The Archies

The number one cartoon of 1968?69 by a huge margin, The Archies had success beyond its ratings: it revived interest in the Archie character, which had been seen in comic books since 1941; it showed the appeal of silly jokes, teenagers, and music to the Saturday morning audience, a mix which would be much copied in the 1970s; and it even generated an international hit single.

The shows format changed considerably over the years, but most incarnations featured amiable Archie Andrews as nominal leader of a clique in fictional Riverdale High, where Mr. Weatherbee was the principal. His cohorts were vain, rich Veronica, who had an exaggerated Southern drawl in the cartoon; egocentric Reggie, who often fought Archie for the attention of Veronica; down-to-earth blonde Betty, whom Archie should have been pursuing; Jughead, the skinny yet always hungry sidekick of Archies; and Hot Dog, the group mutt. They rode around in Archies jalopy and hung out at Pops Chok'lit Shoppe.

In the first two seasons (titled officially The Archie Show in 1968-69 and then The Archie Comedy Hour m 1969-70), interspersed between brief sketches involving the gang were musical numbers with flashy color backgrounds having the characters show off the "Dance of the Week" and sing new songs. (A character introduced here got her own show in 1970; see Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.) More significantly, for the first time, there was a concerted effort to make some of the shows tunes hits on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart.

While the first try, "Bang-Shang-a-Lang," did moderately well, hitting #22, the real monster was "Sugar Sugar," a #1 hit in 1969 in America and many other countries. That song stands as perhaps the most successful example of "bubblegum music," a form of rock 'n' roll designed to appeal to prepubescents with its juvenile lyrics and catchy music. Singing on these singles as Archie was Ron Dante. The singing career of the Archies (as the musical group was called) had vanished by the 1970?71 season, but the show continued anew with Archie's Funhouse, which had Archie and company supposedly performing a TV variety show complete with shots of a live cheering juvenile audience, "Lightning Bolt" blackouts, and jokes told as characters ran on top of a huge spinning record. Then came Archies TV Funnies horn 1971-73, where the gang introduced comic strip characters in supposed cartoons airing on a TV station they ran. Included in that mix were "Nancy," "DickTracy," "The Katzenjammer Kids," "Broom Hilda," "Moon Mullins," "Smokey Stover," and others, all voiced by the shows cast members. That was followed by Everything's Archie m 1973-74, which repeated the first two seasons of shows.

But the series took an unexpected plunge in popularity with The U.S. of Archie made in 1974. Designed as a mingling of history with entertainment, it found the gang going back in time in such plots as working with Harriet Tubman on the Underground Railroad for slaves during the 1800s. Such serious concerns were off-kilter for the normally light series, and it disappeared from Saturday mornings in 1975. Its last season on CBS consisted of U. S. of Archie repeats. NBC tried repeats of earlier shows in 1977 under the ride The Bang-Shang Lalapalooza Show, but it flopped too.

Nearly a decade later, NBC gave the property another try under the title The New Archies. The characters became prepubescent in this instalment, with a few modifications made for the properties to accommodate the 1980s. Some were substantial (Eugene the egghead and Amani the nice girl finally integrated previously lily white Riverside), others were subtle (Pop's Chok'lit Shoppe was now Pop's Video Cafe). Even Hot Dog became an English terrier. The emphasis remained on jokes and hijinks, but without the music and peppy atmosphere, this edition looked decidedly inferior to the earlier cartoon. There were two stories used in each show, and the 1988?89 season consisted of repeats.

Besides the comic book and cartoons, there was a radio sitcom titled Archie Andrews on Mutual from 1943-44 and NBC from 1946-53. Additionally, ABC commissioned unsold sitcom pilots for the show in 1962 and 1976, and there was a lousy live-action NBC TV movie in 1990 titled Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again, starring Christopher Rich as Archie, in which the characters appeared in middle age.

Cast
Voices (1968-78):
Archie Andrews/Mr. Weatherbee.... Dallas McKennon
Betty Cooper/Veronica Lodge/Big Ethel/Jughead Jones/Big Moose/Hot Dog.............................Howard Morris
Reggie Mantle.............................. John Erwin
Sabrina the Teenage Witch........... Jane Webb
Musical supervisor (1968-78)........ Don Kirschner
Voices (1987-88):
Amani .......................................Karen Burthwright
Archie Andrews.......................... J. Michael Roncetti
Betty Cooper .............................Lisa Coristine
Big Ethel ..................................Jazzmin Lausanne
Big Moose................................ Victor E. Erdos
Coach....................................... Greg Swanson
Eugene..................................... Colin Waterman
Jughead Jones ..........................Michael Fantini
Miss Grundy............................. Linda Sorenson
Mr. Weatherbee........................ Marvin Goldhar
Veronica Lodge......................... Alyson Court