The Death Traps & Movie Influences of the Josie and the Pussycats Animated Series!
Joe Ruby and Ken Spears were the prolific television writers behind some of Hanna-Barbera biggest hits, Space Ghost/Dino Boy (1966), The Herculoids (1967), and Scooby-Doo, Where are You! (1969).
In 1970, the writing team was tasked with developing the comic book to animated adaption of Josie and the Pussycats which was created by Dan DeCarlo and published by Archie Comics. Originally titled “She’s Josie,” the comic book series debuted in the winter of 1962 (She’s Josie #1). The title was changed to Josie and the Pussycats in 1969 with issue #45.
Over the years, the Josie and the Pussycats animated series would be unfairly compared to Scooby-Doo as a mystery knockoff.
Apart from a few episodes, the Josie and the Pussycats animated series rarely dealt with mysteries since the villain usually revealed the sinister plot during the 1st act of each episode. Of course, after the villain revealed his nefarious plot to Josie and her pals, the musical band would have to be eliminated because they “know too much!”
Josie and her friends were reluctant heroes. Often, the cast would attempt to go to the police to report the evil plot only to be chased or recaptured by the villains. Josie and the Pussycats became the wrong kids in the wrong place at the wrong time who would rise to the occasion to stop the evil plot.
Another aspect of the series that set the comedy-adventure apart from the other mystery teenage programming were the deathtraps and villains that originated from classic novels, film noir and spy dramas.
Josie and the Pussycats remains one of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons because Joe Ruby and Ken Spears guided the writing team to cleverly transform a comic book mainly targeted to girls into a cool comedy-adventure that girls as well as boys could enjoy. Many of the deathtrap scenes listed below (episodes #1 thought #8) are scored with musical cues from such classic H-B series as Jonny Quest, The Heculoids and The Arabian Knights which were composed and created by Hanna-Barbera’s Musical Director Ted Nichols.
Looking back, Hanna-Barbera had a creative dilemma adapting Josie and the Pussycats into an animated series. Josie originated from the same comic book home as Sabrina The Teenage Witch and Archie characters whose animated production was produced by Filmation, Hanna-Barbera’s main competitor. Hanna-Barbera did not want to duplicate Filmation’s formula whose animated productions of the Archie and Sabrina characters stuck close to the comic book pages. It didn’t help that The Archie Show (1968) and The Archie Comedy Hour (1969) were both the number one rated network series overall on CBS’s Saturday morning schedule. Hanna-Barbera was facing a competitive and creative challenge and rose to the occasion by making Josie and the Pussycats into a comedy/action series, which in my opinion, was the impeccable creative choice! The icing on the cake is that Josie and the Pussycats is one of Hanna-Barbera best musically-scored series as well as turning me into a life-long fan of cartoons, comic books and animation history.
About the Author:
Mark McCray is Author of the Best Saturdays of our Lives which chronicles how Saturday Morning Programming became a competitive business and the proving ground for the creation of the 24-Hour Kid Networks. Mark McCray was part of the team that launched The Boomerang Network and currently works at Adult Swim overseeing Adult Swim’s linear and non-linear Promotional and Packaging Strategy.