Mystery Of The Applegate Treasure -The Mickey Mouse Club

The Hardy Boys: The Mystery Of The Applegate Treasure (1956). In 1955 Disney sold ABC an hourly weekday after-school program called “The Mickey Mouse Club.” Even though the show became an enormous hit and a merchandising bonanza for Disney, it was canceled after only three seasons. Ratings were still good but dropping, plus ABC and Disney were feuding. The second season featured a 19-part serialized mystery adventure based on the 1937 book “The Tower Treasure” – the first of the long running book series The Hardy Boys featuring Frank and Joe Hardy, the teen sons of famed private detective Fenton Hardy. One episode of about 12-munites, ran during each afternoon show beginning October 2, 1956. Disney cast the boys younger than the book’s duo with 15-year-old Tim Considine as Frank and 14-year-old Tommy Kirk as Joe. Seeing this again after so many years, I was surprised that I liked it much more than back when I was about Tim Considine’s age. The mystery is a good one as are the performances, especially by the youngest actors - Tommy Kirk and Carole Ann Campbell as neighbor Iola Morton who has a crush on Joe. The script by Jackson Gillis is natural, like people actually talk, never dumbed down for kids, sweetened up, or sentimentalized. The only exception might be the over-the-top “comic” ranting of the Applegate character played by Florenz Ames. But that may be down to the actor. This was a terrific show that I greatly enjoyed.