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| The Archie Show | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Also known as |
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| Genre | |
| Created by |
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| Based on | |
| Written by |
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| Directed by | Hal Sutherland |
| Starring | |
| Composer | Ray Ellis |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 17 |
| Production | |
| Producers | |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company | Filmation Associates |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | September 14, 1968 (1968-09-14) – January 4, 1969 (1969-01-04) |
| Related | |
| The Archie Comedy Hour | |
The Archie Show (also known asThe Archies) is an Americanmusicalanimated sitcom television series produced byFilmation forCBS. Based on theArchie Comics, created byBob Montana in 1941,The Archie Show airedSaturday mornings onCBS from September 1968 to 1969. The show featured the main characters in theArchie series, includingArchie Andrews,Jughead Jones,Reggie Mantle,Betty Cooper andVeronica Lodge.[1]
In 1969, the show was expanded to an hour and retitledThe Archie Comedy Hour, which included a half-hour featuringSabrina the Teenage Witch.[2] In 1970, the show becameArchie's Funhouse, and featured live-action segments. After three seasons,The Archie Show stopped airing on CBS in 1971.[citation needed]
Filmation continued to produce furtherArchie television series until 1978, includingArchie's TV Funnies (1971–1973),The U.S. of Archie (1974–1976) andThe New Archie and Sabrina Hour (1977–1978).[3]
A typical episode would include two eight-minute stories, a "Dance of the Week" segment, a three-minute musical segment, and a Jughead joke segment. The show was targeted to both kids and young teenagers.[4]
The main characters of the show are 17-year-old vocalist/rhythm guitaristArchie Andrews and his teen-age pals fromRiverdale High School, including his best friend and food fiend drummerJughead Jones; wise-cracking bassistReggie Mantle; attractive, blonde, girl-next-door tomboy vocalist/lead guitarist/percussionistBetty Cooper; beautiful, spoiled-rich girl vocalist/keyboardistVeronica Lodge; and Jughead's English sheepdog Hot Dog.[4][5] On the show, the friends appeared as abubblegum pop band featuring Archie on lead guitar. Other characters in the show includedMr. Weatherbee,Miss Grundy,Dilton Doiley,Moose Mason,Pop Tate,Mr. Lodge, andCoach Kleats.
| No. | Title | Original release date | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Added Distraction" | September 14, 1968 (1968-09-14) | |||
| "The Disappearing Act" | |||||
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| 2 | "A Hard Day's Knight" | September 21, 1968 (1968-09-21) | |||
| "Beauty Is Only Fur Deep" | |||||
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| 3 | "Anchors Away" | September 28, 1968 (1968-09-28) | |||
| "Jughead's Double" | |||||
| |||||
| 4 | "The Circus" | October 5, 1968 (1968-10-05) | |||
| "The Prize Winner" | |||||
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| 5 | "Flying Saucers" | October 12, 1968 (1968-10-12) | |||
| "Field Trip" | |||||
| |||||
| 6 | "The Marathon Runner" | October 19, 1968 (1968-10-19) | |||
| "Way Out West" | |||||
| |||||
| 7 | "Hot Rod Drag" | October 26, 1968 (1968-10-26) | |||
| "Snow Business" | |||||
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| 8 | "Chimp Off the Old Block" | November 2, 1968 (1968-11-02) | |||
| "Who's Afraid of Reggie Wolf" | |||||
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| 9 | "Kids Day" | November 9, 1968 (1968-11-09) | |||
| "Jughead 'Sampson' Jones" | |||||
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| 10 | "Rocket Rock" | November 16, 1968 (1968-11-16) | |||
| "Par One" | |||||
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| 11 | "Groovy Ghosts" | November 23, 1968 (1968-11-23) | |||
| "PFC Hot Dog" | |||||
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| 12 | "Surf Bored" | November 30, 1968 (1968-11-30) | |||
| "The Computer" | |||||
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| 13 | "The Old Sea Dog" | December 7, 1968 (1968-12-07) | |||
| "Jughead's Girl" | |||||
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| 14 | "Dilton's Folly" | December 14, 1968 (1968-12-14) | |||
| "Lodge Department Stores" | |||||
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| 15 | "Private Eye Jughead" | December 21, 1968 (1968-12-21) | |||
| "Reggie's Cousin" | |||||
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| 16 | "Strike Three" | December 28, 1968 (1968-12-28) | |||
| "Cat Next Door" | |||||
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| 17 | "Jones Farm" | January 4, 1969 (1969-01-04) | |||
| "Veronica's Veil" | |||||
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In 1967, Irv Wilson,Filmation's agent at the time, approachedJohn Goldwater about licensing his comics.Lou Schiemer, founder of Filmation, received a call from Wilson on having the rights toArchie Comics. He replied to his response, "What the hell isArchie? Is it something kids know?" Shortly, he flew out to meet John Goldwater and created a deal. The concept of the show was presented toCBS daytime programming executive,Fred Silverman, with several comic books. It was considered to be one of the cheapest and successful presentations Filmation has ever made. At the time, CBS immediately liked it due to an amount of cartoons, mostlyHanna-Barbera action cartoons, being protested byparent-run organizations, includingAction for Children's Television (ACT), and it was bought. Filmation also immediately conceived an idea of making music an essential part of the show's concept.[4]
In 1968,Norm Prescott calledDon Kirshner to create music forThe Archies. Kirshner happily accepted it, creating a music deal with the band.[4]
Filmation took every aspect from the comics for the concept of the show. The main characters' tone was done for children to relate to the characters. Hot Dog was also immediately created for the show.[4]
Most of the voice cast involved have worked on Filmation shows. The main voice cast includedDallas McKennon,John Erwin,Jane Webb, andHoward Morris.[4]Don Messick was also part of the show, temporarily replacing Howard Morris for the episode "Beauty Is Only Fur Deep".[citation needed]
Filmation tried to find the voice cast for the 1940s radio showArchie Andrews, but was flopped.[4] According to Lou Schiemer, it was thought to be John Erwin's first Filmation work he ever voiced.[4]
The team of writers consisted ofBob Ogle,Chuck Menville,Len Janson,Jim Ryan, Bill Danch, and others. None of the writers involved were writers of the Archie Comics. The writing involved the concepts of dancing, singing, dating, high school, and youth problems for its appeal to young teenagers.[4]
The franchise's most notable effort was the music element in the form of the animated bandThe Archies.The Archie Show was designed to emulate the live-action seriesThe Monkees by including rock music into each episode.[1] All of the music included in the show were not specific to the plot of the stories.[4]
For the process of the songs, Filmation's staff told Kirshner what they wanted to work, what the attitude should be, and what they were writing on the stories.[4] Kirshner would work on the dance of the weeks and songs, and deliver them as a whole to the studio.[4][6] Norm Prescott handled all of the music with Kirshner.[4]
With vocals provided byRon Dante andToni 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 No. 1 song of 1969 on theBillboard charts, and as of 1969, it reportedly sold six million copies worldwide.[7][8]
The Archie Show debuted its first episode on September 14, 1968, on CBS at the 10 a.m. (EST) timeslot, competing with reruns ofThe Flintstones andSpider-Man. It was lead-in to another new Saturday-morning cartoon that was also Filmation's,The Batman/Superman Hour. The show was a commercial success; it regularly had a 47Nielsen rating in the 2-11 age group.[4] It was the most successful Saturday-morning cartoon at the time.[8]
Most of the episodes from all of the series produced by Filmation weresyndicated in 1976 asThe Archies (excluding material produced forThe New Archie and Sabrina Hour, which did not debut until a year later). The music segments fromThe Archie Comedy Hour were missing in this syndication package, for unknown reasons.[citation needed]
The New Archie and Sabrina Hour was later repeated in syndication, and onThe Family Channel in a half-hour format asThe Archie and Sabrina Surprise Package;[citation needed] this is the version offered byUniversal Television, the current rightsholder for most Filmation programs, including the Archies franchise; a previous rightsholder,Entertainment Rights, was acquired byClassic Media in 2009,[9] followed byDreamWorks Animation's purchase of Classic Media in 2012.[10] Currently,Universal Pictures owns the rights to most Filmation programs, including the Archies franchise, since its purchase in 2016.[11]
From 2010 until 2015, the show aired onRetro Television Network.[citation needed]
Hal Erickson, author ofTelevision Cartoon Shows, An Illustrated Encyclopedia describedThe 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 cannedlaugh track."[1]
The Archie Show utilized alaugh track, the first such example of the colloquially-titledSaturday morning cartoons.[4][12] Owing to the success ofThe Archie Show, most animated series would begin using laugh tracks until the early 1980s. Previous animated series that used laugh tracks, such asThe Flintstones andThe Jetsons, were broadcast duringprime time with the target audience being adults.[citation needed]
Various VHS, Betamax, and laserdisc releases distributed by companies such as New Age Video, Inc. andEmbassy Home Entertainment were released in several countries throughout the late '70s and '80s.[citation needed] Four volumes ofThe Archie Show were released in the early and mid '80s byThorn EMI Video (later Thorn/EMI HBO Video in the release of its fourth volume) as part of its "Children's Maintee" line of animated shows. Each volume consists three full episodes with some of the other segments intact. All transfers were from unrestored16mm masters.[citation needed]
Single-disc DVD compilations featuring four episodes each were released in 2004. Video transfers wereNTSC-based withrestored quality. There were four volumes in all.
On July 31, 2007,Genius Products releasedThe Archie Show on DVD in Region 1 for the first time. The DVD-set included a packaged booklet and a special comic strip related to the Archies.[13]
On March 4, 2008, Genius Products, LLC releasedArchie's Funhouse on DVD in Region 1 for the first time.[14]
Genius Entertainment released theSabrina The Teenage Witch segments from that season on DVD as part of their own set on April 29, 2008.[15]
| DVD name | Ep # | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| The Archie Show: The Complete Series | 17 | July 31, 2007[13] |
| Archie's Funhouse: The Complete Series | 16 | March 4, 2008[14] |
| Sabrina the Teenage Witch: The Complete Animated Series | 31 | April 29, 2008[15] |
The show was broadcast in different formats and under different titles.[2] Some material are believed to be completely lost or destroyed afterHallmark Entertainment bought Filmation's library in 1995.[16][17]
The New Archie and Sabrina Hour was subsequently divided intoThe Bang-Shang Lalapalooza Show andSuper Witch during its original network run. While the earlier Archie programs were broadcast by CBS, the last series was on NBC.
Hero High (1981) was planned to be part ofThe 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.[18]
The "individual" versions ofSabrina the Teenage Witch andGroovie Goolies are currently offered byUniversal.[11]