Kurt Russell's First Movie Franchise Was This Little-Remembered Sci-Fi Disney Trilogy

Kurt Russell's first acting gig came in 1962, when he played a character named Kevin in the "Dennis the Menace" sitcom. He was 11 years old. Russell was following in the footsteps of his father, Bing Russell, who had made a decent living as a supporting player in many, many 1950s TV shows. Bing also owned a minor-league baseball team, so young Kurt followed his father's passions for the sport as well. Indeed, as a youth, Russell frequently considered leaving acting to pursue a career in baseball. Special scheduling had to be arranged so Russell could keep acting. 

Walt Disney, however, saw something in the young Russell, knowing that the lad might very well be one of the company's biggest superstars. Russell has spoken frequently about how he and Walt used to hang out in the Disney offices playing ping-pong and talking about movies. From the sound of it, Disney used Russell as a sounding board, trying to figure out what young audiences might be interested in seeing, film-wise. In 1966, Russell signed a 10-year contract with Disney and proceeded to, like Walt predicted, become the studio's highest-grossing star of the 1970s. Famously, the last memo Disney ever wrote before his death in 1966 was simply the phrase "Kurt Russell."

Russell appeared in several lightweight movies for Disney, including films like "Mosby's Marauders," "The Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit," and "Follow Me, Boys!" In 1969, however, when Russell was 18, he starred in the movie "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes," playing a character named Dexter Riley, a student at the fictional Medfield College. It would ultimately become the first of three Disney movies starring Russell as Dexter and taking place at Medfield College, along with "Now You See Him, Now You Don't" and "The Strongest Man in the World."

Disney's first Medfield College movie was Robert Stevenson's 1961 comedy "The Absent-Minded Professor," a sci-fi vehicle for Fred McMurray. In that film, the titular professor, Ned Brainard, invents a physics-defying rubber-like substance he calls flubber, a material that picks up kinetic energy as it bounces. That movie was followed by Stevenson's 1963 sequel "Son of Flubber," a film that explores what would happen if you gave flubber to a college football team. Incidentally, those movies were remade in 1997 as a vehicle for Robin Williams simply titled "Flubber." The Medfield College universe is vast and varied.

When it came time to make a Kurt Russell vehicle in 1969, Disney went back to Medfield College for "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes," a film about an innocent and decent teenager named Dexter Riley. Russell's character is repairing his college's only computer (a massive, room-sized machine) when a thunderstorm outside causes a power surge in the computer, electrocuting him. Rather than killing him, though, the lightning alters Dexter's brain, and he becomes as high-functioning as, well, a computer, allowing him to win various academic competitions (much to his own surprise). Naturally, by the end of the movie, Dexter's brain returns to normal and valuable life lessons are learned all around.

Sure enough, "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" proved to be a box office hit. Dexter Riley made for an appealing, pliable Everyman, so Disney was quick to use the character (with Russell playing him) once again for Robert Butler's 1972 film "Now You See Him, Now You Don't," in which Dexter is turned invisible. This wasn't the last time that Dexter temporarily gained super-powers, either.

"Now You See Him, Now You Don't" finds Dexter once again working in Medfield College's labs during a thunderstorm. This time, lightning imbues one of his experimental liquids with invisibility qualities. One can rub it on someone and turn them invisible, then merely wash it off with water. Another recurring element in the Medfield films is that the college, although a private university, is always on the brink of financial collapse. Thus, Dexter is constantly finding new ways to keep it open.

The third Dexter Riley film was Vincent McEveety's 1975 outing, "The Strongest Man in the World." Once again, Medfield needs money, and once again, one of Dexter's science experiments produces a powers-imbuing substance. This time, it's a chemically-enhanced cereal that imbues Dexter with super-strength after he eats it. The film then climaxes with a weight-lifting competition for a lucrative sponsorship from a nationwide cereal company. Yes, this is technically a pro-doping movie, albeit a deeply silly and lightweight one.

Incidentally, the city of Medfield was also the setting for Disney's 1976 movie "The Shaggy D.A." That film didn't star Russell, though. 

In 1995, there was yet another Medfield college movie in the form of Peyton Reed's made-for-TV remake of "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes," which starred Kirk Cameron as Dexter Riley. The premise is pretty much the same: a power surge downloads a computerized encyclopedia directly into Dexter's brain, making him super-smart. Larry Miller, Dean Jones, Dan Castellaneta, and Paul Dooley also star. It's not terribly well-remembered, except maybe by 1990s-era Disney Channel obsessives. 

So, between the three "Flubber" films, the four Dexter Riley movies, and "The Shaggy D.A.," there are eight Medfield College movies. It's a cinematic universe all its own.