Mickey Mouse Club

Hi, this is John Delancey and you are listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. It's time for

the Telecast brought to you by the GeekCast Radio

Network. host for the show, Optimus Solo. Thank

you once again mouse chipmunk and guy with a

really deep voice as they said I am your host

Optimus Solo and I would like to say hello and

welcome to the 32nd episode of the telecast brought

to you by the GeekCast radio network today I

am joined by TFG1 Mike and together we'll be

talking about No! That's right folks we are talking

about the all -new Mickey Mouse Club and before

we get too far into our discussion Here's a little

background information on the show the all -new

Mickey Mouse Club would be the version that debuted

in 1989 and ran until 1995 and then in reruns

for a few years after that it was shown on the

Disney Channel it was a 30 -minute show and this

iteration of the Mickey Mouse Club lasted seven

seasons and Somewhere around the 360 episodes

is for the total Mickey Mouse clubs all from

beginning to end. I wasn't able to locate exactly

how many episodes aired during this. segment

these seven seasons, but it was on for seven

seasons and quite a few episodes. For those of

you that don't know, the all -new Mickey Mouse

Club is a variety show featuring child performers.

The show had segments consisting of Saturday

Night Live -esque skits done by kids, comedy

bits, songs, music videos, highlights from the

concerts that the Mickey Mouse Club would perform

live. Kind of a mixture of Saturday Night Live

meets You Can't Do That on Television meets Disney,

all wrapped up in one. So what are your memories

of the all -new Mickey Mouse Club? Did you remember

this version of the show or did you only have

recollections of the classic Mickey Mouse Club

show that's been airing back in the 1950s through

the 60s and 70s? What memories do you have of

the Mickey Mouse Club in general? None. None?

You don't ever remember seeing this? I don't

even remember, I don't even know why I'm here

now because I actually went on YouTube and I

looked for several episodes and I know we'll

have a discussion on that and it's available

to you later but I wanted to prepare obviously

and I wanted to be able to watch a few episodes

before we came on and did this and you know I

searched out a few and I found a few clips on

YouTube. I do not remember anything about...

First of all, 1989, I didn't even know the Disney

Channel... Until I started researching the Disney

Channel in the last, I don't know, five, six

years, I thought they started in like 95, 96.

I didn't realize they were around all the way

back at, you know, the last year of the decade

of the 80s. I just had no clue, I guess. Did

you have any recollections of the older version,

the 50s version? No. That's the one that probably

my strongest memory is because of the What we'll

get to a little bit later But um the old one

had a specific kind of intro and and what they

called a roll call And and that song I remember

very distinctly. I don't remember watching a

lot of episodes, and I couldn't tell you what

the original Mickey Mouse Club consisted of,

other than the roll call, kids with ears on their

heads, and that type of thing. That's about all

I could remember in the intro theme. I don't

necessarily remember watching a lot of this version,

the one that started in 1989. Now, obviously,

this is the block of the telecast that we're

handling, musical -centered or based. Kids live

-action shows from the 80s and 90s. We already

talked about the elephant show from Sharon, Lois

and Bram I probably have a few more memories

of the show. We'll talk about next episode kids

incorporated I don't know why I saw more episodes

of that than the all -new Mickey Mouse Club I

have no clue. It must have just been on the right

channel at the right time on the right day That

I saw that it was before I knew anything about

a certain star of that show, so that wasn't the

reason why I was tuning in. But I do remember

the Mickey Mouse Club existing as a child, though

I wouldn't have known how many iterations it

had and how many versions it had and what the

differences were. I just kind of remember that

it was some type of variety show with child performers,

and that's about the extent of my memories of

that show at all. I mean, honestly, they used

the theme song. They use M -I -C -K -E -Y -M.

They use that everywhere. It's not just for the

Mickey Mouse Club. I mean, that song spelling

out Mickey's name, Disney uses it and used to

use it everywhere. So I remember that. That's

probably the only thing I remember about the

show is that. I went back and I looked at some

of the... some of the skits and some of the clips

I found on YouTube, and I found one of the full

intros once three certain future pop starlets

joined the show. And oh my God, you put, I mean,

it's like yearbook type pictures. It's like,

oh my God, you put BS, JT and CA together with

their pictures from this show to pictures of

what they look like now. It's night and day.

I always knew about certain people that were

on the show and then growing up always remember,

no, they got their start on that show. I somewhat

remember that or whatever, but I did not know

the extent of who was involved with the all new

Mickey Mouse club by far. The version that spawned

the most stars if you go back to the fifties

version if you go back to there was like a reboot

or you know rehash i think in the seventies.

either late 60s or early 70s that didn't produce

the number of stars. I mean there's some, there's

a couple names here and there that you'll recognize,

but when it comes to this one, this by far produces

the most stars in a variety of different walks

of life when it comes to the celebrity sphere,

I guess you could say, which I guess is a good

transition into the who's who of the all -new

Mickey Mouse Club. There was 35 different Mouseketeers,

and I'm not going to name all 35, because that

would be kind of pointless, but I will name the

ones that you are probably most familiar. And

that would start with J .C. J .C. from, was it

NSYNC or Backstreet Boys? NSYNC. NSYNC. So J

.C. Shazay? Is that how you say his last name?

was in the Mickey Mouse Club from 1991 to 1995.

Tony Luca, who a lot of people probably were

reintroduced to during The Voice a couple years

ago, was on the same years. Kerry Russell was

on there from 1991 to 1993. Christina Aguilera

from 93 to 95. Ryan Gosling from 93 to 95. Brittany

Spears and Justin Timberlake from 1993 to 1995.

So JC, Tony Luca, Carrie Russell, Christina Aguilera,

Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake

were all on this show. Two members of NSYNC and

two pop princesses. Wow. That's just insane.

The number of people that were on this show.

