The Archie Show
The Archie Show (also known as The Archies) is an American musical sitcom television series produced by Filmation for CBS. Based on the Archie Comics, created by Bob Montana in 1941, The Archie Show aired Saturday mornings on CBS from September 1968 to August 1969. The show featured the main characters in the Archie series, including Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle, and Jughead Jones.[1]
| The Archie Show | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Sitcom Musical |
| Created by | John L. Goldwater (comic) Bob Montana (character designs) |
| Based on | |
| Written by | Bob Ogle |
| Directed by | Hal Sutherland |
| Starring | Dallas McKennon Howard Morris Jane Webb John Erwin |
| Composer | Ray Ellis |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 17 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producers | Norm Prescott Lou Scheimer |
| Running time | 20-22 mins. (DVD Release) |
| Production company | Filmation |
| Distributor | Vitt Media International |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | September 14, 1968 – January 4, 1969 |
In 1969, the show was expanded to an hour and retitled The Archie Comedy Hour, which included a half-hour featuring Sabrina the Teenage Witch.[2] In 1970, the show became Archie's Funhouse, and featured live-action segments.
Filmation continued to produce further Archie television series until 1978, including Archie's TV Funnies (1971-1973), The U.S. of Archie (1974-1976) and The New Archie and Sabrina Hour (1977-1978).[3]
Overview
The show revolves around 17-year-old vocalist/rhythm guitarist Archie Andrews and his teen-age pals from Riverdale High School including: his best friend and food fiend drummer Jughead Jones, wise-cracking bassist Reggie Mantle, beautiful, spoiled-rich girl vocalist/keyboardist Veronica Lodge, and attractive, blonde, girl-next-door tomboy vocalist/lead guitarist/percussionist Betty Cooper.[4] On the show, the friends appeared as a bubblegum pop band featuring Archie on lead guitar. The Archies had a real-life #1 hit single in 1969 with their song, "Sugar, Sugar", written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim.[4]
The Archie Show utilized a laugh track, the first such example of the colloquially-titled Saturday morning cartoons.[5] Owing to the success of The Archie Show, most animated series would begin using laugh tracks until the early 1980s. Previous animated series that used laugh tracks, such as The Flintstones and The Jetsons, were broadcast during prime time with the target audience being adults.
A typical episode started with the first Archie story, introduced by Archie and occasionally a different character. Next was a "dance of the week" segment starting with a teaser, then after the commercial break Archie introduced the dance, followed by the song of the week performed by The Archies. After that was a short joke followed by the second Archie story. All 17 episodes of the first show were presented in this format.
Formats
The show was broadcast in different formats and under different titles.[2]
- The Archie Show (1968–69)
- Archie and his New Pals (TV special; 1969): Big Moose and Reggie compete against each other for Class President; Sabrina is introduced as a new Riverdale High student.
- The Archie Comedy Hour (1969–70): all-new material, now in an hour-long format, contained two Sabrina segments, one at the beginning of the show and one at the end, with a new "The Funhouse" joke segment in the middle that was loosely based on Laugh-In, and also contained regular segments such as Sabrina's Magic Trick and Dilton Doily's Inventions. There was a "Side Show" segment of one-liner jokes, followed by an Archies music segment.
- Archie's Funhouse (1970–71): an expanded version of the previous series' "Funhouse" format, now featuring an audience of live action kids and the "Giant Jukebox"; a music-heavy incarnation of the series, originally padded to one hour with repeats of segments from The Archie Show.
- Archie's TV Funnies (1971–73): Archie and the gang run a TV station, presenting a selection of cartoons within the series featuring characters from classic newspaper comic strips.
- Everything's Archie (1973–74): repeats of previously released material.
- The U.S. of Archie (1974–76): Archie and the gang re-interpret various events from American history.
- The New Archie and Sabrina Hour (1977–78): new Archie and Sabrina episodes, plus repeats of earlier material. The series was then divided into two separate 30-minute shows: The Bang-Shang Lollapalooza Show (Archie) and Super Witch (Sabrina).
The New Archie and Sabrina Hour was subsequently divided into The Bang-Shang Lalapalooza Show and Super Witch during its original network run. While the earlier Archie programs were broadcast by CBS, these last two series were on NBC.
Hero High (1981) was planned to be part of The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! featuring Archie and the gang as superheroes; however, this series was altered at the last minute because Filmation's rights to the "Archie" characters had expired during production and was not renewed.[6]
Spin-offs
- Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies (1970): later repeated as both Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Groovie Goolies.
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1970–1974): rebroadcasts of both The Archie Comedy Hours' Sabrina episodes and the previous series' Sabrina episodes, plus new episodes, in its own time slot.
- Groovie Goolies (1970): rebroadcast of the previous series' Goolies episodes in its own time slot.
- The Bang-Shang Lollapalooza Show (1977): originally part of the aforementioned The New Archie and Sabrina Hour.
- Super Witch (1977): also originally part of the aforementioned The New Archie and Sabrina Hour.
- The Groovie Goolies and Friends (1978): syndication package, also featuring episodes from other Filmation series.
The "individual" versions of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Groovie Goolies are currently offered by present owner DreamWorks Classics.
Voice cast
- Dallas McKennon – Archie Andrews, Hot Dog, Mr. Weatherbee, Pop Tate, Mr. Lodge, Coach Kleats
- Jane Webb – Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Miss Grundy, Big Ethel
- John Erwin – Reggie Mantle
- Howard Morris – Moose Mason, Jughead Jones, Dilton Doiley
- Don Messick – Jughead Jones, Hot Dog ("Beauty Is Only Fur Deep")
- Ron Dante – The singing voice of Archie
- Toni Wine – The singing voices of Betty and Veronica
Episodes
| Title | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|
| "Episode One" | September 14, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Two" | September 21, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Three" | September 28, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Four" | October 5, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Five" | October 12, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Six" | October 19, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Seven" | October 26, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Eight" | November 2, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Nine" | November 9, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Ten" | November 16, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Eleven" | November 23, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Twelve" | November 30, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Thirteen" | December 6, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Fourteen" | December 13, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Fifteen" | December 20, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Sixteen" | December 27, 1968 | |
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| "Episode Seventeen" | January 4, 1969 | |
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Production
The Archie Show was designed to emulate the live-action series The Monkees by including rock music into each episode.[1]
Music
The franchise's most notable effort was the music element in the form of the animated band The Archies. With vocals provided by Ron Dante and Toni Wine, the fictional group released a series of real-life albums and singles. Their most successful song is "Sugar, Sugar", which stood at the top of the pop charts for four weeks in 1969. "Sugar, Sugar" became the number 1 song of 1969 on the Billboard charts (there are also many songs, however, that only appeared on the show and its various spin-offs).
A cover of "Sugar, Sugar", performed by Mary Lou Lord with Semisonic, is included on the 1995 tribute album Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits, produced by Ralph Sall for MCA Records.
The show's main composer Ray Ellis would later work on other Filmation projects (using the name of his wife, Yvette Blais).
Reception
Hal Erickson, author of Television Cartoon Shows, An Illustrated Encyclopedia described The Archie Show as "not what one could call inspired." Erickson criticized the humor that was described as "executed in a fragmented fashion" and "made doubly obvious by the overuse of a canned laughtrack."[1]
Syndication
The New Archie and Sabrina Hour was later repeated in syndication, and on The Family Channel in a half-hour format as The Archie and Sabrina Surprise Package; this is the version offered by Universal Television, the current rightsholder for most Filmation programs, including the Archies franchise; a previous rightsholder, Entertainment Rights, was acquired by Classic Media in 2009, followed by DreamWorks Animation's purchase of Classic Media in 2012.
Most of the episodes from all of these series were syndicated in 1976 as The Archies (excluding material produced for The New Archie and Sabrina Hour, which did not debut until a year later). The music segments from Comedy Hour were missing in this syndication package, for unknown reasons.
In 2010, the show aired on Retro Television Network.
Home media
Single-disc DVD compilations featuring four episodes each were released in 2004. There were four volumes in all:
- Archie & Friends featuring The Archie Show includes three episodes of The Archie Show (#9, #3 and #5 as per Genius Entertainment's Complete Series DVD set; #9 has the song and dance segments substituted from #16). Also included is one episode of U.S. Of Archie ("The Star Spangled Banner") and a segment from The Archie Comedy Hour (from show #1, "Coke Machine," as per the Genius Entertainment Archie's Funhouse: The Complete Series DVD set).
- Archie & Friends featuring Sabrina the Teenage Witch includes three Sabrina half-hours ("Pet Shop"/"Funny Bunny," "Blue Whale"/"Football Game," and "Frankie"/"Beached"), one episode of U.S. Of Archie ("The Day Of The Ladies") and a segment from The Archie Comedy Hour ("Shadow Boxing" from show #1 as per Genius Entertainment's Archie's Funhouse: The Complete Series DVD set).
- Archie & Friends featuring Archie's TV Funnies includes three episodes of Archie's TV Funnies ("Riverdale Grand Prix Auto Race," "The Riverdale Air Circus," and "The Ghost Of Swedlow Swamp"), one episode of U.S. Of Archie ("The Wright Brothers"), and a segment from The Archie Comedy Hour ("Jughead Pulls Fire Hose" from show #3 as per Genius Entertainment's Archie's Funhouse: The Complete Series DVD set).
- Archie & Friends featuring Archie's Classic Cartoons includes one episode each of The Archie Show ("Rocket Rock"/"Par One"), The Archie And Sabrina Surprise Package ("Tops In Cops"), Archie's TV Funnies ("Flying Saucer"), U.S. Of Archie ("The Roughrider"), and a segment from The Archie Comedy Hour ("Telephone" from show #6 as per Genius Entertainment's Archie's Funhouse: The Complete Series DVD set).
On July 31, 2007, Genius Products released The Archie Show on DVD in Region 1 for the first time. According to the packaged booklet, the original film negatives for the dance (the "Drag")/song ("Hide and Seek") segment on the "Kids' Day/Jughead 'Sampson' Jones" episode were lost and had to be sourced from a mediocre video transfer; not even the PAL video transfers were available (many of Entertainment Rights' Region 1 in-house Filmation releases are sourced from PAL-based video transfers, including this series). This may be due to Hallmark Entertainment purposely destroying the original film rolls, the original mag audio tracks, and other archival material related to the shows back in the '90s, due to Hallmark's short-sighted policy of only distributing the in-house Filmation shows outside of the United States. The video transfer is NTSC-based. In addition, the introduction to the dance segment which occurs before going to the commercial is also lost, along with the "joke" segment featured between the weekly song and second Archie story.
On March 4, 2008, Genius Products, LLC released Archie's Funhouse on DVD in Region 1 for the first time.[7] Unlike the previous release however, there is no packaged booklet, and thus there is no additional information other than the bonus features contained on the discs. Additionally, while the original negatives for the "Sugar, Sugar" video were found, the "Jingle Jangle" video was sourced from an NTSC-based video transfer (however, the negatives were recovered for two episodes of the show: episodes 15 and 16; all other episodes (including the "Funhouse" segments from The Archie Comedy Hour) were sourced from the PAL video masters). The 16 episodes themselves are presented in re-edited half-hour formats. Missing are brief bumpers and repeated segments from The Archie Show, already released in their own collection. The set also includes the TV special Archie And his New Pals and seven compilation episodes culled from The Archie Comedy Hour (but featuring the Archie's Funhouse opening and closing titles). The seven compilation episodes account for the "Funhouse" and "Side Show" segments from 14 episodes of The Archie Comedy Hour. No other music segments from that season (apart from "Sugar, Sugar," "Jingle Jangle," and a performance of "Get On The Line" from Archie and his New Pals) are included. This leaves two original episodes of The Archie Comedy Hour unrepresented altogether; that season's original opening, closing and bumpers are also absent. Genius Entertainment released the Sabrina The Teenage Witch segments from that season on DVD as part of their own set on April 29, 2008.
| DVD name | Ep # | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| The Archie Show: The Complete Series | 17 | July 31, 2007 |
| Archie's Funhouse: The Complete Series | 16 | March 4, 2008 |
| Sabrina the Teenage Witch: The Complete Animated Series | 31 | April 29, 2008 |
References
- Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 90–94. ISBN 978-1476665993.
- Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981. Scarecrow Press. pp. 20-23. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
- Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 40–43. ISBN 978-1538103739.
- CD liner notes: Saturday Mornings: Cartoons’ Greatest Hits, 1995 MCA Records
- 2007 Interview with Lou Scheimer from The Archie Show: The Complete Series (1968) DVD, Disc 2
- Jim Hill Media: 2003-12-04
- "tvshowsondvd.com". tvshowsondvd.com. Archived from the original on 2011-05-08. Retrieved 2010-12-27.