At the age of 13, in 1955, he was selected as one of the original Mouseketeers by Walt Disney to appear on his new ABC television series, The Mickey Mouse Club, giving young Burgess his first taste of celebrity.

[5][6] When the series ended in 1959, Burgess returned to a normal teenager's life, and graduated from Long Beach Polytechnic High School.

[8] After their initial appearance, Burgess and Boylan continued to guest on Welk's show for the next few weeks, either dancing to Calcutta or to the orchestra's next hit song Yellow Bird.

The positive fan response led to Welk hiring the dance couple as permanent members of the show, which was described by the bandleader as having created a job for themselves.

He did song-and-dance numbers with Arthur Duncan and Jack Imel and co-hosted, with Mary Lou Metzger, wraparound segments on The Lawrence Welk Show's PBS reruns in 2010.