1955 saw the birth of a new era for children’s programming on television. A cast of very young and very talented kids banded together to form the original Mickey Mouse Club. It, and Annette Funicello, took the world by storm!

Do you remember the opening song? Below you can hear the Disco version sung by The New Mickey Mousekeeters as they too benefit from the help of Jiminy Cricket and Donald Duck:

This version engenders the same nostalgic feel but with an updated (but now outdated) 1970’s vibe.

Now, is everybody ready? Let’s have a closer look at The All New Mickey Mouse Club TV Cast Album:

This crew entertained our little mice from 1977 to 1979. But unfortunately, they aren’t as well remembered as the early Mouseketeers from the 1955-1959 run or the later children from the 1989-1996 run. That run gave us Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake.

Although many of the second run children continued in entertainment, the show’s most notable alumnus was Lisa Whelchel, who later starred in the NBC television sitcom The Facts of Life (1979-1988). She now hosts the entertaining reality show called Collector’s Corner.

This run only had one originally produced serial to brag of. But they did do themed days in earnest!

Theme days were:

• Monday: Who, What, Why, Where, When and How
• Tuesday: Let’s Go
• Wednesday: Surprise
• Thursday: Discovery
• Friday: Showtime (at Disneyland, with performers usually at Plaza Gardens)

Why I jumped at the chance to buy this album for just $10.00 CAN was for this wonderful full-colour Official Souvenir Poster Magazine:

And if all that wasn’t enough to engage and thrill a young mouse, how about this whopping 19″ x 23″ poster of the entire cast of 12 (five boys and seven girls). As you can see, they had a more diverse ethnic background than the 1950s version:

I also love to find these little reply cards:

Notice you are asked if you own a Super 8mm home movie projector or an ultra-modern cassette tape player! Well, do you? Disney wants to know!

Side point: This falls under the ‘Simpler Times’ category as Disney expected you to send your name and address along with your child’s name and ages through the regular mail! Hey, I can’t see any problem with that. We should still do that today! Um, don’t do that today.

And that brings us to the end of this post and the back of the album cover. We have some cast photos from the set of the show along with a hip Mickey doing a little jig:

But now it’s time to say goodbye to all our company:

We don’t tend to think of this version of the Mickey Mouse Club even though these 1977 Mouseketeers were part of the halftime show of Super Bowl XI on January 9, 1977. That deserves some respect right there!

Do you have fond memories of this Disney program?