But it kind of just goes to show you, and I'm

sorry to interrupt you, but it just goes to show

you that We didn't know as children of that era.

We didn't know half of you know The other thing

is they don't give their last names They just

give their first names, you know So we don't

know who they are and what they've done and you

gotta remember folks is back in a time when there

was no internet There was no finding out who

a star was unless you Don't do this at home kids

and don't ever do this unless you stalk them

or you know hunt them down I mean back in the

olden days. It was a lot harder to find out who

was on what show Well, you had to rely on one

of two things you had to rely on other television

shows mm -hmm or the Teen Bop, 16, whatever the

other names of those magazines were that all

the girls had back in the day. I can't even have

a clue what they were. But that is where you

got your information. That's where people learned

about their little, you know, the other celebrities

that they, I guess when you're a kid, this is

a certain sphere, because it's not like, it's

different from when you are a child and you are

looking up to a professional athlete. When you're

looking up to, you know, a lead singer of some

band and you have a crush on these adults, there

was also, there's also this whole thing that

kind of happens, or at least back when we were

growing up, I don't know if it as much, maybe

it is, but when you're growing up and you're

kind of going through your adolescence where

a lot of people, especially the girls during

the middle school years, junior high years, develop

crushes not just on these like impossible to

actually be with older athletes or stars or singers,

but with people their age. It was something that

probably wasn't as big of a thing in certain

times of our history, but during this time period,

with all those types of magazines going on, with

the different types of shows that were featuring

live action kids. kid actors, child actors. You

had a lot of people that were developing crushes

and stuff on kids that were their age, kids that

could have been in their school. You know, there

was an easier one -to -one way to relate to them.

And that's why you had all these magazines developed

where you could get the gossip on all these different...

you know, whatever, you know, boys that the girls

had crushes on and that type of thing. But you're

right, it wasn't like the same where, you know,

you had the internet or YouTube or this, that,

and the other to all, you know, find out about

them. Nowadays, that same atmosphere doesn't

quite exist in the same way as it did back then.

And shows like this and Kids Incorporated and

a couple other ones were that outlet. That was

the only place you could go to see these people.

So that's what you would have done. You would

have been, you know, there was a following. They

actually had concerts where people are screaming

for these actors and these singers who haven't

done anything in their life at that point to

warrant the types of followings that they already

had. And so it's just a crazy thing that existed

within the walls of something like the All New

Mickey Mouse Club. Mean, let's just take a look

at the two pop princesses. I mean, you know me

personally I put Christina above Brittany as

far as talent goes But you know, they both kind

of broke out 98 99 and that's at least Since

the time they were on the show that's five six

years since they were on this show So because

they both started 93 and they went to 95. So,

you know their singing careers launched by the

time Christina was 19 her her singing career

she had you know Her self -titled album she had,

you know, jean in a bottle and all that stuff

and well for Christina the first time, you know

that she really really Jumped onto the scene

was when she and people still didn't know who

she was But the first time that you heard her

was actually probably in the song reflection

for Mulan In 98 because that's before any of

her CDs come out really that's before she becomes

popular at all And that's you know just her just

doing a song through her connections with Disney

etc or whatever You know and that's 98. That's

still three years after the show mm -hmm So I

mean yeah, and honestly I didn't even Like don't

get me wrong. I love Christina. I love almost

everything she does except for those few years

in between You know the bionic and all that's

those years is a little little strange but But

you know, I you know, I loved when she did stripped

I loved when she you know her latest album came

out a few years ago But I completely had no clue

that was her in the lawn At the time when that

people did at the time when that film came out

had no idea right, you know cuz I mean, once

Jeannie in a bottle hit, I mean, she was golden.

The entire, you know, into the TRL era. Oh, yeah.

That was a whole new venue now that MTV had captured

for people seeing their fellow child star, you

know, heroes, crushes, whatever. Because now

we're into the era where you have music videos

and shows like that where they're interviewing

them, et cetera, et cetera. Now all of a sudden

you had a lot more access. than existed three

years prior, four years prior when the Mickey

Mouse Club existed. In watching back some of

the stuff for the all -new Mickey Mouse Club

and seeing some of these stars, it's interesting.

Some of them look like they do in a way. I mean,

they're easy enough to identify. You know, Britney

Spears somewhat looks like Britney Spears still

in the face. Ryan Gosling definitely looks like

Ryan Gosling. If you know that that's who it

is, you'll be like, I can see the connection.

Carrie Russell looks identical. Oh, yeah. She's

never changed. I mean, between the time she was

here and the time she got to being Felicity to

even you look at her now in stuff like Mission

Impossible 3 or You watch any episode of the

current FX television series, The Americans,

she looks, her beauty has not aged at all in

the last 20 or so years, just hasn't. J .C. Shazay

looks, you could easily identify him. Justin

Timberlake, I think if you know who you're looking

for, you can identify him enough. Christina Aguilera

is probably the hardest one to recognize. In

certain ways because she looks so much different

now So looking at her as that childhood version

is very hard to kind of make the connection compared

to these other ones, but when you hear them singing

Christina comes shining through and you're like,

that's Christina Aguilera, you know No, you're

trying to pick them out. You don't know and then

all sudden they're singing and you hear a couple

of them saying you hope that's Christina right

there. She was phenomenal, even at this age.

