The Archie Saturday Morning Phenomenon! 50 Years ago today, Filmation Studio's comic book to a
50 years ago, today, The Archie Show premiered on CBS's Saturday morning. The series would become an instant hit, elevating Saturday morning programming, primetime and LP record sales. The Archie Show would also establish Filmation as a real player in the kids' entertainment business.
During the Archie Show's 1st season, the series generated a whopping 47% ratings share. Translated into today's ratings numbers, a 47 share is equal to current Super Bowl ratings numbers. Of course, keep in mind that in 1968, there wasn’t any cable television or streaming services and broadcast television was the only entertainment choice for television viewers.
Still, the Archies' Franchise was a huge rating hit that generated multiple spin-offs, primetime specials and hit LP recordings. The Archie Show rated higher than the superhero programming and with parents and Christian groups complaining about violence on the superhero programming, The Archie Show was the final nail in the coffin for action-adventure programming for a while.
During the 2nd season, the Archie series expanded to an hour and introduced Sabrina the teenage Witch. Sabrina wasn’t alone, the Scooby-Doo gang, the animated Hardy Boys series (featuring Pete Jones – the 1st African-American series regular), and replays of The Monkees live-action series dominated the 1969-70 season.
In my book, The Best Saturdays of our Lives, Hanna-Barbera’s Musical Director, Ted Nichols recounted how Hanna-Barbera would hire hit song writers to compose the opening theme songs for many series. After the Archie’s hit song “Sugar, Sugar,” became a huge hit, many of the competing studios expanded the hit song writer strategy to include many musical animated bands that were being created for Saturday Morning programming. While the competing studios produced some great music, Hanna-Barbera’s Josie and the Pussycats being a musical standout, The Archies and later, The Groovie Goolies were the only songs that charted the Billboard lists.
Listed below is the following:
The Archie Saturday Morning Org Chart featuring The Archie series and spinoffs
The Archie Primetime Org Chart featuring The Archie primetime specials
Archie series, spin-offs & LP music details
Unless otherwise noted, all the original Archie Animated series premiered on CBS.
Sept. 14,1968 – The Archie Show premieres – Featured 2 main stories, a weekly “dance” of the week and one new song.
November 17, 1968 – The Ed Sullivan Show – Featured a musical animated clip of the Archies performing “The Bubble Gum Dance” and singing “Bang –Shang-A –Lang.”
November 20, 1968 - Bang-Shang-A-Lang & Truck Diver Sell 500,000 copies & reach #22 on the Hot 100 Charts.
Sept. 13, 1969 – The Archie Comedy Hour Featuring Sabrina The Teenage Witch premieres – Featured 2 new Sabrina stories as well as “funhouse” and “sideshow” segments which paid homage to the Rowan & Martin’s
Laugh-In Series.
Sept. 14, 1969 – Archie and his new Pals premiered in primetime the day after the premiere of the Archie Comedy Hour which highlighted Sabrina’s arrival in Riverdale and Big Moose running against Reggie Mantle for Class President. The special featured the entire 2nd season cast except for Sabrina’s Aunt Hilda, Aunt Zelda and Ms. Della, The Head Witch. The Archies’ song “Get on the Line” was featured in the finale of the special which is my all-time favorite Archies’ song. Ron Dante’s vocals on “Get on the Line” are so strong and soulful and the background singers help put the song over the top.
December 12, 1969 – The Archies’ Sugar, Sugar, Jingle Jangle Christmas Show – December 12, 1969 – This primetime special featured animated music videos of Sugar Sugar and Jingle Jangle.
The Ed Sullivan Show – circa Fall of 1969 – Featured a musical animated clip of the Archies singing Sugar, Sugar.
1969 - The Archies’ song Sugar Sugar ends the year as the #1 Song of 1969 and the #24 Song of the Decade.
January 10, 1970 – The Ed Sullivan Show features the animated Archies’ clip of Jingle Jangle
February 7, 1970 – The Archie's’ song Jingle Jangle hit #10 on the pop singles chart and by mid-March Jingle Jangle record sales hit 1 million.
