The Archie Show

"The Archie Show" was the highest-rated Saturday morning cartoon show in TV history. As I recall, it had a 75 share which will never again be repeated what with today's quality (or lack thereof) and all sorts of other entertainment sources that weren't even imagined in 1968.

I read Archie magazines a lot back then so it was a real rush to see that they were finally getting their own TV show. I also thought that the rock group The Archies were just going to be a group with the cartoon characters singing goofy little songs....

The show featured two full-length stories which were well-written, funny and tasteful. In between cartoons, there would be some one-liners, then a dance segment followed by a song by The Archies, which turned out to be a real rock group fronted by Ron Dante who to this day remains a force in the music business as a producer, songwriter and is still recording and going on oldies tours.

Jeff Barry wrote and produced a huge percentage of The Archies songs, including the mega-hit "Sugar Sugar" (co-written with Andy Kim) which not only knocked-off "Honky-Tonk Women" by the Rolling Stones, but stayed on top of the Billboard chart for another month afterward. Jeff Barry is currently in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. For anyone to hear The Archies today would think it's good 60's-70's rock.

One drawback is that I think the animation could have been done a little better. They also could have changed the characters so that they didn't make the exact same motions all the time (Betty must be dizzy banging that tambourine around)....

Also, they should never have changed the format of the show. The way this season was set-up, it was perfect. I'm sure it would have lasted a lot longer. Just look at Skooby Doo. They never messed with the format and it was on for years.

Look for DVD's of various forms of Archie and his friends at Archie Comics' site and at other online locations.

I haven't seen this show since the mid '70s, it just disappeared off of TV by the late '70s. "The Archie Show" has to be the best out of all of the Archie incarnations. This show was broken into 3 parts. There would be a 10 minute storyline where Archie and the gang would get into some funny situations, then there was the dance of the week, followed by one of their songs. Looking back, it was a cartoon music video! After the song, there would be a one-liner joke, then another storyline. It had variety, and a nice pace. The songs from this show will stick in your mind. No wonder why it was called bubblegum music! The comedy is total late '60s. The one-liner jokes are like a kiddie version of the comedy that was on the show "Laugh-In". The animation isn't the greatest in this show, it was somewhat better than "Spiderman", but not as good as "The Flintstones". This show really reflects the era in which it was aired. The psychedelic music videos with floating polka dots, and even the opening and closing credits with the flashing strobe effect in the background really gives this show a sixties feel to it. I was very lucky and stumbled across a DVD that has 3 episodes on it. It was great to see this show after all of these year because just don't make cartoons like this anymore!

I grew up reading Archie comics and watching all the Archie televsion shows. Poor Archie!!! He loves Betty and Veronica and cannot decide between them. His foil was always Reggie and His best friend was Jughead. It is a very entertaining show and one of the cleanest cartoons that was ever made. All children should see this and see just how clean cartoons was back in the 60's.