Which I'm guessing was 16ish, 15? 93 to 95, she

was born the same year as I was, so she was between

13 and 15 when she was on the show. 15 towards

the end, 14, 15. She already had a phenomenal

voice. um you know when when the voice aired

a few years ago and she was one of the judges

on certain seasons i don't know if she ever made

the comment but you get the comment a lot from

the judges that was like i don't even know what

i was doing when i was 16 or when i was well

if christina ever said that somebody should have

pointed out that no well Here's the thing i know

see for me i remember like for me season three

of the voice is my favorite season because that

was the year that lotus came out that was the

year her most recent album back in 2011 came

out so i remember season three very vividly they

made a huge deal in season three of the voice

about christina about her album and about the

fact that her I remember how they tagged this

going into commercial, they said, and someone,

some guy from Christina's past is going to be

reintroduced to her. And I was like, wow, what

are they doing on this show? This is supposed

to be a family show. What the hell is going on

here? And it turns out that Tony Luca auditioned

for The Voice close to almost 20 years after

he was on the Mickey Mouse Club with her. And

I love how they did that. And they did. I don't

remember exactly what was said. But when he came

up and did his audition, she did talk about being

on the Mickey Mouse Club. I know just a lot of

times they're like, I don't even know what I

was doing when I was 16. You're so good at doing

this. And it's like, no, you were doing this

when you were like 14, 13. There was also, there

was a group of people that actually did form

their own band. sort of, that were through the

Mickey Mouse Club, which was called The Party.

It included Albert Fields, Tiffany Hale, Chase

Hampton, Dee Dee, Meg Noel Hall, and Damon Pampolino.

I'm not familiar with any of them or with the

band that they kind of... Formed but they did

have some some singles and at least one album

that that was produced So that came out of the

show as well. There was some adult co -host None

of which I'm really familiar with And then there

was a time was the old guy Fred wolf Fred Newman

Okay, then maybe that yeah see when I saw the

the intro And he just introduced himself as Fred.

I thought it was like Fred Wolf or, you know,

somebody like that was a huge, big, big name

TV guy. That's, that's who I thought it was,

but obviously I was wrong. Gotcha. And they also

had a ton of guest stars. One of the things about

the show, kind of similar to like The Muppet

Show or things like that, was that they did bring

quite a few guest stars in throughout the different

seasons. A lot of big names, Boys to Men. They

would bring in actual people that would play

the characters from their show, like DJ Tanner

from Full House, Candice Cameron, Tatiana Ali

as Ashley Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel

-Air, Jodie Sweeten as Stephanie Tanner from

Full House. Those people all guest starred. They

would have been about the same age. Celine Dion,

Whitney Houston, the Mighty Ducks cast at one

point, New Kids on the Block, Tiffany. So, I

mean, they had a lot of different guest stars

throughout the seasons. And that's just a partial

list. There was a ton more that supplemented

the show as well. Whitney Houston, Celine Dion,

I can kind of see. Boys to Men, I can kind of

see. What in the Sam hell was Richard Marks doing

on season five? This show yeah, I mean they got

a both a variety of Musicians singers a variety

of actors that were around the same Age or popular

at the same time. I know they got people outside

of that though, too I saw some clips where they

were Talking to like what's her name Carrie Strug?

gymnast for the USA back in 95 I believe it was

so they would you know reach out to a variety

of different things. It wasn't strictly music

related. They would, you know, in their skits

or in their kind of informational things, they

would they would go to a lot of different things,

whether it be athletics or just general stuff.

So a lot of guest stars. So, you know, if anybody

was to watch through all the episodes, they would

get a good taste of who was popular and who was

in the now back in the mid 90s, early to mid

90s. I think one reason why more people act like

they remember the Mickey Mouse Club is because

of the number of names associated with it. I

think some of it's just by association and they're

like, oh yeah, I used to watch that show. I don't

believe as many people watch the show as admit

or say they did. I think they just hear a lot

of these names, and they're like, yeah, I watched

that show when I was a kid. It was like some

type of badge of honor. I don't know, but it

has so many names connected to it that a lot

of people somehow think that they saw it or relate

to it. I'm not saying people didn't watch it.

Obviously, people watched the shows. It was on

for seven seasons. But this is in my prime. I

was only, let's see, I was between 10 and 15.

These are all people my age. And I watched a

crap ton of TV and I know I watched a few episodes

here and there but I don't remember it remembered

I didn't know I was watching Christina Aguilera

Justin Timberlake. I had no clue Carrie Russell

and Ryan Gosling were in this at all Yeah, I

didn't remember those two. Well, I mean honestly

until recently I never even knew who the hell

Ryan Gosling was Until he his movie career blew

up over the last few years so right you know

i just i honestly thought a few years ago when

he exploded onto the film scene in hollywood.

Hello yay another new young actor hadn't realized

he had been on stuff in the past. And i'm sorry

i want my dollar twenty seven back red box drive

was one of the worst movies i've ever seen. He's

done a lot of good stuff, though. He has done

a lot of good stuff. I haven't seen Drive, so

I can't comment on it, but I have liked him in

quite a bit of the stuff he's done in the last

three or four years. But yeah, I did not know

that he had a childhood music career on the Mickey

Mouse Club, I guess. And he was so tiny on that

show. Goodness. For anybody that is a fan of

any of these people or just want to have like

a fun trip down memory lane, you got to check

out some clips from the show to see the childhood

versions of all these people, to see how they

act, see how they sing. We'll get some more into

it when we get to the next segment, but there's

some interesting stuff that's in there for these

people, especially if you know the history of

their life and the stuff that has happened good,

bad, or in the ugly within their life. Honestly,

one last thing on the favorite of the two pop

stars here. She only has to sing one single note

and you automatically know I mean you could be

in your kitchen making lunch And you know as

soon as you hear her just you know, even practicing,

you know, it's Christina Aguilera She doesn't

even have to belt out the notes as soon as she

you know, she did even have some of the same

stylistic Things that she does now, back then,

though. It's funny to watch. If you watch her

sing a couple different songs from back here

on the Mickey Mouse Club, you can even see some

of the stuff that she does. It's just kind of

patented. Christina Aguilera, she even had back

then. It wasn't stuff that she developed later.

It was stuff that she had right from the get

-go. So that's the Who's Who for the all -new

Mickey Mouse Club, which means it is now time

for... The good. The bad. The ugly. That's right.

It is the good. the bad and the ugly about the

all -new Mickey Mouse Club. First of all, you

have things like the theme song and the intro.

Obviously, a variation of the classic theme song

that probably most people would know or that

they've heard, kind of like you said that, you

know, M -I -C -K -E -Y, that's been used for

a lot of different things. most prominently the

Mickey Mouse Club, but it's been used for a lot

of things and this is a 90s, you know, late 80s,

early 90s version of that. You know, it kind

of fits right into the culture of, you know,

like Saved by the Bell type stuff. You know,

that vibe where it's... trying to your california

dreams that everything works trying to be have

trying to be cool for the kids but still that

same theme song and and along with the song usually

was a roll call feature which uh... introduced

the people i said by the first name after last

name to serve first name uh... so usually would

get a rundown of at least uh... people that got

the most quote -unquote screen time for the show

so that's one thing that's probably thing i remember

most about the show is a theme song in the roll

call and i enjoyed both of those features Yeah,

I mean I enjoy them. I think they're interesting

It's one of those things where the funny thing

about this Mickey Mouse Club is I was expecting

Mickey to be more involved honestly. I mean like

he's not even He's there in the background They

have the ears and I know the ears are a badge

of honor because it's you know, it's his namesake

club, but Damn it man. Stop making children with

Minnie and work your club already work your club

The show also had theme days. So they would have

music day, guest day, anything that can happen

day, party day, Hall of Fame day. So they had

themes for their days and it, you know, depending

on what season you are, you know, that would

be like a Monday or a Tuesday or whatever. So

you kind of knew what you were tuning in for.

The show generally aired a little bit later than

you would think. From my research here, it aired

weekdays. And it usually aired not like, it wasn't

like a right after school type thing. It was

more of like a dinner time thing. 5 .30 is what

I found as far as early times and then later

on like seven o 'clock. or something like that.

So it was, they were later in the day than you

would expect. It was more of a kind of maybe

watch it together with your family before dinner,

after dinner, during dinner, I guess, if you're

a TV tray family. So it wasn't like a right after

school thing, but it was a Monday through Friday

thing. And with these theme days, you kind of

knew what to expect going in, depending on what

day of the week it was. I don't know if that

was, you know, if people think that helped or...

hampered or what it did for the success of the

show I mean it was on seven seasons so maybe

it did help even though they did flip those from

time to time but I think that's a decent idea

a lot of the shows like this and a lot of things

with this type of format you would have all of

that wrapped up in one you know almost like when

with the Muppet show or whatever where you have

something and it's like you do music then you

go and interview a guest and then you do a comedy

skit and then you do this and that You know what

I mean? It's all in one show. Absolutely. Whereas

these shows more so focused on one day all being

about, you know, a certain guest. So everything

revolved around that or it all, you know, revolved

around music type of thing. So I think part of

that is because it's not an hour long show. Usually

it's a it was usually about a 30 minute show.

So it was easier to focus on just one thing for

that 30 minutes probably because you didn't have

an hour to fill and rotate things and stuff like

that So an interesting format nonetheless Even

though I don't remember that aspect of it from

when I was a kid Yeah, and even when I watched

the the one that I found on YouTube I I don't

know what it is. I really only wanted to see

it For seeing the people I knew who were in it.

I know that may sound bad, but I watched one

skit and I clicked off of it. I'm not saying

it's bad. The skit that I watched had to do with

a military -style mother and she had a bunch

of the Mickey Mouse Club kids or had a bunch

of kids that were in the show or whatever, like

they weren't any of the ones that we knew. And

they were all lining up and she was giving them

the rules of riding in the, uh, the carpool.

And it's just so ridiculous, over the top, Saturn

Internet Live copycatting, I was like, yeah,

no, I'm done. I think that's part of the draw

for a show like this is to see what these celebrities

were like as a child See what their personalities

were like what they're singing or acting was

like I think that's mainly why someone tunes

into this I guess if you were if you were tuning

in to something for the skits From this era.

I would direct you instead to you can't do that

on television because they focused on the skits,

their things were a little more off the wall,

a little more how did they get this past to show

on TV, a little more edgy and therefore a little

more washable, I think. Whereas you tune into

this one either for the stars or for the music.

The skits is just time filler in between stuff

really Maybe to get another different side of

that the performers and a different look at them

But you tune in this one strictly for the music

for the most part So good No, I yeah, I mean

I agree and the sad thing is I didn't even want

to fast forward to the music The skit was so

cheesy Yeah All right, well we'll get into another

segment of the show that we like to start off

with this Things that make you go hmm That's

right. It's time for things. You didn't know

about the all -new Mickey Mouse Club things that

make you go hmm All right number one previous

to the original TV series. There was a theater

-based Mickey Mouse Club. The first one started

on January 4th 1930 in Ocean Park, California

with 60 theaters hosting clubs by March of that

year. The club released its first official issue

of the official bulletin of the Mickey Mouse

Club in 1930 and by 1932 the club had 1 million

members. In 1933 its first British club opened.

In 1935 with so many clubs around the world Disney

begins to phase out the club and eventually would

lead to the television show. So it was literally

a club to begin with that had a bulletin that

was put out and everything. So this thing dates

back quite a ways. I cannot imagine. It reminds

me of like... No, no, no. I just cannot imagine

M -I -C -E -K -E -Y -M -O -U -S -A in the Great

Depression era. I just can't friggin' imagine

that. Like, you know, 1929, 1930, after the stock

market crash, we're in the Great Depression.

You know, you had Prohibition. I can imagine,

you know, stuff like that. I can imagine stuff

like Elliot Ness and Al Capone and the Untouchables

and all that. But an actual Mickey Mouse club?

Yeah, everybody needs their positivity in times

of need but uh It reminds me of like the clubs

that existed back in the day like Nintendo power

type thing and it's not really a club But like

that same instance where it's all just a bunch

of random kids that are in their homes around

the world But they you know write in or send

in whatever to feel like they're part of this

bigger club The second thing that you might not

know about the Mickey Mouse Club, the Mickey

Mouse Club was Walt Disney's second venture into

producing a television series, the first being

the Walt Disney anthology television series,

initially titled Disneyland. Disney used both

shows to help finance and promote the building

of Disneyland. So yeah, it was the anthology

series and the original Mickey Mouse Club. That

were the first two television ventures by Disney,

and that is what helped fund the building of

Disneyland. Interesting here. This next one is

specifically for the all new Mickey Mouse Club,

something you might not know there. The series

was canceled because producers didn't think the

new cast members were strong enough talent wise

to carry on the show. You ass hats. Remember

those new talents? All the ones we mentioned

were almost all. the new ones at the end. Britney

Spears, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera,

those were the new cast members he's referring

to. Those were the people that came on at the

end. Apparently not as good as the people at

the beginning, so they decided to cancel the

show. You know, I love the next two I wish you

could I wish you could interview the guy who

decided to keep the producers that can't All

right number four thing that you might not know

about the all -new Mickey Mouse Club Jessica

Simpson and Matt Damon were rejected did not

make the cut for the all -new Mickey Mouse Club

I Understand why Jessica Simpson and all as I

can think about Matt Damon is Matt Damon to me

Cause we are both from Massachusetts and all

I can think of is he had too much of an accent

as to why he was rejected. Cause when, you know,

normally when we pull out the Boston accent and

we drop the as and all this and all that, it's

like, no kid, we're not hiring you. Sorry. I

could have seen Jessica Simpson in there though.

She was the same type of age as before she was

older, before she was completely found out to

be dumb and dissy. But as a kid, you can get

away with that. Number five thing that you might

not know about the all -new Mickey Mouse Club,

Nick Carter auditioned for a spot on the same

team as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and

Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling. They usually

divided the cast into different colored teams.

He was offered the part but decided to pursue

another offer to form a vocal group which eventually

became the Backstreet Boys. And luckily he did

because right after that the producers canceled

the show. So when I first read this in the script

the first thing I thought of was oh great Because

Nick decided not to take the job the show got

cancelled. It's all Nick. It's all the Backstreet

Boys fault We couldn't have him in there with

the NSYNC people Sure, you could that could have

been the be that could have been the beginning

of the of the pop war And the last thing for

this week that you might not know about the all

-new Mickey Mouse Club was Lindsay Alley Jennifer

McGill and Josh Ackerman Only three cast members

that were in awe every season, so there was a

lot of rotating cast members. Only three people

left. Casted from the beginning till the end.

All right, so it's time for us to go all VH1

on you and answer the question, where are they

now? I know some of this will be obvious, but

we will cover it all just in case somebody's

been living in a rock, under a rock in a cave

or however that thing goes. Let's start with

the easy ones. Obviously, Christine Aguilera,

we know where she is now. She is a mungus pop

star. Like we said, she went on to do the reflection

in Mulan. She went on to have a ton of different

CDs out there. She was a judge on The Voice.

She's just about done it all. She's currently

dealing with her second, birth of her second

child, Summer Rain Rutler. She, which I can only

imagine if that child grows up to, you know,

fill in her footsteps. Oh my God. I can just

imagine that. I will say that we can easily probably

pin Christina Aguilera as the second most successful

Mickey Mouse Club cast member. She is super successful,

but I would say that she is second most successful

behind our next one which would be Justin Timberlake

only for The diversity that Justin Timberlake

has maybe that Christina Aguilera doesn't as

he's been successful outside of music into acting

into you know, skits and everything. Obviously,

he went on to join NSYNC. He went solo. He's

acted in movies like The Social Network. He just

got married to Jessica Biel a while back. Been

doing a lot of movies. He's had the whole Lonely

Island thing. So we all know what Justin Timberlake

is doing now. So not a lot to need to go over

there. Ryan Gosling. He starred as young Hercules

before doing films like The Notebook. He was

nominated for an Oscar for his work in half Nelson

and scored Golden Globe nominations for Blue

Valentine the Ides of March and Probably one

of my favorite roles for him crazy stupid love

So didn't do much more as far as singing or variety

show type stuff But he definitely got into acting

which is where most people are gonna know about

him now so That's what Ryan Gosling is doing

now. I don't know if anyone can answer the question,

what is Britney Spears doing now? We said that

Justin Timberlake was probably the most successful

cast member. Britney Spears is probably the most

dramatic cast member as far as all the different

ups and downs that she's had since the show.

She's been married twice, has two kids, had a

public meltdown, shaved her head, went bald.

She's currently though, if you want to... Specifically

answer the question of what she's doing now She

was just recently doing a show in Las Vegas.

I don't know if that's technically still going

on I'm trying to see here. I don't think so It

was at some point during this year, but I don't

know if it still is but that was the most recent

thing that she's done besides obviously doing

a lot of different appearances and songs and

this that and the other trying to grasp on tightly

to her pop star slash quote -unquote career or

whatever you want to call it. She was a judge

in American Idol for a little while. Yeah, she

was also a Was she on X Factor too or just American

Idol? She had someone from her past that came

and tried to audition too and he was scary bad

and he was scary in the fact that he couldn't

even like speak to her. Kind of freaked her out

a little bit. JC Chazé I'm probably saying that

name wrong and everybody hates me, but I don't

care. Obviously he went on to be in NSYNC with

Justin Timberlake, as well as trying to sell

the career. He was also a judge on America's

Best Dance Crew. Moving on to some of the maybe

lesser known, oh wait, we still got Keri Russell.

