One of the biggest, most popular TV shows from the Baby Boomers' childhood was The Mickey Mouse Club. Airing after school Monday through Friday on ABC, it was “must-see TV” for our generation.
While the Mouseketeers were the main attraction, no one was prepared for the popularity of the first serial to air on that program: “The Adventures of Spin and Marty.” Debuting on Friday, November 4, 1955, the rather mild adventures of Marty Markham and Spin Evans, proved to be an instant smash, spawning two sequels, a comic book series, and plenty of other merchandise.
The serial was shot during the summer of 1955 before The Mickey Mouse Club debuted on ABC. They did this so the cast of mostly school-age boys could work during their summer school vacation. The location was the Golden Oak Ranch in southern California. Today that ranch is owned by the Disney Studios and has been used frequently for exterior shooting, including scenes for their long-running Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise. “Spin & Marty’s” budget was set at $600,000 ($7.1 million in 2025 dollars) – quite pricey for something that was just one part of the hour-long Mouse Club episodes. But Walt always insisted on quality no matter the cost.
Based on the 1942 novel Martin Markham by Lawrence Edward Watkin, “The Adventures of Spin & Marty” was adapted by veteran TV writer Jackson Gillis and directed by William Beaudine.
Playing Spin and Marty, respectively, were Tim Considine, who appeared in lots of Disney’s stuff as a kid before becoming one of the original siblings on My Three Sons, and David Stollery. For whatever reason, Stollery gave up acting soon after “Spin & Marty” for a career as an auto designer for Toyota. Considine passed away in 2022. Stollery is still with us.
“The Adventures of Spin & Marty” comprised 25 episodes. The plot involved spoiled snob Marty Markham being forced to spend the summer at the Triple-R Boys’ Camp. He’s accompanied to the camp by his valet, Perkins, played by veteran British character actor J. Pat O’Malley. Of course, the main story arc has Marty slowly coming out of his shell and becoming best buds with Spin, easily the most popular kid at the Trile-R. The serial’s climax involved a rodeo with their rival, Northfork Boys’ Camp.
Perkins provides most of the laughs in the serial, occasionally joined by the camp’s Asian cook, Sam, portrayed by Sammee Tong, who’s most famous for playing a similar role on the long-running sitcom, Bachelor Father. Of course, there's also a crusty ranch hand named Ollie, who supplied the serials' catch phrase, “Well, I’ll be a blue-nosed gopher.”
The Triple-R is owned by Colonel Jim Logan (Roy Barcroft), with Harry Carey, Jr. featured as the boys’ counselor, Bill Burnett. Carey grew up on a California cattle ranch and had a long career in movies, mostly in Westerns. See if you can spot him in the saloon scenes in Back to the Future III.
What made "Spin & Marty" successful wasn't the plot. That moves slowly and, even at our young age, we could tell where the plot was going. The appeal of Gillis’ script lay in correctly capturing the summer camp experience many Baby Boomers were starting to live through themselves. Plus, the kids didn’t seem like actors. They were relatable to us, like friends.
As said, the serial proved enormously popular so additional adventures showed up in each of the Mouse Club's subsequent seasons. With the second installment in 1956, “The Further Adventures of Spin and Marty,” something new was added – girls!
Annette Funicello was rapidly becoming the most popular of all the Mouseketeers, so Disney put her in this sequel, playing a young lady named – wait for it- Annette! (She wasn’t the first Mouseketeer to star in a serial – Darlene Gillespie had starred as Corky in “Corky & White Shadow” a year earlier. But "Corky" didn’t generate anything like the fan response to “Spin & Marty”).
The plot of this return to the Triple-R finds the lads hosting a dance for the girls’ camp across the lake, the Circle-H. Both Spin & Marty develop crushes on Annette, who looks very fetching in her bathing cap. And this year, instead of a rodeo, we have a climatic swim meet against the Northfork boys.
All the regulars from the first summer are back, plus we get a new kid at camp, one who would go on to become a Disney legend. Seven-year-old Kevin Cocoran appears as Moochie, a nickname that would stick with the young actor no matter what other parts he played. He probably had the second most successful career of any of the Mouse Club gang outside of Annette.
“The Further Adventures” ran 23 episodes. It was followed a year later by “The New Adventures of Spin & Marty.” This time the girls have an even bigger part with Darlene joining the cast. The third summer revolves around capturing and taming a wild stallion and then morphs into a “let’s put on a show” plot, like those old Mickey Rooney – Judy Garland films of the 1930s. Knowing what a hit “Spin & Marty” was, Disney had this final serial stretch out over 30 episodes.
The continuing popularity of Spin & Marty led to lots of merchandise: cowboy hats, t-shirts, coloring books, records, and a comic book series that actually lasted until 1962.
The first serial was released on DVD in 2005. You can find it on eBay still at an affordable price. All 3 serials have also been shown on Disney’s original cable channel, but only the first has shown up on its streaming service.
No matter how old we get, there’s something to be said for spending a few weeks of the summer at the good ol’ Triple-R, where the horses are the best by far. Yippie-yay, yippie-yo!
