Walt Disney Art Classics Convention 2004 - Part 2
Page 5 of 33

CLASS: HOME ROOM/ MEDFIELD COLLEGE MEMORIES
North Ballroom, Disneyland Hotel

As students filed into “Home Room,�? substitute Professors Robert Tieman and Jeff Kurtti were busily signing yearbooks for the previous class. Indeed, so engrossed were they in this pleasant past time that they failed to sign in on the provided chalk board.

Author Robert Tieman of the Disney Studios Archives signs autographs between “classes.�?

Eventually they managed to shoo their admirers away, and call the class to order, gruffly ordering, “Settle down. Settle down.�? With a conspiratorial look they announced, “The last class in here was so bad!�? (It should be noted immediately that it was sometimes difficult to recall exactly which substitute professor was speaking at any given time, due to their tendency to finish each other’s questions and comments.)

Substitute Professors Jeff Kurtti and Robert Tieman

With everyone now sitting dutifully at attention, the first question was, “How many of you have seen a Jeff and Robert presentation before?�? Seeing most hands were raised, the question that followed was, “Why are you back?�?

Warming to the subject at hand, they began by saying, “Medfield is to all of us a very real place… and a very false place.�? They explained that, as a Disney institution, Medfield College was a worthy subject for deeper study. They then suggested Recommended Research and Reading, all available on Disney Home Entertainment. (In an aside they admitted they were recommending the five videos so they could get access to the images that formed the basis of their presentation!)

There are five Disney films set in fictional Medfield College: The Absent Minded Professor; Son of Flubber; The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes; Now You See Him, Now You Don’t; and The Strongest Man in the World. In the scholarly discussion of these films, Kurtti and Tieman promised quips, jokes, witty banter… but no songs. And radio spots, too.