I forgot about her. Obviously her biggest role

afterwards would be Felicity. She won a Golden

Globe. Yeah, she's had two kids went through

a divorce last year But very much obviously still

in the acting route kind of her and Ryan Gosling

took the acting route Whereas most other ones

took the music route. Yeah, I will say ladies

and gentlemen, she has um, oh She was in one

of your favorite franchises this year Dawn she

was in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Yeah,

that's right You know, most recently, the most

recent movie people will remember her from, obviously,

is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. She was the

voice of Wonder Woman in 2009 for that DC animated

universe film. Most recently in television, 2013

to present, she plays Soviet spy Elizabeth Jennings

on FX's The Americans. I love this show, not

just because of her, but That's one of the main

reasons. But I mean, she the way this show is

written, I've said this before, The Americans

is basically about the Cold War. It's about it's

about us in the 80s against the Soviets and a

show like this could not have been done before

last year. It just could not have been done.

And how they do this show is so amazing. And

she is such a great actress on this show. Alright,

and then getting into some of the maybe lesser

-known, I mean those were kind of the headliners,

but into some of the rest of the cast here. Nikki

Deloach, who was a Mouseketeer, was a member

of Innocence, which was managed by Timberlake's

mom. She later appeared on Fox's North Shore

and currently stars on MTV's show Awkward. Her

career did not end with the Mickey Mouse Club

in any way shape or form. Dale Godboldo went

on to star on two short -lived sitcoms, Kristen

and Shasta McNasty. Apparently, he also played

an agent in Thor, so he's clinging maybe to an

acting career as much as he can. Jennifer McGill

has appeared in stage productions of Grease,

Into the Woods, and A Chorus Line throughout

the different states in the country. She also

toured with Michael Jackson Tribute Group, the

ultimate thriller in 2011. Who else do we have

here? We got oh, hold on we got Matt Morris who

continued to work with his Mickey Mouse Co -star

Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera and

co -wrote her hit can't hold us down and He released

an album on JT's label in 2010. So that's the

most recent for him Rona Bennett biggest role

was on Nicole on the Jamie Foxx show. She was

also a member of En Vogue from 2003 to 2008.

I didn't know they existed then. Ricky Luna has

continued to act with one episode appearances

on Boston Public, Lizzie McGuire, and ER. Apparently

he has a Facebook page. He's still trying to

make music, maybe not as successful as some of

the other ones, but hey, at least he's trying,

right? Then we also have TJ Fantini. Stopped

acting following the Mickey Mouse Club, but he

did appear in the flick Drive In, not Drive with

Ryan Gosling, but Drive In in the year 2000.

So he kind of fell off the face of the earth

a little bit. And then finally, one that we were

recently made aware of, like you said, on The

Voice would be Tony Luca. He starred on a short

-lived Soap Malibu Shores before working on solo

music. He was second runner up on the second

season of The Voice. No, third. Third season

this on the third second season. Well, you know

he was I Could have sworn he was on the third

season the keyword is there for you Yeah, second

season second runner -up second season 2012 So

he has been putting the music out Adam Levine

was his coach and they've been working together

and he's been he's been doing stuff As far as

trying to get that out, he had an EP in 2013.

So that's what he's been doing. So a lot of the

Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeers have lived on

and continue to try to do, whether it be acting,

music, or whatever, a lot of success came out

of that show. A lot more than you would expect

out of just a random kid's variety show, that's

for sure. All right. I do want to say that Lindsay

Alley, one of the core of the three that were

there the entire time, she was in Ernest Saves

Christmas in 1988. So that was before the Mickey

Mouse Club. But she was in Ernest Saves Christmas.

She was in Bedtime Stories as the Hokey Pokey

woman in 2008. She was a woman on an episode

of How I Met Your Mother. As of this year, she

plays a character called Judy in one episode

of Disney's news show, I Didn't Do It. She's

also credited as one of the students in Sister

Act 2, but that was during the same time that

the show was going on. But I know she's been

doing some voice work since the show aired. So

I don't want to say that only the people that

we mentioned were doing anything. Like I said,

there was 35 different Mouseketeers. So there's

a good chance that some of those other ones are

doing something along the lines of acting or

singing. Those are just the ones that we are

aware of, which means it is time for us to take

a break. Take a quick commercial break. You're

gonna hear some clips from the Mickey Mouse Club,

some bits probably containing a bunch of the

people we just mentioned, as well as some important

GeekCast Radio stuff, and we'll be right back

after the break. Hey everybody, it's Optimus

Solo from GeekCast Radio Network's new show,

The Telecast, with some important information

on our theme song contest. The rules for this

contest are pretty simple. In Season 1 of The

Telecast we will be covering 33 classic hit shows

from the 80s and 90s. Obviously all of these

shows had theme songs which sometimes can be

the most memorable part of a show. This contest

is going to test your memory on those theme songs.

How is that, you may ask? Well, because we have

taken 32 of those classic theme songs and smashed

them into one three -minute clip. Your job is

to identify the order in which these 32 shows

appear in that three -minute clip. Also, you

must be able to identify which one of the 33

shows was left out of the clip. Some of the show

should be fairly easy for you to identify, while

others may be a bit trickier. For a list of all

of the shows in Season 1, and more information

on the contest, visit the Telecast page at GeekCastRadio

.com. Also, remember to tune in to every episode

of the Telecast, because each episode will contain

that show's theme song in its entirety at the

beginning of the show, as well as the 3 -minute

contest song towards the end of the show. This

has been Optimus Solo from the Telecast, saying

good luck and happy listening. Remote Control

is the new TV podcast from the Geekcast Radio

Network. We'll be covering TV shows and topics

from the year 2000 to whenever now is. We'll

have special themed episodes entitled pilot and

season premieres as well as finishing finales.

