and, in this episode, John Byner (The Ant & The Aardvark). This is just a sampler clip:



No rating.

No comments: