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The Archie Show

The Archie Show is an American musical animated 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 1969. The show featured the main characters in the Archie series, including Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, Reggie Mantle, Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge.

Premise
A typical episode had featured 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. Characters The main characters of the show are 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; attractive, blonde, girl-next-door tomboy vocalist/lead guitarist/percussionist Betty Cooper; beautiful, spoiled-rich girl vocalist/keyboardist Veronica Lodge; and Jughead's English sheepdog Hot Dog. On the show, the friends appeared as a bubblegum pop band featuring Archie on lead guitar. Other characters in the show included Mr. Weatherbee, Miss Grundy, Dilton Doiley, Moose Mason, Pop Tate, Mr. Lodge, and Coach Kleats. == Cast ==
Cast
Dallas McKennonArchie Andrews, Hot Dog, Mr. Weatherbee, Pop Tate, Mr. Lodge, Coach KleatsRon Dante – Archie Andrews (singing voice) • Jane WebbBetty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Miss Grundy, Big EthelToni Wine – Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge (singing voice) • John ErwinReggie MantleHoward MorrisMoose Mason, Jughead Jones, Dilton DoileyDon Messick – Jughead Jones, Hot Dog ("Beauty Is Only Fur Deep") ==Episodes==
Episodes
{{Episode table|background=#F99935|overall=|title=|airdate=|episodes= {{Episode list • Dance: The Bubblegum • Song: "Bang-Shang-A-Lang" • Jughead Short: Fetch {{Episode list • Dance: The Jughead • Song: "Boys and Girls" • Jughead Short: Shadow Boxing {{Episode list • Dance: The Beanie • Song: "Truck Driver" • Jughead Short: Double Duty {{Episode list • Dance: The Hamburger Hop • Song: "Catchin' Up On Fun" • Jughead Short: Painting {{Episode list • Dance: The Stick Shift • Song: "Ride, Ride, Ride" • Jughead Short: Homework {{Episode list • Dance: The Veronica Walk • Song: "La-Dee-Doo-Down-Down" • Jughead Short: Pole Vaulting {{Episode list • Dance: The Betty • Song: "You Make Me Wanna Dance" • Jughead Short: Research {{Episode list • Dance: The Banana Split • Song: "Time For Love" • Jughead Short: Skiing {{Episode list • Dance: The Drag • Song: "Hide and Seek" • Jughead Short: lost {{Episode list • Dance: The Angel • Song: "You Little Angel, You" • Jughead Short: Retrieval {{Episode list • Dance: The Weatherbee • Song: "I'm in Love" • Jughead Short: Dancing {{Episode list • Dance: The Surfer • Song: "Love Light" • Jughead Short: Searching {{Episode list • Dance: The Grundy • Song: "Rock and Roll Music" • Jughead Short: Late {{Episode list • Dance: The Rocket Ship • Song: "Don't Touch My Guitar" • Jughead Short: Fishing {{Episode list • Dance: The Indian • Song: "Seventeen Ain't Young" • Jughead Short: Ice Cream ==Production==
Production
Development In 1967, Irv Wilson, Filmation's agent at the time, approached John Goldwater about licensing his comics. Lou Schiemer, founder of Filmation, received a call from Wilson on having the rights to Archie Comics. He replied to his response, "What the hell is Archie? Is it something kids know?" Shortly, he flew out to meet John Goldwater and created a deal. The concept of the show was presented to CBS 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, mostly Hanna-Barbera action cartoons, being protested by parent-run organizations, including Action 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. Filmation tried to find the voice cast for the 1940s radio show Archie Andrews, but was unsuccessful. However, Jane Webb previously voiced Veronica Lodge in the radio show as of 1951. According to Lou Schiemer, it was thought to be John Erwin's first Filmation work he ever voiced. Norm Prescott handled all of the music with Kirshner. == Release ==
Release
Original broadcast The Archie Show debuted its first episode on September 14, 1968, on CBS at the 10 a.m. (EST) timeslot, competing with reruns of The Flintstones and Spider-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 47 Nielsen rating in the 2-11 age group. followed by DreamWorks Animation's purchase of Classic Media in 2012. Currently, Universal Pictures owns the rights to most Filmation programs, including the Archies franchise, since its purchase in 2016. From 2010 until 2015, the show aired on Retro Television Network. ==Critical reception==
Critical 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 laugh track." == Legacy ==
Legacy
The Archie Show utilized a laugh track, the first such example of the colloquially-titled Saturday-morning cartoons. 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. ==Home media==
Home media
Various VHS, Betamax, and laserdisc releases distributed by companies such as New Age Video, Inc. and Embassy Home Entertainment were released in several countries throughout the late '70s and '80s. Four volumes of The Archie Show were released in the early and mid '80s by Thorn 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 unrestored 16mm masters. Single-disc DVD compilations featuring four episodes each were released in 2004. Video transfers were NTSC-based with restored quality. 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. The DVD-set included a packaged booklet and a special comic strip related to the Archies. On March 4, 2008, Genius Products, LLC released ''Archie's Funhouse'' on DVD in Region 1 for the first time. Genius Entertainment released the Sabrina The Teenage Witch segments from that season on DVD as part of their own set on April 29, 2008. ==Other related media==
Other related media
The show was broadcast in different formats and under different titles. • 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 rebroadcasts 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): rebroadcasts 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 rebroadcasts 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, the last series was 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. Spin-offsSabrina and the Groovie Goolies (1970): later rebroadcast 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 Universal. ==Footnotes==
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