We'll also have season pass episodes where we

take a look at an entire season of a TV show.

Remote Control can be found on iTunes, Stitcher,

and www .geekcastradio .com. So tune in because

we are all remote controlled. Hey guys, it's

Optimus Solo from GeekCast Radio Network's The

Telecast coming to you with an important message

about our Listener's Choice episode. That's right,

for the first time in Geetcast Radio Network

history, we are giving you, the listener, a chance

to choose the topic in one of our shows. This

is how you can cast your vote for what the topic

should be. Head on over to geetcastradio .com

and click on the Telecast tab at the top of the

page. Once there you can find our complete Season

1 schedule with all 35 episodes. Please look

this over, because we would hate for you to cast

your vote for a show that is already on our schedule.

Once you've done this, just scroll to the section

titled Listener's Choice and click on the Comments

button. All that's left for you to do now is

to cast your vote through a comment. For example,

you might say, hey, I see that Nick Arcade is

not in your Season 1 lineup, so I'd like to cast

a vote for Nick Arcade to be the Listener's Choice

episode. It's that simple. So please go cast

your vote for your favorite show, and stay tuned

for Episode 34 to see which show becomes our

very first Listener's Choice. That does it for

now. This has been Optimus Solo from the Telecast.

Now back to the show. Do you see how your patience

paid off? Alright, thanks for staying with us

everyone and you're probably now that we've been

talking about that 45 to an hour how can you

watch the all -new Mickey Mouse Club Unfortunately,

you don't have a ton of options We'll say that

there is a DVD out there. There's no there's

no season sets. There's no show You know DVD

or blu -ray version of the show that's out there

So you're not gonna have any luck with that.

However, there is a DVD out there that you can

get on Amazon called Mickey Mouse Club the best

of Brittany Justin and Christina Although it

does say there's only one left in stock So you

better hurry folks. Um, it's not very expensive.

You can get it for less than 20 bucks probably

less than 15 bucks. So apparently there is some

form of DVD out there. I don't know how much

of, I'm assuming that's not any type of bootleg

or anything like that. You can get CDs, you can

get some of the music from the show or from the

concerts that's available. But as far as like

actually getting like your hands on a physical

DVD Blu -ray that consists of more than just

the best of a couple of the stars, you don't

really have much luck in the DVD Blu -ray category.

I'm really surprised that they didn't do what

SNL does SNL used to do single disc DVDs best

of Adam Sandler best of Chris Farley I'm really

surprised they didn't do a single disc DVD for

each of those Main stars that we talked about

yeah, yeah, cuz people would buy that or if they

just had like a instead of a best of just of

person just the best of the show type thing or

something or top 10 episodes like some things

will do if they don't want to do the whole thing

but uh really besides that best of dvd no options

for dvd blu ray you're really your only option

to see anything about this show is to go to youtube

or another video service like that um there is

i believe this whole most of this whole dvd is

on youtube because there is a youtube video that's

about an hour and Some length it's over an hour

that you can watch that has the best of and it's

titled the same thing you can see some You definitely

can go to YouTube and then catch songs that were

done there Individual songs you can find the

intros you can find the roll call as for like

full -on episodes Really not much available The

only thing I could find were little clips, little

songs, and then this hour -long video that's

the best of these people. Which, that's probably

your best bet is just to check that out. It'll

give you a good cross -section of everything.

You'll see some of the skits like Mike was talking

about. You'll see some of the concert clips like

I was talking about. You'll see the intros, the

roll call. You'll see a lot of things. And one

thing that you do get that I forgot to talk about

in the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. So another

interesting part about some of these stars is

they'll even have like little vignettes that

are like a closer look at the star, a closer

look at this Mouseketeer. I saw one specifically

of Britney Spears where it literally is following

Britney Spears to her hometown and you're seeing

Britney Spears Ride her go -kart play basketball

help at her grandma's seafood place where she's

like Shelling crawfish and eating them right

on camera there in front of you She at one point

she's cheering on her dad who's playing some

type of softball game or something like that

And it's just interesting. I only bring that

up because it's an interesting look in these

little vignettes that they did that they probably

never expected these people to be famous later

so it wasn't a big deal these little vignettes

into their hometown or into the life of them

outside of the show it's interesting because

you know the drama that happens with her family

afterwards and you know some of the you know

some of the inner details of that so just to

see this you know the innocent kid who's not

to that point in her life yet is interesting.

And I'm sure they did similar things throughout

that on Christina, JT, et cetera. So it might

be worth your time to check it out if you're

a fan of any of these people or if you want to

see if you're a fan of the cheesy music, kids

music from the 80s and 90s. Like Mike said, though,

it's the skits aren't super great. So you will

have to suffer through that or skip ahead to

get to different songs. I did see on that YouTube

clip that was the best of there is a song by

Christina that is pretty amazing coming out of

that, you know, 14, 15 year olds vocal cord.

So there is some highlights in there that might

be worth your watch. All right. We always like

to give our shows ratings. And for this show,

it's just simply a one through four rating for

the rest of season one. We're keeping it consistent

with how we've done season one up to this point.

So number one would be the show did not appeal

to me then, and it doesn't now. Number two would

be I liked the show back in the day, but I don't

really need to watch it again. Three would be

I loved this show, and I still watch it whenever

I have the chance. And four would be I need this

on DVD, Blu -ray, or some type of physical set

so I can have it at my disposal. TFG and Mike,

what do you think? Two. Alright, I mean good

going by your rating scale and I'm sure by the

time we get to season two We're gonna change

it to the current GCR Universal rating system,

but it's one of those things going by this rating

scale Yeah, what episodes I did see back in the

day. I enjoyed going back to it now. I don't

ever need to watch it again Yeah, I'm right with

you I almost would be out of one because I didn't

necessarily, it wasn't the show that I watched

a lot as a kid. It wasn't one that I sought out.

