Kurt Russell’s first film franchise was this little-remembered Disney sci-fi trilogy

Kurt Russell’s first acting role came in 1962, when he played a character named Kevin on the sitcom “Dennis the Menace.” 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 actor on many, many 1950s television shows. Bing also owned a minor league baseball team, so young Kurt also followed his father’s passions for the sport. Indeed, in his youth, Russell often considered leaving acting to pursue a career in baseball. A special schedule had to be arranged for Russell to continue playing.

Walt Disney, however, saw something in young Russell, knowing that the boy could very well be one of the company’s biggest superstars. Russell often talked about how he and Walt hung out in the Disney offices, playing ping pong and talking about movies. From the sounds of it, Disney used Russell as a sounding board, trying to figure out what younger audiences might be interested in seeing, movie-wise. In 1966, Russell signed a 10-year contract with Disney and became, as Walt predicted, the studio’s most profitable star of the 1970s. Famously, the last memo Disney wrote before his death in 1966 was simply the phrase “Kurt Russell.”

Russell appeared in several light-hearted films for Disney, including films like “Mosby’s Marauders,” “The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit” and “Follow Me, Boys!” In 1969, however, when Russell was 18, he starred in the film “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 films starring Russell as Dexter and set at Medfield College, along with “Now You See It, Now You Don’t” and “The World’s Strongest Man.”

The first Disney film at Medfield College was Robert Stevenson’s 1961 comedy, “The Absent-Minded Professor,” a science fiction vehicle for Fred McMurray. In this film, the titular professor, Ned Brainard, invents a physics-defying rubber-like substance he calls flubber, a material that captures kinetic energy when it bounces. This film was followed by Stevenson’s 1963 sequel, “Son of Flubber,” a film that explored what would happen if you gave flubber to a college football team. By the way, these films were remade in 1997 as a vehicle for Robin Williams, simply titled “Flubber”. The world of Medfield College is vast and varied.

When it came time to make a Kurt Russell vehicle in 1969, Disney returned to Medfield College for “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes,” a film about an innocent and honest teenager named Dexter Riley. Russell’s character is repairing his university’s only computer (a massive machine the size of a room) when a thunderstorm outside causes a power surge in the computer, electrocuting it. Rather than killing him, however, lightning modifies Dexter’s brain, and he becomes as efficient as a computer, allowing him to win various academic competitions (much to his surprise). Naturally, by the end of the film, Dexter’s brain returns to normal and valuable life lessons are learned throughout.

Sure enough, “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” turned out to be a box office success. Dexter Riley was an attractive, lithe everyman, so Disney was quick to use the character again (with Russell playing him) for the 1972 Robert Butler film “Now You See Him, Now You Don’t”, in which Dexter became invisible. This also wasn’t the last time Dexter temporarily gained superpowers.

“Now You See It, Now You Don’t” finds Dexter working in the Medfield College labs again during a thunderstorm. This time, lightning gives one of his experimental liquids the qualities of invisibility. It can be rubbed on someone and made invisible, then simply washed off with water. Another recurring element in Medfield’s films is that the college, although private, is always on the verge of financial collapse. So Dexter is constantly finding new ways to keep it open.

Dexter Riley’s third film was Vincent McEveety’s 1975 film The World’s Strongest Man. Once again, Medfield needs money, and once again, one of Dexter’s science experiments produces a power-granting substance. This time it’s a chemically enhanced cereal that gives Dexter super strength after eating it. The film then culminates with a weightlifting competition for a lucrative sponsorship from a national grain company. Yes, this is technically a pro-doping film, albeit a deeply silly and light-hearted one.

By the way, the town of Medfield was also the setting for the 1976 Disney film “The Shaggy DA.” This film did not star Russell, however.

In 1995, there were still another Medfield college film in the form of Peyton Reed’s television remake of “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes”, starring Kirk Cameron as Dexter Riley. The principle is pretty much the same: a power surge downloads a computerized encyclopedia directly into Dexter’s brain, making him super intelligent. Larry Miller, Dean Jones, Dan Castellaneta and Paul Dooley also star. It’s not well remembered, except perhaps by Disney Channel obsessives of the 1990s.

So between the three “Flubber” films, the four Dexter Riley films and “The Shaggy DA,” there are eight Medfield College films. It’s a cinematic universe in its own right.