March 22nd, 1970 – The Archie Sugar, Sugar, Jingle Jangle Special – This special was the repurposing of Archie and his New Pals from 1969 with a new Show Open and repurposed music videos of Sugar, Sugar, Who’s My Baby? & Jingle Jangle.
Sept. 12, 1970 - Archie’s Fun House Featuring The Giant Jukebox premieres – A variety show format which featured a live action audience and 3 new songs per week. The second half hour showcased episodes from previous seasons.
Sept. 12, 1970 – Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies premieres – Sabrina got spun off into her own series and she was joined by her cousins, The Groovie Goolies who include Drac, Wolfie, Frankie and many more who resided in Horrible Hall. The Groovie Goolies are rock musicians who also host visiting monster musicians including The Mummies and the Puppies, The Rolling Headstones and the Sprits of ‘76.
1971 – “The Groovie Goolies song “Chick-A-Boom (Don’t you Jes Love it)” reached #9 on the Billboard Pop chart. The single also ranked #34 on Billboard’s Year-End Hot 100 Singles of 1971.
Sept. 11, 1971 through the 1972 – 1973 season - Archie’s TV Funnies premieres and featured the Archie cast running a TV Station and showcasing comic strip to animated adaptions of Broom Hilda, Dick Tracy, The Captain and the Kids, Nancy and Sluggo, Moon Mullins, The Dropouts and Emmy Lou. Dick Tracy, Broom Hilda and The Captain and The Kids were standouts.
Sept. 11, 1971 Sabrina The Teenage Witch – Featured replay episodes of Sabrina The Teenage Witch from the previous 2 seasons.
Sept. 12, 1971 – The Groovie Goolies – Featured replay episodes from the previous season however, The Groovie Goolies moved to the CBS Sunday morning schedule.
Sept. 16, 1972 – Archie’s Fun House featuring the Giant Jukebox – Featured replay episodes from the 1970 season that aired on the CBS Sunday morning schedule.
Sept. 8th, 1973 – Everything’s Archie – Featured repurposed episodes from the Archie Comedy Hour.
Sept. 7, 1974 – 1975-76 season – The U.S. of Archie premieres – Archie Andrews hosted episodes told in flashback of how The Archies’ relatives (who just happen to look like the current cast members), interacted with famous historical figures such as Harriet Tubman and Alexander Graham Bell. The series also introduced Chuck Clayton, the 1st African-American character to appear in Archie comics who originally debuted in “Life with Archie #110 in 1971. While I believe The U.S. of Archie is one of the most important series of the Archie Franchise, The U.S. of Archie ultimately killed the franchise when kids rejected the pro- educational premise.
Sept. 1976 – The Archies – A Monday through Friday syndicated afternoon strip. The series repurposed previous Archie series from 1968 to 1974. A new open was created for all the episodes as well as new prosocial segments.
Sept. 10, 1977 – The New Archie/Sabrina Hour premieres (NBC) – This series was the reboot of The Archie Comedy Hour which featured new stories and music. In November of 1977, The New Archie/Sabrina Hour was split into 2 separate shows due to low ratings. The new shows were titled Bang-Shang Lollapalooza Show which featured the Archie stories and Superwitch which featured the Sabrina stories. Later the series was released on VHS as The Archie and Sabrina Surprise Package.
Sept. 9, 1978 – Fabulous Funnies premieres (NBC) – A spinoff of Archie TV Funnies minus the Archie cast hosting. The comic strip characters included, The Captain and the Kids, Alley Oop, Broom Hilda and Emmy Lou.
Sept. 1978 – The Groovie Goolies and Friends – A Monday through Friday syndicated afternoon strip featuring the Groovie Goolies’ episodes as well as the “Friends” which included Filmation’s series from the 1970s which included Lassie’s Rescue Rangers, My Favorite Martians, The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty, The New Adventures of Gilligan, and the animated segments from Uncle Croc’s Block, (M.U.S.H, Wacky and Packy and Fraidy Cat).
About the Author
Mark McCray is the author of The Best Saturdays of Our Lives, a book that chronicles the origins of competitive Saturday morning animated programming. Follow him on Twitter: @MarkmcCray54 and check out his website: tbsool.com