But I do remember enjoying it. I enjoyed the

music. I enjoyed, you know, some of the stuff

back in the day. The few episodes that I see,

even though I didn't remember them, I do remember

somewhat having positive memories of the show.

But I don't necessarily need to watch it. I mean,

it's fun to see what they looked like. It's fun

to hear them and maybe watch like a couple minutes

of it. You know, five, 10 minutes of each person

singing and acting will be fine. But I don't

need I don't need to watch the show from beginning

to end by any means. So I'm with you on to on

that one. Yes. All right. Anything that we haven't

said about the all new Mickey Mouse Club that

how about should there be a revival? No. Disney,

you know, Disney does a lot of stuff. They do.

And we were talking to JT and I were talking

about this last episode that these types of shows

like The Elephant Show, like Kids Incorporated,

like Mickey Mouse Club, like even if you want

to, you know, without the. take the singing part

out and have something like, you can't do that

on television. But these types of variety, skit,

or music -based kid shows really don't exist

right now. And I don't know if there's a space

forum or if it's, or what, but it seems like

Disney and a lot of the channels have much, and

I said the same thing to JT, so I'm just saying

it because I want to get your reaction on it

too, but all these channels have, instead of

doing anything like that, seem to be obsessed

with going the kid sitcom route. And I'm not

talking like Saved by the Bell or whatever, but

I'm talking about like all the different Disney

sitcom shows that have come out over the last

10, 15 years. 20 years. In 20 years. It seems

like that's the only thing that they're interested

in is doing these shows like, you know, I'm not

saying there's not stars like, you know, like

we had with Hannah Montana or Lizzie McGuire

or whatever it is, or I don't know, all the live

action shows. but it doesn't seem like it too

much where it's just a group of kids doing skits

doing variety shows doing music and i don't know

is that just something that we'll never see again

or is there a space for that now if they did

it right that's the that's the problem air quotes

if they did it right that's the problem disney

had something with uh sonny with a chance sonny

with a chance started out as Two shows started

out with Sonny and her little adventures and

she was a super fan of this show called so random

so random is a show within Sonny with a chance

and as Lovato did Demi Lovato wanted to leave

and Explore other things they said. Okay. Well,

we're going to then cancel Sonny with a chance,

but we're gonna rebrand it make so random the

show within a show its own show and so random

actually had Selena Gomez they had it basically

turned into the skit show you're saying you'd

like to see it turned into a kid version of Saturday

Night Live they had Selena Gomez on as a musical

guest they had Andy Grammer they had They had

your girl Christina crap what that Christina

Grimmie that was the first time I'd ever heard

of Christina Grimmie was on the Disney Channel

until she appeared on The Voice a couple seasons

ago You know, so they tried it and It just Right

now what Disney Channel wants is they want those

family shows They want shows like Lizzie McGuire

like the famous Jett Jackson like Hannah Montana

like the sweet life shows like um good luck charlie

good luck charlie was there number one show number

one family show for the longest time it lasted

four seasons currently right now girl meets world

the sequel series to boy meets world is going

strong they've got jesse which is another family

comedy kind of show and i think that's where

they are in their television medium right now

i don't think on disney channel you could have

a variety show at this point I think a channel

could pull it off based on the presence of YouTube

and internet and things like that like I think

it would be easier to like because to pull this

show off like that's number one you need the

talent you can't pull it off if you have a bunch

of kids that can't and can't sing do whatever

and I just think it's easier now than it ever

has been to find that talent You don't even need

to hold auditions as far as a stage one. You

can scour the internet and find people and invite

them to auditions. And I think there's enough

talent and there's enough access to find the

right cast. Obviously, you would need a good

writing crew. You would need a good director

as far as... pulling the whole ensemble together,

but I think they could do it. I just, obviously

the trick for anything is doing it right, but

I just, I really think the ability to do that

is out there, and with as popular as people are

scouring YouTube videos and whatever, all it

would take is to get a couple of these, to fill

a cast full of people that already have followings

on YouTube, and that show would be successful.

And I agree to that. To a certain extent, see,

the problem is, is that Disney is Too interested

in going for the over the top funny like they

have this show called i didn't do it. And they

used to have this show called prank stars work

is with prank their parents and this is what

i'm saying they're experimenting with all these

types of shows and to me personally i didn't

do it is not my type of it's not anything i would

watch. And i watch a lot of the disney channel

i mean i really really do but it's just there's

just certain times when they have shows that

just do not. They just do not agree with me whatsoever.

If they wanted to do it like like what you're

saying I could see it surviving maybe two or

three four seasons on like their Disney XD which

is their teen branding channel which is their

you know action kind of show channel it has You

know stuff like lab rats and pair of kings and

All the car, you know, it is the new cartoon

Star Wars Rebels and all that kind of stuff.

So, you know, it's crashing Bernstein. So I could

see that the kind of show that you're looking

for to see if it could come back. I could see

it kind of surviving there. But on Disney Channel

proper, there's no room right now. I think there

could be. All right. I'd like to thank you and

Mike for joining me today. And of course, I would

like to thank you, the listener, for joining

us here on the Telecast. If you want to leave

us feedback for the show, a couple million ways

to do this. First of all, visit the website www

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rate our show and leave us feedback in iTunes

Please do this if you have it all a free minute

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fan of TV podcasts. Alright, so that does it

for now. We hope we succeeded in entertaining

you, informing you, and most importantly, unleashing

the geek in you on this episode of The Telecast.

We hope that you will tune in for our next episode,

and we'll check out another of our music block

shows, Kids Incorporated. For now, I am your

host, Optimus Solo, with... The one and only,

TF2 and Mike. Oh, don't say that again. And tune

in soon for another episode of The Telecast.