The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
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MEMORIES:
Dana:The Totally Awesome Dude remembers...Man, I really loved this movie when it was out in the theaters. Cool theme song!!! More »
Posted on 12/02/07
PHOTOS:
Cast:
Dexter Riley ... Kurt Russell
Dean Higgins ... Joe Flynn
Professor Quigley ... William Schallert
Dean Collingswood ... Alan Hewitt
Chillie Walsh ... Richard Bakalyan
Annie ... Debbie Paine
Pete ... Frank Webb
Schuyler ... Michael McGreevey
Bradley...Jon Provost
Henry (voice) ... Frank Welker
Kyles... Alexander Clarke
Angelo ... Bing Russell
Moderator... Pat Harrington Jr.
Little Mac...Fabian Dean
Sigmund Van Dyke... Fritz Feld
Lt. Hannah ... Pete Rendoudet
J. Reedy ... Hillyard Anderson
Moderator ... Howard Culver
Man with Umbrella ... Bruce Rhodewalt
Studio:
Release History:
1972 - The Strongest Man in the World
The 1960’s introduced us to Medfield College, Disney’s fictional campus. Courtesy of flubber and a famous absent-minded professor, Medfield might as well have been called Shenanigan U. Later, as the decade turned and the age of Dexter Riley began, the technology changed but the craziness continued.
Dexter was a good kid, all things considered, but with a bad case of wrong-place-wrong-time to go with his knack for oddball science. Played by the young Kurt Russell, Dexter first appeared in 1970’s The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. Russell would play the role in two more films.
In this first installment, Dexter and his pals want to help out kindly Professor Quigley when mean old Dean Higgins won’t buy the prof a computer. Putting their high-powered grey matter to work, the kids come up with a neat plan: ask rich local tycoon A.J. Arno to donate a computer. Arno is happy to help, but of course Medfield’s famous Shenanigan Effect takes over once the computer hits campus.
Zapped by lightning while Dexter’s trying to fix it, the huge contraption dumps all its stored knowledge into Dexter’s brain, giving him some really keen new abilities. Dean Higgins sees dollar signs in the kid’s new skills, and Dexter is soon entered into a quiz show for big bucks.
There’s always a Dark Side, isn’t there? The computer also contained Arno’s shady business secrets, and every time Dexter hears a certain keyword he unloads his memory banks. (The word is “applejack,” and you’d be surprised how often it can be uttered.) This makes Arno none too happy. Will he stop at nothing to keep Dexter quiet?
Breezy and full of slapstick, the Medfield formula held up into the new decade. A modest hit, the movie was followed by Now You See Him, Now You Don’t in 1971 and The Strongest Man in the World in 1975. The latter movie helped power Kurt Russell into his future action-hero roles, though it didn’t do much for Medfield’s academic reputation.
A 1995 TV-movie remake put Dexter’s tennis shoes on the feet of former Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron.
